"Of Sentient Virtue"

 Last May you may remember I posted a landscape design with the main theme being a string of Tibetan prayer flags. Here's the link if you need a refresher: http://nolasvoboda-accidentalartist.blogspot.com/2012/05/blessings-of-san-juan.html

This design is special to me because I worked it up after the amazing experience climbing this mountain last September...

Mt. Sneffels 14,150 ft. San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Near the top of this mountain lay a string of these...

And there ya have it, I just had to make a design based on these two elements! In the back of my mind, I knew eventually this design would find a way to being thrown on a ski template in this year's G3 Skigraphiks Contest. So when it came time at the beginning of September, you bet I was mighty excited to enter this design into the contest on G3's brand new District skis and show it off to the world!  I had to tweak it a little here and there to make it fit into a ski template. I had to give it an extra 20 inches of width and orient it to match the direction that G3 seems to want their graphics to lay.

I am very excited about the changes that have come to this year's contest as well. I love that there is only one sponsor this year, which happens to be the super stellar folks at Backcountry Magazine! Though I don't know exactly how it is decided, but I think the idea to have a "People's Choice" winner chosen each month is a neat one. The prize is not a pair of skis, but swag, a 1-year subscription and a pair of skins are still very awesome prizes to win! I think there will be even more of a feeling of accomplishment for the lucky winner who becomes the Overall Winner, as they will be the only one to receive a pair of skis with their design and all the other goodies!

Anyway, back to this design of mine. The thought of there being Tibetan prayer flags on a pair of skis seemed very fitting. In every single ski town and mountain I have ridden, prayer flags display their colors all across the landscape. As someone who commented a great observation on my design said, "What a great choice to use prayer flags-they are a large part of ski culture today!" I believe that is becoming more and more true. I you go on to research the meaning behind the prayer flag, the meaning in the colors, the main picture in the middle of the "wind horse," the meanings of the animals in the four corners, when and for what occasions they are hanged and even why they are supposed to be displayed in the correct sequence of colors, you will no doubt understand why they are becoming such an important theme in any mountain culture today! I wanted the flags to come off the mountain from where they hang to become the forefront of the design, floating across the real and reflected backgrounds becoming the prominent image.

Here is the link to my design for the Skigraphiks contest! Of Sentient Virtue If you like it, feel free to vote, comment and/or share my design! And while you're at it, do the same for all of the other designs that you like too! There are some fantastic designs this year!

Blessings of San Juan

In hopes of lots and lots of snow for seasons to come. A digital illustration featuring Mt. Sneffels in the San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado.

©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

"Spruce"

Thought I'd share a little sneak peek of another little project I've been working on for a little company out in New Hampshire. Don't worry, there will be more details to come!

(In the mean time, here's a little hint =)...http://www.spruceski.com/)

"Perpetual Recess - Doodles On Chalkboard"

With the new year came the end to the four month long top sheet design contest I had ever so willingly been participating in. At the end of December, G3 wrapped up the contest with Round 4 and their Infidel ski.

G3 describes the Infidel as a freeride ski for everyday fun, nicknamed the "smile factory." Well, obviously the design going on the ski should be one that invokes and emphasizes...fun! I had a plan for this ski through the entire contest, and could barely wait to get to work on it. The idea was simple, and came from a certain (five at the time) now six year old and his random ever changing and evolving drawings.

I've never spent much time around kids. Well, not enough to witness their evolution, how quickly they learn and the changes in the way they think and see the world. A few years ago I met a young feller by the name of Zack. Wild, high spirited, energetic, extremely caring, very athletic, great at sports and loves so ski! I have had the pleasure of living with this particular young man since he was three. I've witnessed his improvement in knowledge of vocabulary, spelling, counting, colors as well as his motor skills in sports. Especially his ability to learn to ski. I've also watched as his doodles went from random heavy strokes of forceful color back and forth to squiggly wiggly lines all over a page to the formation of things he sees in the world. One of the first things he ever popped out onto a page was a wheel, odd looking but definitely a wheel. The wheel then became part of a race car he had seen at the tracks in Vegas. Soon after there was fire and rain, then mountains and trees. Then a whole picture of him fishing with his dad. Every now and then an occasional skier on a mountain. After many hours of watching Matchstick Productions ski flicks with me in the living room, he was drawing and demonstrating avalanches.

