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ILLUSTRATION Flower Wreath

Ink and Pen Illustration by Irishguy Gary Crossey
Illustration by Asheville artist Gary Crossey

Digital Illustration Flower Wreath. Illustration work often has a mind of it’s own. At the start there might be some sort of direction to go – but once the pen and ink make a true connection with the page. That’s when the story begins – and the parts of the illustration begin to appear. Just as the illustration can begin suddenly the end of an illustration can end as abruptly. 

For my Floral design I did three different approaches to get the style I was after. 

Click to Enlarge Illustration

 

For my Floral design I did three approaches to the design that I was seeking.  Illustration by Irishguy Gary Crossey

Just in time for the holiday season – stylish doodle style wreath.

Illustration by Irishguy Gary Crossey

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ILLUSTRATION Cup Design

Asheville Illustration

Asheville Design Studio - Illustration

The Circles & Lines design.

Putting the Ink and Pen illustration on a 3D shape gives the design a whole new life.

Browse My Other Design Products


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Doodles for life

Asheville Ink and Pen Drawing

Asheville Ink and Pen Drawing

My Life is Captured with Doodles

Doodles have been an active aspect of my design work for as long as I recall. I never talk on the phone without creating some detailed doodle. Often the doodle knows more about that phone conversation than I do.

Recently, my doodles are about creating patterns. Plants are a great example of replicating

Doodle art work by Gary Crossey

Asheville Ink And Pen Drawings

2018 Reconnect with Paper

2018 is the year to step AWAY from the computer (yes I said that – doesn’t mean I will do it for long – but when I do I Ink & Pen). What I enjoy about drawing with ink is that I can not undo my mistakes. The ink mark is final.

Sometimes the lines are perfect, and other times they are not.

I learn more from the lines that are not correct.

The incorrect lines relate all the aspects of why one line on the paper is not as well-done as another line on the paper.

The Perfect Line

The perfect line transfers down your arm, you sense it.

You feel the correct order of the “world” when you draw the right line.
I’ve had the experience a few times, the rest of the time I try.

The perfect line is a gift.

 

 

 

Drawing - ink and pen

Asheville drawing Ink & Pen

Wallpaper designs

Asheville Ink & Drawing

 

 

 

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Comic Strip

Illustration Meme Asheville

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Who doesn’t enjoy creating fun comic strip illustrations? 

Asheville Dental Care always has fresh ideas, and are interested in connecting with their patients. As their graphic designer and website developer, I get to immerse myself into their website content. And what is so fascinating, my idea of modern dentistry was completely off. Believe it, dentistry has evolved, and in many cases is now pain-free.

BLOG: ashevilledentalcare.com/i-brush-floss.

Logo Design Asheville Dental Care

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Asheville Illustration for Asheville Dental Care created by IRISHGUY Design Studio. Artist Gary Crossey.

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Illustration by Gary Crossey

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DOODLE ART Connections

Pen and Ink Design

Pen and Ink Design

Illustration by Gary Crossey

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Circle & Lines

I still don’t understand why my studio went without a scanner for any length of time. I am such a scanner fan. I love how I can capture different stages of a drawing. Often the steps toward the end images can create unusual patterns – that may not be as present in a later stage of the design process.

Digital Illustration

Repeating and position the copies in a circle motion. The overlapping design forms a large hexagon pattern.

By Gary Crossey

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Circle and lines by Gary Crossey Graphic DesignerPattern created by Graphic Designer Gary Crossey (Asheville).
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Hand Drawn Illustrations

Doodle art by Graphic designer Gary Crossey

Doodle Art – Ink Illustrations.

I always like drawing with ink. It was until discovering Aubrey Beardsley (1984) that I became a huge enthusiast. (2017) Many of my design inspirations still pull from Beardsley’s influence.The illustrations tend to work best for me when they have a resistance to color.

The starkness of the Black and White hand drawn illustrations always interests me. Hand-drawn ink illustrations reach into a moment. Long enough to create an interpretation. There are no redos. Each line is a commitment.

