George Bates Studio

2011-10-11T14:43:00.000-07:00

START TO FINISH: Here's a start to finish look at the shirt design created for the N-Spired story. Each new shirt is created by a different artist and is based on a story from their website that has received the most votes. After the shirt is created, a social act is performed, by members of the company, inspired by the story that inspired the shirt design.

I was asked to create a design for the N-Spired Brand shirt. Stories from the site appear as vignettes in the type. The stories have quite a range, some were funny others were bizarre but all quite moving.

The final art.

A Few of the initial sketch explorations.

Starting the art.

Progress.

Close to finish.

Then scan, Streamline (yes, I use Streamline with OS 9 on an old laptop) and send to Europe.

Note: some of the initial drawings used for the sketches are above the light box.

Job is done, client is happy, on to the next.

(This is where the hands on, messy, art happens in the studio. Joy.)

2011-09-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

LIFE OF AN IDENTITY MARK: Last week I went to the final day of the Quiksilver PRO NYC event to take some shots of the logo usage at the actual event site. Originally, I had sent David the "PRO" type (above), along with a variety of other type explorations, and through his transformative magic the O became integrated into the logo and identity of the event.

It was a stunning beach day and the surf was simply perfect.The shots that follow are from about a half hour before the final heat and the aftermath.

The sales people said the merch was really selling well, especially the shirt on the left that had the "Long Beach" scene on it as this was the most site specific shirt and folks seemed to want a memento of that site (another factor: Long Beach pride). They had actually run out of sizes for that shirt. As I mentioned in the previous post, that drawing was done in my sketchbook while thinking about 89the street in Rockaway but it looks pretty much just like Long Beach site.

There was some fantastic local surfing going on to the right and left of the event site but for the final heat everyone got out of the water to watch. Right before the heat began it got really crowded, but not too crowded. The vibe was something, charged, amped, electric yet beachy mellow...Final heat shots below.

The champ emerges victoriously from the sea.

Love the big check...All in all it seemed like the actual surfing aspect of the event was a huge success for Quik despite the Irene problems and setbacks from that storm. We'll see if they are back next year. Good times.

2011-09-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

FROM SKETCHBOOK TO PRODUCT: For some of the Quiksilver Pro NYC merch, work was taken directly out of my Moleskine sketchbooks and used for product. Above is a drawing I did of Rockaway that looks pretty much just like Long Beach. The planes were removed due to 9-11 sensitivity (wise move).

This is from my Travel Sketchbook. Done while relaxing out in Coney Island several years ago. Go get 'em while they're hot! Tomorrow is the last day of the event.

2011-09-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

Here's the first i've seen of the official Quiksilver PRO France 2011 campaign I collaborated on with David Carson. The shot is from a storefront somewhere in Hossogor, France. No word on if this is the "window set" or if it's a work in progress and the painting will be "finished" like the final art I turned in (see below) .Right now I do love the scrappy bits hung about, as they are some of the campaign presentation David gave over there, but we'll see...

The image is roughly based on old travel posters from that particular area of France from the 30's&40's. I think what they are doing with the campaign it is much more interesting, adventurous and unique than the NYC campaign .David presented ALOT of stuff over there much like the NYC PRO campaign and perhaps we'll see it all some day as it's all really hot.

2011-07-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

Collaboration with David Carson on campaigns for Quiksilver PRO NYC and FRANCE events. Gallery of poster campaign explorations originally posted on David's site.

Final logo in Quiksilver NYC storefront, July 2011.

2011-07-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

Last fall I was invited to submit a proposal for the NYC URBAN CANVAS public art project which provides NYC constructions sites with scalable artwork for covering fences, scaffolds and buildings. In the end this proposal was not chosen but here's a glimpse at the proposal I submitted as I was really pleased with the outcome and was honored to be invited. All final art was submitted as vector files.

2011-06-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

HEAD SNOWBOARD PDF NEWPAPER with George Bates interview conducted by Sven Hoffmann. Designed by DESIGNBURO

2011-03-08T07:48:00.000-08:00

Here's the final printed cover for the Princeton Alumni Review Humor Issue. Below are some of the rejected sketches along with the approved sketch. Originally it seemed like the laughing mouth was the direction they were leaning but settled on the face with funny glasses in the end. I think i'm going to start showing some favorite rejected sketches more often in a REJECTED SKETCHES SPOTLIGHT. Enjoy.

