New Hoodzpah Logos, Submarine & Dune

[Fig. 1: New Hoodzpah logo and stamp!]

Some Recents In The Life of Amy Hood:

• Recently watched Submarine and it was pretty hilarious. It also had a great soundtrack written by Alex Turner, frontman for the Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets. It's a somber - but not depressing - soundtrack that perfectly fits the film.

• Recently designed a fun new alternate logo for Hoodzpah. It's got a vintage, classic feel, like it was made by an 1800's letterpress shop. We got stamps made and the whole shebang [Fig. 1]. Stamps are so much fun. And they look so legit. Best $25 bucks I ever spent to get those two bad boys.

[Fig 2: Kyle McLaughlin in DUNE, directed by David Lynch]

• Recently rewatched Dune. Or the first half. I've realized that I'm at that point in my life where I don't trust any of the judgements or opinions that I formed when I was in highschool or younger. Things I used to hate I now rather enjoy, and even love. For a free wheelin youngster, I was pretty uptight back in the day and pretty narrow minded on what was good/entertaining/interesting/important/cool. So I decided to revisit Dune after a friend brought up the fact that he watches it daily. My first go around I thought it was boring and cheesy. It was a mystery as complex as dark matter as to why people thought it was a "cult classic." Upon revisiting, I get it now. Maybe because between age 15 and now I discovered David Lynch's other cult classic Twin Peaks, one of my favorite shows. Maybe because Dune features a younger Agent Cooper (I love that man). Who knows. But I get it now.

[Fig 3: Bloomers: V Generation; Heels: Aldo; Sweater: Mossimo at Target; Necklace: F21; Smile: Courtesy of my mama.]

• Recently wore bloomers in public. And it was awesome. [Fig. 3]

• Recently woke up early enough to see the sun rise.

• Recently redesigned my blog! As you see it now! Simpler... sleeker... Golder.

• Recently discovered this gem:

Painting Progress, Lessons Learned & Tattoo Sleeves

Me and Sara Jr.  Click this to enlarge. You know you wanna.

I finished the background on my portrait of Sara last night and for the first time ever in my history of background painting, I love it! I usually end up picking something too stark or bright, which ends up taking away from the subject. Like on my portrait of Jordan, I wanted a warm brown fading to black, but it ended up a burnt orange that was WAY too bright. So this time I did some research on how to pick the perfect background. I found that you should choose a color or tone that you've used in the subject, but a toned down, muted version of it. So I chose a few teal hues that were in her eyes and skintone, then muted them down by adding yellow, red and black. Here's what I ended up with! I wanted the painting to have an overall all "cool" feel - like she's an ice princess. Tonight I'll either finish up her halo or get started on her sleeve of tattoos.

The sleeve of tats is going to be hard because of the angle of her body. She is looking up at the viewer and her her back shoulder is on a higher plane than her front. I'm not sure if that really translated in this painting, but I'm hoping the tattoos will clear that up. I also have to finalize my tattoo design that I'm going to put on her arm. I'm wavering between two ideas: 1. An art nouveau, Mucca style tattoo of a woman, much like his painting series of the seasons. 2. An intricate tattoo incorporating classic nautical iconography like a ship and crashing waves and maybe even an octopus reaching up to gobble said ship up. Floating banners and a compass would also be incorporated somewhere. Suggestions or votes on which idea are welcome!

Back to work. Hoodzpah just got a job designing some soft goods for the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival and we couldn't be more thrilled. We want to make Robert DeNiro proud so we're wasting no time in getting started!

- Amy

Listening to: JD McPherson's "North Side Gal"

Chillun's Illustrations, Constellation Tattoos & Jimmy Durante

 

I posted some sketches a couple weeks ago from the children's book I'm illustrating for the lovely Blythe Hill. Yes, she's the same Blythe Hill who created Dressember. Good memory! Here are a few more of the final illustrations from the book.

