Snowball Fight

Posted on January 29, 2009 by grzych

In my last Post I showed you my card design from this past Christmas. I thought you might like to see another of my past “Artzee Fartzee” cards that I did. So jump into your DeLorean suped up with a Flux Capacitor, Time Circuits, and a well fed Mr. Fusion, floor it to 88 and screech it to a halt at your holiday destination of yesteryear…2005!

The concept was a snowball fight between me and my wife. Below is the Original Concept Sketch that I did that includes an additional drawing of an unused concept for the back of the card. I nixed the idea of using the bottom sketch in favor of a thrown snowball illustration.

From the above sketch to the Final Pencil Drawing, not much changed. I enlarged the sketch and redraw the illustration much cleaner and tighter.

After the drawing was completed I scanned it into the computer, cleaned it up, and passed it through the Photoshop blender where I mixed in some color. So I pressed the puree button, waited for it to spin and whirl, then poured it out. Presto…Color! The color not lining up was intentional. I wanted it to be offset. I’m happy with the results.

I placed the artwork into a rectangular envelope shaped layout and added snowballs I had drawn separately. The back of the card was basically the Holiday Greeting, which my wife and I signed before stuffing them into envelopes and mailing them off.

Click the artwork above the view it larger if you’d like. I was overall happy with the illustration and design of the card. Had I to do it over again, the only thing that I’d do differently would be to have designed an envelope with it to mail it out in.

Wow, it’s almost Feburary and I’m still talking about the Holidays…go figure!

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2008 Christmas Card

Posted on January 26, 2009 by grzych

Each year I Design and Illustrate a new Christmas Card to send out to a majority of my friends and family to celebrate the Holiday Season. The last couple of card designs I’ve done have featured my “Artzee Fartzee” characters based on my wife and me, so this past Christmas I ran with that idea again. The card’s final layout differed from the original concept that my wife and I discussed. She said, “Hey why don’t we make a card this year that’s shaped like an ornament and it opens to reveal the card.” So with my wife’s suggestion in mind, I did just that and began drawing our new card.

I wanted the gag to be that when the card is folded you think that Troy is holding the Mistletoe over the head of the character based off of my wife, but when you open the card…SURPRISE! So the punchline is revealed when you open the card. After I finished the pencil drawing I took it into the computer and colored it in Photoshop. I stuck to the original Ornament design and worked it up that way initially.

However, after I had printed and mocked a version up…it didn’t fold and stay closed the way that I had intended. That, and the cut and folding time was a bit more than I wanted to spend on it. Christmas was fast approaching so my deadline to get all of our cards printed, addressed, and sent out via the United Postal Service was looming. Below is a video of how the card was to look and be opened. Click on the video below and enjoy!

So with the layout of the card not working exactly as I had envisioned it, I quickly decided to go with a much simpler square design. Not only was it easier to cut, but it also had less fold line to have to deal with. I think the Final layout works much better, even though the original concept was a bit more fun. I may revisit the ornament design in a future Christmas Card but I’ll have to tweak it to make it work a bit better than it did. Below is the Final layout.

I also did an alternative “Happy Holidays” version to send to our Jewish friends. They were the only ones who got this version, so they should consider it a Collector’s Item. One day…some day…maybe…possibly…it might just be worth something on eBay.

Below is a video of how the Final card looked when it was opened. Click on the video below and enjoy!

So there you go, that was my Christmas Card this past Holiday Season. Now I’ve only got less then 365 days until I’ve got to come up with yet another one drawn, printed, cut, folded, signed, stuffed, addressed, stamped, and sent out. I could start now planning for it or…put it off ’til this November…I’ll see what I can do, but until then…Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

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It’s Magically Delicious!

Posted on January 22, 2009 by grzych

Recently J&S Foods asked me to design a hot sauce label inspired by “Harry Potter.” As a fan of the Chosen One, I was definitely looking forward to this assignment. Like any fan, I’ve read the books, seen the movies, watched the DVD’s a countless number of times, and am eagerly anticipating the next flick and the opening of the Universal “Harry Potter” Theme Park in 2010. So it was a pleasure to get a chance to dive in and put my own twist on the Hogwart’s universe. Since it wasn’t going to be a direct take on the subject, I gave it the hot sauce twist. With that in mind, what else do you call a boy who gets his magical power of flight by ingesting hot sauce and farting fire…what else than “Harry Pooter” of course. Again, like the “Obama” Hot Sauce label I designed, I decided to do it in a cartoony style so that the label would be a bit more fun than if I had tried to do it more realistic. I started with a pencil drawing that I scanned, cleaned up, and colored in the computer.

