Vector Basic Training

Vector Basic Training Book.

I want to apologize for the delay in my new blog being launched. It's been designed for well over a month but unfortunately the developer I'm using has dropped the ball so it'll be a while longer, but will launch within January.

In the meantime as a way to say "Thank you." to those who read my blog. I'm going to do a FREE giveaway of my newest book called "Vector Basic Training." (VBT) I'm already doing another FREE book giveaway on the VBT Facebook page and this one is specifically for my blog readers, but don't let that stop you from participating in both if you wish.

I won't bother posting all the details about the book here, you can read about that on my web site. All you have to do to be included in this drawing for a FREE copy of the book is to comment on this post. I'll than draw three winners this coming Friday and will list them at the bottom of this post.

B Level Acting Skills.

When I came up with the idea for the video intros I didn't think the publisher would take me seriously. But they did, and we had a lot of fun with them as you'll see below in this promotional plug for the book. You can view another video posted on my web site here.

So what are you waiting for maggot!? Post a comment now!



Winners of the FREE VBT Book Giveaway!

My oldest daughter Savannah drew names out of a hat and the following three people were chosen.

- Jeff (No Last Name) This Jeff.
- David Sizemore
- Ronda Couch

Each of you have 24hrs to claim your FREE copy by emailing your snail mail to info@vonster.com.

FYI: I'll be doing a workshop at the HOW Conference in Chicago this summer on "Vector Basic Training" so if you're planning on going I'll be demonstrating the methods I cover in the book.

Thanks everyone.

Ricoh Copies?

Keyboard Characters Set.

Four years ago I created a unique self-promotional product I called Keyboard Characters. It was a fun set to create and worked really well as a self promotion for my business.

I still give them out at speaking engagements even though Apple has changed the modus operandi on keyboards so you can't insert stuff like your use to be able too. And I still have about five boxes of them sitting in my closet at home. ;-P


"Pet Monster" Keyboard Character.

Since I have them posted on my web site I periodically get email from art directors or creative directors who request a set. When I get a request like this I always send them one and include a few tear sheets as well. So in that respect it's still serving as a promotional item for me.

Around September, 2008 I received a phone call from an ad agency in New York. The person asked if I could send them two sets of the Keyboard Characters. I did and included some tear sheets. Nothing ever came from it and soon I forgot all about that brief interaction.


Ricoh Ad showing artwork in question.

Around February, 2009 I received an email from another designer asking me:

"Did you do some illustration for Ricoh?"

I told them I hadn't and they responded "Well I saw this ad in a magazine and it looks just like your character."

When I saw this ad I got that sinking feeling in my stomach, you know the one that happens when you look in your rear view mirror and a police car is right on your bumper.

It turns out that the agency (I'm purposely not naming names) I had sent two sets of Keyboard Characters too was the same agency that handled the Ricoh campaign for the C900 in September, 2008.

They didn't simply copy (pardon my pun) my art and use it, that would be easy enough to deal with. What they did is borrow the concept and equity (segmented multi-colored monster) of my art and exploited it for their own work. And they didn't even do a good job at that.


Ricoh "Scary!" campaign for C900.

I've talked to my copyright attorney about this and he agrees that it was definitely derived from my work but I have no way to prove it. In other words if I would have sent the Keyboard Characters via UPS with a tracking number and receipt that would have sufficed to prove it.

Since I posted this I've been contacted by a lawyer explaining my opinions and I'm now pursuing that course of action. Thank you for helping me understand how I can address this through official circles, I appreciate it.

I think anyone with an ounce of common sense can discern the source however, so I'll leave it in the court of public opinion.


Hostage quality photo of Ricoh brochure.

This summer I got another email from someone containing this image of a Ricoh brochure showcasing this character art again. Every time I think about this it pisses me off. I know someone, some where had to reference my design in order to create their own B movie version of it.

