Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a Merry and joyful Christmas and a peaceful, prosperous New Year!

My contribution to "Hats Off!"

My wife, the lovely and gracious Janice, works at a local museum; "The Works, Ohio Center for History, Art & Technology." It's essentially a children's museum that has much in the way of interactive science activities, a fully functioning glass studio, art classes and celebrates local Ohio history as well. They also have a small galley where the works of local artists are featured. Several of our friends take advantage of the facilities and the many year round events to educate and entertain their kids. As a non-profit organization they rely on fundraising for their operations and this year they are having their black tie event "Hats Off! 2012" on September 22nd. Please check out their website: The Works for more information about them and the event. There are several items and packages donated to the event by local business and artisans for auction. This one is mine. It was inspired by the vintage illustrations of artist Vernon Grant (the guy who created the characters of Snap, Crackle and Pop for Kellogg's back in 1933) but with my own twist. The Museum building itself used to house a factory that built steam engines in 1861. The Works logo features gears and Newark Ohio has a storied manufacturing history so the idea of a kid with overalls, work gloves and a giant sledge hammer just sort of competed the picture for me! I confess my mind works in strange ways but I'm really happy with the result and I hope the event guests will like it too. The illustration was drawn by hand and painted digitally with a combination of Photoshop CS6, Painter 12 and Art Rage Pro. It measures 16 x 20 and will be printed on canvas with archival inks.

Reverend Janice

Done on my iPad at a church meeting of the unsuspecting pastor. :)

Jeff K.

Jeff K had a red day!

iPad sketch done with Sketchbook Pro.

Old stuff.

These are some sketches that I did for Hasbro a couple of years back for a project that I don't even remember what it was! I ran across these things when I was going through some drawing piles and I always liked the way they felt probably because I got to play a lot with the design aspects.
I seem to do a bunch of stuff that never sees the light of day!
Well, as long as the checks don't bounce......

Busytown Stuff.

A few days ago my friend, and former boss at Disney, Vince posted a piece of Busytown Halloween artwork that I helped work on for AAA. With his kind permission I am posting a few of the other Busytown pieces that I have worked on for Vince.
I remember these characters from when I was in elementary school. It's a complete joy to draw them now in my adulthood!

Fox

Littlest Pet Shop style exploration done for Hasbro with a bit of a Japanese spin.
Inking was done in Adobe Illustrator with coloring and paper texture done in Photoshop.

Christmas time is here...

Another year has almost come and gone. But this year I actually got the Christmas card done and out on time, fancy that! This years card drew a little bit of inspiration from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." But instead of the Grinch flying the sleigh we have two young elves, who look remarkably like my kids, piloting the carriage with their trusty, overachieving dachshund steed leading the charge. Although looking at this now I can't be sure if the elves are helping deliver presents or whether they're coming home with they're holiday haul!

As always, from our family to yours; may you have a blessed Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year!

iPad Sketches.

So my family got me an iPad for father's day and besides the usual stuff that you would expect the thing to do (it's basically like a giant iPod Touch) I was interested in trying it out as a digital sketchbook and scratchpad (when I can tear it away from my kids). There are a few drawing programs for iPad out there but the two I am currently using are Brushes and Sketchbook Pro. Both just cost a few bucks off the iTunes store. Anyone out there who is familiar with using programs like Photoshop or Painter will be able to figure the interfaces out pretty quickly. Heck my 6 and 8 year old figured it out after a few minutes! You can essentially draw with your finger or you can purchase a stylus and use that but the iPad's screen is not pressure sensitive and the stylus available out there are not pinpoint accurate devices. At first it sort of feels like your trying to draw with a rubber mallet. It's a primitive, detached sort of experience. Also, if you use a stylus you should wear a glove on your drawing hand because if your palm comes in contact with the screen the iPad will think you want to draw there. I have white cotton gloves with cut off fingers that I use but a weightlifting or racket ball glove would work too. It takes a bit of getting used to but after a while it is fun to use. Can I get an idea down faster with a pencil and paper? Yes! Can you do production quality artwork on it? For most uses, no. It doesn't have the kind of resolution you'd need. But when I'm out and about and I have some time to kill it beats carrying around paper, pencils and color to sketch with. With practice, like anything else, one can get some neat results with this thing. If I could ask for one thing it would be to have a pressure sensitive screen and stylus like I use on my desktop. There are tablet PCs, the Modbook and other more expensive solutions out there for a digital sketchbook but they are heavier and bulkier than an iPad. But it really depends what you're after. If you want to do production level work on the go and need the processing power to run something like Photoshop then invest in a Tablet PC or Modbook. If you just want something to sketch on and portability is a prime concern then sketching on an iPad is not a bad alternative. Could it be better? Sure. But I think we are about to see a wave of more powerful tablets coming soon in the iPad form factor. And besides, my wife already has dibs on my iPad when I upgrade!

Toy Story 3 Operation.

Like most people out there I am a huge fan of Pixar and the Toy Story movies. So I was really excited when the fine folks at Hasbro Games asked if I'd like to illustrate the box top and game board for the TS3 version of the classic, Operation.What people might not realize is how far in advance something like this needs to be produced in order to reach the market in time for the movie. I completed these illustrations almost a year ago. As always these things start out with a concept, in this case Buzz is in the repair shop. I started off with a couple of quick sketches to cement the idea. Then there is the back and forth of the creative and approval process. A few rounds of discussion and adjustments until everyone is happy. And then "voila" you have yourself a direction for the final illustration. You paint, then a little more back and forth, you paint some more, a couple of minor tweaks and you're done!
This is the first game I've ever illustrated and it was a very fun experience. The folks at Hasbro were , as always, swell to work with.
The illustrations were done in Photoshop CS4

Bah Humbug!

