Day of the Dead

 This one I'm pretty proud of. Once again on assignment for Little Red Bicycle, I had to create a stamp for yarn packaging. My guidelines were to use certain colors and do something day of the dead themed. This is the art I created:

I owe some credit to Didi for the baller colors. And thank you Alycia for letting me use your face.

For a while now I've been taking training courses in Illustrator and naturally I want to try and use the stuff I learn. What I was really able to take advantage of this time were gradient meshes. Gradient meshes allow you to simulate a kind of airbrush effect when done correctly. These are the gradient meshes in my piece:

I wanted to use these with this project because when I think of Mexico and Mexican art one place I turn is towards street art and murals, which are done with spray paint.

I'm trying to master pattern making as well, and what better subject than Day of the Dead to try some patterning out? I think my candy skulls work well. I didn't want to make them insanely detailed because they are background elements, and I think I needed to keep some balance between the business of the face and background areas.

One thing I tried that didn't work was simulating a bad press job, where I would apply grains to each of the separate colors in the piece, as if I had printed all the purple on one block, the pink on another, etc. The piece is so busy in the first place that it ended up being distracting and ugly. Though, if you notice the text, I did mimic poorly aligned printing/stencil art in the process of making the print more legible.

Overall I'm really happy with this and I want to do more work like it in the future.

Galapagos Stamp

Did another piece for LRB yesterday. This one is a Galapagos Stamp

I'm pretty happy with this piece for a couple of reasons. 1. I think it looks great for a single color print, and 2. It took me 5 hours to make.

I've been dedicated to learning more about Illustrator and while I haven't learned how to achieve certain looks that I was incapable of achieving before, I have become smarter and faster in my workflow, using pathfinder options and clipping masks to reduce hand editing and, what I used to do, moving the work into Photoshop to apply textures. So, using compound shapes and global colors, the execution phase of my design work has sped up dramatically. Yay me.

The color is based on Didi's colorway, which itself is based on the color in this picture she took last year in the Galapagos:

It's a beautiful but unusual considering the things I think of when I think of the Galapagos. I think of reds, blacks, and whites for the bones of animals, the magma rock, and the spots on the Marine Iguanas. I think of Blue-Footed Boobies, and Galapagos Tortoises.

Anyway, it worked out well!