Branding: Butler Bites
Butler Bites
When Michael and Athena Butler wanted to expand their business, they came to me with three things:
1. High quality, home made, all natural, dog treats
2. A tongue-twister of a product name
3. Photos of their Saluki
The Butlers came to me for just a logo but for their business to be as successful as it should be, they needed a complete branding package. By re-branding the treats Butler Bites, I made sure their product is easy to remember and pronounce. The clean, iconic artwork and type treatment conveys high quality and whimsy.
Artists: Be Your Own Design Company
Do good work and get it out there. That's what they say it takes to be successful as a creative, right? Being a self-employed illustrator takes more than the ability to draw awesome bears (The good work). It means spending 20-40% of your efforts on graphic design, blogging, photography, convention exhibit design, even guerilla marketing in order to promote yourself (get it out there). Over the next few days I will be posting some examples of design work I have done for self-promotional purposes. I hope you find it helpful in your own pursuits.
Part 1. Print-On-Demand services can help you be your own brand, regardless of you budget
It's looking chilly. Have you seen my Cover Letter Hoodie?
In late 2008 I launched my own T-shirt brand, Snake Oil Clothing. I sold screen-printed Tees at conventions like Comic-con and through a web store. Three years ago I moved into a small San Francisco apartment with very little storage. I just can't print and store large amounts of shirts like I used to. But I still get emails from people who are bummed that their favorite Snake Oil shirt is now mostly dryer lint. I didn't feel good about telling my fans that they were plain out of luck, so I made designs available through Redbubble.com
It turns out, their quality is amazing! If you gave up on print-on-demand T-shirts five years ago when P.O.D could only be done on light colored shirts and had weird, off-white boxes around the image, it's time to try Redbubble.
I can put up new designs just see how they do. If I never sell one it doesn't hurt me. If 400 copies sell it's all up to those guys to print, package and ship the T-shirts out! All I have to do is wait for a Paypal payment of around $4.25, per shirt sold, $11 when someone buys a hoodie! That's pretty much the same profit margin as when I was having shirts made through a screen-printer.
How does this help with self promotion and branding?
- If you have a collection of solid work, you can make it all available as T-shirts, phone cases, pillows, prints etc. as P.O.D merchandise. Now you have a nice portfolio of work that shows a) what you are about (that's your brand) and b) that you can create finished work. Showing that you can start and finish a solid collection of artwork is huge on its own.
- Your T-shirts sell. Not only do you now get some sweet "mailbox money" coming your way, now someone is walking around with your artwork on their chest. That's free advertising, son! Maybe that person works at Marvel, Pixar or LucasArts (Jeez, I guess I should just say Disney), wherever you want to get work. If your designs are strong people will ask about that T-shirt. Now you have fans who work at Lucas or wherever and see your artwork every week or so. That's Huge! And it totally happens.
- Redbubble allows creators the option to upload artwork that is only available to the creator, private-style. So you can make one-off, high quality T-shirts that no one else could possibly have. For about 30 bucks! That was unheard of a few years ago. I took advantage of this by printing one T-shirt with my resume emblazoned on it (pic above). I am not above this sort of shameless, meta, self-promotion. And I'm chok-ful-o-more ideas for using this technology and service to do things people could have never done before.
Are you getting your artwork out there by using Print-on-Demand services? Let me know what kind of experiences you have had.
Follow Ben Walker on Instagram and Twitter: @ArtofBenWalker
New Services
Services Like Custom Pet Portraits That Are Good
I added a new menu item to this site, Services! The first item on the menu is Pet Portraits. But they aren't your usual pet portraits. These are good! Portraits are priced by size and start at just $200. Check out my Services page for more info.
"I am freaking out. OMG This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
-Sarah DSR and Detective Karla Whiskerson
Bigfoot's Big Day
"We are gathered here today, under the canopy of the Black Forest, to witness the joining in magical matrimony of Mr. Bigfoot and Princess Glengarry Glenn Rosa, of the Enchanted Grass Valleys…."
I made Bigfoot's Big Day in celebrate my upcoming nuptials. T-shirts are currently available through RedBubble.com. Choose between enchanted forest colors or the very masculine Groomsmen's Edition.
Both colorways will be printed on your choice of hand-picked complimentary colors. Girly tees and hoodies available too! (although the zip-up hoodie looks like some kind of bad omen. Oh wait you can print on the Back! Much better.)
