Hahana Beach

I've had this on my blog for a while and I thought with all the recent posts about vector graphics, now would be a good time to share it here.

Hahana Beach is a sports bar and restaurant that hosts professional sand volleyball tournaments. It opened up on Wooster Pike a year ago this week.

Last spring, just months before the big opening, I was invited by Parkey Design to help create a logo that encapsulates what the place is all about: fierce competition and fun under the sun that continues well into the night. Influences ranging from tiki kitsch and South Beach fashion to Melanesian tribal tattoos went into its creation. The fun part was creating a strong sense of personality while limiting myself to basic geometric shapes and a single line weight.

Above is one of my favorite versions that didn't make the final cut. You can find two others on my blog.

I've taken the family to the place a few times, and I highly recommend going on a sultry Saturday evening when you can sometimes play on the courts after your meal.

The menu (which I designed as well) is posted here.

Vector Graphics

Howdy Folks,

Seeing all this talk about vector graphics - I thought I would show y'all the vector graphics that I have been working on lately. This piece was created entirely in Illustrator and is just an experimental painting. I plan on printing it out very large - like around 5 feet wide on a banner that will hang in a fine art exhibition.

I was wondering if anyone had any critical suggestions about it before I go ahead and print it out.

Maurice Mattei: Band The Tempers is playing at Northside Tavern Friday

Don't Forget: Northside Tavern Friday, August 26th. Here is a link with the details:

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198012593591621

By the way, they have a CD:

http://www.mmattei.com/strum/index.htm

Aidin Gargari: Show Opening

Aidin says: Don't forget to come to my Art opening this Friday from 6pm-10pm. Obviously you don't have to stay 4 hours, but you might, since I have a bunch of paintings to be seen, and all other galleries on Main are showing Art. The show will be at OTR: OriginalThought Required @1307 Main Street, 45219.

NCS Special Event for Roy Doty

Please join the NCS Great Lakes Chapter and friends
 on Saturday, September 17, 2011 
for two special events!

A Show Opening and Special Reception
for Roy Doty’s wonderful illustrations
from 3:00 – 4:30 PM
at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
of Ohio State University
27 West 17th Avenue Mall
Columbus, Ohio

Then, continue the festivities with a delicious celebratory dinner
at Schmidt’s Historic German Village Restaurant
240 East Kossuth St.
Columbus, Ohio
from 5:00 to 8:00 PM
during which we will toast, thank, and
congratulate both Roy Doty
and Lucy Shelton Caswell on their
many, many achievements including this
year’s top awards from the National Cartoonists Society,
the Gold Key Award (Cartoonists Hall of Fame) for Roy
and the Silver T-Square Award for Lucy.

Come and join the fun:
there will be favors, door prizes and more!

Roy Doty Show & Reception: no charge
Dinner at Schmidt’s: $16.50 per person inclusive.  Cash bar.

Please reply by September 10th.
Checks for dinner should be mailed to
Polly Keener, 400 W. Fairlawn Blvd.
Akron, OH 44313-4510

For questions, call 330-836-4448 or email.

Note: Great Lakes Chapter members may also receive this 
invitation by “snail mail” with a reservation 
tear-off form but, if you don’t receive that, 
feel free to send a reply and reservation anyway.

Fairy Tale Vector Illustrations

Posted for Justin since we have been talking vector for toy products, here are 4 images from a series I did for one of my toy clients 7ish years ago. All vector each for a different collection of fairy tales which explains the mash up of characters. It is in layers of line drawings that were streamlines. 

I actually cannot believe I found this on one of my old hard drives. I am a bit of a digital pack rat...  See if you can guess the stories in each image...

Local Movie Poster

I wanted to share this work in progress: a movie poster for a local filmmaker. The credits will be on the side of the "wall" that our young mischief makers are peering around.

The filmmaker is looking for a "punk" look for the finished piece, and she's not quite sure what she means. I plan to put the film's title and credits at slashing, conflicting angles on the wall. I don't yet know how I'm going to ink the work to "punk it up," nor how I want to use colors and color shapes. It's a puzzle that I'm working on. Your input / suggestions are welcome.

