Belated Seasons Greetings

Click to see it at full size, yo!

I realize that Christmas was 2 days ago, but here's a little holiday card that I doodled up for my roller derby league.  I only decided to post it here now because I haven't updated this blog in quite some time.  There's plenty more artwork to post, I just need to get around to it...

This was something I just doodled up for fun.  I took a silly team photo that we had and added hats, scarves, antlers etc., and I made sure to photoshop in a photo of our mascot.  That's right--we have a mascot.  His name is Roary Feldman, and we love that lion! Anyway, hope some people got a chuckle out of this.   

Smack to the Future with Thikicole and Katty WhompAss

Our 4th bout of the season was a salute to the totally tubular '80s.  Always up for some nostalgic fun, many of our league members decided to celebrate in style!  There were ruffled skirts, neon plastic accessories, off-the-shoulder tops, thick waist belts, teased out hair styles and mullets as far as the eyes could see (through "blinds" shades of course).

Despite all of the garishly colorful aspects of the '80s, for some reason I had a hard time pinpointing what sort of imagery to use for the bout poster.  I think the problem was that it just felt like there were too many possibilities (Glam rockers?  Hideous fashions?  Corny TV shows?  The grody lingo?).  After all, the '80s were nothing if not a decade of excess.

This time around I was going to feature 2 skaters as well (#68iou--Thikicole and #412--Katty WhompAss), so I figured that it was probably best to keep the design simple.  I just had to make sure that I stuck with some distinctly '80s design elements.  So of course, I had to use hot pink!  And nothing clashes with hot pink quite as well as lime green. 

From there, the plan was to make the bout flyer resemble a cheesy '80s movie poster.  Because I was drawing 2 skaters, the "back-to-back buddies" pose seemed not only natural, but necessary ;)

Totally having a Corey & Corey moment right now.

Not exactly a fan of Duran Duran either, but Nagel
did the artwork for the album, Rio.

Although I would not call myself a fan of his, I also drew inspiration from artist, Patrick Nagel.  His work is just so dang iconic of the decade.  While Nagel would reduce down or stylize the physical features of his subjects so that they all looked alike, I wanted to make sure that Thiki and Katty both retained their individual appearances (what's the point of drawing real skaters if they look like they can be anyone?).  So, I drew them as I normally would and instead adopted some of his other artistic conventions.  This is primarily evident in color usage.  His subjects were always white-skinned (literally) with very minimal, flat, gray shading and limited color elsewhere in the composition.

Also, they were often topless...but we're not running that sort of an organization here :P

Nagel also made use of simple, often sharp, geometric backgrounds to offset the sensual curves of his subjects.  I used the shapes to frame the skaters instead of placing all those jagged edges behind them, but even so, the geometric shapes are there.

And just as a side note, those little skater silhouettes are from a recruitment poster that I had designed for The Dames about a year ago.

So there you have it--the bout poster for "Smack to the Future," featuring Thikicole and Katty WhompAss! 

Fonts used: Trajan, Forgotten Futurist, Badonk-a-donk, Chronicles of a Hero

N7 Armband

Last night we debuted new-new team uniforms (it's kind of a long story how we wound up getting new uniforms again, so suffice it to say that it was necessary).  Along with the new-new uniforms, many of our girls decided to order armbands for themselves as well (skaters are required to display their numbers on both arms).  Taking a permanent marker to your arms works just fine, but some opt for the armband because marker often rubs off and needs reapplying.  That should come as no surprise what with all of the sweating and shoulder checking derby girls do.

Instead of ordering armbands I wanted to design my own.  I made some for myself before, but I had to retire them after a couple of months or so.  The issue was that the fabric stretched over time and would droop or fold over itself, obscuring the numbers.  And that's problematic because you can be penalized if your numbers are not clearly displayed.

The old armbands were simply sewn "tubes" of interlock (T-shirt-like) fabric and fabric paint.

For my new armband (I wound up only making one, haha), I wanted to make use of elastic bands that would keep it firmly in place.  The nerd in me also wanted to incorporate a visual element that would serve as a nod to Mass Effect, the video game series that inspired my number choice.

Commander "Jane"/"John" Shepard in N7 armor.  Hmm...it bothers me that whoever made this wallpaper simply flipped Femme-Shep so she looks like some mirror-reflected doppelganger.

Ideally I wanted to make an entire sleeve with the n7 armor stripe running down it, but it seemed likely that it would bunch up under my elbow pad and feel like a hindrance. I kept it just long enough to run from under my shoulder to just above my elbow.  So it's short in comparison to a sleeve, but it's still long as far as armbands go.

Obviously I opted for a green stripe (one of our team colors) instead of the classic red stripe.