After coloring him I placed him in his natural environment, zipping amongst the clouds high above Hogfarts…the institute for gaseous studies and emissions…or something like that.

Now the illustration above is great and all, but a label it is not…yet. What makes it a label, is the labeling…so I proceeded to add…labeling. After a bit of info here and a tad bitt more there, faster than you can say the magic word “SuperSonicIdioticBrainDefectedDisconnectedOoweyDeweyDaffyDeweyDumbbell,” the hot sauce label was finished!

So with this project completed, now all I can do is sit back and wait for the next movie or hope that J.K. Rowlings comes to her senses and writes another book. You know you want to J.K…oh yes…you want to!

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Inauguration Day

Posted on January 20, 2009 by grzych

So in honor of Inauguration Day, I thought what better time to post the artwork that I’m posting today.  Right after the election J&S Foods asked me to draw an “Obama” Hot Sauce label for them. Their request, “we want Obama riding a Donkey dressed as Uncle Sam with a map of the United States in the background.” So with that in mind I went to work and did just that. I decided to draw Obama a bit cartoony instead of realistic, so that it was different then the previous hot sauce label designs I had done for them. I mean hell…if you got a man riding on the back of a donkey dressed as Uncle Sam, might as well make it cartoony, right? Also, I wanted it to be more of a caricature of Obama rather than a portrait of him.

Below are both my initial rough concept sketch that I did as well as the pencil drawing that I did for the hot sauce label. As you can see in my pencil drawing, I followed my sketch pretty closely. I don’t always work this way with my hot sauce label designs, usually I will just go right into the computer and start composing the design there. However, because I decided to go with a caricature, I wanted to draw it out first to make sure I got it exactly the way that I wanted it before taking it into the computer.

From here I composed the rest of the design in the computer and colored the pencil drawing as it was drawn. In the background is the electoral map of the United States, colored as per which states voted for which candidate.

Above is the original version of the “Obama” Hot Sauce label that I did. After the client reviewed it they decided that they wanted to move the donkey’s hat and place it on Obama’s head. So after some tweaking and alterations, I came up with the design below which J&S Foods approved and accepted.

So there you go, the Hot Sauce changing taste buds one drop at a time.

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Norb & Doris Wedding Portrait

Posted on January 16, 2009 by grzych

One of the things that I really enjoy doing but have not done that many of are Wedding Portraits. I’ve drawn a few for various friends and family members over the last couple of years, but I tend to shy away from tackling them because they do require a bit more time to accomplish. Not that I don’t enjoy the challenge, I do, it’s just that you need to have the time to set aside to devote solely to the creation of the piece. The challenge comes from capturing the couples likeness, if you fail to do this, the portrait obviously ceases to be a portrait at that point.

Last year I finally decided to give my parents the treatment, having never drawn them before I thought that it was high time that I did so. After having completed that drawing the plan was already set in motion for me to pick up pencil once again and take on the task of doing one for my In-Laws. So this Christmas I found myself doing just that. However, unlike all of the previous drawings that I had done for others in which I had very specific photographic references to follow, I didn’t necessarily have this with my In-Law’s portrait. My wife’s parents didn’t have many photos from their wedding day that I could use to compose the piece, and the ones that they did have were a bit blurry. What I ended up having to do was I had to cannibalize other photos of them from around the same time period, alter their appearance (i.e. hair styles, glasses, their clothing) to match as closely to their look in their wedding photos. When working on portraits I like to work with photos that are as crisp and clean as possible, the more you tend to change and alter photos, the less likely you are to capture their true likeness. So on this piece, I had two mountains to climb: blurry photos and pics I had to alter significantly. Even though I was nervous to begin this portrait, and believe me…my nerves did force me to delay beginning it several times (hell…it was for my In-Laws) the time crunch of having to get the drawing done before Christmas propelled my forward to tackle it and drove me on through til it’s completion. Below is the fruits of my labor.

