NCAA Preview for LA Times

I was very excited to created this year's NCAA Preview cover for  The Los Angeles Times! This was a large scale project for me, and I enjoyed putting a lot of hours into it. My wife? Not so much :)

The premise of the image is about how LA's "local" teams of Arizona and Gonzaga will have to face powerful teams from the Big East conference during March Madness. The big teams this year are Kentucky, Virginia, Duke, Wisconsin, and Villanova.

(click to enlarge)

Roughs (the AD actually considered these as sketches and sent back a layout with his favorite)

(click to enlarge)

Final sketch from selected rough (went a little nuts with this one)

I'm SO happy they liked the idea of using the mascots (Kentucky Wildcats, Virginia Cavaliers, Duke Blue Devils, Villanova Wildcats, Wisconsin Badgers). A requested alternate version with the smaller teams as mascots (Arizona's Wildcat wears a hat and that bulldog just looks so silly):

You may notice that the small figures changed in the final art; it was a requested revision that the reader be able to see the team names on the players' backs. I much prefer the twisting figures in the sketch, but I totally understand and was happy to do the revision. Also both team numbers are "2" as a way to reflect the teams' seeds (college basketball jargon :)

(detail)

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Houston's best!

Last month I worked on a great project for Houston Press; it was great to work with them again after a very long time (they were one of first freelance clients waaaaaaay back in 2008!) This assignment was a blast as they wanted to go with a gambling theme for their annual "Best of" issue, and they wanted full-page section images of playing-card royalty living it up!

After some discussion about how to keep a consistency and overall theme within the four images, I sent over these roughs from which the AD picked her favorites:

I have to admit I was a little bummed the cucumber-eyed queen and b-ball dribbling jack weren't selected, but I was still super happy to be drawing any of these! Refined Sketches:

And here are the final images; it was requested that they all be in monochromatic palettes, but upon seeing these versions, the AD was swayed into the dual-color variations. I had also planned to work with line from the get -go as a way to allude to playing card artwork as well as to handle the complexity of the images. The boxes at the bottoms were for the section tittles (placed by the AD)

Food and Drink

Shopping & Services

 Sports & Recreation

Arts & Entertainment

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,

Chris

Books of the Year!

Hello! It has been a while since my last post due to workload and relocating, but here is something I did at the beginning of the year for the Wall St Journal. Many thanks to Eileen the AD!

Roughs submitted:

Refined sketch from selected rough (click):

Final art approx. 11×15:

Detail (click):

 

Thanks for reading!
-Chris

A review of summer TV shows

So this one is a bit late with summer coming to a close, but hope you still enjoy the images!

This was a pretty straightforward assignment: an image to accompany reviews of summer television. A relaxing, lighthearted, fun image was the way to go.
 

Sketches:

 

 

Final:

I'm very happy with how this one turned out! Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

"What the...?" Gum Packaging

It is a pleasure to share some packaging I created recently for Trident Europe. They wanted some fun illustrations which would act as a sort of animation when the pack of gum was opened. Since the target demographic was kids/teens and the name of the product line is "Twist," they wanted a bit of a gag with colorful images. Working with the design agency, they provided the "jokes" and loose mocks of how they wanted the reveal to work. The concepts were code-named:

-Egghead

-Fishbowl

-Boxer

-Tent

Sample image from the brief:

Sketches:

(spoon to be added, soft-boiled)

(shark to be added)

(boxer to be added, uvula as speed bag)

("monster" eyes to be added)

Sketch revisions:

 (removed steam)

(more definition in molars)

Final art samples. Most were created in multiple color versions as there were three different flavors each with its own Pantone palette:

(watermelon)

 (strawberry)

(mint, before palette was altered as seen below)

And here's a mock of how it works and looks with logo placement:

Here are some packs the AD was kind enough to send:

The artwork is also used on larger cases of flavor packs (display boxes sold to retailers), and I even created some fruit illustrations to also be featured on the cases:

The packs seem well-received, and I'm hoping they decide to do more as the assignment was very fun. Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,

Chris

Baseball will be BIG in Los Angeles this year!

Here is another rundown of a recent LA Times cover. This was a full-page cover to a section about California baseball, and much of the writing had to do with how much money was spent to build huge teams of the biggest names in the sport. Of course, that would lead one to assume that baseball will be a hot topic and a great source of entertainment for southern Cali folks in 2013. The section seemed to be pushing more towards the "awesome entertainment" aspect and not so much the finances involved, so I sketched to echo that sentiment.

(Click all images to view larger)

Because this was a pretty big project (about 11x17), I added some "mood images" to my sketches in order to give the folks at the paper a closer idea of how I would approach the images:

 #1: "Big name" players coming into the LA/Anaheim area via the ocean (I was looking forward to drawing the little detailed beach scene at their feet and possibly the title in the sand).

#2: The (baseball) stars aligning for a hit baseball season. Not only would it have been a player as the constellation, but I would have made the stars li'l tiny baseballs. The building along the bottom is a major LA icon, the Observatory at Griffith Park. This one was ALMOST selected for final.

#3: Baseball as the sun over LA. This one is very similar to a pitching image I did a while back for Major League Baseball; I wasn't crazy about re-drawing a similar image, but I felt it was a good fit for the article. I'm starting to realize how many hand-images I have in my portfolio; I may take a break from any hand-based concepts for a while...

After a lot of debate, the paper decided to go with #3 with a landscape revision that would include the Hollywood sign and Anaheim's Matterhorn icon in order to allude to both city's teams.

Here is the final art; the AD requested some palm trees and banners to nail home the location/teams. In a previous version, that area had been filled with John Woo-esque flying seagulls (which I loved), but they had to go to make room for the other elements. My buddy in LA said the image looked great as a full-page in the paper, and I was thrilled to think about the possibility of the Kardashians seeing my work (Pshhh, they don't read the paper. But I can dream).

Thanks to Derek for a great assignment, and thanks to you for reading!

Enjoy the Day,

Chris

Elsie the Cow Logo treatment

I was very lucky to be selected for a Borden's logo update back in March. A design firm in Dallas was heading up the revamp for this big client; apparently, Broden's is in the top ten largest companies in America. Borden's has been around since its inception in 1857(!), and their logo has gone through several states over the years. The client decided they wanted to update the logo to "something the same yet contemporary." With the reference provided, I worked up a sketch with requested daisy in the background:

I tried to fix some anatomical discrepancies that I noticed in the most recent reference as a starting point. Nathan the AD liked the sketch, and he asked we go "less calf" and more "adult in the face. The number of daisies in the necklace had to be altered as well:

With approval on the sketches, we went to final with the request for several hair options:

After a proper hairstyle was selected, the AD asked for some exploration of the face:

And then Nathan took the options to the client who decided to keep their current logo. I was bummed, but that's advertising :) And so here was my personal favorite of the treatments for all your viewing glory:

Thanks for readin'!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris