The Premise of My Livelihood

Not all my projects are large ones. I work on a bunch of smaller jobs for smaller agencies too. I enjoy working with other creatives regardless of how large or small their business is because it brings with it a wide range of diverse assignments and that tends to be a lot more fun creatively speaking.

I'd call this project a "Von Gets Paid to Draw" job. I say that because in all honesty my livelihood is fundamentally based on the fact that other designers can't draw well, so they pay me to do it instead.


Client provided photograph.

The client needed simple B&W artwork of this Jewish mans head. He had seen my "NBA Portraits" and wanted me to do the same based on the hostage quality photo he provided above.


Non-kosher vectors!

This was the clients own attempt at creating simple B&W artwork based on the photo. Do you understand how that whole livelihood thing I mentioned previously comes into play now?

This is nothing new mind you, it's been the fundamental premise of existence for illustrators going back to prehistoric times perhaps. You know, Grog can't throw spear and slay mammoth so he stays home in the cave and draws what happens on the wall. It's fine, everyone has their lot in life.


Refined drawing.

So now it's my turn to draw off the photo provided. As always I draw out my ideas completely so I know what to expect moving to digital. This prevents any guess work as I build my art in vector form.

This specific style is all about simplification. Looking at the facial forms and baking them down to simple shapes until you capture the correct feeling.


Scanned refined drawing.

I scan in my refined drawing, place it into Illustrator, grey it back and lock it on it's own layer. Here it stays as my precise road map to build upon.


Vector shape building.

I build my vector shapes according to my pre-established drawing.


No guess work building.

Precise vector building comes about by figuring out what you need to build before hand by drawing it all out. This is where I think a lot of designers get lazy and jump on the computer too quickly.


To those with an ear let them hear.

Even though this style plays off photography you have to take creative license and improve on reality to make an illustration better. This dudes right ear looks kind of strange being smaller on one side. So I need to fix that.


Base B&W artwork done.

I perform vector plastic surgery on my art and fix his ear.


Back to the drawing board.

I print out my artwork (note lame vertical streaking because my printer sucks) and using a regular pencil I draw out my shading. I refer back to the source photo to pick out visual cues on how they should be drawn.


Building shading vectors.

I follow the same modus operandi as I used to build my primary base art.


More precision building.

I use snap to point all the time. That said the functionality inside CS4 is kind of hinky and doesn't alway work which is a major pain in the butt at times and bloats my build time. Thank you very little Adobe.


Responding to comments.

OK, for those of you who posted early you were correct his ear still looked hinky so I fixed it. The reason I didn't put grey in his beard is because I thought the client didn't want that. I based the decision on their own attempt shown above which was a poor assumption on my part because they came back and requested it.

I guess that means "Commenters: 2" and "Von: 0" so you guys win.


Final floating head.

Grey added to beard, mouth adjusted so he's smiling more and hinky ear repaired.

I've illustrated well over 200 portraits in this style, using the same methodology for MLB, NBA, and NFL licenses over the past several years but I still enjoy it.

I thank God for my livelihood.

Hollywood Actresss Hot Natalie Portman Celebrities Photos, Wallpapers

Natalie Portman is happy about playing more challenging role in her new film Brothers. In the movie, the 28-year-old actress plays the love interest of Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal. Natalie says she was tired of being the cutie. "I just don't want to be cute any more. I've been playing girl-woman roles for a long time and I was excited about the opportunity of playing an adult. I really wanted the challenge," she tells daily Mirror. "My own mother is the most maternal, nurturing, warm, cosy mummy. So I had all that in me. She was a great role model,"she added.

latest Bollywood Genelia D'Souza, Bubbly Girl Genelia Heroine Photos, Pics, Wallpapers

The latest sensation in Bollywood Genelia D'Souza has denied reports of any relationship with Riteish Deshmukh. She had teamed up with the actor for her debut film in Hindi Tujhe Meri Kasam. Later there were many rumours about them. The recent one was that both had married secretly against the wishes of their parents.

But the cute girl has completely denied all their rumours and reports about her affair with the actor. She commented, "I'm very much single. Riteish is my friend. That's all. Actually I don't have time for romance in real life with anyone. It is all happening in reel life only. I've no idea where these rumours emerge from. Deshmukh is my close friend and we both are very busy in films.




Bubbly girl Genelia feel very lucky to establish herself in the industry in such a short period. She said, "Whatever roles I did so far, they elevate me to higher levels. Acting means not only romancing with hero and exposing in revealing costumes. Heroine should be able convince the audiances with her performance and not with skin shows. But, unless an actress gets right opportunities, she never can establish herself in the industry. It happens merely by luck. In that way, I am very lucky. My film 'Bommarillu' in Telugu and 'Janetu Ya Janena' in Hindi gave me a solid base in Tollywood and Bollywood. Now, my latest Telugu film 'Katha' is also well received by people.”

