Shantell Powell

ShanMonster Logo Development

Sun, 11 Feb 2018 17:19:28 GMT

Creating my thumbnails forced me to think further about my logo ideas. I went from full-on monograms to much more abstract designs. My idea changed from octopus to mountains to monograms to variations on the Egyptian fly. I ultimately went with the fly design for a few reasons:

1. It was something I could more easily recreate with my nascent Adobe Illustrator skills.
2. It's loosely based upon a design I created for a tattoo I got.
3. It abstractly incorporates the monogram for SM.
4. It is based off the concept of the Egyptian fly, whose symbolism is meaningful to me.

When I studied jewellery design and jewellery history, I learned about the symbolism of the Egyptian fly.

The fly amulet was a military honour bestowed upon those who persevered in the face of adversity. Think about a fly. They never give up. They will keep buzzing around your face no matter how much you bat at them. They are a potent symbol of tenacity, and this is a symbol I found inspiring.

I am not Egyptian, so I chose a species of fly indigenous to where I live: the common greenbottle fly. This species of fly may be found all over the world.

The original concept sketch for my tattoo looks like this:

The tattoo artist (Cam at Berlin Tattoos) simplified the design to this:

I played around with the design some more with the thought of turning it into a logo. The swoop of the wings create an abstract M. Viewed from the side, they also produce an abstract S. And the mouth parts of the fly are a much more direct M.

Here's my initial thumbnail sketch:

I took it into Adobe Illustrator and worked with shapes, type, and the pen tool. The colours became even more simplified: Chartreuse, mid-toned green, and black. Chartreuse, black, and green are the distinguishing colours of the common greenbottle fly, depending on light refraction. I chose a transparent background so that it could be used digitally on a variety of backgrounds.

I ended up with this:

Then, to see what it looked like in a physical application, I used Photoshop to place it upon an article of clothing.

I also rendered the design using traditional media: black and grey ink on paper.

When my software skills are stronger, I'd like to revisit this and improve upon it.

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Bat Stamps, Part Deux

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 16:16:58 GMT

Originally, I'd planned on drawing all of my bats in flight, but after studying each of the species, I decided that focusing upon their faces would be the best idea. The species are most readily distinguished from one another by looking at their faces. From a distance, they look more similar. Also, when I showed my thumbnails to other people in person, the portraits elicited more powerful reaction. People are cuted-out by the faces.

Since part of the reason I chose bats is because they're in trouble because of disease and habitat loss, it makes sense that I should endeavour to make them more appealing to the masses. And so I intend on emphasizing their cute side. People are more likely to want to save things they find cute than things which look gross, no matter how important those gross-looking creatures may be.

So, less this:

And more this:

Here are my thumbnail sketches:

From this, I created six linear sketches.

Silver-Haired Bat

Big Brown Bat

Long-Eared Myotis

Little Brown Bat

Red Bat

Hoary Bat

Although I'd love to do scientific illustrations for each of these bats, I do not have the time, so instead I plan on doing soft pastel drawings. I want to do the drawings on black paper to make the colours pop, and also to demonstrate the nocturnal nature of the animals.

Here is a colour test of soft pastels on black paper in some of the colours I'll be using.

As for the hand-lettering, I plan on using pencil crayon, since pastels are too smudgy.

The stamp booklet will be simple. The background design will be minimal, so as not to detract from the bats. I'm thinking of maybe having a moonlit backdrop.

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Na na na na na na na na BAT STAMP

Sun, 28 Jan 2018 21:29:17 GMT

I'm thinking of designing a set of postage stamps based on bats of Canada.

Here's information about stamp design for Canada Post.

More information here about what goes on a Canadian stamp:
https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/kb/details.page?article=what_are_permanent_s&cattype=kb&cat=sending&subcat=generalinformationps

Batwatch.ca tracks bats in Canada with the help of citizens.

There are 18 known species of bat in Canada. I don't have time to do a series of 18, so I'll have to narrow it down. I'll include the most common species.

The most common species of bat is the little brown bat. It's in every province and territory except for Nunavut. There are no known bat species in Nunavut.
The second most common species is the northern long-eared myotis, which lives in every province/territory except for PEI and Nunavut.
The big brown bat is one of the largest bat species in Canada. They may be found in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick.
The silver-haired bat has silver-tipped fur and is endemic to British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Northwest Territories.
The red bat is colourful. The male is red-orange, and the female yellow-maroon. They live in Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
The hoary bat is the largest of the bats in Canada. They live in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Northwest Territories.

Here are my thumbnail sketches of these six species.

The Secret Lives of Bats: The adventures of the real batman has nice portraits.

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