The Alphabet Game

Zazzle has been looming large in what I've been doing the last few days. See, I started doing all those initial mugs over there, and then within a couple of days of my signing up with them, they changed their software. They upgraded me out of making certain changes on my site! So while I wait to buy a new operating system, I'm bringing the initial mugs idea over to CafePress.

So I've been toiling away over 4 sets of initial products. Each set involves 26 uploads of the lettered designs. So, I design the "A," upload it, and put it on a bunch of products. Then I design the "B," etc., and I do this for all 26 letters of all four typefaces. Whew.

So here's an example of the "Swirly" font I put together.

I took a funky, bold font and filled it with a pattern I cobbled together out of free clipart designs. Backed it up with a black-to-white gradient, and it looks excellent, imho.

If you'd like to check out the page, here's the link:

http://www.cafepress.com/feelgoodgraphix/6893236

Have a great weekend!

Robo-Robinson

Wow, two posts in one day! But I'm so enthusiastic about Robo-Robinson I have to get this out.

As are so many of my pieces, this was created for an album for Mahaffay Musical Archives. Perry Robinson and the avant-garde Tres Gone Sextet play big jazz! Perry is the flaming-clarinet-wielding monster setting fire to the skyscrapers of Portland while displaying a photo of the boys of Tres Gone on his in-chest monitor.

This illustration was created in Photoshop, using a real robot as a template, and building layer upon layer to achieve a realistic effect. He could be positioned to play the guitar or the drums too, so he's a versatile guy, and I'm proud of him.

The photo of Portland was taken by my stepson Matthew from one of his classrooms at Portland State.

The image was made into a cd cover, and then proved so popular (among a select group) that I made it into a poster, which is available at www.cafepress.com/feelgoodgraphix. Or, if you'd like to see what all the hullaballoo is about, the album is available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/tresgone8.

Steaming Brew

So I got inspired by the Halloween display at my local Fred Meyer yesterday, came home and designed some cards and mugs, which I think are pretty cute. Spent some time creating skeletal hand bones in Photoshop, added some text that says "Steaming Brew" in a suitably scary font, and here it is.

It's a wrap-around design so it looks like 2 skeletal hands holding the mug, one on each side.

 

There are greeting cards too, in a slightly different design, which involves a white skeletal hand against a black spattered background, with "Happy Halloween" written in a ghostly font above it.

So if you like them and you'd like to tuck a few away for Halloween, just go to www.cafepress.com/feelgoodgraphix. Choose from this year's design or last year's, take a look around and maybe do some early Christmas shopping!

Krishna gives good advice

This was created originally for a cover for Mahaffay Musical Archive's cd "The Hero's Journey." I took the image of Krishna and added the text "Manifest your desires in the physical plane," because this, to me, is why we're put here on earth -- to create, to manifest, to effect change on our physical landscape. I think that's what meant by the Biblical phrase created in the image of God: We are creators ourselves.

I'm very proud of this illustration. I created it in Photoshop, and it's got 65 layers, each with a title like "eye reflection right" or "left arm lowlight." It's patterned after an Indian painting of Krishna (obviously) with an ultramarine stucco wall added as background, and all enclosed with an anachronistic Victorian filigree. I think it looks good!

And, it's on, like, 96 products over at CafePress! So go manifest your desires in the physical plane, and buy a Krishna product. I know you'll feel better afterward.

www.cafepress.com/feelgoodgraphix