Custom T-Shirt illustration I created for a chain of Beach Bars. This design features a Lizard cartoon character I designed, drinking on a beach. Set up for direct to garment printing that would appeal to beach-goers.
T-Shirt Mockup
Detail View
This is part of a series of mascot character designs I created for Great Dane Graphics. We had a lot of working finding different ways to portray zombies as believeable sports mascots.
Click here to see more of my Dark Illustrations
Check out more of my Mascot designs here.
This is part of a series of mascot character designs I created for Great Dane Graphics. We had a lot of working finding different ways to portray zombies as believeable sports mascots.
Click here to see more of my Dark Illustrations
Check out more of my Mascot designs here.
This is part of a series of mascot character designs I created for Great Dane Graphics. We had a lot of working finding different ways to portray zombies as believeable sports mascots.
Click here to see more of my Dark Illustrations
Check out more of my Mascot designs here.
Client:
The Zombie Trader
Description:
Half human, half zombie Character design illustrations I created for a stock trading website specializing in trading Zombie Stocks.
This was a really fun project, because the client had put a lot of thought before hand into the back-story, look, and attitude of the characters. After a few rounds of sketches, we landed on a design that we were all really happy with. The characters will be used on their website and in promotional materials.
Character Design
Lady-Z
Zycho
Zeo
Coach-Z
Concept sketches and lineart
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
Check out more of my Mascot designs here.
Client:
Tequila Kiss, Bar On The Beach
Description:
Custom illustration I created for a line of T-Shirts for a the Tequila Kiss Bar on the Beach. I was hired to illustrate a colorful t-shirt design for direct to garment printing that would appeal to beach-goers.
Printed on T-Shirt
Detail View
Sketch and Lineart
Check out more of my T-Shirt designs here.
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
Client:
Description:
T-Shirt zombie illustration I created for the Mexico City heavy metal band, Straying From Madness.
The illustration was designed to fit their current brand image I designed, which is based on creepy but colorful and fun zombie characters. This design was set up for silk-screening. Four colors.
T-Shirt mockup
Concept sketch
Detail view
Click here to see more of my Dark Illustrations
Check out more of my T-Shirt designs here.
Alien gets some take-out. Something I dre last year, planning on making stickers of it.#art #illustration #tshirtartists #tshirt #graphic #alien #comics #picoftheday #instalike #follow #TagsForLikes #instaart #drawing #creative #redneck #redneckgirl #abduction #ufo Work in progress from the desk of illustrator Brian Allen
Koala Bear mascot illustration for a shipping company, specializing in shipments to Australia.
Check out more of my Mascot designs here.
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
Client:
Moonshine Zombie
Description:
Redneck zombie Illustration I created for a bottle label for a new brand of spirits called Moonshine Zombie.
Each variety will have a different zombie character portrayed, with a personality matching the type of spirit. I tried to pick bright, vibrant colors that would contrast nicely with the carmel color of the whiskey. I’ve been drawing zombies for a while now, but this is the first zombie squirrel I’ve ever attempted.
Graphic design by Paul Jones.
Label graphic
Die-cut label on bottle
Click here to see more of my Dark Illustrations
Client:
Description:
Custom illustration I created for a new book by Des Parker called Lord of the Zombies. The illustration features all the main characters fighting a horde of zombies.
The book is a very fun and humorous take on the Zombie Apocalypse. And yes, that is a duck slicing through a zombie – you definitely have to read this book. Coming soon to Amazon.
Testimonial:
I am blown away. It is brilliant, you have done a stunning job. It is one of the best cover illustrations I have ever seen.
Book Cover
Book cover product view
Detail view
Concept sketches
Click here to see more of my Dark Illustrations
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Client:
Description:
Custom silk-screen illustration I created of a happy robot made of brewing equipment for Half Time Brewing Company’s 2014 Growler design.
It’s always a lot of fun working with Half Time. This project in particular was a fun challenge, and different than other beer label designs I’ve done, because the design is going to be silk-screened directly on the bottle, so I had to be careful to keep my colors limited, and to make sure that my details were not too fine. Half Time gave me a lot of freedom with the design, and we are both very happy with how it turned out.
Testimonial:
Brian Allen, an illustrator and graphic designer who is not only talented, personable and fun to work with but also understands how his piece of the puzzle must compliment the big picture.
Beer Growler Label design
Detail View
Detail View
Silk-screened on bottle
Pencil Sketch of concept
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Click here to see more of my Logo Designs
Client:
Description:
This is an illustration I created of a viking mascot for a soccer team shirt. The artwork was set up for direct to garment, which allowed me to really go nuts with the color variations and detail. Created for Great Dane Graphics.com.
