JFlah's Blunders

Sketch from vintage photo of family members. Here's the original - doesn't really look like her much at all but again, I sure enjoyed myself.

Ok - so my observation skills aren't what they used to be... At least it looks like a tiger.

Actually looked at something to do this one - see source here . The sketch only has the "spirit" of the original.

You know that story about Jacob moving the stone from the mouth of the well when he caught a glimpse of Rachel? I keep thinking he was like a super hero.

So, yeah - new student minister means new student ministry logo. It is way past time for an update. This is the first page of sketches for this project... donno if I'm running in the right direction with any of this mess just yet - I'm sure this is a page of flops, but I sure enjoyed working on it today. Hopefully one of the concepts will be right down his alley so I can start digitizing next week. Wish we could rebrand the Crossing building - that mark could have used some serious art direction. As much as I sometimes struggle with constructive criticism, I have to beat my pride down because I know that it is necessary for my work to be the best that it can be. When I don't have someone who can push me towards what's best, my work isn't nearly as polished.

Sermon titles and matching bulletin covers are a weekly task that can often be a fun challenge. That was definitely the case this week. I typically start with the layout that I have to print on the bulletin then adapt the layout to the SD slide format. These are a few from this week's attempts. Ok - so this is the "get the juices flowing" one. Pastor's tag line made me think of this funny little guy. Added the mites falling from his hand and a few shadows and voila - instant silliness. This was the second rendition including one of my favorite fonts . The picture is from here . This is the final rendition. Lots of texture and the mites falling. Ended up with six or seven adjustment levels before I found something that I thought would work. Haven't printed one yet, so might end up with a few more before I'm absolutely done with this. Last week, pastor couldn't bring himself to use what I'd created on screen since it reminded him ...

Ok, so this is a pencil sketch and not in ink, but the point is to draw, right? At least this one isn't on a napkin.

Didn't have paper for this one either... used the back of my bill - HA - will do better for the next one, I promise.

Sketched on a napkin... never seem to have paper handy when I want it. These critters are lopsided, but were fun to do. Boy! Do I need to practice or what?

Just wrapped up a fun freelance job with a client. Here are the two finals along with some behind-the-curtain sketches and preliminary work ups so you can see how long this process turned out to be - I ran through a great number of bad versions before I hit upon something that was even remotely close to what he wanted. What can I say? He said to "throw some darts" and I threw lots of them and floundered around for a long while before hitting upon something that worked. There was a great deal of research involved in this project since I had never done anything that was supposed to target a Native American audience. My main inspiration for the finals were beautiful Hopi designs, especially their beautiful jewelry.  The bear paw represents strength and wisdom , two adjectives that I know should be held closely when dealing with financial decisions. One of the key guidelines given when I began this design project was that the design be "strong, powerful, masculine, ...

Sketched this while listening to an audio book. Isn't nearly as nice as Vanessa Lemen's original but I enjoyed myself.

Found an article in a strange round about way after finding out that the Dan Stevers video we've purchased at work to supplement our Christmas program graphics was actually animated by Jason Watson . On Jason's blog he's written several great articles, one of which is a post about how to motivate creatives . I'm with him on each one of the points he makes and wish that administrators and decision makers were more aware of the truths represented within that article. The three key points of the article are: Provide clear/decisive direction to your creative partner. Make your creative partner a part of the creative planning process. Pay your creative well. Jason fleshes these points out in a logical and thoughtful way that is kind to both the creatives and their employers and I very much recommend it to you. I haven't read the other articles he's got on his blog, though I plan to over the next several days, as those look instructive and well thought o...

Am about to launch off into designing yet another logo at work. The women's ministry has gone through a few changes and they're looking for another mark. The group's lead has asked for a heart and a cross. We can go that route, but those images have been done so many times over that they're hard to do with any originality. I hope she will be more interested in the other ideas. I'd prefer to have their new logo be a spin off of the new church mark. Anyhow, here are a few preliminary super rough sketches. Here are some more...

So, last week the title was "Jesus Loves the Little Children" - pastor mentioned that having some hands reaching would be nice. I found some stellar stock photography and added a few things: a sleeve, some filters, and the wound for the adult hand. Also, the child's hand had a finger that looked a bit double jointed and I edited that to make it a little less obvious.  Creating the wound was the fun part. I drew a freehand shape, filled it in, added some grunge around the edges and some general filters and then found a photo online of a wound that I warped to fit the shape I'd created - that additional layer really helped give what I'd done better texture. I'm not sure I pushed it as far as I should but I know what I did was enough to give the impression that the adult hand represented Jesus. Here's the final SD slide: And a close up of the wound without the filters. Sleeve resolution looked fine in final slide but not so much in this close u...

This week's sermon topic is Divorce and Remarriage. Created a torn Polaroid photo. This is the toned down final version for the front of the bulletin with a subtle tear of photo. Will probably play with the text arrangement some more, but the image is done. This is the first version of the layout - dynamic tear for the photo. Boss thought it was too scary. Cake Topper Image source credit White background image source credit Love the white background images from there - those images have proven to be some of the most helpful things in my digital tool kit - can use them in conjunction with lots of other stuff and use them as filters to create just enough interest for a solid color background. Inspiration for the torn pic