Devastator #7 Spies came out, and it’s freakin amazing! Featuring loads of amazing artists, lots of hilarious takes on spies, including my 2 page James Bond parody: A Quartermaster Past Nine written and drawn by me. To check out the full issue, purchase a copy here:

http://devastator.storenvy.com/products/1177345-the-devastator-7-spies

I highly suggest supporting them by buying the issue from them! They’re a great indy publication, and are doing a lot to further published comedy and humor comics!

Here’s a sample of the comic I’ve got in it:

The awesome folks at Threadless reprinted my design “Attack of Literacy” this past week!

It’s a B-Movie poster featuring over 20 of our best known authors in literature! See if you can name them all! Here’s an image of the design for those of you who need a refresher:

This design has been re-printed so many times through them, it constantly makes me happy to know there are folks who are equally as nerded out by the concept as I was when making it.

Books and B-movies make a startlingly great combination. You can get a copy of it here: http://www.threadless.com/product/1235/Attack_of_Literacy

Pick your copy up now if you’re wanting one. The women’s sizes tend to sell out in a day, as does the shirt.

You can also purchase prints of “Attack of Literacy” here: http://society6.com/joshuakemble/Attack-of-Literacy_Print

Also, the awesome folks at SelflessTee, hired me to do an alternate “Trash Cancer” design for the awesome non-profit CancerSchmancer.org. They’re a non-profit that helps provide early detection and prevention for Cancer, particularly for women.

They wanted to go a different direction than the first design they’d had up for Trash Cancer, which had gone a more abrupt, and punk rock angle. I thought that going a Victorian Chicago Style with elegant hand lettering might do the trick.

Here’s my rough:

rough for Trash Cancer shirt

And my final:

Being a person who myself has lost many loved one’s to cancer, This is a really good cause. Each shirt purchased sends money to CancerSchmancer.org to help the cause. These are up for sale for the next 13 days. I highly suggest purchasing one here: https://www.selfless.is/trashcancer

And yes, that’s all hand crafted custom lettering. Not a font. Have a good week, and get some awesome shirts!

Final “Be Yourself” Shirt design for Selflesstee/NCADV

The awesome folks at Selflesstee hired me to create a t-shirt design to benefit the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Each shirt purchased goes to benefit the NCADV, and features a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I’m extremely happy with how the typography turned out! It was a challenge to make so many words work seamlessly together in this style of execution. Here’s what my first draft looked like before I changed my mind, since it ended up being too horizontal to work on a t-shirt:

First draft for “Be Yourself” which wound up getting scrapped. The composition was too horizontal, but I still liked some of the elements of this first design.

You can purchase the design for the next week only through this link:

https://www.selflesstee.com/domesticviolence

You guys should pick them up. The prints look lovely, and the proceeds go to a good cause!

Threadless has been such an important community throughout my illustration career, and is generally an inspiring community both on the corporate and personal level. Check out the amazing websites and portfolios of the awesome folks we got to meet/chat with (and their threadless usernames):

Rachel Ray Gun

Priscilla Wilson aka valorandvellum (organized the entire Winebocon event!)

Dustin Henderlong aka dhendy

Dan Yingling

Craig Shimala aka shimala

Philip Tsend aka Philip

Janice Go aka 6of15

Jan Avendano aka Funkie Fresh

Ryder Doty aka Ryder Revolution

Jason Liwag aka the jAsian

Julia Sonmi Huglund aka Sonmi

Twiggy Hall

Andy Pitts aka Everything

Justin White aka Jublin

Abeadle

Jared Stumpenhorst aka jstumpenhorst

Brian Cook aka Chengui

Amy Shultz aka amstrak01

Mike Bautista aka Steve the Great

Randy aka ir0ck0

Seth Bensusen aka 5eth

Jeffreyg

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the event, but fun was definitely had, and I’ll be sure to attend next year. Afterward, on the way back from Santa Barbara, Chris and I stopped by LA Zine Fest, where I picked up loads of mini comics and zines, and I’ll be blogging about in a few hours on my webcomic site Quarterlystories.com.

