Utah Taekwondo State Championship Poster 2024

My kids and I have been students of taekwondo for about a decade. My oldest and I both have our 1st Dan black belts and my youngest will test for his this spring. You can read about my TKD journey here and here.

I have done a lot of graphic design work for our studio over the years too. My taekwondo master is involved with the Utah State Taekwondo Association and last month she asked me to create a poster for a state championship tournament.

My boys and me from 2018 and 2020.

We haven’t had a state tournament in Utah since 2019. In 2020, all tournaments were cancelled (remember that pesky pandemic?). Then, when tournaments started coming back, USA Taekwondo changed things up. They created four regional Grand Prix tournaments that were required for athletes to qualify for Nationals. This essentially rendered our state tournament moot.

Martial arts tournaments are expensive to run and very difficult to organize, so I get it. Why put on a tournament if we don’t have to? My kids competed in 2022 because our West Grand Prix was in Reno, NV (driving distance for us) and Nationals was home in Salt Lake City. Last year, we opted out of taekwondo tournaments because they were in Portland, OR and Jacksonville, FL. That was more expensive travel than we wanted to do.

USA Taekwondo has decided that our state tournament can be a qualifier for athletes who want to compete at Nationals… they just have to win gold or silver in their event(s). Awesome news for our athletes and even more awesome for athletes who want to get a little tournament experience, but want to have to travel to get it.

Back to the poster…

I did a quick Google search for taekwondo posters to see what others have done in the past. Most have photos of taekwondo athletes and since we haven’t had a tournament since 2019, I didn’t want to use old photos. Instead, I searched through my own photos of athletes from our studio at various events over the years and turned them into cartoons using Procreate on my iPad.

First I made a save-the-date graphic. I didn’t even know the tournament venue yet!

These are the two photos that I used for this first graphic. I took them at a sparring event we hold every few months at our studio. The first photo is of my son sparring his friend attempting to kick him in the head. He missed, haha!

I drew the athletes on separate layers and exported them separately so I could move them around independent from each other. This allowed me to make my son look a little larger and more proportional to his opponent, who’s like six inches taller than him. It also let me adjust the two girls sparring so Irene is making better contact with her opponent.

Oh, the random stuff that went through my head when creating these… including having to put them all in long-sleeved, white uniforms, gloves, and competition footwear called Daedo socks.

Most tournament posters feature sparring athletes because, let’s be honest, it’s one of the most exciting events to watch. Now that I know more about other events, like poomsae (forms), I enjoy them, but sparring always draws the most spectators.

Even so, I wanted to include more events, so off to my photo archive I went. This is the final poster once they figured out a venue and the little details:

Here are the various photos I used:

I snapped this photo at the 2018 state tournament of one of my instructors, Master Samy Moras as she competed in nunchucks. I was still learning the right settings for shooting indoors, hence the motion blur. She composed a YouTube video about that tournament you can watch here.

This photo is from the same state tournament of my friend Liam, doing a flying side kick as part of his board breaking routine.

A fellow student, Breanna demonstrating the black belt form keumgang in last spring’s black belt test. She was testing for her 2nd Dan black belt.

A former instructor, Logan doing a beautiful flying side kick during his 2nd Dan black belt test a few years ago.

A fellow student, Mirai, demonstrating poomsae during her black belt test last year.

I’m pretty happy with how the final poster turned out. I even managed to redesign the Utah State Taekwondo Association logo to something a bit more legible. Their old logo used a tough font to read and it never actually said “Association” on it. It said “Championships.” That redesign was tweaked even more this week to the final logo below:

What a fun project to work on! It was really soothing working in Procreate on these drawings and having fun with the folds and wrinkles of the uniforms. Plus, I was able to take my iPad with me to the trampoline park when my kids had a play date.

Now the most pressing issues: Are my kids going to compete? Am I??? My kids have done it before. They’ve competed in sparring, poomsae, and board breaking. I’ve never competed. I’ve never wanted to spend the money or stress about having to learn and essentially cram new poomsae in a short period of time. So we’ll see.

Wolfpack Running Club

It has truly been a pleasure to get to create the brand for Wolfpack Running Club.

A few years ago, my kids joined a cross country team at their school through an elementary program. It was a fun intro-to-running program that was game-based and taught kids how to love running and be part of a team. They showed some natural talent when training and in 2021, my youngest was invited to join the competition team where he qualified to run at the USATF Cross Country National Championships. We weren’t able to attend that meet, but he was determined to qualify for Nationals again the following year.

In the following spring, the folks who ran those teams moved away from the larger, multi-city organization they had been part of and created their own nonprofit running club. Wolfpack Running Club was born with an elementary program for kindergarten thru 6th grade and a competition program for 3rd through 8th grade. In the spring they do track and field and in the fall they do cross country. They are affiliated with USA Track & Field and compete at local meets, state meets, and sometimes USATF National meets.

That spring, both of my boys joined the competition team and learned the ins and outs of track and field.

Throughout all of this, I have been the designer for their logos, merch, website, social media, and branding. I take photos at meets and some trainings. We started with these navy t-shirts and the hashtag that goes on everything #OnePack.

From there we created uniform singlets, hoodies, jackets, pullovers, drawstring backpacks, beanies, and hats. We also have vinyl stickers, temporary tattoos, Croc charms, and we are looking at possibly adding a tie-dye hoodie and a trucker running hat next year.

Every cross country season, athletes on the comp team keep track of their miles. When they reach 100 miles, they earn a t-shirt that has a different design each year.

