Spaceman Spiff Evolution

This was a fun little design that came about, like so many drawings lately, as I was waiting to fly. I was thinking about flying, and that brought to mind a character that also spends a good deal of time thinking about flying. I love Calvin and Hobbes comics, especially the ones about Spaceman Spiff's adventures. So this little design is a version of those "Evolution of ...." designs, but with Calvin's amazingly transformative cardboard box, becoming Spaceman Spiff's spaceship.

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Take Me Away

I was sitting around thinking about another t-shirt design, and looking at some of the most popular shirts of redbubble, when I came up with this idea. It's very very geeky. It's a combination of my favourite ways to escape reality, the spaceships and quests I wish I could be on, all made into balloons to carry me away. Clockwise from the top that's Serenity (from Firefly), the one ring (from Lord of the Rings), the Millennium Falcon (Star Wars), the Nimbus 2000 (Harry Potter), and the TARDIS (Doctor Who).

This is my original sketch. It didn't change much from this to the final version. I thought about switching Serenity and the broomstick, because I thought it might be hard to identify the ship without the nose, but then the similarly coloured balloons would all have been side-by-side, so that wouldn't have worked. I move Serenity up a little, so that it's more visible, and I think with the detail anyone who's seen the show will be able to tell what it is.

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A Memorable Introduction

This is a little t-shirt design I did this morning. It's a polished version of a graphic I did waaaaay back in high school after watching Dr No. And I mean, who doesn't like James Bond, right? I'm not normally much of a minimalist, but I think this is a pretty neat little design based on that amazing opening. It's a version of the gunshot sequence, and the dot pattern during the theme song. I took the colours from my trusty Retro Graphics book in the section on 60s posters.

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The Evolution of the Guitar

I'm still not flying, so I have tonnes of time to keep drawing. This idea occurred to me last summer, but I just didn't get to get until now. This idea is the the guitar starts off very traditionally, echoing it's roots as a string instrument, and then morphs into an acoustic guitar, electric, and finally Guitar Hero.

It's available on Red Bubble!

Moose Milk t-shirt

Yay! More t-shirts! So I'm stuck around in Portage La Prairie (read: middle of nowhere on the prairies) waiting for my first flight training, so I have loads of time to do some drawing (and avoid studying). The idea for this design came from the fruitful night that also brought about the Teamwork shirt. Moose Milk is a drink that originated either with the RCAF or RCN, and is basically a mix of milk, ice cream, and a few different types of liquor. The recipes are all a little different. The idea was to make a fake, vintage looking label, as though it were an actual brand. The slogan came from a mash-up of a few different things I read on old snake oil bottles while I was doing the research for this. It's dated to 1909 because that's a date of the establishment of the RCN, and I've always heard it most closely associated with the navy.

Here's a picture of how it started out. This is where I realized that I would have to use computer generated text, and adjust it to look hand drawn rather than actually drawing it out. This is the first design I've done by hand out of the last few t-shirts because it needed that imperfect, vintage feel:

So I kept the outline, adjusted all the text to look less computer-generated (holy labour intensive), and added some colour:

Even though I put a bit of a vintage filter on it, it just wasn't enough, which is why I ended up actually cutting out some of the label for the final version (at the top), so it looked really worn out. I'd originally thought about having it on a light shirt, but as it turns out is also looks really good on some of the darker colours.

You can pick out the colour yourself, though: Purchase it at redbubble.com

The Sketchbook Project - William Morris

This is my favourite page. The colour is a little off - I really really am going to find a scanner soon, I promise. I based this off a William Morris design, though I simplified it a little because I wasn't going to sketch every little frilly bit. I not only like the shape of this the best, but I also like the way the writing looks on this one better than the other pages. 

The Sketchbook Project - Tree

I tried something a little different on this one, changing the way the text way incorporated. I kind of like the way it comes off the tree, though overall I find this page a little boring. Actually, I've been finding the entire thing a little boring, but have no fear, I've got something up my sleeve, but I'm going to try it out first to see how it goes before I tell you.