Joker

Agreed. I worked with one guy who would take several smoke breaks an hour, sometimes for 20 minutes, and when I made a joke to him about it in a large group lunch (though I was being somewhat serious) he got super-defensive and claimed he was working from his phone. Right... you're using Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign from your phone, got it. And then several others in the group jumped on the pile and gave him shit about his defense. It eventually turned into a "non-smokers are crybabies" argument, at which point he lost all credibility.

I never noticed this issue until I started working as a designer. I think the lax working environment makes it easy for folks with kids to come in late, head out early, or run that two hour errand. It's just a "thing"... I guess. Most of the time it doesn't bother me (as someone without children) but there have been a few times where the person who left or came in late really needed to be there and that was very, very annoying. In all honesty I have a bigger issue with coworkers who have to go out for a 10 minute smoke break every 30 to 45 minutes. Then come back in reeking of cigarettes and come up to my desk and want to go over a project? Fuck off with that....

@KaneVCB- They are pages from a book called - Flip the Script: A Guidebook for Aspiring Vandals & Typographers. It's an incredible book because it covers handstyles from all major cities, and includes examples by some of the best from each region. Also, Handselecta (folks who put the book together) have a YouTube channel with a ton of videos that show folks writing their name. Great way to see how some of these handstyles are done. I had no idea the book was worth so much. I guess I better put mine in a display case.

@nachodik- Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. The sketches - personally I think they all look pretty good. I especially like the bottom three sketches... Wort, Rope, and Wort. The filled-in Wort w/ 3D is great! And the Rope sketch, way you leaned the left side of the E into the empty space of the P... very nice. The very top Poteb is pretty nice, too. The other sketches aren't bad, but those four are the stand-outs, for me. Wild-Style - tough question because any mentor/teacher is going to tell you it takes baby steps to get there, and my advice is really no different. The filled-in Wort sketch above, for example, if you wanted to start messing with that by dissecting each letter, adding arrows and flares, little notches (like you did on the W and O, for example), and bits here and there is a place to start. To make it easy on yourself, and to keep focused, concentrate on one letter at a time. Take the W and see what you could. Start small, adding one or two things, see how it looks, then add another, see if it still feels right, and finally add a finishing touches. Check this image by Meas as an example of single letter studies. It's a great way to work out ideas before going all in on an entire piece. Tags - I'll get back to you on this later but first impressions is I love that you're exploring different styles. The second one reads as RERE, so the one-liner needs some further exploration. But I'll get back to you some ideas.

They're definitely different than Mormons, but continuously get mistaken for them. Probably because of the door-to-door proselytizing the two religions do. I've read a few online horror stories about JWs but in the 25 years I've been around them, lots of them (even going to their HQ buildings in New York), I've never met an asshole. Doesn't mean there isn't any, I just haven't met any. Really nice people, very respectful. BTW, if they knock on your door and you don't want them to just kindly tell them to take your address off their list and they'll never, ever come back. Or tell them a good joke. They love jokes, especially about JWs. Not kidding.

Once I've had my tea, sure.

This is really all I'm getting at. Seems to me that anyone who is an atheist, even agnostic, is not going to be swayed into believing in God or creation based on the confidence of a young woman waving a lollipop around. I'm married to a Jehovah's Witness, have been for 25 years. She grew up that way, her entire family is, most of her friends are, I would never argue with any of them against their faith.

Rack a container of shoe polish from your local drug store, discard the shoe polish liquid and clean the container out. Then, fill the empty container with Krink. Presto!

Five pages. Five pages debating this tired argument. You believe in God and creation? Hooray!! You go and do your thing. You believe in the Big Bang thing? Yippee for you!! You go and do your thing. I cannot figure out why this argument continues to pop up when the outcome is always... always the same. You believe, you debated, but didn't change the non-believer's mind - or - you don't believe, you debated, but didn't change the believer's mind. Instead you spent five pages having the same argument with no outcome. Check back here in ten years for the same thread to be started with the same argument, same outcome. God is what you want God to be, real or not. God is either creation to you, or a character in Family Guy. You either believe in God or you don't. End of conversation. Right? I cannot understand why this is so hard.

LULZ, the cattle calling the cattle cattle is funny, for sure. And using "ImperatorTruth" as your handle... with a pirate emoticon and emoji... GTFOH. But yeah, that tattoo is silly.

