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View Full Version : Show-Off Time - Part 1 - My Recent Artwork


CodeZero
04-09-2008, 11:17 AM
Keep in mind, I'm a newbie by far compared to some of the graphics designers out there with only about 2 years of dedicated time put into learning Photoshop, but with CS3's release I've really been digging deeper and deeper and putting in about as much time as I can to learn.

This design is from a "myspace mirror shot" I took. Then modified the hell out of the texturing and placed myself into a creepy looking factory. I spent quite a bit more time blending all ofthe colors together to make it look as real as possible.

<img src="http://a752.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/111/l_455df304b266875bdd30ba24264121a7.jpg">

This was done for a contest at Brickfish.com. The Sith Lord is actually The Mysterious Mr. X from Brickfish. I stole his likeness and evil-fied him. Finding the font they used for the box art to change the lettering from KOTOR's original wording to my own was a bit of a bish but I feel pretty good about the final outcome.

<img src="http://a956.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/62/l_8bcc8918e5bf7f5b77f0d29cb2802e8b.jpg">

I'm not, and I repeat NOT a fan of Chris Brown's music... this was done for a contest on Buzznet.com that I seemingly didn't win. :sadface: My crowning achievement was the coloring done on the lettering. I spent a lot of time trying to get that effect and sadly I can't even reproduce it now as I tried to do on my Stompfest T-Shirt design.

<img src="http://a282.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/79/l_da1c641560dc8a77007e5cb3975fca89.jpg">

This was done for Brickfish.com in association with the Scion xB. They wanted people to create "Boxhead's" to represent the Scion community. Since they take pride in box-shaped cars you kinda get the point. We had to give our box character a story and all so I went for a beat-up looking band-aid. The original layer was an actual cross-shaped band-aid I pulled off like CVS.com.

<img src="http://a661.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/61/l_898c13360ced631f3e29e3cd3ee8f34c.jpg">

I did some "horror modeling" for a friend of mine who is a photographer. The original concept was for some Clive Barker inspired blood-fest with self-mutiliation and all. Since the series included "nude" photography as well I have no intentions of posting that here for ya'll's sakes. So instead, here's an image I took and heavily modified into a Vampire getting hit with light and burning. The fangs were digitally inserted through photoshop as was the skin effects, cracking, etc. The blood and black make-up were from the original image.

<img src="http://a873.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/52/l_635c53adf6da95ef1b39fd9202d5d018.jpg">

This image was a banner I created for my new BuzzPlay group on Buzznet. You can view the real thing which looks un-blurred at www.buzznet.com/buzzplay.

<img src-"http://a590.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/93/l_10c7585c3a46f55f3fb33ca4ccedc715.jpg">

My neighbor took this shot of his wife lying on the floor with her kitten (no pun intended). I just went in and did a lot of photo manipulation to make her bath robe stick out from the image and also did a lot of skin smoothing.

<img src="http://a416.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/68/l_2bb159d710c35f004495f162263f0547.jpg">

Same neighbor, wearing her boots that she's had for years. They're so beat up but she loves how they fit "just right". I wanted to give the image that antiquated, warm feeling you get from putting on your favorite pair of hiking boots that you may have had for years.

<img src="http://a421.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/78/l_66fb10f6d7f2baf56317659091d444a4.jpg">

This next set of images is actually of Ryan Hupfer aka "Hup". I did the images for his Hell on Wheels Tour and admittedly they're about 1.5 years old so it really shows off my newbish design skills overall, but I have to pat myself on the back for the amount of work I put into transforming him into Jason Vorhees. Also, in learning how to "cut out a window", place someone inside a vehicle, and place the window back on the vehicle in the bus image.

<img src="http://a319.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/57/l_fe03692677a2264dbe74260d5b2a01ae.jpg">

<img src="http://a561.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/73/l_2bdadd51ad8a75b6e18f6b4a64879d90.jpg">

<img src="http://a196.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/86/l_338a25cd0cc54964366c358408b83613.jpg">

If anyone here really knows me, they be the first to spot why I chose to do this following image. I've got an unhealthy obsession with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Hunter S. Thompson is (was) an amazing writer and seeing the movie made to be so artfully true to his account of the events written in the book was awesome. This guy at Hup's Hell on Wheels event was dressed up like Johnny Depp's portrayal of Hunter in the movie. I snapped a shot and then used a shot of the bus we did the keg-stands in during the event. Put them together and came up with this.

<img src="http://a928.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/82/l_6b020ad1132933b48376642b242d5d87.jpg">

I love My Chemical Romance and I love VNV Nation. I stole the idea for this MySpace header from a similar design VNV Nation did for their MySpace. Ok, well I just stole the idea for the 3 blocks, everything else is original, including the idea for the smiley faces.

<img src="http://a357.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/40/l_d3a691027b12a77ca7e6811793e2f084.jpg">

The cookie monster + binary code? You can't go wrong there...

<img src="http://a444.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/18/l_b1a69af92567a151a98ea2de6fbfaf1b.jpg">

What do you get with an Angel, a Ren Faire Chick, and a Castle? Three images worked together to show off the lyrics to a song from a totally obscure band. Weird I know... but I liked the overall outcome of this image. I often-times say it was the first "almost professional" looking design I've ever come up with.

<img src="http://a327.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/122/l_aef1af49f4e5a1cbe24a59479f6b50fe.jpg">

Don't mind the fact that the pocket is shaped like all kinds of wrong. It was a design contest where I had to adhere to that exact shape on Brickfish.com. The campaign was to make a pocket to show off your support for the (red) cause.

