Inspiration Post - Retro Robot Records!!

Hey everyone!! Hope all of you are having a fantastic summer so far. July is already ending which means it's time for our "Inspiration Post!" My blog's chance to choose a theme and 5 accompanying visuals that really jump-start my imagination. It's a great way to get a look into my head as well as encourage your own creative adventures. A nod to BakerBot from my previous post, I chose "Retro Robot Records!!"

Before the age of machines cranking out Dubstep music, robots held profitable careers in OTHER areas of the music industry. Such as posing for album covers for all sorts of artists all over the world. Yes, some of our technologically advanced friends are a bit vain. Why not make a career out of it?? Scroll down to check out the 12 inch by 12 inch canvas that is the vinyl record sleeve possessing tons of robots setting their phasers to "inspire" just for you!!

The Alan Parsons Project - I Robot Album 

image via http://vinyleye.com.au/

Let's start off with the I Robot Album by the Alan Parsons Project. Leave it up to a prog rock band to feature an out of this world cover concept. The sleeve depicts the colorful complicated inner-workings of a gargantuan steel giant. True to it's form, the actual album is set in an age where machines rule over man. I love the bizarre scifi elements such as the transportation tubes. The mix of illustration and nearly photographic artwork gives us a bleak look at our possible future. All hail the robot overlords!

Munich Machine - Get on the Funk Train

image via WaxPoetics site

A robot record in it's purest form, the Munich Machine album lets it's artwork do all the talking. The sleeve features two machines shooting lasers out of their eyes as they rocket into the sky for one funky night! I'm under the impression the robot on the left is a female and the one on the right is her male dance partner. The design of the robots is fantastic. The knobby joints, bright colors and clear accents to display circuitry are phenomenal. Both possess rocket launchers in their bell bottom shaped boots. The yellow robot even has a set of wheels attached to it's soles!!

Bionic Boogie

image via http://www.flickr.com/photos/christianmontone/

Incredibly provocative this fem-bot models for the "BionicBoogie" album cover. If you haven't guessed yet by the satin curtains and groovy font, this is a disco album. And, I admit, she's less of a fem-bot and more of a model. Who seems to be modeling some kind of futuristic listening device complete with headphones and volume control?! Steam rises out of robotic fashionista as the gauge's needle tips dangerously towards the edge. This album cover was TOO bizarre to pass up for the list.

Music Machine - Ktel 

image via Neato Coolville blog

The POSTER CHILD of retro robots stars on this album titled, "Music Machine," by K-Tel. And just as advertised on the front, it even had it's own commercial. Robbie the Robot is the celebrity robot from television series "Lost in Space." The photograph of Robbie rocking out in a deserted field behind a ridiculous stereo system is classic. All the design elements come together in a cheesy way for a winning combo!! The sleeve looks like more of an ad than actual artwork, cramming tons of text as well as bubbles featuring some of the artist you can listen to on this record. I wouldn't have it any other way!

DANCE, DANCE, DANCE - Matthew Laznicka Illustration

Woah check out those robots breaking it down!! I was surprised to find while on my search for retro records that this was not ACTUALLY a record. Nope. Upon closer examination, it's a print by Matthew Laznicka, made to look like a record. With the distressed look and old school fonts I have to admit even I was intially fooled. The art was too fun not to add to this month's post. The color scheme is great, the robots are dynamically illustrated as they dance they dance until the sun comes up!!
 

image via "Junk Shop Juke Box" blog

If you are unfamiliar with the any of the music on the record's from today's post I urge you check them out!! They're all a lot of fun and a refreshing change up from any artists of today. Oh!! And don't forget I keep extra bonus pieces for each "Inspiration Post" on my Pinterest board I dedicated to "Inspiration."  Follow http://pinterest.com/nerdycupcakes/inspirations/ for sneak peak at what's coming for next month's post.  Have a great weekend everyone!!

Laura Crafts: DIY MSI Tiara

Hey everyone!! Yesterday I posted about a concert I went to in April and I wanted to make a follow up DIY post spotlighting the tiara I was wearing to the concert. The headlining act was MSI short for "Mindless Self Indulgence," one of my favorite bands. They encourage fans to dress up as crazy as they please so I made a custom tiara for the affair:

I posted it on my Facebook page and got a lot of compliments so I figured I would make a how-to for anyone curious about making their own version of the tiara. This project came together with things around the house and started with a tiara from the dollar store. I drew the letters M-S-I out on leftover foamboard and cut them out with an exacto blade.

