Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Bonz!

TOM - Here is a poster I did recently for Brian Bonz and the Dot Hongs, a band straight outta Bay Ridge Brooklyn. The poster is to promote their upcoming album, "From Sumi To Japan". The idea given to me was pretty out there, and I had fun illustrating it. Until next time...

10 comments:

Edwin Vazkez said...

Very cool.
One comment:
your digital web images are too big in window and take time to open up.
Try this (and I'm putting this in for anyone who wants to know)

In photoshop go to
Image size->Resolution should be 72

(switch off scale styles, leave on constrain and resample image),

Select BICUBIC SHARPER in drop down menu,

Finally in your width/height, select your largest side and drop down to 600 pixels.

This will give you a nice clean image at the size of the window.
So no dragging down window screens to see image.

Other than that, Great Image.

james flames said...

you described the image to me, and i honestly couldn't figure how you were gonna make it work - but you did. i think the color pallette is perfect, and brian's hair itself (not even the characters) becomes the most important and interesting part of it all.

normally i would suggest using fonts for the type - or to practice making the hand-drawn lettering more perfect or even. but honestly, i think it kinda works here - again, i think due in large part to the color palette.

and in regards to edo's comment above: tom and i had a discussion months ago about the size of the artwork on the blog. personally i think 600 pixels is too small for a site like this. the purpose here is to show off the artwork and details, and 600px is way too small to do that. likewise, i don't feel that the type of traffic we're attracting on this site would prefer smaller, faster-loading images. in contrast, tom's personal site, as well as my posters on gigposters.com are much smaller and easier to load for ease of use - due to the type of traffic we're trying to attract on those sites. but here, i'm really interesting in seeing the detail of tom's brush strokes or the grain of the paper he's using.

also, i hesitate to always use bicubic sharper when shrinking an image size or resolution - personally, i switch between bicubic sharper and regular old bicubic -- i'll do both for any given image and A/B them to see which one i like better, or how it responds to the artwork, style, type of media, and my overall vision for the piece. just my personal opinion and experience.

thomas pitilli said...

Thanks guys, I'm glad you both dig it. About the size of the image, I understand both points. Me and Edowyn were talking last night about how art directors are starting to look more at blogs instead of websites, just to see more recent work, so in that regard Edowyn has a point in making it as clear as possible without having to scroll. In terms of me looking at you guys and other artists stuff, I prefer to see it up close though. Sometimes on other blogs I see the option of it fitting in the window, but it's able to be clicked on to enlarge. Do you guys know how to do that? Ant way, thanks for the tips!

james flames said...

well, on a personal note, i thought the original reason for us starting the blog was to keep up with each other's artwork when i moved away and we couldn't just walk over to each other's apartment to see the latest and greatest. so in that respect, i hope to keep that integral to the purpose of this particular blog.

but the point that you and edo make is very logical and obviously timely. so my suggestion would be to start a separate blog for your professional endeavors (and make that the 'blog' link on your regular site instead of this one), and keep this as the private one for friends and family. tho i can't understand why an art director would go look at your blog when you give them the web address for your regular site - the exact purpose of that original site is to get work. so why would they go to a blog?

but, i have a third point of view that's obviously open for discussion, especially since i'm developing my position as i'm writing this. i understand that we're all here to try and make a living at this - our art is our 'product' and we're trying to sell it. but i think the more we concentrate on our art as commerce, we might be devaluing it's identity as 'art'. and the importance of that identity is integral to our development and evolution as artists. there's obviously two sides to this - the professional and the creative - and personally i've been grappling with the space between them, and/or allowing one to effect the other. if someone doesn't pay me much, but i can potentially create something that takes my art to the next level for that particular project: do i turn it down, because they're not paying what my creation is "worth"? or do i take the assignment because it serves the greater good of my art and my development as an artist? or do i take the assignment, but do a lesser job, since they're paying me lesser money?

of course there are alot more factors that would play into making such a decision. but the point i'm trying to make is that the professional side of it (and more directly, the capital gain or loss) is effecting the creative side, as well as the creative effecting the professional. i think the result of those effects is different to each person, and of course there's no clear cut answer. but i think it's an important thing to consider.

and i guess the topic of the purpose of the blogs plays into this. the purpose of the flying pitilli bros was to share the ideas, the process, the materials, the mistakes, and the pride in a finished piece, or the dismay in a rejection. so in essense it's completely creative. if we start adjusting things because of what an art director might dislike, then we lose the mistakes, the honest commentary and maybe even the sharing of tips, tricks, and secrets because of possibly 'letting the cat out of the bag'.

i guess it's not really much of a third point of view, just an excuse for me to rant on my first point of view. sorry if i went too far - but i think it's at least something worth discussing.

james flames said...

and just to clarify (as i'm reading back my comments) - i don't want to give the impression that in delegating the two sides (professional & creative), that i'm also assigning one as bad and one as good. they're both good, and they both have incredible potential, singularly and together.

i'm not saying that art is good and money is bad. money is good and i love it. and art is good and i love it too. just wanted to make myself clear(er).

thomas pitilli said...

Edowyn, your probably saying to yourself, "why did I bring this up?! These Pitilli's are crazy!" Personally, I'm probably gonna leave the sizes the way they are since I like to see the detail up close, but Edowyn definitely makes a very valid point and might very well be right. In terms of creating two separate blogs, I think that would be a little ridiculous. I wouldn't stop posting candid comments about my process and/or my successes or failures. I feel that even if art directors are looking at these blogs, those are exactly the things they want to see. My intentions for starting the blog are still the same, but I now look at it as much more of an outlet to promote and possibly get jobs, but I'm definitely not worried about letting the cat out of the bag (although I'm not sure the cat was ever in the bag. he, he) Good Feedback today people! This is blogging at it's finest!

james flames said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Nope, not thinking crazy. But at least getting a roll on posts aside from the no posts or 1 comment post, such as in my blog, cough cough, hint hint :)
I'll respond soon, not neglecting, my long class days are yesterday and today. Today starts my class schedule from 12 pm to 10pm so I'll jump in with my comments soon.

Anonymous said...

"These Pitilli's are crazy!"

No apostrophe. You might not want to clean up your blog for art directors, but what about for trolling copy editors?

Edwin Vazkez said...

I don't know any tips yet on how to open a small version to its larger. Now that I understand what you two are doing or intended in this site, yes it is good to have the large image. But to appreciate the work in its whole, I would have to move the image to desktop opening in a program.
Reducing images also protects you in theft. They still will steal, but not as smooth in quality.

Also in the discussion about blogs being viewed by Art Directors, then maybe a separate Blog where some can show that side to them. So I agree with you (James).

I think some of the Topics James brought up in Art should have there own blog piece to continue in its debate.