I debated whether to even post about this or not. But over the last year I've had numerous other people email me who have seen the original ad and thought I had done the monster art. Its like having a scab that just begins to heal and than gets snagged on something and ripped off again exposing the original wound.

So I decided to post about it, and see what others thought.

Chumlee

Chumlee on Black.

My family and I enjoy watching a show on the History Channel called Pawn Stars. It's a reality show centered around Gold and Silver Pawnshop located in Las Vegas.

Our favorite personality on the show is a guy by the name of Chumlee. (Austin Russell) He's a lovable buffoon with just enough of a cool hipster vibe mixed in to surprise you at times and make you laugh the rest of the time. The old man is a close second.


Chumlee on White.

I've been inspired to do other pop culture centered artwork like Billy Mays and Twitter. BTW, you can follow Chumlee on Twitter here.

I think it's pretty cool when an average joe like Chumlee gets to enjoy the lime light for a while. Unlike the elite Hollywood centric stars that tend to irritate me more than they entertain me. So think of this creative exploration as my personal attempt to extend da Chum's 15 minutes of fame.

Go get 'em Chumlee! You can help expand the chum-centric universe by voting for this design on Threadless.

PDF Art Downloads
Chumlee on Black
Chumlee on White

This artwork is Copyright © Glitschka Studios. You can use these PDF files for personal viewing and to print out and hang in your work area. No other usage is granted.

Surreal Email

Over the years I've had all kinds of illustrative requests. Tonight I was up late working on a deadline due tomorrow morning, and the following email showed up in my inbox:


Strange but true illustration request.

At first I thought it was spam, followed closely by my suspicion that a friend was joking around with me, and ending with the thought of "How can anyone think this is a good idea or an appropriate solution?"

Needless to say I wasn't interested in doing these illustrations (Despite the very tempting $150 budget) and turned it down with a reply email that read:

Sarah,

This project wouldn't stimulate my interest.

Thanks.

Von

Call me a creative prude I guess.

Lost Ideas

Tonight I was skimming through some old archived files and stumbled upon a lot of what I call "Lost Ideas." Most are design options presented to clients but never used, and some are ideas I played around with during the creative process but never presented.

All of them sit lonely amongst the 0's and 1's, in long forgotten files collecting dust on my HD.

I've been working digitally since 1991 so my archives are filled with graphic elements like this. I probably have thousands of things I can't even remember and I'm not sure if I could open some of them anymore? (FreeHand version 2.0) If I was smart I'd go back through everything and catalog all the art. I'll get to that Someday. (Yeah right.)

Perusing through these lost ideas from both the recent and long past was cathartic and nostalgic. So being a fair graphic warden I decided to let a handful of my designed captives out of their solitary confinement so they could see the light of day once again.


Collection of Lost Ideas.

Holy Vectors

Iconic Rabbi Illustration.

Life as a creative hired gun brings in some interesting work at times.

Firms hire me to draw all manner of content for them and believe it or not this isn't the first Rabbi I've drawn either.


Ancient Source Photo.

On this latest gig I was provided with a photograph of a Rabbi. This teacher from yesteryear dates back about 75 years and the firm needed an iconic illustration based off of it they could use in their project.


Alternate motif.

This type of project isn't a huge money making venture for me, but I still enjoy doing them. I bet it never crossed the Rabbi mind that some day in the future he'd be digitally rendered in a resolution independent format?

Hoodlum Teaser

Cropped "Hoodlum" Editorial Illustration.

I love clients that give me complete creative freedom. The opportunity to explore and create in a direction that is fresh and new even though it wasn't what they had originally requested. Such is the case with this editorial illustration.

To read more about this project and view the un-cropped version of the above illustration visit my primary site.

Illustrative Stunt Double

Striking a pose.

When ever I need reference material for a creative project involving a male figure I call up my friend John Nissen. He was my best man and we've known each other since attending art school. He also has a good stereotypical body type which makes him my go to male model. ;-P

An agency hired me to create some linear illustrations for a campaign pitch. The topic was medical and they requested a few samples to use in their presentation.