There are imperfections galore, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Despite the simple look of it, this armband is deceptively much more complicated that the old ones.

First off, the old armband was simply a poorly sewn "tube" of green fabric.  And it wasn't even the right shade of green...  This armband tapers towards the bottom for a better fit.  Plus it has elastic bands sewn in to keep it snug and in place.

I used a thicker, 2" wide elastic band at the top to maintain rigidity for the number, and a much thinner elastic (1/4" maybe?) on the bottom.  The stripes are made from old T-shirt scraps and twill tape.  Despite my best efforts, the threads of the will tape were fraying/unraveling, so I brushed the seams with a couple of drops of epoxy.  While I would have loved to use iron-ons or patches for the numbers, I didn't have any available (at least in the font that I wanted...I'm a dork, I know), and used fabric paint instead. 

I could see myself making another one of these armbands sometime soon with some minor adjustments.  But for the time being this will work just fine!

-----Update----
I never did make another one!  Lol!  But here's a photo of how I wore the arm band, along with some white and green duct tape over my elbow pad to give it more of that full length N7 Stripe!

She flies through the air (and glides on the track) with the greatest of ease...

As you know, the first 2 bout posters featured 2 of our actual skaters.  By the time the third bout rolled around, drawing a derby girl started to become a bit of a tradition.  However, instead of selecting the skater myself (as I had done with Millie and Pink), I decided to take a vote and let the league choose for themselves.

It basically works like this:  League members send me their votes after each bout for who they would like to see featured next.  All members (skaters, refs, NSOs and the coach) are allowed to vote on whoever they'd like, except for the skaters who have already been featured that season.  The winner isn't revealed to anyone until the poster is finished.

Now the powers that be (meaning our bout committee), decided to call our third bout "Battle Under the Big Top."  It should be fairly obvious then what our theme was :)  While we can't always provide half-time entertainment relative to the theme, we managed to find circus performers to put on a show for us.  Jugglers, balloon animals, acrobatics and comedy acts...it was a good time and the kids really seemed to enjoy it.

Anyway, the vote for our poster girl was pretty much unanimous because one of our skaters has some circus experience!  And that's Give 'Em L!

She really does have those stockings and socks...And I have no clue how she manages to keep those glasses on her face!

From the rough sketch...

 
To the final bout poster!

That's right...she's riding an effin' lioness!

 I was going for an antiqued, old-fashioned circus poster in the flyer design.  At this size it's hard to see it, but the background has an aged paper texture.  For some reason I found it highly amusing that I wound up drawing a lioness for a roller derby poster.  And don't think that I wasn't tempted at some point to draw some skates on that thing ;)

As you can see from the rough pencils, L and the lioness were initially drawn together.  After I scanned it in, I decided to draw the two as separate images that could be easily rearranged as needed to fit the composition.  Plus, I figured that L might appreciate having a drawing of herself sans lioness, just in case :)  Besides, If I ever decide to, I can re-use the lioness for some other design, seeing as how we have 2 of them adorning our league logo.

Ah, and I almost forgot my little plug!  In addition to being just an all-around awesome person, L is also the author of a newly released children's book!  It's called Eight Days Gone and is about Apollo 11's mission to the moon!  Apparently the Reading Rainbow folks have also recently purchased the rights to the digital version for their online app!  Go get yourself (and all the kids in your life) a copy now!  RIGHT NOW :)
 

Pink POW-Her Ranger

For our second home bout of the season, I decided to feature one of our Team Captains, Pink POW-Her Ranger, as the poster girl.  And why?  Because she's flippin' awesome.  'Nuff said.

Instead of just posting the finished poster, I thought people might be interested in seeing a sort of breakdown of how I work on these drawings.  So first thing's first.  Research!  Yes, research.

When I'm drawing actual people, I try really hard to strike a balance between my comic/cartoon style and maintaining a believable resemblance (instead of generalizing all of their characteristics).  So, before I even pick up a pencil, I start by gathering a bunch of photos.  Seriously.  If you were to peak over my shoulder at my computer, you'd be convinced that I was stalking them...

Aaanway, I study the photos as best I can, not only so I can get a feel for the person's face and physique, but also an understanding of how that person stands, how they carry themselves, how they move their bodies.  Oh, and their boutfits :P  From there I draw at least a dozen or so tiny, thumbnail sketches until I come to a pose that I like.  That's when I move on to the pencil sketch.    

My original pencil sketch, scribbley notes and all!

  

After the pencils are done (I use the term "pencils" interchangeably with "sketch" by the way), I scan it at a high resolution to Adobe Photoshop. The sketch is actually pretty small--only about 5 or 6 inches tall.  Because the flyers we have printed are 11"x17," I resize the sketch to about that size.  Normally, taking a small image and resizing it larger is a bad idea because of loss of quality (like when an image pixellates), but in this case I don't mind.  I'm actually going to wind up "tracing" my new "inks" (the outlines) over the pencils anyway, so that I'll wind up with a new, large, high quality drawing.

