GRIN AND BEAR IT

Okay, so it's been a while.... I feel like the last time I posted some actual graphics on here, it was, like,... Summer or something.
    Here's how my life goes. Stephe will finish up some projects and get super psyched about having a "web presence" again(especially since some japanese domain scalper stole his website name). So while he's working up some Creative Briefs and sketches, he tells me to start blogging and tumbling and whatnot. So then, I've gotta make up a bunch of stuff about all these illustrations, even though usually I have no idea what to say. A lot of times, he'll just laugh when I show him what I've written, but every so often, if I catch him on a bad day, he'll make me rewrite these blog posts over and over again until they're "right". whatever that means. It's your money, dude.
   Well, it's been Crazy-go-Nuts around here all fall. I've gone from t-shirt and jeans to puffy coats and scarfs, and yet, I still haven't had the time to write up posts on designs that dropped in the summer.

   Anyways, What's this piece? Grin and Bear it. Aaah yes, Grin and Bear it. That was a good one. We played around with colors for that one for a few days. If I can find all the color treatments, I'll drop them at the bottom of this post. While I was coming up for colorways for this one, Stephe was in one of those moods I mentioned above. The one where he wants to fine tune everything and can't be pleased. I guess it's good, and I end up learning a thing or two about color theory from it. But sometimes I wish he'd just put the graphic to bed and deal with the A instead of the A+.

STREET KING

Here's the 3rd in that Artist Series Stephe did with Zoo York. This one, by far, wins the award for being the ugliest... I bet no one is gonna be turning this into a girls graphic any time soon.

  Originally, Stephe made this as a giant alligator, but the powers that be asked him to change it into a rat.... go figure.  Maybe rats have been proven to have more selling power than alligators? They're probably more "city iconic". Gators are sort of southern things, righ?  I wish it was still an alligator though, cause the rat is just kind of... too ugly.  Stephe could've done a nicer looking rat, i guess.  But the sketch of the alligator looked really cool. (check it out after the jump.)

POSEIDON

So, This one is called, well, I guess now it's called Flush the Streets, or something. Previously it was called Come Hell or High Water, but Flush the Streets sounds more Poetic.... it looses some of the Apocalypto Global Warming message though.. but whatever.
  Personally, I think that Stephe just came up with this idea cause he was like, "Hey, I wanna draw some waves and Octopus tentacles."  (Two things that I make fun of him for drawing) and then he was like, "Alright, add some buildings, and the empire state building, and....Neptune. Why not?"  And boom, Illustration done.
  Okay. so scratch that.  Stephe got a little mad at me for writing that and he lobbed a banana peel at me.  Um... he spent a lot of time thinking about this graphic and it somehow relates to another one he did where the city is snowbound and theres a Yeti thing or somethin.

CITY PROTECTOR

Hey All,   Stephen's been too "slammed with work" (that's his own phrase) to be able to continue to update his blogs and stuff, so he gave the task to me.  Right now he's drawing some monster or something.   Anyways, This graphic was done for Zoo York as part of a second Artist Series, cause the first one did really good.  After coming up with 7 board designs, they were like, "Hey, come up with 6 more of these Monster-Destroying-the-City Tshirts."    And he was like, "Okay". I think it's a little hard to figure out how to make more than 7 of these comic things, but Stephen didn't seem phased.  I left the studio that night at around 6ish.... and when i came back two days later, he already had the sketches ready to go for me to put into the Creative Brief.   More (and Sketch) after the break

King Westgate.

Further Proof that I was right in choosing to make Westgate's board be King Kong. I can't remember how long ago it was that I made this shirt, but I'm pretty sure it was my first season at Zoo.
    When JCPenney started carrying Zoo products, they raided the archives for printable designs. i guess this is one of the graphics they liked. Henceforth, REPRINT!! Keep on being a manimal Westgate.
 *photo credit to Sean Cronan.

Everything's Coming Up Guns and Roses!

So, today i just finished a pretty long terms job. It was one of my bread-n-butter jobs for the past few months. The freelance lifestyle can be pretty crazy sometimes, and I don't think I'll ever get used to the amount of freedom it offers. So now that I'm finishing up with one client, I can't help but feel a little.... freaked out. In order to commemorate today's news, I was going to post a David Bowie video for Changes. But right when I was about to search for it, I burst into song, "Everything's coming up Roses". I guess that better represents my mood today. Yay! Future

Looks like airlines are continuing there search for cost cutting ways of creating a more enjoyable flying experience. In this case, they are mixing an inflight employee workout with mandatory air flight safety instructions, inflight entertainment, and extra ad revenue from music publishers. Brilliant.