In other news, I had a lot of interest from visitors of this blog about my constellation tattoo series. So we (when I say "we" I don't mean my imaginary friend, I mean my twin sis and Hoodzpah partner in crime, Jennifer) decided to make them into postcard mini-prints. They're 4x6 mini pieces of art that you can give to friends with little notes on the back. It's a print of an original piece of art, signed by me in gold and silver, for purchase for you and yours! The 4 pack of the Bear Constellation is available over on our Hoodzpah Esty shop for just $13.

- Amy
Listening to: "As Time Goes By" by Jimmy Durante. He had the best voice. "Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are." 

Dressember Week 1, Skeletons on Motorbikes, & The Lumineers

Dressember is in full swing! And up until today the weather has been kind to my bare legs. Today, however, it's pouring rain and freezing, but I won't give into tights until absolutely necessary. Nothing like a little skin in the winter. Below is a recap of the first week of Dressember. I'm trying to mix things up even though I'm pretty much working with the exact same dresses I wore last year (see those here), so it's been fun and challenging to make old things look new and exciting. Click on the photos to enlarge. If you want to see more Dressember, just log into Instagram and search the hashtag #dressember. It's trending, baby.  


I've also been doing a lot of illustrating and painting for Hoodzpah clients recently. Above is a piece I whipped up the other night just for fun. It's a skeleton riding a vintage Norton. I realllllly wanted to keep it because I loved how it turned out, but my talented friend and fellow designer Allan Gungormez made me an offer I couldn't refuse for it. I'm going to try to get screenprints made of it however. First we have to make sure there's a high enough demand for them since screenprinting is kind of pricey. I used india ink and an ink brush for this illustration and I love the effect it had. I want to start using this more often. I'm going to try to get some work in on my portrait of Sara this weekend too! I want to have that finished before the new year. Blah, blah, blah, blah-blah-blah blah. I'm even boring myself now, so with that I'll say adieu! 


- Amy
Listening to: "Hey Ho" by The Lumineers. I've had them on loop for about a week now.






P.S. How about that snow last night in Orange County? The month I leave Lake Forest it SNOWS there. Figures. 

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Newport Beach, Linocuts & High Fidelity

[ No Kooks Allowed in Newport Beach. ]

Life has been all kinds of crazy of recent. But the good kind of crazy. Like Jack Black crazy. [Side Note: I recently watched High Fidelity again and that movie is so hilarious. What surprises me most is how it is still so relevant. I know so many Rob Gordons, Barrys and Dicks (literally and metaphorically on that last one).][Side Side Note: My friend Eric told me I use the word "hilarious" more than anyone he knows. I'm starting to think he was right. I gotta start using a thesaurus.] Back to my main point: life being crazy. The first reason things are gettin' busy is that I'm moving at the end of the month!

Moving is going to be great. Right now we live smack dab in the middle of suburban hell. Every day is seriously a nightmare. I know I sound dramatic, but our neighbors are retired prudes with nothing better to do than creepily spy on us from their windows and yards or call "the association" on us for not adhering to one of its plethora of ridiculous rules. Besides that we are 30 minutes from the beach however you swing it. This is just not acceptable to me. All you landlocked readers are rolling your eyes right now, but once you've lived walking distance to the beach, nothing else will do! Aside from those two reasons, the house we live in right now leaks like a sieve. And we just ain't gonna take it no more. (Cue Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It".) So we're heading to greener pastures - or rather sandy pastures. The sandy pastures of Newport Beach if I can help it. We looked at a few houses today on The Peninsula and one in Laguna. I'm rooting for the one on Bay Dr where we are one block from the bay and two blocks from the beach and walking distance from all the Balboa Bars I can take. Now THAT is living the dream.  I am going to be one fat, happy, blondie - although I'm hoping the increased usage of my bike will counteract the "fat" part a bit. The only thing I will miss are the two conveniently located In-N-Outs by my house now. I guess this is what they meant when they said "it ain't easy bein' sleezy."
 
