What is a digital painting you ask? Well it’s a painting. A painting done digitally. What this means is that an artist would open up their trusty Photoshop style program on their computer, pick a “brush” and start painting away. Now, you might wonder why this is so special. Not only does this allow an artist to work at any scale, but allows an artist to work at a painting and redo anything with ease. It also gets rid of the insane cost of paints (Trust me, I know. I bought $15 tubes of paint for a class!). So by giving an artist the flexibility to work an image, work at any size and no longer be limited by their paints (you have billions of colours available to you on the computer!), the artist is allowed to run wild.

All this freedom allows artist to explore styles that were not traditionally available. There are artists out there that work in such a photo-realistic way that it seems like you’re looking at a photo.

Enough babbling now, let’s look at some work. I’m going to be show casing a wonderful artist I know who goes by the name of Keight Maclean. She has some really awesome digital paintings that range in style from dramatic, almost expressionistic works, to insanely realistic pieces. I’ll keep the peanut gallery at bay for this one, and let you enjoy Keight’s wonderful work.

Note: I encourage you to click the images to see a full res version of them! It takes a close look to really understand and appreciate the work and talent that Keight pours into her pieces. and if you want to see more, check out her DeviantArt account (which has links to all her wonderful online adventures!) [Link]

Via NYTimes

This unusual art form has been getting lots of attention lately, as you might assume such an off-the-wall project might. It was inspired by Wilson’s hate for all the waste and grime that is so common in the life of an urban city dweller. Before he moved to old gum-canvases, he was known for collecting trash like gum wrappers and cigarette buts and making collages and carvings out of them, as a statement against this urban waste.

Via NYTimes

It was somewhere around 2004 that Mr. Wilson grabbed this strong message and took it to the streets—quite literally. It was then that he really started to work on these gum masterpieces. The gum pieces contain images of pretty much anything. His pieces have been about anything from the morning’s cuppa coffee, tributes to his favourite closed stores, to even a proposal piece! (To which the person in question said yes. Who wouldn’t?) His works are very bright and are vibrant little splashes of colour on the otherwise grey streets of London.

Via NYTimes

Not only is Ben an artist, but he’s quite ingenious in his methods also! It seems as though paint on gum would be quite temporary and hard to work with, but he’s solved this problem. He starts his process by using a blow torch (yes, a blow torch!) to melt the gum a bit, then begins to paint right on the gum while applying layers of acrylic enamel and then seals it with a clear lacquer. According to Mr. Wilson, with his technique, these pieces of gum can last for years!

Via NYTimes

You might think this odd hobby is just that—odd! So far, the locals have been quite happy to see Wilson doing his thing. Whenever he is out working, he usually attracts a nice gathering to watch his work. The Police however, haven’t always been such a joy to deal with. So far, he’s been arrested only once though, and even then quickly released after the community sent countless letters in support of their favourite urban artist.

One also has to wonder, how can you spend all or most of your time going out and drawing on gum. I mean, it sounds rather bizarre, and can’t exactly bring home too much, now can it? And to answer that, no it doesn’t. Wilson doesn’t get paid for any of these pieces (unless you count the love of the community!) His girlfriend teaches at a local school, and he occasionally sells the odd traditional painting (on canvas!)

Via WFD

Via WFD

 
 
 

It’s really quite refreshing to see such a unique art form, and one with a quite nice message in it too! I hope Mr. Wilson gets the recognition he deserves and can keep livening up the streets of London, albeit one piece of gum at a time.

Via
http://www.nytimes.com
http://www.rawvision.com
http://www.wallflowerdispatches.com

The company in question is JukeBox Printing. They are a wonderful print company, run out of Vancouver, Canada. They sport the industries’ highest resolution printing, offering both full colour digital and high quality offset printing. They are one of the only companies that offer 24pt card for printing (which is one heck of a thick piece of card stock! Nearly twice as thick as an average business card!) and to top it all off, they have some wonderful staff to go along with their 5 star service list. The company is very personable and for lack of a better term, real. They support local charities and believe strongly in community involvement. They are really quite easy to love—even before putting a job through to them!

