“What’s With All The Skulls?”
If you’re asking that, it’s a fair question.
If you know me at all, you’ll know I’m having some fun generating merch artwork. I’ve been into it on and off since about 2016 but I’m back into it right now. I tend to operate in themes. I did a bunch of random crap when I started in the fall of 2022, but have lately settled in on a style that I’m enjoying.
It all started with a dragon. (I’ll be linking to the dragon in another post… once I write said post)
Then I wanted to do some zombies. I bought myself a copy of Poser as my tool for it, but when I was messing around with a zombie skull, I had a vision that wasn’t zombie… it was just, as I put it on TeePublic… “Skull With Attitude”.
Hah, yeah, so this was the first one. Zombie with attitude… and a newsboy cap and aviator glasses… and a cigar. Now, I’m not a big drinker and I don’t smoke… but it sure was fun making this one. And usually when I make one, I get some alternate ideas as well.
The other cap version came next, then the fedora… and then I just had a vision of the guy wearing a top hat. That’s actually the one that’s gotten people saying “so cool!” the most.
So, I started expanding it… and playing with colour. See, when I make these, I use the the shadows on a light shirt (and only the shadows), the highlights on a light shirt (and only the highlights), and I make a third version that goes on any colour shirt… it has both.
So, yeah, leapfrogging a bit here. As I said, I started expanding it and playing with colour. Oh yeah, I also got a vision of the skull guy holding a drink. And then the top hat suggested windsor glasses. And the colour I used, along with the victorian-ish hat suggested a different drink and cigarette holder. Of course, once I started researching absinthe, I realized folks used a special glass for that…
So, you see how this works. And this is fairly indicative of my creative process in general. Some of my work exploration files have duplicate artworks branching off to a new idea slightly changed, and then branching again with a string of explorations.
And that brought me to this guy…
Cause who doesn’t love a clown?
Haha.
If you’re interested, you can find the skull merch here.
https://www.teepublic.com/user/geomo-designs/albums/188193-skulls