The second reason for all the chaos and mayhem going on right now is that Hoodzpah has had a recent flooding of new jobs and projects. I love starting a slew of new jobs at once. It forces me to get organized and really hunker down: Plans are made, lists are checked off, and great design inevitably ensues. Speaking of design... check out the linocut I recently made. This project was a part of the artist collective I'm a part of with my friends Luke, Brandon, Julie, Leon, Kat and Jen called The Populous. The site is coming soon and you'll get to see our final prints then!

- Amy
Listening to: "It's Hard To Get Around The Wind" by Alex Turner

The Lovely Sara Wilkins, New Paintings, & Reasons To Be Thankful

Click to enlarge.

I started sketching out my next few paintings that have been in the queue. The thumbnail sketch above is of the lovely Sara Wilkins. Sara, a former Orange Countian (born and bred too), is now a Portland transplant, but distance has not diminished our friendship. Sara is as good as they come - and somewhat of an anomoly. In the best sense of course. She can be a quiet observer or the life of the party; She can be the thoughtful listener or the fountain of hilarity; She's listening to Etta James one minute and the Kings of Leon the next; She's responsible but watch out when she lets loose; She's the voice of reason but she's also the first to take the plunge; She's the girl you'd take home to mom but she's also got a delightfully irreverent wild side; She'll chase you around a public parking lot when you're feeling "blah" but she can also play it cool as your escort to the local show; She's got clear opinions but she's incredibly open minded. It's all of these interesting and unique qualities that made me realize she was the perfect candidate for my Beatniks, Bastards, Saints series. Oh yeah, and the fact that she's a FOX. 


Below is the drawing on the wood - which is my least favorite part of a painting. Sketching it out. Especially doing it twice (once on paper and once on wood). This painting is even bigger than the one I did of Jordan (subject-wise, the board is the same size) and I'm finding it's hard to draw large scale. You're looking at a photo that is 5-6 times smaller as a reference. It's tough. But I want this one to be big because I'm going to give her an amazingly intricate halo. Plus I want to see how big I can go with the subjects before it just get's ridiculous. Next step, mix up a skintone for her (I'm using acrylics and I only like having to mix up the color once so I mix a big batch and save it in an air-tight container) and get painting! Now that I'm self-employed I can work on my paintings during the day in natural sunlight (as opposed to my prior night-owl habits when I had a 9-5 for "the man"). Not only that, I'm wrapping up a ton of projects so I can just paint my little heart out for the next day or so till the deadlines start looming again. Couldn't be happier that Hoodzpah is sustaining us and letting us flourish artistically. And really that success is owing mostly to our - for lack of a better, more original word - amazing friends. Pretty much everyone we work with is a friend or was referred by one of our lovely friends. On that thankful/reflective note, goodnight all. 


- Amy 
Listening to: Nada Surf's "Inside of Love"

Click to enlarge.

Joe Strummer, Ugly Babies, & Why You're The Tops

Click to enlarge. ©Amy Hood

 
Can it be? Am I really finished with this Joe Strummer illustration? I'm not sure of anything right now. It's 12:17 at night and I've been sitting at this desk for way too long with celery and a wineglass full of Newcastle Brown Ale as my only sustenance. As far as I can tell in my current state, I'm pretty stoked on it! But I could be like one of those annoying parents who think their kid is cuter than a basket full of puppies when they're really more like a basket full of monkeys (the ugly kind, not the cute fuzzy monkeys). So I look to you - my friends, fellow designers and whoever happens upon this blog - to give it to me. If something looks weird, tell me now. Give me the good, the bad, and the ugly. All recommendation for change will be taken into consideration. I'll use some criticism, and let's face it, I'm going to ignore some. Not necessarily because the idea sucks (although that's a reason too), but because it may just be too much more work. I got a lot of great feedback on my other illustration after I had already ran the prints, so I thought I'd not push the cart before the horse again this time. You guys are the tops!