Let’s move on to the good stuff. I was looking for a good printer this time around to print something that is near and dear to every creative professional—personal business cards. A business card is not something that can be done “just alright”, or “good enough”. It’s most often your first impression of a person and the way you’ll remember and get in touch with them as well. So, needless to say, us design types are always nervous about getting our cards printed. With JukeBox, I’ve been nothing but thrilled. The setup process was very easy, quick and simple.

My cards came quite fast, and because I had ordered them only a few days before I moved back to Toronto from my contract job, I actually missed my pickup, however, they graciously shipped them to me in Toronto for no extra charge. My cards, a standard business card size, full colour on front and back on 16pt stock with a satiny matte finish, turned out great. The print was easily far above the quality I’ve seen at any other printer (and I’ve seen quite a few!), the colours were sharp and crisp and the cards felt really nice in your hand (thanks to the stock weight and matte finish). A common problem with printers is that when they cut heavy stocks, the edges can get a bit fuzzy or messy, however, JukeBox rises up here once again. No jagged edges, no white fringe or anything of the sort. A really nice finished product indeed.

As I was looking at these cards, my intensely detailed orientated, picky side was running ramped. With this being said, I literally had to look for something that I was not happy with. There were two small things that were not perfect (which is still far better than any other print job I’ve seen). Both issues funnily enough, were not on my personal business cards, but on some cards I had printed for a little project I am doing (which I’m keeping sort of under wraps, so you’ll have to wait!). The first issue was with the cutting. On a select few cards, the die’s blade must have not been moving at a constant speed or something, because a few cards’ edges are noticeably curled down a little, giving the appearance that they are a bit worn right out of the box. Now, this was only about 10 cards out of the one box of 1000 I looked at so far, so it’s hardly an issue.

My next gripe is with the colour reproduction. Any print designer can tell you how much of a nightmare colour reproduction can be, especially when printing purples. The cards in question just so happen to be about 99% flat purple. I’ve found about 100 cards that are ever so slightly more blue tones purple, opposed to the majorities’ red-ish tone. While if you were to look at the cards separately, you’ve never see anything (the colour shift isn’t a bad thing here!), but when you put the two colours side by side, you notice it. It’s not a big problem with this job, and really I can’t blame them. We’re talking large flat purple areas of colour, which is pretty much a printer’s worst nightmare. With all that being said, my personal cards’ colour production was impeccable, and I am still extremely happy with these sets.

All in all, I really loved working with JukeBox, and am totally pleased with my final product. I would easily recommend them to anyone looking to print pretty much anything (they even sent me a sample pack that really does show their skill and professional print services quite well!). I look forward to working with them again in the near future!

Special note: If you’ve ever shot a model who blinks a lot, you’ll feel my pain. With 500+ photos, about 30 she had her eyes open in!

Kasidej is a self proclaimed 2D artist (read–illustrator) from Thailand, who is quite an illustrating powerhouse. Currently, they’re working on a little project where for a year they draw bunnies in their work—1000 of them to be exact. Last year was 100 tigers, and this year the ante has been upped, and from what I can tell, it’s for the best!

Since the very first piece I saw, I fell in love with Kasidej’s style. It’s a mixture of your “traditional” air brushing and vectors overlaid with texture (that’s more of my thing). The combination of line, texture and strong 2D shapes is stunning and quite unique. Each piece tells a in-depth and interesting narrative, something that only the best illustrations can do. All Kasidej’s characters are just brimming with life and stories, and the pieces are always full of emotion. It’s safe to say: I love Kasidej’s work!

So, by now you’re probably wondering what I’ve been gushing about. Well, without further ado, here is some of my favourite pieces yet!

To see more of Kasidej’s work, check out their Deviant Art account, or their Deviant Art Portfolio. (Kasidej takes commissions right now too!)

Come Across the Immoortal Being
 

Commander Feral vs Metallikats
 

Gator Dog
 

Love Can’t Change the Weather
 

Love Song
 

Momma Bun Bun Shopping
 

Outskirt Sunset
 

Sleepy Train
 

]]> http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/05/11/spotlight-galgard-kasidej/feed/ 3 http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/05/07/for-the-love-of-type/ http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/05/07/for-the-love-of-type/#comments Sat, 07 May 2011 19:58:51 +0000 Chris http://www.chrismwiggs.com/?p=962 Typography. Fonts. Font Families, Font faces! Just a few ways to describe my recent love. I’ve grown quite fond of letter forms and type faces, and I thought I would share some tidbits.

