C.R.A.P Analysis - Wind in the Willows cover

Sketch Drafts

Typefaces: Treads

Here is my custom typeface. Inspired by the interlocking nature of the treads on tracked vehicles such as tanks and diggers, Treads takes a more mechanical approach to creating letters for the page. Intended for titles more than body text, Treads is designed to look like components which are designed to be put together, making it good for stories or non-fiction works involving machines, or construction. The hand-drawn nature of the lettering ensures that it still looks natural and fun, making it great for children's literature.

Typefaces: Planning

 Initially, I scamped this design, which i named Tread Sans-Serif. It was inspired by the interlocking, constructed aesthetic of the tank tread on my moodboard, which I think suits the whole nature of mechanics really well.

But then I decided to take a step up from that, and produce a set of components so that I could literally build Tread Sans-Serif. I shall now clean up this image in Photoshop, and proceed to build the Alphabet!

EDIT: I tried using the template for building characters, but found it to be much too laborious, and the aesthetic seemed rather bland and repetitive. But, here is how far I got into building my initial alphabet.

Typefaces: Moodboard

This moodboard is just something to aid in my next activity; making a typeface. I have some mechanical details for inspiration, and some related typefaces at the right to work from.

Artist Copy Uno: Robots! Robots Everywhere!

Original

My Copy - A single character from the original

Process

Fancy shmancy GIFage

Artist Copy Uno: The process

First, I made the lineart. This was done with a pencil sketch, followed with inking with a dip pen. That big smudge is to be ignored by the way.

And then, I made some textures, using ink on a brush.

Check out that grit

I then grabbed these photos, and made them easy to manipulate in Photoshop by changing levels around and getting rid of the white backgrounds. Here's Mr.Campybot all cleaned up, and ready to be coloured.

Next, I coloured the 'bot, using the pen tool in Photoshop. I'm quite fond of the pen tool.

Finally, I added my texture. I simply had the one shape, and just placed it about in different positions. I turned the opacity down and added a multiply overlay to my texturey bits, so they blended with the colours a bit more fluently. I also erased parts of the texture that I didn't need.

Cor, look at them textures lad