I've been asked a lot what the hawk is about on his shoulder. I just distinctly remember hearing The Clash for the first time. It was "London Calling" and I was drawn in by this wild banchee/hawk like sound Joe Strummer was making in between verses and choruses. It was so wild. When I set out to do this illustration, I was remembering that and I realized just how similar Joe is to a hawk. Cool, calm and collected, but wild, fierce and free all at once. It's almost like his spirit animal.

Now for a riveting episode of X-Files before I go to bed. Moulder's dead panned wit cracks me up. Does he have a TMJ Disorder where his mouth can only open halfway? Is the mumbling a layer of the character? Is Duchovny even smart enough to think that up? It intrigues me.

- Amy
Listening to: "The Rescue Blues" by Ryan Adams

Mad Scientists, linocuts, and Delta Spirit

©Amy Hood

I've been working on some fun rough sketches for a current job with FUTEK. FUTEK is basically a company that makes parts/sensors that measure things, be it force, weight, whatever. They have all sorts of components that they design to measure and record. FUTEK hired Hoodzpah (shout out to my friend Natasha Niezgoda for the reference!) to design some Halloween themed posters for their office and website that wittily represented their products in a ghoulish, festive way. They wanted retro, film noir inspired designs that had a comic book feel to them. One of our concepts was based around a mad scientist. Here's one of the scientist characters I drew up. How 'bout them sideburns? He's got that Dr. Jekyll quality to him (with a touch of Gregory Peck). Best part is the steam-punk goggles though. They scream mad scientist.

I am finally getting caught up with work! After a month of craziness. Now I can focus on my fun side projects like the linocut I'm working on. It's for a new site my friends and I started called The Populo.us. It's not live yet, but when it is, I'll spam it like crazy on this blog, so don't you worry. I'm going to do some kind of emblem/crest of a faux riders club. Motorcycles, cars, skateboards, surfboards... maybe with some skeletons or like a sasquatch. Yeahhh.... a sasquatch. Maybe I'll even turn them into patches. I'm getting ahead of myself.

- Amy
Listening to: "Devil Knows You're Dead" by Delta Spirit  - I love this song.

Joe Strummer, Life As A Work-A-Holic, & Benjy Ferree

I started a new graphic illustration the other day. Yep, that's Joe Strummer, frontman of The Clash. It's coming along pretty quickly. I'm working from three photos, so it's hard to figure out the lighting and shadows, seeing as the lighting is different in each picture. I never was good at all the technical aspects of art like lighting and perspective. I should take a class and brush up.

Off to work some more. We've got so many huge projects we're juggling right now for Hoodzpah. We're doing the branding and all the collateral for the first annual South Bay Food Fest coming up, which has been so much fun. If you like food fests or if you're a foodie, you should check this one out. It's supposed to be a monster of an event. We're also working on another guide for LOCALE magazine, this time a "Guide to the Holidays." Looking forward to that one too (sneak preview of the design here). We had a blast working on the last one. This Strummer portrait has been a fun thing to work on in between projects when I need a break.

I recently discovered this guy named Benjy Ferree who had a short lived career as a musician a couple years ago after a short lived career as an actor before that. I really like his style. It sounds like a mixture of Jackie Green and Jeff Buckley. To me. No one ever agrees on those sorts of things, do they? Anyways, he's been in my speakers for a bit now and I think you may enjoy him too.

- Amy
Listening to: "In The Woods" by Benjy Ferree

Skeletons Doing The Dougie, Giveaways, & Hoodzpah

Today and tomorrow, my sister and I's design company Hoodzpah Art + Graphics is giving away and original sketch! The sketch is by my lovely sister Jen and depicts a skeleton in a captains hat. It is the original sketch used to make the "Hellfire and Brimstone Rider" prints. You're gonna want to get in on this action, and it is easy as pie to enter. All you do is head over to Hoodzpah's facebook page, and leave a comment on the post or the page. If you share the post with your friends you'll get an extra two entries. Sharing is caring people. We're trying to build up our online presence and we figured what better way that with free stuff? Everybody wins! So help us help you, and enter now. Even if you don't win this round, there will be giveaways galore to come!

