John Moorehead

ϟBrainstormingϟ

Slainte part 1

Here's an in-progress view for a St. Patrick's Day illustration I'm making this year. Inset below is the basic thumbnail I began from and the first larger sized plan I put together for the next set. I definitely wanted to keep the diagonal direction in there but wasn't sure yet how to handle the lettering. There were a lot of ways to go with the type.

In the next version I have more of a plan for the composition and the diagonal the lettering is resting on. I have a couple of things left to puzzle out but I'm far enough along to bring it into the computer to process and adjust.

Since this is so complicated I will think about using limited colors and sticking with richer shades of green, red, gold, and brown. In ornate illustrations - like in illuminated manuscripts - I notice that some level of order helps to balance organic elements. I think the same idea can help here.

sliante-v1 — Early thumbnail sketch and pencil plan

Put a bat on it

BATS! BATS! BATS!

10-17flourish

Here are a bunch of freehand (and free) vector bats. I tried to keep some variety among them and make them in a few different views as well. Link to download (.ai file).

Jack o’ lantern

I started this as a sketch to turn into a vector illustration a few days ago but I didn't care for the way it was turning out. I do like the face, the three-dimensional aspect of it.

sketch-10-14

I started removing pieces of the pumpkin to see how much I could take out while still keeping the face recognizable. Here's the end result: 10-14flourish

Link to download (.ai file). There is an orange background version and a white background variation in the file.

The Last Crash

I made this to blow off some steam after a morning of duking it out with my computer but if you remove my name this can be a simple/versatile little drawing. The vector file does not have writing on the tombstone. The owl is separate as well. I'll be back to regular flourishes in November. Enjoy these until then. Link to download (.ai file).

Strong coffee

This isn't really flourish but you can download it anyhow. Use the idea in a label for some kind of Halloween roast of coffee or something? Have at it! Link to download (.ai file).

10-9flourish

Grayscale Manor

This was a lot of fun to make. With little bits of line art and flourishes, L-shapes, vertical and horizontal shapes work well. This would be good to wrap around a block of text or so. Link to download (.ai file).

10-8flourish

Brackish serpents

I'm back after a break from doing these and had a hard time restarting. I saw a lot of illuminated designs and detailed patterns while I was out and I think I went on overload from taking in so much in a week. It's also hard to restart one you're stopped a project after a while, and this is an example of it. I feel rusty from not doing them for so long after making them daily.

I'll be doing Halloween-ish things for the rest of the month, maybe more because they're so much fun to do and I like the practice. If client work slows down I'll try to make 31, one for each day of the month.

Serpents appear throughout design and show up in the earliest print books. They're iconic design elements, to be sure. Nothing like a cool serpent or dragon to hold a space among big blocks of text. They are also great to use because they can be shaped to suit any space within a design. Link to download (.ai file). 10-7flourish

Hot dog!

Nothing from me for a while, I'm out of the office. See you next week. Link to download (ai file).
9-24flourish

Handlebar brackets

Link to download (.ai file).
9-23flourish

Green man

The best part about making these is doing one set of shapes, them mirroring the image to see what they look like side-by-side. They can be combined in so many different ways. Link to download (.ai file).
9-22flourish