Image 1-Blue sketch/pencils, Image 2-Black Ink layer over blue pencils, Image 3-Inks (line drawing) layer

Before I start inking, I adjust the sketch color to something other than black.  This helps me see which sections I've already inked and which parts still need to be.  If you look closely at the first drawing (the blue sketch), you'll also notice that I edited certain parts of it.  For example, I realized that for a foreshortened view of her leg (the one that comes out in front), it needed to be "shorter" than how it was drawn originally.  I can't remember, but I may have also edited the size of her head.  My anime-loving background has left me with a tendency to draw heads a bit too large for the necks that support them...

After I'm done editing the pencils, I move on to inking.  I create a new layer over the sketch layer to draw on (for those unfamiliar with Photoshop, think of it as placing tracing paper right on top of your drawing).  I stick with a small brush size (5 pt) and begin tracing my inks over the pencil lines.  The middle image is what the drawing looks like when I have my inks layer on top of the sketch.  Once I'm satisfied with the inks, I then discard the sketch layer.  That's what you see in the third image--A clean line drawing (my inks layer by itself).

Image 1-Grayscale shading layer, Image 2-Flat colors, Image 3-Grayscale shading with flat colors.

All layers are sitting underneath the inks layer.

After the inks are finished, I can choose to either start shading (image 1) or adding in flat colors (image 2).  It doesn't particularly matter which step I do first, as long as I do both on separate layers underneath my inks layer.  The shading is done with a couple different shades of gray, trying to keep in mind where my light source is.  Flat colors are easy enough--Just stay within the lines!  After both are done, I change my shading layer to sit transparently over my flat colors (I set the shading layer to "Multiply").  That's what you see in image 3.  It's gettin' there, but the drawing looks a little muddy, doesn't it?

Image 1-color adjusted shading layer, Image 2-flat color layer combined with adjusted shading

Images 3 & 4-close up detail shots.

 I then take the shading layer and edit the color balance.  For the shading that sits on warmer colors (like her skin and anything pink), I adjust the color from gray to something warmer.  Cooler colored regions have their shading changed to cooler tones as well.  Image 1 is what that shading layer looks like after I'm done making my adjustments.  Image 2 is what the drawing looks like with the adjusted shading layer added in.  Now Pink [POW-Her Ranger] has gone from looking sort of pallid and lifeless to ready to kick some arse!  Oh, but there's more.

It is at this stage that I allow myself to work on all the little details that really make an image pop.  As you can see from the close-up images, I added in a bunch of details like her eye-make up, her flushed cheeks, the dull shine on her elbow pad's plate and all of the ridiculous little pyramid studs on her belt. 

Yeah, I really hated that belt...haha.  And it seems like such a trivial detail to labor over, I know.  But you have to admit that it really helps polish off the final image.

Now the drawing is done and ready to be dropped into the flyer design.  I'm not going to go into how I work on that because I don't even know what I'm doing half the time...hahaha.  But I'll leave you now with a look at the flyer she was featured on.

By now I've designed a handful of different bout posters, but this one is still my favorite!

Fonts used: Circus, Feast of Flesh BB and Market Deco (all found on dafont). 

The Infamous Jungle Room Brawl and Millie Brawl

To kick off the Dames' inaugural home bouting season, we hosted an exhibition bout January 7th, 2012 called, "The Infamous Jungle Room Brawl" (in honor of Elvis Presley's birthday).  We divided our league into 2 equal teams, The Jailhouse Rockers and The Memphis Mafia, played Elvis' music during the bout, and even had an Elvis impersonator as half-time entertainment.


Our league president, Millie Brawl (#45rpm), is a huge Elvis fan.  So it seemed fitting that her likeness should grace the bout flyer for our first ever home bout.



I was really at a loss for how to design an Elvis themed roller derby flyer, so I decided to incorporate him into the drawing instead.  I based the pose on his classic, teetering stance from Jailhouse Rock.  I then tried to offer a nod to his costume as well, by keeping the outfit (aka a "boutfit") monochromatic.  And of course, the horizontally striped shirt is based on the shirt he wore under the jacket.




Being short on time and ideas, I kept the colors flat and the background incredibly simple.  Overall, the Elvis theme didn't really shine through, but for our first bout, it got the job done.

