Have you heard Frank Sinatra’s last song: ‘My Way‘?

And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear
I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain

I’ve lived a life that’s full
I’ve traveled each and every highway
But more, much more than this
I did it my way

Regrets, I’ve had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption

I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way

I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried
I’ve had my fill my share of losing
And now, as tears subside
I find it all so amusing

To think I did all that
And may I say – not in a shy way
Oh no, oh no, not me
I did it my way

For what is a man, what has he got
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way

Yes, it was my way

Powerful stuff, eh?

I love that last part most, though: “For what is a man, what has he got
If not himself, then he has naught. To say the things he truly feels…”

Just love it.

Welp, ready for some MODERN music? If so, here you go:

!!! – Pardon My Freedom

Lately I’ve gotten a few questions from people about my creative process. I know I talk about it, well, sort of a lot. But I realize I’m not always the best at explaining things… clearly?

It’s helpful to get questions of that nature, because it helps me to mentally categorize a process that is… well, extremely chaotic.

I have a preferred process, and a streamlined process. My preferred process is to read the details of a project in depth, alone, including every scrap of information that’s been written about it. Afterward, I’ll find some interesting music in YouTube (often biaural beats) and I’ll take a thick, black permanent marker and begin drawing some sections of the work I expect to be most prominent and noticeable, usually on plain white mixed media paper. I’ll spend a few hours hitting the subject matter in this fashion and flesh out the idea and try to avoid getting too detail oriented. At this stage, I’m just looking for a broad idea of where content sits within the frame, basically spacing concerns.

Afterward I’ll either take a few pics of the work, or scan it in, and import it into Photoshop and use the curves tool to eliminate any noise or shadows, so that I have nice, fluid lines. Then I’ll slap it in a blank file in Illustrator that I have pre-loaded with a lot of pre-made brushes and custom color palettes, and begin with the line work. I prefer vector graphics as I mentioned yesterday. Later on, after I have all my content present, I’ll go back through and start coloring with as much time as I have, hit the shadows, re-work areas, and then do as much polish as I can. Time permitting, I’ll bounce it back to Photoshop and do some more polish work, look for areas that need more contrast, and minor corrections, etc.

For work that needs to be done quicker, I’ll start with reading the details for the project, then jump immediately into Illustrator, and begin cranking out production work as quickly and asking for feedback from the client and Project Manager as often as possible, and iterating on the work I’ve done so far.

So, as you can see from the three images, I bounce around a lot with the colors, and there isn’t much I don’t consider mutable and subject to change design-wise at any stage.

I need some coffee though. And a nap.