Detail view
Mock-up view
Check out more of my T-Shirt designs here.
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
T-Shirt illustration of a fairy for Concentrated Apparel, a brand celebrating the lifestyle behind concentrated THC in oil and wax form. This design was challenging, because I had to make the fairy’s wings look like they were made of melting wax and crystals, while sticking to a limited color silk screen pallette. We’re really happy with how this turned out.
Check out more of my T-Shirt designs here.
This a cartoon graphic illustration I created for Great Dane Graphics of a bunch of toys climbing out of a stocking, and a group of penguins building a snowman.
Artwork available for purchase at Great Dane Graphics
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
Client:
Dragonfire Aesthetics Ltd.
Description:
Logo design I created for a wieghtlifting apparel company in Manchester, UK called Dragonfire Aesthetics, of a red pumped-up weightlifting dragon.
Designing this logo was a fun challenge, because the client wanted to include a lot of elements with a lot of detail (the dragon, weightlifting, tail, muscles, and lots and lots of fire).
When we were finished, I created the logo in a lot of different formats and variations, all the way from a simple one-color design for embroidery to a full-color, fully rendered design for his website.
Full-color logo
Detail view
One-color logo printed on T-Shirt
Click here to see more of my Logo Designs
Custom poster illustration I created for the Mud Endeavor relay races in Florida. The client wanted a colorful, fun design for the event poster. I came up with the idea of having the contestants actually made of mud, since the particpants are usually covered in mud by the end of the race.
Detail view
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
Illustration I did of Chunk and sloth from the goonies fighting a giant octopus, as they often do.#illustration #goonies #funny #parody #caricaure #cartoon #digitalpainting #creepy #brianallen #flylanddesigns #thegoonies #sloth #chunk Work in progress from the desk of illustrator Brian Allen
Album cover design I created for the Australian Punk band Four Zero One Four featuring a zombie golfer swinging at a decapitated zombie head. I don’t have to tell you that I had a lot of fun with this.
CD, Back Cover, and Front Cover
Back Cover
Click here to see more of my custom album cover designs.
Work in progress from the desk of illustrator Brian Allen
iPad Soduku app for kids I designed the graphics and interface for. The app has a colorful jungle theme throughout. I created a lion mascot character along with cartoon jungle leaves and other elements for the background, in addition to the user interface. This app is currently under development by Razor Ant.
Main Menu Screen
Icon
In-game view
Click here to see more of my website and app design.
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
Work in progress from the desk of illustrator Brian Allen
Work in progress from the desk of illustrator Brian Allen
Children’s book illustrations I created for Amazon’s CreateSpace. This story was written by Denise Watkins, and is about a strange creature that emerges from the ocean with an insatiable hunger for Creamsicles.
Click here to see more of my Children’s Book Illustrations.
Client:
Abomination card game packaging illustration
Description:
Illustration for a really cool fantasy card game in development called Abomination. The general object of the game is to create different creatures using mixed body parts and other technology. I was comissioned to design and illustratate the logo and box cover. The box art features a comical but creepy monster assembled from all sorts of different body parts, with a mad scientist in the foreground.
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
Work in progress from the desk of illustrator Brian Allen
Mascot character designs I created for Sassy Princess Spa, a spa catering to young girls. We had previously developed these characters as younger versions in spa attire. This time, my client needed the girls dressed up in trendy clothing and a little more grown-up for a tv commercial they were producing.
Check them out here.
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
Check out more of my Mascot designs here.
Work in progress from the desk of illustrator Brian Allen
Work in progress from the desk of illustrator Brian Allen
Client:
80’s Tees.com
Description:
Custom T-Shirt Illustration I created for 80s Tees.com, featuring an unlikely team-up of Cobra (GI Joe) and the Decepticons (Transformers). It was a really fun challenge to illustrated so many characters (Cobra Commander, Baroness, Storm Shadow, Destro, Starscream, Megatron, and Trypticon) while only using a handful of silk screen colors (I believe this was four colors). We chose a dark color scheme highlighted with oranges and blues. Love how this turned out.
Buy the T-Shirt here:
http://www.80stees.com/products/decepticon-cobra-shirt
Testimonial:
Brian did a great job with our design… I intend to use Brian again soon.
T-Shirt illustration
Photo of shirt
Detail View
Detailed Pencil Drawing
Rough Sketch Stage
Click here to see more of my Dark Illustrations
Check out more of my T-Shirt designs here.
