Art Deco Posters!

Towards the end of last year, the company I was working with ran a competition to win a trip to Rio for the annual carnival. I was asked to create promotional artwork to be used on the social media accounts.
We had many different styles which we used, but the 'art deco' was my favourite. Researching the different types and seeing old posters from decades ago was really inspiring and interesting to see how design has changed and how well executed the posters were.

None of these images were used for the campaign, but they were by far my best out of all the ones created. I really learned a lot from doing them and got a new appreciation for the applications used.

Swamp B*tch, Framed Beauty and Angry Mexican!

Working in a corporate environment has really pushed me to seek creative release by any means necessary. Anything to break away from the monotony of doing the same thing countless times, all day and trying my hardest not to die of complete boredom. Luckily, I keep paper and a pen handy, while waiting for my work computer (which is horribly slow) or during breaks, I sketch and doodle as much as I can. 

The past few weeks I've had a lot of fun doodling and just putting random ideas from my head onto paper. These three were the ones that made it past the traditional and into the digital.

I drew the swamp creature first, and I liked it so much that I wanted to do more.

Then I created the Victorian princess in the frame and lastly, because I was told I draw too many woman, I made the angry Mexican.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with them. I'd honestly love to elaborate on them and give them a full page worth of detail, but I just don't have the time or the resources - still looking to get myself a decent graphics tablet.

Until I do, these will have to do :)

Instagram Sketch Uploads Pt.2!

Doodling is definitely my favourite thing to do - ever! 

Give me an exam pad and a pen and I'll be lost for hours, generally with boobs or faces.

So this is the second post I've done based on things I doodle and then upload to Instagram.

The zombie one was scary for me to colour. I usually just stop with the pen, but had highlighters sitting right next to me and I just had to experiment. I haven't had the balls to do it again, so I'll leave the rest as is for now.

Why Is Everyone A Bully?

So lately, I've been noticing something which I rather hate about the internet.
Cyber bullying.
Yes, it's been there for ages and it probably wont go away by me just writing down a few words on this blog which probably won't get many views, but I felt I needed to vent. Facebook is definitely not the place and Twitter only allows 140 characters, so here I am, writing this post to any bully out there.

Working in a design and media industry, I'm always online and always looking for people doing things that are different and innovative. Take music for an example.
Let's say Sarah What's-her-face releases a new music video for a song she has worked her ass off perfecting, costing thousands to create a visual representation of her dream, giving her fans exactly what they want while still staying true to herself. Good for Sarah. She is doing what all of us wish we could do - pursue our dreams!
She uploads it and the comments spill in.
This is where I get confused with society.
Who the hell do people think they are crushing the dreams of something special to someone?
Why must people hate on something they don't like?
Why don't they promote and give praise to the type of thing they like, instead of saturating the comments with hate?
If I like Sarahs music, I'll give it a 'like', maybe a comment on what I enjoyed the most and watch her grow, filled with motivation to be better at what she does.
If I don't like it, I move on to something I do like. Hating on her will not increase my 'cool factor'. It just shows the world how much of a douche-bag I can be.

The same goes for movies. I love movies, especially horror movies - there really is nothing better than a frighteningly good horror. The problem is that sometimes Hollywood gets it horrifyingly wrong, but that's the case with horror movies. You either hit the nail on the head with a perfect movie, or you miss and end up with a swollen thumb. Nothing wrong with that, because once again, that's just my opinion.
The writers, directors and producers all believed in their production and therefore it's obviously just not for me, so I move on to something that is better fitting.
Why take time out of your day to track down their website or Twitter and hate on them for something they invested a good portion of their lives into. It's not going to change anything and you'll just be upsetting someone. Does it feel good being a bully? Really, because I'd like to know.

The way things should work is like this:
I recently watched a movie which I found to be brilliant! Seriously, it was good. I don't know why or how, but I really lost myself with this movie. After watching it, I looked up it's website and learnt more about it, shared my opinion with my friends and recommended it to colleagues.
By sharing something good, more like-minded people will get to experience and enjoy what you have, and so on. This is what we need more of.

So yeah, that's me venting. I hope by reading this you might think before posting your next comment. Think of how your comment could affect the person who receives it. Think also about what the world is going to think of you reading your comment, keeping in mind that your comment is your first impression to the world.

Inspirational E-cards!

 Creating E-cards for work really makes you research the different types there are out there, and Pinterest is the best place to find loads of them, good and bad.
Along with the many I created for work, these were a few I did for personal use, using photos I got from Jessie-Lee. Brilliant photos! After being dipped into a few Photoshop filters, this was the result.
I hope to do more for my blog soon - if I can find the time.

Quotes:
Change Is The Law Of Time - John F. Kennedy
Freedom Lies In Being Bold - Robert Frost
Everything You Can Imagine Is Real - Pablo Picasso
Stop Holding Yourself Back - Unknown

Uncharted Nathan Drake!

Without a doubt, Uncharted is one of the best game series in history. I recently finished playing the third game which blew my mind to pieces. The graphics and fluid movements are flawless, while the storyline is so unbelievably awesome, it's hard to not like.
Anyway, I was browsing around on Pinterest and I came across an image that Patrick Brown had created based on the game, and ever since that day, he has become my idol. The man has some mad skills!
Going through his DeviantArt gallery, I saw many sketches which he had never brought to inking, so I downloaded an image of Nathan, and with the help of my awesome new tablet at work (seriously, this thing rocks my socks) I started at it.
I began with lowering the opacity of his sketch and tracing over my outlines in a new layer, then I added inks, highlights, shadows, lighting effects, mud, and background image, which is a concept image from the third game, and finally corrected the colour.
One thing which was rather frustrating, was that my tablet displayed colours very differently to my monitor. I spent about an hour just fixing up colours. I obviously need to calibrate my tablet correctly.
So after an entire afternoon, my Nathan Drake picture is complete!

Oh, and I would love it if someone would be kind enough to sponsor me a tablet of my own, they're only R29 000 :) Guess I'd better start saving.

Doodles and Sketches - Instagram!

It has been a long time since I posted something new.

Time has been extremely tight trying to manage a social life and working 6 days a week, and still squeeze in some of what I love doing - drawing.

At work, while prowling the internet for inspiration, I keep an exam pad in front of me, and just doodle whenever I get the urge to put pencil to paper. Some days it's utter garbage, just swirls and scratches, but some days I end up with something I'm pretty proud of.

The images above are a few that I liked and uploaded to Instagram. It's a lot easier to snap a pic and upload with a fitting hashtag to showcase my work, than doing an entire blog post, but I love my blog and I don't want it to die out in some lonely, dark corner of the internet, so I will do a post whenever I can if the art is worthy.

I also wish I was brave enough to ink my own work again. I miss spending hours on photoshop colouring in a sketch. Maybe one day, when I have the time and willpower, I'll break out the scanner and get back into it, until then, my quick sketches at work keep me happy.

Follow me on Instagram: @Keith_Mark