Little Red Fish update

First two panels of the latest completed page for "The Little Red Fish" and the logos for opposite factions. You can follow more of my work and see the rest of this page by subscribing to my monthly news letter here. 

To provide context, the comic is a political allegory about the events that led up to the Iranian revolution in '79 - as well as the revolution itself.  This story focuses more on the leftist groups during the time - a story not often told in the United States.

Logo info
The top logo was designed to give a similar vibe as the Shah's lion emblem (Heron's represent the Shah's faction).

The bottom logo references leftist colors and graphic approaches. The acronym is a reference to "The Iranian People's Fedai Guerillas" - one of the leftist groups around during that time period. TGPG stands for "The Gulf People's Guerillas" (This name is just a stand in for now and is subject to change.)

More info and sample pages can be found here. 

Illustation for Richmond Magazine

Latest illustration appearing in this January 2014 issue of Richmond Magazine (CLICK THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE). It is an illustrated timeline on the infamous Lumpkins Jail plot and slave burial ground to coincide with the second proposal for a ballpark in the area. As the viewer moves deeper in the earth they mover further in the past. The closest figure is supposed to be a reference to Gabriel Prosser, a black smith and slave who planned what would have been one of the largest slave rebellions in the US.

I also put together an objective timeline for this image. There was so much history. I wish we could put it all in there. Two of the most interesting nuggets I found dealt with who Lumpkin left his estate to and the timing of Hurricane Gaston.

Not included in the published timeline ... Mr. Lumpkin left his estate to Mary Lumpkin even though they weren't married. I also found referenced historical documents implying that she was his slave.

Hurricane Gaston hit Richmond on the anniversary of the storm that prevented Gabriel Prosser from launching his uprising. The damages of this storm would be used as a springboard to develop a ballpark in the same area Prosser is buried. This fact and more are included in the timeline that can be found in the latest issue of Richmond Magazine and eventually posted on their website here. 

More of my work can be found here: www.mendedarrow.com

Vegetable Heart Print

8”X10” Vegetable Heart Print originally sculpted for Vegan Action. Only $10. You can purchase a copy here.  (Orders will not be fulfilled until after the holidays.)

Dogwood Deer Skull Prints

These are now available in the print section of my store. Only $10 each for these 12X18 prints. Just go here to purchase.

Deer Skull and Birdies

Some changes might be made for the client's version.

I know for sure that I plan on making 12"X18" prints of this image available for $10, but also plan on a larger size that I will update everyone on soonish. You can email me directly for inquiries about purchasing a 12X18 at bizhan(at)mendedarrow.com.

Feel free to also check out my store at www.mendedarrow.com for skateboards, prints, and tees. 

VCUarts Communication Arts Posters

Below are a few posters I designed to promote our department.

The first one's point of departure was sending posters with statements about art by our faculty to high schools around the country. High school art teachers are lacking in resources, so I thought that this would be well received since art/design schools typically send poster advertisements for their respective schools. The funding isn't possible for a massive campaign so we are going to distribute them internally. 

The next image is a statement by faculty TyRuben Ellingson's father, William J Ellingson. The image is by TyRuben Ellingson, a concept artist who has recently worked on Elysium and Pacific Rim. 

The third is a typographic experiment with our mission statement. Its a work in progress. We are encouraging faculty to also try their hand at doing a mission statement poster. The type is collaged from scanned photo-copies that were distorted by moving the type as it was being scanned.

Silly Bus Snow Man

I already turned in this vector illustration project, but have kept messing with combining parts of what I like from various iterations of the project and came up with this guy. The project was designed to be animated for one of Silly Bus' children's music videos.

Note: I really enjoy the exploded version of this. 

VCUarts Dept Overlap

Below is an infographic mapping out some of the VCUarts Departmental overlap based on topics and category. This version wasn't used, and therefore, doesn't have the appropriate edits to make it completely accurate.

The bottom tier shows categories of departments. For example, CRAF (Dept of Crafts and Material Studies) is somewhere between design and fine arts. Art History and Art Education feed all the other visual arts departments so they overlap many arts departments.

Every other tier present a selection of various categories that multiple departments explicitly teach. For example, most of the departments might use drawing, but only a select few have a drawing course.