The Smack City concept. Halftone testing.

Desus & Mero has quickly become one of my favorite shows to enjoy in the evening on a network that's quickly become one of my favorites, VICELAND. 

This duo has many slogans and taglines that make for great design concepts. Smack City is one of them. I thought of putting together a few designs that I may present down the line depending on how the finished product looks. I'm in the process of fiddling with my output options for the design. 

If I spot color the design, I'm looking at 6 screens as opposed to doing 4 color CMYK process. 

I'll be honest I usually do the PMS process, but this is an option I have to learn in order to land more work. 

Here's a lil' work in progress Smack City! Stay tuned...

Izzy's room update...

"More clouds daddy. It needs more clouds" 

"Fun" to mount on to the wall. 

So the last post was Photoshop & here's the real deal. I already can see that there is going to be a call for more clouds in smaller sizes like I did in the mock up. To see it fully fleshed out in front of you makes the difference & so would the smaller clouds. So it's back to the vinyl cutter machine hopefully tomorrow so I can make the revisions as such. As always, stay tuned.

Being expressive Part 3

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This is the version 2 character mock up I made for Jugoya I went to make him more "cartoonish".
Stay tuned...

Being expressive Pt2.

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Continuing with the character design theme, I'm showcasing my second set of expression sheets for one of my more mature themed characters. The character Jugoya is one I have had in the books for a long time. One of the few characters I have an avid backstory for, but never sought to develop him fully. I would need a good writer to help me on this one and someone aptly knowledgeable in Japanese culture. More previews to come soon.

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.

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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The J Dilla Sneakers Connection...

These are my sneaker tributes I put together to honor the late great James Yancey. I did these as a tribute honor a few years back and they ended up finding a home in Michigan with close family friends of the Yancey family. The first pair gained quite a bit of buzz and I decided that I wasn't going to do a 2nd pair. That ended up not being the case.
I did another pair last year that I dubbed "The Plastic Cups Edition" that I donated for a Dilla tribute event. I still have a design for another pair, but if I do decide to make them the only person that gets to have those are Ma Dukes herself.
1 Love Dilla Dawg...

These are the Dilla customs...
The first pair...



And now the Plastic Cups Detroit City Version

I opted to flip these in the Detroit Lions team colors (subliminal flavor).
I've been mulling over if I plan to do the third design or not. If done it would be another ambitious piece. Similar to the design I have in mind for a MJ custom pair I want to do.
If they do get done, you'll see them first here.