- Amy

Listening to Etta James' "At Last"

Recent Work, The Great Lemmy Killmister, and Instagram

[Our new Hoodzpah logo and it's accompanying motto: "Shine On" inspired by Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond."]

I have been rather slack on my personal blogging of recent due to the fact that I've been funelling all of my efforts into my twin sis Jen and I's new design company, Hoodzpah Art + Graphics! We have a business lisence, a website, bank accounts - and we really made it official because now we're on twitter and facebook too! I designed the website with the help of the savvy Chris Steblay who has done quite a bit of this in his day. Shameless shout out! He's been filming a lot or rad stuff for Nike's "Chosen" campaign recently. Check out his blog for some clips of that and a slew of other great videos and photos from his various adventures. Anyways, Hoodzpah is up and running and open for business! If you need art or graphics, we're your gals. 


Check us out on twitter here
And on facebook here
(Hit "like"... you know you wanna...)


In other news, I'm back on my "The Beatniks, The Bastards, & The Saints" series. I'm working on a painting of my friend Jordan Sabolick right now. That's right kids... the one and only Jordan Sabolick a.k.a guitarist for The Union Line. Jordo's one of the funniest, nicest chaps around, and has that look that perfectly suits my series. So far the painting is going along swimmingly!

I recently got the Instagram app on my iPhone and I have become a monster. You could spend hours choosing a filter from their wide assortment of awesome photo filters. If Words With Friends weren't taking up enough of my life, now I've got this. I'm becoming the iPhone user I hoped I'd never become - the one glued to it at all times, tweeting, facebooking, and texting people that are in the same room as them. *Shudder* I digress. Above are a few photos of the painting as it stands from my Instagram account. 

What's inspiring me these days? Well I just watched the documentary "Lemmy" today. It covers the life and times of Motorhead's Lemmy Killmister, and what a life he's had. I need to start dropping by the Rainbow Room when I'm in LA more so I can run into the old legend. It's ridiculous I haven't done that yet when I live so close to such a legendary place that plays second home to one of rock's greatest. Anyways, it was a really interesting watch, on a very interesting bloke. It's on netflix. Rent it. (It's not on Instant Play... sorry kids.)


- Amy
Listening to: "Blind Tom" by Grant-Lee Philips

Retro Poster Design, More Logos, & How Zombies Are Like Totally The New Pink

 [Fig. 1: MM final logo (top center) with other options that were unused.] 

I've recently doing some work with my friend Kc's production company Modern Myth Productions. I posted a blog a while back with the progress of our logo design so I thought I'd post the rest of our progress as well as the final design. Our final logos were the simple MM (see Fig. 1) and then a more complex visual logo (see Fig. 2). 

 [Fig. 2: MM final complex logo (top center) with our progression below.] 

They also had me design a poster for their podcast "We're Alive." It's a wildly popular podcast about zombies and the end of the world. Sounds epic right? It is. You can listen to it here and its FREE! Anyways, they wanted to make some posters up that had a vintage movie poster feel for the show. Like Mad Men retro style. Here's what we ended up with. 

 [Fig. 3: MMP Poster. ©Amy Hood] 

Speaking of zombies, I just saw the new video for Cage The Elephant's "Around My Head" which is hilariously good. Zombies... they're, like, so hot right now. Finally my hometown of Bowling Green, KY can be known for more than putting out Corvettes and Fruit of the Loom underwear. We can now say we put out a great rock n' roll band thanks to these boys. Enjoy...