As much as I love his doodles, there is a same-ness to all of them. They are very much his style. After chatting about my idea with his mom, we came to the idea that maybe we could get doodles from his entire kindergarten class. They would draw whatever they thought of when they thought of Winter. Every drawing would be individual and unique in its style and composition. In turn the ski would be most unique in its own right, have not one artist, but 26 little ones!

I remember being in school, looking out the window unable to pay attention or focus on my school work as the snow fell outside. Excitement overcame us. All we could think of was the bell of recess or the end of the day ringing, signaling it was time to go outside and play in the snow. Oh the snowmen and the snowball fights and the snow forts, snow tunnels, snow on a slide, a huge pile of snow, catching snowflakes on our tongues...etc. How we couldn't wait to get to the sledding hill. Playing so hard we never noticed as the sun set. So sad we had to go inside and wait till we could get out and play in the snow again. Recess was the best! If only the snow play could never end!

A few days before Christmas break, when little children's minds are filled the most with thoughts of snowmen, snowballs, sledding and anything else they look forward to when it snows at Christmas time, we commissioned the kindergarten class for one drawing each. A massive pile of amazing drawings it was! They were all so different, the skill, the images, the composition. Away I went, scanning and cutting, scanning and cutting until I had a completely random layout of each and every drawing. It was perfect! And to give it a different twist, I reversed the background, making it look as though they drew all of this on a chalkboard with different colors of chalk.

You can view my entry for Round 4 here:
http://www.g3skigraphiks.com/view/entry/perpetual-recess-doodles-chalkboard

The Skigraphiks contest was such a great opportunity to put my skills, the skills I use for my own personal design play, the skills I never get to use as a newspaper advertising designer, to great use! I finally had a chance to take personal stuff I would play around with doing, apply it to a formal design and put it out there for the world to see! It was the most fun I have had with ideas and designing them in a very long time. And to see all of the fantastic designs that came out of this contest, I was blown away! The Skigraphiks contest was such a wonderful opportunity and who knows, maybe this year in 2012, I will throw out more ideas and enter the contest again.

"Compound of Enlightenment"

Time again for another round of Genuine Guide Gear's Skigraphiks contest to wrap up. Round three goes to their backcountry favorite, the ZenOxide. Being the literal thinker I am, I worked to combine my understanding of the definition of the word "Zen" and the word "Oxide." Thus creating an image based off of my personal interpretation of my definition of "ZenOxide."

ZenOxide:

1: A binary compound of Oxygen with Meditation and Intuition, emphasizing experiential Wisdom in the attainment of Enlightenment.

In thinking about this definition, I imagined an environment where I experience the most of my intuition and feel enlightened (possibly due to the lack of oxygen high in the Colorado Rockies!)  I incorporated images of mountains to identify the place and gave them a reflection because I believe that to achieve wisdom, one must first reflect upon the past. When looking out across the vast dynamic mountains, I reflect upon the journey (however short or long in time) that got me to that place. All of my senses powdered my intuition which lead to my decisions along the way. As I am there, I feel an overwhelming sense of peace and excitement. All the things going on in my life quickly fade away and I come to a realization that in that moment, non of it matters. I feel a huge accomplishment as well as a sense that I am very small in comparison to the world around me. I do believe, that in that moment, I achieve an even greater wisdom.

