JFlah's Blunders

Sketch of Merida from Disnye's Brave - water color pencil & graphite on paper. It's been a while since I sketched anything with a real attempt at getting everything right... I'm sorely out of practice. This is reminiscent of Merida from Disney's Brave but she looks older and I didn't even try to draw the back hand - just put in a few lines to indicate where it was. I used the image that was on the DVD insert as reference while I was listening to a movie. Enjoyed working on it.

I'm not much for arranging greenery - never have been, but our maintenance guy has a great eye for that kind of thing so he and I put the grasses up and mounted the critters. Now all that's left is to patch where the screws are and paint the words on the fence. Here's the logo again:

Stayed late at work this evening to finally paint the alligator part of that Preschool logo. All credit goes to God, who somehow made each brush stroke work. There were a few moments... ok, lots of moments when I wasn't sure this was going to turn out. Could've probably added more shadow to the left side of the face, but in general, I think it turned out ok and I'm looking forward to seeing it installed. Here is the final and a few progress pictures.

Pastor Terry Young - First Baptist West Monroe Been working on gathering my pieces for this year's design for Mondays for the Master. Came across a video of Terry Young preaching. He's a pastor at First Baptist in West Monroe and will be our guest speaker on the last day of our Monday's for the Master (Aug 2). Was looking specifically for a screenshot or picture I could use in our promos and came across this video. Its message was timely encouragement so I wanted to share.

This week's sermon title slide was a lot of fun to put together. Pulled images from several places to make the box work and then I pulled images to create the environment for the box before working on the text and such. Will probably work on the text layout a bit more - am not fully satisfied with the font choice or layout just yet, but it's very close. Started with this image and a title earlier this afternoon: Just a squashed old box photo. Ended with this: This is the "almost" final rendering. Will be working a bit more on the text layout, but the background is pretty much done. Was fun to find the box, choose a pattern for the wrapping paper, warp that paper to fit. Most difficult part was deciding on the color scheme. The most fun was making the bow fit and putting the shadows on there in a believable manner. Not really satisfied with how the box doesn't quite seem grounded on the wood, but it's not so obvious that I am overly concerned about...

Can't believe that Walmart.com is still selling the infant bedding set I designed while at Crown Craft/NoJo . I was there for only a few months and they granted the the great honor to of allowing me to take this project and run with it. They even let me name it - Dreamland Teddy. It's done well enough that they have since made a pink version and I couldn't be happier about that. I've seen some of the reviews online and have to say that they're encouraging. When I'm feeling like what I design or draw isn't good enough or that what I'm doing looks juvenile or when I have any kind of negative thought about what I'm doing, I consider what a great success Dreamland Teddy continues to be even 5 years after I designed it and how uncertain I was about it even then. It's surprising how emotions so often prove to be unfounded in truth. Here're my mechanicals:

Black and white is always classy...   Brown is nice too - it's warm and inviting, but not as flexible in relation to design solutions. Who knew slat board could be so cool? The boss came back from a staff retreat and brought me the idea of using a slat wall as a solution for what I've jokingly called his "wall of faces" (loosely translated: it's a wall of pictures for the worship ministry). The pictures have been taken by one of our church members - a very talented photographer - they'll be grayscaled. If the idea is approved, it's going to be nice when it's done. The above images are two of the many mock ups I've done for this wall idea, and I have to say that I like the slat board idea so much better than any of the other media choices we've explored. It will prove to be the most flexible for future things too. Once the boards are up, it won't be hard to install and remove and rearrange pictures and such at will. Surprisingly...

Sketching is always fun when it comes to figuring out logos. I've been picking up as much freelance as possible lately so when a former co-worker dropped by with a request or two I was ready. He wanted a publisher template that his secretary could use each week and he needed a logo. I've been working on the logo for a few days - thinking about it, sketching, doing rough layouts. Here are some of the results. These are the first set of logo roughs This is something they can put on the front of their bulletin each week. Layout is adapted from a GracewayMedia template .

Have to admit that the arms don't quite work there... and the contrast of painting style from the fuzzy tail to the smoother looking arms and head... Ah, well, for a quick job, he's pretty cute. Got a request from a preschool class teacher for a few cards featuring a raccoon. Here's one of them. Had fun working on these and wish I had need to do more. Took longer than it should have - probably 3 or 4 hours from concept to completion. I'm slow... Couldn't decide what I wanted to do for the card so I drew the arms last and combined pieces in photoshop.

Here is the frog part of the Bayou Buddies Logo. Finally made time to paint one part of the logo for their worship area. I hope to have the other one done before the end of May and so the next time you guys see this it'll be with a picture of it all installed in the worship area. So much fun. Wish I could do this kind of thing all day long every day. Finished Frog Almost finished... Eyes are done... sort of anyway. Wanted to get those done before starting on the green. Here's the logo I created and what I'm working from for the cutout... now I've got to do the alligator.

