Spanish Paella Party

Kinda old news, but it's better late than never. Last Saturday my wife and I went to a "paella party" where we were invited by (brace yourselves, full name and title ahead) Manuel Hernandez Gamallo, the Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain to Lithuania. It was fun, I met a bunch of interesting people (mostly Spanish, giving me an opportunity to show off my rusted Español) and had a chance to taste paella (a rice dish of Valencian origin), gazpacho (a cold vegetable soup) and sangria (a red wine punch with sliced fruits), but the first thing to do was presenting the host a bottle of Georgian wine, of course.

While Diana was snatching at her chance to recruit a teacher of Spanish for her university, I roamed the mansion full of guests, enjoying loud music and examining pictures and other interesting objects on the walls. But most of the time I was eating, as you can see from the photo below (I'm not eating anything "exotic" in this photo, in case you wonder -- just some grilled meat).

Enough private life reporting for now. I'll be back with some design news in a few days. Stay tuned!

Paranoia II: The Complete Series

Red Bound II has concluded the Paranoia II series, so I think it's time for a little showcasing. But before that, a brief digression into history.

The first "fit of paranoia" happened to me in 1995 and lasted for two years, resulting in 10 surrealistic drawings, infused with allusions and hidden visual messages in the spirit of Salvador Dali's famous Paranoiac-Critical Transformation Method. The three colored balloons, first seen in Nine Questions (on the right), later became one of the most recognizable symbols in my art. (It represents childish eroticism, in case you wonder.)

The second wave started in 2002, four years after finishing the first series. The gap in time brought in some noticeable changes. Besides the more refined technique, the artwork from Paranoia II (or ParanoIIa, as spelled alternatively) shows more integrity in style. At the same time, all the trademark features of the series are still present: visual audacity, predilection to hidden allusions, and the same Dali-influenced polymorphous imagery.

Paranoia II also consists of 10 pieces: nine original and one remake of a previous Paranoia title -- Red Bound. Here's a number of selected works from the now complete series, as promised in the beginning. You might have seen some of them already in my previous blog posts, while others are published here first time.

Sex a la Salvador Dali (2002)

Trichotillomania: Deluxe Widescreen Presentation (2002)

Laokoon (2003)

The Towel of Babel (2009)

Red Bound II (2009)

You can see the whole series at my website, or my deviantART gallery. As for the future works, there's still a whole bunch of "paranoid" ideas left in my sketchbook, so I'm planning to start Paranoia III later this year.

Red Bound II

This is the last drawing from Paranoia II series. I have just finished it, but it's been dated 2009, because it was started last December, and (as you might know from my previous blog posts) I usually date my artwork when started, not when finished.

As for the artwork itself, it's another "Dianized" remake of my older work -- namely, Red Bound from the first Paranoia series. For those who don't follow my blog closely, "Dianization" means remaking my earlier works with Diana (my wife) as the model. On the right you can see the original version, done exactly 15 years ago.

The remake keeps the original composition mostly intact, with only minor rearrangements. The main difference is the color range, which has become significantly warmer. Also, some elements, such as the "crater" below the soap bubble, have substantially "evolved." Finally, the sky and the clouds participate in the "big picture" more actively now, as you can see for yourself.

As for the symbolism behind the artwork, it's quite simple, actually. In my perception, the original version represented one's hesitation before stepping over a boundary -- a "red line," so to speak. I guess that could be applied to the new version as well, only this time it has become even more obvious what sort of boundaries we're talking about here exactly...

Solomon Spirits Logo

I've been working with Solomon Spirits (an alcoholic beverage company from Florida, US) since last year, when they ordered me a series of labels for their liqueurs. This year we have mostly worked on the advertisement for their vodka products -- Vonost 88 and BAMA. The latter is soon to be launched (more precisely, next month), so we needed to prepare its press release, featuring the company logo. Since there was no such logo, the company entrusted me with the task of creating one. The deadline was quite short -- I had only a few days for working on it. I made the first demo on March 29, and the final version was sent to the client on March 31. It's almost impossible to create a corporate logo in such a short time, because in my experience it usually takes a lot of tweaking before everyone is happy. Still, we managed to finish it on time, and since the client has expressed deep satisfaction with the result, I call it successful.
The logo represents a combination of two mirrored "drops" forming the letters SS with their shiny edges (or just one S in the form of the gap between them). It slightly resembles the ancient Chinese symbol of yin and yang. The corporate colors are black, gray and silver. Here's the version for using on dark backgrounds:

Spring Transformation

According to the calendar, it's been spring for more than a month already, but here in Lithuania we started to actually feel it only a few days ago. The sun is still weak, but the flowers are already breaking into bloom, and the birds are singing more and more boldly.