Oxidation is most often seen with metal or wood, and I chose an image of oxidized metal as my background because my favorite mountains are mined for their precious minerals and metals. Everywhere you go, they show signs of the mining and the oxidation that has come over the years. Oxidation is a representation of all of the forces, man-made or provided by nature that age us and wear us down throughout life. Though this process is constantly happening, we achieve various forms of Zen, and we persevere. G3 always portrays the ZenOxide ski with the Japanese symbol that represents "Zen." I thought to incorporate other images of Japanese heritage to the piece to help bring the image as a whole together. Finally I chose to use a stamped metal font for the name of the ski to reinforce the metal background. The Zen circle encompasses the name of both the ski and the Genuine Guide Gear logo as a reminder that anyone can attain a state of ZenOxide.

To vote for my design and check out the many other fantastic designs, click here! G3 Skigraphils - Compound of Enlightenment

"Bernard Of Menthon"

I'm back at it again! Time for round two of Genuine Guide Gear's Skigraphiks Contest. This round goes to Backcountry Magazine Editor's Choice 2012 ski in the "Mountaineering" category, the G3 Saint. Congrats to G3 for winning this fantastic award!

Now I shall tell you a little about how I came about my design! I wanted to stray away from the cliche images associated with the term "Saint," cathederals, statues, Renaissance-esque artwork, etc. As I thought about it, I remembered some images I had seen of "Patron Saints of Graphic Design." I thought, well heck, there must be a Patron Saint of Snow, or Skiing or some Saint along those lines. Low and behold I found him! His name was Bernard of Menthon. And through my research about him, turns out he was a pretty awesome feller and most of us don't actually know who he is, but we do  know of him! He will forever be commemorated in the form of a massive, docile, gentle beast of a pup known as the St. Bernard! And thus the idea of my design was simple, straight to the point and off I went! To vote for my design and check out the many other fantastic designs, click here! G3 Skigraphiks Saint

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A summed up version of Saint Bernard, the Patron Saint of Skiers and Alpinists goes a little something like this:

There is a path across the Pennine Alps leading from the valley of Aosta to the Swiss canton of Valais. This pass is constantly covered with snow seven to eight feet deep, and drifts sometimes accumulate to the height of forty feet. Although the pass was extremely dangerous, especially in the springtime on account of avalanches, it was often used by French and German pilgrims on their way to Rome. Bernard of Menthon (Bernard of Montjoux 923-1008) founded a monastery and hospice at the highest point of the pass in the year 962, and the pass came to bear his name. A few years later he established another hospice on the Little St. Bernard Pass, a mountain saddle in the Graian Alps. These hospices were renowned for the generous hospitality extended to all travelers over the Great and Little St. Bernard. Heroic monks accompanied by their well-trained dogs went out in search of victims who might have succumbed to the severity of the weather. They offered food, clothing, and shelter to the unfortunate travelers and took care of the dead.

History shows how Bernard saved the lives of scores of travelers who had fallen victim of avalanche, exposure and other mountain hazards. Bernard was canonized and further honored in the late 1800's when European dog owners renamed the Alpine Mastiff, known for it's endurance and capabilities in high altitude rescue, the Saint Bernard. Today Saint Bernard is known as "The Patron Saint of Skiers and Alpinists."

"HEADLINES"

Discovered another chance to win something fun! Genuine Guide Gear's Skigraphiks contest is back for another season. The first ski on the list is the new freestyle ski, the Highball. Thought I'd take another chance win a pair of skis and throw out a design idea I have been playing around with for a long long time! What a great opportunity for designers to get their design onto the top sheet of a ski!

You can check out and vote for my design as well as the many other fantastic designs here: http://www.g3skigraphiks.com/view/entry/headlines

©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

"Is It Winter Yet?®"

A little over a month ago, Liberty Skis out of Avon, CO announced their "Is It Winter Yet?® T-Shirt Contest.

The rules were simple:
Each entrant may submit up to two T-shirt designs.
Each design must feature the words “Liberty Skis” and “Is It Winter Yet?®”.
T-Shirt designs can feature a front and a back.
And the deadline for entering was July 24, 2011.
Public voting will be from July 24, 2011 through August 8, 2011
Judging will be from August 8, 2011 through August 11, 2011
Judges will announce the winners on August 15, 2011

Now I will admit, when it comes to having a chance to win something, I enter just about EVERY drawing/contest I see float past me. I wasn't too inclined at first to enter this particular contest, mostly because I didn't think I was going to have time to come up with a design. But the thought of possibly winning the prizes made it so that I just couldn't pass up the opportunity.

