Joker

Looks great @nachodik!

@Schnitzel- thanks! It's a technique I learned from reading up on techniques industrial designers use for their marker drawings. It's not exactly how they do it but it's the way I've taught myself based on what they do. They start with very light colors and then go back in with either same color or the next shade up and build on top of the lighter color underneath, working their way from light to dark. There's some cool videos on Youtube that show process. I've also found that Chartpak AD markers are the most wet color markers out there. The ink stays wet longer. But if you use them you have to move fast. Because the ink stays wet longer the color will bleed further. You get used to it after a while by putting color just slightly inward of your outline knowing that the color will bleed just to the line. But I've found that the AD markers blend from one color to the next really well.

Two notes of feedback on this: 1. The P feels like it's being pushed and falling to the right. It's the like E said "Nah, B... ". I would copy the R and just remove the leg. It's the same build as the P except for the leg but at least it sits upright. 2. The C feels slightly bigger than the rest of the letters. Other than those two notes this feels pretty good! Question for you... when you're doing your marker fades are you doing all the yellow then going in with orange? To get better fades I would color by letter. Marker ink stays wet for a very short amount of time. If you shorten the amount of time you're building your color fades then you have a better chance at applying wet ink to wet ink, which will give you a smoother fade. Darker colors to lighter colors is more difficult but with practice it's possible.

Nice! So glad you painted this. I like what you've done with the tops of all your letters having a similar upward flare, but I think you could dial this in a little more by shifting the R to the left, a little closer to the E. If you look at the horizontal bars at the bottom of the E and R... they're both practically the same thing. I think if you shift the R to the left and run the bottom bar of the E into the R you'll have the same piece but it'll flow a little better. Good, simple letters? Check. Bits and highlights? Check. Broken concrete wall? Check. Classic simple-style Graffiti. Well done. Yeah, paint this. Same colors, same fill and 3D. Paint it. I think every writer with a couple of blackbooks to their name has little bits of paper taped to a page to extend the sketch. So funny, I love it.

I've used Garmin in the past, they were okay. About three years ago I switched to the Stages Dash when it first came out. It was simple in design but covered all the bases for the feedback I wanted. I upgraded to their newest version of the Dash last year and have been really happy with it. A handful of team mates use them as well and are all glad they have it. Have a few friends that use the new Wahoo Elemnt Roam & Bolt and they love 'em. I think the general feedback I've been seeing (at least from folks I ride with) is that Garmin quality has been going downhill, and the new generation of computers have taken over with higher quality, better feedback options, and much more reliable connections. I will say that at the beginning of this year I added a Gamin Varia to my bike and it's been incredible. That feedback of knowing a car is approaching long before I hear it has been great. It's expensive for what it is but I have found it to be well worth that expense. Oh... and I've been doing some CX racing, lately. Muddy, sandy, and fun. Hard as hell, though. One more race for me this year and then I'm taking a nice break before picking up the training, again.

I apologize... I had written a reply to this a while ago but apparently didn't hit submit. Sorry about that. Basically I said something to the effect of the orange simple-style piece looks great. I have no feedback other than you need to paint that. The pink outline piece on the other hand looks like it could use some tightening up. The swooping bars at left and right look forced, if that makes sense. When adding bars like that try to make them feel like they're a bar that has grown out of the letter and is sweeping away from it. Keep it tight to the letter, for now, and as you get better at them you can start to push the boundaries a little. I drew this letter S for you about a month ago to explain what I mean. Again... sorry I did not hit submit earlier. Also - the cross-bar of the T doesn't need to be so thick. If you made it the same weight as the top bar of the E you could essentially run the cross-bar of the T right into the top bar of the E. If you look at your piece now you can see that already happening... you just need to thin out the cross-bar of the T. Also, that descender leg of the E that kicks out to the right - how it goes back up to the vertical bar of the B, I would make that become the bar of the B. Then the bottom straight bar of the B you can extend that to the left and overlap the descender leg of the E.

Well, yes... I'll agree with that it's an arrow overload. BUT - I don't mind them so much within the piece. Maybe clean up the ones that are acting as battle armor on the outside of your piece. Keep them consistent in size/shape and get rid of the kinks. Keep them straight. Something like below:

@EGGZ Your letter E could be repurposed as Z on the end for continuity. You've used the letter G twice so using the same basic shape of the E for your letter Z makes sense. The top and bottom of the E can be reused, just sort out the bar that connects them to make the letter Z. Also, your cross-bar on your letter G is exactly the same as the bar above it, making it look and feel more like a letter C. Give that cross-bar slightly more emphasis to make it look more like the letter G.