Every year I've been doing slides and cards for Parent/Child Dedication and every year it takes longer than I expect to transform the pictures that the parents give me into something that translates well to the SD format. Here are only a few of the before/after samples from this year's lot. Found an arm, color matched it then extended the background. Doesn't look like much, but I tilted the pic, extended the background and added a filter. This one was the most challenging of the bunch. Had to scan and fix a low res pic and then extend the background for the slide. Levels, sharpening, background work. Extended the background. This one didn't turn out quite right because of the pattern of the blanket he is sitting on. Added a wall and finished the dresser.

Thank God for great friends. This freelance job came into being for me because a friend of mine talked me up to someone she met at work and that someone actually went online to check out my portfolio . I hope to soon develop a strong working relationship with Rachael and her great web design company, Dream Catchers Web Design . The below design is for one of Rachael's clients who teaches music lessons. The deal was for a simple "turn this sketch into something digital" project. Here's their original sketch with the progression of my rendered designs. The vector designs were created in illustrator CS6. Not much special stuff in there, but I think it's a pretty good rendering from the solid directions Rachael passed along from her client and from the sketch. But I can't leave well enough alone. Below is a super rough sketch I haven't shown to the client yet. We made a deal for a simple (cheap) rendering of their sketch, but while I was watching TV...

Finally got the Directory design completed. Went through eight different cover layouts before I settled on one I was comfortable enough with to show the boss. After that, the rest almost designed itself. Something else we finally got around to finishing up were the business cards. We're getting some spot gloss on them, so they should be pretty nice when they're done. I even talked them into having a space on the back dedicated to writing notes. Anyway, after doing all of those it makes me think I need to make myself a business card too. It's been a long time since I had one. Then there's the cutie fuzzy bug we're using for the children's choir musical... We put this on our shirts and on all of the promos. Idea is from a zazzle shirt.

Life's been so busy I have neglected to post much of anything even though there's been lots of stuff going on. This week I did a photo collage for work. Here's a copy of the final HD sermon slide. Here are some of the pieces I had to work with: Used a tiny bit of water texture from this picture: Found some random splashes and waves to create the wake for the boat. Used various splash brushes (from deviant art packs, brushezzy?) to make the water on the prow look a tad more realistic. Boat Structure Pic: Then I added lots of different adjustment layers and did some warping, etc... was fun making all of those bits and pieces look like they all belonged in the scene. I probably should have blurred the wake splashes a little more... these things are never "done" - just done enough because of time restraints - but it was lots of fun and I hope everyone likes it.

Created these with Mom on New Years Day this year. The kids look great in them!

I'm typically in search of people who like to wear handmade items, especially crochet and knitted items. This is a project I did recently for one of those stylish people.   These are for a person who always makes me smile. She said her favorite colors are blue and green so I went to Walmart and found some pretty yarn. Had to use a tiny crochet hook since the gauge of the yarn was tiny, but the final pieces turned out great. I hope she loves them even half as much as I enjoyed making them for her. Here's a link to the pattern I used for the "neck warmer" one pictured here with the buttons and the pendant. Here's a link to the pattern used for the infinity scarf.

So, yeah, they made a decision. I'm glad we're pretty much done with this project. Sure, I've still got to update everything with the new "modern" look, but at least they've settled on a logo. Lots of other things happening around there - exciting stuffs. No time to chat - too much work to do. Merry Christmas all!

Went to one of those great paint and pour parties at church. This is my version of what we did. I loved the short cuts I learned. We used a foam cup to make a guide for the circles. It really helped make this painting work. The party was a huge one! Just over 80 ladies showed up. It was a challenge not to get any paint on my neighbor. I was holding my elbows in so I wouldn't bump into anyone, but I'm telling you I laughed and really enjoyed myself that night. Joy Petty of Joie Petite Designs led the party - this is the second painting I've done under her direction and I've enjoyed both.

Dad brought me a cypress knee to paint. He carved it and told me to go to town. Was a challenge to decide what to do with it since all that was carved was the head and the gifts/teddy bear. I think it turned out ok for my first one.

Sure would love to devote some time to taking a few of these SVS Learn classes. I'd definitely start with this one by Therese Larsson - Painting Fur and Hair. Found SVS Learn one day while doing the customary searches for resources and tutorials. Would love to take one of the classes in real time but the times they offer the classes aren't good for me. Regardless, sometime next year I'm going to do some of these if for no other reason than that I know I'd enjoy doing them.