The prizes...follow with a gasp/grin:
The Grand Prize, winner will receive one pair of new Liberty Skis, plus 6 T-shirts with your winning design entry. (Enter gasp!)
2nd Prize, second place will receive one pair of Liberty poles, plus 6 T-shirts with your design. (Enter grin!)

Okay okay, let me think about it for a bit...

So, I thought about it. And I thought, oh man is Liberty asking the right question for me or what?!
When I thought about the question, "Is It Winter Yet?" I knew instantly what my design should be. It should be the one place I find myself ALL Summer and Fall long, just waiting for Winter to come...lounging around in my ski gear, looking off at the not so distant mountain, waiting not so patiently for there to be snow on it once again. Bingo!

To give an example, here was myself a few weeks ago. At the beginning of July, out on the front porch, sitting in my Adirondack chair, sipping coffee, all dressed up in ski gear...

So you have the basic concept for my design, let me tell ya a little more about the graphics in it. Obviously the skier chillin in the chair facing the mountain. I chose to make the chair and Adirondack chair because of my own chair, and because many times I have sat in one of these chairs at a ski resort, nibbling on a burger and sipping a tasty beverage. These chairs flood the snowy "patios" in front of the mid mountain restaurants.

The skier I wanted to be an anonymous silhouette, an image to represent anyone and everyone. Doesn't matter who, this skier could be you!

The skis on the skier, I went to great lengths to create. They are Liberty's own Double Helix skis. I wanted to keep them as simple as possible while still making them recognizable as the Double Helix. The Double Helix is also the ski, out of all the skis out there, that I have chosen to be my next ski.

On to the mountains. If you have read my posts in the past, you would know that I like to make ball point pen doodles of pictures I have taken. These mountains are a ball point pen doodle I sketched of the mountains seen looking South from the top of Breckenridge Resort in CO (here is the post from last September...http://nolasvoboda-accidentalartist.blogspot.com/2010/09/doodling-with-ball-point-pen.html). I felt that adding some very much Colorado-esk mountains was very important, being that Liberty is a Colorado based company.

The rays of sun rising over the mountains. I live on the western slope of Colorado, so for me, the sun always rises over the mountains that I love. My day starts with looking East towards the mountians while the sun rises over them, wishing for Winter to come. And on a very special morning, the sun rises and there it is, Winter has come to the mountains once again. So the rising of the sun represents the rise of another Winter. The rays are representative to those on the East slopes of Colorado as well. For those folks chase the sun up into the mountians when winter comes. And their day ends with the setting of the sun over the mountains they love. And on that one very sad afternoon, the sun will set on that season and the long wait for Winter to come commences once again.

Bamboo, quite possibly the most important supporting graphic. Liberty makes high performance skis rooted in functional innovation and respect for the environment. Liberty prides themselves on being the first and remains the ONLY ski company to use bamboo in all their skis. Bamboo is strong, light, eco friendly. On top of the renewable amazingness of bamboo, Liberty also operates on 100% wind power. Adding the bamboo was a very important aspect for me as I am constantly in an attempt to be as green as I can. I also chose to make the bamboo green to give the design a summer feel. Almost like the skier is sitting on a bamboo jungle like beach.

