I think I’ve started each post from the past 6 months with an apology for not posting and promise to post more. I’d really love to post more and I thank all of my readers and subscribers for checking my site from time to time. However, if I’m not posting then I’m busy and it’s good to be busy.

Here’s an update with Dunlap Studios, I’ve currently knee deep in work right now… and loving it. I’m at the point now where I’m scheduling days ahead and picking and choosing the projects I want to take, which is a blessing because for awhile there I was doing EVERYTHING…. and you can’t be good at anything if you’re trying to take on everything. I’ve also made a point to give myself more free time, allowing more times with friends and keeping my daughter my top priority. It’s not easy trying to bring in business and keep customers happy while they’re always at second place, but I think I’m doing very well juggling them around.

I WILL be posting some more recent work very soon. I am finishing up another illustration for Orgivation Magazine, which I’ve done two pieces for before. You can view my Buckcherry piece HERE and my Breathe Carolina piece HERE. I’ve also did a massive rebranding for a East Bartlesville Christian Church which has required a lot of design and printing. Each time I want to post up my work for them I add more to the portfolio. You can view EBCC’S website by clicking HERE, it as well as all of the other projects were designed by my partnership with MyNameIsVince, IndieWebStudio. Yet another project still not off the ground, but it’s coming! I also have a personal portfolio site and some other personal projects I’d like to finish up before the end of this month. Keep a look out… stay classy San Diego.

View recent branding projects after the jump:

Welcome to part 2 of the Beaverwoods logo design process. I’m not going to give much of an introduction, considering it has all been said in the first post. This post focuses on the additions that were requested after the first proof was received.

The children’s ministry at Beaverdam loved the illustration style of the first proof, and we’re happy with all that had been done thus far. BUT, they wanted to add another big element. What would Beaverwoods be without a beaver?

The children’s ministry requested that I add a beaver at the base of the tree, illustrated in the same cartoon style as the tree, as well as adding their church logo to the tree trunk. So, I got to work.

Concept/Sketching

I sketched up my beaver friend in Photoshop using my Wacom tablet. I don’t normally use my Wacom for sketches, I’m a big fan of the pencil and paper duo. But, I needed a quick way to do initial sketches, as cartoon illustration is not my natural style and I knew I’d be doing a lot of erasing. Once I had created a sketch I was happy with I printed it out and inked the lines that I’d later add in Illustrator.

Vector Time!

I imported my sketch into illustrator and put together a new color palette. One that mixed well with the current logo colors, but I also added in some colorful attributes to make the logo more vibrant and kid friendly.

I lowered the opacity of the sketch, as I did in the part 1, and got to work with the pen tool. I just went through and followed my ink lines, which makes this process go much quicker and easier.

Once my outline is finished I created color layers below it and begin to fill them in. I did each color layer at a time until I had used each color from the palette.

Voila! Again!

Once my color layers have been set I dropped out the original sketch and looked at my finished beaver.

Merging Illustrations

I then added the beaver to the tree illustration, but needed to play around with sizing to see what worked the best. Since it’s a kid’s logo the beaver doesn’t need to be proportional to the tree, it’s more important that it’s easily seen and recognized.

Once I have the beaver in I extend some of the grass shading underneath the beaver to make him seem more apart of his background.

Dropping In the Logo

Once my beaver and tree are set it’s time to drop in the church’s logo onto the tree trunk. I wanted to make the logo look like it was actually a part of the tree and not just pasted on. In order to do that I lowered the transparency of the logo making the tree shadows apparent, making the logo look like it was on the actual tree.

Final Proof

Once I had everything in place I sent the final proof. The church was extremely happy with the end result and I can’t wait to work with them again in the future!

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I recently illustrated a children’s cartoon style logo for Beaverdam Baptist Church. Beaverdam has been a great customer to work with, as they keep bringing me awesome projects to push my style and creativity. You can check out my last project for Beaverdam here.

I’ve broken down the logo into a step by step tutorial so you can see my process. I’m splitting the post in to two parts because of the size, so check out part 1 after the jump.

Concept/Sketch

The people at Beaverdam were pleased with my past logo/vector projects, so when the children’s ministry was in need of a new logo they came to me. They already had a concept for the logo based on previous artwork, and sent me a hand-drawn concept sketch of how they wanted the new one to layout. I used it as a reference and sketched a new tree designating the highlights and lowlights.

Vector Time!

I imported my sketch into illustrator and put together a color palette. I had known when I created the sketch exactly how many colors I’d be using, now I just needed to find the right colors to make it all mix.

Once I have my palette chosen I drop the transparency of my sketch down so I can work underneath, being able to see both the sketch and vector layers at the same time.

I start with the base color first and add each color in different layers to ensure they’re easy to sift through if any changes do come. I DID NOT put my grass layers and tree layers together, though they are the same color, the grass needs to be on it’s own layer below the tree top to drop the tree trunk over.

Once my tree top and grass were completed I continued the same technique to create the tree trunk and dirt below the grass. I also added in the tree top highlights, using the lightest color from my palette.

Voila!

Once your tree is put together you can drop the sketch layer and see how it looks.

Adding Text

I then typed the title on a path and converted the text to outlines. I then duplicated it several times applying different strokes to give it more depth and color.

I then did the same for the subtitle, and added highlights to the main title using the pen tool.

After my text is applied, I’m ready for the first proof!

Stay tuned for the second part of the post tomorrow. The customer had a few additions, but they were awesome additions.