Math Magic

"For the life of me, I will always find that the Golden Section remains illusive. I used to try to be more deliberate about using it in my compositions, but never quite got the hang of it. During one of my first seasons at Zoo York, I used it as the basis for a Blue Print inspired pattern. This design was never made. It was supposed to be on a double layered windbreaker, the black was to be printed on a transparent top layer, with the blue printed under it. In the end, the production cost was astronomical, so it was canceled. :( I was also in the middle of sketching out the Hooper Heroes comic book, so there are a few subi symbols hiding in the drawing..... they're really, really hard to find though.

Birds.

"You're in our talons now, and we're never letting go." -this is the refrain that was stuck in my head while I was making this design. I've been doing a quite a few bird drawings lately for different brands. It's a little mini trend, i guess. This one that just came out. It's the famous birds of brooklyn. A while ago, a crate of Monk Parrots broke apart and the parrots escaped into the wilds of Kings County. They've been thriving here ever since. I often see them chirping in the trees while walking through Park Slope.

Dr. Octagon!

Continuing in my talent for drawing Octopi, here's the latest addition to the Portfolio.
This graphic was surprisingly fast to make. I was really impressed with how it turned out. It's always nice when the client likes your first sketch. They only wanted me to add some stuff to the bottom, which turned out to be an excellent suggestion. Thanks a lot, People of Exact Science.

i just got a box of these shirts in the mail the other day. The Printing was amazing. Really awesome work.

MMA

Since Kimbo Slice ended his UFC career, the MMA world is left with a giant Kimbo sized hole in its heart. Though Tapout has neither confirmed nor denied that they are looking to replace Mr. Slice, many new contenders are vying for the position. This promising contender is whispered to be on the short list:

Yep, that's right, MMA is getting pretty fierce.

Ok, so now you might be wondering, "Hey Stephe, WTF? You watch MMA? You don't seem like that kind of person." You're right. I'm not. But I've started working on some MMA inspired graphics.

piratecrest, originally uploaded by Stephen Halker.

So, in order to get the style right, I started reading about the players and watching the Youtube clips. I think the main thing that I learned is that MMA fighters are really tough. And their graphics for their shirts need to be really tough.... and sincere. Sincerely tough. This was one of the first ones I did, but certainly not the last. I think i did this about a year ago. I didn't quite get the "sincerely tough" thing down, but it's a good first attempt. It took forever to ink everything. And then it took just as long to clean it all up to print. Can't complain though. It was a lot of fun to do some this ornate. I got to zone out and listen to books on tape.

TboneSteak

Inspiration comes from all sorts of places. For this design, it comes from the Brooklyn Legend: Biggie Smalls. God bless a man who can sound tough while talking about welches Grape Juice.
Thanks also to Jeff Shoop for further inspiration.

TboneSteak, originally uploaded by Stephen Halker.

Notorious B.I.G. - Big-Poppa - Verse Two Straight up honey really I'm askin Most of these niggaz think they be mackin but they be actin Who they attractin with that line, "What's your name, what's your sign"? Soon as he buy that wine I just creep up from behind And ask what your interests are, "who you be with"? Things to make you smile, what numbers to dial You gon' be here for a while, I'm gon' go call my crew You go call your crew We can rendezvou at the bar around two Plans to leave, throw the keys to Lil Cease Pull the truck up, front, and roll up the next blunt So we can steam on the way to the telly go fill my belly A t-bone steak, cheese eggs and Welch's grape Conversate for a few, cause in a few, we gon' do What we came to do, ain't that right boo (truuuueee) Forget the telly we just go to the crib and watch a movie in the jacuzzi smoke l's while you do me

The Ripper!

So people have been asking me, "Stephe, Whatcha been up to lately?". And I say, "Well, it takes about a year for my designs to be public. But here, this is something that I did a year ago."

This one just hit the floor, A good old fashioned Skull shirt. They just don't go out of style if you work with skateboarding companies. This one is a reinterpretation of the classic Powell graphic, The Ripper. Often imitated, never outdone.

Here's some more info about The Ripper and its imitations:
http://boingboing.net/2009/02/05/the-ripper-skateboar.html

Weak Meat Strong Eat

Here's another design I just cranked out for Fumanchu. I always wanted to have a reason to do this kind of Japanese tattoo looking stuff. I'm glad I got the chance.
I've started doing my sketches in photoshop, for i find it easier to keep track of my chaotic sketches when I can change colors and densities so easily. My pencil and pen sketches become such a mess of discussion that usually I can't figure out what I was trying to say.