The Occult Warrior League Toy Packaging

at top- inside of front cover                                          at top- back of box
at bottom- front cover                                                  at bottom- bottom of box

 
     side panels                                            at top- back of inside of box    
                                                                  at bottom- bottom of inside of box


This is a series of three boxes I created to be toy packaging in Design 4 at SUNY Oswego.  The toys were to be "Watchmen" inspired because I didn't want to infringe upon any trademarks by actually using the Watchmen.  In their place I created the "Occult Warrior League."  If I can find my photo of the completed box I will post it soon.  This box is also in the prism shape, but altered to suite the size, being just over a foot wide.  My main focus with these boxes was to make them a part of the toy.  Each character's box could be used with the character.  For "Inertia" the box is a rooftop, "Lode" a car, and "Phoenix" a castle.  Kids love to play with boxes and use them to be castles, cars, or hideouts and many other extensions of their toys.  This is a play off of that, taking that little extra step to give a kid the ultimate enjoyment out of their toy.  The first two layouts at the top of the page are in the way files would be sent to a printer.  The last box was portioned out onto different pages to suffice the capabilities of print paper sizes at the school.  For this project I created everything from the toy logo, characters, to the barcode, toy company and it's logo and a TV network to sponsor it.  It was a lot of work but I really enjoyed taking the time and having full creative freedom with every element.

Safari

http://www.oswego.edu/~lhughes1/lrh309/lrh309_actionEX2_final.html

This is a mini game I made in flash at SUNY Oswego.

The Hidden Cafe News nameplates

 

Adobe Illustrator

2010

These are four different nameplate designs using the same name Newspaper and same name Entertainment section of that paper.  I tried to get a different feel with each nameplate, as though they were for completely different papers.  The first one highlights exploration with the map height lines in the background.  The second has a nautical feel, using light and bright blues contrasted with a splash of red.  There is also a sailboat motif at center.  The third has an earthy yet modern feel, and the fourth is the most modern being something probably found on a website more than in print.

Prism Box

Adobe Illustrator

2006

This is a box I made for Graphics III at SUNY Oswego.  It's meant to be sent to the store in different sizes and be a sort of gift box for their product, designed for a small store called Kathmandu in Oswego, NY.  I got the inspiration for this box from a chocolate box my Dad brought me back from Switzerland.  It had a similar prism shape but was constructed differently.  I designed the box to be completely tape/glue free, it stays together sturdily without either when folded together correctly.

Kitteh Tesselation

  

Adobe Illustrator

2010

This was an assignment for Design at OCCC.  The assignment was to do a tesselation, an image in which pictures repeat like a pattern.  This kind of art is best know by M. C. Escher.  I chose fat cats and mice.  My inspiration was Gideon, a very fat lovey kitty.

a few little sketches

A few little sketches I did for a piece of work that I don't have a digital copy of.  Little kids on top, old men on bottom.

Violin

Oil on Canvas

2006

This is a still life I did for Painting I at SUNY Oswego.  I used my iMac speakers, sheet music, a metronome, and my first bow in the still life in a brown paper box.  I loved the reflections in the clear and metallic speakers.  My inspiration for this piece was music, I loved playing the violin but don't have much time to anymore.  This is something I will always carry with me, because no matter how bad things can get playing violin will always soothe my soul.

Alphabet

Acrylic and Pensil on Bristol

2003

Acrylic and Prismacolor on Bristol

2003

Prismacolor on Bristol

2003

This is a 3 part assignment I was assigned durning Design I at SUNY Oswego.  In the first image we had to take a font of the alphabet in a grid pattern and design it any way we wanted.  I took the font Zifandel and hid it in a twist of trees and branches.  During the second part we had to take one block selection from the first piece and mimick it twice to create 6 different blocks on one page.  In the last piece we had to take one of these six blocks and reflect it further to create a new image.

Chernabog's Star

Oil on Canvas

2006

This painting was an assignment for Painting I at SUNY Oswego.  Our assignment was to combine a classic image with any piece of current art.  The two I chose were Edgar Degas "Star Dancer" with Walt Disney's Chernabog from Night on Bald Mountain of Fantasia.  The Dancer's head is replaced by the head of one of the nymphs which he controls in the move, which she is also surrounded by.  Chernabog is poised over her, placed in connection with the mysterious man in the background, controlling her dancing, outfitted in the same style he is.  I loved the strokes and colors of Degas image and wanted to try to replicate these with paint, and the motion of the dancers body is beautifully captured.  Fantasia is a movie that has stayed with me my entire life, I have always loved the combination of music and art, and the concept of continuing this in a series even though Disney never lived to see this carried out.  I chose these two to combine because they were a great match up for concept.

Evil Clowns

Acrylic with clear coat over top on PVC helmet

2008

This is a motorcycle helmet I painted for my Dad.  He me to paint something that reflected motorcycles and was unique.  I took my inspiration from the Hells Angels, because one of their "mascots" is the clown.  I took the clown image and ran with it making a clown at the front, and a clown at the back... both a creepy as I can possibly imagine a clown to be.  The background for the helmet it blue flames streaking back from the front over a black and gray hypnotizing swirl for the back clown.  The right side has the front clown's spiky lollypop and spidery cotton candy.  The left side has aged playing cards in which I have replaced The card identity with the initials TCMC, standing for True Colors Motorcycle Club, which my parents belonged to at the time.  I set up the suites so that the word "true" fell on the heart, and the word "club" fell on the club.  The motif of the King's appearance is altered to seem more like a rider.  He doesn't wear this too often because he's afraid of ruining it, but I have painted smaller details, like the Triumph logo and the American flag, on the one he does wear.

Doves of Paradise

Acrylic on Canvas

2008

This piece was painted for my Grandma for her birthday.  My main inspiration was the sunsets and sunrises in Oswego, New York.  After living there for five years I found great joy in the beauty of the sun both rising and setting over Lake Ontario.  The most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen there are the ones with clouds covering the sky so it was important to include them.  At this time I also had an interest in the phoenix and it's regeneration.  I applied transparency of feathers to the birds wings with a white light cascading around and shining though.  The yellows and oranges being a vivacious flamelike shadow on the birds underbellies reflecting the concept of Phoenix.  The doves in this painting represent freedom, beauty, and eternal life.

Stairway to Heaven

Acrylic on Canvas

2008

This is my depiction of my first home in Greenwood Lake, New York.  There was a stairway of stones leading up to the front of the house through woods from the street.  These were never actually used as a pathway leading to the house because our driveway went up to the side of it and there was no parking on the street.  These stairs were a magical playground for my sister and I, full of little hiding bushes, a little space to pretend was a house or store, and a different sorts of plants which we used for "medicines"and frozen imprints.  We loved this spot.  All of the brushstrokes can be seen as individual colors, from a distance these colors blend to make browns, greens, cremes and yellows.  I did this because Monet's work has always inspired me to look at color and how they eye perceives it next to another color.  This also enhances the magical feeling my sister and I got playing outside on the stone stairway of our childhood.

My first attempt at this technique of using different colored individual strokes to make up shades of color was in high school, seen below.

 Voodoo

2003

Colored pencil on paper

Abstract Tulips

My first attempt at abstraction. This is a constant work in progress.