Doctor with stethoscope linear illustration.

John is an Art Director at a local firm here in town where I live and does both design and illustration himself so he knows how to strike that perfect pose. In this case a doctor getting ready to listen to your heart via a stethoscope.

These were going to be animated just like the bank spots I've done in the past.


Acting for the sake of art.

Here John is posing as a sick guy looking for a cure online. Does he have H1N1 or is he just a Hypochondriac?


Googling for Rx linear illustration.

Like so much agency work this project died before it ever had a chance to be animated. Easy come, easy go.

From Inspiration to Illustration

"TRI 3Y3 Guy" character illustration.

Like the wind, inspiration can hit you at any moment from any direction, so I like to pay attention to the prevailing creative winds letting my imagination set sail.

Such was the case when I recently watched the movie Fargo. I hadn't watched since it's premiere back in 1996. The moment of inspiration came from an unlikely source, the forehead of actor Steve Buscemi.


Details of illustration.

So as I watched the movie I started drawing, a head start on an illustration project if you will. (Pardon the pun) The below video will take your through the entire chain of creative events.


"TRI 3Y3 Guy" t-shirt design.

Looking for that perfect give for your beloved mother in law? Look no further, nothing says "I love you!" more than a t-shirt of the "TRI 3Y3 Guy."


"TRI 3Y3 Guy" art print.

"TRI 3Y3 Guy" is available in three formats:
- Download PDF Art Print
- Download Wallpaper Files
- View / Order T-shirt

From Inspiration to Illustration

Creative Faceoff

NHL Hockey Patch Micro-Tut


Source Photo: NHL Legend Gordie Howe.

1. Source Photo
With this style my client provides the archive photo that their team has selected for me to draw from. For these types of portrait patches it helps to have a dramatically lit picture but sometimes that proves to be somewhat difficult since many players have long since been retired and the variety of source photos is very limited.

Thankfully this one was well suited for this style which has to be pulled off in three spot colors due to budget and reproduction methods overseas. So it's all about simplifying detail and baking down an image to not only work small but retain clarity and of course look like the person your illustrating of course.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. Hockey was never a big thing in our parts. Sure we had professional teams but they were an hour north in Seattle.

There was one neighborhood kid who liked hockey, but we didn't have any ice rink locally. Every so often he'd pull out some goals he had built, gather a group of kids, and we'd have a game in his drive way using a tennis ball as the puck.

I had about as much success handling my hockey stick as I do chop sticks. It was fun because it was different but I felt something was being lost in our translation of the game.


Refined Pencil Sketch.

2. Refined Sketch
Since this style lacks any use of gradients I draw out my artwork with shapes in mind. If you scrutinize the photo enough you'll see that his eyebrows aren't exactly shaped like that, or his inner ear really doesn't contain those forms. But that is OK, It's not about photo realism it's about iconifying his visual persona.

I look at a photo and the first thing I do is purposely blur my eyes and study it, this helps me see the facial features as contour shapes and this guides my drawing.

I do this not only because of the limited production specs but also because of my own budget constraints. I can't afford to spend 8 hours on a specific patch design when my budget allows me at the most two hours.

This process is expedient but still allows me to retain the level of quality I expect from myself. And thus is the difference between fine art and commercial art.

I still don't have a clue when it comes to hockey rules, or current players or teams. Every now and then I come across a game and I watch it, but I miss the laser puck days when it was on Fox Sports.

I do recognize the hall of famer players from hockey past like Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe etc. but even in this blog post I'm only familiar with 4 of the 8 players shown, but thankfully I don't need to be in order to draw them. ;-P


Building Vector Artwork.

3. Building Vectors
Because I spend the board time drawing my refined sketch I know exactly what I have to build when go from analog to digital. There is no guess work it's just a matter of creating what I've already determined I need.

Working like this also speeds up the production process because I'm not slowing down trying to figure out how something should look and noodling around trying to figure it out on the fly.