However, in Georgia it's the very height of the season, and the business is long-time awoken from the winter's sleep there. New Broker Group is back with their spring offer, advising to hurry up and buy the land in premium locations while it's still cheap -- as reads the advertising flyer which I designed for them by the end of last month.

But that's not the main reason for this blog post -- it's about another "magical transformation" done with the help of a photo-editor. Like in the previous case, the customer wasn't able to provide me with a suitable photo for the season, so I had to improvise. Again.

This time I took a photo made sometime in fall and transformed it into a blooming spring scenery. You can compare the edited photo with the original below.

Vodka Advertisement

Recently I received a magazine advertisement order from the same customer, who ordered me Limonzala liqueur labels last year. Actually, it was a double order -- they wanted the ads for two vodkas, Vonost 88 and Bama. I needed to make something simple and conservative, suitable for their elegantly reserved labels.

Vonost 88, according to the advertisement, is the only vodka in the world that is fully corked. So I decided to use an image of a corkscrew in the design, beside the traditional Martini glass. I made everything strictly black-and-white, to match the minimalistic colors of the product.

As for Bama, it's short for "Alabama" (not "Obama," as some of you may have assumed), and it's filtered with the limestone quarried exclusively from that US state. The vodka is bottled in a transparent blue bottle, and there's a stylized diamond on its label, so I made a glowing blue background and placed a huge blue diamond beside the bottle and the glass.

You have already guessed it from my post, but still I'd like to stress out that I have designed only the magazine ads, not the products themselves. Label design belongs to the manufacturer (Solomon Spirits), and the ads are published here with their kind permission.

My First Daily Deviation!

If you know what deviantART is, then you most likely know what I'm talking about. If you don't know, here's the quick info: Each day a few selected works (a.k.a. deviations) from different members (a.k.a deviants) are displayed on the front page of this mega-popular art website, getting a huge amount of exposure for 24 hours. Such works, called Daily Deviations (commonly abbreviated as DD), retain their honorable status even after they are no longer showcased.

In order to be featured as a Daily Deviation, the artwork must be really interesting, original, innovative, provocative, funny, shocking, or otherwise appealing to the public. Anyone can suggest anything for DD, but only the gallery moderators and other distinguished members with proper rights decide whether it's worth to be featured or not. Daily Deviations are not given easily, and receiving one is a true award for any member of deviantART -- the biggest online art community in the world.

That's why I'm so happy and excited -- yesterday one of my works became a Daily Deviation! To be honest, I had been expecting it, but not so soon -- I've been only for a few months at deviantART and there are loads of a lot more popular works from other artists, waiting for their chance for years. It came as a pleasant surprise -- and twice as pleasant, because the "winner" turned out to be one of my favorite drawings (and the most "Georgian," at that): Tutarchela. Here's the link to the deviantART page with the artwork, where you can feast your eyes upon the shiny award and read some kind words accompanying it. Or you can just content yourself by what you see below:

As for the artwork itself, it's a bit different from my usual style, although the technique is the same combination of color pencils and ballpoint pens. I made the drawing in 2007 for an audio CD cover, ordered by a Georgian female folk-band Tutarchela for their second studio album -- Having Fun. The word "tutarchela" means "moonlight" in Mingrelian (one of the spoken languages in Georgia). I was asked to draw something beautiful, girlish and skittish, featuring the Moon and some spring flowers, in a traditional Western Georgian setting. Although it wasn't exactly my line of work, the fact that everyone liked the result makes me bold enough to say that I was up to the task.

Alright folks, I have to go now. But I'll be back soon with some design related news. Stay tuned!