I’m going to be sharing my top picks of fonts, as well as some font offences (did someone says Comic Sans?!) and help you with some tips and free downloads. This will be a 3 part series, with this first part all about my top picks. Now lets get down to business!

First, I’m going to start with saying I am a huge sans serif fan. I love their boldness, impact and usually, their contemporary feel. So, as cliché as it is, I am in fact a huge user of Helvetica. Oh Helvetica… It’s extremely versatile (I have about 25 different styles of it!), readable, and is very clean. A quick look at almost any printed material and you’ll notice it, or it’s cousin Arial, is all over the place. It’s the go-to font for most young designers. While I love it, I do try (and suggest you to as well!) and find other fonts that can do the same job for sake of originality, but Helvetica is still a strong, safe font.

For those who can’t afford the massive price tag of fonts, I will give you a nice alternative that works just as well.

Helvetica
Foundry – Haas, Linotype
Released in 1957
Style – Sans Serif
Alternative free font – Arial (Comes on every single computer, unless it’s from the Stone Age. Really.)

Download Link – Paid

 

 

My love of sans serif (which, for the record is a name for a font without those feet type things, ala Times New Roman) continues with this next font: League Gothic. This font is very new to my repertoire of fonts, but when I first used it I fell in love. It’s a strong, tall font that gives impact in tight spaces. You couldn’t really set body copy in this font, but it makes for a wicked headline. The best part of League Gothic is that it is totally free! Yes, that is right FREE It comes from the lovely (also a new find!) site called The League of Moveable Type. They are a group that finds and makes open source fonts to help out all us starving artist. I’d say that’s pretty awesome, no?

League Gothic
Foundry – The League of Moveable Type
Released in 1903, re-appropriated by the LoMT
Style – Sans Serif
Alternate free font – None! This bad boy is FREE.

Download Link – Free

 

 

Next up is, yes you guessed it, another sans serif! (I used other types of fonts too, I swear!). This one is easily a favourite of mine; I use it for my own personal identity! We’re talking Futura. It’s a balanced font that is very clear and readable at any size. It’s got some punch, but can be toned down to work in lots of places. It’s got your standard curves and such, but it’s very angular and authoritative. Just to give some examples, my logo (as seen on the top banners of this blog) is set with a light variation of Futura. My business card uses it as the main font, and my invoices do too. It can easily be used in tons of places, which is why I love it.

Futura
Foundry – BauerTypes , Neufville Digital
Released in 1927
Style – Sans Serif
Alternate free font – Sadly, Futura isn’t free and doesn’t have any free fonts styled after is like Helvetica, but there is a very similar font called Florencesans which is totally free.

Download Link – Free
Download Link – Paid

 

 

Drumroll please…! This one is a serifed font. It’s another very new font to my collection, but I’m loving it none the less. Museo is a very streamlines, very modern looking font with a non traditional serif. It’s a more slab style serif and more often than not, is curved where the serifs connect. It’s a nice fun alternative to more ridgid slab serifs like Rockwell. It’s also especially nice when it’s nice and fat; it has lots of presence and impact.

Museo
Foundry – Jos Buivenga
Released in 2008
Style – Slab Serif
Alternate free font – While this is a paid font, currently (and as far as I know, always) you can get yourself free copies of certain weights of the font from MyFonts.com. Just look for the ones that are listed at $0.00.

Download Link – Free

 

 

True to my word, I am going to give you another non- sans serif font! This is another favourite of mine, and another from the lovely folks over at The League of Moveable Type. This one’s called Chunk. It’s a very chunky (as the name suggests!) and powerful font. It’s another slab serif, but this time more traditional in style with its varied line weights and traditional serif placements. It’s a great headline font, but for the sake of eyes everywhere, don’t use it in body copy!

Chunk
Foundry – The League Of Moveable Type
Released in 2009
Style – Old Style Slab Serif
Alternative free font – None! Once again, thanks to the folks at The League of Moveable Type, this ones on the house. Forever.

Download Link – Free

 

 

I’m going to end with one last powerhouse sans-serif—Univers. This font is another extremely old one that is very flexible. It has lots of space with it’s large counters and cleans lines. It comes with lots and lots of different weights, allowing it to be the only font you use on a piece and not get boring. It’s pretty similar to Helvetica, and truthfully, some people might not even be able to tell the difference. Trust me, it’s there. This is one of those types of fonts that I suggest you try out instead of the ever-so popular Helvetica.

