Doodle Movie

Scan My Conscience

I've had a lot of fun taking doodles of mine and using 'Image Ready' creating cheap little animated movies from them. They are kind of captivating. You just end up gazing at the art longer then you should really. What does it mean? Your guess is as good as mine on this one.

Big Bocca

Big Mouth Character.

Here is recent logo job I did for an Italian Animation Firm called 'Big Bocca'. I guess that means 'Big Mouth'? They wanted a cat type of character so I thought this would lend itself for animation. The type you see is a hand lettered font I am slowly creating called 'Nimcompoop'. After about four years of not designing fonts (Fontographer died with OS9) I now have the itch again.

I am documenting my process on this so there will be a tutorial on IllustrationClass.com.

Start Mobile Art!

Start Mobile is a massive online gallery of art available for mobile devices of all types. Tons of great art ready to take up residence on your cell phone or PDA.

I went through my archive and picked a handful of art to use for this venture. Now if I can only figure out how to get it on my cell phone.


'Vonster'


'Tribal Tattoo'


'Robotica'


'Temporal Infestation'


'Sea Serpent'


'Owl'


'Happy Tree'


'Escape'


'Super Doodle'


'Deep Six'

Keyboard Characters™

'5 of the 10 characters in the set'

Keyboard-Characters™ are here! For the past year I've been working on an illustration product idea called Keyboard Characters™. They are a fun, unique and collectible way to enjoy art in your work environment.

There are a total of '10' characters in the set. The characters shown above are 'Evil Corporate Suit', 'Riled Rover', 'DZGN-BOT', 'Office Joker' and 'Pet Monster'. For more information on what exactly they are, how they work and how to order a set just visit www.Keyboard-Characters.com for the complete scoop.


'Monkey Boy' he's simply chimptastic!

Get a FREE '11th' character called 'Monkey Boy' when you order of two or more sets at one time. So click on over to www.Keyboard-Characters.com and go ape.

Infest Your Desk!

Paper Mate® Flair Pens Rule!

'My trusty tool.

I love my Paper Mate® Brand Red Flair Pen for doodling. I draw my art pretty quick and loose then go back in and beef up lines, add shading and detail until it comes to life. I never really give much thought to what I'll draw and today it turned out to be two freaky looking creatures. I've only drawn in actual sketch books a few times, I find it constricting. I prefer carrying around a small 4x6 notepad that I doodle and sketch on. I like being able to pull them out page by page and hang them up, cut them out etc.


This characters name is 'Giltoid'.

I've always wondered why I enjoy drawing wierd and ugly things more then pristine and beautiful things? Granted the former is easier I suppose but it does make me think. Why does 'Giltoid' look shocked? What are those things floating to the right of his head? Does he speak english? Is he a mutant or an alien life form? Is he actually a she? Ah the fun of doodling.


This art is titled 'Dead Ideas'.

In college I knew a fellow artist who refused to drink beer. It wasn't because of some moral high ground but rather one of inspiration. He didn't want to kill off brain cells. As he told me one day "If I drink I will kill off brain cells. One of those brain cells may be the idea that makes me a million dollars." I thought that was pretty creative of him actually. After I drew this art I was looking at it and asking myself "What does it mean?" Not that it has to mean anything but I was mainly trying to come up with a title for it so when I posted it here on my blog it would have a label. I decided upon 'Dead Ideas'.

Think about it. You'll never use all your ideas. The death rate is still one per person and one day when you pass from this horizontal hold more then likely there will be ideas you had that you never moved forward on, never shared with others and those will die with you.

So get busy! LOL

(I'll also be using these to create some brush texture painting tutorials with for IllustrationClass.com)

Society of Illustrators Exhibit

'Hoo Do You Love'

Today I got some cool news. My owl illustration was accepted into the 49th Annual Society of Illustrators exhibition and publication. It was my first time submitting to the Society of Illustrators so I am pretty excited.

The Folder of Lost Ideas

'Wacky Logo Concepts.

Before I show a client anything the work first has to move me. If I am not invested in it and don't really care for it then I shouldn't present it to a client. So I make it a habit of working until I reach a point where I feel confident abou the work I will be presenting. That way when a client doesn't like something I am OK with it. This project was like that.

A branding company by the name of 'Brand X Creative' asked me to assist in creating logo concepts for a new project QuickSilver (The surf and clothing company) was starting up called 'Kommunity Project'. I read through a brief and it contained all the standard marketing speak for what they wanted to accomplish etc.

One thing was clear they wanted something different then what has been done and that is what I tried to focus in on.

Some of the creative direction given me:

- Low Brow
- Wack Tech (Not really sure what this is? They didn't either.)
- Illustrative
- Iconic
- Conceptual
- 1 or 2 Colors
- None Corporate
- Don't use the letter 'K'

Well here is what I did. None of which were picked in whole. They did like my type treatment on the fourth one down and ended up integrating that into the final mark they used. Kind of a squirrelly creative project for me on this one but I personally really liked number 1,3 and 4 myself.

