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

Hopscotch Posterscotch

So as many of you know, music and art are two of my favorite things. I found out about this event called Hopscotch through the wonderful peeps over at Gravity Records. Matt Keen is a social media giant, as well as vinyl enthusiast, who turned me on to the event one day in a tweet.

Hopscotch Music Festival is a 3 day music through down. This years even is being headlined by Flaming Lips and Guided by voices. They also announced the first POSTERscotch to coincide with the Hopscotch Festival. Posterscotch is basically a way to promote local North Carolina Artist who specialize in the Gig Poster realm. To kick off the inaugural event they opened up a contest for any North Carolina artist to put together a poster for the event. The only stipulations were it had to contain the dates of the event, Raleigh and Hopscotch Music Festival.

Here are all the posters that were entered. It was a long weekend of tweeting and facebooking friends to try and round up more votes. There was quite the battle for facebook dominance before a victor finally emerged. Finally with a lead of only 15 votes a poster was announced the winner and participant in a gallery show showcasing the talents of 9 other NC artists. It was Gravity Record's own Sarah Parson, 1/2 of the Posterhound Family Workshop.

I put up a fight and came in third, but was able to celebrate with Eric and Sarah over pancakes this week. We talked about the poster and we taped together the film and began to burn the screens to make her Hopscotch poster. Be sure to check it all out this coming Sept 8-10, 2011.
Many of my sketches can be seen over on my Dribbble page. But here are some other shots of the process and my contribution to the contest. Maybe i'll have better luck next year with rounding up some facebook love to make it into the galleried exhibit. So start spreading the word folks.

Here is my initial sketch, followed by a refined sketch to try and figure out where the type should best be seated in the poster. And of course the final image that was lovingly crafted.




If you're like my wife, you wondering what the crap a cat in a space suit has to do with anything. I've also heard someone ask "I always do wonder, though, why gig posters are so hard to read whilst walking by?" Well the way i see it is simple. You have this wonderful area of space that you get to create within. You can make the type huge so you can read it across the street OR you can make a compelling image that will catch someones eye and cause them to travel across the street to take a closer look. At that point you have them. They are visually digesting the poster and Oh look, there is information about a show coming up. Being an illustrator at heart, i will always put images over type. Well unless its beautifully crafted hand rendered type such as the likes of Jessica Hische. Then you can have a big poster where the info is center stage, cause really it is an art piece by the time she gets done with it.

So back to "Why a can in space?" So basically that is summed up with this...Flaming Lips are headlining. Period. I felt that the sky was the limit for this based solely on the fact that they were headlining. The Flaming Lips are so creative with there live performances and music that i wanted to try and create something that would lend itself to being part of there act or something. I mean when you hear stories of fans bring them there poop and talking about it like some sort of experience and right of passage, a cat in a space suit seems sorta tamed right?


Thanks for stopping by
Till next time,


Doc

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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

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

Lydia Finale: A Goodbye and Farewell

So the band Lydia is callin it quits. Unfortunate, you're thinking. I'm right there with you. If your not thinking that , you probably dont know who they are. You can check em out here.

So i took it upon myself to create a farewell poster for them to try and sell on the tour to help with the travel expenses that bands face while they do what bands do. It was interesting to try and come up with a concept for a farewell poster that wouldn't come across cheesy (if this is cheesy, let me know and i shall try and change my ways).

I was sad to hear that they were not going to be putting out music as Lydia anymore so there was a sense of sadness. However like all farewells there usually is a light at the end of a tunnel. At least farewells of friends and loved ones. There are always times when your paths will cross and you can reconnect. From what i am hearin, Lydia is disbanding but a few of the members are planning to continue writing and playing tunes in a different arrangement. And there you have it, The Silver Lining. So all that to say i didnt want a terribly sad or dark poster.

There music tends to the moody side of things as well as the ambient side of rock. Something that hinted at loss but with a sense of mystery about what was really going to happen next. The concept of letting a captured creature back into the wild or the releasing of a bird back into flight came to mind. I wanted to create a little tension by not showing the creature, in this case bird, in the actual poster but to imply its presence. Hence the feathers floating down. The bird represents the members going on to create more music now that they are "free"from Lydia. That sounds like a bad relationship but you get my meaning. Dont know if in fact it will happen or not. Has the bird been struck or flown into something and dead (there is no more music coming from them) or will the bird soar high and find its voice again to sing more songs (which i am hoping is the case).

You can check out the actual gig poster i did for the show over at GigPosters. Granted, i cheated and just added the info to this design but i think it still works and handsome if i do say so my self. If you're interested in owning one of these babys you can buy them from Lydia on tour or drop me an email Reedicus@ec.rr.com. They are not up at Etsy but i plan to soon.


TTFN

Doc

Here is the initial sketch for the poster. Seeing the bird wasn't as interesting as not seeing it.

I tried running a horizontal version of the poster just tto try it out. The format didnt lend itself to the airy openness that i wanted to capture with the release of a bird back to the wild. This layout had to much of a closed of and claustrophobic feel to it. I still like the rendering but had to can it.


First color scheme developed for the poster. In the end i felt that the red and black were to powerful a combination for the poster feel. The teal lends itself to the clean air and openness that i was trying to convey.



Here is the final GigPoster that i created with the show info.

Good Things Do Happen To Good People

Many of you already know about The Avett Brothers. If you don't, you owe it to yourself to sheck them out.

You have to love it when the good guys that have been putting in time, blood, sweat and tears...then watch the effort pay off. The Avett Brothers have been playing tunes for ten years or so. Before that, Nemo the Back Porch Project could be heard in the halls of the ECU art building, Chico's and the surrounding streets.

Their new video that NPR showcases on All Things Considered, Showcases yet another ECU Painting Major Jason Ryan Mitcham. Probably one of the nicest fellows you'll ever met as well as a killer painter. It makes me happy when people succeed in the endeavors of their passion.


Check it out and enjoy the tunes and the thoughts behind the song and video.


TTFN

Doc

Related articles

• The Avett Brothers to Play With Bob Dylan at the Grammys (silentuproar.com)
• Avett Brothers Recording Next LP with Rick Rubin (spin.com)

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