Touch of Magic » Creative

South Pacific Pina Colada

Jeff Bucchino — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:00:32 +0000

Yep, another silly drink label. But at least this time I’ve given you a bit of a twist and plastered it on a virtual bottle to give you an idea of what it might look like in use, in real life. The 3D mapping feature of Illustrator is a pretty cool thing to play with, even though my rather poor efforts only hint that the bottle might be made of glass.

Corn Squeezins

Jeff Bucchino — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:00:44 +0000

And the hits just keep on comin’. Another label, this one a bit on the fringe of sanity, but I like the way the color came out here. A bit of a feathery background, and the corny triple nibblet accent at the top add to the fun farm/fowl theme. ‘Double Rectified’ is a nod to John Wayne’s Rooster Cogburn character and his white lightning description. I’m not quite sure what it means, if anything, but it sounded good, so I used it.

BBQ Sauce

Jeff Bucchino — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:00:22 +0000

It’s been awhile since I’ve created any labels, and this one has been stuck in my head for a bit, so I decided that it was finally time to purge my brain. Although I think I’m about out of alcoholic drinks to create, as this one shows, there’s certainly no shortage of other products that can be tooned and labeled.

Walking in the Shadow of Ghosts

Jeff Bucchino — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:00:16 +0000

Boing Boing linked to this site recently and I was intrigued because long ago, in another lifetime, I spent a few years in Berlin. Some of the pictures presented on the website are haunting, literally, from the juxtaposition of today and yesterday.

Sergey Larenkov has artfully fused the past and present to give history a new perspective. Contemporary pedestrians walk through the venerable spaces where fallen combatants from history lay, with little idea of the ghosts that inhabit that dimension.

Graphic Design

Jeff Bucchino — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:00:31 +0000

I came across this website and immediately bookmarked it. Producing a “perfect book” caught my eye, but the love this guy has for graphic design oozes out of every page and dribbles from each word. I’ve only just begun to sift through all of the articles and I look forward to poring over them all.

Unicorn

Jeff Bucchino — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:00:50 +0000

Here’s a quick cartoon sketch that I had to get out of my system. I had been coming across the word unicorn so often in my surfing and so forth, that I figured someone was trying to tell me that I needed to create one. So here it is, insipid and sappy as I could make it and perfect for some little girl’s birthday party, both sketch and final color version.

An Arrogant Ass

Jeff Bucchino — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:00:58 +0000

I have a lot of visitors to my websites and get a LOT of email asking permission to use my cartoons for every imaginable use you could think of, and some you wouldn’t. It’s a very rare instance that I don’t give permission and in fact, I can’t think of once that I haven’t. But it warms my heart to know that a great majority of my visitors understand that just because an image is available for download, that doesn’t mean that it’s fair game for any use whatsoever.

Unbelievably, the “writer” of the column at the other end of this link – Big Mother gets her shot at cutting health costs – doesn’t have a clue what copyright means. His ignorance of copyright seems to know no bounds, even when the error of his ways is pointed out by the artist whose work he stole, and a host of other commentors on his page. Mr. Blankenhorn’s justification in the comments section:

“The picture has been removed. However, I want you and every artist to know the following:
1. It’s easy to watermark any Web illustration if you don’t want it copied. You leave it in the clear, you’re giving permission.
2. I made a thumbnail. I didn’t “steal” the picture. I linked to the original, gave you credit, and tried to bring you business.
3. I will also remove all references to you from the story, quid pro quo.
This idea that one must gain permission before doing what comes naturally on the Web has to end. You have the tools to stop it. Use them.”

His hypocrisy is compounded when you read the copyright notice that applies to his articles:

“All editorial content and graphics on our sites are protected by U.S. copyright, international treaties, and other applicable copyright laws and may not be copied without the express permission of CBS Interactive, Inc., which reserves all rights. Reuse of any of CBS Interactive editorial content and graphics for any purpose without CBS Interactive’s permission is strictly prohibited.”

His theft, if we are to take his employer’s copyright notice at face value, has given themselves ownership of the stolen work that illustrated his article.

Unbelievable.

Zodiac Crayons

Jeff Bucchino — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:00:09 +0000

Like every other child on the planet, crayons were my first drawing medium, and as an artist, they hold a very special place in my heart. Diem Chau has taken crayons to a completely new place that I could have never gone. In my mind’s eye, I see picking one of these up and having to fight the overwhelming inspiration to draw with it. By the way, but my favorite is my sign.

The Vendor Client relationship

Jeff Bucchino — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:00:16 +0000

Not that any of my clients would do anything like this of course, but it’s funny nonetheless. If you have a creative business, I’m sure there might have been a time or two that you’ve felt like the folks in this video.

Budda sketch

Jeff Bucchino — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:00:03 +0000

Here’s a cartoon I cranked out today for an emergency client request. We’re getting swamped here at Wiz Studios lately, so I drew most of it, scanned, then duplicated, flipped, and merged to save some time.