Latest Design Theme - Moai Tiki Skulls

For a while now, I've had a somewhat passive interest in tiki art and tiki culture. I love the retro-kitsch aesthetic of those old Polynesian-style restaurants, and places like Caliente Tropics Resort in Palm Springs. We also have some tiki masks that a friend imports from Indonesia, as well as a couple small pieces of tiki-style art around the house, including a decoupage piece that my wife made a few years ago.

As I pursue my informal education in drawing and sketching, I find myself drawing lots of skulls, and in the quest to create something a bit different, I started working on a mash-up of sorts - designing a tiki-tyle skull, modeled after the Moai or Easter Island style tikis - the ones with the furrowed brow and the large nose.


My two latest designs incorporate the tiki skull in two variations. Below are links to the t-shirts in my Zazzle store:

http://www.zazzle.com/lady_tiki_moai_skull_shirt-235985898826600676?rf=238311127868579309


http://www.zazzle.com/tiki_skull_with_flames_shirt-235647319650225983?rf=238311127868579309

To start, I drew the elements of the skulls on paper, then scanned into Photoshop and traced using the pen tool. This helped me get cleaner lines and better symmetry. For the eyes, nose and teeth, I used tracing paper to trace the skull outline, then drew lots of variations of each element overlayed on top of the skulls, until I had ones I was happy with.


The flames were done using a custom shape, which I then colored in PhotoShop using gradients. Then I cut individual pieces of flame out of the original drawing and place them behind the skull.


The tiki pattern in the background was first sketched in pencil, then drawn from scratch in PhotoShop using the pen tool. I then converted each element to a custom shape so I could save for future use. I pasted the shapes into a new document and arranged to form the background. The pink flower behind the lady tiki skull's 'ear' is one of those shapes.

Greetings

Welcome to the Scene Scream graphics blog. I came up with the name Scene Scream because I wanted to create t-shirts based on the different music and subculture scenes that have influenced my life, such as skateboarding, ska and punk music, and vintage scooters. A couple of months ago I got to work on a few simple t-shirt designs and started posting them at http://www.zazzle.com/scenescream. So far I've got about a dozen different graphics designs up on various products, such as t-shirts, skateboard decks, mousepads, note cards and hats.

A little about myself - I'm a total amateur when it comes to the visual arts. I have briefly tried my hand at acrylic painting, and have no formal training in art, with the exception of music. I've always wished I could draw with some level of competency, and when I look at drawings, especially pencil sketches, I am amazed at what people can come up with using graphite. It all seemed to magical to me, and still does, but since I began reading about drawing with pencil, purchased some inexpensive drawing pencils, erasers and paper, and started practicing daily, I'm beginning to desconstruct the process and gain valuable insights into the fundamentals of drawing and sketching.

I'm finding that this whole t-shirt design thing runs along two parallel paths; one dealing mostly with the artistic part, which forks off again into "art for pleasure" and "art for business"; and then the marketing/promotion/business path.

Of course, the more involved I get in creating the graphics, the more work I'm realizing needs to be done to 1) improve my graphic design and artistic skills and 2)promote the heck out of this if I ever want to see real sales come in. So far I have managed to sell one t-shirt, so I think there is potential, since I've read testimonials from people saying that it took them much longer to make their first sale.

Still, there is a long road ahead, and it's one I look forward to traveling. Since launching this endeavor I've started taking online drawing classes, immersed myself in advanced PhotoShop tutorials, and already I'm seeing progress in my overall abilities. I've never been very good at visual arts, especially drawing, but I started going through the beginning tutorials at http://www.drawspace.com, and already I'm beginning to 'see' more like an artist, and getting some drawings that are at least decent enough to scan and then re-draw in PhotoShop. For anyone who wants to get started with drawing, I highly recommend the site. And do yourself a big favor- start from the very beginning. It will pay quick dividends if you start from the very first lesson and work your way through. Within days you will see your progress accelerate and you will be surprised at how good your drawings turn out. This will quickly spill into the other facets of your artistic endeavors.

In the course of my online explorations into the world of visual arts and graphic design, I've seen a lot of cool blog sites posted by real artists who share insights into their world and creative process. That inspired me to start this blog; not only to 'promote' my artistic efforts, but to hopefully share some of what I have learned, and offer some hope to others are interested in art, drawing and design.