a set of 3 rekindle stones for danny boy’s 40th birthday
Tis’ my brother Dan’s 40th birthday today. Happy Birthday dear Danny Boy. I decided to make him a set of three Rekindle Stones for his birthday. The stones come from Hood Point in the Hood Canal in this here lovely state of Washington. Here are some photos of the stones.
Blue Note label design on final product
Thought I’d share a photo Robb Nelson shared with me of the Blue Note wine the Northville Winery just released. To see more about the label I designed, scroll down a couple posts….
Quick Revamp of Northville Winery’s “Michigan Red” wine label
The other day I got a call from my friend Robb saying he wanted me to revamp their old label for their “Michigan Red” wine, and he needed it done in a day. The original was a label created for the winery before I began working with them on designs. Usually I create new paintings and do a bunch of different design mockups and we go through a three-step process that takes some time. For this one, they wanted to keep the same large one-piece label that they used for the original. So since it was needing to be done in a day, I used the same background as I used in the recent Blue Note label, tweaked the coloring and altered it a bit. Then I used one of the illustrations that I created for them a few years ago which never got used. And so after about a day and third, I finished the revamped label. Sometimes it’s good to have parameters set that effect your normal creative process. I like how it turned out, and if I had more time I’d keep working on it to look even better.
Buddhapedia & Karma Store design work
A few months ago I did some work for two websites that have yet to become actual websites for a local Fremont resident, Ivan. One site is Buddhapedia that is to be a resource for people interested in approachable, easy-to-access information on Buddhism. And the other is Karma Store, which is an online presence for a local business leaving it’s physical store front called Far East Handicrafts. Below are the two finished logos and also a few of the other illustrations I made for the project. They are all in a sort of “rough form” because the project was never completed, so I haven’t yet made them as sharp as they could be in a final phase of design. I thought I should share them anyway.
Blue Note – new wine label for The Northville Winery
I recently finished making a new label for The Northville Winery in Michigan for their Blue Note wine. The wine is a white wine with blueberries added for flavor. The name came from the term commonly used in jazz, which is “a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres”. So the addition of the blueberry is the blue note in the wine. With this in mind, I created two paintings with several forms in each, where a blue form stood out from the rest. After creating several different mockups for both the front and back labels, the two below are the final ones chosen for the new label.
“Familiar Space” – 4 hour live painting from last Saturday
Last Saturday I took part in a “live painting” event at the Central District Art Walk in Seattle. It was an interesting process painting in front of people passing by, and working within a 4 hour time limit. It was a good experience and I hope to do it again sometime. The painting is roughly 9″ x 18″. Click on image to enlarge.
While recently home in Michigan and bringing some art over to the Northville Winery that was stored at my parent’s home, I decided to take a painting I made back in 2006 and go back into it, and make it a more developed painting. I liked the original painting, but also thought it would be fun to take a relatively “loose” painting and add some more depth to it. Here are the results. The painting is for sale on my Etsy shop (it’s $280 plus shipping & handling). Click the images to enlarge.
A couple years ago I made my first label for The Northville Winery’s Hard Cider. The illustration I made for the label was a “rock and roll chicken”. Robb had the idea to make the chicken as the tap handle for the venues that carried his hard cider. It’s been a slow process and it isn’t yet 100% complete, but I thought I would share where we’re at in the process with the photos below. The prototype is finished and now there will be a mold made of which we can create duplicates from. The handles you see below were made through a 3D printing process. Robb’s cousin owns a company which uses a 3D printer and they took my original illustration and modified it so it could be used as a handle without breaking. The last step after getting the mold made will be painting each handle. I’ll post again when we get to that point. Below is the three prototypes and the original illustration, and below that is a slideshow of the the process so far.
“Opening Up To Watch Them Grow” a series of three paintings / & my new art opening this Friday night
A month ago I went to Kirkland’s art walk which is on the second Friday of each month. One of the last places I went into was a place called Gallery Wine Art. It’s a really cool place. A rustic building with cool timbers and brick walls. They have a lot of great art on the walls and have wine displayed throughout the space along side artwork. In the back area is their tasting room with a long wooden table. The gallery has a really nice, comfortable feeling to it. I talked with Laura who is the gallery’s art consultant about getting my work in their space. After looking at my website with me, she said she’d like to have my work in the August show. I was happy to hear, but then suddenly realized that all of my available artwork was currently in my show on Vashon Island. Knowing I was leaving town the next week, I prepared myself for some serious art making. I ended up painting for about 60 hours in a 3 1/2 day period with very very very little sleep. There were no options. I was going to make some really cool paintings and I had to finish them in a small alloted time. I managed to pull it off. I spent another 8 hours doing the staining and applying the polyurethane, and then promptly passed out and caught up on sleep. The paintings are on 24″ x 30″ cradled wooden panels that are 1.5″ deep. Hope you enjoy the pieces. Showing at the gallery along side these three paintings are 24 of my Daily Biscuits as well. The opening for the show is tomorrow, August 12th, and the show will be up for a month. If you are in the Kirkland, WA area, please come on by. You can go to GalleryWineArt.com and get directions. Click on each image to enlarge.
Opening Up To Watch Them Grow #1
Opening Up To Watch Them Grow #2
Opening Up To Watch Them Grow #3
Jon Cooney Artwork - Organic Art - Painting - Tribal Art - Unique Illustration - 