.003.chuck.anderson

.the.teacher A few months ago I had the privilege of meeting a young freelance graphic designer when he spoke at my school earlier this year. That designer was Chuck Anderson. Despite his lack of any formal design instruction, Chuck has worked with some of the most high-profile companies that most designers would trade their Photoshop registration-key for the chance to work with. Nike, Microsoft, Sony and Pepsi are just the tip of the iceberg.
.the.lesson A lot of Chuck’s success comes from strong work ethic but part of it comes from his unique style. Most of his work uses vibrant colors, beams of light, and lots of glowing effects. All of his illustrations are simply fun and interesting to look at.
.the.student There is a saying: “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” Without going too deeply into my thoughts on the subject, I do believe you can learn a lot by analyzing and copying what has worked for other designers and then combining parts of that with your own designs. So, I thought I’d try to replicate two different illustrations in Chuck’s style.
.the.curriculum For this first piece I started with a picture I took a few years ago of Alcova Lake in Wyoming where I’m originally from. Then I experimented with different ways to colorize the sky and finished with the beams of light that stretch across the water.


.the.curriculum.pt2 This second piece was a little trickier and required more experimentation and trial-and-error. I decided to build the text in Illustrator and used its 3D Extrude features to create some dynamic looking text before moving into Photoshop. Then I created some glow effects and did some custom painting with my Wacom tablet. Stars and light bursts finish off the effect.


.graduation I loved this little exercise. I wanted to learn just what when into the creation of some of Chuck's work and I think I was quite successful in recreating his style and I learned some new techniques to use in my own work so this was a triumph. I’m making a note here. Huge success. ;)