From there it was time for paint. Go bold, or go home when it comes to shows!! I had leftover "Scribbles" 3D Fabric Paint in "Flourescent Neon Pink," color from another project. With random brushes I applied coat after coat of the paint until it was blindly pink. I painted them on top of an old magazine and once done laid them out in front of the tiara before attaching them.

 

At first I was going to hot glue the letters to the tiara. But when I found some leftover pink ribbon in a drawer, I decided to tie the letters on instead. I laid the letters one at a time against tiara and weaved ribbon around the letters and between the openings in the tiara. Once the letter felt secure I knotted the ribbon in the back and moved onto the next letter.

After weaving, tying and knotting all the letters through the tiara for extra EXTRA reinforment and I went back and put hotglue over all the knots. And voila! There you have it! A custom tiara. It held up the entire day AND night at the show.

 

Try spelling out the name of your favorite band at your next concert. Or maybe your friend's name for their birthday. A lot of the stuff I already had around the house but I'm sure you could make it for around 5 dollars at the most. The possibilities are endless for this extremely cheap and fun project!!

Illustration Friday - S.T.A.R.W.O.O.D. band from the "Future"

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to update the blog with my "Illustration Friday" entry. This week's theme was the word, "future." It took me no time to come up with an illustration, I decided to create a cartoon of an awesome band I saw live back in April, called "S.T.A.R.W.O.O.D."

"S.T.A.R.W.O.O.D." stands for "Sociopathic Time Altering Robot Warrior Of Organic Design," and is actually a band made up of Vitruvian Androids from the futuristic year 2276 AD. They were sent back into time, our time, present time, just before their own planet was destroyed (by us, the human race). Their mission?? Alter the timeline and control the human race saving their planet from it's imminent destruction.

My illustration is of lead singer, G7ANGEL591S (aka Gabriel Starwood) standing over planet earth. If you haven't heard them before, their entire album is up online for FREE to download right now at http://starwood.bandcamp.com/ Also be sure to check out their Facebook http://www.facebook.com/StarwoodBand and Twitter http://twitter.com/S_T_A_R_W_O_O_D. Hope everyone has a great week!!

Mika Doodle Contest 2013 - Part II

Hello everybody! Just wanted to update the blog with the continuation of my "Mika Doodle Contest" entry from earlier this year. If you missed my previous post about the competition, let me catch you up. The contest was open to all illustrators, artists and anyone else who wanted to doodle select tracks off the album, "The Origin of Love," that were posted on the MIKA Facebook fan page every week. I made it my mission to submit an entry for EVERY one of the songs posted. This post contains the other half of my entries below!!

Song 6: Popular

This track was based off the original tune "Popular," from the musical Wicked. I love the production Wicked and this song sang by Galinda to Elphaba. MIKA's version has a similar melody but the message was less about BECOMING popular and more a stab at the "popular" kids that put down the other kids at school. I resisted the urge to create something girly and cute and based my drawing on the the line that said, "Dunk me in the toilets now it's you that cleans them." Your typical queen bee trades in her tiara for a little janitor's bucket printed with the song title and filled with cleaning solution, a sponge and a toilet brush. 

Song 7: Love You When I'm Drunk

Next was a song called, "Love You When I'm Drunk." My doodle depicts the chorus, which is exactly the same as the title of the track. I drew a bottle of whiskey with the lyrics written on the label and a half empty shot glass with heart-shaped ice cubes beside it. The entire drawing is surrounded by little broken hearts because as happy as the melody sounds the theme is pretty depressing. The text was based off of 3 different fonts from my computer. 

Song 8: Stardust

Next up was a track called, "Stardust." My original concept was going to be a silhouette of the singer made of little tiny stars taken as a Polaroid picture. After a few sketches, I was convinced it looked much better as another cartoon Mika instead. As for the colors, I was going for galaxy; purple, dark blues and dark pinks. Once I was done, I realized it looked A LOT like Coraline and her star-covered pajamas. Oops!! I still think it came out pretty good though.