Approved sketch.

This one was my personal fave.

2011-01-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

In fall of 2010 the latest children's picture book i've illustrated (ON A WINDY NIGHThttp://www.abramsbooks.com/Books/On_a_Windy_Night-9780810939004.html) became available in stores. It's had a really nice reception with the little ones, parents and critics and i'm told it's quite the seller! Below is a bit of a glimpse into the process that went into the book.

The story is written by Nancy Raines Day and basically tells the tale of a boy traveling through the woods alone on Halloween night as he becomes frightened by what may, or may not, be lurking in the woods and following him home. The manuscript was really an illustrator's paradise as the story of a boy who's imagination may be running wild really lends itself to a very wide visual interpretation. I decided I wanted to try to get the viewer's experience as close as possible to that of the boy in the story's. That being, the experience of things being a little off balance as to the nature of reality. Around the thaT I was offered the story I had recently been hired to do a job that required crosshatching and thought that approach would lend itself well to seeing things and forms that may be vague and not quite there and set to experiment with the ideas, technique and compositions in my sketchbook.

Here is the first drawing I played with in my sketchbook. I created the original drawing rather small and enlarged it for the final art so that the hatching marks and line quality has an even rougher look to help with the mood of the story.

This is the color image i submitted to Abrams and Nancy to get signed off on the look and feel of the illustrations. The final color image is an accident that I stumbled upon while playing with layers and textures in Photoshop. I thought that the technique helps the idea of the book by visually confusing the depth of the picture plane.

Here are some sketchbook explorations of the boy character in the book and some rough storyboard sketches. The boy is based on a photo I have of my younger brother who loved Halloween much more than I ever did.

Working on children's books is an extremely collaborative endeavor in terms of choosing and refining the best rythm, pacing, tone and marriage of text and image. Above are some of the first round of storyboards for the ending of the book that just didn't work. In total I think we did three passes of storyboards before settling on a final version. These didn't work because it shows the boy at that height of his fright and in these sketches he clearly leaves reality altogether into madness...not quite right for the age group. From the beginning of the sketching process the challenge was to find the right balance of scary and cute and i think we nailed it in the end. A favorite Maurice Sendak quote I love is "you can't frighten children, they are already frightened...". However, you can traumatize them and we wanted to steer clear of that. I thought it was interesting though that a friend who is a children's librarian told me many children come into the library requesting scary books and often claim the books they receive are not quite scary enough.

Another significant difference between these original storyboards and the final version of the book is that here in the first pass it was decided that each page would be a spread so as to lend the book a more cinematic quality and deepen the reader's immersion each page and the story. I thought this worked out beautifully as a child who had recently read the book exclaimed " that's the best movie I ever read!".

Here is the final sketch for on of the pages from the book. I hired my sister to transfer the images to paper that was close in texture to the sketchbook paper I had been experimenting with in the sketchbooks. I then inked the lines with chisel edge pen. Below shows the final line art and process of adding the color. I can't say how it works exactly as it was an accident I stumbled upon while playing around in Photoshop but everyone was really pleased with the result and it really helps set the mood for the story.

Final line art. About half the size of the final color file. Approximately 18"x7".

The line art is blown up to about 27"x11" and the first layer of color is added. For some reason the first layer is brown with some adjustments for various elements.

The next layer has the texture and main color which is actually a very bright cyan before a filter is applied.

The previous layer is simply floated on top of itself and the image becomes brighter.Here there are some adjustments to various elements like the clouds and boy.

Once more the layer is floated on top of itself, the image get's even brighter and it's finished. This is the final image that was sent to the printer. As with the original experiment with the owl above I loved the final look of the technique but it did take some time to figure out how to get it to function consistently. The final technique reminds me of under-painting and glazing techniques in oil painting.