Doodle art by Graphic designer Gary Crossey

Hand Drawn Illustration - Ink

Read my MINDFUL DOODLES Publication

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DESIGN Business Icons

Icon design interface

3D Icon Designs

Icon Design - Website

Icons for an Annual Report.

I began by modeling of the icons. Once I had my 3D design together, I created the lighting system with silver and gold lights to heighten the metal texture.

I did experiment will rotating the icons – though settled for a front on view with the 3D displayed as the depth to the icon.

I began the design process by modeling the icons in 3D. Once I had my 3D design together, I created the lighting system with silver and gold lights to heighten the metal texture. I did experiment will rotating the icons – though settled for a front on view with the 3D displayed as the depth to the icon.

With the expectation of the Interface Icon, the artwork was simple outlines then extruded to 3D.

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Icon – Disc

Software Division
Icon Design by IrishGuy

Icon – Eye

Icon Design Eye

Icon – Mouse

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Icon – Interface

For the interface icon, I extend the 3D style by including tall handles.
Icon design interface

Icon – Lightbulb

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Business Icons in Action

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Business Icon Designed by graphic designer Gary Crossey
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Graphic Design Sample - Icon Layout

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DOODLE Phone Call

Doodle Art by Gary Crossey Phone call eary

Doodle Art Phone Call by Gary Crossey

Doodle Art inspired by a phone call from a friend. The beginning sketch (below) centers on the brightest, fullest sunflower (you have to imagine your own yellow). What makes doodle art interesting is that often the patterns created take on an element of math.

Doodle Art by Gary Crossey Phone call eary The Phone Call doodle echoes the number 6.

The design elements either double to 12 items or reduce to 3 design elements.

The design has six main sections, which content central design elements of six dots, three on either side. With 3 dots leading out of each division, to be greeted with a 3 stack column. Most (but not all) of the shell-fanning are groups of 12.

The final part of the math is to divide the largest of the echoed numbers 12, by the lowest echoed number 3. 12 / 3 = 4. Creates the format that the design reaches out to four panels, while also growing out of groups of four shell-fans that bands around the Sunflower.

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Infographic: Red Hoops

Infographic - Asheville Businesses

Full View of Red Hoops

I designed the Red Hoop images for a manufacturing awards event. Included on this page are 4 or the 30 images created.

The cropped images express the close relationships that parts of the manufacturing community overlap and rely upon. The Full View of Red Hoops represents that local Asheville manufacturing community. Toward the center of the infographic - the overlapping is dense. The relationships are more engaged. The engagement level reduces as you move to the edges of the infographic.

Infographic for Asheville Award Presentation

RED Hoops series of infographics installation.
EVENT: Asheville Chamber of Commerce Award Presentation.

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ARTWORK: Asheville Building

Asheville Flatiron Building

I am a big fan of the Asheville Flatiron building. The buildings placement in downtown Asheville creates a strong presence.

Illustration - Asheville Flatiron Building

I drew the Asheville Flatiron Building illustration for a retail website. I created the graphic in vector, making the images fully scalable.

Graphic posted on the Native Ireland Website, Print Ads, and Publications.

Flatiron Building Asheville Illustration by Gary Crossey

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DOODLE ART Peacock 8

Doodle drawn by Gary Crossey

The hand drawn doodles take on a life of their own. The patterns are often as unexpected as the stories that unfold.

Art by Gary Crossey
Peacock 8 by Gary Crossey – Click image to enlarge.

 

Doodle work inspired by our pet Peacocks.

Doodle art by Gary Crossey

Photography by Gary Crossey - Peacock
Photography by Gary Crossey

Doodle Art Revese

Graphic Design with Doodle Art IrishGuy Grpahic Design

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DESIGN Three Little Pigs

Graphic Design Work by Gary Crossey
WATCH: The Three Little Pigs

The opening of Cheap Joes Art Supplies in Asheville has inspired me to get back to basics. My basics consist of two design tools.