'Whimsy', or, 'Come Ye Unto These Yellow Shores'

Hey, guys,

This is another illustratour piece. I'd like some critique, if you have any. I am going to stop for a minute and finish this when I hear back from some of you and my friend in Connecticut. Impressions? Likes? Dislikes?

I also included some of the sketches/studies I did for this piece.

I'm really happy with how this piece turned out. Making some changes based on the critiques of some of the awesome people from this blog, and from my best friend, Chris, and from my own observations, I was able to come up with a very unified image I can beproud of. I am really happy with the change in the cloud location. The one touching both the boat and the castle. You can see in the first images, that cloud was awkwardly tangent in several places. Just nudging it a little to the right made all the difference in the world and helped to create a convincing sense of 'space' and develops a heirarchy of shape from foreground to background. The changes I made to the ship helped it to become to centre of focus while not coming off too strong, or heavy handed. I made a change I did not post here, where I really cranked up the ship. It was a lot more complicated in design, and a bold blood red. It was very strong and hard to look at. Toning it back down and removing some of the design elements helped a great deal. I hope you guys like this. And feel free to critique away! It's not perfect and I can use the information for later pieces (this one is finished, for now).

TV DUDES

Here are the victims Brian Giesenschlag and Matt Coiner at the ballpark last night. They are going to show this on the air soon, before a game.

'When it rains it pours'

Well, you guys had nothing from me for awhile, so here's a bunch more stuff!

Vectour Dragon

Here's my vectour dragon illustration :P I updated the dragon, dropping the opacity on the scales, wing bones, and knee swirl. I also reduced the stroke size on the smoke and dropped its opacity. This also did wonders! Thanks, Chuck! :)

Maurice Mattei: Band The Tempers is playing at Northside Tavern Friday, August 26th

At lunch today, Maurice said his band is playing at Northside Tavern Friday, August 26th. Here is a link with the details:

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198012593591621

By the way, they have a CD:

http://www.mmattei.com/strum/index.htm

Will definitely have to check it out!

Mark Willenbrink judging art competition

This photo is from the Hamilton County 4-H Community Fair, where Mark Willenbrink volunteered to judge the art competition. Betsy DeMatteo, Family & Consumer Science Program Coordinator for OSU Extension, Hamilton County, said: Mark Willenbrink did a fabulous job of evaluating the quality & difficulty of each exhibit. He judged paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics & other fine art. Mark's extensive experience was evident, and his passion for art & artists was clear. We could not have found a more qualified, professional & discerning fine arts judge.

Prodigal Son

Hey, guys,

It was brought to my attention that I was absent for a long time, and people noticed it :P Very kind of you. I've just been super busy. I have a couple big commissions, on top of a busy next couple of weeks preparing some new pieces for a portfolio to pitch to a Connecticut-based company called, Melissa and Doug.

I AM working on my own stuff, too. I have several pieces for you guys, actually. Some old school, some new for me.

The character sheets are from the book my friend and I are making. We actually have a publisher, now, who can market us broaden our customer base. This is going to be one kick ass product, guys. No joke. I can't wait to finish it! These characters are hand-drawn and inked, then plunked into the character sheet format (that was also hand-drawn and inked) using Photoshop. I wanted these to feel like old school character sheets, with a bit of a twist. Going for nostalgia, here :)

The map is from an AD&D campaign world I am preparing adventures for. It's a combination of hand-drawn inking, and colour and parchment effect in Photoshop.

The Woman is the same technique used for the map and will be a portfolio piece for my M&D interview.

Enjoy, folks! And sorry for being away so long. There's been a lot of work from you all, lately :) It all looks so nice. I'll comment when I grab another second. I'm working on a cartoon dragon and princess, today, in Illustratour CS2. When I take a break, I'll look around and write some replies :)

Jerry Dowling: New Gift Caricatures

Some great new work from Jerry Dowling!

Gallery Opening: George Longfellow, painting, pen and ink and Akemi Motsumoto, painting

Show opening Friday! (Thanks Jerry)

Akemi Motsumoto, painting
George Longfellow, painting, pen and ink

Fri. Aug. 12, 6:00 to 9:00
 

Riverside Artists Gallery
219A Second St.
Marietta, Ohio 45750
740-376-0797
riversideartists@att.net

http://riversideartistsgallery.com/