Like Tynic said: less is more. Too many shapes or lines will make your design look too busy. Try and capture the essence of the image in as few line strokes as possible.
Also I've been drawing stuff but I don't have a scanner to post anything right now. Sad face
Yeah, the wasp is fairly simple. Whereas the tiger is kind of complex. Not as well suited for a logo. It's something which wouldn't work quite as well when shown as monochrome which is usually how I first judge my work.
quickish study to try and understand digital painting. when it comes time to refine, i have no clue what to do. is rendering supposed to be so hard? lowering the brush opacity gives me those streaks like in the sky, which might be a brush variation thing? tried to eyeball the colors so the bright of the grass is pretty off, but i'm over it at this point i think. thanks all, i'm a big fan of this place.
Half the battle of digital painting is in understanding the software you're using. Just like you need to know how one color of oil paint will mix with another, you have to know how a brush in Photoshop (or whatever you're using) will interact with what's already on your canvas. Look up a few tutorials to find some brush settings to do what you're looking for.
I've found this site to be a huge help in taking universal concepts of art (value, color, composition) and showing how to apply those concepts to a digital canvas.
Some recent stuff, trying to get back in the habit of drawing now that I'm civilian (with free time) again. I'd like to improve my mark making and use of color, I definitely need to do less sketching and more painting.
I've already got something of a logo, using an anchor as the base with my full name beside it. But I wanted to try and do something a little... different. I'd struggled to figure out a way to make a C & W work together for a logo, when really I should have just used my middle name.
This is what I came up with after about an hour or so of going through ideas. I knew I wanted the middle portion of the W to also form the A, and I've got a few other examples although most of them were fairly simple shapes. Not sure whether to keep it inside of a circle, it actually looks good without it though I also kinda like the style.
I kinda have a problem with how close the W is to the edges of the circle, and how that space varies in width. This seems like something that would benefit from doing a LOT of little sketches before working one up. IMO you can do a lot with those two letters, it may just take more than an hour. Do you ever look up logos for inspiration (rather than direct reference) when you do these designs? I've always found that really helpful.
Oh I do, one in particular that made me decide to try the circular look was one composed of a C & F. It's not perfect but having something done of the general shape helps me get an idea of whether I'm going in the right direction. I think the final concept is gonna be more solid and less stylized, I was just having fun with it.
Here's the logo I got the inspiration from:
And here's what the one I posted up top looks without the circle:
I'm actually going to be picking up a drawing tablet soon, I can sketch all I want on a piece of paper but if I just hit something that is solid... I can't do anything with it cause I lack a scanner.
Edit: Alright so I did some pretty hardcore brainstorming with a little bit of advice. I think the final result turned out better than what I had up there.
@arthil The second version is much better than the original circular style. I think the top right and bottom middle marks on the last page are the strongest, but still need some work: the angles of your initials should align with the edges of the hexa/pentagon otherwise they clash visually and don't come off very 'solid'. for an example, something similar Sagmeister & Walsh designed for the Jewish Museum uses consistent angles in this way (based off the geometry of the star of david). if you addressed this and filled up the top space in the pentagon it would work well.
just started watching game of thrones so i drew khal drogo and his unnaturally popping pecs.
looked terrible enough so i flipped it to check and realized i had drawn everything on the left side all bulbous and morphed.
anyone had experience dealing with a 'strong side' when drawing? as an aside, has anyone had issues with lag on their tablets that they worked out? sometimes my bamboo drops a couple strokes.
@Hank I'm actually trying to keep it versatile, if possible. Messing with the angles too much would also throw off the 'A' quite badly. The thought behind it was something which is strong, could be noticed from a distance and is flexible. It could be a solid shape, even without the cut possibly for working with more 'professional' clients. But the cut, and even the grunge from the bottom right might look more welcoming to an indie client.
I love what you linked, though it's just not what I'm shooting for.
So I've been making a pineapple. Specifically a pineapple logo for a Filipino-Caribbean food service. They love the design, love the font(picked it out and asked me to modify it in fact). Just going through various ways to make use of the assets to settle on a final design. It'll be on a food tent, maybe cart/truck eventually. And they want the pineapple all by its lonesome for use on T-shirts.
I like the blue text over the pineapple variations that you have.
Even though they've already chosen the design, I'll reiterate the advice you've gotten before which is that you need to simplify, simplify, simplify.