Amy
Listening to: Cage The Elephant's "Around My Head"

Cage The Elephant - Music - More Music Videos

Hoodzpah Logos, The Glory of Freelancing, & Pink Floyd

[All rights reserved. © Amy Hood.]

Life after The OC Gazette has been a wild and exciting (and busy) ride! Yes, I am no longer at the little local magazine where I got my start in graphic design those four years ago. It was the perfect ending to that chapter of my life though. I learned a lot, met a lot of great people, and grew a lot as a designer. Now it's on to new and exciting ventures where I can grow even more! The next chapter? Hoodzpah, baby. Jen (my lovely sister) and I's freelance art and design company is now at priority number one and we are readily accepting all the work we can get our grimy little hands on! Freelancing is a glorious, glorious thing. You get to make your own hours, work when you need to, take breaks when you want to, and you can choose your projects and workload. For that same reason it's hard too, because it takes so much discipline to stay on top of everything and to be diligent and keep a schedule. If it weren't for my handy planner, no work would be done - I'd just be vegging out at the beach, trolling facebook and conquering my Netflix Instant Watch queue all day. 

With a new company comes the daunting and arduous task of branding. Designing a logo for yourself as a designer is one of the hardest things EVAHHH. The glory of being a designer is that you get to try all different styles because you get to work with a slew of unique clients, but when you're designing for yourself you have to pick ONE style to define you as a graphic artist - and its TERRIFYING! It's like the first day of high school when you have to figure out where you're going to sit at lunch. That spot will define you for your whole life! (Well, for the next four years, which seems like your whole life at that age.) All that being said, here are some logo ideas I came up with for Hoodzpah last night. So far I think I'm liking the B series of designs best. All input and ideas are welcome! We knew we wanted to incorporate a diamond(s) in the logo somehow to reference Pink Floyd's mind-blowing and inspiring 13 1/2 minute song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond." If we had a theme song - this would be it. 8 minute intro and all. If this doesn't stir something deep within you, then you're just not human. 

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, 

blown on the steel breeze.

Come on you target for faraway laughter, 

Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,

rode on the steel breeze.

Come on you raver, you seer of visions, 

come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine! 

Alright, it's off to work on a poster for my friend Kc's awesome podcast We're Alive, a podcast about zombies and the end of the world. It's great, but don't take my word for it, take their 4 million listeners' word for it. Did I mention it's free? Nothing like free quality entertainment! Download it here. 

- Amy

Listening to: Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (Duh.)

Rock Candy Art, Hoodzpah! Taking The Nation By Storm, & Prints Coming Soon

[ © Rock Candy ]

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY:  Rock Candy


Found this rad girl on Flickr. She favorited my constellation tattoo designs (which I am horribly behind on! Pistol or jackolope coming next!) on flickr which led me back to her photostream. How amazing are these illustrations [See more below]? I hope she makes prints soon. I'll be first in line for one. I love the repeating themes of the tattoos, moths, and crystals. Lovely. Makes me want a moth tattoo. My friend/tattoo artist Matt has moths throughout his sleeve, and as much as you'd think moths would be ugly, they can be so lovely as he and Rock Candy have proven.


Speaking of prints - Jen and I are getting some made for Hoodzpah! We've had a few requests for printed posters, and wanting to give the people what they want, we are setting up an etsy shop as we speak! I'll get the first two parts of my constellation tattoo series printed as well as the John Wayne poster for sure, and Jen will be printing a slew of the rad designs she's been coming up with recently. Check out her work here. On top of all of this we are finally getting a website for Hoodzpah! Our friend Allen who is a talented web developer will be on the job and we're excited to see what he comes up with. In the words of David Bowie "Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes." If you want prints, keep checking in - I'll be posting updates about the shop, etc. 


- Amy
Listening to: Nada Surf's "Inside of Love"

[ © Rock Candy ]

[ © Rock Candy ]

[ © Rock Candy ]

[ © Rock Candy ]

[ © Rock Candy ]