Gypsies of the Sea: A Process Video

Had a chance to have a few of the Swimming Machine folks over to see how there poster was made a few weeks back. We talked about how the project starts with roughs and thumbnails and progresses to a final piece. From there the process goes completely analog. Here is a clip they were kind enough to put together and share with me. There was a little bit of an issue with the ink not being exactly like i wanted it to begin with. The dark blue in was the starting point and was lightened to the more teal green/blue later that night.

Congrats are in order to Justin and the Swimming Machine, on having there Kickstarter project completed! Glad to have been able to help them out.

 
Gypsies of the Sea: A Screenprint by Brian Reed from Justin Lacy on Vimeo.

Thanks for stopping by again.


TTFN

Doc

Swimming Machine

Good evening all,

Here are a few snap shots of the most recent poster that i have completed. This is only a digital print version of the poster that i will be printing in the coming week for a Kickstarter event. Be on the look out for them. I'll post more info here soon.

Take care and i hope that you are all enjoying the preparations for Christmas.

Doc

The Love Language - The Final Poster

Just realized that i never posted any of the final poster shots for the Love Language poster.
Here are a few shots of the final (which are available in my etsy shop) pages out of my sketch book with some various type treatments that i was playing with as well.








Thanks for stopping by


TTFN
Doc

Love Language Poster II

It's getting close. I went back to the type and tried to make it a bit more legible. For those of you who don't know about the event. Here are some details for the event.

The Love Language is playing Jan 14th in downtown Wilmington's Soapbox. They will be playing with Wilmington locals, Onward, Soldiers. Doors open at 8, tickets are $10 adv/$12 day of.

After reading the write up/ review of the Love Language posted over at the Soapbox, was when i decided on the direction of the woman imagery.

“After three decades of sonic observation, you start to realize what really good music sounds like. You know what you like. You like the Beatles. You like Thin Lizzy. You like Stevie Wonder. The declaration, “You’ll love this band!” no longer arouses much excitement. You’ve heard thousands of bands, millions of songs, and find little incentive to embark on any audible adventure when “The Boys are Back In Town” has already been written. In terms of music, we download it, we burn it, but we rarely really listen to it. Perhaps I’m being selfish, but I listen to the Love Language because they write music I wish I’d written. I often picture myself playing these songs for some awkwardly shy, yet strikingly beautiful French girl on a jetty in Quebec, romantically duping her with my plagiarized sentiments. Dishonest, yet undeniably feasible. I could figure out those chords on guitar, and placidly convince some girl that these thoughts and feelings were my own. It’s not like trying to pass off “Blackbird” as an original composition. As you strum, you begin wishing that these poetically mundane moments were parts of your own past, until you realize that they are. That’s what the Love Language is to me: The modest declaration of the universal obvious. Songs written about apartments you’ve lived in and rotary phones that you’ve hung up. Although McLamb’s arrangements are typically overcast, each song reminds you of the towering trees that relish each falling drop. That there are winners and losers, but sometime tragedy makes the most beautiful story. After all, no one would remember the Titanic had it not sunk. That is the Love Language- the celebration of the sinking ship. Bon Voyage.”
– Jon Kirby, Wax Poetics

"Winners and losers, but sometime tragedy makes the most beautiful story" was the line that hit me. I wanted the mystery of this image to be about mood and body language. Not knowing if it was a story about winning or losing at relationships. Is there a tragedy being told with her eyes and closed off posture or the makings for a story warmer and less overcast?

Either way you should check out the show if you are in the area. Here are the narrowed type treatments for the poster.





Till next time, thanks for stopping by
TTFN

Doc

Someday I'm Gonna Be A Hero

New Found Glory had an open date while out on there tour with Paramore this August and set up shop there at the good ole Soapbox.

