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
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
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
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.
Abomination card game packaging illustration
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.
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.
80’s Tees.com
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.
http://www.80stees.com/products/decepticon-cobra-shirt
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
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
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.
School Annual
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Die Cry Hate
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.
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:
Purchase the shirt here.
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.
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!
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
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
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.
Rosebud Magazine
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.
http://www.rosebudmag.com
Full-Page editorial illustration
Concept sketches of two different monsters
Detail view
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
An illustration I created for a T-Shirt brand. It’s one of three in a series depicting a buck in a different monstrous and evil variations. This one was inspired by the most infamous Gorgon of them all: Medusa. Three colors on black.
Concept Sketches
T-Shirt Illustration
Detail view
Detail View
Logo design I created for a distributer in Florida that deals in electronic cigarettes. The owner is a real nice dude who goes on Safaris in his spare time. He hired me to create a logo and mascot character combining the two themes. We had a lot of fun with this one!
Concept Sketches
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!
On Template
Detail View
This album cover for the hardcore metal band, Killing For Christ, was a fun challenge. The client wanted to illustrate what it might look like if all the world’s religions duked it out. We were careful to keep the illustration dark, but still humorous, so it’s obvous that this is a tongue-in-cheek rendition of the apocalypse (throwing in a few cultural icons like Kermit and Fozzy the Bear helped with that, I think). Of course, it’s not true heavy metal if no one gets at least slightly offended!
Logo design for High Guys Radio, a Canadian podcast about … well, you figure it out.’
Logo design I created for the Nerd-core hip-hop artist, El Gun Legro. This guy has a ton of personality, and we set out to create an icon and typeface that would capture that. It was also import to retain a comic book feel, since comic conventions are a huge part of his set list. We kicked around a couple of designs, but ultimately, we landed on this one, with a screaming mic with cords mimicing El Gun’s iconic wig.
Check him out here (J-Light is wearing a shirt I designed for El Gun!):
Illustration of a young girl zombie eating the stuffing out of her teddy bear, entitled “Bwains!” You know, for kids. Create in Manga Studio 5 and Photoshop CS6.
Illustration for Revco BSX, featuring a welder emerging from a fiery vault. Revco specializes in apparel for welders. This design was created for a direct-to-garment printing process.
Cover illustration I created for a work of fiction by Jan Ferrigan for young readers. The story is about a group of young adventurers trekking through the national parks, meeting magic creatures along the way.
Ever wonder what Hello Kitty would look like during her awkward teen years? Introducing Goth Hello Kitty. This illustration was created in Manga Studio 5.
T-Shirt illustration I created of a viking for Total Domination Apparel.
Product label illustration for Bonfatto’s Apocalips brand hot sauce. Special thanks to Mark Dello of Loaded Creative (and of course, Bonfatto’s) for making all this happen.
I designed and illustrated the dragon character for the label, as well as the font-style.
These are two maps I created for the two FunPlex parks in New Jersey. It was a fun challenge to create a useable map for a place I had never been before. The maps are printed as tri-folds and distributed at the park, and are also mounted in several areas around the park, I believe. 
Digital painting for splash page of apparel company’s website.
Digital painting of the grim reaper
Here’s a digital painting I did recently using techniques I’m learning in Bobby Chiu’s digital painting class on Schoolism.com. I highly recommend it!
Professional 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 […]