My wrap-up of LA ZINE Fest:  http://quarterlystories.com/la-zine-fest-2013-highlights/

Final Sea Themed Artwork For Fadenrot

So, I finished the artwork for my awesome client Fadenrot,You should also check out my wife’s awesome illustration for the female line here: http://maiskemble.blogspot.com/2013/01/martime-magic.html

Over all, this was a really enjoyable project to work on, and I’ll let you guys know once these designs go up for sale!

So, I’m going to try to make a new cool image every day for as long as possible, and will most likely miss a few days, but I think it’s a worthy challenge. As an illustrator I’d like to make more often than I consume, and believe this will be a worthwhile endeavor. So, without further ado, I will be posting each new thing on this blog entry, along with the date it was created.

-Got slammed with a few freelance jobs, but I’m hoping to get back to the design a day shortly! 

9. January 30, 2013″A City Snow-Bot” Shirt/Poster Design

A City Snow-Bot

I’ve decided that this design a day challenge will occasionally miss a day or two, however, I’ll try to make up for the lack of days by really pushing a design a bit further than I imagine it. In this case, I’ve been experimenting with different coloring processes and styles. This one is a 2 color design, using lines and halftones to simulate the other apparent colors. I’m really happy with how this turned out and will most likely use this style again soon.

This is a robot, walking in the city in the snow. A city Snow-bot!

VOTE FOR SNOWBOT TO WIN ON THREADLESS, Click this link: http://beta.threadless.com/threadless/a-city-snow-bot/ and give this your vote and comment on it! 

8. January 26, 2013 “B-Boy” Shirt Design

B-Boy

I liked the idea of converting simple letters into typographic characters, so I decided to make a B-boy, a breakdancing letter B!

VOTE FOR B-Boy TO WIN ON THREADLESS, Click this link: http://beta.threadless.com/threadless/b-boy/ and give this your vote and comment on it! 

7. January 25, 2013 “Sound Squad Anti-Vacuum PSA” t-shirt/Poster design

Sound Squad Anti-Vacuum PSA

I got inspired to do another alternate history World War Two Style propaganda poster. This time inspired by the insane reaction all dogs seem to share against vacuum cleaners. Hope you guys enjoy this one as much as I do!

VOTE FOR SOUND SQUAD ANTI-VACUUM P.S.A. TO WIN ON THREADLESS, Click this link: http://beta.threadless.com/threadless/sound-squad-anti-vacuum-psa/ and give this your vote and comment on it! 

6. January 24, 2013 “Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Robot Legs” t-shirt/poster design 

I wanted to change it up, and try my hand at making a propaganda poster incorporating the style of the WW2 posters created for the war effort in America. I had this awesome visual picture of FDR using robot legs in the war, and how fantastic that would have been. Hopefully you guys dig it!

5. January 23, 2014 “G-Man” t-shirt design

Illustration of the letter “G” as G-Man

I decided to do an old timey illustration of the letter G, as a dangerous Goverment Man/Agent. Once again, I’m playing with style, in this one I wanted to emphasize shape, simplicity, and simplify in a cartoonier style than I usually work in. Hope you guys enjoy it!

VOTE FOR G-MAN TO WIN ON THREADLESS, Click this link: http://beta.threadless.com/threadless/g-man/ and give this your vote and comment on it!  

4. January 22, 2013 “Snake Oil Sallesman” t-shirt design

After going simple and conceptual, I was hankering to do a funny gag shirt design. A four color design, with benday dots depicting a snake oil salesman, who is literally a snake.

I fell behind by two days due to prepping for teaching my two classes at LCAD, but will attempt to make two more designs today to make up for it, and hopefully get back on this design a day horse!

VOTE FOR SNAKE OIL SALESMAN TO WIN ON THREADLESS, Click this link: http://beta.threadless.com/threadless/snake-oil-salesman/ and give this your vote and comment on it!  

