This is one of the many pieces that grew out of an idle doodle. I think this one wins the “most likely to be made into a plushy” award.

Probably the only piece of fan-art I’ve ever drawn. This little guy is from the game Chrono Cross, published for the original Playstation by Squaresoft. Admittedly, I’ve never actually finished the game but something about this cute little alien made me want to do my own interpretation.

Technology:

Magic:

Wisdom:

Strength:

The drew the images at print-level DPI so that digital cards could theoretically be made into the real thing someday. Overall, I’m pretty proud of these. I did each one in the order they are presented above. The first one probably took 4 or 5 hours, because I was developing the look the same time I was illustrating. The ‘strength’ icon was probably the most difficult. The final version you above was actually the third iteration and I feel like it could still be improved, but sometimes you just have to step and let it stay finished.

Speaking of clocks, this is another one I think would make a good one. It vaguely reminds my of the logo used by the empire in Star Wars for some reason or another. If sci-fi evil empire needs a logo, let me know.

This is a five minute sketch I did in photoshop using the same brush style I used when I made the Imp. This isn’t my favorite piece because it’s so messy, but I think it has some charm.

Another piece from the rotation series. I was going for a clean look that implied a sort of 3D lattice. Since there are twelve spikes, I think this would make a rather striking clock face.

I like this one because of its simplicity. The whole ribbon was a single path, stroked with a really dynamic brush that shifted size, color, and opacity. I’m definitely gong to explore this technique more because I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what can be done with dynamic brushes.

This was my attempt at creating an image that was ugly, but at the same time pleasurable to look at. I cut the grungy border off of an ancient public domain photograph and twisted it around over and over. I like how the spiraling creates the illusion of a tunnel and the texture makes it a bit hard to take in the whole form of the design. This one is pretty high res and is best enjoyed fullscreen.

Working off the same sort of shapes that I use in Bug Girl, I created this little Imp. The spiky lines were a product of a custom brush in photoshop. I crushed a large circle down to a very thin oval and set it the angle to the direction of the pen. The line is thin and smooth when painted in a straight line, but becomes wide and spiky on a curve.

Onward with the art:

Here is second spiral piece I did. Using the Spiral #1 as a base, I multiplied, rotated, and scaled to achieve this blossom.

This is Bug Girl. I’ve been drawing her in the margins of notes and books for years now and she’s become a bit of signature of mine. This particular rendition was a quick scan and trace in Illustrator.

To start it off, here is a piece I did in early 2007 while figuring out Photoshop’s blending options:

So I made my own isometric grid paper [PDF].

The lines are grey at 75% brightness. I’ve found that this keeps the focus on whatever you’re putting on top of them while at the same time keeping the lines legible during work. Of course, there’s no watermarks or any other silly stuff that graph-paper providers like to add either.

If you print the PDF at the default size, the diamonds that form the grid are about a 1/2 inch wide, and a little bit less than 1/3 inch tall. The full size of the grid is 10×7.5 inches, perfect for printing on letter sized paper with 1/2 inch margins. If you need a larger grid than that, my paper can pixel-perfectly tile in all directions.

Enjoy! Tell your friends!

The Freedom Tower struts its slinky glass and Epcot Center’s Spaceship Earth looks pretty flash covered in the oh-so-futuristic Alucobond tiles. Of course, we can’t forget Frank Gehry’s solar death rays: the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Walt Disney Concert Hall are very striking, clad in their reflective titanium and stainless steel (and they do reflect the sun quite a bit).

I love the chance to see these structures, but I don’t know if I’d want to touch them. When was the last time you cuddled with a mirror or a plate of titanium? Designers know that people love touching. The people at Maserati cover the insides of their cars with the softest leather they can find. OXO made a business out of covering kitchen gadgets in fun grippy rubber.

Have you ever seen someone poke, stroke, pinch and flick their iPhone? I have.

Have you ever seen someone hug a building?

How can an architect make that happen? Well, it would help if the buildings asked to be touched. Glass and metal get all smudgy and ugly when people touch them (as anyone with a stainless steel fridge and a toddler will tell you). They do look very slick, but the perfectly smooth surfaces don’t offer much in the way of tactile interest. A window will feel the same no matter where you touch it.

Brick and stone are slightly friendlier. They may be rough and scary at times, but at least they offer some texture. The random pits and crannies in the baked mud are certainly appealing stuck together with the orderly of pattern of the bricks themselves. If you run a stick against the wall, it goes pop pop with the beat of the mortar. An old stone wall becomes an ecosystem in itself, collecting all sorts of weird mosses and slimes.

But what other materials would make an appealing tactile facade? Maybe you could cover a wall in black rubbery ridges, the way OXO does with potato peelers. Take that stuff made out of old tires that they cover playgrounds with and hang it up, then run right at it and bounce right off. Put a hose on top of your house and make it a big cubic waterfall. You could create a gigantic bizzaro-land padded cell by covering a warehouse with couch cushions.

Heck, why not take that glass you love so much and cover it with little bumply bits, like a bottle of Bawls Guarana. Or turn that smooth stainless steel into a cheese grater. That would be cool.