Finding beauty in the details

This past June I brought my camera to the Klingberg Vintage Motor Car Festival in New Britain, CT. While so many people were taking snapshots of the exquisite autos at this show, I became fascinated by the beautiful lines and shapes in the details. Standing just a couple of feet away from a fender, a young lady asked me what I was shooting. It reminded me of realizing how odd I looked standing inches away from a giant sequoia, taking pictures of the beautiful red bark. Hope you enjoy these shots... and are encouraged to look for beauty and design in the details around you.

eklektos on Workbook.com

Lately life has been very full with teaching, making plans for a school, working, hanging out with my family, and working with some folks to help me build a bigger client base. Part of growing the business now includes several portfolios on Workbook.com. So far I've been really pleased with their customer service... no taking your credit card number and then forgetting who you are. Let's see what comes of it...

Klingberg Auto Show

I just completed a series of pieces to help promote the 2011 Klingberg Vintage Motor Car Festival. It was a tremendous honor and opportunity. The VP, Mark Johnson, is one of those delightful clients who knows when to give direction and when to let the artist play. And play I did, deciding to make use of Adobe Illustrator for almost all the art.

This is the second year that the show is running on Father's Day weekend, hence the father/son theme on the poster. The show is features rare and seldom seen antique vehicles, displaying about 500 antique automobiles from collectors in the Northeast. But more importantly, it serves as a fundraiser for Klingberg Family Center, raising funds for vital programs restoring and preserving families for children.

For more info about the show, visit www.KlingbergAutoShow.org.

The car featured on the front of the flyer
is a 1939 Delahaye Type 135M.

I couldn't resist drawing a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado
for the interior spread.

I had a lot of fun with the poster.
Designed for 3 formats, this one is 11" x 17".
The car is a 1914 Locomobile Berline Limousine.

Create elaborate patterns from a single flower

Here's an easy way to create some beautiful patterns that could be used for fabrics, scarves, or just plain fun... all from a single image of a flower and some Photoshop magic. 

For this demonstration I chose a photo I have of a pansy, one of my wife's favorite flowers.

Isolate the image of the flower and place it on a separate layer in a new document. Drag guides from the top and bottom to mark the center of the document.

Fill the background with a color. I happened to choose green because... just because. You don't have to get deep and technical about this. You can play with and change colors to your heart's content. Then change the blending mode of the flower layer to Difference. 

Duplicate the flower layer 4 times, creating 5 identical layers. Select the four top layers,  select Edit => Free Transform, and drag the center point of the selection to the center of the document, at the intersection of the guides. Rotate the selection 72 degrees.

Repeat this process with the 3 top layers, then the top 2 and finally the remaining top layer. Create a group from all the flower layers. 

Duplicate the group. With the new group selected, select Edit => Free Transform, rotate the group 36 degrees, and scale and move the selection until it covers the background area.

Now for some fun. Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above the background and play with the hue.

To take it a step further, experiment by changing the blending mode of the groups. You can see the variations by just changing the blending mode of the top group.

Each flower you use yields a unique image. Here's a sample of a pattern I created using an image of a snapdragon.

Have fun!  If anyone decides to use this tutorial I'd love to know how and where you applied it.

Balsa Gliders at Barnes and Noble

There's never a bad time for some shameless promotion. If you visit your local Barnes and Noble (or if you want to drive to visit one far away) and visit the bargain section, you will find a display of kits on sale for Christmas (or "the holidays" for those who are easily offended). 
















Amongst the piles of boxes you should find kits for making balsa gliders. Not those cheesy, styrofoam, poor-excuse-for-a-glider kind that most kids today have played with.


And here comes the promotion part... ready... I designed and illustrated the box cover! Honestly, I've been a designer/illustrator for over 30 years and I still get jazzed when I see my stuff in print.




So buy one or two or three for the kids in your life and tell them, "I know the guy who did this!" I don't get any royalties, but you'll have the audacious pleasure of boasting to your friends that you know someone minimally famous.