With the NFL draft set to kick off tonight, longtime Uni Watch reader and super-nice guy Jason Von Stein has created an illustration predicting how he thinks the first several picks will play out — fun stuff. Even better, though, Jason has documented his creative process via a series of videos. Let’s start with this time-lapse video of the drawing and inking:
Pretty cool, right? But if you want a closer look at what Jason was doing, here are real-time videos — no time-lapse — of the drawing and the inking:
After he drew and inked the design, Jason scanned the illustration and then used Photoshop to add colors to the resulting digital image. Here’s video of that — time-lapse followed by real-time:
This is all so cool! Here are some notes from Jason:
For visual reference, I downloaded photos of the players and looked at them as I drew their faces. I also downloaded images from he
Gridiron Uniform Database for the Photoshop part of the project, so I could get the uniforms’ colors exactly correct.
I also downloaded college team logos and showed each player in a suit matching the colors of his school.
I added the teams at the bottom being upset because they don’t have first-round picks, and I added KC colors for the location to represent the draft being in Kansas City this year.
The whole process took me about six hours.
I love all of this so much. Big kudos to Jason for creating this uni-themed illustration. I’m hoping his draft-ch0ice predictions are correct, if only because he deserves it after sharing his creative process with us. Thanks, Jason!
Cap Oddity
Weird situation last night in Queens, as Mets pitcher Kodai Senga’s cap had a white maker’s mark, while his teammates had the usual orange.
Rumors that Mets owner Steve Cohen personally confiscated Senga’s cap because “white is a Phillies color” are almost completely untrue.
(Big thanks to eagle-eyed Twitter-er @SWIMMlN for spotting this one.)
Substack Reminder
In case you missed it on Wednesday, my Premium article this week is an in-depth look at the 1999 NFL Style Guide. You can read the first part of it here. In order to read the entire thing, you’ll need to become a paying subscriber to my Substack (which will also give you access to my full Substack/Bulletin archives). Thanks!
Purp Walk Reminder
In case you missed it earlier this week, I’ve firmed up all the plans for this year’s Purple Amnesty Day, including the new T-shirt design (which you’ll need to order this week if you want to receive it in time for Purp Walk). This year’s festivities, like last year’s, will include a live event — this time in North Carolina. Full details here.
Can of the Day
Oh man, what a beauty. Might like it even more if the “V” were the same height as the other letters, or maybe not. I do love the way the various letters overlap each other — very nice.
OMG! Love Jason’s artwork (and the accompanying videos showing its development). Are the Cards, ‘hawks & Eagles shown as birds because they are, or because he doesn’t have predictions for their picks? Curious about that feature. Great stuff!
Thank you so much for sharing Paul. You’re such a class act. Man I love Uni Watch. Paul has inspired me to draw so much with the uniform redesign contests. I drew this for Uni Watch and Paul. Thank you so much. Your kindness all these years is heart warming.
Thank you for asking Phil. I drew the NFL 2022 entire season having the mascots fighting one another for each week. That was odd, because I’m a Bengals fan, and I kinda thought I was breaking their curse as I was drawing the season. For this image, I kinda started drawing the mascots first, and then thought to myself, maybe this time I should add humans. So I kinda switched. I wanted the Cards to be showcasing their new uniforms most of all for them. I kinda blew it be adding the red jersey on the red curtain. I could not find the exact new uniform Cardinal color, so I took an image from the debut and took the best red I could. My main reason to make those teams birds was to reduce the emptiness at the top of the page. I added Saints gold to the Seahawks and Eagles PICK tickets because of Willy Wonka. I also wanted to represent other NFL teams.
I really enjoy drawing these. I wish I new how to do the photoshop part better. That part takes the most time.
If anyone is interested in working together for the 2023 season I would love too.
I can draw and ink these pretty quick, but I’m not the best at photoshop. Maybe it could be a game? Like a coloring book or something.
Thank you for watching the video process. It means a lot.
Thank you Uni Watch for everything you do. I love our community.
I hope everyone has a great Draft Day.
Excuse me, It was the 2021 NFL Season I drew. The year we (the Bengals) went to the Super Bowl against the Rams. I really thought I was breaking a curse. I am also an idiot. ;)
Great illustration Jason. Yes, 2021 when (our) Bengals went to the Super Bowl… :)
Do you have illustrations of Roger Goodell getting booed? That would be funny.
Happy Draft Day!
Man I hope he’s wrong about the Colts taking Levis but the artwork and the process are both awesome
I wonder why he used the Confederate anthem “The Bonny Blue Flag” as the background music for the time lapse video. While it is a cheery tune, I can’t help but think of the words praising “southern rights.”
I did not know I was doing that, interesting. I thought I only selected NFL Music. Hmm, not sure why “The Bonny Blue Flag” is even in my playlist, not a good look.
Are we 100% sure about this?
Do you have the timestamp where this starts?
Editing is pretty hard.
My apologies if I offended anyone.
Please send me the timestamp if you don’t mind, this needs to be fixed.
Thank you.
It’s fine, Jason. Leave it be. -C.
The music you used is an instrumental only version, so the words don’t appear in your video. For people who are unfamiliar with the lyrics and history of the song (as I assume you are), there would be no offence. But it was sung during the Civil War by the confederates, and praises the states who left the union to join the confederacy. link
There is no particular time stamp, it is the song that plays through the entire time lapse video (the first video posted above).
Great job on the drawing Jason and thanks so much for documenting the whole process – very inspiring! I write a daily word puzzle and I got in the NFL spirit for today, too: link
“Where picks happen, but not INTs” is brilliant.
Awesome job Jonathan.
I doubled checked.
I did not use the Confederate anthem “The Bonny Blue Flag” nor do I own that track.
It appears that the source for the music in the timelapse gave the title as “The Generals of Autumn” – but it certainly sounds like the same tune as “Bonny Blue Flag”.
FWIW the tune in question is actually based on an Irish song “The Irish Jaunting Car”, so who knows…
Thank you for looking into and solving this Ed. That means a lot to me.
Good work! Enjoyed watching your process Jason.
Fun stuff, Jason!
Miami’s dolphin has a sorta Spy Vs. Spy look which I like very much.
I see you dressed Denver’s bronco in orange-over-blue (sans pants stripe)…don’t give them any ideas!
Spy vs Spy is really cool. I wanted the eyes to be like that for Miami. Lol
Nice work, Jason! Mina Kimes from ESPN does artwork like this and I’m always amazed by it…
Thank you Jason – I love watching the creative process – at ANY speed!
I probably need to look at more pictures but it looks like Senga may be wearing a 3930 instead of a 5950
Although from doing a google search it looks like the 3930 version of that Mets hat has an orange New Era logo as well
Ah, interesting! Hadn’t thought of that. Will try to find out!
I thought it was the 5950 Low Profile, while the others look like they have the flat brim 5950, but still odd that the logo would be white instead of orange.
Exactly, he is wearing a different model. Lower crown.
New Era couldn’t call down to the dugout and get that fixed?
They were probably pretty stoked, since the white NE logo stands out much more than the orange one. Maybe they insisted he wear it.
I’ve noticed that if a team has any white at all in their cap logo, they get a white maker’s mark. And I notice there’s a thin, white outline around the NY.
Yes, but the rest of the Mets alternate caps have the NE ad in orange, not white. Perhaps that will change…
Micron Pigmas, Baby!
I have some twenty year old Pigma pens that still work.
That is good to know. These pens are really great.
Great job, Jason! Thanks for sharing with us.
One more thing about the Can of the Day–the “Varsity Rag” logo at the bottom has to be a reference to the song “The Varsity Drag” from the 1920s. Or maybe the product was so popular that it inspired the song name? That song may be more familiar to folks as the basis (if not spot-on inspiration) for “The French Mistake” in Blazing Saddles.
What an absolute fun way to start the day! Thanks Jason and Paul!
So the Seahawks at 5 aren’t drafting anyone? Or are their uniforms so awful, you decided not to include them?
PROOFREADING: “thinks” sted “things” in the first sentence.
Great artwork and a great can with a lot of Brasso vibes.