Daily Pattern: To the Race Track

In fourth grade, my Kentucky-born teacher had us bet on the Derby. My pick became the winning horse and I became the proud owner of a King-Size Snickers bar. Sadly, that Snickers bar is gone, but here's a pattern to commemorate.

Daily Pattern: Racetrack Dogs

I hate cars and love dogs, so I figured drawing some Greyhounds might be fun. But they are kind of strange looking so it was harder than I would have guessed.

Daily Pattern - Fast Cars on the Race Track

I made up some crazy cars for this pattern. I hope no manly dudes check me on my car anatomy. Race on! VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOM! All these cars are out of control!

Daily Pattern - Vroom

I've never actually drawn a car before - let alone a race car. I realize there are multiple types of race tracks, but I liked the idea of trying something new. So here's my first attempt at some sort of cartoon car, and it's topsy turvy race track. Enjoy.

Daily Pattern - Race Track

For this pattern I was more inspired by the awesome pinstriping simplified with the Hot Wheel toys I had when I was younger. This was fun for a color study since it makes me feel like Christmas when I see it.

Daily Pattern - Treasure Hunt

Ah, a sandy beach covered with dubloons and jewels.

This is pretty late, but better late than never!

Daily Pattern: Treasure Islands (plural)

I know it's abut as expected as you can get, but here's my treasure map themed pattern! BUT! I saw Francesca was drawing ships over lunch, so mine is boat free!



Here's one a little further back so you can actually see all the islands.



Actually, I went a little overboard prepping for this pattern, so in addition to everything you see, I also drew boats, a whale, sea monsters, a giant squid, a whale and a compass rose. I even had labels for each island!

But it was just too crazy to put all together and still be able to see anything, so in the end I was left with just the islands!

For those curious, the island names were; Skull Island, Dead Man's Island, Black Crow Island, Gunpowder Island, The Spot, and Butterfly Sword Island.

Daily Pattern: Hunting on the High Seas

Since nobody knows what the one piece is (the mysterious "ultimate treasure" in Eiichiro Oda's manga series), I drew inspiration from another of my favorite treasure stories. Treasure Island is on my list of literary prizes. The book even–though I'm pretty fond of a few of the other interpretations.



(I will be jealous, Adam, if you do a One Piece themed pattern. Just saying.)

Daily Pattern : Treasure Hunt in the Cave of Wonders

It was hard to decide (not really) which movie from my childhood had the best treasure hunt... Indiana Jones, Goonies... Aladdin? I mean, really. I guess it's not an adventure like the others - still Aladdin's treasure must be the heart of Princess Jasmine. Here's my fan art pattern for the best movie of all time.

Daily Pattern: Playschool Screw Set?

I'm not so handy and I rarely mess around with tools, at the very most I'll whip out a hammer and nails to hang a picture or something, so honor of our theme today I present to you an extremely girly "screw" pattern. Lindsay taught me the magic of "roughen" in photoshop today via ichat so I wanted to give that a go as well.

Daily Pattern : Pile-o-screws

(Don't put your hand in there!)
I have a tool bag at home. Instead of sorting all the contents, I have it all piled in there like a pointy tetanus-giving collection of useful shrapnel. I use that bag of tools more frequently than I would have guessed I would... Hanging shows, fixing stuff around the house, etc. Here is what my tool bag would look like if I didn't have things like hack-saws and chisels in it.

Daily Pattern: Chopped and Screw'd

From what I've seen, there's not a ton of men working in the product design. At every place I've worked I was either the only man, or one of very, very few.

That's cool. I don't want to have to pretend to follow along in conversations about sports, tools and cars (that's what dude's talk about right? Hmmm, I forget...)

So whenever a client is asking for something manly, the project usually ends up in my lap. And when a dude-tastic topic like "screw" comes up, I've got to do something gritty and tough.



This is a whole bunch of bitmaps in illustrator. It might be cool to go back and do a lower resolution pass on the bitmaps to make it extra rough.

The whole time I was making the pattern, I knew what I envisioned it being used for; filling in big, buff, blocky type.



Ah snap. That's the most street Paper Bicycle treatment I've ever seen.

Daily Pattern - Screw

Well, this took about 2.5 seconds to create. Simple!

Daily Pattern: Screw

If I ever have to use screws in a project, odds are I can calculate how many holes there will be at the end of the project by using a little math. For instance, if I need to screw in one screw, it will probably take at least three trial-and-error holes before getting it right. So if I need to screw in four screws, I'll end up with about sixteen holes. Not so good for 3D projects, but it worked out fine for this 2D one.

Daily Pattern: Pencil Ahoy!

My homeboy Adam Hoppus is back! Today he went back a couple topics and did this excellent rendition of Writing Utensil!

Daily Pattern: Adam's Easter!

We went out for dinner with out good friend Adam Hoppus tonight. While we were eating, I was sketching some Easter Eggs for today's pattern.

Adam was throwing out ideas and he must have gotten so inspired that he went home and made his own!



Excellent, dude!

Daily Pattern: Egg Cakes for Babies!

Easter! Eggs!

I spent as much time taming the colors in this pattern as I did creating it. I could probably keep fussing all night as it's pretty crazy, but it's time to post!



