A Collected Gentleman
If you have not heard of A Collected Gentleman yet, please stop and see what is going on with that community (acollectedgentleman.com). The posts are all by one man and focus on several aspects of a creative life. A Collected Gentleman highlights great style with an economical mindset.
"My aim is to show style and self acceptance is priceless and that you can look good without breaking the bank." -A Collected Gentleman
The fashionable mindset is carried through the photography, the styling and even the poetry.
I met Isaiah Johnson (A Collected Gentleman) on twitter. He had inquired about the cost of fashion portraits after eyeing some of my fashion illustrations. We tweeted a bit and below is the result of our conversation.
To have your own Fashion Portrait contact sunflowerman at sunflowermatt@gmail.com
or you can meet sunflowerman on...
instagram- @sunflowerman
twitter- @sunflowermatt
Illustration Weekly, Styling Mike
Illustration Weekly 5
For the second week of the new illustration series at The Follow Fashion I give you Mike. Mike is one of the minds behind the success of The Follow Fashion Online Magazine which provides daily inspiration with links to designers and clothiers all over the web and the world.
This new series will be capturing the fashion icons of our day such as Patrick Grant and Scott Schumann and re-styling them through illustration. Submissions/suggestions of who you think should be included are welcome.
(Read more about this article at TheFollowFashion.com)
-Sunflowerman
instagram- @sunflowerman
twitter- @sunflowermatt
Men's Fashion Templates
I started a little project for general use creating Men's Fashion Design Templates. These are the first concepts of many to come. I am hoping to create a wide range of 'specific use' like the templates below and 'general use' for added customizability. Look for free template and vector downloads to be coming soon.
Would it be helpful to see the outlines of the heads?
If you want to see more Men's Fashion Illustrations check out the Illustration Weekly section of the blog.
Illustration Styling, Rashgmaal
Illustration Weekly 5
To kick off the new illustration series at The Follow Fashion I give you Rashgmaal. Rashgmaal is the founder of The Follow Fashion Online Magazine where he provides daily inspiration with links to designers and clothiers all over the web and the world.
This new series will be capturing the fashion icons of our day such as Patrick Grant and Scott Schumann and re-styling them through illustration. Submissions/suggestions of who you think should be included are welcome.
(Read more about this article at TheFollowFashion.com)
-Sunflowerman
instagram- @sunflowerman
twitter- @sunflowermatt
Fashion Illustration Web Headers
I began developing some Web-Header illustrations a while back that never were used. Hope is still strong within me that they will find a purpose one day. Today though, these fine illustrations are nice enough to share themselves as examples of my process. When I am illustrating there is an overall process that guides the work I do. Not everything is done the same way, but almost always there is a similar strategy to them. The Web-Headers have been the most straight-forward and will hopefully provide a bit of knowledge and maybe a bit of joy as well.
With this controlled style I start with a pencil sketch and follow it with an ink outline (I use a round brush from sizes 1-6 and black india ink, usually Dr. Ph. Martins).
When the ink dries I do a heavy wash of base colors in watercolor to cover most of the work space (This is mostly water and a little bit of watercolor to create a unique ethereal background).
Finally all that's left is filling in the details of lights and darks to pull the form of the figures from off the page (personally I feel that it is ok to use white gouache over watercolor to create some highlights and not to just leave the white of the background, where many watercolor purists would smack me in the face at the mention of it).
London Collections Men, 2013… Book Page Fashion Illustrations
London Collections: Men is done and the fashion world has moved on to the next thing (being, Pitti and Milan). Beautiful things have happened with the collections this year and I can't wait to throw my spin on them. In two weeks I will be launching the London Collections Men 2013 Fashion Illustrations at sunflowermanfashion.com.
I will be focusing on five designers from the collection and identifying some of the main items in the collections that stood out to me.
The two sets of images previewed here are from the Matthew Miller Collection and the E. Tautz Collection.
Stay posted for more info about this series.
Style Journal #9...
I had the opportunity recently to spend some time with Rashgmaal of The Follow Fashion (thefollowfashion.com). He was gracious enough to feature me in his new Style Journal section. See the resulting image below and follow the link to see the rest of the story. You all need to see what this young man is doing with his generative material.
…at H. Stockton...
A while back I stopped in to H.Stockton Midtown to meet the proprietors of the fine men's fashion boutique. One thing led to another and here we are now. The other day I needed to a place to shoot video for a painting and Joel was kind enough to share his space. The resulting image is the feature in each of the images below. Click on each to see what it is.
A Great Day for Fashion...
I met my good friends for lunch the other day and it was a fantastic fashion frolic. I had to stop the joyful meeting and capture the moment. They laughed, they posed, they frustrated each other and it was all a great time.
And wouldn't you know it, one's a poet and one's an illustrator.
Check out Quellie's artwork here.
Sunflowerman and Atlanta Street Fashion...
Happened to be in the right place, wearing the right stuff, at the right time. Met Sir Adams, the administrator and creative mind behind the Atlanta Street Fashion blog and we hit it off. The day began as fabulous as one could imagine. I gave myself an extra hour of sleep and still awoke at 7 in the morn. The first order of business was a watercolor concept for some oven designs. Next came the technical work in that powerful adobe application, Illustrator.
By 9:30 I was off to wisp my beautiful girlfriend to Utrecht for a paper run. On my traversing the winding paths of Atlanta's roadways I made a pit stop at the bank and found my way to my favorite Coffee spot. Yet again Condesa Coffee served as a mystifying union for strategic meetings and creative energy.
