天狗!!! Oh those Heavenly Dogs!

I've always been an anime/ manga /chambara (samurai films) nut.
I grew up thinking ninjas ruled & obsessed over Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden. I read up on what I could in high school on Japanese culture, but didn't get full exposure until my college days. I was able to meet many diverse friends and get insight into their cultures. Relationships I still have til' this day. Yoichiro Tagiri was the first person to give me clear insight into Japanese legends and folklore. He told me stories about the various creatures in Japanese folklore. The Yamauba, Oni and Tengu. I found the Tengu to be the most interesting of all the creatures. I saw them depicted as bad ass bird- like warrior monks. A saw the other various incarnations in design where some had the long noses and others that looked full on like birds. I even created a character with Yoichiro based on his whole folklore, but gave him a modernized story( I have the sketches somewhere I'll have to dig them up). Which brings me to what you see here. Above is the concept sketch. And below...

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This is the B&W inking of a tattoo design that plans to be a tattoo. Not for me of course (I have another idea in mind for myself). My cousin Mike is looking to get some fresh ink done and I'm on design.  My good buddy and fellow art class mate from high school Seth Mushrush is doing the handy work this weekend at the Philly Tattoo Convention. I made it a point to keep as simple a inking as possible for him so that he could have a simple base to work from.  but I plan to go in and do a colorized version of this image myself for a bit of compare and contrast.

Cupid's Art of War

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This is a case of "Oh shit, I forgot all about this!" aka My Bad Danny!

I put this design together around the middle of last year for a good friend of mine Brazen who has been working on producing his solo project entitled:

"Cupid's Art of War"  which focuses on a more "militant minded" Cupid and his attempts at instilling romance in a modern day society. Needless to say, by the cover design, it looks like a loosing battle. Or is it? 

迎春接福!!!

"Tsui Lung" * Click to enlarge. 

Happy Chinese New Year. May you meet new happiness! This is the design I put together for baby's room. We are celebrating the water dragon this year so I went with a strong blue motif. The wife and I decided we didn't want to go stereotypical pink seeing as we are having a girl so this works out perfectly! Back with some more scribble soon!

2012 in full effect.

It's 2012 and my greatest creation is in the works. This is the sneak preview. 

She's going to be daddy's little dragon. 

The latest dabblings: GEAR!

  My last post for the year & I figured I'd put up some designs I had in mind for various clothing items. If it's not obvious by now, I've been a long time Adidas head. I've always considered their track jackets to be one of the classical iconic articles of clothing. Sadly, as of late, their gear hasn't been living up to these expectations (at least in my opinion).

  The recent launch of the Jeremy Scott items have left me with the confused look on my face. I find it funny in some ways because I recently watched Back to the Future 2 and there's the scene where Marty is escaping Griff Tannen's & his thugs. I happened to look at the gear and damn if it doesn't look just like the stuff that is being marketed now. I thought it looked silly back then & I feel the same way about it now. I'm all for going new directions and exploring new territory, but the stuff that is coming out of the JS/Adidas camp now is just damn goofy. Even for the new pro geek generation. I think the animal hats coming out of Japan are more fashionable than what they are coming out with. This is me being an honest fan. The same could be said for the Star Wars line. I hate to say it, but I think Ecko did a much better job pushing the Star Wars gear than Adidas did.

  Anyhow, I'm putting up a few concepts I had for track jackets & T shirts. Rough concepts, but concepts none the less. There are also track pants and sneaker concepts that I've worked on as well, but I'm saving them for the complete January post. Anybody out there that happens to look them over, I'd love some feedback. Safe & happy holidays to all. *Naturally, the disclaimer is that the designs are done by me Che Barron & I have no current working relationship with Adidas. Adidas is trademarked by Adidas AG. I do not seek to illegally manufacture our violate their trademark, blah, blah, blah. It's concept art. That is all.

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Digging through the archives... The Teletubbies Venture...

I think back to how many pairs of custom sneakers I've done and I've totally lost count. I'm honestly well over the 200 mark that much I know. I do a bi monthly "wade through the water" of my design files to trim the fat and get rid of duplicate or old files I no longer need & 9 times out of ten I stumble across an old design or photo I forgot about. It usually goes about this way when I'm organizing something for a client to show and after it's done it goes back to my hard drive for the archives. This go around I'm showcasing more custom work my old crew and I did for the 10th anniversary of the Teletubbies.

 Photos basically show the progression of how things came to be. It started with the pair of Brainy Blings I did. I did these sneakers on a whim. I though it would be funny to do a pair of Pinky & the Brain sneakers with a hip hop flair, So I fitted The Brain with a track jacket and a fresh pair of Swarovski crystal designed grills.  This in turn led my then partner in crime Rival LV to come up with his own pair & influence... this led to his themed Oscar the Grouch and Grungetta "Trashy to Classy". These 2 pairs were our "frontrunners" for display when the crew (Then known as the Dassler Rebellion to then turn to Rebellion Customs) went out to Las Vegas to see about networking. The shoes caught the attention of a PR rep for Ragdoll LLC (Stacy) and she came to us with the proposition of doing some customs for the 10th Anniversary of the Teletubbies in conduction with a charity event for Cure Autism Now. Once back on the left coast the crew and I set about doing concept mock ups for the event with some of the images they provided as well as going off our own creative juice. We knocked it out with quality and creativity (Skrybe, Rival LV & Dave Mass, the extra men on the team) and showcased them in Philly as well as at the event in downtown Manhattan. I still have my La La antenna... *click on images to enlarge the pics. 

The Brainy Bling... Still one of my favorite pairs...

I gave the Brain the "Bishop Don Juan" look on the inset. 

The Trashy to Classy's by Rival LV

Still one of my favorite pairs designed 

Who doesn't love Oscar the Grouch?

The concepts we came up with & the design crew with our Ragdoll contact Stacy. 

The crew with the Teletubbies Actors. 

Yucking it up with the Dipsy. 

Po and La La out of costume

The Tinky Winky Customs by Skrybe

The display at the store. The La La's sold so fast I didn't even get a pic of them. 

As the night drew on the alcohol made us look dumber.

MrTroy & I worse for wear

A class all our own

This became our flagship sneaker under the Rebellion Customs handle concept by Skrybe

Displays from the Philly Event 

I stuck with the Homegrown Westbrook

The works of Dave Mass

Skrybe liked Reggie

Back on in with the Photoshop...

"Silicon Medusa" -2011 Che Barron  * click on image to enlarge. 

In the continuing quest to rework the portfolio, I decided to bring a few design ideas I had on the back burner to fruition. This is one of them. I wanted to do something classical/ modern at the same time. Medusa is a classic iconic image & many people have done their own visions, but I wanted to flip it on it's ear a little bit & add a "Dusky Digital" (quoting the great El-P) feel to it.  In a geeky turn I also wanted to incorporate the glowing  Apple logo into it to serve as a dual service and be my laptop skin. Kill 2 birds with one stone. I plan to flip another one to revolve around the theme of an "Apple".  Stay Tuned...