Colorization - Paying the Bills Part 3

My good pal, Charles of Helmar Brewing, creates some fantastical ephemera baseball cards that look like they could be the real thing. But, no, he's an artist who's found a niche that appeals to baseball collectors.

I've had the great fortune to help him on a good many projects, including the colorization of old black and white photos. Believe me when I tell you, there are no shortcuts to this.

Of course, the better the photo to start with, the better the finished results.

Here's a before and after of  Honus Wagner who played mostly for the Pittsburgh Pirates between 1897 and 1917.

Yep, I'm still doing lots of designing for my fabrics collections at Modern Yardage, but fill up every minute with whatever I can to have an income as a graphic designer.

Hourly Work

In my daily and ongoing quest to make a living as a graphic designer, I take on many and varied jobs which pay hourly.

This week, I've been "vectorizing" vintage labels for Charles of Helmar Brewing Art and History.

He's an artist who creates super cool faux baseball ephemera. When you seen one of his baseball cards, for example, you'd never guess that it is actually a new product. His super secret method of distressing the items really does the trick.

He's got hundreds of followers who collect his stuff, and he is often commissioned to do custom pieces.

I spent a week once clipping heads of baseball players from the backgrounds. It's not glamorous work, but I look at it this way:  I'm not waiting tables.

Here's a sample of what I've been working on this week. These are two old cigar box labels.

I can't wait to see what he does with them.