A friend of mine turned me on to these guys back in college. I believe the album From The Screen to your Stereo had just come out. There is quite a bit of energy in there music and i wanted to try and capture the feeling of a group of guys that like to hang and have fun together. The sketch was of a kid playing superhero with his cape and don't mess with me stance. Which when translates into older guys in bands striking poses on stage right. It was a fun parallel, at least i think so.

Hated that i was not able to take in the show. Its lame but my age was catching up with me. Couple of late nights back to back printing the poster left me with a massive headache the night of the show. The original design was supposed to be another 2 color job that looked like a three color. Where the blue and yellow over print to make green. I had forgotten that's not really the case from my days of mixing paint in intro design classes. Needless to say that the blue was more opaque than i thought it was gonna be. So what are you gonna do. Call it a night, right. While i laid in bed i kept trying to think of another way to fix the poster.

I had the thought to paint out the rest of the yellow screen and reprint the areas that should have made green. Printing Yellow over green doesn't make green either. "Blast it!" Ok , now what, oh i have some green ink left over. Brrrilliant! It worked out pretty well for the poster i think.

Here are some process shots and sketches.

Josh Rivenbark and Brent Holloman came over to lend a hand in the printing process and see how things happen. Lots of fun.

Still have a few of these here at the house if anyone is interested. Thanks for stopping by hope you enjoy.

Doc

The Show

The Thermals show was a whole lot of fun. It is wonderful to have bands come through and hit up littler town venues and rock out for us. Really enjoyed meeting the guys from both bands. If you get a chance to check them out, do and enjoy!

Here are a few pic before the camera battery died on me. Boy did i feel like an amateur when that happened. Not really even enough time to get used to the lights to find what worked.

Later
Doc

The Thermals Are Coming! The Thermals Are Coming!

Well i have had lots of things on my plate as of late. With that i do have progress to update on. I finally got some time carved out and got down to business on a gig poster for the band The Thermals. They will be stopping by the Soapbox downtown Wilm NC, Monday April 5th (strike that, it's the 12th). I got really excited about it and it was just the excuse i needed to print some gig posters.

I had done a sketch of the singer and intended to follow up with sketches of the drummer and bassist. A poster triptych, where the faces would change but the type and info all stayed the same. Needless to say that i ran out of time and was only able to get the one design pushed through to production. Here is the starter photo, sketch and digital sketch to kick this project off.







There were quite a few changes from this point to the final. A major one was to drop the line drawing altogether and just use shapes to convey the subject. Probably the biggest change is turning you home into a printing space. Setting up is a hassle when you don't have a proper space for your printing projects. Your kitchen/living room/den end up looking like this. I'll probably be cleaning up for a few more days after this.



Here is a shot of the Blue positive (dark black part of the image) over laying the magenta (lighter grey).


The blue screen with the image burned and ready to print.


Printing with friends always makes this wonderful process even more enjoyable. This brown bearded fellow is Brent Holloman. You should really check out some of his work. His photography is pretty close to amazing and his design skills are dern next to a brilliant match.


So here is the how the first color of the print went. Honestly, i'm really excited about how this turned out.


The magenta screen with burned image also ready to roll. Registered the second screen to the first print. Now just mix the ink and get to printing.



My buddy Justin Munn, stopped by to check out the process and lend a hand as well as pull a few prints. After a few mishaps with the magenta being to pink and the issues with the ink sliding under the tape, we were able to get the posters printed!





Personally i enjoy comparing the preliminary sketches to the finished piece and see where the creative journey takes you. Over all i am thrilled with how these came out. If you're able to stop by Wilm NC's Soapbox Laundro-Lounge April 5th (strike again, now mon the 12th) to check this show out you should be in for a good time.

TTFN
Doc

Over all I had a great time. I had started this post wed evening and checked Friday afternoon to show a friend some more dates at the soapbox only to find there was no Thermals show Mon. Needless to say i was a little panicked. It's frustrating when dates happen to change on you. When you're making posters to make posters and exercise the creative juices i guess it doesn't matter in the long run. Might just walk around with sticky notes to all the posters i hung to correct this change in schedule.