  1. The power of doodles.
  2. The captivation of photography.

I created the design work for The Three Little Pigs for a Digital Storytelling Class. Not to waste a good doodle, I looked in my collection for a background image. Then quickly set about making my paper-cut-out house and a black sharpie.

Project Objective

The objective of the project is to demonstrate how easy and fast Adobe Slate is to publish content. The Three Little Pigs took an hour to create the scenes, edit the photos, and have published online.

WATCH: The Three Little Pigs

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ARTWORK: Technical Illustration

Visually communicate information of a technical nature with Technical Illustration.

The conveyor series of Technical Illustration commissioned for Handlers Safety Manual. The illustrations are clean and precise vector graphics.

The illustrations are resolution independent and can print at any size without losing picture quality.

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ADVERTISING: Illustration

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Drawing Digitally

Digitally Drawing by Gary Crossey. Created on the iPad 2 using Adobe Ideas.

Creating digital art with something other than the 'mouse' sounds ideal. However, after 15 years of learning how to draw with the mouse, I did find working with Adobe Ideas to be slow. It was fun. Somewhat steamless with Adobe Illustrator. For production work I would use Adobe Ideas for outline work. Complete the painting in Adobe Illustrator.

Was an AWESOME App - however, as of Fall 2014 Adobe have disconnected the support of Adobe Ideas.

Asheville Artwork for Print Ad

Print Ad Asheville creatd by Gary Crossey

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GRAPHIC: Digital Lines

LINES - Created by Gary Crossey (Irish Guy)

IPad Artwork

Creating artwork on the iPad feels good. After 15 years of becoming a master of drawing with a mouse, I find myself back at the beginning. Drawing was my first desire.

Working within this 10 x 10 grid system - the outer blocks begin with nine strokes within each block, reducing down to one stroke by the center four blocks. The objective was not so much keeping within the lines, but rather how the hand to device was to translate.  I like when the lines extend beyond the blocks. The spacing between the lines, changes. The light to dark, dark to light is easily controlled.

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ILLUSTRATION Story Book

Book Design by Irishguy Design Studio Asheville

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\"Book

The story of Vida and Murphy is an old one. I called on my friend Vivian to compose a short story

(without warning or time to work on the story).

COVER: The cover sets the tone for the book. Blue Watercolors with painful typesetting. The typesetting is so bad that I completely love it.

  • The scan of print-out does not capture the texture of the stage. The scene created with circular paper cut outs pieced together.
  • Both drawings of Vida were cut out of paper and wrapped with arrows. The background is watercolor with tulips.
  • The Vida portrait with single red tulip is to me the most important image of the story.

STORYBOOK MATERIALS

  • Watercolors.
  • Paper cutouts.
  • Character sketches.
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Illustration By Gary Crossey

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Illustration By Gary Crossey

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Illustration By Gary Crossey

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Illustration By Gary Crossey

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Illustration By Gary Crossey

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Illustration By Gary Crossey

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Illustration By Gary Crossey

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Illustration By Gary Crossey

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Illustration By Gary Crossey

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ILLUSTRATION Website Installation

Animation by Gary Crossey (Asheville)

Graphic Banner

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Animation by Gary Crossey

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Animation by Gary Crossey

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3D Animation Created by Gary Crossey

Retail Store Commission.

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Animation created for website navigation

 

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Animation stills by Gary Crossey

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Animation by Gary Crossey (Asheville)

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PACKAGE DESIGN: Box Design

Asheville Package Design Prototype

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Asheville Package Design Prototype

The fundamental concept for the Fruit Bytes Package Design prototype was to help the end user organize their digital media by color sorting. Each color represented a fruit of the same color. 

 

Asheville Package Design Prototype

 

The fundamental concept for the Fruit Bytes Package Design prototype was to help the end user organize their digital media by color sorting. Each color represented a fruit of the same color. 

GRAPHIC DESIGN: Organize with Colors 

  • Red - Strawberry.
  • Yellow - Lemon. 
  • Orange - Orange. 
  • Green - Cucumber. 