Work in progress from the desk of illustrator Brian Allen
Mascot character illustration for a stock trading website specializing in info about “Zombie Stocks.” Yes, zombies are so popular right now, that they even have stocks named after them.
Detail View
Click here to see more of my Dark Illustrations
Work in progress from the desk of illustrator Brian Allen
Custom T-Shirt illustration I created for Team Marine, a pleasure boat distributer located in Puerto Rico. This was a complex design challenge, because their featured product, the Contender, had to be shown in full, accurate detail, while also showing a young couple close-up deep-sea fishing. This design was set up for silk-screening with a whopping 9 colors.
I was hired by a wrestling club to design a mascot for their apparel and website. Luckily, their mascot was one of the gnarliest creatures of the animal kingdom: the honey-badger. We explored a few different sketch variations, and came up with this view, with the Honey-Badger reaching toward the viewer. I provided a full-color version for direct-to-garment printing and web use, as well as a simplified version for silk-screening.
Client:
School Annual
Description:
I designed and illustrated these two monster characters for a book cover. The client wanted something colorful and fun, that younger students could identify with.
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
Book Cover Illustration
Monsters Detail View
Monster concept Sketches
Christmas illustration I created of Santa, an elf, and a little girl sledding. Created for the graphics licensing company, Great Dane Graphics. You can license this image directly from www.greatdanegraphics.com.
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
I was asked by the developer to create characters and backgrounds for a really cool Samauri themed app. I was given a lot of freedom when designing the characters, which made this a really enjoyable project. Check back for details on where to get the game when it’s released.
Click here to see more of my Dark Illustrations
Click here to see more of my Web and App design
Cartoon Christmas mascot illustration of Santa Cluas snowboarding.. Created for the graphics licensing company, Great Dane Graphics. You can license this image direclty from www.greatdanegraphics.com.
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
This is an illustration I created for Great Dane Graphics, of a polar bear, penguin, dog, and cat singing a christmas carol out in the street. The graphic is for their Holiday catalog. Created in Manga Studio 5 and Adobe Photoshop.
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
Client:
Die Cry Hate
Description:
I was hired by Die Cry Hate, a spin-off of the Live Laugh Love apparel brand, to create some new T-Shrits for their line. I was given a lot of freedom in the designs, which is always a lot of fun. This design is set up for silk-screening, about four colors.
Detail View
T-Shirt Mockup
Pencil sketch
T-Shirt Mockup
Detail View
<h3>Click here to see more of my <a title=”Illustration (Dark)” href=”https://www.flylanddesigns.com/illustration-dark/”>Dark Illustrations</a></h3>
Check out this parody T-Shirt for Marijuana Zombie, featuring Cheech and Chong from Up In Smoke as zombies. Even after death these guys know how to party. Produced in two different color schemes, for a dark and light shirt. Set up for silk-screening, four colors.
The shirt is available for purchase at www.marijuanazombie.com.
Behind the Scenes:
Here’s some sneak peaks at how the shirt was created, from the artwork to the actual screen printing process.
Check out this video of my process drawing the shirt:
If the video is not playing correctly, you can also view it here: http://youtu.be/f1yAxi60E2M
Closeup shots of the shirt just after being silk-screened:
The shirts were silk-screened by the awesome Traxler Custom T-Shirts.
They did an amazing job with the artwork. Here are some pics showing their work in progress on the shirt:
Link:
Purchase the shirt here.
Testimonial:
Brian is amazing! I consider myself very fortunate to have had the pleasure of doing business with him and look forward to continuing in the future. To say that I have been satisfied with his work is an understatement. I am extremely pleased with the outcome of his work.
Click here to see more of my Dark Illustrations
About Flyland Designs:
Flyland Designs is a freelance illustration studio founded in 2006 by illustrator and graphic designer, Brian Allen. With over 10 years of industry experience, Allen has designed mascots, apparel, retail packaging and book and album covers for clients including Hard Rock Café, Jostens, Hasbro, American Greetings and Half Time. Allen’s creative aesthetic attracts children and adults alike. For more information, visit www.flylanddesigns.com.
On Template
Detail View
I recently had the pleasure of working with Lethal Threat, a huge name in the graphic decal business. I came up with this concept of a zombie enjoying a “hearty” snack. Originally designed as a graphic decal for a bike’s tank. I probably don’t need to say this, but I had a lot of fun with this!