Well now that I have told you all about it, here is my design! If you like it and you are a Facebook user, please go vote for my t-shirt! As great as winning a pair of skis or poles would be, I would love more than anything to have a t-shirt with this design on it! It would be my most favorite shirt that I would never stop wearing! And you too could purchase this shirt for yourself! Public voting will be going on through August 8, 2011. https://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/130235/voteable_entries/25855290

©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

"Singletrack Sisters"

A friend of mine recently called me up to inform me about a new group of women only riders in the Grand Valley. I had heard about them before in the Daily Sentinel's Biking Guide special section (http://www.gjsentinel.com/special_sections/articles/all_that_glitters_is_gold). My friend (a Bike Shop mechanic), is very into the biking community mentioned that this group of ladies, the Singletrack and Skinny Tire Sisters of Western Colorado (check out the group's Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=338465622420&ref=ts#!/group.php?gid=338465622420&v=wall), were looking to move from just a Facebook group to become more of an actual group in the community. They want to get an identity, make brochures to leave in the local bike shops, hold clinics and do so much more. He gave the leader of the group my information and away we went!

Before they decided to have me do their logo, I was inspired by just the idea. I had a sudden urge to sketch up a mountain biker chick pulling a wheelie and fooled around with ways to abbreviate the name of the group. Ended up scrapping the abbreviation idea, but loved the chick!

©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

Still, without officially deciding to have me do their logo, I continued on. I cleaned up my sketch a bit in Photoshop and threw it into Illustrator where I turned it into a vector image. ©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

 I kept going. I played with the thought of adding a bike track element. ©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

And played around with various fonts to create additional logo type and maneuvered the letters around for fun and added a girlie hibiscus element. ©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

I had a thought to throw all of these elements into a shape that would bring them together. I ended up choosing an oval. ©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

I found another font I really liked and used it for the rest of the name. I chose to exclude "Skinny Tire" for the time being because I wasn't sure they would want it anyway. ©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

After this point, I decided to stop because I created an image I really liked. I sent it to the head of the group just to see what she thought. She loved it and decided at that point to have me move ahead with designing their logo! Through various changes and rounds of proofs, we eventually came up with an image that we both liked and thought would be a good representation of their group! She chose the colors of red and blue to be added to the logo. I had a thought while dreaming about it one night that if there is going to be red and blue, I should use yellow and make it representative of the Colorado flag. I chose an iron red for the rocks, a bright cyan for the sky and a golden yellow for the circle. I didn't want the logo to be exactly Colorado's colors, but more representative of the colors seen in Colorado's scenery. I also worked up a black and white logo for any of their black and white printing needs and a rectangle shaped logo for stickers or anything that would need to be cut to shape.

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"A Batch Of Logos"

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"Wanted: Extreme"

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"A New Brew" Update

The labels for Monument Brewing's brews, on their bottles! And I must say...I do love flavor of Wedding Bell Wheat, very yummy!

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"A New Brew"

A friend of mine who I will refer to as Mr. Bonnell, inquired upon me one day for my design skills. He has started up with a partner, a macro brewery which they are calling Monument Brewing. Mr. Bonnell asked if I could help him in coming up with two labels for two of his brews that he wanted to unveil at a friends wedding on the 14th of August. One they decided to call Wedding Bell Wheat, given it's distinct flavor by brewing with lemon and lime. And the other they went with the name Brook Trout Brown Ale. Once Mr. Bonnell and his partner worked out some details, he gave me a better idea of what he wanted incorporated in his labels. And to work I went!

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"Your Mission"

It all started with this...
I have been on the search for a new mountain bike for some time now. My old one (which I've had since I was 13, A Raleigh something that is 15 yrs old now) just isn't cut out for the job anymore. And after looking and looking and testing and looking, I was introduced to one little piece of equipment. And it has been on my brain for the past week since I discovered it.The Diamondback Mission. My self proclaimed to be new bike (if and when I can afford one of course). Now I'm not really sure which one I want to get, this one pictured below, however would be the ultimate of them. The bran spankin new 2010 Diamondback Mission 4, retailing for $4,999 and on sale at various slightly better deals. And as for right now, this bike is entirely outta my dreams...I think. I do have many choices to choose from with the missions, depending on the spec on a bike I wanna go with. They first came out in 2007 and set a new standard for the all mountain bike community. The 2009s and 2010s in the models 3 & 4 come equip with a new type of transmission. TruVativ's amazing HammerSchmidt, which is being described as an, "internally geared crankset for flawless shifting and unparalleled clearance out on the trail." This little detail is very alluring and sounds like a revelation, but it also knocks the price of the Mission up about $1000...YIKES!

