Drumm Gets Kids Reading!

I seldom get requests for posters for children. The vast majority of my work has been for adults. So, when Drumm's owner contacted me, I was more than happy to take this project on. Drumm's a borzoi and, in his home state of Alabama, he is heavily involved in a program called Sit!Stay!Read! When Drumm's owner contacted me a while back, she was interested in a poster she could leave with Drumm's kids at the end of the school year. She also wanted an image that she could print out for the kids to color. This order represents an example of the range of requests I get (from clip art and logos, to web board signatures and coloring book images).

Drumm is truly special. He encourages kids to read, understands commands in Russian, and he can even count! Early in March, I had the pleasure of meeting Drumm and his owner when they brought some retired greyhounds from Alabama to GRA Canada (insert shameless plug here) for adoption. When she mentioned to me that she was headed to Canada in March, I had no idea she was headed to GRA, and she had no idea I lived so close by. Small world.

What's the Difference Between Custom and Semi-Custom Work?...

... In a word, it's the BACKGROUND. Most of my semi-custom work features one dog on a plain, colored background and a little text. My custom work usually means there's a specific theme, more than one dog, a more elaborate background, and/or possibly a more complicated pose for the dog(s) in the poster. The caricature marathon post is an example of semi-custom work.

So today, even though I'm taking a short break from custom orders, I'm showing an example of the process of starting and completing a custom poster (using Wally as an example). Wally's owners have a love of Disneyland and wanted to base a poster around it. Once I knew this, I set out to find a picture of the most recognizable Disney landmark I know(the Cinderella Castle). I pulled the first decent picture I found into Illustrator and simply worked over top of it using black shapes and white shadows. Once the building is finished I can simply use it as a background prop, and the poster starts to take shape.

The two versions of the constructed poster are shown here for me to explain that it is common for me to start from scratch. The first version of my finished poster is very different from the one the client selected (where they chose Wally seated and the Hollywood Tower as a prop). I have a few rules with custom work:

1) The client is always right. They always have the last say when it comes to poses, backgrounds, colors, text, etc.

2) The client is always encouraged to make changes until they are happy with the final product. I never want customers to feel badly when they request changes. Even though "Tinkerbell" Wally was not selected, I can almost always use some element of the original dog (in this case, his face is identical both versions). It is NEVER any trouble so, if you are a future customer, don't hesitate to be proactive with your poster. It is YOUR poster, and I always have a blast with these!

When I'm ready to take new custom orders (i.e. when I've adjusted to the hectic schedule of being a working new mom), I'll post here!

Caricature Marathon! Here They are....

In the end, I offered to do 10 caricatures in a first come first serve basis. Even my local printer here in London Ontario (Mercury Blueprinting) enjoyed printing these. I've been submitting my work to them for over three years, but these proved to be their favorites. For a company that specializes in University conference posters and architectural blueprints, they claim to get a kick out my orders.

Here they are (in no particular order). I've grouped them into pairs for ease of viewing.

"DAVE" sparks a marathon

Towards the end of last year, I posted some illustrations of my greyhounds to the gallery of a web board called GreyTalk. One image in particular, resulted in a couple of commissions. So, I decided to run a small caricature marathon at the beginning of 2010. For $30 CDN the client received a few jpeg files of varying sizes, a png "clip art" type file, a small file to be used as a web board signature, and a few files (of varying sizes) to be used a computer wall paper. Requests are still trickling in because someone spotted a signature, and wanted to know where to get one.

The irony is that "DAVE" was not created to make posters or signatures. He was engineered so that I might be able to animate him in the future. Although I have several images of greyhounds that I can pull into Flash, most are way too complicated (at least for me) to animate. Dave represents a simpler version of my artwork, although it may still be a while before I can pull it off successfully. Animated Dave may never see the light of day (particularly with my work schedule). In the meantime, I am satisfied that he inspired artwork for a few new happy customers! :)

Font Fun!

Anyone who is familiar with my work knows I like to use a variety of fonts, and I tend to frequently use layers and reflections until I end up with something I like. At this point, I'd say I have well over 100 at my disposal. The best part is that they were all free! The following caricature marathon post is a simple example of my use of these fonts.

Most of my fonts come from three fabulous sites: dafont.com, blambot.com and fontdiner.com.

A word of warning - some fonts from these companies cost money and/or come with restrictions on how you may use them.