third born, Wynnid, concepts drawings for Terrayn

On to Wynnid. Eldric's older sister. You'll read about her soon over at Terrayn. My goal has been to give each character a form (obviously), a home, and an amulet (almost a logo, I guess, on a medallion). The two men will have round amulets while the women carry ovals.

Another goal was, and still is, to keep these characters simple. I don't want them otherworldly. They should come to the viewer as figments of your past (though long ago), not your imagination. 

Her amulet quickly sketched and a long-haired version.

Wynnid's home. I felt she should not hide in a castle but live freely in a relatively modest dwelling. The home was designed to surround a courtyard. 11 large rooms adjoin the main living quarters. Wynnid resides in the larger structure and invites persons of knowledge to come and relax as they wish. Each evening the guests make their way to the courtyard for food and the exchange of ideas. It is a place for storytelling, invention, science and art.

The courtyard as seen from Wynnid's second story window.

local font find #16

I have been meaning to get a photo of this sign for some time now. Either forgot as the family was heading to the mall in Elmira, NY, or didn't feel like stopping. Today I stopped. Not a very smart choice to pull off the road with weather conditions so lousy, but, you know, sometimes our good sense is conquered by a bit of greed. 

I can't figure this one out. As a former sign shop worker, this sign holds a strange mistake within it's layout. That "g"!!!!! Computers don't accidentally place a letter in this situation. Someone had to do it. WHY!!!!????!!!!!? Is it just to be goofy? Is it to have nerds like me think about it even when I'm not barrelling past the sign? I just don't get it! Someone had to shift the baseline of that letter. WOW is that WEIRD!!!!!! If you know something about this or know the person responsible, I'd love to hear the story....just love it!

attempting to find a style or visual theme for Terrayn

a few of the latest concept drawings for Terrayn

Eldric's Castle 

I have been asked to create four characters for Terrayn (see previous post for Eldric sketches). I was given names and a few vague descriptive words concerning body shape, hair and skin tone. Along with that task, I was to design where they live as well. I know very little about medieval times (even though the game is not "medieval" at its core but has taken on a feeling of such a time) and making quality drawings when ones information base is limited is mighty difficult. I chose to only glance at online images and one or two books that were lent to me. My goal has been to create not copy. I want the drawings to be fresh and nontraditional. I also can't be so "far out" that is futuristic in look and feel. I am attempting to find the right mix.

The best part of my role in the design is that there really isn't much reigning me in. The team has allowed me to go wherever my mind takes me. Not knowing a whole lot about this general theme has worked in my favor.  I want the hype of the game to be in the landscape (thus the title Terrayn!) and how you manipulate that, not some super fancy outfit or wild structure. This is going to be a game of substance and amazing interactions between the player and the world. A bunch of architectural fluff dotting the land won't really enhance the playing experience as much as what you can do. It may even distract. The items i draw will have form as an important element but will stress function as a major priority. 

Random weapons

More to come.......

designing characters for Terrayn

The process is well underway of designing a set of four characters for this online computer game...Terrayn. Terrayn is being developed and that process is still tough to describe in a blog format. Simply said: Amazing. The guys need me to come up with four kings/rulers, all of which are siblings. Two males and two females that will represent four different kingdoms. Without describing them in detail at this point, I thought I would just show some initial sketches. I figure if I start putting them out there for others to see, I automatically place pressure on my performance. This always seems to help. Good Stress!

This first character is the youngest and baddest. Likes to fight. I wanted him to look like he is ready to fight even though he is a ruler. Obviously likes to show off his powerful form as I kept his wears minimalist.

This next character is the one I completed this evening. The hardest part is familiarizing myself with possible clothing ideas. I am new to this kind of art. I am struggling to keep it unique and still adhere to my own preference and keep the design/materials simple. All of the google searching has me not wanting to google search. Most of the characters being developed are way out there. I am attempting to reel it all in and make these rulers seem possible. Without getting into the idea of the game (you can link to the facebook page and "like" it and learn more about it there), my thinking has these kings wearing very reserved attire. Maybe it is just my style coming through....we'll see what the powers that be think. The game is to have a family appeal....the ladies will be handled as classy as possible. Wow, some games sure sell the scantily clad stuff. I will be no part of that... never have, never will. My son reads this blog! Anywho:

If you like what you see, then head on over and Like us at 
https://www.facebook.com/TerraynOnline .

2013 Christmas cards for each other

Every year Ash and I exchange Christmas cards that summarize the past year or some recent past event(s) that have impacted us greatly. It is a creative way to express how we love each other and respect the others survival/coping skills. 

2013 was full of stress. Our jobs are changing drastically without changing at all (other teachers will get that). One thousand other things as well have come and gone, some choosing to stay.

Ash has been talking quite regularly about the fact that our son Matt is definitely "my boy". We have scattered brains and difficulty staying focused. My card let her know that I agree and feel for her and her situation. Her AWESOME card speaks for itself. She's a real talent. I love her.