Univers
Foundry – Deberny & Peignot , Linotype
Released in 1957v
Style – Sans Serif
Alternate free font – If you have Helvetica already, that will match quite well. If not, your standard Arial will work just fine!

Download link – Paid

]]> http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/05/07/for-the-love-of-type/feed/ 3 http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/05/05/all-good-artists-are-crazy-right/ http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/05/05/all-good-artists-are-crazy-right/#comments Thu, 05 May 2011 13:29:28 +0000 Chris http://www.chrismwiggs.com/?p=944 I’d like to think I am an ambitious person. You might think so too after reading this post. But hopefully I can pull this off and get a ton of great experience in the long run!

What am I talking about? Well I’m sure you’ve heard about those “100 drawings” or “Photo every day” projects, right? Well I’m doing that, except pushing is further (as you should do with everything you work on!). What I’m doing is creating a design based off of song lyrics (on a 6inx6in canvas) every day of my summer break. This means I’m going to pump out over 120 of these puppies.

Why am I doing this? Am I crazy? Well yes. Sort of. I feel like I never do enough design, and this is a great way for me to force myself to do more. I have a starting point every day (lyrics) and some basic guidelines (must include lyrics, must be 6inx6in – creativity cannot live without constraints!). The biggest plus to doing this is that I get to be crazy. I have no one marking this, no one judging it and no one to answer to. I‘m using these to explore new styles, ideas and concepts and hopefully over the summer, you’ll see lots of experimentation and progression!

Right now, I’m posting the designs to my personal Facebook (if we’ve not met in real life, outside business, you won’t see it) and my DeviantArt Account (Link). I’m going to stop posting all my designs on Facebook (maybe one a week) and just post them to DA and here, on my blog. That means each week you’ll see a post with 5-7 of my designs on there (the weekends get difficult to do these on, so sometimes I do my designs in the middle of the night). Once I have all my designs done (in the fall) I am going to do a massive poster of them all which I will make sure to post everywhere I can possibly post it.

So, with no further ado, here are the first five designs!

Day 1 – Seungri – What Can I Do

Day 2 – Metric – Gimme Sympathy

Day 3 – The Fugitives – This Poem is Gay, I.E. Awesome

Day 4 – Easter Song

Day 5 – The Fugitives – Trading Mental Identities

]]> http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/05/05/all-good-artists-are-crazy-right/feed/ 4 http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/05/04/guess-whos-back/ http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/05/04/guess-whos-back/#comments Wed, 04 May 2011 15:22:04 +0000 Chris http://www.chrismwiggs.com/?p=938 Once again, I have to start a post with an apology to my readers. University took over my life, and left me with next to no time to do anything outside my school project. I had a blast, met lots of great people and am looking forward to next year, but boy, am I glad summer is here! I’m back in my home town (London-the boring on in south western Ontario, Canada) and working at my old job at the Epilepsy Support Centre, which might sounds like it will take up all my time like school, but every year I work here I always find myself inspired to do more personal work (bonus for you!).

This is going to be just an update, with my first real “I’m back!” post coming later today.

First, I want to go over a bit of my plans for CMW design for the next few months. My first big thing is to update and tweak the blog’s design. I never actually finished it (bet you didn’t know that!) and there are some things I want to revisit and change now that almost a year has passed (A year? REALLY?). My next thing is a pretty big one. I’ve recently bought the domain “cmwdesign.ca”. Not only is this a sweet Canadian domain name, but it will let me focus CMW Design as not just a bunch of random pieces but as a coherent business. The site “cmwdesign.ca” will be sort of like a portal, or what’s called a “VCard”. It will have links to all my online ventures (twitter, facebook, blog, portfolio, tumblr, etc) and will replace chrismwiggs.com on my business card. Which brings me to my next piece. I am going to be updating my collateral (business card, letter head etc… Stuff you probably won’t see too much!) as well. This ALSO means a portfolio. I desperately need to get moving with that, so I will be putting a lot of time into getting it up and running (I’ve got a ton of sweet new pieces for you to check out!).

