A Design Experiment.

Actual shirt used in my design experiment.

A few years ago when I was in the middle of developing my texture book I thought of an idea. I liked how traditional t-shirt design wear out over time so I asked a friend who worked at a local screen printer if they could simply print a rectangle on a shirt for me. The shirt could be a scrap shirt but I wanted it to be a dark color and the ink printed to be white.

I gave the shirt to my wife and told her every time she did the laundry I wanted her to include this shirt in the wash. She thought it was kind of dumb washing something that wasn't dirty. (She's practical) I assured her there was a reason and reminded her to just keep doing it and periodically I'd check it to see how it was degrading over time. Well it's been a little over two years now and the shirt has that wonderful natural distressed look.


Close-Up of finalized texture file.

All I had to do is scan the shirt in and using the same Photoshop actions I set up for my book I created the final texture file I can now use in a design or illustration project. Even though my wife thought it was a waste of time I assured her it ended up looking even better than I had hoped.

It only took two years to accomplish this design experiment, but good things come to those who wait. I hope you enjoy using this texture in your own design and illustraiton projects.

"Well Worn" Texture File Specifications.
The following formats are included in this download.

- Layered Grayscale PSD File (Hi-Resolution, 10x15 inches @ 315 ppi)
- Bitmap Tiff Image (Hi-Resolution, 10x15 inches @ 300 ppi)

Download "Well Worn" Texture Files. (File Size: 10.7MB)

I can't skate.

"Eastern Prowl" and "Scorcher" Board Designs.

A little over a year ago a company by the name of Zazzle.com contacted me and asked if I'd be willing to let them create an online store on their site using my artwork. I originally told them I didn't have time to set it up and they actually said they'd do it for me. So I pulled together a bunch of artwork from my archives and sent them what they needed.

Over the past year I've worked on several projects for them and I've been impressed with how they've grown their business and expanded their services. I've ordered custom designed products from them and I've been really impressed with the quality.

Zazzle.com offers a wide variety of various products you can customize like tees, shoes, bags, stickers, ties, posters and now the newest member in their arsenal of offerings is skate boards.


"Tribal Splash" and "Grinder" Board Designs.

So when Zazzle.com contacted me to pull together some skate board designs to help them kick-off their new product offering I was happy to help out. The timeline was truncated so I just dusted off some archived work and re-formatted and enhanced it for these board graphics.

Repurposing is OK, but I always prefer to create new work but unfortunately that won't happen in two days. If you read this blog frequently you'll notice I have repurposed the skull art once again for a board graphic. That is the third repurpose this month of that art and now I have to enforce a self-imposed creative moratorium preventing any further usage of that art. It's off limits. (I apologize for my creative bad habit)

List of all the skate board graphics I created:
- Eastern Prowl
- Scorcher
- Tribal Splash
- Grinder
- Ultimate Bonehead
- Serpent
- Lionheart

When I have some free time I plan on creating some completely original art for this new product offering. Even though I don't skate board and my motor skills in that regard are about as well honed as a small neck clam, I find the subject matter and genre one of the best to design for. Anything goes.

Oregon Exposure

An original set of textures by Dickie Adams.

My fellow panelist on the "freelance radio" podcast is an avid photographer and during his most recent trip to the Oregon coast he shot some cool textures.

Knowing that I am into textures he sent me his pictures and allowed me to create this set and offer it as a free download. Thank you Dickie!


It's said the perfect number is "7" and that's how many textures you get.

Source File Specifications.
Each Texture Includes the following formats for each of the "7" textures.

- Source Photo (Hi-Resolution RGB jpeg)
- Layered Grayscale PSD File (Hi-Resolution, 10x15 inches @ 315 ppi)
- Bitmap Tiff Image (Hi-Resolution, 10x15 inches @ 300 ppi)

Download Oregon Exposure Texture Set. (File Size: 187MB)

The FBI Needs You!

The FBI is here to investigate and solve illustrative crime.

I've seen a lot of case study sites. Most are kind of boring and far too serious so I wanted to avoid that. I am happy to announce the launch of a new micro-site for my own case studies called "Federal Bureau of Illustration."

The site is done tongue-in-cheek playing off the metaphor of the FBI. There are a total of seven case files in the archive right now and I'll add more as time goes on so subscribe to the sites RSS feed to be notified of new case files being posted.

The site is also geared to allow anyone to become a field agent and earn a cut of every lead they submit that turns into an actual case being opened. For all the specifics about becoming a field agent just visit the site.


FBI Headquarters, Pacific Northwest.

Back in September of 2007 I replaced my studio door with one shown above. This was the spark of inspiration that led to the "Federal Bureau of Illustration" and serves as the headquarters and Oregon field office.

I hope you enjoy the new site and consider becoming a field agent in your territory. The FBI needs you!

We All Have One

"Ultimate Bonehead" Skull Submission. (Click to see larger image)

An illustrator by the name of Ryan August started a collaborative art project a few years ago called "IWantYourSkull.com."

He has published a total of five books already and I've participated in three of them. This submission is for book number six.

So once again I find myself working on a project centered around one of the top ten favorite themes of artists, that is "Skulls." If you want to know more about the top ten themes you can read another blog post I did on it called "The Themes We Love."

