Still playing GD

Spent a little more time with the font book today. Getting there, or maybe already there. Top in Bell Gothic, bottom in Univers. Adjusted the leading space, as Colin suggested. Kali and Justin lent me a little advice.

I am not a designer, part 2

Hello. Thank you for your comments on that last post, they have been very helpful. I am continuing to work on this potential business card, so if you've got more suggestions, throw them at me! It doesn't take long at all to edit this, so any little thing. Here is the updated version with the magic wand, which was my favorite in the first place.

I darkened the wand so it's more easily readable against the dark background, and I've changed the band on his hat to match it. It is getting closer to correct.


Also, I thought that a bowler hat would have gone nicely with a switchblade. Just checking.

I am also working on the back of the card. I am working with two versions, one that is simple and one that is crammed with text, just like this blog. Here is the latter. I am working on positioning the necessary text in an interesting way. I don't think I have it right yet. I am still trying.
And the former.

As you can see, I list www.sbosma.com. This has been registered, and is being considered. Thank you for your time.

New business card in progress

The coelacanth is a charming fish-about-town.

I am leaning towards the bottom one, as it leaves a bit of mystery. Is he a magician? Is he a tap dancer?

All digital.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth - part eight of eight

The cover. The end.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth - part seven of eight

Bros, bros, bros.

How are you? I hope you are well. I am well, and so I wish the same for you. I am living every week like it's Shark Week.

Getting close to the end, here. Yep. These are the last two aside from the cover and it's colored, +text version, and they may be my favorites. One definitely is, and the other I am simply partial to. Perhaps it is also good? YOU DECIDE.

A simple image, to be sure. However, I think that I struck the appropriate mood for the scene, and so it pleases me. This was a lot of fun to do, because it was almost entirely tonal with very little actual detail to it, so I could do some more "painting" than I do in the more elaborate compositions. I say "painting," because I apply the graphite with a paintbrush. My original thumbnail for this had Devil's Reef in the background, but I took that out because it made the lighting I wanted a little strange. I think this works better. Nothing like a nice horizon line. This isn't really from any particular part of the story, but, like the one with the little houses, is more of a general interpretation of the story.

And the next.



Here is Obed Marsh convening with the Deep Ones. From the thumbnail, I knew this was going to be the best one, and I think that is because it hits a good level of both atmosphere and detail. Ah, ah, I am pleased with this one. I don't have all that much to say about it. Maybe you do? ONLY YOU KNOW.

Did you guys go to James Jean's opening in NYC? I did. Man was it crowded! I wanted to cry a little bit, but not from the crowd. From the paintings, the paintings. Man. That dude. Man.

I have a rather tentative hold over Thesis and Illustrated Book next semester. I may be doing some normal stuff, but with a little twist. I already want to start working on Illustrated Book.

I hope this New Year is turning out as well as you had hoped.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth - Part six of eight

Yes, well. Here we are, in the year two thousand and nine. Congratulations to you all who have survived so long. Only three more years until that magnificent rainbow-snake Quetzalcoatl descends on our frail people before devouring the sun and ending us all. Until then, let's do our best.

Furthermore, it's time to continue our swim through bleak Innsmouth. The gloomy shore approaches; we are almost done.

Obed Marsh, the man who first drew the Deep Ones to Innsmouth, thought himself a greater man than he was and spurned his Fishy masters. Well, "spurned" is a subjective term. Really, he just stopped offering his townsfolk up as sacrifices to their Old Gods. Of course, somebody's blood must be spilled into those cold seas to slake Cthulhu's endless thirst. Might as well be the regular folks of Innsmouth.


When Obed goes too long without offering flesh, the Deep Ones come for it in the night. At this point in the story, Zadok Allen goes into something of a drunken rage at the recollection of certain other things the Deep Ones brought with them from the ocean floor. Just some of the unimaginable (and thereby unillustratable) things from the Lovecraft mythos.

Anyway, that one is a really simple image. Not the best, not my favorite, but a story-flesher.

This next one was a lot of fun, and is probably the most detailed of all of them.
This doesn't partane to any particular point in the story, other than the general impression that the people of Innsmouth have access to an infinite supply of fish and sea-life because of their pact with the Deep Ones. I kind of went nuts with this one and just put more and more different types of sealife into the net, whether they were logical or not. You might notice a few funny things in there.

I bought a ton of books over the holiday break that I am slowly tackling. Part of it was the backlog of books I simply didn't have a chance to read when I was first recommended them by whomever. There was also the rapidly approaching start of this next and last semester which brings with it yet another bout with Allan Comport's Illustrated Book class, which yielded these submarine fever dreams. I will do a post later about my acquisitions and my findings therein.

I also had a chance to see The Wrestler and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The former is, as you have heard, a spectacular character study by the famously inventive Darren Aronofsky (pleasantly restrained here). The latter is beautiful and well acted, but ultimately ends up being a pointless retread of Forrest Gump with an interesting premise that never comes to fruition satisfactorily. Very nice effects, though.

You may perhaps remember these three charmers? Well they have all been accepted into Society of Illustrators West 47. Congratulations to all who got in. I'm not sure if I'm sending these off to the show at Gallery Nucleus, but I may yet. I may yet.

I might also be headed into New York this weekend with Kali and Jeremy to see the James Jean show at the Jonathan Levine Gallery. God, it's going to be spectacular/crowded. Hope to see you there (if I am there).