I still have never actually seen a hockey game in person. And I may never will? And unlike my childhood I don't know anyone now locally who is a hockey fan?


Base Artwork.

4. Base Artwork
Once I have all my core base vector shapes built I flow in the basic colors and set up the outer stroke thickness. At this point I'm about 3/4 of the way done.

In the last three years I've done about 300 of these type of portraits. I've done so many that I've caught myself looking at peoples faces in public and in my mind I begin to simplify their features and think about how I could build the vector shapes. So I guess you could say I have an acute case of Vectoritis.


Drawing Shading.

5. Drawing Shading
At this point in my creative process I print out my base artwork and referencing the photo I draw out the shading using the same modus operandi as I did with the rest of the portrait illustration.

My process is a mix of digital and analog going back and forth until I complete the project and unless clones become part of our everyday lives I don't see this methodology changing anytime soon.

Here is some hockey patches I created a couple years ago.


Vector Detailing.

6. Vector Detailing
I scan in my shading drawing and build out the detail in vector form. Now the art is ready to integrate into the over all patch motif and the iconification of a hockey icon is now complete.

I usually do all of my portraits at the same time progressing from one stage to the next until I have all of them done. It just goes faster that way rather then doing one at a time from beginning to end.

This post is what I call a micro-tut, if you'd like to see a full on tutorial covering this same style in more depth just visit my tutorial site at IllustrationClass.com.


Final Gordie Howe Patch Design.

7. Final Patch
Here is the portrait art nested in context of the final patch design. Along with each patch I have to use the specific team colors as well.

On very rare occasions I've managed to pull this same style off without drawing out my art first. OK, I've only done that once and it was for a very tight deadline and the photography was custom shot by my client. You can view that project here.

2008-2009 NHL Hockey Patches

This Guy Lafleur patch is in reference to his hockey achievements.


NHL hall of famer Ray Bourque.


Legendary iceman Bobby Hull.


The dramatic goalie Robert Luongo.


Tony Esposito and the big hair days of hockey.


Player and now coach Patrick Roy.


The great Mario Lemieux.

Hockey may never hold a lot of interest for me personally but I have learned a lot about it through my various design projects and no matter what the sport it's always fun to illustrate in this fashion.

Mug Shots

My lovely daughter sporting a "Thug Bunny" mug.

This holiday season you can drink deeply from an official Glitschka Studios mug.

I think coffee is to designers what blood is to vampires, so I've pulled together several of my most popular designs and have made them available on mugs.

Because everyone deserves an artistic beverage apparatus.


The Loyal Order of "Thug Bunny" mug.

View / Order "Thug Bunny" mug here.

Read more about this art here.


Fill your head with liquids via a "Squiggle Heads" mug.

View / Order "Squiggle Heads" mug here.

Read more about this art here.


Imbibe your favorite beverage with "Tickles the Evil Clown" mug.

View / Order "Tickles the Evil Clown" mug here.

Read more about this art here.


Become a hard-core drinker with this "Tribal Lion" mug.

View / Order "Tribal Lion" mug here.

Read more about this art here.


Freedom never tasted so good with this "Artistic Freedom" mug.

View / Order "Artistic Freedom" mug here.

Read more about this art here.


Consume your strange brew in this "VooDoo" mug.

View / Order "VooDoo" mug here.

Read more about this art here.


Scary good consumption via the "Monster" mug.

View / Order "Monster" mug here.

Read more about this art here.


Drink your ideological kool-aid in this "Last Daze" mug.

View / Order "Last Daze" mug here.

Read more about this art here.


What every biker bar needs: An "Alien Biker Skull" mug.

View / Order "Alien Biker Skull" mug here.

Read more about this art here.


Preventing discourse is fine while you're drinking out of your "Free Speech" mug.

View / Order "Free Speech" mug here.

Read more about this art here.


Enjoy your piping hot liquid bean in this "Latte Java" mug.

View / Order "Latte Java" mug here.

Read more about this art here.