I repurposed this skull art from another project I had done. You can see the tutorial about that entire project at "IllustrationClass.com."

The Puck Stops Here!

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where the sport of hockey wasn't very popular.

Every so often I'd stumbled upon it accidently while flipping through channels. I never watched the whole game and the only reason I held off turning the channel sooner than later had to do with the possibility of a fight breaking out.

The only exception to this was about six years ago when FOX Sports embedded a computer chip into the puck and you could watch it zip around on screen like a laser beam. That kind of technology actually made me want to watch a full game. I still had no clue what all the rules were however.

Turns out each puck cost around $8,000 to replace if broken or if hit into the crowd and carted off by a fanatic. So they stopped doing that after the first season and thus my new found fascination ended.


NHL nick-name patches.

Upper Deck Company hired me to create a set of embroidery patch designs for their NHL licensed product. Many of the themes I had to design reflect specific achievements, famous moments, awards, and as shown above player nick-names. I have no clue who "Moose" is, but his intense look worked well for this design. The dentist of "Golden Jet" must be a happy camper, and "Stitches" seems to have inspired a franchise of hollywood horror films it would seem?


"16" of "135" embroidery patch designs in set.

With embroidery you have to keep detail simplified or it can get messy quick. I was given a garden variety offering of various themed embroidery patches to design. All the various color shifts reflect the team colors the patch is associated with as well. This shows about "16" out of around "135" I created for this set.


The holy grail of the hockey world.

Every sport has it's ultimate award and with hockey it's the "Stanley Cup".


Awards-O-Plenty.

I may be wrong but I think hockey has more award trophies than any other sport and I had to illustrate each of them. From what I could tell there was around "13" different awards in all. (Feel free to correct me if I am wrong)

I don't have to be a fan of broken teeth, mullets gone wild, or spontaneous skirmishes between two pugnacious players to appreciate the finer points of ice hockey. I just get to enjoy designing for this frozen sport culture.

Branding a Vampire?

Cover Design by Jerry Todd of St. Martins Press.

Some times projects come my way and I am just given enough information and time to do my job and then I am off working on another project and the previous gig is out of sight and out of mind. Rarely do I get to see the final usage.

Today I was watching TiVo while I worked and getting ready to FF through a commercial when my spidey sense kicked in. Something about the commercial was familiar. I hit rewind and watched it again and there it was, the logo mark I had created for St. Martins Press back in October of 2007.

At the time I created this mark I heard the word "Romance Novel" thrown around so I didn't bother getting into the nitty gritty of the back story I just working out the iconic design, delivered the art and moved along. Little did I know that Dark-Hunter is a best-selling paranormal romance book series by the American author Sherrilyn Kenyon.

At least that is what I've read online, to be completely honest I've never heard of any of it.


Actual TV spot that appeared on the sci-fi channel.

Some of you might be wondering what the mark means? I have no idea myself. I was given a very crude idea of what they wanted and didn't bother to ask for an interpretation of the symbolism. The mark must mean something to be so prominently featured in the TV spot? Or maybe not? If there are any Dark-Hunter readers out there please educate me as to it's meaning.

So I guess you can say I've branded a vampire? Or at least a story about vampires? A little ironic seeing as I created the art right around Halloween and didn't even know it was for a vampire story.

In any regard it was a pleasant surprise seeing it on the sci-fi channel. Not sure I'll be reading the book though, not my cup of blood if you will. ;-P

Drip.Dot.Swirl - Pattern Book!

"Drip.Dot.Swirl. 94 incredible patterns for design and illustration."

For that past 14 months I've been working on my next book called "Drip.Dot.Swirl" which is a book of illustrated patterns. This book will come with a DVD like my texture book that contains all "94" illustrative patterns on it in vector format. Each pattern has three color options so that's a grand total of "282" variations to choose from.


"9" of the "94" patterns in the book.

Each of the patterns is tileable, so you fill any size space needed seamlessly. The patterns are fully customizable too, meaning you'll be able to adapt them to your own projects by changing colors, simplifying the content or combining more then one to create additional options.

Pattern names for each in order from left to right.
- Rosetta
- Vindaloo
- Frillicious
- Boogie Pop
- Psychotronic
- Dragon Hide
- Magic Beans
- Hypnotica
- Palatium


Shoe design using my "Greener" pattern. (For more info click image)

The folks over at Zazzle.com just launched a cool new service where you can design your own shoes. At the time of this post it's only women's shoes but I decided to give a few of my patterns a test drive.


Shoe design using my "Off-Set Camo" pattern. (For more info click image)

In the process of putting this book together I did a lot of reading about the art of math which in essence is captured in patterns. A college professor who specializes in pattern art and the math behind it explained to me that there is only "14" types of patterns. I'll take his word for it.


Shoe design using my "Protozoa" pattern. (For more info click image)

Everyone who orders the book will receive a bonus set of patterns not included with the books DVD that I am creating now.

The book will hit the shelves in March of 2009. If you'd like to be notified when this book is available for pre-order you can email me to be added to my book list and I'll notify you when it's available via Amazon.com. Send your request to: info@glitschka.com