For those of you in this thread who are looking to learn the basics, and then improve upon them, check out Mr.Iös on Instagram. His feed is chock-full of great step-by-step letter creations from a simple shape all the way to fully colored-in Graffiti-style letters. He also has the created single letter studies for each letter of the alphabet - nine studies per letter. Really cool. Lots of inspiration to be had in one person's feed.

Nice share @squigbertbut I'm not sure you should be posting them in this thread. Maybe the NEW Sketch Thread?

@nachodik - Anything highlighted and underlined is a clickable link. Deviant Art I visit this website often. The caliber of work being shared on there is humbling, but very inspiring. They also have a Resource section with tuts and other goodies that might be useful in your quest to learn. Snooze.one This guy posts almost daily with short vids of him creating lettering art with simple art tools, or digitally. Just watching his process - quick hands, angle at which he holds the pen/paint brush, movements - could be inspiring. And honestly, if you click on the list of folks he's following, and check out each one (I just went through the first ten) I've no doubt you'll fall down the rabbit hole for hours. Pinterest I know... Pinterest is right on the edge of being the soccer Mom of inspiration, but there are a lot of good resources on there for tutorials on how to draw faces, hands, bodies, cartoon characters, shading, etc.. A good example is a few years ago a client needed a few sketches that had an industrial design sketching style to it. So I went to Pinterest and searched "industrial design sketch tutorials" and found the inspiration I needed to complete the project the way the client wanted. It didn't make me an industrial designer overnight, but it helped me "copy" their style for my project. Want some inspiration on Abstract Lettering? How about Shading Techniques? Or even Graffiti Alphabet. Sure, there's plenty of ads and shit that isn't relatable to make it annoying, but there's plenty of good, too. And finally, Youtube. There's no shortage of tutorials on there for just about everything, but a quick "fine art tutorials" search came up with quite a bit. As for books, I would just go to your local book store or library, go straight to the art skills/techniques section and look for books that will show you how to do the things you want to learn. Most libraries have quite a bit in this subject.

@nachodik- 1. The top Poteb looks great, honestly. There's nothing I would change on that. Nice job! As for the other formats to mess around with - you can try squared-off letters where there's no rounded shapes at all, take that idea further by making the letters the same size and on the same base line. You can mess around with writing it backwards, upside down, some letters backwards or upside down, adding a character in space of the O (can be original or an existing cartoon character). Be creative and have fun. 2. This is called Chisel Lettering. However, you've chiseled the 3D and not the letter. Different approach, so kinda cool. If you go to the New Sketch Thread @E_B_Ais really, really good at this style. See his posts for inspiration but also Google Chisel Lettering for inspiration of simple form letters. Let me think for a bit on some websites/books for inspiration...

I understand... I understand he's cog in a much bigger wheel whose sole purpose is obstruction. He's like that one friend in the group who is smarmy about everything because he thinks it's cool. It's not cool, it's fucking annoying. I don't take it personally but I'm so tired of everything being politicized, to the point of being over-the-top.

In that video Jim Jordan is essentially asking for a date from Fauci - a date so Jim's constituents can get their constitutional freedoms back... because being asked to wear a mask is akin to living in China - GTFOH. Essentially he's asking a question that can't be answered the way he wants it to be, and he's showboating on that. All Fauci had to say was "it'll be over when it's over". That is the second video I've seen with that guy asking a question that can't be answered, but acting like it's a question the requires a simple, easy answer. If he wants an answer I've got one, Americans being the stubborn cucks that they are will see to it that this shit goes on for as long as possible, forever if they want. From the folks who wear masks to the folks who think it's living in fear to wear one (don't get me started on that stupid fucking fear argument) ... this is going to be around for a long, long time. And a lot more people are going to die because of it. Everything is a fucking political issue, everything - it's stupid. I'm fucking over it. I can't buy alcohol or shoe laces without someone thinking I support a cause of some kind.

@GankGankGank- here's what I was referring to for the CAUSE sketch...

