As Weird As I Can Make It

     Another show, another poster, this time from the photo booth outside of time and space.

     The elements:

     The first pass:

     The finale (after a good deal of procrastination, then a lot of me-time away from the internet and socked in with snow):

'Twas The Season Again

     Time for Xmas card art and I'll admit I was a little low on the inspiration this year, so I returned to the theme I had established last year:

Mishmash Again

 
     This one was a pile of pieces, thrown together and then, by trying to figure out how to cram them all in, stumbling across some type of weird meaning that makes it all fit.  Sort of.

     Elements:
















      The result:

     The story here is a cautionary one about legal weed.  

     The hat was the last addition, tying it in with the recent Rifftrax holiday show that featured a mind-bending short saturated with monkeys.

     I always regret that the printed version is never as vibrant as these digital images.  Some day I'll figure out how to compensate....

The Work

       This time, as promised, the concept came first, the elements offered themselves up, and in the end I think that I can rank this with the best that I've done.
     The concept was a retro 60s mod throwback to the big shows with eclectic guests that went on before the psychedelics kicked in.  We had three bands on the lineup, so that made some sense.  I had the general design in my head, so I just needed to execute it.
     The elements:

     The joke was a progressive one, with the absurdity of the band stand-ins ramping up the laughs as the eye ran down the page.  We were in for the biggest guffaw, what with our vehicle being a toy and the overwhelming dorkiness. Since I didn't want to presume upon the good humor of our fellow players too much, that struck me as all for the best.
     I had wanted something to fill in behind the band images and names, so I started looking for ecstatic crowd shots and of course they all seem to be tied to The Beatles.

     The bottom one was great for many reasons, but my favorite is the guy with his hands over his ears.  I really wanted to use the girl with her fingers in her ears in the top shot but, again, I was worried that some might not find it so funny.
     Now that I'd had my laughs, it was time to wrangle text to the distant finish.

     There are still some minor regrets tucked away here and there, but overall it's a tasty image and one that I'm quite proud of.

Show Art

     Not much to say here, just a journey of elements to the end result.  
     Next show will be more work.  Concept first though, whereas this one just kept falling together.  
     Keep a bunch of weird junk 'cause it'll be needed eventually.

Bad Camera Takes A Walk

Also, show tonight!

Evolution Of Madness

     Well, it's SHOWTIME again and that means ART so let's get to it.

     This show is kinda special, seeing as how we get to play with Human Ottoman, a band that I love, so I had to really make it a good one and that led to hesitation and procrastination as I pretended to mull it all over and not just dread getting started. I had the idea for creating a human ottoman pretty well set in mind even down to the source material for legs:

     Perfect, four of them, arranged leg-like, though being cut off in places I had to make it work, add an arm, etc.  I'm really happy with how I managed to clean up the second from left while making her look like a somewhat sloppy dresser:

     So I was happy and fully set for the ottoman but then what?  How to bring Wups in and make it work instead of being a bunch of different stuff just slopped on there?  I dropped in the logo and added something that I'd had in mind, a little Little Janice:

     Psychedelic tweaking, some trails, and there was something, but still no cohesion.  A random background is generated and then I took my first break.

     An ottoman needs a room and that led me to dig up a couple pics of my own surreal fireplace:

   Add a stock image of a checkered floor and all was looking nice and snazzy and another idea I'd had for a while was tossed in for good measure:

     And so the first draft was created:

     I tried in vain and for no reason to resist the inevitable, aligning Vickie's eyes with the alight eyeballs...

     I then walked away again and only at work the next day did it come to me that the tie to the whole had become Vickie, permeating the work, creeping you out, and so poor little Janice lost her self, but only at the clear extreme and finality of that trippy flight, where again Vickie takes over, laughing pixie-like in the fevered face of the viewer.

     All tied together now it was down to the text and that's the part I dislike the most.  With so many font options and none of them looking right I now randomly choose somewhat worthy contenders, warp them and play until I feel that I can't win.  But I kept at the hidden possibilities of the various tools and found a way around what I thought were unimprovable and yet unworthy color choices.  Messing with fill levels and stroke luminosity I finally cut the gutwrenching and made myself happy.

     And weep not for Janice.  I did feel the guilt of losing her cool visage and so I left her in her full glory on the impending sticker.

     

WUPS returned

     Wow, I just recently thought about this blog that I have and how I've completely missed the boat on putting anything of interest here.  Hm.
     Anyway, the big news is that WUPS has returned after a pretty decent hiatus.  This was the flyer:

     Before correction, though, I posted a version that said that the 19th was on Saturday.  It was only up for five minutes or so before I looked at a calendar, flipped, fixed and reposted, yet somehow that dumb version made it to our event posting.  To add to the confusion there apparently exists a coffee place in town called imagine, so it got more confusing and I came up with this joke:

     We managed to keep that joke to ourselves, though.  In addition to the return show we had also finished a recording project from long ago and were cutting and gluing it together by hand not too long before the show:

So, since I've been so lax in posting lately, here's a giant pile of elements, trials and errors, and such that led to the final product:

     Oh, and in addition to the CD, as well as fine $hrit$ for sale in the physical realms, we launched online as well: