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Monday Motivation: Lettering with Chris Piascik
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Hello State Bicycle Co. blog readers! My name is Chris Piascik, I am an illustrator residing in MA. I’m responsible for the last 5 Motivation Monday posts on the State Bicycle Co. Instagram, which I am going to assume you are all following. If not, stop reading this right now and go follow them.
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Oh, you’re still here? Cool, I’ll carry on then. I’ve been bike crazy for most of my life. It started with BMX, which is still my number one jam, but I love riding all kinds of bikes. For a number of years I lived in Boston and got really into track (fixed gear) bikes. I commuted everywhere on my bike, all year round, through nearly all kinds of weather. Now that I live in the ‘burbs and work from home, I still try to ride as often as I can.
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After seeing State post photos and videos of their fat bike line I decided I needed to try one out for myself. Through the magic of the internet and my partnership with State, I was ripping around on a Megalith in no time. It’s been a blast running everything over and turning everything into a sweet jump. If you’ve never ridden one of these, I highly suggest giving it a shot!
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I’ve been posting a daily drawing on my site since late 2007 and a good portion of those drawings revolve around lettering. These Motivation Monday drawings became part of my daily drawing series and provided a nice new challenge. Typically I start my drawings from scratch as opposed to working with an existing photograph. It was a lot of fun figuring out how to work my letters into the compositions. State provided me with amazing photos which certainly made this a great experience.
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In the past I always drew everything in black marker on plain paper and then added color digitally after scanning the drawing. Last year, I switched over to a Wacom Cintiq which allows me to draw directly on the screen. This setup proved to be perfect for these Motivation Monday pieces as I could work directly on the photos in Photoshop.
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I hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I enjoyed making them. If you want to follow along with all my new daily drawings every Monday through Friday you can find me on Instagram and Twitter @chrispiascik or on my site chrispiascik.com.
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