Well it's been another busy year for our family and because of it our annual Christmas cards will be arriving a little later than usual! Well, honestly it's more because I'm just slow, oh well. In any event, from our family to yours, we wish you a most Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.
Be safe, be happy, be true.

New Camera.

I'm turning 40 this week and as an early birthday present I got myself a new Nikon D90 DSLR. It has just been so much fun using this thing! These are just a couple of quick photos I've taken using it.
I've felt like I've always had a camera strapped to me in some way since high school, being a yearbook and school paper photographer. My first real camera was a Nikon N2000 that I bought at a local used camera shop on a lay away plan. That camera got me through high school, college and into my 30's before I was able to afford an upgrade. That was my F100. I loved that camera. It felt like an extension of my hand that was hard wired to my eyeballs. It made me look like a better photographer than I am. But as digital slowly took over the landscape I found myself wanting something smaller and easier to carry to take snaps of my kids so I've had a couple of small Canon digitals and the F100 soon sat lonely on my shelf making me feel guilty, like I've been cheating on it. I kept picking up the abandoned camera just to hold it and to remember what a real camera feels like. I would push the trigger just to hear the satisfying sound of the shutter release but I just had no real reason to shoot with it or spend the cash and time to get a roll of film developed. Now here is the D90 and I feel like I've rediscovered a great old friend.

Logos Conference 2009

Reverend Tom asked if I'd design a new image for our LOGOS 2009 East conference and I was only too happy to oblige. I tried to take some inspiration from 60's rock posters but still trying to keep it simple and legible. I think it came out pretty well.

Spencer Graduates.

Our friends Jay and Beth asked me a while back if I'd be interested in doing up a caricature of their son Spencer who is graduating high school this year. I told them that I'd be delighted and I think in the end I was able to get a really fun image together that captures all his interests and his personality. Spencer is a great kid and I have no doubt that he will go very far in life. Congratulations!!!

The Lowells

This is a little portrait I did of our friends the Lowells and their dogs. The pooches were a bit "poofier" in real life but I am pleased with the final result.

Merry Christmas and Happy Year!

From my family to yours; may you have a most wonderful holiday and the brightest of New Year.

Merry Christmas!

Wee Kirk

Our church has a children's ministry named "Wee Kirk". It's name means "Little Church" and, like so many things in our town, has a Scottish heritage to it. So I thought I would keep that in mind when I was asked to design a logo for the program.


Here is the pencil drawing that everyone liked. It has our little guy leaning on a sculpture of a tree stump with a scroll that is a featured monument on the lawn of our church.


The next step was creating an ink line drawing that could be used on stationary, black and white signage and such. The inking was done digitally in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool with the bezier curves. I could have inked this by hand with a sable brush and scanned it to the computer and then "tweeked" and "tweezed" it from there, but honestly there are days I just don't want to deal with all those steps and there is something to be said for doing it directly into the computer from the get go when that's where the piece is ultimatly heading. It's not necesarily easier or harder inking digitally. It involves a different mindset and it offers you a different set of options while demanding you adhere to the same artistic pricples that would apply to traditional inking.

And here we have the final color of our guy. I took the paths that were created from the digital inking and brought them into Photoshop to use as the basis for the illustration. I mostly used the airbrush tool and standard brushes to get the final look.
I think he came out alright.

Tarzan

I've been going through some old drawings and I came across these little thumbnail sketches I had done while I was working on the Tarzan style guide at DCP. The image of the professor and the apes was idea for merchandise art work that was never used. The other four were ideas for collectible prints for Disney Art Classics. I believe the one with Young Tarzan and Terk riding the bird was eventually picked and illustrated for the print.
I always liked these little idea drawings. They are fun and lively.

LOGOS

Sorry that it's been a while since I have posted anything. I've been busy with lots of work but its all stuff that I can't mention because of confidentiality.
But I can post this!
My wife and I are involved in a youth ministry at our church, It's called LOGOS. It's quite an amazing and rewarding program from my perspective both as a participant and as parent seeing my kids learn and grow with God. When I first volunteered with the ministry I thought it was just something small and exclusive to our church. But I recently found out just how big and widespread the program is when my wife and I attended a seminar in Chicago recently. Apparently the program has been in existence for about 45 years and around 3500 churches use it. Go figure! There were so many wonderful folks from different congregations from the south and mid-west and we were all there for a common purpose to help expand and nurture the faith in our children and families through LOGOS. Just before this event, one of my pastors asked me if I was interested in designing a crest for a LOGOS conference he was overseeing that was geared specifically for teens. It needed to be simple and to convey the theme of the conference which was "Dance before the Lord".
So here's the design.

The new website!

Well everyone my new website is finally up and running. I would like to thank Guy Michael and the staff at Sync Creative for putting it all together for me. I'm sure glad they did it because, web-wise, I have no idea what the heck I'm doing!
Check it out here: Carlo LoRaso Studios