Yeah, visuals that speak to your questions would be helpful because I don't really understand what you're asking. However, I'll try to answer based on what I think you're asking. Sounds like. you know the difference between a Serif letter and a Sans Serif letter, so I'm not sure where the "kink" comes in. To me a kink would be the same as a sharp bend, so are you asking about bending the serif of a letter or are you asking what the difference between a bend and a serif is? You are "allowed" to do whatever you want so long as your letters hold their shape. When you start adding bars indiscriminately just to fill space you run the risk of taking it too far. As long as your R or your T look like an R and T, for the most part, add all the bars you want. My thought around adding extra bars to letters that are solely used to fill in "dead" space are sometimes a result of the letters not sitting next to each other in a better way. Some writers purposefully leave space between their letters and fill the space with bars but because that is a consideration when laying out their letters those added bars look purposeful, and not just filler. So short answer - yes, the bottom half of a B can be a flat, non-rounded bar as long as the letter itself still looks like a B.

First, rack or buy a bottle of shoe polish, like this Kiwi bottle or something similar that has a removable or replaces soft pad applicator. Then buy a jug of Marsh Ink, like this one or black ink, or silver ink, or white ink. They have a few options. Remove the soft pad applicator on the Kiwi bottle, empty out the shoe polish, clean out the bottle with water, let dry. Once dry, shake the Marsh Ink jug for a good while to evenly mix the ink. Pour the mixed ink into the Kiwi bottle, put the soft pad applicator back on, and you're done. The Marsh Ink jug will get you 8 full mops... for $20. Compare that to one $17 Krink mop and you've saved yourself quite a bit of cash. Or better yet, buy empty bottles like these, create a cool logo, print it to a label and apply it to the bottle, fill the bottle with Marsh Ink, sell the bottle for $10. Buy a boat with the wads of cash you'll make, live your life.

@Aristo- Yeah, I understand what you're saying. When you lean your letters to the left it definitely creates a struggle for some letters. I've seen a lot of folks lean their letter the opposite direction but it doesn't always work. Anyway, here's a few options to consider tinkering with...

Yeah, i was coming in here to post about the Capitol Hill officer suicides. Especially as the investigation picked up? A little suspect if you ask me... which you weren't, but whatevs.

Uh... do you have any idea how many writers out there write "Joker"? No? Well, let me tell you... it's a lot. Like, a lot. I mean, there's a "Joker" in every major city, often several. So while you and a guy in German may have similar names, he's in Germany and already a well-stablished writer with his own style. If you were to add an S to your name and start biting him... that could be a problem. But you and I both know you're not going to do that because that's dumb. And more importantly - the peer pressure and shit talking you'd get on this board would be so overwhelming that you'd stop. Technically, you should have a unique name. This is an unwritten "rule" from the early days of writing when you were up against a few thousand other names in one city. Now that the culture has been made popular worldwide for the last four decades having the same name or a similar name as someone else is common, and to be expected. So long answer short - no, it doesn't matter. What you do with your name is what matters.

Pretty sure I've read several sci-fi books that start out with basically this same story. Super-rich guys build reliable options for somewhat rich folks to live off-planet, so they can escape a dying world and leave poor scavengers behind. Now that they're in space living in luxury they find they still need common-folk to do the dirty work, so they hire earthlings at crappy wages... and that's when "things" happen.

If you're good a maths - https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/chain-length-sizing - scroll down to item #6 Or use a chain length calculator - http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/bike/chain_length/chainlengthcalc.html

First, it's good to see you pushing yourself into a direction. Compared to the last pieces you posted a while back, these feel different, and a step forward. That said... Looking at them I'm reminded of an old "electric" font, where each letter looks like it's got 220v coursing through its veins. I agree with what's been said already... too many arrows, which is to be expected from someone still learning. Personally, of the six outlines, if you too the A from the 5th sketch and replaced the A in the 6th sketch... I'd grade that outline a C-. The biggest critique, honestly, is that your pieces have little to zero flow to them. It's as if you drew each letter individually, cut them out, and then glued them together with no thought to how they'd connect or flow into each other. If you're sketching letters individually to learn them that's great, but when you start bringing them together you have to consider how each one rests next to each other. Ideally each letter should feel like it's getting a hug from the letter beside it. They should all fall into place like pieces of a puzzle. Does that make sense? Here's a writer with your same name (well, RAYS)... look how smoothly one letter flows into the next one. Even though the R and A are at odds with each other, like two mountains butting heads, it still works because of everything else going on in that section of the piece. The two letters still work nicely together.