Takes me back to Egg Cakes for Babies!

Daily Pattern - Easter Eggs

Oh the things I would do for a good woodgrain.

So, woodgrain easter eggs!

The best thing about these is that it makes me think of my Dad. For the last couple of years he's been mastering the art of wood turning and every once in a while, a perfect captive ring or a smooth, beautiful wooden eggs appears on the shelf in the den.

Daily Pattern - Writing Utensil

Nibs!

The fountain pen has got to be the classiest writing utensil.

Daily Pattern: Easter Eggs

Pentel brush pens are an excellent thing to carry at all times. One of these was responsible for half the creation of this pattern.

Daily Pattern - Easter Eggs

I always have fingers that are dyed brown by all the slip-ups and messy dying during our annual Easter egg making. I remember back in the day we used to have a hexagonal dipper that we thought was the coolest. My mom got glasses a few years back and they were similarly shaped to the dipper we used in the days of olde. I couldn't look at her without thinking of Easter.

Daily Pattern: Writing Utensils

Even though I'm surrounded by nothing but art for my entire life, it still works out that I can never find the writing utensil or art-making tool when I need it.

If I'm sketching I only have pens and x-acto knives. If I'm need to make a mock-up, I only have pencils. If I just need to jot an important number down, I don't have anything.

Anyway, I started this pattern thinking about these work utensils that have messages about being a working artist written on the side instead of brand names. Unfortunately it became super hard to read at a small size, so I ended up making the type a little bigger and bolder than I was originally planning.





I think if I were to actually use this pattern, I'd take the words out, but hey, they were important to the brainstorm.

Daily Pattern: Writing utensils

Nowadays I take for granted that my most frequently used writing utensil (especially when actually writing) isn't even cylindric. I'm using it right now. Here's to you, keyboard!

Daily Pattern : Writing Utensils

I'm willing to bet that everyone's very first writing utensils were probably a great big box of Crayola Crayons. Even today I love the idea of busting open a box of 64 - complete with crayon sharpener. The colors, the names, the smell... There's nothing better. Last year we had a project where we were able to develop the names and colors of a box of 48 crayons. Best project ever.

Daily Pattern - Writing Utensils

What's better than a perfectly sharpened pencil? Nothing, that's what! For today's pattern I wanted to do something bright, colorful, and that makes office supplies seem super fun! Ironically enough, I exclusively use mechanical pencils, but the good ol' traditional ones are way more fun to draw / look at.

Nashville, Day 2

I had some early morning meetings to attend to with my new colleagues and then just an hour to walk around a small part of town. I found a cute 2 block radius that had ice-cream shops, great local delis, bookstores, and paper shops. Here are some of the cute stores. I grabbed some lunch at a place called Fido, which is a pet-shop-turned-cafe, and then shopped for a second. I really liked my stay in Nashville. Everyone was friendly, it was green and spacious, and if I could have had just a little more time, I'm sure I would have found some more, fun places.




An adorable paper shop/ stationery store called Social Graces








Inside Fido






The view from my window seat in Fido


My delicious Melted Mozzarella sandwich and Roasted Red Pepper soup








Great vintage signs everywhere


Pangaea, a cute boutique


Window Display and reflection of Pangaea

I drove my rented Mustang back to the rental car return after spending an hour or so in this little part of the city. Nashville, I am impressed. Hopefully I'll get a chance to visit again some time soon.

Daily Pattern: Groupies

If the book/murder mystery one is for my parents, this one is for my sister, Anna-Marie. She is a Beatles fan (obviously not one who grew up with them, nor is she old enough to be the current hipster kind of Beatles fan). So yeah, those dudes are the Beatles.

Next I'll hope for a topic where I can make an Elvis pattern, because he is my other young sister's favorite.

Daily Pattern - Groupies

I'm not sure if I could ever have classified myself as a groupie, but I definitely remember having a deep love of a certain band that continued through highschool. It started to become weird when I was the oldest person at their concerts by about 10 years. Still, I remember the feeling of watching them play and singing along to every song proudly. Even if I was the only 25 year old in a sea full of teens.


a small swatch for full effect


a group of groupies - the whole pattern

Daily Pattern: Groupie

When I was trying to figure out how I wanted to approach this admittedly bizarre pattern topic, I imagined the stereotypical backstage party filled with groupies. Then I kept narrowing in the scope; I eliminated the rockers, the girls, the food, the booze, the panties, etc... until all I had left was the grimy floor filled with cigarette butts, guitar picks and the occasional tube of lipstick.



Fun Fact! One summer, when I was around 10 or so, I was outside playing at a big family gathering. I ran over to where I left my delicious Orange Crush, picked it up and took a huge swig... only to get a mouthful of thick orange-soda-and-ash slurry. Someone folks at the party had been ashing their cigarettes in my can. I immediately vomited.

Even Kel wouldn't drink that Orange Soda!

Daily Pattern - Groupie

I got my new Intuos 4 tablet in the mail today - so this is my first ever creation using it. Still a bit loose, and a little shaky but it's a really cool tablet. When it came to ideas for this pattern I wanted to focus on items associated with the groupie (keeping it PG). So yeah, enjoy!