Song 9: Emily

I loved the style of the video which starred "Fanny Ardent," dressed in red playing the part of "Emily," that went along with this song. The video's artistic interpretation of the song was spot on but didn't want to translate that too literally into my piece. "Emily" seemed to me from the song, to be a woman under an identity crisis. I wanted to play with the idea of changing identity by illustrating a mannequin head complete with wig and hat labeled "Emily." The curly short haircut and bright red color of the hat tie in with the look of the music video. Elegant yet still fun this is a stand alone piece and an illustration I'm really proud of!

Song 10: Make You Happy

When I heard this song for the competition I immediately thought . . . robot! And that's not just because I love robots and think about them 56% of the time I had a valid reason. The line, "all I want to do is make you happy," is constantly repeated throughout the song in mechanical sounding-auto tuned voice. Much like a robot. But this isn't just any robot, this is a MIKABOT. He comes equipped with a bolted-on suspenders, a fancy top hat and a mop of curly locks underneath it. Beep boop beep!

Song 11: Underwater

The competition wrapped up with a song called, "Underwater." I thought about what could be underwater and came up with an oyster. The oyster is open to reveal a precious pearl, shaped like a heart to symbolize love. I hand-lettered the lyrics, "put your lips on me and I can live underwater," above the piece and added some bubbles to surround the piece.

I love challenging myself artistically by entering contests and competitions. And it was fun to see everyone's different interpretations of the songs off the album. Not only that I made some new artist friends along the way!! Hope everyone has a good week!! 

Mika Doodle Contest 2013 - Part I

Hey everyone! Just wanted to update the blog with a contest I participated in during the beginning of the year. If you caught my previous post about musical artist "MIKA" you remember me mentioning how fun it is to illustrate to his tunes. So boy was I psyched when I stumbled across a "Doodle Competition" posted on his official Facebook fan page.

The tournament worked like this: nearly every week from January through mid-February a song title off the album "The Origin of Love," was announced giving fans the chance to submit artistic interpretations of the featured song and its lyrics. A doodle could be any sort illustration of the song's message whether it be digital, painted or just scribbled. I made it my mission to submit an entry for EVERY one of the songs posted. Scroll down to check out a set of the entries I submitted!

Song 1: The Origin of Love

This was the title track off of the album and the first revealed in the competition. I wanted to render all my doodles by hand while keeping consistent with my normal artistic style. I chose crayons and marker as my medium to create fun pieces reminiscent of coloring book pages. After listening to the song I created this sugary candy and pill coated heart encompassing some of the most vivid lyrics such as "some love is a candy cane it tastes so sweet but leaves you feeling sick with pain."

Song 2: Lola

This is one of my favorite doodles I created for the competition. I went for simplicity and tried not to get too literal. The particular lyrics I based it on were, "when you find your love's for real you'll beg and borrow, cheat or steal, trying to get the money just to call her." The red phone's cord twists and knots to form a little hidden heart at the end. The word's "Lola" coming out of the phone were also something I hand-lettered which I've been challenging myself with more often instead of relying on fonts to keep my work unique.

Song 3: Three Steps

"3 Steps," was appropriately chosen as song #3 (COINCIDENCE?!). This track was extremely light and airy similar to a day-dream. My main focus was the line, "this love's delicious like home-cooked dishes." I included the text in my doodle since I'm not one to turn down a warm home-made meal and it was SUCH a super simile. I drew a little cartoon MIKA up in the clouds surrounded by hearts and comfort food swirling around along with the "3 Steps."

Song 4: Heroes

"Hereos" was a bit tougher to translate into a crayon doodle since it was more serious and I like to focus on fun and happy things. The song addresses war and inner conflict among other hard topics. Since it was so sad and meant to honor our heroes what personally came to mind for me was a cracking war medal. On the inscription are the cold lyrics, "you don't have to die in your glory to never grow old." I'm pretty proud of how this turned out.

 Song 5: Celebrate

The next song revealed was an almost an exact opposite of the previous track. It's extremely upbeat and cheery titled, "Celebrate." So whee, fun! Celebrate! Balloons! Party! I hand lettered another set of lyrics on this doodle, "I want the whole world to celebrate." Little cartoon MIKA floats off into the sky to spread joy to the whole planet.