So I took a much needed pause from my blog to focus on work and personal stuff. BUT… I’m back with a vegance. Before I start posting anything I need to thank the people at Phoenix Design Week for chosing me as a featured designer, and Santy for hosting an awesome gallery showing. That place is incredible, I felt honored just stepping foot in the building after looking at all of their Addy awards.

Now it’s all said and done I want to post up a couple photos to recap the event and to thank everyone for coming out AND…… give away some free posters. It was awesome to have friends, family and fellow designers coming out to support me, as well as meeting A BUNCH of new people. Thank you all for taking an interest in my work and taking the time to support me, I love you!

Here are some images from the Santy Gallery, and the poster giveaway is at the bottom of the post.

Poster Giveaway!

There have been people that enjoy my artwork and style, and then there are those that really connect with certain pieces. I’ve spoken to a couple people at the gallery and through e-mail that have been taken back by some of the pieces or that have really connected with one of the quotes I’ve chosen. MSCED was created as an extremely personal project for me to focus on love in my own life and increase my creativity at the same time. All of the quotes chosen are extremely close to my heart and the artwork was created to reflect the quotes.

So, with that being said, I’m giving away my prints from the gallery showing. How do you get a print? Simple, email me why the piece speaks to you, why you want it, why you deserve it more than someone else. The poster will go to the person that appreciates it the best. I’ll even pay for shipping, all you have to do is hang it in your house and freaking love it. I will be putting certain MSCED posters up for sale, these however will not be for sale. Only I and the people selected will own these prints. So… get to typing. Email me at hello(at)dunlapstudios.com, and poor your heart out!

I just posted up a gallery of the MSCED prints that are currently available. Check out the link HERE, or in the side pane, and follow the greedy little directions.

Hey guys, I wanted to do a more in depth post about the gallery exhibition tomorrow. I will be exhibiting at Santy Wed-Fri from 11-6pm, but the reception/wicked awesome get together is tomorrow, Wednesday at 7pm. I’ve been featured in a couple exhibits across the US since I’ve started Dunlap Studios, but this is my first actual exhibit. It’s also huge for me because the work is extremely personal.

The gallery is featuring 5 prints from my Make Something Cool Every Day series. For those of you that don’t know, MSCED was a project I did a couple months back. I created a piece of art every day for 14 days that reflected the feelings and events of each day. Most of them feature music lyrics or quotes from books, but all of them feature me as an artist and as a person, and they are extremely personal. The project was created to help me handle the stresses of life and focus on the positive aspects. The project was a focus on love and what it can do, most of them are meant to be inspiring for me but some are just reflective of the situations that I was dealing with.  I couldn’t have a more personal series to exhibit, so I’m honored and WAY nervous to be a part of it. To learn more about MSCED click here.

With all of that being said, come out and check out the exhibit. I will be there at 7 happy to meet and talk to everyone about the project, me or whatever. I also have miniature limited edition prints of one of my most popular prints for anyone that wants one (or until they’re gone). I will also be showcasing my personal portfolio that was just finished and printed this past week along with the rest of my print collateral, both Dunlap Studios and MSCED. Whether you’re a friend or just frequent the site, come out and have a good time, everyone is welcome and your support is much appreciated!

Along with MSCED, Santy will also be showcasing three other incredible artists: Jon Ashcroft, Daniel Davis and Jeremy Smith (whom if you’re a type nut, you’ll love his exhibit). Along with the personal exhibits, there will also be an exhibit of the PHXDW Poster contest and a showcase of fantastic rejected logo designs, I’m featured in both of these as well.

Santy Integrated

6710 E Camelback Rd Scottsdale, AZ 85251

Wednesday 7pm-9pm

Hey guys, I’ve got some big news. I will be featured in Phoenix Design Week at Santy Integrated. The exhibit will showcase pieces from my MSCED series, as well as several other artists and series. So please come out and support me, and Phoenix Design Week. If you’re a friend or just and internet friend, come shake hands and see some of my stuff up close. I’ll also have a print out sheet of all of the MSCED posters I’ve done, I’ll will be printing them as limited edition prints upon request. Also there may be a little something something in it for you as well.

For more information check out the Phoenix Design Week website to find gallery dates and times, as well as the artists/exhibits listed. Hope to see you there!

This is an illustration I did last night of the band Buckcherry for Origivation Magazine. It is the feature review of the November issue, which also features my editorial illustration for the band Breathe Carolina. The tutorial I did on that illustration can be seen here.

Origivation is a fantastic magazine to do work for, they’re open to anything and really let me push my creativity. I asked them if they had anything specific they wanted me to do for the illustration and they just said “go nuts”.

Check out the illustration after the jump…

Check out the high res version by clicking the image or clicking here.

So I did this mockup a couple weeks ago and didn’t know if it would go anywhere. My contact at NPA liked it but had to run it through all of the loops to make sure it was kosher before giving it the ok. I just got word today that we’re a go and I’m so stoked about it! I love the site layout and color scheme, and I think it represents NPA’s quality and professionalism very well. I’ve been doing work for NPA for over 4 years now, and I’m happy to say it just keeps getting better!

Take a look at the transformation after the jump….

Current NPA Site

Preview of the New Layout!!!

I can’t wait to see this thing in action!

Hey guys, here’s a poster I did for Phoenix Design Week. It’s actually in a competition to be the poster that’s mass printed to advertise and promote the Phoenix Design Week. Check it out after the jump, and please vote for it here.Click on image to view full size.

Vote Now!