Doodle Novel - Vol. 1

'Art for Doodle Novel Vol. 1 - You write the story for this art.'

The fun thing about most doodles, are they allow the one viewing them the opportunity to read into it their own meaning. Most of the doodles I draw have no premeditated idea, they just kind of pour out of my subconscious onto the page and I try not to get in the way. I then take it into Photoshop and continue the artistic experimentation. That is how the above art was created.

Usually that is how the content for a post will begin and end. But I wanted to try something new and that is where you the reader of this blog can play a part. I want to turn these meaningless doodles into what I call a "Doodle Novel".

How it works
- Using "Comments" write a story for the doodle. Anything goes, have fun.
- Weave your yarn as long or as short as you like.
- Include your name

So release your inner scribe and let others enjoy your fictional prose as you author a "Doodle Novel" for my artwork.

I look forward to reading your ideas.

Unwrapping a Logotype - TV Spot

'Lifetime Television Seasonal Logotype'

Lifetime Television just sent me the TV spot using my logotype design. They changed the colors and added some modeling to the letterforms but overall I think it came out pretty cool. The above image shows the art I delivered.


'Lifetime Television TV Spot'

The screen capture shown above comes from the actual TV spot being aired the whole month of December on Lifetime. Watch the entire TV spot here.

Isometric Diagram Illustration

'Isometric Diagram Illustration for Kazeon.'

How do you relay technically complex IT processes and methodologies in a simple visual manner so a layman or garden variety corporate suit can quickly and easily get a grasp on the big picture and understand a products benefit to their bottom line? That was the challenge I faced on this project.


'Diagrams integrated into Kazeon web site.'

Kazeon equips large companies to manage and isolate individual data points within their own networks that may contain millions of documents, files and emails. They needed to show these services visually on their web site at www.kazeon.com, and within presentations to potential clients and investors alike.

In total I created four diagram illustrations for Kazeon along with some GUI icons you can see on their web site. Working in this isometric style is fun and is kind of like vector SIMS in a way. To view a larger version of the illustration above click here.

Trashing Abe

'Doodle Movie - Trashing Abe'

Another doodle movie using one of my recent drawings of Abraham Lincoln, some found textures from a parking garage in Nashville, a church door in NYC and a local parking lot. Also included is several historical diagrams I found in a vintage high school science book which I've made into Photoshop brushes.

Mix them all together and you get this essential nonsense.

Viral Marketing High Jinks

'George sporting a nice fro.'

I've had a lot of fun with my dedication site "HappyAfro.com". I was even interviewed by Chicago public radio and interviewed as if I was Bob Ross which was a lot of fun and pretty hilarious too.

Well, 90% of the time I use my debit card to buy stuff and rarely have cash on hand. But when I do I like to doodle afro's on the presidents and write "HappyAfro.com" on the bill itself. It's a fun creative use of commerce and capitalism in pursuit of art.


'AJ goes urban funk.'

Who knows how far these bills will travel through circulation nationwide and maybe even over seas? I figure it's a simple and harmless viral marketing tactic that will give people a few laughs and that is why I decided to post about it here.


'Embedded code within US currency design.'

So I took these bills out of my wallet that I had drawn on and scanned them in to create the images you see in this post and when I opened them up in Adobe Photoshop a window instantly popped up and showed me this message. Yikes! Apparently our money has encoded counterfeit technology literally embedded into the designs that even when scanned is recognized by something Adobe has integrated into Photoshop CS3. It may have been there in previous versions but I don't know since I never scan in money?

I know there are companies that are developing this technology and I know a few artists who are beta testers and get monthly reports on who is using their images without permission online or in print. One company that is doing this in Canada has a great site you can view here.

Anyway I didn't try to print anything out of Photoshop, I was afraid if I did that some message would be sent to the secret service covertly and I'd have the FBI knocking on my studio door in a few hours and I don't think they'd find presidential fro's very funny. I have to admit the technology is pretty stinking impressive though.

Editorial Illustration

'Risk Assessment' for Gas & Oil Investor Magazine (Click for larger view)

In the late 90's and early...uh...0's? (I just realized I have no clue what to reference the first ten years of the twenty first century?) Anyway, I use to do a lot of editorial illustration but over the last six years my niche has changed and most of my illustration is within a design context and frankly I prefer that.

Even though I enjoy doing illustrative design I still do editorial projects when they come my way. I've been doing editorial illustration for one of my clients since 1999 and every few months they send me an article and have me read it then conceptualize an editorial illustration to go along with it. The articles aren't what I'd call page turners since they deal mostly with the minutia of Gas & Oil investing, so trying to pull out a clever concept I can visually capitalize on can be somewhat painful.

This illustration is the end result of my most recent editorial work.

PS: My wife isn't a creative type and I'll admit some of my work just pushes her comfort zone style wise. She likes much of it but would never want it to hang in her living room. I had shown her the above illustration mid-way through and all she said was "His nose is too long. Nobody has a nose that long." I just laughed and my oldest daughter who was in my studio at the time chimed in with "Mom it's not suppose to be real." I seconded my daughters comment with a proud nod of agreement and my wife exited my studio saying "Too big." LOL

htmhell

'Doodle Movie - htmhell'

In an age of flash animation and online video the venerable animated gif keeps marching along and that is why I enjoy creating what I call 'Doodle Movies'. I doodle some art, take images I've either found or photos I've taken and then go into Photoshop and use the gif timeline to create fun animated artwork.

If you're wondering why I created this keep reading.


'Actual scrambled page.'

This past summer I was introduced to Twitter. What is Twitter you ask? According to their own site it is defined as follows:

"Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing."

I've done exactly that, documenting stray thoughts, funny insights, snarky quips and cool links with fellow creative peers and others who have added me to their follow list. It's fun taking a peek into others lives and each of us sharing our own. (See link in my contact information at right)

About a week ago one of my friends posted a link to a web site on Twitter. I clicked the link but when it loaded into my browser the page was scrambled as shown above. A few seconds passed and right before I moved my cursor to close the window a thought crossed my mind

"That is so ugly looking it's kind of cool."

I've trained myself to not ignore these types of thoughts, so I took a few screen shots of the scrambled page knowing I'd use it somehow to create some art. And thus a new doodle movie was born.