"Indeed, it is very difficult role in my film career. In fact, I strained a lot for doing 'Chitra's role in the film. But, when the people start appreciating me, I feel very happy for doing such a wonderful role. I am receiving number of phone calls from all over the state congratulating me for my best performance,"says Genelia

Images Of Bollywood Actress Saree Photos, Traditional Saree Pics

Saree is the traditional dress for Indian women. Saree is the best of all dresses. The women appears elegent and graceful in saree. Traditionally a north Indian saree is a 5 m long cloth in cotton, silk, chiffon, teri-cot, etc. The way a woman wears her saree is different in North india, South India, Maharastra, and other parts of India and so the length of saree.In old days of Bollywood, sari was the normal outfit for the actresses. But in modern times, other dresses have repalced saree.Bollywood stars like Aishwarya Ra, Hema Malini, Madhuri Dixit, Sushmita Sen, etc.

The Method to My Madness

Reference and image research.

I usually save the sharing of my creative process for my tutorial site www.IllustrationClass.com, but it's been a while since I posted any like that over here so I decided to take you all through a recent custom tattoo design I created.

The Client

Michael Gano had seen some of my previous tribal tattoo designs as well as some of my most recent artwork and requested his own custom tattoo design based on an Armadillo.

Last time I drew an Armadillo was around 1988 or so, and it was done in a very graphic Santa Fe style so I did some simple research to get reference. Like I tell my students:

"You may know what an Armadillo looks like in general but you'll be able to draw it better if you reference the real thing."

I forgot how cool looking these varmints are. They're like a cross between a Rhino and a Rat on steroids.


Thumb nailing out a rough.

All good things digital start in analog form. At least for me they do.

At this point I'm not too worried about specific detail, I'm just trying to get the idea out of my head and on to the paper. I'm balancing out the composition and figuring out how things relate to one another in a general.

The Challenge

An Armadillos form is simple and not very complex and that made the design of this tattoo difficult. The client also requested a circular tattoo which added to the design challenge as well.


Refined drawing.

I prefer to draw out my ideas completely so I know what to expect moving to digital. This prevents any guess work as I build my art in vector form. This of course isn't an iron clad rule but tends to be true more times then not for me.

All the creative heavy lifting IMO, is done prior to digitally building it.

Working digitally has many fringe benefits. One of best ones is symmetrical designs. You only have to do half the work and still get all the fun. Just copy, paste and flip!


Scanned refined drawing.

At this point I need to run my design by the client for approval. So I scan it in and use Photoshop to copy and clone the missing content. I also clean up any other detail I may spot at this stage too. This takes all of about ten minutes or so.

The Presentation


Client comp image.

After mocking up the comp image from my scan I decide to push the tail more literal in it's appearance and I add indentations on the Armadillos back to represent the various plates.

I didn't really care for the look of the tail at this point but it was good enough for the comp and I'll finesse it so it looks better once it gets approved by my client.

The Build


Vector building starts.

As I say in my "Illustrative Design Presentation" you have to be a "Bezier Curve Jedi Master." It does help if you have ADD tendencies though.


Vector shapes completed.

Why do I use "Pink" lines to build my shapes? Because I've been doing it this way for like 18 years now and it makes perfect sense to me. So no wise cracks. No, really I'm sensitive on this issue and you don't want to make me cry.

Note how I simplified the tail detail.

The Reveal


Final artwork completed.

I tried several different approaches when integrating the indentations on the Armadillos back until I arrived at this solution. Over all I'm happy with the results and so was my client.


Tattoo in context.

The reason my client wanted the circular motif was due to the final tattoo's placement on his shoulder. I like the fact it's not an immediate read, it's a slow reveal which is kind of cool.

If you'd like to see the artwork a little larger I played around with it using a texture here.

I hope Michael enjoys this tattoo design and I thank him for letting me use his body as my canvas.

Tattoo Design is Copyright © 2009 Glitschka Studios.

We have the winners!

1: Stephanie
5: Rose
21: Shelly
9: Mama Snow
12: Janelle
24: Dixons
32: Lynne
16: Bizzymomma
29: Noreen
19: Kaycee

We will be sending out an email shortly. If your name is not on this list don't worry ;) we have something fun planned for you too!!!

First and Goal

Play Flag Football Logo.

I was asked recently in a design interview to explain my approach to logo design. I used the analogy of an investigation. I never know where it will take me or how the design problem will be solved until my creative investigation is finished.

The same was true with this client. At first glance I read the name "Play Flag Football" and thought to myself "That's not a business name that's a sentence." Obviously the biggest challenge for me would be to somehow simplify the complexity that a long name was causing.

My favorite moment in any logo project is when I stumble upon that one clever metaphor or visual element that reinforces a concept and brings my design to life. With this project I wanted it to say football without showing a literal football.


Play Flag Football Logo (Patch Version)

Play Flag Football sponsors flag football events nationwide and wanted their logo in a format that would work well for embroidery purposes too. This version of the logo is for patches.


Embroidery Patch Designs.

Other programs ran by Play Flag Football needed their own embroidery patch designs as well. They will reward these patches to the kids who earn them so they can sew them onto their uniform.


Horizontal Logo Format.

This shows the logo in horizontal format and how it can be integrated into a photograph.

Play Flag Football was a very successful company before I worked with them. And the new identity I created for them will equipped them to keep moving forward on the field of success.

If only I could convince Google to do the same. ;-)