...showing outside then inside (hope that it is obvious but just in case...)

mine:

ash:

Merry Christmas everyone. Happy New Year. Drive safely.

angry strongo #42 plantars fasciitis

local font find # 15

Saw this in Corning, NY the first time I traveled along Market Street (about 8 or 9 years ago). I remember stopping and knowing that this was an amazing sign. Simple. Stately. Strong. Straight to the point. No fluff. Fancy, yes, but NO FLUFF! It has natural weathering but you feel as though it always looked this way. We can see each brush stroke of the sign painter. I check it out every time I'm in town. To the man or woman that made this.....Thanks!

a hunting logo for co-worker

I don't hunt. The reasons are the same as most people. Plus several others. I like to walk along and maybe push some deer toward the armed folks, but generally speaking, just too much cold to tolerate for meat I don't enjoy....though deer jerky is mighty fine! I come from a family of hunters. I like to shoot weapons. My brother had a wide range of powerful hand guns as well as assualt rifles before all the laws changed. I was into sports that required me to move. Sitting around was out. I struggled with fishing when I was very young as well. As I am typing this, I feel that this logo should be displayed with ZERO color around it. I love black and white for it is a proving ground of design. If your design holds up to being viewed without color, you've got solid work. Color, to me, is just fluff (not really cause I use a pile of it but that statement sounds good and tough for this post).  I am changing the look of angrystrongo.com as of this post. Minimalistic. 

This logo was straight forward with a hint of Harley Davidson as inspiration. Just a hint! I weathered it a bit using some texture I created printing from a Styrofoam sheet. Not sure what "Hard Times" means but it didn't need to be understood to get this design. I tossed around a dozen or so lettering styles before settling on something solid looking. I kept it hand drawn because I knew it was to be weathered. I like bolts, screws and rivets (I think I mentioned this in a previous post). The flatheads give it some elements that eat up some design space above as well as allowing me to form the word "hunting" around something other than the outside edge.

angry strongo #41 uncut bagels

new project TERRAYN and Code Mushroom logo design

I received a call about two months ago...maybe an email...maybe a text to my wife (I don't text yet). Whatever, it was from some guy named Jason Gehman and he needed some artwork done for a game he was designing. The local grapevine told him to contact Ashley and I. I told him that I might not be the right character for this job and explained my skill set. He said that I was the right person and that we should get together and talk out his idea. Okay. I took him up on dinner at his house. Ashley and I joined his beautiful family for a wonderful meal and some great "gettin-ta-know-each-other" time. After dinner, we were met with the full force of Jason's excitement over this project. The project was this online game that he and several other computer geeks (i use this term with the utmost of respect for the level of knowledge this group possesses) were constructing. Jason told us that they could build the game but none of them could draw....thus....the dinner. Needless to say, Jason won us over. He wasn't asking for money, he was just asking for our time. The goal was to make this work without dishing out piles of everyone's cash. He explained that if we can't make this work on our wits, then it wasn't meant to be. It all sounded good and I wanted desperately to be a part of something. There were no big projects in my life and this had some quality potential. Ashley was swamped, and still is, with graduate work and other professional obligations and has only had time to critique my attempts to please the group. 

The evening of the dinner, Jason told us that the group of geeks was calling themselves Code Mushroom. Okay. My mind instantly started rolling on possibilities for a logo. I drew a pile of the standard mushroom ideas and all felt very blahhhh like the ones below....

   

I spent a few days on some dimensional ideas because the game was to be both above and below ground level.

I then began to think of more mathematical ideas. I took a square and began slicing it in half (upper left, below). It wasn't long before the chopping was getting me somewhere and I began to feel a connection with it. Soon, two triangles seemed to capture the feel of the mushroom. I knew that this was it. I kept sketching out lettering as well. I decided to work all the letters into the same size rectangle and to build them in photoshop to see if it would all work

Once in Photoshop, I manipulated the triangles in many ways. I knew I was close but it wasn't until I chopped the ends of the triangles that it really looked good (below). I chopped off the stem of the mushroom, the bottom triangle and it solidified the whole design with a cool shadow of negative space.

Then the lettering....it just kind of happened. Not much changing from my sketch and mental image. I did some redesign due to capitals and lowercase not looking quite right...but...this is what I presented to the squad. Jason showed it around and I was asked aboard. I am now a proud member of Code Mushroom.

Once I was brought on board, I set out to conquer the design of Terrayn. Terrayn is to be a Massive Multi player online game. It is set on this never ending, constantly evolving and growing landscape. The whole idea boggled my mind but I didn't have to build the game, just get some cool looking lettering. My initial idea, pictured below, had similar origins to the code mushroom lettering. Simple, box-shaped, modern looking letters. A mix of caps and lowers and minimalism. I wanted it to be wide and not reveal much of the game (that was easy since I knew very little of the game at that time). 

I also went with an above/below ground idea with the Terrayn logo. It wasn't long before I knew it just couldn't work for this project.

As I learned more about Terrayn, I knew that my design(s) were not going to fit. The game had taken on a feel of medieval times. Tools, weapons and structures would be from long ago. My lettering was wrong! So I scrapped it all and moved onto calligraphy and black letters. I drew countless versions of Terrayn. It was proving to be thousands of times more difficult than the code mushroom logo. Once I was getting close (the top version pictured below), it was just tweaking and tweaking and more tweaking. I drove Ashley nuts with calling her in for an opinion.

After solving the capital T in a way that proved to be interesting (not normal, but interesting), I had visions of it becoming riveted metal. I scanned in some well aged and distressed paper that I found at my job. Manipulated the look by adjusting the curves...and they liked it as well...

Below is how it looks on some fine 3-D rendering of another Code Mushroom teammate, Joel Tremblay. He was called in to help create many of the things I can't do, namely all things 3-dimensional on the computer. At this point, about three weeks ago,we all felt like we were on a roll.

The game is growing fast. Construction is only slowed by the day jobs we all work. As things come together and our web presence is ready, I'll be posting links up for all to see. The next two months are looking great for Code Mushroom. This geek has to get back to work.....later all.

Check us out on facebook.... https://www.facebook.com/TerraynOnline