Here's the book trailer. Enjoy.

http://www.abramsbooks.com/Books/On_a_Windy_Night-9780810939004.html

2010-09-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

This summer Head Snowboards asked me to work on a series of snowboards for the general market and their pros. Here's the logo for the bottom of the boards originally designed by Sven Hoffmann. Sven asked me to interpret the logo in the micro/ macro approach. The only guideline was that the logo has to read on a photograph when the riders do big airs in the pipe...!!!Brilliant!!!

Below are the final board designs and an artists signature logo that will appear on each board. Also, Sven and Christian, from Head, made a trip to Brooklyn all the way from Hamburg Germany and Saltzburg Austria to see the final art/designs. Always so nice to have guests in the studio. Great visit.

2010-09-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

Head Snowboards-Pro Riders Model.
The challenge was to create a board that specifically addressed the interests of their top three riders in a loose narrative, graphic novel, approach. Since this board was to be produced as a special board for the riders, I thought that creating all the art by hand would give it a more cared for look. Below are some of the board details.

2010-09-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

Here are a series of shots showing some of the elements of the Pro-Riders board taking shape in the studio. It was really fun to get back to some old school techniques (stretching watercolor paper, gouache, airbrushing, cutting frisket film ).

2010-09-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Earl. Favorite spot ("the box") and sunset fireworks. I think the bouy was showing 8-10ft. The sky just lit up suddenly, and kept changing, but always looked like a lost Cocteau Twins album cover.

2010-09-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

I've been supplying surf art to a very eco friendly t-shirt company that is using a unique screen and dye process to create their shirts. Here's an image for one of the shirts. I found some really old press-type at the back of an art store and was thrilled to have a chance to really use it in combination with some hand lettering.I 'll be sure to post images of the final products when the samples come in.

2010-09-14T14:44:00.000-07:00

While vacationing in Montauk this summer I finally had a chance to visit Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner's home and studio. Here are, the studio, the studio floor, their hi-fi, and a quote from Lee Krasner. My favorite Jackson Pollock quote read from the walls of his studio: "I deny the accident".

2010-09-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

It's always interesting, for a variety of reasons, to visit old ideas and try to stretch within them for a client. Here we revisit the idea for the Big Surf cover from '02 designed by David Carson. CD cover and interior spread.

I had a really busy summer but i wanted to take on this project to play with the image/type relationship and managed to do all the type and drawing on a plane, to and from, Arizona.

2010-05-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

Today my interview on DesignIsMyThing, Facebook site, is posted (link Below). My interview is #100. The site is a Q&A for to various compelling designers and creative types. Cool site/good reads.

http://www.facebook.com/designismything

In the interview I talk a little about how all the work I do is derived from intuitive experiments in the sketchbooks and how the Micro/Macro stuff is rooted in basic Philosophy 101. This is the original image in my sketchbooks that started the whole thing and below is the Harvard Business Review piece I talk about in the interview.

I was auditing a Philosophy class for kicks years after my college graduation and the one day the professor was talking about "spheres of justice". I went home and just started working in the sketchbook and above is what came out. I title it The Primordial Sphere Of Justice in the aftermath, made a postcard of it sent it out and that particular direction for my work was born and continues to this day.

Here's the Harvard Business Review piece mentioned in the article. The author of the article was really struck with the image and wound up buying it and the spot illustration. I threw in the drop caps I did for the article because i'm a completist.

spot

drop caps

2010-05-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

These are some images from the travel sketchbook I keep. Everything in the book is drawn on the scene.

Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, NY

Brewers Bay, Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Il Duomo, Florence, Italy

2010-05-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

Anatomy Of An Editorial Assignment: These are some of the original sketches I submitted for an editorial assignment about how algorithms used for high speed trading are actually learning to become smarter, faster and even unethical and need to be policed somehow. The article really scarred the hell out of me but my instinct was to portray the mind that is now in the machine rather than spook the audience with a hellish portrayal. The comments from the art directer were that the sketches were too metaphysical, the piece was more about the sleuthing and that the 0's and 1's were good.

These are some of the revised sketches. Art director and editor loved 'em but there was an article about China a few pages deeper in the mag and asked if I can change the color scheme away from a China red and also change the large 0's and 1's to Stock Symbols.

Here's one of the the revised final sketch before final art with a different color scheme.