The flow on this one is decent, not bad really. The swath coming off the left of the R is... okay... but could be better. The small O is way too small. I get what you're doing but I think it's too small. The swath coming off the top of the P isn't too bad, but I wonder if it could be more part of the E instead of going past it. I mention this because the piece is unbalanced - too heavy on the right - so if the swath came back a little more and felt part of the E it might balance out the entire piece. I see nothing wrong with this one. The E is slightly bigger than the other letters, which is a wee-bit odd, but I think overall this is a nice, simple piece. Well done! Another nice one. The only call-out I have is the loop of the R feels mushed. I think if you moved the R to the left a little bit, and opened up the loop a little more so it felt the same as the P, this would feel just that little bit better. It would also let the O see some daylight as it's crammed between the R and P. I'd like to see the bar of the R go behind the vertical, and the bar of the P that connects to the E loop around to the end. I get what you were going for with all the letters having the same top, but it feels forced when you get to the E. See my edit below. Overall, nice job! And I'm sorry it took me so damn long to get to it.

Sorry for the delay... been a real busy couple of weeks at work. I'll respond properly this week, hopefully.

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/elon-musk-graffiti-art-tesla-factory-berlin-1973747

The second Rope sketch is pretty nice. I like the open connections between letters but I would adjust them slightly as noted in the image below. Add some dimension to the O so the letter is a little more defined, and add a little more definition to the connection of the P and E. That connection wasn't really bad, it's just how I personally would connect them. As for the arrow sketches... I think your cuz needs to calm down. Damn, those are a lot of arrows, you could take all the arrows from those pieces and add them to five, maybe six more pieces. Here's my take on arrows for pieces: I was always told that arrows on pieces were a form of battle armor, a way to protect your piece from the pieces to the left and right of you. Not sure if that is the intended purpose of arrows being used in the early 70s and 80s New York subway Graffiti, but nonetheless it's what I was given as an explanation. Typically arrows are used to show motion or direction - think wayfinding out on the road or in a hospital, for example. Arrow Sketch One - Really, the only one that "feels" like it works is the one coming off the left side of the R. I get what you were going for trying to mirror it on the E, but I feel like that would have been more successful had you done it coming off the bottom bar of the E, and it was flipped vertically - so the arrow winds its way upward and to the right instead of downward and to the right. Arrow Sketch Two - for the most part it's not that bad, except for the arrows coming off the bottom of all letters, and the tops of the O and P. There's just a lot to take in. It looks like you drew your piece and someone egged you on to keep adding arrows 😉 Arrow Sketch Three - The flow of the arrows isn't all that bad, and again... kinda like the R, but there's just way too many. Instead of adding every arrow you own into each letter, focus on just the R and E. Keep it simple for the time being by using only one or two arrows.

Yeah, not sure if you're just sharing or looking for feedback/help, but when there's that much in one post it's hard for me to give feedback. And yes, using a pen is a commitment. You've got to really know your strengths and weaknesses, and you've got to heave a great knowledge of letter structure and flow. I'm always in awe of folks who draw dynamic pieces, sometimes even complicated, using just pen. It's impressive. I'm personally a pencil person because often by the time I get to the last letter I think of something better for the first letter.

@squigbert- Does that say BOXTR? Curious what the letters look like without the 3D.

@misteraven @abrasivesaint I do appreciate throwing my name into the hat but life- mostly work - is too hectic for me to spend as much time in here as I'd like to. I can certainly keep my eyes open for shenanigans but I cannot be a regular, unfortunately. At least not for any solid length of time at the moment. Hopefully once the world get's its shit together and brands want to get back to spending money on retail experiences I can hire some designers to help me and in turn give myself a break. I'll continue to do my best to keep the Toys Post Here thread alive with good content, and keep the posts civil.