10 Years of Toast Boy
...and T-shirts
Click to get the new Toast Boy T-shirt!
Ten years ago, Toast Boy (also known as Butter Side Don) was born on a cockroach infested tour boat in Bangkok, Thailand. He became the first in a whole family of indie T-shirt designs. To celebrate, I am making this hand-painted Toast Boy available as a T-shirt the first time. Read on for the evolution of poor Toast Boy.
2004
Awaiting my marginally appetizing lunch aboard a small, Thailand touring boat, I scratched at my sketchbook. I kept one eye on the clips from "America's Funniest Home Videos" the crew had put on to keep us Westerners occupied. I looked up and was struck by a quick shot of an upset boy (or girl?) dressed as bread. With a jarring "Ka-chunk!" an image popped up in my mind.
Original sketch of Toast Boy. Yes, it was on pink paper.
This Toast Boy is available on RedBubble too.
When I returned home, I scraped the lint off as best I could and Toast boy was ready debute as my first indie T-shirt design at my first convention table, Alternative Press Expo 2005.
This Toast Boy is available on RedBubble too
Coffee-stained Toast Boy
I drew this Toast Boy on some old shelf paper around the same time. This version was eventually printed as a sticker and distributed around Sacramento's midtown. I like to think the image became the Obey Giant sticker of Sacramento but the truth is Obey Giant was still the Obey Giant sticker of Sacramento.
Wondercon 2008
You can imagine my shock and pride when I saw that famed MAD magazine cartoonist, Sergio Aragonés had adorned his briefcase with one sticker, Toast Boy. I had given him that sticker a year prior! *starstruck*
In 2011 Toast Boy was painted in full color, renamed Butter Side Don and shown as part of Gallery 1988's Garbage Pail Kids show.
This hand-painted version of Toast Boy is available for the first time as a T-shirt on RedBubble. They are printed on American Apparel tees just like I have always done. The quality is superb and buyers can choose between a bunch of hand-picked, complimentary shirt colors! Oh, and if you live in Portland and only want hoodies, they are available too, along with girly fit, kids, baby onesies, and more.
Why is Toast Boy so iconic and beloved? I think he just sums up our lives sometimes. Whatever he was about to get up to is ruined and we can all relate to that.
Thanks for reading.
-Ben
Live Cartooning at Crocker Art Museum
Sacramento! Who said I would never be back?
Crocker Art Museum, Super Nice!
The Teen Self Portrait show opens at Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum, Thursday April 17th. In case these youngsters are not satisfied with just one 2D rendering of their glowing visage, I will be on hand, drawing live. I will be joined by one of my favorite San Francisco cartoonists, Donta Santistevan.
- Thursday, April 17, 2014
- 5:00pm – 7:00pm
- Crocker Art Museum (map)
Action shot
This could be YOU!!!
What Drives Doggies in Jalopies?
Less is More opens tonight at 111 Minna Gallery and since my new series, Doggies in Jalopies will be included in the show I thought I'd tell you a bit about my inspirations.
1. The Addams family.
Man, it still holds up! This TV SHOW inspires a lot of my artwork. Not necessarily in the literal, Goth sense. It's more the fact that my fiancee and I really relate to the lifestyle. Morticia, Gomez and their family weren't "outsiders." They're "insiders!" Their passions were not a reaction to anything. They simply were not concerned with how the rest of the world lived. They stayed inside and had fun together, their own way. People tend to see the Addams family as mascots to their own "alternative" macabre lifestyles, (probably because of the re-branding the Addams got for the films) but the original TV series was not so "dark." They weren't cruel. They didn't want cookies made from "real Girl Scouts." Aside from all the cartoon stuff like playing with dynamite, putting their own head in a vice or having a live hand in a box, these characters were loving and empathetic. The comedy came from their ignorance of how out-of-touch they were with the rest of the world.
Every episode pretty much went the same way. People from the outside world came upon the Addams' mansion. They would enter and see that mounted marlin with a leg coming out it's mouth, Lurch would grab someone's hat and they would get all "Whooooaaah! These these people are different. I'm scared!" And there is my point. The gag to this show was that there was ONE weird family and the rest of the world played the "straight man." Without the straight man, the one who is freaked out by the strangeness, there is no point. So what do we do now that everyone has a neck tattoo, peirced toes and the Taco Bell logo shaved into their hair? The whole world wants to be the Addams family, the ones weirding out the "norms." Well, I want to weird out the weirdoes, in part by painting off-puttingly wholesome subject-matter. Like Doggies in Jalopies.