I think because I know it says GANK that it's readable, but the G and N give me pause, anyway. I think the G needs to be opened up a little bit so it feels more like the shape of a G. The A seems fine. The N kinda feels like it could also be an A... honestly, I like it better as an A. It's more simple in it's style compared to the A you've got, and keeping things simple with a style like this is key. I think the N needs a straight bar going up at the right, similar to what you've done for the vertical bar of the K. Speaking of... the K seems okay but because you're using a bubble for the top right bar... it feels more like an R. Overall, not a bad sketch - I like that you're exploring something different - but keep your letters readable, first, then go in and add the bubbles and such to camouflage it. This seems good to me. My only note would be that I don't think you need the little notch at the top of the R. It reads as an R without it, and it'll keep in line with the simplicity of the other letters. Dig the color fade, though. Yeah, both of these are fun. The pencil in the "eye" is pretty cool. If you look at this sketch as a whole, it's pretty cool. If you look at it letter for letter, there's a tell - and that is you started off simple and by the time you got to the K you took it too far. By that I mean - The G is very easy to read, but it still has the same style/flow as the other letters, the A starts to get a little too intricate but it kinda works with the G, by the time you get to the N the speed picks up and there's more notches and kinks in the letter, and by the time my eye reaches the K... the weight of the letters has completely changed, seems every bar has a notch and kink... it's too much compared to the G. Overall... the flow got wonky. Also, the bottom of the N you've got a bar that extends and then kicks to the right... this could be viewed as an E and not an N. I think simplifying the ANK to look/feel more like the G would make this piece shine. The colors fades are great, the layering of what is at the front and what is behind is really nice, too. Yeah, I like this one. For some reason it reminds me of old-school Baltimore pieces. If it were me, I would copy the A, mirror-flip it in the opposite direction and turn it into an S. Same with the C, mirror-flip it and turn it into a backwards E. There's no rules stating your letters HAVE to face a certain way. As long as their structure is relative to the readable form of that letter... you're golden. I'll post something in a bit to explain further. Is this a KESR sketch? Again, I like that you're thinking differently but the extra bits and bobs around the letters are too overwhelming. Get the letters tight, first, then go back in and add all the bits and bobs to camouflage it.

Because right now only Brazil has more gun related deaths than the United States, and we'll be damned if that fucking country beats us at anything. Fuck that. We're a nation of disrespect, we got this. You hear that Brazil? We're coming for you... 3 to 5 people at a time... we're coming for you.

I'll get you some solid feedback this weekend, but right off the bat - I like the variety you've posted. Really like the "Cause" sketch.

@nachodik- yeah, I like where you're heading. Reminds me of a Philly handstyle in that each letter has the same look/feel as the next letter. Obviously, yours is more legible than a typical Philly handstyle, but it still reminds me of that idea. Keep pushin' it!

@nachodik- Sorry, forgot to answer your question about perspective 3D. Yes, it looks correct to me.

@nachodik- I was afraid of that. Sorry... I've realized sometimes I take my "help" a little too far at it ends up being of no help at all. I definitely need to reign myself in sometimes when trying to guide up-and-coming writers. As for the sketches you've shared: Butthole Tag - This cracked me up. I used to get bored writing my name so I would often write curse words instead, like Bullshit and Fucker. It was a fun way to break up the monotony of writing the same thing over and over, again. I know, counterintuitive to the purpose of writing my name on walls. Total Sketch - This feels pretty good to me. The only thing that seems like it could be finessed is the A. All the other letters seem like they're on the same baseline but the A looks like it's been knocked on it's edge. Pen Sketch - I think the loop of the P could be slightly larger, but otherwise this feels good. Buter Sketch - If you look at the top left of the B, that little extension going past the vertical bar, if you do the same thing to the R this piece would be good to go. Add a solid 3D or drop shadow and it's done. Nice. Daniel Sketch - This is pretty good as well. Three ideas, and these are personal so take or leave them, the lines in the horizontal bar of the A extend past the verticals... I think it looks odd having all of them. Maybe leave just the top right one that has the bend it and remove the others. Also, the bottom left of the I might look better if it overlaps the bottom right of the N instead of being hidden behind it. Nice job on all these - keep it going!!

@Mercer- I rarely talk to anyone, even at gatherings (large or small), so the chances of me boasting about how great I might think I am is incredibly slim. What I meant by my previous post was that I feel (ah... feelings) like being a good person and treating people with respect is no longer enough for some folks no matter what side of the fence they're on. You help the homeless, that's not enough, you donate to charities, that's not enough, you post daily on social media about the hot new subject, that's not enough, you protest, that's not enough, e.g.

In the age of social media and practically everyone thinking they're more important than you, and their views are more important than yours, the idea that we need to be more civil to one another is a tough ask. We've come to a time where civility is no longer valid on its own - it's only part of the bigger picture. I can't tell people that I do my best to be a good person and treat everyone with respect because that will bring the hammer down on me from both sides of spectrum. It's lose/lose. Well, at least that's how it feels to me.