This is the final art I turned in except that I got an e-mail asking if I could delete the whiskers on the dragon because and editor thought they made it not look like a dragon so...

Here's the final art that was published. Very spooky that the week I was working on this piece the very subject of this article about algorithms going out of control in the markets actually caused a pretty intense event in the markets that made worldwide news. I had a friend who actually programmed some of these and when asked who he worked for he would joke, Skynet...

One of the things I do enjoy about editorial and the process of editorial is how plastic and malleable ideas and images are. I thought this was a good example of how a final piece of illustration goes through this process of manipulating form and idea to get to a specific communication through a dialogue with several individuals. This, in contrast to the "this first sketch is brilliant, we love it, go to finish" thing.

2010-05-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start adding random sketchbook pages to the blog. nothing as ambitious as a page a day sort of thing but i do have thousands of images that no one ever sees unless they request the books, stop by the studio or happen to catch a lecture of mine. I used to drop off the sketchbooks with my portfolio and folks really loved rummaging through them. This usually resulted in an image or two being sold directly out of the books but these days portfolio calls are so rare as the web basically functions as a portfolio. Once, Metallica requested my sketchbooks so i sent them off hoping they'd have some Yagermeister spilled on 'em...but they just broke lock on the carrying case and asked me to submit art for St. Anger (my solution was sooooo much cooler then what they went with. i'll post those images and that story some day as it's rather rock & roll story... ;). These are from a Molkskine travel sk-book.

2010-05-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

These are the two new pieces for the Affordable Art Fair http://www.aafnyc.com/ this week in NYC. I was up there dropping off work the other day and saw a nice range of work. Check it if you have the time.

System Reality 1, 13.75x4.25

System Song 2, 25"x18.75"

2010-04-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Much fun with concentrated watercolor dyes. "Get Well" card for a friend.

2010-04-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

I'm really into these concentrated watercolor dyes for this series. Here's the palette explorations, process photos,and final piece before it's cut from the board and framed for the Affordable Art Fair show-NYC May 6-9.

System Song 2, 19"x25". The colors are much richer and vibrant in person. Check it at the show.

2010-04-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

These images are some of the framed pieces that will be shown at the Affordable Art Fair in NYC, May 6-9th.

System Blue 1, 22"x25"

System History 1, 13"x 20"

System Gravity 1, 21x22

System Between 1, 31"x41"

2010-04-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

This is the palette used for the piece below which will be shown at the Affordable Art Fair in May. I show this to give some idea of the true colors of the piece as they never really translate and, i think it's cool. I'm thinking that there will be at least 10 pieces in this series.

SYSTEM SONG 1 detail

SYSTEM SONG 1 framed

2010-01-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

Amazing jazz pianist Kris Davis new album art (front, back and booklet). Designed by the lovely Elisa Bates with images from my sketchbooks. Dig.

2010-01-29T11:36:00.000-08:00

Everybody loves hand lettered type and lingerie. Here's a series for a recent Maxim Lingerie feature. Interestingly the type is a bit pulled back from the original approved sketches as at the final hour the Chief Editor thought the original direction might detract from the photos..?

2009-12-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

Recently I traveled to PETERS GLAMALEREI STUDIOS in Paderborn Germany to oversee a public art project for the MTA subway station in Rockaway Beach, New York. Directly below is the original art I created that will be painted on glass blocks and installed in the spring of 2010. The following images show the initial fabrication process, some glass experiments I did while I was there and some inspiring images from the town of Paderborn.

2009-12-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

One of the large studios at PETERS STUDIOS. The studio where I worked was up the stairs.

These are the initial test blocks I arrived to. I thought the technique and execution was fantastic but the only problem was that the colors needed to be more saturated and vibrant more like the way they appear on the computer screen rather than any printout. Since the community where the art is to be installed is a vibrant mix of cultures, each that have their own colorful associations, the colors needed to reflect these associations and vibrancy.

The new color tests based on our discussions before firing.

These are the new color test I woke to the next morning after our discussions about how color should function in the piece. Perfect...

2009-12-14T15:51:00.000-08:00

The original art was created in the computer as a RGB file to take advantage of light so we referenced the actual computer file on screen to decide on final colors.