2. Peter Helck
I don't know anything about cars or racing, really. My one attempt to be a classic car guy had me pushing a 1969 Mercury Cougar more than driving it. All of my obsession with turn-of-the-century autos and the 1908 Great Race points to one illustrator's book: Great Auto Races as told and painted by Peter Helck. I was floored when I first discovered this book at the Mill Valley library around 2003. I must have checked it out half a dozen times. The color book is 12"x13" and weighs approximately 160 pounds. Every one of the hundreds of paintings and drawings show an intimidating amount of action, movement and detail, all locked down with an incredibly informed, slightly pushed perspective. After almost a decade of keeping an eye out at used bookstores, I managed to find an affordable copy of Great Auto Races on Powell.com. This book is definitely on my short list of things I will grab in case of fire.
For more on Peter Helck (1893-1988) and his artwork check out this article on Vanderbilt Cup Races.
3. Edward Gorey
If you are familiar with my work, it can't be a huge surprise that I love Edward Gorey. Like the Addams family, his artwork is a bit dark but has all the charm and quiet homeyness of your grandparent's sooty fireplace. As an illustrator, his approach may just be the opposite of Peter Helck's. Gorey put his emphasis into meditatively scratching out marks with ink to tell his darkly deadpan stories. His drawings are fun, simple, and hold no attempts to "wow" anyone with dynamic points of view or his knowledge of rippling, human anatomy. Love it or hate it. His work is unapologetic.
Less is More opens Friday, April 4th at 111 Minna Gallery. 5pm-2am-ish 21& up. I hope to see you there!
-Walker
Hosting Rainy Day Activities at Zerofriends SF
Good news, all you bored, artsy types! Since Bag o' Movies was such a successful event, I will be hosting Live Drawing events every month at the Zerofriends' San Francisco store. Next up: Rainy Day Activities, Saturday, April 5th 12-4pm.
Let's take a quick mental journey back to the 3rd grade. It's four minutes before recess and we are being burdened with the fact that the words "theme" and "scream" may rhyme but this won't help you spell them correctly. Then through the windows you see the skies turn the color of Benicio Del Toro's under-eyes. Rain dumps down, turning our sawdust play area into cold oatmeal. Teacher has to think fast before we begin pulling up the carpets and gnawing on the legs of those pop-top desks the school received only six years previous.
Enter rainy day activities. Indoor fun. Will Mrs. Kirkpatrick direct us in a spirited game of Heads-up 7-up or will she pull out that basket of mostly complete puzzles, Uno decks and pickup Sticks? Nope, this time she hands out sheets of blank paper and tells us to fold them into thirds. Then we break into groups of three and take turns drawing on each section, making sure to not peek until all three parts are done. The big pay-off happens when we unfold the paper to reveal some ridiculous character we all made together. It's sort of like Mad-Libs but with out all the adverbs.
It turns out this drawing game has a name: Exquisite Corpse. Hmmm, sounds kind of fancy and macabre. Anyway, six cool, grown-up artists from the Bay area are getting together to play this game, this Saturday afternoon at Zerofriends SF store in the Lower Haight. Come watch and maybe buy a cheap, collaborative sketch! Here is the line-up.
Lauren YS
Lauren YS is a mind-blowing artist from Denver, Colorado. Lauren now lives in San Francisco so she can "paint the shit out of everything." Lauren is also a contributing writer at Juxtapoz Magazine. Lauren is proof that some people just got "It!"
Michael Slack
Michael Slack, an illustrator and childrens book author from the East Bay. His imagery has been on everything from puzzles to his "gross-out card game, ICK. Check out his latest books, Monkey Truck and Elecopter, through Macmillan publishers.
Iggy Medeiros
Iggy has been a Bay Area artist since 1996. Iggy is inspired by polynesian pop, mid-century Brazilian, American and Latin music, vintage graphic design and toys, cartoons, comics, Poetry, religious imagery, folk art, cultural anthropology and history.
Josh Ellingson
Josh Ellingson is an illustrator living in San Francisco. His art has adorned tequila bottles, Burlesque show posters, a fricking space station, and your BART ride. He has done some epic series of daily sketches too, like The Daily Slimer and Drunk Tweets.
