Jonathan Blackburn

Graphic Artist + Visual Developer + Creative Stylist.

Artists

Darkline INK Takes On - Art Takes Miami Contest!

Artists, Design Contests, Digital Arts, Exhibitions, Finished Pieces, Street Art, VisualJonathan BlackburnComment

This portfolio is part of Art Takes Miami, an art open call awarding $25,000 in Prizes and Exposure, including a Feature Booth at this year's SCOPE Art Show in Miami.

VOTE FOR MY ENTRY!!

The portfolio with the highest of the number of votes and star rating will win the People's Choice Award and receive a $2,500 cash grant and an online feature of my work! The number of votes and star rating will have no affect on the formal judging. The Grand Prize is awarded purely on the merits of the images submitted as decided by our judging panel.

Chicago Fringe Festival Design Contest 2011 - Runner Up!

Artists, Design Contests, Digital Arts, Exhibitions, FestivalsJonathan BlackburnComment


Just received an email a few days ago congradulating my design submission as a runner up in the Chicago Fringe Festival Design Contest! 3 runners up will be posted on the festival's website for our excellent designs. Makes me smile. Email I received:

Dear Jonathan,
Your design has been selected as a runner-up in the Chicago Fringe Festival Design Contest 2011. 
We'd like to congratulate you and compliment you on your outstanding design. It was extremely difficult to choose a winner once we had narrowed the field to our finalists, and we are excited to share your design by posting it to our website.
Again, congratulations!
Tim Mullaney


Here's a little something about the festival design contest:

 50 shows booked. 1 design needed.

Chicago Fringe Festival is an artistic extravaganza featuring theatricalizers of every stripe, from actors to aerialists, performance artists to puppeteers! CFF is 50 shows, from the whimsical to the WTF, performed in Pilsen between September 1-11, 2011. Last year’s Festival drew an audience of over 2,000 people. This year’s Festival will be even bigger.

Chicago Fringe Festival needs a design that is so arresting, dynamic, searing, fanciful, mind-bending or otherwise amazing that it will radiate cartoon-like waves of energy. Some further crucial information to help you create the graphic gold we’re panning for:

  • The design should reflect, suggest, embody, convey or otherwise relate, directly or obliquely, to our Festival theme: On the Map, Under the Radar
  • The design should capture (or at least not contradict) some of the other key characteristics of Chicago Fringe theatre. We value diversity. We feature performers of all ages, ethnicities, nationalities and orientations in shows about everything from Irish dancing to Rambo. And we believe that audiences should reflect the diversity on stage: our tickets are affordable, allowing anyone with a few spare bucks to see theatre. We are homegrown. The Festival was founded by Chicagoans and is infused with Chicago’s spirit of grit and innovation. And the Festival is proudly located in Pilsen, a neighborhood whose vivid murals testify to Chicago’s rich history and tradition of public art. We are guided by the philosophy that small theatre can be great theatre. A show performed in an improvised storefront space can be just as gripping and revelatory as the most lavish production at the fanciest theatre. To learn more about what Chicago Fringe is, visit http://www.chicagofringe.org/.

The Chicago Fringe Festival (CFF) invites emerging and established performing artists from Chicago, the U.S. and beyond to showcase their work and add to the dialogue of theatrical art. The Festival also seeks to enhance the perception of Chicago as a major hub for theatre. CFF encourages performers to take bold risks by providing an avenue for affordable productions. It also seeks to bring in non-traditional theater-goers through a commitment to low ticket prices and outreach into communities not commonly represented. In this fashion, The Chicago Fringe Festival provides an avenue for diverse artists and audience members to connect in a singular and immediate way.

After one long year of work, Fashionista is finsihed. 80 hours & 78 seperate Layers of Photoshop Love.

Artists, Digital Arts, Exhibitions, Finished Pieces, VisualJonathan Blackburn1 Comment

After one long year of work, Fashionista is finsihed. Over 80 hours spent and 78 seperate layers and blending modes in Photoshop CS5, I have finally completed the piece. It's actually very rewarding as it came out just as brilliant and beautiful as I had invisioned it. Multiple, custom-made art brushes were created from actual water color and acrylic paint samples from my canvasas, including custom illustrator vector brushes I designed from scratch. Full 405 seperate custom swatch color samples were saved to a swatch library for future use in color sampling for other projects. Let me know what you think. It would be much appreciated!

This will be the piece I will be submitting this summer in the 2011 Ventura County Fairgrounds professional Arts Building. it will be printed and mounted on streched canvas for the house, and professionally matted and framed with signature for the Professional Arts Division submission.

Saint Bri. New Digital Piece in the works

Artists, Digital Arts, PhotographyJonathan Blackburn1 Comment

As I was rifling through some digital photography that my fiance's sister had taken on a photoshoot in San Francisco early last year, I had a few ideas pop in my head. Something between an almost-portrait/painting and actual photography, just to blur the lines enough. I was thinking of splicing together a few ideas of mine from those old Mexican Saint portraits I had always seen at folks houses or lining a heavily sprawled display wall at the local Swap Meet on Saturday's here in town. So far it's coming out quite nicely. More work to come...