The guys in Uprising Records band Gloria asked me to draw up a little shirt called “Ball Pit Shark”. It was pretty self explanatory. Here’s what I came up with. I’ll be sure to get pictures of this one when it gets printed.
5 Colors on Teal.
-marky
Here’s a tshirt illustration that I put together for my band Venna. It was an attempt at mixing my own interpretations of traditional Norwegian folk art and 50’s kitch. It was done with pencil then inked and scanned and cleaned up in Illustrator. I’ve recently discovered these “Identipens” at Michaels that are cheap and seem to work really well for inking the more detailed illustrations. I know that’s probably not what I should be using to ink illustrations, but most of what you see up here is trail and error. Any suggestions on good inking pens? I have a $50 gift card to Hobby Lobby that I’ve been saving for some new art supplies.
And here’s what it looks like in print-
Beautifully printed, 1 color on chocolate brown by the always top notch RedWall Prints. Just look at how the detail came out. Every line is perfect. Big thanks to Jeff at RedWall.
PURCHASE HERE on ETSY - $12
-marky
There aren’t very many straight up, rock-your-face-off-without-being-cute-or-ironic bands out there anymore. Most bands are trying so hard to be liked that they forget that rock n roll is supposed to be dangerous. A Dance Between Giants is one of the rare bastians of that old school mentality of rock that says that it’s ok play your songs loud and hard, yell when you can’t quite hit the notes, look like you just rolled out of bed from a hangover, and still take what you do seriously (and expect everyone else too as well). Personally, I miss that in rock n roll music. I wish more young bands weren’t so image conscious, didn’t worry about the mass-accessibility of their songs, wrote what they wanted to, and just plain kept the cute out of the “rock”. There’s nothing dangerous about watching a bunch of guys with straightened hair bounce around stage for half an hour in matching neon hightops. That being said, I made A Dance Between Giants a shirt with fairy tale characters dancing under big pink letters. Oh well.
It was drawn in Illustrator, and it looks like this in print-
Printed 2 colors on Charcoal Grey by RedWall Prints
-marky
Another one off Tshirt along the lines of animals destroying cities. Apparently this is my new thing. This one is for the new Rockford, IL pop rock band Action Madison!. They were VERY specific with what they wanted to see in the illustration, down to the details and facial expressions. Apparently I was able to get close enough to their artistic vision, because they liked it. Anyway, it was goofy enough that I figured I should post it.
Any other bands requiring illustrations of animals destroying cities, feel free to contact me.
-marky
Here are some fairly decent pictures of the physical copy of Kid, You’ll Move Mountains “Loomings”. Thanks to Jim from KYMM for getting me a few copies as soon as they came in. I must say I’m pleased to death with how this project came together. All in all, from the concept, to the final print, to the music contained within, this is a great piece.
I’ll start posting more physical pics of the projects as I get them in. I always mean to, but I don’t always get samples back from bands in a timely fashion… hint to any of my bands reading this who haven’t yet sent me my samples! As always, feel free to leave comments. Also, go get your hands on the new P.O.S. album “Never Better”. You won’t be sorry.
-marky
Texan power-pop engineers Seymoure contacted me to put together something for their upcoming album “Pretending It’s Casual”. They wanted the visuals to be organic, but whimsical and (of course) featuring animals.
This was done in the same style as the This Is The Shiver cover art, with water color painted cutouts, double sided tape, and minimal digital manipulation. Here’s some other pieces from the project-
Above, Interior Panel
Below, Disc Face & Tray
I was able to do a full color disc, which was fun and pushed the concept a little bit further. Taking a second look at it, I wish I would’ve made the logo a bit bigger on the disc, but… c’est la vie. There’s always at least one thing on every project that you wish you could get back.
Here’s a better look at that sweet word mark… this was my favorite part of the project. The band actually ended up adopting this as a full time logo.
Also, I found this awesome rough concept sketch as I was deleting files and thought I would share it with you… ha ha.
From this concept sketch, I determined the individual pieces
I needed and I drew them on regular sketch book paper to get the
shapes looking good. When I had gotten the shapes just right, I cut them all out. Then I painted full sheets of color wash and used the sketch book paper cutouts as guides to cut out the final pieces. Then those were all layered together and affixed to more painted backgrounds via double sided tape and then finally scanned. After some digital lightening and darkening of appropriate areas and layout adjustment along with the typesetting, we have the cover shown at the top of the post. The final version actually came out pretty close to that concept sketch, save for the background color.
As always I’m curious to hear everyone’s feedback, so let me know what you think of this one. Also, I have some big, big projects coming up soon, and some potentially interesting announcements concerning the future of MidwestLove, so keep checking back.
-marky
After a chance meeting on AIM, I was hired to do a 1-up tshirt design for Wisconsin pop-punk band Fast Forward To June . They gave me free reign to come up with a concept, so I challenged myself with the question, “what’s the coolest possible thing that I can draw?” Behold the results. Apparently the part of me that determines what’s cool is still eight years old.
3 colors on American Apparel gold T.
-marky
Tshirt illustration for my (other) band The Felix Culpa. The concept initially came from an idea my friend Timothy gave me almost 6 years ago. It stuck with me and I finally got a chance to use it.
2 colors on maroon (pictured) and charcoal gray shirts.
-marky
Following the theme of the Kid, You’ll Move Mountains album art (see two posts down), but with a bit of a different twist. This will be printed on oatmeal speckletone paper for extra goodness. I’ll see if I can get some pictures of the final prints when they come in.
-marky
Ok, this is a little bit of self promotion as my band Venna is also playing the show this poster is promoting, but I was pretty pleased with how this came together so I wanted to post it none the less. Plus, it bears the name of one of the most prolific, intelligent, well spoken songwriters to ever pick up a guitar and I can’t help but bragging that I got the chance to put his name next to my band’s on a poster… next to a little guitar that I drew, none the less. I feel like I won a contest or something!
This was intended to be a 3 color silk screen, with two color options printed side by side on an 11×17 (double the promo per page!). I’m not sure which color scheme I like better…
And here’s the original illustration of the guitar, just cause it will never show up in it’s entirety anywhere else but my sketch book.
In all seriousness, this guy’s music is absolutely unparalleled in my life as far as meaning, inspiration and longevity. It was an honor to do this piece. Hopefully I did it justice. So let me know what you think, and grab one if you see them posted up anywhere!
-marky