Below are Close-up photos of the final portrait for you to see the detail, Click on them to Enlarge the images.

So I will admit that it really was down to the wire with this one. I finished the last of the flower and leaf renderings on Christmas Eve and ended up matting and framing the artwork in the early AM the following morning. My wife and I saved the portrait as the last present that they opened on Christmas morning. They seemed pretty surprised when they tore into the gift wrapping and were confronted with the final drawing. I hope they enjoy the piece as much as I did drawing it.

And here is the final portrait framed and matted with a blue matte. Just in case you were wondering, that is me reflected in the glass of the picture frame.

Finally, throughout the process of drawing my In-Laws I took photos of it at various stages of completion. I thought that it’d be fun to show you the process I go through when I drew the piece. So here is a Video Progression of the Portrait from start to finish. Some of the photos of the drawings did not line up perfectly and I promise that if I proceed to do these type of videos in the future, I’ll work on fixing that. Click on the video below and Enjoy!

Wedding Portrait-Norb & Doris (VIDEO PROGRESSION)

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Hot ‘n’ Cold

Posted on January 13, 2009 by grzych

And last, but not least…the final two Christmas Post It drawings that I did over the holidays. I couldn’t let the season pass without having drawn two of my favorite Rankin & Bass characters. When you’re Hot you’re Hot and when you’re Not, you’re Not! And so it is with the Heat Miser and the Snow Miser. I guess I’ve always been a little more of a fan of the Cool Miser Brother…funny, being that I’m from the South, you’d think that I’d be more keen on Mr. 101. However, I think it’s because I hail from the land of humidity that I’d rather hang with man that likes his drinks on the rocks.

So in this Post It Post…I pay tribute to the Miser Brothers.

Last year ABC Family Channel premiered a new Stop Motion animated Christmas special based on these two siblings. “A Miser Brother’s Christmas” was a sequel of sorts to the original “A Year Without A Santa Claus,” but only in the regards that the title character were back and that the original voice actors of both Santa (Mickey Rooney) and the Heat Miser (George S. Irving) were back after nearly 34 years. I didn’t have high hopes for the show because most of the other characters looked different and even the Snow Miser’s look was altered from his original design. However, fears aside, the show wasn’t half bad…the songs weren’t all that memorable but the animation as pretty smooth. I’d watch it again, and if it ever comes out on DVD, I’d add it to the Christmas collection and view it at least once a year. I don’t wanna give the impression that it was perfect or was what it could have been, but it was at least entertaining. Maybe next year ABC Family will do another sequel to another Rankin & Bass classic…we can dream can’t we.

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Santa and Friends

Posted on January 12, 2009 by grzych

In my ongoing attempt to present you guys with all that I drew this holiday season, here goes another dose of Post Holiday fun! In this Post It Post, I thought I’d show you yet another tribute to all things Rankin & Bass and more specifically, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” No, I have not drawn the Scarlet Nosed individual again to display here, if you wanna see my take on good ole blinky, read my previous Post on him. Instead I thought I’d draw some of his North Poleian friends.

I originally intended to post “Santa” with my Christmas/Birthday List Post…it seemed more fitting since Troy is asking him to pretty much explain his unforgivable behavior of not getting him everything off of his wish list. How dare Father Jolly not succumb to the will of his list and fulfill it’s every want and desire…how dare he! You tell him Troy, you make him pay for his gross oversight.Instead of posting it then I wait til now because I thought it’d be better to keep him with a fellow “Rudolph” cast mate.

With “Sam the Snowman,” I simply just got Troy’s Canine Pal to ask of Sam a query that has been boggling my noggin for some time now. Hopefully, he’ll be able to get some sort of a legitament and accurate response from the Wintry White one himself. Fortunately for us, we might get him to answer it in a song. Keep your fingers crossed.

I still have a few Christmas items left in my stocking for all to see, so expect a couple more soon on the subject.