These marks will end up in my 'Folder of Lost Ideas'.

Top Ten Favorite Themes!

Fire Squad
A friend of mine asked me to create a logo for his sons engineering team that builds robots so they could get some t-shirts printed. Like most artists I jumped at the excuse to create some new robot art. This made me think about popular themes that artist enjoy creating around.

Creative Observation
I've mentioned it in passing in previous posts but have never really dedicated a specific post on the topic and that is 'The Top Ten Favorite Themes' of artists. It's not so much something I set out to discover but rather something I have observed over the past decade or so. Artist are most certainly a unique group of creative minded folk and I've noticed a handful of themes that tend to be common favorites they choose to do design and or illustration work on. Mind you this is by no means an iron clad list but just the most obvious ones I've noticed and have participated in creating myself through my own art. The latest offering above is no exception and motivated me to post this thread.

Top Ten Themes
The following are what I consider to be the top ten favorite themes of artists when creating their art. The order in which I have listed them is not according to popularity but rather just what came to mind when I posted this. I am sure I'll miss a few obvious ones but that is where you come in. Feel free to post others I may have missed or ones you think should be replace with another and I'll re-tool this list over time.

1. Robots: Evil, Benevolent or Humanoid it's all fun.
2. Monkeys: Ape, Chimp, Gorilla or go ape and do a 'Robot Monkey'.
3. Naked Women: No explanation needed.
4. Skulls: Or skeletons for that matter. It's all Bona-fide fun.
5. Monsters/Mutants: Home grown or universal the scarier the better.
6. Paranormal: Aliens, Angels, Demons, Ethereal forms etc.
7. Surrealism: Popularized by Dali, captured by most artists in doodles.
8. Dogs: Flea bitten art inspired by mans best friend.
9. Human Head: All matter of zany things have popped out of heads.
10: Machines: All kinds of mechanic contraptions and devices.

If an artist can combine several of the above into one composition then it's a dream project.

A couple other common elements used by artists are 'Flames' and 'Wings', but they tend to be integrated into the work of a given theme more then a theme in and of themselves. Someone had mentioned 'Pirates' which I agree is a most enjoyable theme to work with. But I think it' recent craze is due to the recent Disney movies. Of course every child at one time or another drew 'Dinosaurs' and all though another fun theme to work with it's not as popular as the ones in the list.

As you can see most of what drives us creatives tend to be very character driven.

I've had many artists email me on this list and I've adapted some content from their input. If you have suggestions let me know.

Phobia

When I doodled out an idea for this weeks 'IllustrationFriday.com' submission I liked the line work so much I just scanned that in and colorized it.

Piranha's Revenge - Illustrative Logo

I love designing logos. But the best of both worlds for me artistically speaking is when I get to work on an 'Illustrative Logo Design'. Both of my core disciplines come into play and such was the case when I worked on 'Pirana Systems'.

How can you not have fun creating a 'Piranha' for a logo project? It has to be nearly impossible. The only animal that could possibly rate higher on the 'Fun Creatures to Create List' is of course the 'Monkey'. And if you'd like to see my entire creative process for this project then click on over to my 'IllustrationClass.com' site and check out the tutorial.

BTW: The clients branded name is 'Pirana' just incase some of you thought I had spelled the name wrong.

Infest Your Desk!

'Keyboard-Characters™' are coming soon! For the past year I've been working on a product idea that I'll be launching next month. I decided to post a little teaser to wet your appetite. There are a total of '10' characters in all.

You'll be able to order them online at 'www.Keyboard-Characters.com'. The site isn't launched yet but you can still book mark it.

If you'd like to be notified when this product launches then send an email to: request@keyboard-characters.com

This concept and artwork is copyright © 2006 Vonster.com - Von R. Glitschka

Childhood Health - Illustrative Logo

I don't do a large volume of work locally. The market here is pretty much dead but a few years back when we took our daughter into see her doctor I told them that if they ever wanted to re-design their identity I'd love to help them. Well they are now building a new facility and it's going to be one of the first 'Green' buildings in Salem, Oregon.

They wanted a fun, playful logo that kids would enjoy. I purposely wanted to avoid the normal medical cliches you see all the time regarding health related marks. Instead I focused on the purpose behind their services and that is to make kids healthy, happy and active.

When I pitched my concepts to the doctors at the clinic I showed them '5' concepts. The one on top is the final mark they went with. The concept on the bottom was another one I really liked too. They liked the dog and asked if that could be used in the top mark. Normally I avoid letting clients pick and choose content but in this cae the I had another dog in the top one so it wasn't an issue.

The signage on the building will look really nice as well as the identity pieces I am working on now.