Some logos are intentionally made to look like an engraving or hand-drawn, and that's cool. Others are meant to look more iconic/graphic and sleek. It seems like you're hitting this limbo between those two aesthetics, where it kinda looks like an illustration and kinda looks like a graphic logo.
Your linewidths are a little all over the place, which could be contributing to the "illustration" feel and detracting from the "logo" feel. There's little consistency, and there is an excess of detail in the fronds especially. I mean, even this design (which looks like straight-up ClipArt), seems like a much better balance of "illustration" and "super clean logo", has consistency in the line widths and fronds, and has drastically simplified the "scales" on the fruit.
Ideally you'd hit a proper balance by figuring out the brand's "look/mood/feel/demographic", and determining how to make the font AND the graphic intermingle in an attractive way. The font you've chosen, for example, seems like it would work best with an image that's more iconic and simplified, and/or "fun" looking, rather than a straight-up vector trace.
I did actually simplify the design near the beginning, however they seemed to prefer the more detailed one as seen above. Might go and redo the full page with this and see how it looks either way, just to be able to present both to the client.
Edit: Okay yeah that looks pretty good. Going to present both to the client.
Posts
Also I've been drawing stuff but I don't have a scanner to post anything right now. Sad face
Attempting to mix photoshop and sketchup maps.
I've found this site to be a huge help in taking universal concepts of art (value, color, composition) and showing how to apply those concepts to a digital canvas.
http://www.ctrlpaint.com/library
Some recent stuff, trying to get back in the habit of drawing now that I'm civilian (with free time) again. I'd like to improve my mark making and use of color, I definitely need to do less sketching and more painting.
What sort of mark making/color do you aspire to? Do you have a particular style in mind?
In terms of paintings/studies, I just need to improve on getting realistic/convincing colors.
instagram.com/stevenzapata_art
it started out innocently enough, messing around with storyboard dimensions and brushes
This is what I came up with after about an hour or so of going through ideas. I knew I wanted the middle portion of the W to also form the A, and I've got a few other examples although most of them were fairly simple shapes. Not sure whether to keep it inside of a circle, it actually looks good without it though I also kinda like the style.
Here's the logo I got the inspiration from:
And here's what the one I posted up top looks without the circle:
Edit: Alright so I did some pretty hardcore brainstorming with a little bit of advice. I think the final result turned out better than what I had up there.
just started watching game of thrones so i drew khal drogo and his unnaturally popping pecs.
looked terrible enough so i flipped it to check and realized i had drawn everything on the left side all bulbous and morphed.
anyone had experience dealing with a 'strong side' when drawing? as an aside, has anyone had issues with lag on their tablets that they worked out? sometimes my bamboo drops a couple strokes.
I love what you linked, though it's just not what I'm shooting for.
Pretend he's holding glasses.
outdoor drawing season is here!
I love this
Even though they've already chosen the design, I'll reiterate the advice you've gotten before which is that you need to simplify, simplify, simplify.
Some logos are intentionally made to look like an engraving or hand-drawn, and that's cool. Others are meant to look more iconic/graphic and sleek. It seems like you're hitting this limbo between those two aesthetics, where it kinda looks like an illustration and kinda looks like a graphic logo.
Your linewidths are a little all over the place, which could be contributing to the "illustration" feel and detracting from the "logo" feel. There's little consistency, and there is an excess of detail in the fronds especially. I mean, even this design (which looks like straight-up ClipArt), seems like a much better balance of "illustration" and "super clean logo", has consistency in the line widths and fronds, and has drastically simplified the "scales" on the fruit.
Ideally you'd hit a proper balance by figuring out the brand's "look/mood/feel/demographic", and determining how to make the font AND the graphic intermingle in an attractive way. The font you've chosen, for example, seems like it would work best with an image that's more iconic and simplified, and/or "fun" looking, rather than a straight-up vector trace.
Clean/simple font, clean and simple image. Think about what this says about the company and what they might provide as a service, compared to this place:
http://camelotworldtravel.com/clientuploads/page-photos/Grandpineapple-logo.jpg
compared to this place:
http://tropicaljuicebar.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/logo3.png
...I know it's already pretty much done at this point, but just something to consider for your future designs!
Edit: Okay yeah that looks pretty good. Going to present both to the client.
ahem it's tito ron's not tito's ron
anyway my ron looks nothing like that
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
Here's a lil' sketch, everything else I've been doing this week has been writing.
at first it was a joke, now it just lines up so fucking scarey, like silence of the lambs...
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN