This is another painting in my new series. I have not decided on a series name yet, as I haven’t fully worked out the overall series concept yet. The work is a mixed-media combination of latex, acrylic, solvent-based varnish, and epoxy-resin coating with embedded objects (real earth and leaves). The epoxy resin coats the objects and embeds them into the work, and creates a deep glass-like surface.

This work is about the fragility and erosion of nature. One half of a diptych (with “living grass”), this work shows nature’s death, dark and eroded, with cracked, rough, dry earth and dead leaves. With real earth and leaves embedded into the work, the art will potentially change over time. This is living art, destined to be different years from now, like a reflection of our earth.

This work is for sale. $200.
16″ x 16″. Mixed media on canvas. Back of canvas will be signed and numbered (2nd in the series).

Other views of the work:

Note: Due to the highly reflective nature of the work, it cannot be photographed head-on.

I have finally completed some paintings in my new series of paintings. I have not decided on a series name yet, as I haven’t fully worked out the overall series concept yet. The work is a mixed-media combination of latex, acrylic, solvent-based varnish, and epoxy-resin coating with embedded objects (real grass and leaves). The epoxy resin coats the objects and embeds them into the work, and creates a deep glass-like surface.

This work is about the fragility and erosion of nature. One half of a diptych, this work shows nature’s life, green and living, blue skies and trees. With real grass and leaves embedded into the work, the art will potentially change over time, as the grass browns and leaves dry. This is living art, destined to be different years from now, like a reflection of our earth.

This work is for sale. $200.
16″ x 16″. Mixed media on canvas. Back of canvas will be signed and numbered (1st in the series).

Other views of the work:

Note: Due to the highly reflective nature of the work, it cannot be photographed head-on.

I’m back! And this week I have my t-shirt entry for the DBH 10k contest. This t-shirt design is based on the poster and DVD cover for the short film REAL by David Jaeggin. The story is about a man who sees the ghost of his father 2 years after he was killed in a car accident. The design creates a sense of wonderment about what is real and what isn’t, and makes us wonder if we really are alone. The artwork is deliberately dark, sketchy and “grungy” at the bottom to mirror the dark graveyard and subject matter, but gradually becomes cleaner, softer and more open at the top, to give a sense of hope.

UPDATE: The design is now up for voting! Please vote here: http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/59616

The full poster and DVD cover image is below.

A7

Finally… new work!

Yes, it has been a while since I’ve been able to post new work. I’ve been extremely busy working on several work gigs, including a music video, a short film, a motion graphics animation, 2 fundraising site customizations and 2 websites. Phew!

So here is the design I created for the Incubus design contest at DBH. Incubus’ new album is entitled Monuments and Melodies, and that gave me the inspiration for the work. The design is a phoenix rising from the flames. The phoenix is made entirely of music notes, and the fire is distressed with words (lyrics).

The design is not approved for voting yet. I will update the post when it is ready for votes.

A7 is (rising like a phoenix)

This is a tee based on the fairy wings tattoo I created for my sister. Since the design is going to be changed for the tattoo, I decided to turn this one into a shirt. For the overall work, I wanted to capture the emotion of feeling trapped even when you are free. Sometimes we need a little push; Someone to take us away.

You can vote for it here: http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/56301

A7 is (flying away)

This is my first official printed tee. It is a commissioned work for a school musical based on Mamma Mia and other music from the 70s. The design was created to mimic a 70s retro style (stars and fonts), and printed with gold and blue metallic inks on orange American Apparel tees in various shapes and sizes (mens, womens, and kids). Below you will find the full picture of the shirt, along with a test vintage-look shirt I requested for myself, and a poor quality version of the shirt.

The story on the poor quality version goes like this…

I had originally designed the shirt with yellow stars and gold “star zooms”. I sent the 5 color design files to the t-shirt printer. They have 4 color presses and 8 color presses. Their 8 color press was broken, so they had to outsource the work to another company (because my design was more than 4 colors). Unfortunately, it turned out the other company was awful at screen printing. Once they got the work back from the outsourced company, they didn’t want to put their name on it and send me bad shirts, so they offered to reprint them all on their working 4 color press instead. That meant I had to change the design from 5 colors to 4. The final design you see in the good quality shirt is the updated 4 color design. The bad quality shirt shows the original colors, but you can clearly see that the ink is inconsistent and the edges are uneven and misprinted. Good call on not sending me the crappy shirts.

Hope you enjoyed the little story, and like the design.

A7 is (a golden star)

Good Quality Full View:

Vintage-look version:

Bad quality version:

I finally made a bit of time to work on a design that was in my head. It’s just a fun, simple design based on the phrase “the sky looks angry”. I can imagine an angry cloud in the sky, throwing lightning bolts at the innocent bystanders below.

This shirt is being submitted to a different site this time, called Teextile. Vote for the shirt now!



Angry Cloud!

BY a7is

A7 is (tired of the rain)

My sister has been asking me for years to add an extension to the original tribal tattoo I had designed for her years ago. The issue has always been that her original tattoo was always meant to stand alone (and designed as such) so any extension or addition looked odd next to it.

I was finally able to come up with an interesting idea to overcome the issue. The solution is to “fill in” the tattoo by extending the butterfly itself, so it fills in the entire design, and allows for more extending in the future.

Note: the original design is not detailed in the image above… rather, the outline of it is represented by the middle pink section.

A7 is (bright)

After looking at my design a bit more and analysing the comments on my submission at DBH, I decided to re-work the Temptation Tree design a bit. I did 3 small but ultimately important changes to the design.

1- I made the whole design 5 colors instead of the original 8. This allows me to submit it to other design sites or print it myself if I choose to go that path (I am looking for resellers at the moment… I need to secure 50 orders before I print the design). I did so by using some halftone techniques to retain the semblance of shading.

2- I changed the placement of the main print design. I always felt it looked better with the girl at the bottom near the edge of the shirt. I didn’t do that in my original design because it left a large void at the top of the chest which looked awkward. So that leads me to…

3- I added the word “Temptation” to the upper chest. This rounds out the design, helps define the concept a bit more for those who are a little slow, and adds a cheeky undertone to the shirt (like the person wearing the shirt is the temptation).

I’ve submitted the new design to a new site called TeeFury. They have an interesting concept; They put up a new design each day, and that design is only available for one single day. Once the time is up, you can never order that shirt from them again. The bad news is, there’s no huge prize money. They do however give one dollar per t-shirt sold in that 24 hour period. And the good news is, the shirts sell for really cheap! On average, the shirts are only $9US. There’s no voting process on this one, it’s up to the site’s curators to decide if they like it and will print it. I’ll keep you all updated if it happens to get printed.

A7 is (making things better)

This is my latest t-shirt, based on a tattoo design I created. The original tattoo work was designed as a half sleeve, and was influenced by a number of tribal styles, including traditional North American tribal, Samoan, Maori, Indian/Thai, and more.

Conceptually, the work represents the growing fusion of cultures in the global village that the world has become. It also symbolizes the erosion of tradition and indigenous cultures.

I hope you enjoy the work. And if you do, GO VOTE! http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/54431

A7 is (cultural)