<img src="http://a236.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/21/l_a316f72826d7220136bc191988981f63.jpg">

Pretty basic flyer for a local DJ friend of mine, but I liked the concept of using Nuts to bring life to the idea that his crew is called the SoundNutz.

<img src="http://a929.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/120/l_53e8ea5d78450f2d30352fa6f10d8f88.jpg">

When I was in Jr High, I used variations of the names Chemikal and Confoozion throughout my time on (m)IRC, AOL, Prodigy, Compuserve. I needed a cool "neophyte" sounding name so I took my favorite techno artists from the period, The Chemical Brothers, and came up with the names above. Fast forward about 10 years and I came up with this design that I still consider to be one of my all-time favorite photoshop creations.

<img src="http://a185.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/18/l_482feeb1ad4d41cf9d53e084c7424f48.jpg">

Sun Diego hosted a contest on Brickfish.com for a T-Shirt design. This was my entry. It has the intentional darker yellow spots to signify wear and tear on the sign. The idea is also supposed to convey "Surfer Crossing" since the company caters to surfers and beach bums with their clothing.

<img src="http://a584.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/10/l_aaa9025ed377e379f2e2b422717f6a9f.jpg">

If you were at Stompfest, you might have seen this Flyer. I did the design for the company, and it was for free since my Sister owns it, haha. =]

<img src="http://a648.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/102/l_42b1912955f03c170bc71a32e10d6377.jpg">

Business Card design for a local ghost hunting group that I'm a part of called N.I.G.H.T.

<img src="http://a997.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/116/l_cd2ef7db7afc16e0b19166c2fef796b4.jpg">

Web logos I created for my own company, Geek In The Box, when it was still in existence.

<img src="http://a31.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/92/l_dfa6272cb35e72e7a07d9f7f2a650aae.gif">

<img src="http://a827.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/88/l_28a6e490f3f4e70633af11d4f7318cd2.jpg">

Another web flyer design for the SoundNutz crew

<img src="http://a391.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/118/l_a702b5e208d0223cac9057a12799bafe.jpg">

I'm a HEROES fan through and through

<img src="http://b2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/01490/29/97/1490307992_l.jpg">

CodeZero
04-09-2008, 11:17 AM
She had a boobie slip... so I had to cover it up for her so her husband wouldn't mind me posting this online. Hahahaha.

<img src="http://a28.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/18/l_944b690d809e4449fd65c18ce91257a3.jpg">

This is for a snowboard I designed for the Moosehead Snowboard Design contest at Brickfish.

<img src="http://a367.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/17/l_d2e66bd4fe356558b6e029938e17bf76.jpg">

I created this design for a My Chemical Romance album release contest. Oddly enough I photoshopped the logo inside of the glass on the clock and because it looks rather real people were asking me over and over again where I bought it so they could buy one too.

<img src="http://a951.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/51/l_657bf2d51a8514a0615308a695894bee.jpg">

Little promo design thing I did to show off my love for the local band The Virgin Millionaires

<img src="http://b4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/01498/49/23/1498303294_l.jpg">

More MCR Promo materials I made for a contest

<img src="http://a295.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/59/l_d63c9d89c4bf0004be8110be25d5a056.jpg">

<img src="http://a174.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/54/l_e4d0f6aa2b263b611dc666e3561d3fcd.jpg">

It's worth noting that on the one below that was originally a blank tombstone. It took me HOURS to figure out how to make a fake engraving and then destory the text to make it look as old as possible but still retaining the lettering to make it readable.

<img src="http://a268.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/48/l_c5643dc3d41966fec9b0ad433f78c613.jpg">

Valentine's Day - Geek Style! - I took this shot in three parts, cropped, cut, colored, and designed it. Then printed it and cut into three pieces and used a three-picture frame to make a nice little present for a Valentine a few years back.

<img src="http://a820.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/14/l_91139d27c4ba6b7dbe70a4b558d424f3.jpg">

Here's one last one... the same idea as the Brickfish - KOTOR image. I had to make a fictional video game box so I chose The Mysterious Mr. X and my all-time favorite Atari game, Pitfall.

<img src="http://a768.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/28/l_b6f3ecb468c7152db27262ce3827622f.jpg">

CodeZero
04-09-2008, 11:24 AM
Here's one more I forgot about. This was used in the MCR design contest too, but I decided to trample on the copyright for Jaws and use the original artwork for the movie, with heavy modifications to remove all references to the movie anyway.

m_d_butler
04-09-2008, 11:29 AM
That is all really cool stuff, some real talent.

CodeZero
04-09-2008, 11:33 AM
Thanks m_d_butler!!

If only I could refine the skill towards doing seriously professional work and getting a job with it... I'm too hot and cold on my design skills though. Some days I break out some crazy good material, and other times it comes out like I just opened Photoshop for the first time.

m_d_butler
04-09-2008, 11:37 AM
One of my coworkers is checking this out, "This guy is really good with photoshop." He does photography on the side.

CodeZero
04-09-2008, 11:43 AM
Awesome! =] After losing most of the contests I entered with this stuff to really substandard designs it's refreshing to get some good feedback.

I'd have posted my entire portfolio but it's ridiculously large right now and I haven't taken the time to really build a gallery for it online yet.

Regardless though, thank you and your coworker a lot!