A Gift from Phoenix Scroll Saw Art!

Hey there folks,

     Sorry I have been offline for a while, been catching up on real life and school. My Adobe Illustrator class is halfway over, and my Intro to Graphic Design class is complete now. So that is out of the way. But that isn't the reason I am posting today.

Today I want to shine a spotlight on Phoenix Scroll Saw Art. Why? Simple, let me tell you a story...

A few months ago, I was contacted by the owner of this site (Brock) & he asked if he could use some of my images for his Scroll Saw work. I said "Of Course", and never thought much of it. Then, a few weeks ago, I get a package in the mail, and it had the following items in it...

 

Hulk & Psylocke by Phoenix Scroll Saw Art.

I immediately remembered the email I had with Brock and realized what they were. I had a few carpentry classes when I was younger and I know this is a hard skill to master, and also dangerous, ask any screen printer what their work environment is like, both have hazards that make it easy to lose a finger very easily.

Below are the original images he derived the work from...

 

Hulk & Psylocke (Colors by James Anderson)

All in all, it was a pleasant surprise to have in the mail, and Brock's hard work and entrepreneurial spirit is exactly what we need in America today. I commend him for getting out there and doing what he does. So go over there and support him if you want some of your own work put into a nice wooden finish!

More work coming from me soon, I have recently figured out how to begin drawing with the Wacom pen and am "Re-Learning" how to draw. Small cartoon figured and maybe some TMNT work by me will be out soon, so hang in there!

Cliff England Comic Art

"Stupid is a choice.." - Jim Brown
     

Some More Classwork...

Welcome back,

     This week has been hectic to say the least. Sleep wasn't really an option, but I did manage to get some Walking Dead in with the wife last night, so YAY ME! This weeks lessons revolved around the basics of Adobe Illustrator, and how it differs from Adobe Photoshop.

I must admit, from a glance, you assume they are the same program, but once you get into the guts of it, it is vastly different. It's ability to render graphics at an accelerated rate smashes photoshops abilities IMHO. I am still having some issues using the pen tool on Wacom pads, but that is going to clear up within weeks at the rate I am learning. It is a simple matter of  de-selecting the pen tool every time I go to make a new line, yada, yada, yada (insert boring technical analysis).

Below is some of the basic work I did while in class, hope I get to look back and see how crude it was. Enjoy!

Batman Poster (Mock Up)

This Piece was from basic clip art I found, and meshed it all together to make an alternative to the Batman poster from last weeks basic lesson plan in class. I think it turned out OK. If anyone knows who the artist who did the clip art is, let me know so I can give him credit.

Valentines Day Background

This is a Valentines Day background I did to learn the "Live Trace" tool to make silhouettes and other things similar to it. Not the best work, but a great way to learn how to go back and forth from Illustrator to Photoshop.

 

Photo Manipulation through Adobe Illustrator Using the "Live Trace" tool

Above is more use of the Live Trace tool using Illustrator. I messed around for a while using several different versions of this but I thought seeing the color vs a black and white would show the massive amount of nuanced contrast that can be created using the Live Trace Function of this program.

Smiley Face Icon

Of course I couldn't leave class without goofing off a little. Above is a .PNG I created to learn more of the gradient tool and other things. I thought it was funny so I share it with you so you can enjoy it too.

New Logo I Created

One of our assignments was to create a logo for our work. I was a little lost as I already use a Logo that my colorist made for me, but to finish the project and get the grade, I made this. I actually like it and several in class thought it was very clean and bold. I am interested to hear what any of you think. I will attach it to my work from now on until I come up within something else I like.

That's all for this week, I will try and throw some more comic stuff up this week, just busy with homework, and raising kids. Thanks for dropping by, keep checking in.

Cliff England Comic Art

"Stupid is a choice.." - Jim Brown