During testing end users reported that they enjoyed the bright cheerful graphics. The overall impression was that most computer related accessories were dull and uninspiring. 

The Fruit Bytes product line proved to be user friendly (and likes) as the discs that was easy to find, visual to organize, and something the the user could keep track of without losing.

Page from Annual Report

Page layout by IrishGuy Gary Crossey

Asheville Package Design Prototype

Illustrator

Asheville Package Design Prototype

 Package Design

Package Design

Package Design by Graphic Designer Gary Crossey

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GRAPHIC DESIGN: Poster Design

Poster Design by Gary Crosey
drawing_by_gary_crossey_paintingPoster Design

PROJECT SCOPE: Create a large poster to cover the windows of the art gallery.

Commissioned by AIU to hang the Gradation Art Show. I begin the project by designing the large window posters.

I drew the picture hook to emphasize the process of hanging the show. The show was coming – at that point much of the art was still in creation. There were only the hook and the walls.

The posters were printed on a large format plotter (think floorplans).

While the plotter could do an excellent job at printing large format – the color saturation is low. Ink costs were also a consideration. To offset printing costs, and to achieve the highest possible saturation I choose to use muted colors. The muted colors tended to have less printer banning (horizontal lines from too much ink that causes clogging).

Recycle Graphics

The strange thing about a Gradation Art Show – there is often no work completed for the show – until the moment before the show opens. During the period of marketing the Art Show opening and Gallery Space – no-one quite knew what their last and final project would be. I managed the computer lab at the University – I had created a Portfolio Club – the work of which was featured in the Gradation show in the main Unversity Gallery.

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ILLUSTATION – Record Player

3D Modeling and Design by Gary Crossey

3D Model – Laser Record Player

Half the joke about the Laser Records illustrations is that when they were created records were surely disappearing. The larger record stored had all but closed. Record players were not selling, not alone “being the top bought Christmas gift for 2015”.

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3D illustration by Gary Crossey  Logo Design - DJ

What song do you think would be best listened to on a laser record player?

Creating 3D art is special. Unable 2D art, you can’t doodle in 3D (and I do love to doodle).

In 3D you build. You begin with a blank screen and you begin to build. However, knowing how to build in 3D is where the art and creativity is most present.

3D requires careful planning and consideration. Similar to the process of a conceptual artist – all the ideas, questions, and concerns are answered prior to building.

The wonderful reward from 3D creations are the many views that one art piece can generate.

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3D MODELING: Room

Futuristic 3D Modeling

All 3D projects begin with a blank screen and an idea. For this project, I started with the sofa design. Modern, clean design, shape lines, and pointed metal feet. The metal carries to the tables, lighting fixtures, and mirror. Balancing the room with a red accent from the lamp and flower vase.

View01

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The only rendering of the room with the glass on the table. The glass was later removed to help balance the content on both tables to two items each.

View03

I love the look of the glass top table. I did use Raytrace filter on the glass and metal surfaces. Which provides the surfaces with a reflectiveness. In the case of the glass top table, you can see how the light travels differently through the glass depending on the viewers angle.

View04

The even number was carried throughout the room.

  • Four legs.
  • Two legs for the table lamp.
  • Four brackets for the mirror frame.
  • Four bands around the lamp.

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POSTER Visual

Graphic design by IrishGuy Gary Crossey

Graphic design by IrishGuy Gary Crossey

Website Interactive Interface

The website design for Visual Propaganda changes with the user interaction. Animations load and respond to the user mouse movement. The site was developed with Flash (that is no longer supported by Apple) – here is a video sample of the animated interface.

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ILLUSTRATION 3D Face

3D face modeled by Gary Crossey - Asheville

3D face modeled by Gary Crossey - Asheville

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The 3D character commissioned for a series of posters. 

Much of my early design work is 3D – from personal projects to the design solutions I provided in art school. I often transferred 2D design projects into 3D renderings – with a sharp knife and a hot glue gun.