Josh Thurman
Josh Thurman is a young Caricaturist studying illustration at Academy of Art University. We like this lad a lot.
Watch out for this guy! He's already been practicing for the event on Starbucks napkins.
Ben Walker
And ME!!
(For more about me, see the rest of this web site.)
See you there!
Doggies in Jalopies
If you live in San Francisco's Nob Hill or Pacific Heights you may have recently noticed a guy "leering" at your dog, maybe even taking pictures. Well I can't account for every weirdo out there but if it was me you saw behaving that way, I can explain. I was merely looking for inspiration for my newest series, Doggies in Jalopies. These little hellhounds will be showing as part of Less is More, a group show at 111 Minna Gallery. The show opens Friday, April 4th, 5pm- late.
Howl I Get Through??
-The Process
These guys are all done on Claybord. Claybord is basically a scratchboard without the black layer on top. It lets me add ink and paint then scratch, scrape or sand it away wherever I like. Here are some pictures showing my process for working on this addictive surface.
I start with a basic pencil sketch using a Col-Erase (violet) pencil. Any pencil will do. This is just my favorite. It doesn't smudge or get reflective like graphite can.
Then I use watered down India ink to add tone. It doesn't look like much because at this stage because I'm just adding a middle tone to work up (or scratch away) from. I would use Dr Ph Martin's Watercolor dyes or maybe watered down acrylics at this point if the piece were to be in color. Trying to color in artwork AFTER the lines have been laid down is a pain and doesn't really work so well. This is the kind of cool stuff you learn by hanging out in Skinner's studio.
After scratching away at some background elements, I add line work and dark fills with India ink. I have to be careful about timing when I scratch or add ink so I don't scratch away at the work I want to keep. There isn't as much room for changes and improvising like there would be with standard painting. Check out the tail I had forgotten about and added in at this point, over some scratchiness. Those scratches still show through a bit. Oh well.
I keep scratching to create white line details and I add black line work until it is done to my satisfaction. Notice on his muzzle, you can basically erase if necessary. I decided those marks weren't helping.
Hey! I just saw something I had planned to fix. Oh well, artwork is never finished, just abandoned, right?
Naked is Boring
A New, Ultra-Styled Art Party in San Francisco
I am happy to bring you: NAKED is BORING!
NAKED is BORING is the new incarnation of my Clothed/Costumed Figure Drawing sessions. With the help of my partner/Co-Stylist/Go-To Model, Amanda Storey, these sessions are Ultra-styled and more fun than ever. Plus they are taking place at what can only be described as our dream venue, Folsom Street Foundry. This place is huge, with plenty of seating, tables, a nicely raised stage area...brews and snacks. Only the best models and themes. No pillars or obstructions from view. No awful music. No grumpy, old, artsy people who look down at your cartoony drawings as being "Lesser Than" high art.
Oh and (for now) it's FREE! Yep, no cover. just make our new friends at Folsom Street Foundry happy and drink up.
NAKED is BORING
The name itself holds a challenge. Most would say that nudity ain't THAT boring. Well, as an illustrator, cartoonist, as someone who loves creating characters, I have to disagree. When it's time to draw, Naked bores the shit out of me.
In 2007 I got ahold of a 3 hour slot at a small studio space in Sacramento and started asking local "models" to pose in costume or their interesting, real-life street wear. I put quotes around the word "models" because most of the people who posed had never modeled before. They were just cool people who wanted to be part of something artsy and have their picture made. They were roller-derby girls, breakdancin' B-boys, bluegrass musicians, furries, cos-players, and late-night movie hosts. In the span of two years, the sessions grew. I organized, promoted, styled and directed over 100 sessions of this thing I called Pompsicle.
Since my move to San Francisco in 2010, Sacramento's Pompsicle would not die. The artists involved wanted more so I franchised the sessions to the capable hands of Ryan Cicak. The sessions just recently ended when the current venue, Bows & Arrows closed up and Ryan moved to the Bay area as well.
Meanwhile I have been working with my partner in crime, Amanda Storey, to make something bigger and better in San Francisco, looking for the right venue and re-branding the whole look and feel of events. I hope to see you tonight for Space Adventure Girls with Amanda and Melissa. BYOSB (Bring Your Own Sketch Book)!
Follow me on the Twitter and Instagram for news @ArtofBenWalker and check back here.
Here are some images from last week's session: It's My Sketch Night
