Another fun drawing done for @Sketch_Dailies on Twitter.
Boulder's famous landmark is its Flatirons rock formations. Their geography rises above the town inspiring locals and visitors with their beauty.
Being that I live here, it's the most common thing I get commissioned to illustrate. I've drawn them so many times, I no longer require photo reference. Below are all of the Flatirons I've created professionally over the years. These can be found on travel posters, murals, websites, event posters, comics, food packaging, and t-shirts. Most are in my common poster style but I've also experimented with different aesthetics.
40 Flatirons:
Many of these Flatirons can be found in my Boulder travel posters.
Since launching the redesign and rebranding of my site last month, I've seen an increase in mobile browsing.
The template for my new site is so mobile friendly that my artwork shines on the little screen in your hand. Every aspect of the site has been optimized for mobile browsing, from the galleries to the poster shop.
Go ahead, load up SteveLowtwait.com on your phone and tap around.
@Sketch_Dailies is a Twitter account that posts a new topic every weekday. Thousands of artists of all skill levels participate by drawing the subject and sharing it on Twitter. Sketch Dailies retweets their favorites.
I've drawn most of the subjects over the last two weeks. Sometimes I did a quick drawing, and other times I've created a more polished illustration. Since these are for fun and practice, I've experimented with a variety of visual styles. See more of my daily sketches on Twitter here: @Lowtwait
Click to enlarge:
Bonnie and Clyde, Jessica Rabbit, Ursula, Robin Hood, Billy the Kid, Blackbeard, Big Bad Wolf, Centaur, Jackalope with a jackknife in his jacket jackhammering jacks from a Jacksonville jack-in-the-box.
This cemetery piece is my first full digital illustration created in 1990 using Photoshop 2.1 and drawn with a mouse.
After decades of using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator as my primary creative tools, I'm ditching them.
I first discovered digital art in high school using Photoshop 1.0. From there, I kept experimenting and learning more. Through art school, I used Adobe's apps as they grew, and I grew with them. In the years I worked in animation, I used Photoshop and Illustrator less frequently. However, when I later became a professional freelance illustrator, I embraced them and became heavily steeped in Adobe's Creative Suite. It was my means to creating art.
Recently, Adobe switched their business model to a subscription service now called Creative Cloud. You subscribe to monthly access to the apps instead of purchasing them. The pros and cons of this move can be found in debates across the web.
For me, I agree with some of the arguments against it. I believe Adobe overprices themselves. The apps are bloated with features and can be slow. I've faced some serious technical issues. But mainly, I want to own the tools I use to do my most important work, not rent them. It's as simple as that.
Pixelmator is my replacement for Photoshop.
Pixelmator 3
Sketch is my replacement for Illustrator.
Sketch 2
It took research and experimentation with free trials of many apps before I settled on these two. Neither is as feature rich as Photoshop or Illustrator, but I didn't use most of what Adobe offered. In some places, Pixelmator and Sketch lack tools or shortcuts I'm used to having. However, they are not just capable apps, but in several areas offer much more efficient ways of working.
It's also a good feeling to support the underdog software developers going up against the big Adobe. I don't dislike Adobe, rather I found solutions that nowadays work better for me. Sketch in particular is such a vast departure from Illustrator, that it really shows where they've improved upon usability.
I'm just starting out but I look forward to becoming more fluent with these powerful tools. I will create great artwork with them!
I created a series of seven of posters of historic schools in and around Boulder, Colorado, commissioned as a fundraiser for the Boulder Valley School District. Each features a great, old house of learning with its inspirational architecture. All proceeds from sales will go toward the school district.
I've been pushing my poster style away from flat colors to nuanced use of gradients. I still work with the same kind of simplified shapes I've been creating for years. I merely color them differently. With advanced gradients, I can achieve a richer sense of light and depth in my art. This series gave me the opportunity to really explore this transformation of my aesthetic.
Introducing SteveLowtwait.com. With the new name of my portfolio site comes the 4th major redesign since it launched as CampSteve.com in 2002. The site's contemporary design features my artwork in full-browser/full-screen splendor. The galleries display the images larger making it easier and more fun to browse. The store is simplified with all posters on one page. And the site is more social making it easier to share art.
CampSteve was the name of my personal brand as an artist for the past twelve years. I chose it because people often find my last name complex, and I like camping. The first few versions of my site were themed like a national park camp. It was fun.
As it turned out, most people disregarded the brand and associated my name with my artwork. I experienced this when I talked with people, and I could see it in web data like search terms. Because my name is singularly unique, I decided to rebrand myself as myself.
Welcome to the new SteveLowtwait.com.
On the evening of September 11th, heavy rain began to raise the creek level of the small mountain town I called home: Jamestown, Colorado. Over the next few days, the town was ravaged by floodwater and suffered great damage.
With my history of creating artwork to raise money after Colorado’s wildfires, I put my talent into a t-shirt design for my own beloved town. I’ve designed many t-shirts before but had never handled my own printing. I found an online company that would print and ship them at a good cost, so that all the profit can be donated to the Rebuild Jamestown Fund.
I started taking orders on my site on September 24th and they became popular right away. Thousands of dollars poured in during the first couple weeks followed by slower but steady sales. With people getting anxious for their shirts, I began the process of ordering them in late October.
As it turned out, through the printer I had chosen, I had to have California and Indiana business licenses to sell products in those states, even though I am in Colorado. I had already taken orders from people in those states. I had to find a different printing company.
Mind you, all of this happened while my family was displaced from our home, later able to return and live with limited utilities. It was while searching for a new home, packing our house to move out of Jamestown, and then move - with my wife and 10 month old baby. This wasn’t a normal move because road access to town was extremely difficult, especially for a moving truck. The move took several days and it would be several more before I could begin looking for a new shirt printer.
People who ordered were already asking for their shirts, but all I could do was apologize and honestly say that I was working on it.
The new printing company in Denver gave me a discount so even more money would go to Jamestown. But they’re not entirely set up for taking the orders the way I had done so. I had to halt taking orders so I could manually process the printing. It took time to create the shirt designs in their online system. It took days to tally my orders and figure out how many of what sizes to print. Then the shirts went into production, which took about a week. After the shirts were printed and ready in their warehouse, it took me days to manually enter the hundreds of orders individually, copying and pasting names and addresses, and double checking shirt sizes for each. Living in our new home in a state of semi-unpacked chaos, and with the laborious process regarding the printer, getting the shirts printed and shipped took well over a month. All shirts had finally shipped out by November 18th.
“Where are my shirts?”
I got this question almost daily via email. Every step took longer than I estimated. It pains me that it took this long. I hate to have strung people along. I hate not playing my best game of communication.
There were times when I didn’t have good access to the internet, or even access to my computer. There were times when I had to delay acting on the shirts because I had to figure out under what roof my family would sleep next. If I had done this fundraiser under normal life conditions, the generous people who bought shirts for Jamestown would have received them much earlier.
The shirts have been a disaster of their own.
It was worth it.
I donated $2,365 to help rebuild Jamestown, a feat I wouldn't have been able to do without creating the shirt design. It warms my heart for a town that I love. Thank you to everyone who contributed with a purchase. We made a difference.
Artistic cases are the easiest way to make your phone unique and fun. My popular Colorado art and other poster artwork are now available on cases for iPhone 5, iPhone 4/4S, and Samsung Galaxy S3.
Browse all styles here.
I've partnered with Colorado company, Shieldmans, to create their 'CampSteve Collection' because they support independent artists. And I support them as a local company making unique cases that can't be found anywhere else.