Skyline Sequence 7

This is the first time I've had to add natural elements in one of these architectural drawings. I usually avoid that by choosing buildings that aren't blocked by trees or shrubbery. This time, obviously, that's unavoidable. Keep your eye on the top of the frame and watch the treeline crawl across. I know what you're thinking: "Jeff, isn't this going to take, like...forever?" Yes. Yes it is.

Music: "Groove Holmes" by Beastie Boys

Skyline Sequence 6

Music: "Structure and Discipline" by Thomas Newman

Skyline Sequence 5

Featuring theme music by Fugazi!

Skyline Sequence 4

Yeah, I know what you're saying. "It's only the second sequence he's posted, how can it be #4?" Just trust me. It's the fourth sequence I've made, that's what it's saved as on the computer, so to keep things simple that's what it's called here.

I did the math (and I still don't trust that I did it right), but this time-lapse amounts to about 25 minutes, compressed into 2. I had to go back and adjust the background image when I discovered some photomerge errors. But now that that's all squared away, I can get back to doing the actual work of illustrating the skyline. In the future I think I'll zoom in on that upper window so you can more clearly see how it's coming together. Stay tuned!

How It's Done

I thought it would be interesting to show a work in progress through a time-lapsed screen recording. I recently took a panorama of the Austin skyline with the intention of turning it into an illustration. I figure this will be a really good project to show in-progress, and it will be interesting to see the whole thing come together. It took a lot of googling to figure out how to record the screen shots exactly the way I wanted to. Hopefully you can see that in addition to the bottom window where I'm doing the actual work, I am keeping a top window open that will be a zoomed-out view of the whole illustration as it comes together. What you see in that window is really only half of the final panorama, which is so wide that it's more practical to do two illustrations and stitch them together later. So, this will definitely be a long-term project and I'll try to post the latest time-lapses regularly.

Also, much credit is due to Mr. Alex Soto for inspiring this idea and for his technical advice.

Hey, look at that! I won something!

A few weeks ago I came across a site called Create My Tattoo, which essentially crowd-sources tattoo designs. Normally, I'm very wary of crowd-sourcing sites like this, but one of the contests drew my eye. Someone wanted a family crest/coat-of-arms representing various aspects of his life. The iconography and design of heraldry has always piqued my interest, so I gave it a shot. Turns out I won! Here's the winning design:

crest tattoo vector