A lot of firsts.

I received my chance a few months ago. I inquired about being a feature artist for a First Friday event. The first Friday of each month showcases artists in the heart of downtown Raleigh. Atomic Salon and Drink Drank Drunk gave me the opportunity to get the acrylics out from storage and start painting traditionally again. Being slated for an October show at a cool venue, provided the stage to do what subject matter I love to do.

While Hurricane Joaquin was rearing his head off of Cuba, the rain continued to hit NC just days before the show. I thought for sure, nobody was going to come out in the muck. The turnout was incredible. It was really great to be introduced to so many cool people.

Thanks to everyone who had helped get my work on the walls and the one's who enjoyed my art enough to purchase a piece or two. I truly appreciate it. Feel free to visit Drink Drank Drunk and Atomic Salon from now till the end of October to see the remaining art still being shown. There are still pieces of art to be had.

Please contact me at

mikeinscho@gmail.com

if any remaining pieces interest you.

2nd Red and White Showdown Hot stamp

Opportunity has presented itself and I couldn't pass it up! Tournament Director for the 2nd Red and White Showdown, Alec Falzone asked me to help with his 1 day tournament event next month. I will admit this one was a challenge though.

Alec gave me an initial idea to try mix in NC State Wolfpack mascot "Tuffy" beating up on a Tarheel type of character. It was a great idea! BUT not being able to modify existing logo's that are used, seemed to slow down any thumbnail I tried. Looking back I probably should've worked a bit more with character development from the get go. This is why thumbnailing is so vital. You see a bunch of "what the?" and bad ideas but eventually you get your hand to actually draw something more relatable. It just takes a few more practice sketches and a little bit of reference. As you see from my thumbnail sketches. My brain said that a badger/cat looks close to a wolf. That's certainly not true

End result came out well and I'm really glad to have helped out Alec with his tournament. I wish him the best for the fundraiser. This is just one of the many fundraisers ran to get the NC State Disc Golf Team to the Annual U.S. Collegiate Championships. Thanks for checking out my blog.
Sketchbook development
Working Illustrator file
Stamp on Discmania S-FD



Oak Hollow Open 2015 Stamp

  Oak Hollow Open Tournament Director and friend of mine, Phil Lawrence reached out to me after seeing the recent Great 8 stamp. He told me to just "do what you do" and sent me past years event examples to get my wheels turning. As a fellow Graphic Designer/ Photographer/ all around graphics guy, he gets it.

The idea behind the stamp comes from memories of playing the temporary course as a motivated intermediate disc golfer back in 2010 or so. You see many new courses, new faces and make great memories playing the tournaments blind. I remember Festival Park. I remember it well. Driving into Festival offers you a beautiful hillside view of Oak Hollow Lake and wood dock for Hole 1.

Out of all the crazy ideas in the thumbnail process, the scene of Festival made the most sense. With the suggestion of Phil, we decided to use a scenic shot of the signature Hole 9. It's an elevated tee throwing over the water and tight landing zone onto the green. I wanted to create a sense of energy that was in the rough draft. To do that, I was able to live trace my pen drawing into Illustrator and then go back through and clean up trouble areas.

The end result came out killer and really speaks to why this tournament gets bigger and better every year. Thanks to Oak Hollow Disc Golf Club for giving me this opportunity!


Thumbnail session 
Final



17th Annual Great 8

I had the privilege this year to design the 2015 17th Annual Great 8 stamp for Cary Area Disc League. I appreciate the opportunity they gave me to just run wild and go off of my gut. The end result is something I am pretty proud of.

The final design was stamped on a limited number (100) Champion Fundraiser (CFR) Glow Roc3's. Here I am showing the general design process leading up to the final design. Not every pre-planning sketch is in here. It would take up too much space. Thanks for stopping by!

Final Design
Process Sketches




Morning sketch

Sometimes you look back at some weird images you created and wonder "to have a head with that many eyeballs,  would would the structure underneath look like? Is it possible to have a bone structure that could work?" Not sure if I solved anything, but it's a start on a better path.

Nothing more than a morning sketch. Main thoughts were:
1. Making sense of multiple eye sockets.
2. Roses covered in frost, possibly cold morning fog running through the design.

More to come with this idea.


Crazy Chain

I did this for a disc golf Secret Santa recently. The initial idea started on a simple iPad sketch. I took the disc golf basket into Photoshop and adjusted where needed. From there, it went into Illustrator where I cleaned up the line work. For the final step, I brought it back into Photoshop. I worked by using clipping masks to paint each section conveniently. It saved time as I was able to knock this out pretty quickly.

Final

Graffito: Steampunk Graphics


I received an email from Graffito Publishing one night. They were wanting to use an older piece of artwork that I created for a Steampunk: Myths and Legends online contest for CGSociety.  I gladly, told them "Sure!" and signed authorization forms and went on my merry way. This fall, Steampunk Graphics was released and I honestly thought there would be cuts to many of the art they were able to use.

Pretty cool to open up the book to the Individual Works section and get a two page spread of your art. Never thought that was going to happen.

I want to thank Graffito Books for reaching out and wanting to use my art in their book.

Graffito Books 




Sol Spinner

I was presented with a great opportunity. I play disc golf. It's a serious hobby of mine since back in 05'. MVP Disc Sports/ Axiom Discs (both operating under the same roof in Brown City, MI) approached with an idea to start an "Artist Series" where they would seek and find unique artists to create a stamp pertaining a certain theme. They would be able to chose what color combination to go with, to support the design. Pretty much I'm running the pilot for this new line and couldn't be happier. The idea was to release this in the summertime.
Anyone knows how blistering hot it gets here in the south. No one wants to leave their air conditioned living room on some days. That blistering sun is something trying to be captured in this design. I don't surf or skate but I've always had a love for the artwork making it's way on boards.  I want to thank Chad and Brad Richardson from MVP Disc Sports / Axiom Discs and ZAM.  Not only for the support but allowing me to be the first design coming off their press using gold foil. There were a lot of firsts with this one. 

This disc is a limited release (only a 1000 made) Axiom Clash. It sports an orange Proton flight plate/ white GYRO™ rim with gold stamping. It will be available on September 12th. 
Here she is! 



Mural Step Process


Here are progress shots of the recent mural
Prepping the wall.
Tracing phase. The projector quit working half way through. 

End of first paint session.
lower tonal values blocked in for coral and clouds detailed.
Coral blocked in.
Initial ripple idea. It ended up more on the purple side.
Close up of initial fish painting. Blocking in coral.
Bright under-painting before thinned blue covering.

Close up of ripple blending.
Almost there! Just need to complete the top water highlights.
Fin!