3. January 21, 2013 “Wine-0″ t-shirt/poster design

Wine-O Design On White

I wanted to do a design in a minimalistic style, since I rarely work that way, and the whole point of this project is to play with the challenge to make designs daily, while expanding my visual style. I realized that there was something to be mined conceptually playing with the letter O in the word Wino. So, above is my final solution on white. Here’re the other color versions:

Wine-O on Black and Red

It’s difficult working on minimalistic designs. I settled on this solution from these different rough possibilities:

I submitted the final to threadless. I’ll let you guys know when it’s up for scoring. Which version in the roughs did you like better? I’m pretty content with the version I decided to finalize.

VOTE FOR WINE-O TO WIN ON THREADLESS, Click this link: http://beta.threadless.com/threadless/wine-o/ and give this your vote and comment on it!  

VOTING FOR THIS DESIGN FINISHED! Final Score:  2.60 !

2. January 20, 2013: “Amazing School Projects #1″ Infographic

t-shirt/poster/comic

Amazing School Projects #1

This time I decided to create an info graphic explaining how to create a little pencil top robot friend out of a classic #2 pencil eraser and some other simple tools. I used to make these things in elementary school all of the time, and found myself doing projects like this to fill what would have otherwise been lonely hours. The character is actually from my webcomic/graphic novel that I’m serializing here: http://quarterlystories.com/

He’ll be appearing in chapter two (I plan to have the book shift stylistically very often). I’ve been hankering to make this infographic after finding out that as far as I know, I might have been the only kid around making this little guy. If you want, make one and post your results below in the comments section!

Here’s a photograph of one I myself made, they’re super amazing!

My awesome pencil top robot friend in the flesh!

I submitted this to threadless, and will post the link for your vote as soon as it goes up for scoring. Okay, now to post the next page to my webcomic, and catch some rest!

VOTE FOR AMAZING SCHOOL PROJECTS TO WIN ON THREADLESS, Click this link: http://beta.threadless.com/threadless/amazing-school-projects/ and give this your vote and comment on it!  

VOTING FOR THIS DESIGN FINISHED! Final Score:  3.22!

Thanks for the awesome score!

1. January 19, 2013: “Ghost Ship” t-shirt design

Ghost Ship T-shirt Design

I wanted to work on something in a scratchboard style, and submitted this to threadless. I was inspired by the Queen Mary in Long Beach, and thought it was interesting how the space between the smoke stacks formed teeth of a skeleton, and the reflection on the water appeared to do the same. If you look, the clouds, ship and water, form a skeleton. Once this is up for scoring on threadless, I’ll link to it on this blog!

VOTE FOR GHOST SHIP TO WIN ON THREADLESS, Click this link: http://beta.threadless.com/threadless/ghost-ship-2 and give this your vote and comment on it!

VOTING FOR THIS DESIGN FINISHED! Final Score:  3.44!

Thanks for the awesome score!

These are the first roughs for the pattern, which they wanted to have mermaids, pirates, sea time stuffs, ect… Really excited with how this one’s turning out, and am definitely looking forward to hearing their feedback! I hope Mai and I get to do more husband/wife work for clients in the future, as it’s been super fun!

Oh, and don’t forget, the free art giveaway is still happening on my facebook fan page!  Be one of the first two hundred people to click like on my fan page, and have your name included in the raffle to receive an original inked illustration by me!

To enter, Click here, then click like: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joshua-Kemble-Illustrations/130292550362837

Check it out, and let me know what you think in the comments section!

It’s a chapter title page. I decided to have Chapter titles with this new graphic novel venture because they provide a reader with context and space for the story. I’ve also wanted to title the chapters based on the plot points that they will serve, so it makes the structure of it a bit more transparent and clear.

If you check out the link, you’ll also notice that all the type in this comic will be lettered by hand. In the past, I’d done all of my typography digitally, and had noticed that it doesn’t wind up blending as seamlessly with hand done artwork, as it does when the lettering equally matches the hand made process with which I’m using to ink the story.

Also, the more I’ve been teaching digital artwork at LCAD, the more I’m noticing that hand made artwork causes me to have a much stronger response than digital. It’s simply a personal taste, but it’s something I’ve put lots of thought into. What are your thoughts on hand done type vs traditional?