It was at Condesa that I met up with John Cutrell, who magically configured my wordpress.com address to read as sunflowerman.com. Almost immediately after I met Cameron Adams. You can see the rest of what happened below.
Women's Fashion Illustration… Book Pages
Recently I was commissioned to do this series of women's fashion illustration on the book pages. I have stayed away from women's fashion quite purposefully. It is such a highly saturated genre with little variety. Though illustrating the female form is much more interesting than the male form. One could understand the saturation of the women's fashion market after having the opportunity to work in it.
My heavy handed approach with varying thicknesses of bold blacks carried over to the traditionally delicate and fluid line work of women's fashion illustration makes for a stronger figure. With my signature book page background these illustrations maintain the sunflowerman 'look.'
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Bowties...
Watch how I make a bow tie! As a part of the fashion series this video is an entertaining diversion that will take you on a journey with me and the music of The Bamboos in the creation of a Book Page Fashion Illustration. .
Enjoy
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jJX4qDK9ck&w=560&h=315]
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Fashion Portrait… Brandon and GQ
Got another! This one is great and innovative, that is, if it were actually a real GQ cover. There is an obvious lack of art in the GQ universe. Why wouldn't art be considered innately masculine? and therefore be included in a purportedly masculine magazine such as GQ. Here is my contribution to the cultural masculinity of magazines like GQ.
Brandon Sadler is the focus of an early fashion portrait and is linked here for those who have not been with us for long.
I picked up my copy… did you?
Working out this Business Card thing...
So I'm working on the new business card and can't decide if the hand type or the computer type is better. One might be able to chide my effort on the hand done type and I would have to agree with the descent.
Other than the type dilemma I feel comfortable with the layout so far.
Creating My Very Own Portfolio...
I am endeavoring to make my own portfolio for my fashion illustrations. I now have the fabric, the specs and the idea. All that is left to do is to craft it! With crafting obviously being the most simple of all the tasks. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a prototype to show!
Self Portraits...
I have been itching for a redesign on my business cards for a while. The old design ( found here ) is still nice, but definitely outdated. I received my first batch of them over a year ago. Back then I had consistently longer hair, and the card reflected this beautiful and untamed nature. There is also some outdated information that I cannot continue to keep tracking and using. Below is the sketch I did not too long ago of what I want. It's a quick sketch and I need to nail out more of the finer details, but the idea I believe is strong.
My good good friend Ruth Meharg suggested that I might print the cards on vellum so the portrait would show through on to the back side. I love this idea. I don't know how that would translate, especially with wanting information to be on printed on both sides. Also, the idea of creating a plate or woodcut for printing the type was thrown around. Any sort of print process is beautiful to me. What is likely to happen is a limited run of hand printed cards (for those very special people) and a mass printing from Zazzle to put up in shops and what not.
After developing the sketch I wanted to get some self-portrait ideas down to better visualize the final product. What followed is what you see below, in order that they were painted. They range in technique, but all contain some sort of mixture of watercolor and black ink. The first few also contain acrylic. None of these actually fulfill my desired look, but I think that I am getting close.
This first one was mostly acrylic and feels very patriotic… that darn red, white and blue...
Oooooo, what do I say about this one? It conveys a younger me-and the eyes are horribly offset from each other. I might as well toss this and never think of it again.
In spite of the odd nose, this is one of my favorites! It wouldn't work well for the business card, but bow ties get me every time…every time.
This is a success. A marvelous success! There is a hitch though, the colors are a bit moody. I was showing it to a few coworkers, and they started to tear...
Eyes are always aggravating me. The one on the right just started to run away. Blue made its way in again and sets an off mood to this self-portrait as well.
The Urban Animal Scientist...
I have been experimenting with different imagery in collaboration with my friend The Urban Animal Scientist. The Urban Animal Scientist is an urban brand of dog collars, soaps, and now concrete dog bowls. Handmade right here in Atlanta these oversized collars are crafted to match the owner and the dog together in perfect fashion harmony. What started out a couple years ago as an idea and a passion has burgeoned into a great brand, a How Magazine featured website, and a hub for great collaboration to take place. Below is a sampling of my work in collaboration with The Urban Animal Scientist.
My goal was to leave a large portion of white space and to utilize simple bright colors to define the form of the dogs.
The main focus was on the collars and the leads. I wanted the dog to be the subject while using the color to lead the eye through image ending at the collars and leads. I used black india ink sparingly and purposefully. Marking the eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
On these last two the process changed slightly. Instead of leaving a mass of white space I decided to fill in everything with color. Everything began the same with the pencil drawing, the light washes of watercolor and the india ink for definition. This time though I did not leave any white space I instead filled in the white space with Titanium White gouache. Finally I would finish the painting with a mid tone acrylic to frame the dog and to add value within the form.
Beer and Wine
So, as I do on occasion, I came to the call of my amazing bosses (for a fee of course). Some designing needed to be done and as the resident artist I was obviously the man for the job. Recently the restaurant had acquired a nice chalkboard that Terry (affectionately T-Wayne) decided would be good for some advertisements of alcohol. I picked up some very nice chalk-paint at Sam Flax and went to work. The images below describe what followed...
LOVE Again
There once was a man. There once was a man with a shirt. There once was a man with a green shirt. There once was a man with a green shirt and an idea.
The idea he had was to make a shirt design by hand. He didn't have the resources to do screen printing. So he used acrylic ink and a contact paper stencil.
Then that amazing shirt got wet and the ink bleed all over the place, but he didn't care.
He wore that shirt anyway.
Eventually the paparazzi caught wind of its amazingness...
