Loco in the house

Henry Contrera · Post by **Henry Contrera** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 11:07 am

Hello All,
I signed up on here awhile back and forgot all about. I just got an email to reactivated my name.
I'm so glad. I do handlettering and just love the art of it all. It's a talent that still blows my mind

I do sketches and the clean them up in Illustrator with the pen tool by clicking and bending. I don't just hit Live Tace. It never seem to come out right.

I'll post some of my stuff.

-loco

loco · Post by **loco** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 11:14 am

I'm in the process of get artwork off my old drive (computer died) that has alot of my handlettering stuff.

Here's some swirls I sketched out then re-traced them in illustrator

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 12:46 am

I went through my old sent email attachments and found some of my stuff.

Roderick Treece · Post by **Roderick Treece** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:11 pm

Henry,
E-mail or call me .I want talk to you about working on a project together.

roderick@customglasssigns.com
760 943 9299

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Tue May 05, 2009 10:05 pm

I worked on a logo for some friends

here the original sketch/idea

: Chicago-Printers-Guild-idea.jpg (63.49 KiB) Viewed 43715 times

Re-traced with pin tool in Illustrator

: Chicago-Printers-Guild-idea-WEB.jpg (35.76 KiB) Viewed 43721 times

DAVE SMITH · Post by **DAVE SMITH** » Wed May 06, 2009 2:20 am

This is a great design/logo with lots of impact Henry. It gives me a 1920's feel. also the colours look right for it giving an industrial feel with the way the light is hitting the sides.
very nice
Dave.

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Wed May 06, 2009 8:38 am

thank you,

I use to work at a screen printing/sign shop here in Fresno that has been around since the 1930's
There was artwork/logos that where all hand drawn. They where all completely different from one another
and with so much impact. When I look at old logo's that started from a sketches it reminds me the importance of
finding something that you just can't find in just looking through fonts.

-loco

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Fri May 08, 2009 2:07 am

Here's some stuff I did in Illustrator quite awhile back.

This was when I was really pushing myself to take Adode illustrator as far as I could take at the time

I took a picture if my cell phone and re-traced with the pin tool in illustrator

: cellphoneweb7zq.jpg (28.23 KiB) Viewed 43558 times

This a photo from a car magazine that I re-traced

: oldscarweb5wc.jpg (96.21 KiB) Viewed 43563 times

-loco

DAVE SMITH · Post by **DAVE SMITH** » Fri May 08, 2009 2:21 am

Now that is a work of art Henry. Nice job! these took a while...
Dave

erik winkler · Post by **erik winkler** » Fri May 08, 2009 10:14 am

I like them too!
These really show your Adobe Illustrator skills.

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Fri May 08, 2009 6:46 pm

Thanks for the comments.

They took awhile. most of the time was trying figure out the best way to approach it. As long as I have a high res. photo that's in focus. That is always the hardest part. Alot of click and bend with the pen tool. The pen tool was hard for me to figure out. It use to drive me crazy trying to figure it out, in the begining. once I get going time goes by pretty fast and all I think about is finishing it.

-loco

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Tue May 12, 2009 1:18 am

Something I worked on over the weekend. I'm going to retrace it in Illustrator.
It's my wife's name

: Juliet-Freehand-web.jpg (55.59 KiB) Viewed 43424 times

-loco

mikey mannis · Post by **mikey mannis** » Fri May 15, 2009 12:58 am

Henry Contreras wrote:Something I worked on over the weekend. I'm going to retrace it in Illustrator.
It's my wife's name
Juliet-Freehand-web.jpg
-loco

That's Sik Henry, I dig your style I got my eye on you! When you do illustrations do you use the Gradient Mesh tool mostly? Can't wait to see wait to see how that lettering turns out Hey do you use a Wacom Tablet?

Mike in San Diego.