Blocks in the frame which represents the actual final space between the blocks after installation being masked for the next color application and firing. Notice the one to one final art printout underneath for reference.

The same blocks as above after firing. Gray 50% neutral rainy day in background.

2009-12-14T15:41:00.000-08:00

Test for the color and frisket of the faces section based on a 600dpi and a 300dpi file. 600pdi, pictured on the right, was the clear standout. The overall spiral image of the heads was originally drawn in a small moleskine sketchbook and scanned for inclusion in the art.

Freshly fired blocks right out of the kiln. It takes several days to fire and cool this many blocks.

2009-12-14T15:29:00.000-08:00

Picutre here is Eduard, the artisan creating the actual paintings on the individual blocks. He really found all these textures and techniques that really are making the piece come alive.

2009-12-14T15:19:00.000-08:00

There was quite a bit of downtime in between discussions about the MTA project and test firings so they gave me a studio, access to all their materials and studio artisans for technical advice and guidance. The Image above and the next series of images are from experiments with the medium of glass I did during my stay at PETERS STUDIOS.

2009-12-14T15:06:00.000-08:00

2009-12-14T14:24:00.000-08:00

This series is an experiment with and image out of my sketchbooks where we decided to sandblast the type and add some airbrushed color after. This is the peeling of the frisket created from the scanned sketchbook page.

The piece post sandblasting/pre firing in the kiln. A pretty nice size...

The final piece

2009-12-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

This was a failed experiment that never made it to the kiln for firing based on the same image from my sketchbook as above. The type was going to be fired as a black line but the black paint kept peeling up when we tried to remove the frisket. We determined that it would have been best to silkscreen the black line then fire it. Next time...

2009-12-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

2009-12-14T13:56:00.000-08:00

Paderborn Cathedral in Germany was a short walk from the studio apartment I stayed in at PETERS STUDIOS while overseeing the MTA/Rockaway subway station project. It's mainly from the 13th century. Amazing organ, choir, stained glass, crypt and gates.

2009-12-14T13:31:00.000-08:00

These images are these gates that were all around the base of the cathedral going into various alcoves. They were incredibly striking as the light from outside streaming in to the darkened cathedral really helped to contrast and create silhouette shapes that enhanced the illusion of perspective. Up close you could see that they were painted with great detail. They really illustrated the ideas they propose as an overall experience.

2009-12-14T13:30:00.000-08:00

2009-12-14T13:27:00.000-08:00

2009-12-14T13:17:00.000-08:00

Post-war Baroque style window from The cathedral. Apparently Baroque windows employed a great degree of white or transparent glass.

2009-10-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

Art for the MTA Subway Station at 36th street Rockaway Beach. The art will be painted and fired on glass blocks by artisans at the GLASMALEREI PETERS studio in Germany then installed as facing walls in the station sometime this spring. I leave tomorrow for Germany to oversee the translation of the art to the glass. Each glass block wall is about 30feet by 8Feet.

2009-10-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

detail North wall

2009-10-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

detail South wall

2009-10-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

Schematics for the MTA project

2009-10-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

Art for a KIND LINES a gallery show and online auction to benefit SURF AID. The surface was created by local surfboard shaper Rick Malwitz (malwitzsurfboards.com) and given to 23 artists to create an image upon. The photos don’t really do the piece justice as the surface was like a fine paper. I treated it as a sculptural object and worked in the round on it. Details of the piece below.

2009-10-12T09:37:00.000-07:00

detail #1 from KIND LINES art

2009-10-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

detail #2 from KIND LINES art

2009-09-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here's the final cover and back of disc package for the Rob Garcia 4 "Perennial" album. Designed by the lovely Elisa Bates with images from my sketchbooks. Named one of the 10 best Jazz records of 2009 by the New York Observer.

2009-09-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

This image and the images below were chosen by the art director from the sketchbooks as possible cover images for the Rob Garcia 4-Perennial album (Jazz).This is image #1 out of 6.

2009-09-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

2009-09-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

2009-09-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

2009-09-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

2009-09-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

2009-09-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

3 of the sketchbooks stacked. There are about 10 or more books constantly evolving.

2009-08-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Bill: shot taken from my i-phone, 8am, Montauk. Perfect day.