So I think to myself, do I really need it. I remind myself that this will be my bike for the next 20-ish years, so whatever I do I gotta be happy with it. I have found a very nicely priced 2008 Mission 1 for a very nice price. I have also found a 2008 Mission 3 retailing at the same price as a 2009 mission 1. The main difference between the '08s and '09s is the fork in the bikes. The biggest difference between the years and models is the amount of travel (how much up and down the shocks move). I loved the way the '09 Mission 1's shocks felt, so its hard to determine if the '08s would perform just as good.


<--- '08 Mission 1 - RockShocks Tora 130mm travel <--- '08 Mission 3 - Rock Shox Pike 140mm travel <--- '09 Mission 1 - Fox Vanilla R 140mm travel So all in all it gets a little frustrating trying to decide exactly what it is I want in a bike. As a friend of mine who works at The Bike Shop here in GJ told me when I tried the '09 Mission 1 for the first time, its really all about how it feels between the legs. And with that advise, my choice of many narrowed to only one. With all this on my mind and instead of little $ $ signs showing in my eyes, the Mission is there. Which for whatever inspiring reasons made me want to make something out of it. I guess probably because I am idolizing the Mission right now. And to top off my wanting to go ride, my friend/coworker Julie always posts about all the cool places she rides and how much fun it is (check out her adventures if here: http://jewelsgj.blogspot.com/)
...those two ingredients thrown in a pot made me wanna stir up something good!

©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

©nolasvoboda•accidentalartist

Without any hesitation, I got down to making a poster!I started with the bike...made it cool. Gathered the pics...made em cool. Threw em all together and tweeked em a bunch to finalize em...made em cool! and Voila!

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"Homeland"

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A digital illustration done in Photoshop created from the mountains I previously sketched.

"KA-BAMMARAMMALAMMA! FUCK!"

Guess what everyone! I did it! I learned various techniques from the "Dazzling Dance" tutorial I posted earlier! And I created my very own version! Through the process I found a few challenges that weren't working for me. But not to worry, I found my own way of doing things. I actually knew most of the techniques, and incorporated a few new things I learned from the tutorial. It was cool to see how things worked when you put the steps in the order described in the tutorial!

Ok so it didn't turn out to be a PSA of sorts, one of those will come in time when I decide exactly what I want my issue to be about. Instead I once again played with my own form of self expression...It's really just good practice for me, especially when it came to trying something new!

Just in case you're curious about the images I chose to use...yes that is me, a pic of me sitting on the toilet taken St. Patties night of this year. I created my own spotlight w/ a shadow on the floor effect and threw in the chair too. The flames are another picture. The Denver skyscrapers are another oh and yes the flare of light was a crucial effect I learned from the tutorial.

"Accidental Artist" Cover Pages

"The Truth"

"Through The White"

As it turns out, for our newspaper Christmas is just about the busiest time of year(pretty much goes hand in hand with retail). But the week of Christmas is the most dead time of year, mostly because all that pre Christmas advertising is over with by the time the holiday rolls around. Unfortunately us artists still have be work. The week of Christmas was slower than slow and I had found a way to keep myself busy...I doodled trees!

The medium I used...a sheet of paper from the printer, my desk at work, a Papermate "Rocky Mountain Health Plans" #7 ball point pen, and a picture of the West End Lift at Powderhorn Resort with my camera of course =)

New Belgium Brewery's "Tour De Fat, Denver 2009"

A jumble of people, random articles of clothing, peddles and wheels, a parade and beer = the Tour De Fat!

I have compiled a picture with elements from 10 different photos taken back in September during my excursions in downtown Denver during the Tour De Fat. This was the most extensive time consuming Photoshop piece I have done so far...