Pet Monster 'Snilbog' - Final Color Rendering

2D Character Illustration


Final 3D Character Illustratration


The hardest part of this project was staying true to my initial illustration. Anyone who knows the tools can pull off 3D work. What is usually lacking in most is unique design and style. I wanted my segmented style to stay true to the original and just be translated truthfully into a 3D version.

The coloring was a bit tricky to pull off in a 3D environment, but I think the visual transliteration came out really good. We are now working on the characters rigging so we can animate him. Eventually we'll have a nice short featuring this character who I've named 'Snilbog'.

Character Detail 1


The eyes were critical on this. At first the translation from my initial illustration wasn't looking good in the 3D version. Losing the white helped push it in the right direction. Having each eye a different color captures the quality I had in my original illustration.

Character Detail 2


This view shows the lovely translucent drool which of course will be dripping in the animated version. Forked tongue and huge razor sharp teeth add to the overall effect.

As I stated in a previous post, my friend Bret St.Amour and I have started a new business venture we are calling 'Ornery Frog Productions'. We'll offer character development to ad agencies and creative firms. Bret is a very talented Maya guru and long time friend I've known since art school days. Our combined talents will produce the kind of work as shown in this post.

Pet Monster

My friend Bret St.Amour and I have started a new business venture we are calling 'Ornery Frog Productions'. We'll offer character development to ad agencies and creative firms. Bret is a very talented Maya guru and long time friend I've known since art school days.

The following character images show it in progress so far. This character will also be part of the 'Keyboard Characters' I am currently developing.

Front View


Back View


The coloring we'll do on this will stay true to my initial style. It's a bit tricky but is looking cool so far. Eventually I'll have a full tutorial on this project at 'IllustrationClass.com'.

Sola Fida

This weeks 'IllustrationFriday.com' submission for the topic of 'Sacrifice'. The term 'Sola Fida' is Latin for 'Faith Alone'.

(Click Image to see full frame illustration)

Scorpio Illo.

This is the latest incarnation for a series of '7' mascot characters I am doing for 'Tactix Creative' in Arizona. This specific mascot is the 'SanTan Scorpions'. Scorpions are one of those creatures I look at and immediately think "God has the best portfolio."

A scorpion is a member of the Arachnid family, but it's body shape resembles a Lobster more then a spider and it has claws and a wicked looking stinger. The whole design of a scorpion is cool. Very scary and intimidating looking and that is the feeling I wanted to capture in my mascot art.

Mascot for 'SanTan Scorpions' - Middle School


Larger Preview - Alternate coloring

Soaring Vectors - Step by Step Tutorial

I teach a digital illustration class once a week at the local college here in Salem Oregon. Each week I show them how an illustrator goes about creating their artwork. These simple step by steps are provided by the illustrators featured and document their own creative process in an easy to view format. It allows my students and other industry peers to see how various artists work from concept to completion in a variety of styles.

This week I created one I am calling 'Soaring Vectors' which documents a recent sports mascot project I worked on. This weeks download includes '18' step by step images and commentary for each step is thoroughly provided in the Notes.rtf file included. This allows the viewer to print out the notes for future reference and read while viewing each step of the process. You can download the step by step tutorial here. (4.4mb).

I have created numerous step by steps on a variety of projects I've worked on over the past year. Eventually I'll have all available for download soon from a specific web site I am still fine tuning. This will also include all the shared creative processes by other artists too. If you'd like to be featured or share your creative process with my class shoot me an email and I'll tell you what I need. Full credit and links including a small bio is included with each artist featured. At this time approximately 600 creatives in our industry view the weekly content.

PS: Yes I bite my finger nails. Nasty habit I've never been able to break.

Monkeys, Robots and Pirates oh my!

When a client calls me and asks "Can you illustrate a Monkey, a Robot and a Pirate?" you have to pinch yourself to make sure it's not a dream. These are a few of the characters I created as 1 color iconic avatars to use on some card promotions for Upper Deck Company.

It's tricky sometimes being limited to 1 flat color. (The style the client requested) And the turnaround time was a bit nuts too but these three were my personal favorites out the group of '7' I created.

9 Toes Beach Club

Ever since I was young I've had somewhat of a water phobia. Knowing fish like the 'Angler Fish' lurk in the deepest parts of the Oceans waiting to bit my toes off doesn't make me want to go swimming anytime soon. Lakes are fine and I love Sea-Dooing but I still prefer the non-infested chlorinated variety swimming hole.

It's amazing the variety of fish there are and these puppies are stinking scary looking in real life. God sure does have an incredible portfolio and imagination.

(Click for larger preview)

Jesus Wins!

A few years back I was waiting in line at the grocery store. All along the aisle was chocolate bunnies. I wondered what Jesus would think about the Easter Bunny. At the time I was illustrating a set of 'Business Icons' that used almost a Fisher Price™ figure style in them. I adapted that format and created this image.

Of course I emailed it to my Mom and her only comment was "I don't think that's funny at all." Which of course made it hilarious.

So with that said I hope your Easter is a good one!