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Kaitlin’s Christmas Present

Posted on January 9, 2009 by grzych

Another one of the Christmas presents that I did this year was a drawing for my niece Kaitlin. Like Megan’s drawing I talked about in the previous post, I also did it in my “Artzee Fartzee” style. Unlike Megan’s however, I did not have to do several sketches to try and capture her likeness because I had done so previousily about a couple years ago for a separate drawing and fortunately for me…it still had all of Kaitlin’s flavor. I of course updated the design a bit, since she had aged a couple of years since I last doodled her. But for the most part, her design remained intact from the original. The thumbnail process on this drawing was not much of a process at all…I only did one…the one posted below. As you can see from the two images, both the Concept Sketch and the Final Piece are pretty much identical. There are some very minor differences, such as instead of holding the Doodlebug it’s now wrapped around one of her fingers, but other than that it is what it is.

My niece Kaitlin is completely in love with all things bug and bug-like. She never met a Doodlebug (“Rollie Pollie” to some) that she did not like. I swear, if she could spin herself a cocoon and then emerge a couple days later with a big bright pair of colorful butterfly wings, I think she would. It would make shopping for clothes difficult but I think she’d be up for the challenge.

Besides Kaitlin, also featured in the drawing is our pet Hermit Crab named Monster. My wife got him from a friend of her’s one summer a few years back after their trip to Destin, Florida. We just assume it’s a “he,” because if it were a “she” we’d have to rename it to something more appropriate like “Ladybug” or “Flower” or “Bananarama” or something like that…and I’ve grown found of the name “Monster.”

She was definitely happy to get the final drawing. The only thing better would have been if my wife and I told she could have Monster…since that’s not going to happen, she’ll have to make due with a drawing of him and her instead.

I hope you enjoy it Kaitlin.

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Megan’s Christmas Present

Posted on January 8, 2009 by grzych

As a Christmas Gift this year, I finally drew my niece Megan a drawing of herself in my “Artzee Fartzee” style. I’ve meant to for some time, but never really found the time to do so..until now. Since she had been salivating for what in her mind must have felt like eons for me to Doodle her, Sketch her, and Draw her on up, I knew I had to do her justice. So with pad in hand and my trusty mechanical pencil, I began to work out the drawing. While sitting in front of the TV watching one of many 007 flicks over the Holiday break with my Father-In-Law…I etched out a concept sketch for the piece. I usually start off by first trying to capture the individual’s likeness as best I can…my cartoon style can have it’s limitations but in Megan’s case, I think I succeeded…especially with her personality. And the drawing oozes with her personality. So with her likeness captured, I move directly into thumbnails. I don’t tend to do as many thumbnail sketches as I use to, now I tend to do a couple at most and pretty much leave it at that. With Megan, I only did two and really only explored the one Posted below. My thumbnails are usually quite small and tight, I like to work out the flow of things that way and then translate that almost verbatim into the final drawing…which is what I did in this case.  There are slight variations, but what was mapped out in the concept sketch is for the most part represented in the completed drawing.

I had planned to add color to the drawing, a few accent reds and grays in her clothing and skulls and such, but in the end I felt like the pencil stood on it’s own. I may go back and color it in the computer later for my own personal use. I also threw in a word bubble with a completely random phrase, ’cause my niece…if anything, is completely random.

Just thought I’d toss up here a couple of pics I took of her opening the gift. By the way, I know she dug it, ’cause immediately after opening it, she magically produced her cell out of thin air like she was Criss Angel and began pounding away at the key pad texting her friends about it. I guess I could call the gift a success.

I hope you enjoy it Megan.

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Learn To Love It!

Posted on January 7, 2009 by grzych

This past Christmas I created several pieces of artwork that I gave away as gifts. For my Brother-In-Law, I designed him a T-shirt based on a phrase that him and his wife tell each other. That phrase is “Learn To Love It!” Now I’m not going to tell you what the expression means or how it links to the image, I’m just gonna leave that up to your own imaginations. The image was printed on a black T-shirt, with a large front design and a smaller 3 inch wide element printed on the back neck area.

I love designing artwork like this, that is a edgy and distressed and that has a bit of a gothic element to it. It definitely is different than my cartoon “Artzee Fartzee” style or my portrait artwork I do. It’s quite liberating for me to design in this fashion. Below is a photo of the finished shirt, don’t mind the wrinkles, I wasn’t able to iron it before taking the photo.

