Icons and Graphics

Here is a sample of some vector icons that I created to be used in some posters I’m working on to advertise the alumni gallery show at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I wanted to create a diverse range of graphics that pertain to the various majors that are offered at AIP. I have a few more icons that I’m still working on and some I would like to adjust slightly before I finalize the posters but for now this is just a work in progress of what is to come.

Dimensional Design Project (Work In Progress)

The design screened onto canvas

My screen printing setup consists of a light taped
 to the toilet paper holder in my bathroom.

Design exposed into the screen. Also pictured: my girlfriend's cat being a creep.

This was an assignment for my dimensional design class. We had to make a bag for the Fourth of July. We were free to employ our own concept and being that the holiday isn’t so much an environmentally friendly one I wanted to address that in my concept, that being to bring a message to encourage people to “Have a green fourth of July”.

Needless to say I ran into problems getting parts of the design to come through clearly, I think the ink i mixed has either been to thick or too thin, blotting up or not printing as crisp as I would have wanted but I intend to revise this before the quarter is over and have images up of the complete bag as well.

Visit my tumblr for other art related things: redntoothnclaw.tumblr.com/

Texture Studies

Digital circle study 1

Digital circle study 2

Pen and ink texture study 

Scratchboard texture study

Above are a few select images of some digital and traditional texture studies that I have been experimenting with periodically in my free time. The first two (from the top) are digital vector renderings of circles layered and arranged repetitiously in patterns. The last two are densely layered linear pen & ink and scratchboard drawings.

I've been feeling inspired lately by all things linear and geometric but I think these "drawings" better represent an obsession with the idea that I could make something organic and textural, create a sense of depth, or evoke some kind of emotion with elements that are synthetic such as lines and simple shapes.

For those interested in these experiments I recommend checking out the Geometry Daily blog for tasty minimalist drawings that are updated daily.

On a related note, I recently made a Tumblr to showcase cursory postings of my artwork and related content. Check it out here: http://redntoothnclaw.tumblr.com/

Heccra Illustration

Within recent years I've fallen out of illustration, pretty much completely. It's a sad aspect of my life, one that, confessionally, can be attributed to a mixture of built up anxiety and laziness... but mostly laziness. Drawing used to be one of my favorite things to do; throughout my years in high school I spent much of my time drawing, either at home or in class, doodling and sketching out ideas, either in my sketchbook or on my classwork and notes. While that may not seem like the most appropriate use of my time for me it was a healthy hobby, one that I have fallen out of and unhealthily began dwelling on daily but never actually attending to.

Instead, music, or rather that of the avant-garde and experimental persuasion, that of noise has become the focus of much of my time. Along with my friend, Brian Sopher and more recently, Andrew Lake we created music under the name Hintergrund, a project I have documented here in a number of posts which I have created artwork and designed the packaging for.

Realizing my love for music and visual art, namely illustrative, I noticed that the two go perfectly together because what is music without the accompany of a visual element, an aesthetic, something visually tangible? Getting to the point, I approached Heccra, a one-man experimental post-hardcore project in which I have written reviews for and more recently conducted an interview with over at inb4track, the music blog I write for. I offered that I draw a design up for t-shirts, the result being the above image.

To put everything into context without too much unimportant inside speak, Heccra's sound is distinctive in that the vocals sometimes feature this pitch-shift which make them sound, like that of a chipmunk. Its a strange but intriguing production choice, one that I feel embodies the sound of the project quite well and as such, I thought I would touch on that in my illustration which is that of a cartoonish chipmunk looking rad in a cali-flip style hat, the name "Heccra" embroidered on the bottom of the bill. I think it turned out pretty dece.

Hintergrund - Nemesis Digital Release

Album Cover

I'm happy to say that the new Hintergrund album, 'Nemesis', our second release is finished and is now available for free to stream and download. I'd like to say a few things regarding details about the albums production and completion.