I decided to split this post up and save the other half of my entries for another date. If you are ever game for spontaneous contests that flex your creative muscle I suggest "like"ing the MIKA fanpage at http://www.facebook.com/mikasounds. Hope everyone is having a super week and keep your eyes for Part II coming soon!!

Kreayshawn "Group Hug Tour" Illustration

Hey everyone!! Hope everyone had a fun and safe St. Patty's Day!! Just wanted to update the blog with an illustration I wanted to do for awhileeee. For my birthday last year my brother got me a ticket to see the artist "Kreayshawn" on the Group Hug Tour up in Philadelphia!!

It was such an amazing show. Everyone was great and I had such a blast! We even waited around after teh show I got the opportunity to MEET Kreayshawn, EEP! She signed my brother's arm and he took my photo with her:

Everyone during the show was pretty chill. I made some new friends and could take lots of photos without getting bumped around too much. With all the photos I had I REALLY wanted to commemorate the event with an illustration. I picked out one of the photos of Kreayshawn I took, resketched it and then digitally rendered it on Illustrator and Photoshop. This is the photo that I chose:

Kreayshawn was decked out a short camo top with her hair in pigtails pulled back with two sparkly plastic beads. I love her style and was super excited to get started on making the illustration! When I started sketching back in November I ended up scrapping the project. I just wasn't happy with how it was turning out!! This month I picked it back up again since my "Artistic Fitness" entry was a female portrait and I was determined to finish it. And HERE is how it turned out:

 

What a cute little Kreayshawn cartoon!! I wanted the background to reflect the hazy purple and pink lighting of the venue. The most difficult part was probably getting all the tattoos on her arm. I added her name along the side for anyone who wasn't familiar with who she is. It's now one of my new favorite illustrations and I'm really glad I decided to finish it. Hope everyone has a great week and an awesome day!!

Mika "Lollipop" Tooth Illustration!

Hey everyone!! Did you know that today is actually National Dentist Day?? Believe it or not I have just the illustration to celebrate. I created this doodle around January when over Holiday I got heaps and heaps of candy as gifts. It's a little doodle based on the Mika song "Lollipop," and features a Mika tooth warning of the dangers of "candy."

The song is a definite guilty pleasure for me and makes as great drawing background noise. If you haven't heard of the song you should give it a listen below:



I used the same fun artistic style used from the video for my doodle. I love sugar but your teeth usually don't love it when you're chomping on it everyday. Save your teeth from the sugar attack by brushing everyday! Hope everyone has a super day and take care of those teeth!

Artistic Fitness: Breakdancing Snail

Hey everyone!! I already made it to the second exercise in the "Artistic Fitness" book, that means 48 more to go! It was all about drawing a snail. I didn't attach an original sketch of the first exercise but I figured I would this time. The book teaches you to draw and shade things very traditionally or more "realistically" than my style.

For my doodle, snails are typically thought to be these slow, boring, creatures. But I am sure than is at least one snail out there who decides to dream big. My snail wants to be a breakdancer. He doesn't let any "haters" get him down as he spins on his shell with his oversized boombox.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Gretna Music - Print Ad

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to update the blog with one of my FAVORITE print ads I had created for the newspaper! It was an ad to be placed on the back of the programs for Gretna Music, a company that brings a broad range of musicians to audiences in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

The initial concept from my publisher was to base the ad around just one quote from someone in the music / theatre industry. First I had to find a quote. So I scoured the interwebs and settled on a quote by Victor Hugo, the French poet, novelist and dramatist who is the mind behind, "Les Miserables," which is not only a popular musical production but is coming out as a movie in 2012.

I came out with a really solid and eye catching layout for the type. If you don't know much about the Gretna Area either, a lot of it is just dense woods so I went with a very leafy background in hues that matched my palette I had going on with my text.

I am a big fan of white space but it still needed something to tie it together so I doodled up a treble cleft in with the pen tool and added a fancy brush stroke and voila! This is an ad that is relied heavily on my skills in typography and demonstrates I am much more than a girl who can just draw pretty pictures. That is what makes it one my favorite ads! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Farm Aid 2012 - Print Ad

Hey everyone! Just wanted to update the blog with another ad that I did for the Lebanon Daily News. Over the weekend was a big concert here in Pennsylvania called "Farm Aid." Honestly I have never heard of it before but I go assigned the task of creating a print ad, letting people know that full coverage can be found from the newspaper.

