Dog Days of Summer: August
Dog Days of Summer: August
Tim May

About: Recent winner of the Portland Cut & Paste tournament with a day job as a senior designer at Curiosity.

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Tim MayAugust

Tim May Sample Artwork

Tim has worked in commercial art and design since 1999 for companies big and small. In college, he studied painting and fine art but transitioned into the online realm after discovering its amazing community.

"It’s easier than ever to immediately know (and see) who’s doing what. I am often star struck whenever I am fortunate enough to meet contributors to design portals such as k10k.net and Newstoday."

The recent winner of the Portland Cut & Paste tournament, Tim is no small fish himself. He’s attracted to design because of its spontaneity and room for improvisation. His hope, he says, "is to make things that connect with people, arouse curiosity, and, if I’m lucky, inspire others to create." Seeing as that’s what The Power of the Pens is all about, he’s a great fit for our project.

Currently, Tim is working on a holiday ad campaign, a Herculean motion project, a collaborative piece for Born Magazine (www.bornmagazine.org) and is managing several projects involving content to download, print and craft. His day job is as a senior designer at Curiosity (www.curiositygroup.com), where he illustrates and designs for web and print, does some Flash work and apparently tells pretty stupid jokes.

Tim was introduced to Wacom via the Graphire back in 2000. In 2001, he opted for the Intuos 6X9. These days, he won’t be caught without a Wacom tablet by his side. We’ll let him explain:

"The Wacom pen is such a natural mapping of the way I think. I actually prefer the tablet to paper for sketching — I’ll often use the pen to draw in Photoshop… I suppose the best compliment I can pay is that I don’t think much about my tablet — it’s a good tool — something that reliably does its job and helps me create."

So, that’s Tim. Let’s see what the Cintiq helped him create.

The Making of Dog Days of Summer

The Making of Dog Days of Summer photos and screenshots

I have always been an impatient artist. While attending art school I remember wondering why anyone in their right mind would enjoy lithography, printmaking, oil painting or any of the other process-intense media, although I have much respect for practitioners of those arts. I wanted the marks I made to be immediately visible and I didn’t want to sit for 7 hours for a coat of paint to dry before applying the next coat. At the time I was drawn to charcoal and watercolors because of their fluidity and immediacy – I didn’t have to wait to see what was going to emerge. My Wacom tablet gives me that kind of directness with my computer. I can think it, and instantaneously create it on the screen.

The connection between the month of August and the dog days is obvious – but I wanted to use that as an excuse to see just how tweaked-out I could make a shape and still have it read as a dog. Additionally the word August means venerable, noble, honored, revered or refined. That is the reason many of the dogs are dressed in such distinguished attire.

When making the composition, I did some initial sketches in Photoshop. Then I freehanded all of the dogs and shapes in Adobe Illustrator – then composited the image in Photoshop. I did have one major challenge putting this piece together – my computer crashed shortly before the deadline and had to be rushed to an emergency care facility. Fortunately none of the source files were lost. The Wacom tablet I used performed flawlessly – it’s nice to have a tool that I don’t have to think about – I can be as impatient as I want to be.

This movie requires the latest Flash player.

Community Comments

  1. Tell us what you think. The artist, their work. We want your input.

  2. Posted by: Catastronaut 12.16.2007

    Me gusto mucho este wallpaper, no creo esperar hasta Agosto para usarlo. Buen trabajo. Saludos

  3. Posted by: Julianne Pearce 12.16.2007

    Really love these funky dogs, although am not entirely sure what the connection is between dogs and August. It looks like your life is lots of fun working with your wacom tools.

  4. Posted by: Krisan Harrell 12.16.2007

    Wow! Thanks so much for the video. I have no idea what you did, but it was fascinating to watch. I’m one of those tedious oil painters. Bought a tablet two years ago, read the directions, and put it back in the box until now. I’ve never had time to grasp it and Photoshop, and wish I could find a class somewhere for the Wacom basics. This August piece has forced me to drag out the tablet and see if I’m ready to get into the tech age of art or still a dinosaur more comfortable with dab and camel hair. Really loved this one!!

  5. Posted by: Caroline King 12.18.2007

    WOW!! Absolutely unreal. I love when you get to see the process of the rare magical genius’s making our world more awesome. Great work Tim!

  6. Posted by: Whitney Smith 12.18.2007

    I can’t imagine what it would be like to be inside your brain and surrounded by such genius. You amaze me! Thanks for making the world a more beautiful place to be. You are the best!

  7. Posted by: Lauren LaClare 12.19.2007

    Hey Hey you are so totally freakin’ cool!!!! And I mean that…rock on!

  8. Posted by: matt hart 12.21.2007

    WOW! that is amazing. Someone once told me,”In order to play dog baseball, you have to like dogs. And I like dogs. I REALLY like dogs” You must REALLY like dogs,Tim. Genius work.

  9. Posted by: Cre8tive Girl 01.10.2008

    So cool, I love these wacky dogs especially the one in the tutu

  10. Posted by: Johnny Baklava 01.10.2008

    I want to live inside of you…I wouldn’t take up much space. I think just a small, foldaway bed in your pancreas, a desk in your medulla oblongata (my favorite Police record), and access to your colon is all I would require. Your work is fabulous! Right on the T$, yo. Word to your motherboard!

    I like to eat cheese in bus stations.

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