What we were able to accomplish with 'Nemesis' encompasses a much more expansive sonic range than our previous effort, Signal Blister. The sounds range from crushing walls of dense distortion and feedback, to screeching oscillation, to airy and colorful ambience. One of the beautiful things about noise and the likes of experimental music is the process, which many times is a wholly improvised matter that always leaves room for the possibility of failure and spontaneity, an aspect that is unfortunately all too often alien to music. In noise this additional element played a large role in how the album was created. We worked with what we had at the time; a broken guitar, an old broken karaoke microphone, prepared saxophone, circuit bent electronics, and whatever else we could find that we felt was worth recording. Much like the sound of 'Nemesis' the instrumentation directly reflects this brokenness. I think it is safe to say that, for me at least that 'Nemesis' is not only to be heard as a piece of music but to be seen as being representative of an exercise in experimentation, our instruments not simply being used as they were intended to be but rather used as an extension of our collective ideas, improvised and elaborated on in that moment.

From this point on I will be focusing on putting together the artwork for a physical release of the album. You can stream and download 'Nemesis' at the links provided below. Enjoy.

Download Nemesis Here

Also, Brian recently finished his latest solo effort under the name Glasslung entitled 'New Martyrs'. You can download and stream that here: Sleeping Glass.

Links:

Nemesis on Last.fm

Brian Sopher on Soundcloud

Tyler Thompson on Soundcloud

Moosick Records

Illustrations For New Hintergrund Album

Exterior Artwork

During the summer of last year my good friend Brian Sopher and I got together for a jam session in which we spent time making noises, drones, and generally experimenting. Out of these freeform jam sessions our experimentation evolved into what is now known as the drone / noise duo Hintergrund. We released our first album Signal Blister during the summer of last year. Sometime back in January nearing the end of my winter break away from school Brian and I got together once again to record with no specific goal in mind before departing back to our respective colleges. Early in the first weeks of summer we met up to finish what we had started and to say the least, having given multiple listens, I'm pretty pleased with the results. What we were able to achieve is much more diverse than what can be heard on our first full length, Signal Blister.

Interior Artwork

The artwork is nearing completion. The two images seen above, that of the interior and exterior spreads are complete. All that is necessary now is the addition of type and the application of color.

As I have stated in past posts I believe the artwork is a crucial part, perhaps even on an equal level as the music in which it accompanies. Sometimes the artwork can determine whether or not I actually purchase an album whereas I could simply download it for free. Not only is it important in that aspect but also reflectively. I believe the artwork should serve a purpose not separate from the music but rather compliment the music visually in a way that reflects the mood, the concept, and emotions derived from it. With that said the artwork I have begun working on can be looked at as my interpretation of the sounds on this album in a visual form; fragmented, disjointed, chaotic, and broken which needless to say are a few words that essentially summarize the music that Brian and I have created together sonically in a visual sense.

On Repeat: Pigeon Breeders - Luminous Debris, Teotl Expansion - P:1, Heccra - The Last Weekend of Summer, White Suns - Sinews

Choice Cinema: David Lynch - 'Mulholland Drive' and 'Blue Velvet'

Good Reads: Mark Z. Danielewski - 'House Of Leaves'

Blogs / Sites: The League of Movable Type, Fonts of Chaos

Screen Printing Hintergrund T-Shirts

So its been a minute since I've updated this blog.

Late last year I purchased a Speedball screen printing kit which due to time constraints from school work and a general lack of motivation (mostly the latter) I didn't bother messing around with. With all of the free time I had during the summer away from school I decided to set aside some time to learn about the process of screen printing.

The image I worked with is a photograph of an old factory tower I took that was used as artwork for the album sleeve of the first Hintergrund release, Signal Blister. I used the diazo photo emulsion technique to reproduce the image seeing as that is pretty much the only way of replicating it while retaining as much detail as possible. The process involved much trial and error as I often ended up with either an under exposed image or an over-exposed one but finally I was able to achieve a proper exposure.

I think the final image turned out nicely and have printed around 12 black on white t-shirts for the first run. If demand is high enough I may print more but until now this is it.

In other Hintergrund related news, during the summer Brian and I got together to record material for the next Hintergrund release, all post-production and mastering has been completed and having given multiple listens the results sound great. More details regarding the new album and a release date will be determined as soon as I finish completing the art work, which I will post the progress of here.

On Repeat: Wreck and Reference - 'No Youth', White Suns - 'Sinews', Bosse-de-Nage - 'III', Death Grips - 'No Love Deep Web'

Choice Cinema: Last Year At Marienbad, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Julien Donkey-Boy, Naked

Good Reads: Mark Danielewski - 'House Of Leaves, Miranda July' - 'No One Belongs Here More Than You', Jack Kerouac - 'On The Road', Alison Bechdel - 'Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic'