Pencils and stuff
posted:
I've been working with Adobe Illustrator for over 15 years. I used it as a designer in NY when I was working at Warner bros. and Nickelodeon. Back then I was designing packaging, hang tags, fabric patterns, as well as performing grunt work like coloring for Rugrats refrigerator magnets. I miss the people I worked with then and often find it very strange to be sitting in my garage in Baltimore-alone.
Anyway-I digress. Somebody once asked me back at WB what my favorite tool was in illustrator, simple, the pen tool. That the reflector, rotate, and oval tools are pretty much all I use. I use the reflect quite a bit and what it to be kind of obvious. They also asked me what my favorite reduction was. 85%. We were often fitting designs to garments, things like that.
In my other illustration life where I drew cartoonish characters (see below) I still used Illustrator, mostly to draw masks of color. Most would just paintbucket the color but I felt more comfortable "cutting" my masks. I think it comes from early days of actually cutting Rubylith, a process that I rather enjoyed.
It's that tactile experience that I miss and have been getting farther from as the years roll on. I was never a great draftsman but I'm trying to get back to drawing and incorporate that into my work, basically drawing, scanning and tracing over my own work, kind of like inking. Up to now I pretty much just start drawing in Illustrator. I think this will bring a more human element and allow me to stretch out a bit.
This is obviously a work in progress. You can see more of the skeleton on the right. Not sure where I'm going with it, just seeding my body of work with new images and hopefully it will make it's own direction.
Anyway-I digress. Somebody once asked me back at WB what my favorite tool was in illustrator, simple, the pen tool. That the reflector, rotate, and oval tools are pretty much all I use. I use the reflect quite a bit and what it to be kind of obvious. They also asked me what my favorite reduction was. 85%. We were often fitting designs to garments, things like that.
In my other illustration life where I drew cartoonish characters (see below) I still used Illustrator, mostly to draw masks of color. Most would just paintbucket the color but I felt more comfortable "cutting" my masks. I think it comes from early days of actually cutting Rubylith, a process that I rather enjoyed.
It's that tactile experience that I miss and have been getting farther from as the years roll on. I was never a great draftsman but I'm trying to get back to drawing and incorporate that into my work, basically drawing, scanning and tracing over my own work, kind of like inking. Up to now I pretty much just start drawing in Illustrator. I think this will bring a more human element and allow me to stretch out a bit.
This is obviously a work in progress. You can see more of the skeleton on the right. Not sure where I'm going with it, just seeding my body of work with new images and hopefully it will make it's own direction.