Lastly, I am going to get more content on my blog. I know I’ve said this in the past, but I am going to fully commit to it this time. I want my blog to be a big part of my design career and I figure since I really do enjoy finding new things for my blog, I might as well get going with it.

So again, I’m sorry for being away for so long and not posting much of anything, but I promise I will be back in full force!

P.s. Be on the lookout for buttons, a feel good installation, some talking lamps, some sweet typography tips and a ton of new designs to check out!

]]> http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/05/04/guess-whos-back/feed/ 0 http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/02/28/25-interesting-typography-sites/ http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/02/28/25-interesting-typography-sites/#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:24:23 +0000 Chris http://www.chrismwiggs.com/?p=893 Recently, I’ve become more and more of a fan of cool typography (read: fonts). A little bit of time spent with typography can create a really interesting and unique design. Because of my new found love of type, I’ve been bookmarking interesting websites that use typography to create something awesome. Here’s what I’ve found so far.

Living Design – http://livingdesign.info

@Tuhinkumar – http://tuhinkumar.com/

Creative Payne – http://www.creativepayne.com/

Xixi No Banho – http://www.xixinobanho.org.br/

Gap Medics – http://www.gapmedics.co.uk/

Blog Me Tender – http://blogmetender.com/

Olver Kavanagh – http://www.oliverkavanagh.com/

Take Shape – http://www.takeshape.it/home.htm<

Polar Gold – http://www.polargold.de/

HD Live 09 – http://www.hdlive09.co.uk/

Ryan Keiser – http://ryankeiser.net/

Dev Days – http://stackoverflow.carsonified.com/

Adosketch – http://sketch.odopod.com/

Mullestized – http://www.mulletized.com/

Barney Funk- https://www.barneyfunk.com/

Chirp – http://chirp.twitter.com/

JLern Design – http://www.jlern.com/

Ben Lind – http://benlind.com/

Colour Pixel – http://www.colourpixel.com/

Denise Chandler – http://www.denisechandler.com/

Amazee Labs – http://www.amazeelabs.com/

Psyched In – http://psyched.in/

Pole Cat – http://www.ipolecat.com/

What a Lovely Name – http://www.whatalovelyname.com/

]]> http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/02/28/25-interesting-typography-sites/feed/ 3 http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/02/17/its-a-me-mario/ http://www.chrismwiggs.com/2011/02/17/its-a-me-mario/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:15:39 +0000 Chris http://www.chrismwiggs.com/?p=880 As a person born in the early 90’s I, of course, have a deep love for Mario, Zelda and all things classic game related. So when I saw this thing on an Etsy store (more on what that is later), I HAD to have it. Now I do, and I want to share it with you.


Let’s start with that Etsy is. It’s an online community that allows users to sell handmade things and vintage finds. It’s pretty much an online craft show, which is essentially the best thing ever.

Now what has me so worked up? Mario. Yes the classic video game man himself. I found this awesome vinyl decal on an Etsy store. The idea is that the black vinyl designs work around the glowing Apple logo on the back of Macbooks. It’s a clever and quirky way to show some classic video game love. Now, they have plenty of other themes besides Mario et al, but I just happened to fall in love with this one.

Let’s start with the good. The actual decal is laser cut, and done so pretty well. It has really clean edges and some surprisingly small details. I was a bit worried it would be bit shoty, but I was pleasantly surprised here. It fits perfectly up against the Apple Logo, and actually looks like it’s in Yoshi’s mouth! The final finish of the decal is also pretty nice. It’s a nice matte vinyl and lies pretty flat against the surface of the Macbook.

Now, something I wasn’t so thrilled with was the lack of instructions. Maybe the application of vinyl decals is common knowledge, but I had no idea what I was doing. I assumed it was a sticker type deal, so I just started to peel it (the clear side) off. Thankfully I went and googled it because I had to peel the other side (paper side) off. Once I figured out what I was doing, it went of easily though.

All in all, I love this little guy. It looks pretty good, and after a bit of my own work, it was easy to get on. It was very well valued (at just under $10 with shipping) and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to spruce-up their Macbook or Macbook Pro (13, 15 or 17 inchers, they provide different sizes)




Update: I was going to post a link to the store that I bought this from, but they are temporarily closed. If you are wanting a sweet decal, try searching on Etsy (Click here to see some results.)

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