I can not recall when I started working with 3D software.  I just remember the environment as being engaging. The X, Y, & Z makes perfect sense to me. Texture maps and masking – second nature. Also, the ability to light a 3D scene (I adapted my Photography Studio skills to create powerful lighting combinations).

Unlike, the photo studio, I feel like I have complete control over a 3D scene and character. I can fine tune every muscle. Adjust lighting. Make the unreal, real. While on the reverse – the 3D models may often render with that aspect of the artists steer visual control. 3D is not by chance; there are no accidents.

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3D Model

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Poster Design

Poster Design by Graphic Designer Gary Crossey

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Annual Report Graphics

3D Hexagon animation

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Hexagon Panels for an Annual Report Graphic Design Project.
Created vector graphics and 3D Studio Max, I assembled the panels.

  • 3D TEXTURE
    The Hexagon covered with a metal blue texture map (that I created in Photoshop).
  • 3D LIGHTING
    I illuminated the 3D scene with an array of soft to bright lights.

The mental texture and lighting made for an attractive graphic design element that had a significant influence on the design project. The Hexagon Panels appeared in an array of early 2000 graphic design projects. From annual reports, websites, posters, and banners –  my 3D hexagons was there.

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3D Hexagon animation

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Prototype for Graphic Design Element

Animated User Interface panels from the early design process. The idea of having the hexagon expand out to create user experiences was the first active design decision. Tests for the animated prototypes were inadequate – which resulted in a more refined user-friendly navigation system.

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3D Hexagon Patter by Gary Crossey

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3D Pattern by Gary Crossey

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3D Pattern by Gary Crossey

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3d model of hesagons for website interface

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Graphic Design Projects that the Hexagons are Featured:

Hexagon Panels Created by Gary Crossey

 

 

 

 

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ILLUSTRATION 3D Dice

3D Model Dice created by Gary Crossey

3D Model Dice created by Gary Crossey

Some 3D projects can be engulfing. The 3D Dice were everything I could think about for a few weeks. Inspired by the song “I’ve Never Been to Memphis” by Billie Ray Martin. With these two lines directing the look of the 3D Dice.

"So what's the use in rolling the dice when you already know how it's gonna fall"
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"I wanna see Las Vegas lights, yeah laughing at the dark"

Link to the Lyrics 

The dice have quite a bit of detail. Textured with a reflective glass, with glass tubes in the center. When animated, lights shone out of the holes in the numbers.

3D Render Farm

Rendering reflective glass in 3D takes forever – unless you know what you are doing. Props create render farms. For the dice, I built a community render farm by connecting over 100 computers to deal with rendering.  Each computer would process one frame from the render queue. Even the slowest of computers could handle one frame – making the overall rendering tasks much faster and efficient.  With the help of the render farm I was able to make tests runs on sections of footage without too much downtime.

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ILLUSTRATION Early Digital Art

Early Digital Art by Gary Crossey

Early Digital Art by Gary Crossey

Spaceman

Spacement created with Photoshop.

There was something special about creating this piece of digital art. It was the first art piece that I created without having to think about the digital tools. During the process of drawing Spaceman – I felt that I had grasped Photoshop.

I knew then that I was embarking on a new journey of creativity.

TV Set

TV Set

TV Set began the process of combing my photography with digital images. My interest at the time was to create website interfaces – which in the late 90’s had a dull plastic texture. TV Set is the beginning of the plastic period.

My primary color selections have not changed much over the years. The blood red is typically an overwhelming aspect of my design work.

As an artist, I do like to think that I move in and out of visual trends. Letting my imagination and experience to provide me with new insight and visual expressions. And that my visual expressions reflect my values that have been matured rather than being innate.  The blood red is my inherent nature – it was there are the beginning.

Illustration – Windows & Arch

Early Graphic Design by Gary Crossey

Early digital art by designer Gary Crossey

Design by graphic designer Gary Crossey

Early Digital Art by Graphic Desinger Gary Crossey