I've wanted to get in to hand-lettering for a long time, and I've toyed with it here and there without any real seriousness. I hear so many phrases that just stick out to me as being perfect for an illustraton, I decided to jump in with both feet.

For this class, I've decided on a line from a song by Nick Norman: "I love Jesus, but I drink a little." I think the line is hilarious, and being from the South, totally appropriate. The song is basically a tongue-in-cheek way to discourage judging other people, and the whole idea that we don't know what another person's going through.

So here is my brainstorming list of words that might apply to my design:

wine glass • tumbler • martini glass • beer can • wings • halo • cross • cigarette • cigar • joint • ice • wine • grapes • shot glass • Jack Daniels • banner • heart • ashtray • garnishes

The only thing I know for certain right now is that I'm somehow going to include Jack Daniels in the illustration. Like I said, Southern. ;)

And here are some images from my mood board. Lots of liquor bottles and labels.

I love Jesus, but.... - image 1 - student project

I love Jesus, but.... - image 3 - student project

I love Jesus, but.... - image 4 - student project

I love Jesus, but.... - image 5 - student project

June 8: Here are my lettering warm ups. Adjusting the contrast so that the sketches show up made my sketches look even dirtier than they actually are, lol.

I love Jesus, but.... - image 6 - student project

I wanted to mess around with "drink" and "Jesus" because those are going to be the focal words for the design. I'm going to with a script font for Jesus, which I need to play around with some more. I also decided that I didn't like the hardness of the word "drink;" I feel like it should be more rounded, so I played with it some more in my layout thumbnails.

I love Jesus, but.... - image 8 - student project

I love Jesus, but.... - image 9 - student project

As you can see, I have a LOT of layout sketches, but the last one is where I played with the word "drink" and I like the way that looks. The part I'm having the hardest time with is the "I Love" at the top. I'm not sure if I should put it in some kind of container.

June 11: I've been playing around with my design the past couple of days, and have gotten to the point of a (almost) refined sketch.

This is what I started with:

I love Jesus, but.... - image 10 - student project

And this is where I am now:

I love Jesus, but.... - image 11 - student project

I repositioned "I love" and the J in "Jesus." Adding the wheat/corn stalks around "but I" really helped me feel like I had a cohesive theme happening. I do realize that the whole thing is a little off-kilter, but that's because I tend to draw at an angle. I'm sure I can fix it when I ink it, or, at the least when I digitize it. I'm stull uncertain about the detail at the top.

"A little" needs some work, but other than that, I feel pretty good abut the design overall.

Laura Stinson

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