Family

Wow, it looks as though I've been pretty quiet on the blog front for a while. To be fair - my Fiancé and I have been busy organising our wedding that is later this year. 

I have a few projects to share that I've not had time to post. So I'll begin with this. 

A commission for a friend as a present, I drew up this piece with an open reign over the style and composition. I had fun playing with the type on this one and love the way the final piece came out. I'm really happy with the choice of lettering I chose for 'Family' after a bit of deliberation, and feel it's the perfect weight to finish the last line with. 

Here's the finished inked drawing, printed on fine art textured heavyweight stock. 

Thanks for looking

I like to be beside the sea

So I've been a little quiet of late. At least on the blog side of things anyway. I have a few projects to publish but I thought I'd start with this personal project, inspired by my love of the seaside, warm summer evenings and the fresh sea air.

I've been wanting to work on something with a nautical influence for a while, so took the opportunity to draw this - combining a slightly different aesthetic to my previous works with a new love of 'slab serif's' and a twist of sailor inspired tattoo typography. 

Here is the finished work, and it is one that I am keen to make a print run of.

Cultpens - Penorama banner

Here's the web banner I worked up last month for Cultpens Penorama newsletter. I have to say I was chuffed when I received an email from the great people at Cultpens asking me to do a piece for them as a guest artist. As a customer of theirs I couldn't have been more happy to draw a bespoke banner, and quickly set about drawing up some ideas.

The project evolved quite quickly and the final composition became clear after I decided to cut back and simplify the idea that was forming in my mind. I dropped a few renderings of the 'Penorama' type to simplify and strengthen the feel of the wallpaper/patterned banner I had envisaged.

I'd like to thank the friendly staff at Cultpens for the opportunity to collaborate with them and for the overwhelming response they gave to the banner. Please check them out at Cultpens.com and view the online newsletter Here

Custom logotype - Cardnoir

Here's a piece I worked on this week for Cardnoir. A film noir, pulp romance inspired logo. I went through a fair it of research into the kind of look and type of typeface I wanted to capture before starting work, so I had a pretty good idea if what I wanted to create. I quickly whittled six typefaces down to one and then set about a couple of initial sketches to get an idea of how I could incorporate the flourish I had in mind.

I then set about vectoring the logo to the point you see here. I must say that I am really stoked with how this one turned out. Both with how it fits the brief and with how I reached the final outcome. And I hope you enjoy it too.!

Thanks.

R&K - Initial sketches

I've barely had time to stop and think recently having been working on multiple projects at once. I've not let that stop me though. In fact the busier I've been of recent, the more motivated I've become and the more ideas I've had. Skipping between projects and social affairs I've started some 'initial' sketches. Literally. I'll try to document a few of my other projects soon. In the mean time I would like to share these with you all.

Rob.

The art of marriage

I've had this commission under wraps for the last month, and have just met with the client today to reveal the final piece. I'm really pleased with how this turned out, having been the largest and most involved hand lettering piece I've taken on so far. First drawn up in pencil and then taken to ink when I was happy, the overall piece was drawn on A3 royal cream stock and has kept me busy most evenings for more than a few weeks straight.

I love the style and tone that was decided upon between the client and myself in initial discussions and I can really appreciate the strength that its given this piece in the final drawing now that I've had the time to stand back and view it from afar, having spent so many hours working up close with this one.

Here are a few shots including an initial pencil drawing through to the completed piece and some close ups.

As always I thank you for looking. I really appreciate your feedback and comments.

Anchors & ampersands

Wow, so December and January have come and gone almost quicker than I could say 'anchorsand'. What have I been up to? Well first off here's a few sketches I was working on. A little personal project that sprung to mind and something that I will be returning to when I have more time. Anchors and ampersands..... And the resulting 'Anchorsand' idea.

I've also been reworking my business card, having never been fully satisfied with the initial implementation. Having tweaked the concept and spent a long time looking at different card stocks and finishes, I've sent it off to the printers and can't wait to get it back! Watch this space.

This week I've started drawing up a new project that I've been commissioned to do. It's a large piece and I'm excited to be working on it having had it in the pipeline for a while. I won't reveal any details as yet, so please check back. Blogpost to follow on this.

Anyway here's my anchor, and ampersand sketches I wanted to share.

Jack Daniels Typography

Following up the G&T sketch I did a few weeks back and having a bit of free time to draw something up I decided to take some influence from a typeface I had come across this week. It wasn't an actual typeface as such but a custom piece of type I had seen and loved. So loosely taking that as a basis I developed this drawing into this. It was only really the 'J' that I took the inspiration from, making up the other letters to suit as I went. Later on the J itself evolved from the original inspiration piece. I love the contrast of line weights used in French didot style typefaces, so that has obviously been a large influence on this piece combined with a few other influences such as the broadway/circus style detailing.

Here's a few of my working progress shots and the final piece. Please feel free to comment on this and all my other works. I love to hear what people think.

Fear regret more than failure

Here's the 'regret' piece I started working on last week. I've drawn this twice in pencil , refining the lines, curves and kerning and then finished off by inking it up. I'm pretty pleased with how the type came out on this although I'm not 100% sold on the line work at the bottom of the drawing. Hey we've all got to learn, practice and grow from our errors.

Regret

I was sat doing some rather mundane work earlier and decided that when I got home I'd sketch something up as I've been a bit quiet of late. I certainly felt like I needed this today. I like the short five word quotes, as they are plentiful online and they offer a great opportunity to quickly sketch up an idea without being too labour intensive.

I thought this would be a good piece to show a few in progress workings, as I normally only post more finished shots on my blog. So here's a rough first sketch, and then a second tidied up pencil drawing. I think a few kerning tweaks will follow (on the 'g' the 'an' and the 'ur') which I'll do when I redraw it in ink. For those interested, it's based on John Pistilli's 'Pistilli Roman' typeface, but I've worked a few tweaks in as I've drawn it up.

G&T - Finito

So, here's the finished piece. Even though this was just a bit of fun I absolutely love how it turned out. I may even turn this into a series of drinks labels/logos. What for, I don't know. Coasters? Hmmm food for thought.

G&T...

Who doesn't love a good G&T? I know I'm partial to one. I started sketching this today, purely to photograph for today's photoaday word 'letters'. (See fatmumslim.com/au or fatmumslim on instagram if you are not familiar) It started out as a quick sketch that turned into something I really liked. I am going to redraw the initial pencil sketch up into pen. I actually think this could make a great bottle label for Gin.