Here is a short video tutorial I created showing how to create custom brushes in Manga Studio 5. One major problem I kept running into was that every time I created a new brush, it would only paint in black. I finally figured out the simple trick on how to make a custom brush in Manga Studio paint in color. Shame on Smith Micro for not making this clearer! But I can’t stay mad you Manga Studio…
I discovered Manga Studio about a year and a half ago, and I believe it’s helped bring my artwork to a new level – and made the act of drawing so much more enjoyable and intuitive.
But there are a couple of things about Manga Studio that aren’t as intuitive as Adobe Photoshop. The brush engine is far more complex (which can be a good thing), which makes for some frustrating hair-pulling at first glance.
Here is a direct link to the video if it’s not loading correctly: http://youtu.be/vZI5Kem8dTQ
And follow me on Youtube for more Manga Studio tutorials (http://www.youtube.com/flylanddesigns)
Mascot design and illustration for Benner Elementary School I created in conjunction with Lake Creative.
Shannon Lake and I were tasked with reinventing their bear mascot into something fun and colorful that the children could identify with. This was a really fun personal project, because my son Michael just started Kindergarten at this school. It’s a really cool feeling to walk in the school and see kids here and there wearing the T-Shirt. Michael loves wearing it, though it’s a couple sizes too big for him!
To see more of my logo designs, click here.
Here’s an unusual one. I was commissioned to illustrate this album cover combining the iconic Rammstein cover, with the Breaking Bad anti-hero, Hesienberg. The band is a fictional german industrial band playing Breaking Bad themed songs. The challenge was to create something that fans would both recovnize as a Rammstein and Breaking Bad tribute at the same time. We had a lot of fun with this.
You can purchase the album from the artist here: Facebook.com/crannstein
CD mockup
Click here to see more of my album cover designs
Roller Derby poster I created for the State College Area Roller Derby organization. A roller derby girl makes off with santa’s bag, while monster elves dressed as referees chase after her. You know, for Christmas.
Roller Derby Poster
Detail View
Click here to see more of my Illustrations.
Illustrated e-book cover for Jim Azevedo’s “How To Get Your Band Out Of The Garage,” a really entertaining walkthrough/guide for new bands seeking the limelight. Jim wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted for the cover when he first contacted me, he just knew that it had to be something with a lot of energy, and clearly legible at a small size. After running through some concept sketches, we arrived at this scene with the lead singer belting in the foreground, with the rest of the band rocking out in the background, playing as if they were on stage, not from a garage.
To check out more artwork like this, visit: https://www.flylanddesigns.com/illustration-light/
Concept Sketches
Book Mockup
I’m SO proud to be sharing this. I’ve been working with the metal band Straying From Madness for a while on a music video for their new single, about the band fighting for their lives in a zombie apocalypse. I illustrated all the characters, zombies, and backgrounds, and then a very talented video artist put it all together.
It was an immensely challenging and rewarding project, and I’m thrilled with ho it turned out. We working on a very tight deadline and budget restraints, so I elected to illustrate it in a very rough style, which is very different for me. Typically, I like to draw things first as a rough sketch, then a pencil sketch, then ink and color. This gives me a chance to work out the anatomy and details as I go to make sure they are correct. With this project, I skipped the middle step and just went for it, and colored in a very limited color scheme to save time. I think in the end, that choice actually added a lot of character to the video. It is after all, the Apocalypse.
Special thanks to Larz and the rest of the band at Straying From Madness. They are fantastic to work with, and I wish them nothing but ridiculous Rock Star success.
Check out their music here:
https://www.facebook.com/strayingfrommadness
To see more of my dark illustrations, check out: https://www.flylanddesigns.com/illustration-dark/
Children’s book illustrations for “Amazing Adventures of Izi and Larry The Dinosaur” by Olusegun Akande. This story was a lot of fun to work on. The story is about a little girl who meets a flying dinosaur who takes her back in time through different Biblical scenes.
Click here to see more of my Children’s Book Illustrations
Client:
Rosebud Magazine
Description:
Editorial commissioned by Rosebud Magazine. This custom illustration appeared in the magazine as a full page, accompanying an article about hydroponic tubing. The editors gave me a lot of freedom with the design. There only direction was that they wanted a robot made of tubing attacking a city. Looking forward to working with them again soon.
Link:
http://www.rosebudmag.com
Full-Page editorial illustration
Concept sketches of two different monsters
Detail view
Earlier this year, I was commissioned to paint a black light mural in the Haunted Mansion ride in Funland of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. I can’t tell you how much of a privilege this was for me, because I have been visiting Rehoboth Beach several times a year since I was two-years old. So I have vivid memories of the Haunted Mansion terrifying me from a very young age. It was such a fun challenge to be able to add my own touch to the iconic ride.
