I’m critical because I CARE

Meet Cupid Twitch.  Cupid Twitch is a skin concept for League of Legends character Twitch, the Plague Rat.  The impetus behind this design is that Twitch is the last bow-and-arrow wielding character on the roster, and with Valentine’s Day approaching, adding him to the Heartseeker family of skins.  The idea works two-fold, as it provides an opportunity to present a character known for filth and pungent odor in an ironic manner to be suddenly a romance-spreading Cupid, firing his arrows upon champions on Summoner’s Rift, as well as holding true to Heartseeker trends of utilizing bows and arrows.

The basis for the idea was taking a hairless rat, which are already all pink and cherub-like colored, and giving it Twitch’s weapon, modified to at least have a Heartseeker theme.  Add wings, and superfluous hearts, and voila, it’s Cupid Twitch, ready to spread love in surprise double and triple kills.

However, Cupid Twitch does not actually exist.

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Logos, selective hearing and non-constructive criticism

In my humble opinion, a logo should mean something.  That being said, I do in fact believe that the business world is full of hundreds upon hundreds of “meaningless” logos and identities.  If it’s a company’s goal to create a logo that stands out, that’s understandable and justifiable, but when the day is over, there’s still a chance that it’s essentially meaningless; if what’s created doesn’t symbolize anything, then it’s imperfect in my opinion.

Whenever I think about logos out there, that I think are “great logos,” off the top of my head, the featured above ones stand out.  I don’t like the Mets as a team, but damn if I don’t think their logo is a fantastic blend of meaning, symbolism and an aesthetically pleasing color combination.  The skyline features symbols of the five New York boroughs, a bridge overlapping them to symbolize connection between them all, the Mets word mark in classic script, all encapsulated within a fairly subtle baseball silhouette.

FedEx seems like a fairly inconspicuous word mark logo, but when the arrow within the E and X in Ex were explained to me, it was one of those can’t not see it anymore moments, which is subtle genius, because the arrow represents the forward progress of shipping logistics.

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I’m sure The Hateful Eight is going to be a solid flick…

But I can’t not hear the similarities in sound between “Hateful Eight” and “Chick-Fil-A.” And when an idea like that permeates my brain, there is absolutely nothing in the world that can stop the need to illustrate what I think.

Sure, it’s shoddy and sucks (mostly) on account of me using the brush tool in Illustrator with a mouse, instead of a tablet, but it gets my point across. My favorite part of making a spoof logo of Chick-Fil-A, is finding out where and how to integrate the eyes, beak and comb into any letter that isn’t a C.

But here we have it, an illustration of what goes through my head whenever I repeatedly hear the title The Hateful Eight.

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Now that’s salty

This is an illustration I did back in the winter, that I had submit to Udon when they were compiling artwork for the Capcom Fighting Tribute book they recently released.  Now anyone who has or has seen the book already knows that I did not make it in.

Admittedly, for someone who has to deal with rejection and criticism on a fairly regular basis in my line of work, this was a tough pill for me to swallow, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t dejected, deflated, and downright resentful for not making it in.  Me, and likely hundreds of other artists who undoubtedly ended up in the same boat.

Sure, I’m not the most talented illustrator out there, and I’m by no means entitled to have been a shoe-in to make it into the book.  I knew this when I decided to put forth the effort to do this in the first place, but there was tactic behind my choice of artwork, where I tried to accentuate strengths and hide weakness.  I went with a lesser-heralded Capcom property like Final Fight, instead of the heavy Street Fighter and Morrigan’s tits AKA Darkstalkers routes that would likely saturate the submission pool, and I took a route of humor, hoping portraying a popular video game trope, like the trash can chicken for full health restoration, illustrated out, might warrant some recognition.

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Not really a fan of the Miss Fortune visual update

TL:DR: Riot has given a visual update to Miss Fortune.

I don’t play her much as I used to, because I play a ton of ARAM, and MF isn’t really that effective in the current Summoner’s Rift meta, but ultimately, Miss Fortune has always been one of my favorite champions, since I started playing League.

Seriously, MF was the first champion that I really grew to love playing, and during the grind to level 30, I played Miss Fortune practically 75% of all those games.  She was the first champion that I purchased with RP instead of IP, because I was determined to have her once her free week was over, and then she was also the first champion that I ever bought a skin for.

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Photos: Jinx/Fishbones photoshoot candids

Note: the following post is from approximately one year ago, held back as a courtesy.

Good things happen when involved parties collaborate.  I came along to help out where I could with a photoshoot that featured Jen’s Jinx costume, the finished Fishbones bazooka by Volpin Props, shot by Joseph Chi Lin.

Obviously, this is relevant to my interests as Jinx is one of my favorite LoL characters, and all involved parties are what I’d consider friendly, so I can say that in spite of poor weather and typical Georgia summer heat, I had a good time taking part, and making a directional suggestion or two in my own right.

I thought it would be a good idea to bring my own camera, because I thought I’d want to take pictures of the street graffiti of the Krog Street tunnel, but ultimately, nothing in particular in the caught my fancy, due to the incestual mishmash of tags upon tags upon tags creating a whole lot of artistic vomit.

But it was good that I did, because I was able to take some candids of the processes of setting up our area, a few shots in between poses, and just a behind-the-scenes feel of what turned out to be an awesome example of talented parties collaborating for the sake of good art.

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The Washington Wizards and team logos

Impetus: The Washington Wizards have changed their official logo, ditching the bearded wizard that has plagued the identity since 1997 and has been gradually phased out.

Halle-fuckin-lujah.

Back in the mid/late-90s, when I was a huge NBA basketball fan, I loved the Washington Bullets. They were my hometown team, and despite the fact that they more or less stunk record-wise, I still loved them. Because my parents didn’t allow me to have cable, aside from the NBA on NBC on weekends, Bullets games were the only regular exposure to watching basketball available.

I watched through the rough days of teams anchored by Tom Gugliotta and Rex Chapman, to the arrivals of Chris Webber and Juwan Howard, to hope to rekindle some of that Michigan Fab Five magic, which actually produced some halfway decent, and entertaining squads. And who could forget loveable 7’7 Gheorghe Muresan, and the perpetually stoned-looking Rod Strickland?

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