More Christmas present artwork Posts to come.

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2008 Christmas/Birthday List

Posted on January 6, 2009 by grzych

Okay, I’m gonna let you guys in on a little secret of mine…even though I’m 33…I still write a Christmas List. No, I don’t send the letter North via the Post Office to Santa to take a gander at and hopefully, if I’ve been lucky enough not to be on the “Naughty List,” for him to delivery me all the goodies I’ve asked for. My list is strictly for friends and family, and now for the first time, I’m sharing the list with the rest of you. So every year I write my Christmas/Birthday Wish List. Since New Year’s Eve is my Birthday, I just combine the two into one complete dossier. My thought is, if someone’s going to get you a gift, you might as well let them know what you want and need. Over the years it’s become some what of an annual tradition of sorts. Now I don’t want you thinking that I’m greedy. I don’t expect to get everything on the list or to even get anything off of it. It’s really more of a goof then anything else. I enjoy putting it together and seeing people’s reactions when the printed copy gets passed around. Funny thing is, this year my 13 year old niece even took it to school and showed it off to some of her friends…unfortunately, they did not get me a gift this year…maybe next.

In this Post It Post I wanted to show you some of the Post It drawings that I used when I put together the 2007 edition and a sample of what the final pages looked like. However, first I didn’t want my Birthday to pass without me making some mention of it. I turned 33 this year and in honor of that I wanted to ask Frosty the Snowman for a very special birthday wish.

As a side note, The Frosty Post It note drawing was the last drawing that I did in ’08. The latter three drawings were sketched up while at work during several of my much talked about moments of boredom. When it came time that year to start composing my Christmas/Birthday List, I had to look no further than my little yellow stickies.

Below are three sample pages from the 2007 list. The items on the list have been blurred out due to the fact that the info is now outdated.

I liked how the list came out so for 2008, I decided to keep the basic layout, add new art, and update the items on the list and PRESTO…the latest edition to be read and enjoyed by all!

Now you are at no obligation to buy me a belated Christmas or Birthday gift, but…if you somehow feel compelled to do so, either out of a last moment burp of Christmas Spirit or out of a strong desire to congratulate a 33 year old for his day of birth…there are still plenty of items on the list to choose from. As you can see, there are also quite a few outrageous items at the end of the list as well to take a look at.

Enjoy and look forward to the 2009 Christmas/Birthday List later this year…being that it’s January…much later this year!

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Happy New Year!

Posted on January 5, 2009 by grzych

So here we are, a New Year, a New Post, and lots of new stuff to show you guys out there. I’ve been real busy as of late with the holidays and churning out new artwork. Now that I’m finally getting back into the swing of things and am coming down from my Christmas high, I can finally share with you the fruits of my labor. First thing first, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Ho Ho Day and a Very Happy New Year! So to usher in the New Year and celebrate the passing of the last, here we are with the first Post It Post of 2009!

As I’ve said in previous Posts, I love the “Rankin & Bass” Holiday specials. Love ’em, gotta watch ’em, wish there were more of ’em. So while over the holiday break, I drew up a couple more of my mini tributes to these beloved television specials. First up, again, in honor of the New Year…my Post It Post on “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year.”

In the first Post It drawing, Troy attempts to get Baby New Year to make him a promise for 2009. This last year was eventful…good and bad…but it seemed that the bad tipped the scales in ’08, unfortunately. All we can do is hope that with the changing of the calendar, that mostly good will come from it. Think of it as a reboot for the world, and hopefully with a reboot, it fixes all the problems…if not all of them, then maybe, if we’re lucky…most of them.

I don’t really know what I’m trying to say about the New Year with Troy’s Canine Pal’s conversation with Father Time. I guess I just wanted to doodle Father Time. It took me a while to fully get into the Christmas spirit this year and once I got into it, it’s been hard to let it go. So expect a few more drawings of Merriment to come your way over the course of the next couple of Post It Posts.

Happy New Year everyone…I truly hope that when we look back at this year we can say, “Boy, that wasn’t half bad!” Hello ’09…farewell ’08.

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