Inking Alicia's portrait

Alicia Keys' work ethic and personality have always been inspiring to me. I've met her a few times and every time she is gracious, funny and cool. Here's to you Alicia and your new album.

?uestlove

A new watercolor painting to celebrate Ahmir Thompson's birthday.

Beverly Hills

By deconstructing images in old magazines, I love to reconstruct new layouts like this.

Design for Obama Re-Launched

Creative Action Network has re-lanched the Design for Obama campaign to say #thanksobama. My published, Barack 'n' Roll poster is now available, for the second and final time.


And here's the Taschen book it was published in, Design for Obama - Posters for Change: A Grassroots Anthology.  

Design for Obama by Steven Heller (author), Aaron Perry-Zucker (editor), Spike Lee (editor)

Design for Obama by Steven Heller (author), Aaron Perry-Zucker (editor), Spike Lee (editor)

Graphic Making Process

Beginning with a layout I've designed in photoshop, I use my lightbox to get a pencil outline.

tiger_1_sonofscorpio_studiojeffrey

I then use the lightbox again to draw my outline in marker.

tiger2_sonofscorpio_studiojeffrey

Once I have a solid outline to work with, I fill in the necessary shapes.

tiger3_sonofscorpio_studiojeffrey

After the drawing is complete I take it into the computer and make the shapes vector. This is the step I pull out all of the corners to make them rounded to produce a worn/stamp look.

tiger_detail_studiojeffrey

Here's a look at the graphic on a T.

tiger_sonofscorpio_studiojeffrey

T-shirt Designs

Here are some more trial t-shirt designs with the Son of Scorpio graphics. I like to try out a lot of designs, to get reactions, before I go to print with any of them. I want to give this project space to become something of it's own.

tomboy_sonofscorpio_studiojeffrey
gypsy_sonofscorpio_studiojeffrey
cowboy_sonofscorpio_studiojeffrey
lucky_sonofscorpio_studiojeffrey
pinup_sonofscorpio_studiojeffrey

Process to Design Black & White Graphics

I begin by making an outline of the image with a light box and a sharpie marker. I move slow to make sure the lines are clean and consistent. Also it's important to connect the intersecting lines at this stage so when I transfer it to vector I'm able to pull my corners easier.

Next, I block in parts of the image in solid black to compose a balanced image.

sherides_process_2

Then, I add the remaining detail before it is made into vector shapes.

sherides_process

This is the final, vector image ready for print.

sherides_studiojeffrey_sonofscorpio