Ever since I submitted the design I've really been wanting to go back and re-color Millie.  For one, I thought some shading would make her pop much more.  Plus I wanted to adorn her with a Dames T-shirt, instead of one that just makes her look like a confused ref.  I actually started doing this a while ago.  I added a Dames logo, changed the T-shirt to solid black and changed the color of her shorts to red.  Her hair color was changed as well (at the time of the bout, her hair was a sort of turquoise color, but at present it's a bold red).



It was only today that I reopened the file and started giving the drawing a proper shading.  I also had to redraw portions of the T-shirt, since the original had a collar.  I also changed her gear to resemble the ones she actually has, from her leopard print knee-pads to the bulls eye/target toe-guards on her skates, to her fishnets and glasses.  Here's the end result.

  

Hmm, needs a lasso.

And here are a couple detail shots for your viewing pleasure!

Had I the patience, I would have redrawn her knee pads to look bulkier.

Those Smith knee pads are ginormous!

And there you have it!  Millie Brawl, #45rpm! 

Meet Ginger

I know it may seem silly to some for me to post 2 separate entries in one night, but I'm eager to put up my older work so I can get to the more recent drawings.  But c'mon, who's really going to complain about it to me anyway?

Jerks.  That's who.  But screw 'em, I say!

Anyway, after being in my league for only about 2 months, I found myself in a position where I had to go from Freshmeat to Veteran status practically overnight due to some major changes to the league (restructuring, relocation etc).  This was both as a skater and as a marketing committee member.  In fact, I became the designer for the league.  As in the only designer.

Suddenly I had the responsibility of designing a flyer for our upcoming fundraiser.  However, we were such a young league (still are really) that we didn't have any adequate photos to use at the time.  I feel very strongly against using clip-art and stock photos whenever possible.  And don't even get me started on pulling "found" photos from google image search (artistic integrity or artistic snobbery?  You decide)!  So in my eyes, the only option left was to draw something--or someone.

Now known as "Ginger," our first poster girl (dressed in DDD gear) wasn't based on any of our actual members.  If she was based on anyone at all, it was probably Cheryl Blossom of Archie Comics-fame :P

If any of you guys think her left (on our right) leg looks funny...well you're right.  I had spent so much time on this drawing that I was getting supremely sick of it.  In order to save some time (and sanity) I wound up copy/pasting her other foot.  A properly drawn foot should have been angled so that it is facing the viewer a little bit more.  Just looking at her foot now makes me wince in anticipation of a broken ankle.  Fortunately my teammates were able to look past her wonky foot (or maybe they just didn't notice, haha). 

Soon afterwards we were going to host another fundraiser that featured a winter holiday food drive.  Still without many photos, I decided to enlist Ginger's help once again.

I didn't have the time to come up with a brand new drawing, so instead I removed the bowling ball, added the ginormous Santa-bag, and then redrew her hands so she would be holding it.  I also added a scarf, making use of a photoshop brush created by artist, Ruyi Yuen aka Rooster.  The brush was actually created to simulate the look of chain mail, but I used it here to add the knit texture to Ginger's scarf.  

Next up is our first bout flyer poster girl!  But I think 2 blog entries is enough for one night, don't you?  'Til next time!

Official Launch is Go!

Welcome to the first official (and very late) post of my derby art blog!  I've been meaning to do this for several months now, but only got around to throwing it together tonight...Eh well.  Better late than never, no?

I suppose I should start by introducing myself (though most of the people who see this blog are going to be people I know in real life anyway).  Here goes!

My skater name is Knuckle Sammich, though my teammates call me "Knuckles" for short (feel free to do the same).  I started roller derby in July of 2011 when I joined The DuPage Derby Dames.  By now I've only been derbying it up for a year, but I completely fell in love with it right away.  It's an amazing, fast-paced, action-packed sport that embraces people of all backgrounds, skill sets and body types.  I may be constantly covered in scrapes and bruises, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I only wish I would have thought to give it a whirl earlier in my life!

In addition to being a derby girl, I am also an artist (and nerd-o supreme)!  In fact, I'm the main designer for my roller derby league.  Thus it's only natural that I've started racking up a bit of derby-related art.  I already have another (admittedly neglected) art blog, but I thought I'd put together another one to specifically feature derby art.  And so here we are :)

So to kick this blog off right we have my very first derby-related drawing!     

In August of 2011, my league had a photographer come in to take everyone's headshots.  Unfortunately for me I missed it, so I drew this as my replacement :P  I tried to mimic the same style of the photos themselves, from the stark, black background, to the glow of the back-light. I rushed this one a little bit (which isn't saying much still because I'm slow) so it doesn't look much like me in my opinion.  And it's not as polished as I could have made it.  Even so, it was a fun little way to christen the crazy derby adventure I was embarking upon.

Now, almost exactly one year later, we're having a photographer come in to take new headshots. And this time, I won't miss it!  I'm getting my headshot, dag nabit!