If you’re familiar with the ride, there was a steep ramp at the very beginning of the ride that was too narrow to hold any mechanized props. It was decided that the best way to add some interest to the otherwise blank area was to have me use blacklight paints and dress it up a little. I presented them with concept sketches with the idea of painting the ramp as if it were a staircase in the mansion.
The entire mural took about a week. I was often the only one there in the entire park, which made for some cool exploring, and also became pretty creepy at night.
I was very pleased with the final result, and so far it’s gotten great feedback. The blacklight paints give the mural a 3D effect (something that doesn’t come across in these snapshots). Painting with warm colors pops out at you, while cool colors recede.
The project was a challenge for a couple of reasons:
- The painting was done on a steep incline, so moving scaffolding around proved to be a little precarious.
- Blacklight paints look very, very different in the dark. Yellow, Orange, and Red blacklight paints look almost identical under normal light, but very different with the blacklights on. So I painted in the dark with one blacklight spot I had to move around, pretty much the entire time.
- Limited time: the park was opening for business very soon, and I had to get in there and get out quickly. There was a lot of square-footage to cover, so I unfortunately had to spend less time on some aspects.
- Objects had to be to scale. Because we wanted to make this look like a real staircase, I had to paint the railing, picture frames, and window frames at a believable size and placement. Just measuring out the railing and all the bannisters took hours.
Special thanks again to the Funland staff for choosing me for this awesome project, and for being so cool to work with.
Please note: The videos and pictures did not turn out as well as I had hoped. It proved to be very difficult to photograph blacklight paints. I only had one blacklight (the permanent blacklights were installed later after I was finished) which made it difficult to light the whole mural at once for the photos and video. You’ll just have to Funland yourself!
Video Tour of the Haunted Mansion mural:
Snapshots:
Wow. I can’t express my gratitude enough. Last month, we ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund our comic book anthology, UGLI Studios Presents #2, and we raised over $3000, exceeding our goal!
We’ve already mailed out all the rewards, and are getting great feedback from the sponsors. Again, just thrilled and grateful to have so many people come out and fund our crazy idea with their hard-earned cash.
Or you can purchase The Courier mini-comic from my site here.
Here are some images from portion of the book:
Beer label designs created for the Matthew Vassar Brewing Company. I created the layout and illustrations for these labels, based on the historic figure, Matthew Vassar. The labels are currently in production – there will be at least 6 more varieties when we are finished.
T-Shirt illustration for 5-Star Apparel. The client asked me to create a parody of a Barbie who has lost her way. We decided on a mugshot photo of a strung-out, meth-head version. Set up for silk-screening, 4 colors.
Detailed digital painting I created of a zombie cowboy for Invision Artworks. This dude will most likely be uses on dirtbikes and quads. I’m really excited to have my artwork added to their already impressive lineup of cool graphics. This was created mainly in Manga Studio, but I had some help from Photoshop as well. The guns were a particularly challenging, but I’m happy with how they turned out.
The guys from Straying From Madness contacted me to create an illustration for their new album, Shadowlands. They wanted a colorful representation of themseleves battling a horde of zombies during the apocalypse. The illustration was designed for the album cover, and a poster for promotion as well.
Facebook Banner
Album Cover and CD
Detail View
SmartPak Equine hired me to create these two spreads for their Fall product catalog. To help sell their calming supplements for horses, the client asked me to create a fun illustration showing the world through a horse’s eyes. To show how horses can get spooked by the simplest things, we turned ordinarly training equipment into monsters. I designed and illustrated the monsters, backgrounds, and the logo for the ad. The client later placed a description of each product by a different monster.
This is a series of promotional materials I created for an upcomming hip-hop album called “The Order of the Owl” presented by Nightlyfe and Royal Zone Records. I was asked to create a logo, banner design, album cover, and disc image for the project. The artwork is filled with symoblism that was important to the artists and what they represents (including the specific number of stars in the sky, for example). It was a fairly complex image, but in the end, we were all happy with the result.
Detail View
Album Cover and CD Label
Product Reviews
Wacom Cintiq Pro 24″ ReviewSeptember 1, 2023 - 12:30 pmProfessional Illustrator Brian Allen reviews the new Wacom Cintiq Pro 24″ (non-touch). I have been using the new Wacom Cintiq Pro 24″ extensively since early April 2018 and I love it! I upgraded from the Wacom Cintiq 24HD, which I used for over 6 years. I had high expectations for this digital drawing tablet and […]