From their website, http://www.farmaid.org, I learned, it is not only a HUGE concert event, but a social movement. Their mission? To raises money to help keep family farmers on their land! Pennsylvania, as most people imagine it to, does have a lot of farms so I can see why we were picked for this year's location for the event.

The ad is itself is a 2x5 that unfortunately ran in black and white. If you ever find yourself in this quickly declining industry you have to have the ability to roll with the punches. Everything is always needed "yesterday." The ad was something that I had received on my desk the day before it ran.

I hope everyone has a good weekend! I baked so expect to see another addition of "Laura Cooks" coming up soon!

EveryoneLovesRobots - Spring Youtube Layout

Hey everyone!



Just wanted to post about a big change to the EveryoneLovesRobot, the solo music project of James Long.

His youtube layout I recently created was due for an overhaul. Who better to redo it than Violet Ink Design? The new scheme is hues of blue and a nice white in the mix for contrast.

This was the before if you do not remember...


and now the after!



Perfect for spring! Just some simple color changes to freshen things up a bit! See if for yourself by clicking on http://www.youtube.com/user/EveryoneLovesRobots

The channel has risen to 118 subscribers. So while you're there, if you haven't subscribed do it today!!

Summer Hard Tour

Hello everyone! Last week I got a chance to go see the Summer Hard Tour in Philadelphia at my most favorite venue, the Electric Factory. I went for the headliner, Crystal Castles, an awesome Canadian band I'm sure I've mentioned once before.

I met some great people standing in line. A group of people about like 20 minutes from where I live ironically. One was a photographer whose name was Ian Stoner. He showed me some of his stunning photographs via his iPhone and I was blown away. I added just one of my favorites to my post here (below). Check him out guys, he has a Facebook page!

via ianstonerphotography

When I got inside the other artists preforming there were some random DJs and it was a very rave-like atmosphere with lots of glow sticks and hydration going on. Destructo I found to be absolutely entertaining, then there was a fellow named Synaden(?) I think who was horrid, followed by someone named Rusko who was pretty cool.

via Scobie19 on Flickr

Crystal Castles was an experience in itself. I enjoyed watching Alice Glass constantly jumping in the crowd, drizzling alcohol down the crowds faces, having her own drum solo by using the microphone as a drumstick, and rolling around the stage. Unfortunately the lighting was super poor. A lot of strobe. I couldn't get a good picture for the life of me. So I decided to draw a picture of the experience instead.

Here is the completed portrait of Alice Glass I created in Photoshop and Illustrator:

I'm actually really pleased with how it came out. I had showed it to someone who didn't even know who Alice was and they immediately recognized her as "that that chick who jumps around in skirts in that band."

I hope everyone has a great weekend :D

Robots and Crystal Castles

So far I accomplished a lot today. I got tickets to see Crystal Castles this summer at the Electric Factory. I love the Electric Factory, it's such a great venue. I have been a fan of Crystal Castles since they first started getting their name tossed around in blogs around 2005. I found them through a great site called SitelPop UK and now look at that, they are playing right here in Philly!!

As soon as I got home I spent a lot of time on my freelance job at the East Hanover Studio. I've made great progress and will wrap my project up soon.

I also wanted to let everyone know that EveryoneLovesRobots, one of my most adored client's released a new Youtube video that has a shout out to me in it!! Be sure to check that out and subscribe by clicking here!

One last thing is in my "free" time I am going to try to complete a three print series of some robots. I completely the first print eons ago and neglected to post it here. But here it is:

I started a pink girl robot as well and will probably use them as covers for my journals in my Etsy shop or just sell the prints together.

Hope everyone has a great day today, will post again soon!

Koala Mariachi Band

Aye another week where I've been completely lacking inspiration. I doodle an idea down in my sketchbook but will rarely do a fully computer generated follow through.

Yesterday though I was browsing the TourCrush Forums, somewhere I had not been on in a longggg time. There is a set of art posts, and one girl posted the opportunity for her to draw requests. Needless the say it seems the topic had not been touched since June.

One of the users asked for a Koala Mariachi band. So I just ran with it.