DAVE SMITH · Post by **DAVE SMITH** » Fri May 15, 2009 2:25 am

Nice looking text Henry.
Dave

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Fri May 15, 2009 7:48 am

mikey mannis wrote:
Henry Contreras wrote:Something I worked on over the weekend. I'm going to retrace it in Illustrator.
It's my wife's name
Juliet-Freehand-web.jpg
-loco
That's Sik Henry, I dig your style I got my eye on you! When you do illustrations do you use the Gradient Mesh tool mostly? Can't wait to see wait to see how that lettering turns out Hey do you use a Wacom Tablet?

Mike in San Diego.

thanks, I use the gradient mesh on the round shapes but alot it is does as pieces. I use a mouse (click -bend -click) with the pen tool

-loco

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Mon May 18, 2009 2:41 am

Here a 57 chevy I'm re-tracing in illustrator so it can printed at about 160" wide

The original image is a bitmap and trying to print it at that size will get all pixelated

: 57-chevy-red-re-trace-web.jpg (29.15 KiB) Viewed 43303 times

-loco

mikey mannis · Post by **mikey mannis** » Mon May 18, 2009 9:16 pm

I can't believe your doing these illustrations with a mouse. Do yourself a BIG favor, after you get paid for this job go get yourself a Wacom Tablet. Get a good one like an 6"x8" Intuos or better. Believe me you will love it!

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Mon May 18, 2009 11:39 pm

I have one, I just don't use it

-loco

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:13 am

Some lettering for a friend

: IWYS-web.jpg (13.25 KiB) Viewed 43227 times

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:05 am

Hi all, I haven't been here in awhile just wanted to say hi and stay back in contact with you all

-Henry

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 6:38 am

Hey All,
I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. I'm stilll working my day job and I very thankful to have this job.
I did a local artshow here in Fresno California about 3 weeks back. It was a tribute to gigposters and I submitted 3 posters.
It could be gigposters your previous work. All they really asked was that you where a local graphic artist. One of my posters took Best of Show. I don't do many artshows and after doing the show and seeing what was submitted I realized alot of people are not designing with sketches and I'm not saying the way I do it is any better than any body elses way. I just come up with layouts the way I taught myself. It just felt like most designs where all done on a computer program and just lacked any kind of human touch or flow.

Here's the posters I submitted and the High on Fire took Best of show

Henry "loco" Contreras

Aaron Taylor · Post by **Aaron Taylor** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 3:15 pm

Very nice posters! I love X as well as High on Fire, I'm sure there will be alot of people fighting over these prints at the club. Good stuff thank for posting.

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 6:11 pm

Thanks, I like the X poster better myself. When I submitted the posters the High on Fire was screen printed and the X poster was a print out. I use to have some screen printed X posters but when I went looking for them I couldn't find any. I think they got thrown out. Maybe that's what made the difference to the judges.

-Henry

bob gamache · Post by **bob gamache** » Sat Nov 27, 2010 6:35 am

Love your work Henry, tight and right.

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Tue Dec 07, 2010 2:16 am

Here's a pencil and charcoal drawing I did back in 2007. I have always been a fan of Johnny Cash and have always wanted to do a drawing of him. After he passed I told myself I have to do this.

: Johnny Cash Charcoal.jpg (87.17 KiB) Viewed 42545 times

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 4:04 pm

This is going to be my next screen print art piece. I'm hopefully going to my friends shop
later today to get the seperations printed out. It's going to a 24"x24" print. I did the quite awhile back
and never got around to screen printing it. I'm not getting any younger. THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN

DAVE SMITH · Post by **DAVE SMITH** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 4:12 pm

Nice work Henry.
Dave

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 5:23 pm

Here's the seperations. I'll be screen printing it dark to light adding white to the fist color until I get to white

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:12 pm

Something I worked on over the weekend. It's two shades of charcoal on a 36" x 48" canvas

: grey-swirls-art-WEB.jpg (137.38 KiB) Viewed 42211 times

Henry Contreras · Post by **Henry Contreras** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 1:07 am

Hi all,
I haven't been here in awhile, just came by to say hi

Henry

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