100 Mile Pack tee from 2022 Cross Country

100 Mile Pack tee from 2023 Cross Country - I’m really proud of this design.

In the spring with track and field, rather than track miles (because sprinters and kids who specialize in field events don’t get much mileage), they are encouraged to train and/or compete in ALL of the events and keep track of them. Lots of kids join track with an idea of what they want to compete in, but then later realize they’re awesome at something else. My cross country kid turned out to be great at hurdles. My youngest thought he wanted to be a sprinter but turned out to be awesome at mid-distance. Also, if they join the track team in high school, odds are high they won’t get to do more than one or two events.

2022’s Track & Field earned tee. We learned this color tee doesn’t look that great in person.

2023’s Track & Field earned tee. I was really happy with the design on this one. One Pack Mind… get it? Like One Track Mind? For track & field?? Lol.

For cross country season, we typically have a large group that will qualify and make the trip to USATF Nationals. So I design a t-shirt for those kids and a parent version that family can purchase.

2022 USATF XC Nationals Tees

2023 USATF XC Nationals Tees

Throughout the seasons, I have also created certificates and inspirational things that we do for these awesome kids along with flyers, meet posters, yard signs, banners, and social media graphics. Some are super simple, some are more complex.

Little 4x6 signs for track or cross country, and bookmarks.

In the spring, we are hoping to buy these trucker running hats to sell to our athletes and their families that are adorned with a watercolor painting that I did of Lone Peak here in Utah. Almost all of our training happens around the base of this mountain.

It has truly been a blast creating this brand and I am so proud of how it has become cohesive and evolved into something that I hope these kids are proud to represent. We see a local high school cross country team doing runs around town and nothing makes me prouder than seeing former teammates wearing their Wolfpack t-shirt.

On social media, give us a follow! We’re @wolfpackrunningutah on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

Delicate Arch in Watercolor

When you think of Utah, an image of Delicate Arch from Arches National Park might be one of the first that pops into your head. It’s easily one of Utah’s most famous and iconic landmarks. Heck, it’s even on our license plates!

I have painted Delicate Arch a couple of times as little, fun paintings. The first was when I tried out some watercolor markers on a scrap piece of paper. You can watch a time lapse video of that painting here.

Another time I painted Delicate Arch was when I made a 5x7 birthday card for a close friend. That little painting I made into stickers as well. You can buy one HERE or by clicking on the image.

A couple of months ago, my youngest son requested I make a “big” painting of Delicate Arch and I figured it was time. By big, that’s usually on 11x14 paper. I am still working on organizing my studio space to accommodate larger paper.

I had lots of fun with this one using white gouache paint for the stars instead of masking fluid and really loving the warm purples in the shadows of the arch. I never get tired of painting beautiful red rock.

I have this painting available for sale at prints in 5x7, 8x10, and 11x14. Click on either of the images to link to those listings. This one will be available as a vinyl sticker soon.

HERE you can watch the time lapse video of this latest painting of Delicate Arch.

What should I paint next?

Lone Peak in Watercolor

I have wanted to do a larger painting of Lone Peak for quite a while. It’s the biggest and most prominent mountain that I see from the part of the Salt Lake Valley where I live. I periodically post images of my view on Instagram. You can see the vast differences in weather, light, and colors.

I did a little painting of Lone Peak at last year’s Art in the Barn, as it was viewed from the spot at Draper City Park where my booth was. When looking for photos of Lone Peak, there are many that are taken from the cirque; which is the little valley just below the summit on the east side of the mountain. When people are hiking to the summit, that’s the route that’s taken. I haven’t made it to the summit yet, so I didn’t want to post a photo of that view.

The cross country team my kids run with does weekly trail runs from different trails throughout the south Salt Lake Valley and one park in particular, Steep Mountain Park, has one of my favorite views of Lone Peak. So that’s the view I went with.

I usually have a plan in my head on how I will do any of my paintings… whether it’s a starry sky and what colors it will feature, or a clear day with clouds. With this one, I literally had NO idea what I wanted to do with the sky. I started with a basic blue sky wash and then went in with some toilet paper to lift out some clouds. The AC was on in my house and my wash was drying really fast, so that plan kinda went out the window.

Once I had that first wash done and dry, I decided to come back to it after finishing what I wanted to do with the mountain.

I thoroughly loved playing with the purples and teals in the shadows and figuring out what kind of colors made the sheet granite cliffs that adore the top of Lone Peak. My youngest son watched me for a little while and I was SO PROUD when he noticed the differences in the warmer, yellow-y greens of trees in the sun and the cool, bluer greens of trees in the shade.

When the mountain was all done, I did another wash of my sky blue to make it all darker and then I busted out my Himi gouache paints to figure out some clouds.

My first pass was an attempt to do wispy clouds and I ditched that idea pretty quickly. I don’t have enough experience with gouache to try and make it wispy like I could do with oil paints.

Instead I focused on making them fluffy and tried to give them some dimension and scale. I really like how they turned out.

And then the washi tape I was using to hold the paper down tore off a little bit of the sky!! I was so mad! At least that is easily fixed after I scan the painting and open it in Photoshop.

I am working on a way to have this painting done as a trucker hat for the running club my kids are on and eventually, I will have this available as a giclee print. So stay tuned.

Supplies: (a few are affiliate links)

• Daniel Smith Watercolor

• Himi Gouache Paint

• Polina Bright Watercolor Brushes

• Princeton Velvetouch Watercolor Brushes

• Fluid Cold Press 300lb Watercolor Paper

• Folio Palettes from Art Toolkit

• Canvas Lamp

You can watch a time lapse video of the process here:

Irvington Track & Cross Country

My brother and sister-in-law are both teachers at Irvington High School in northern California. Last year, they became coaches for the school’s track and field team and this fall they added the cross country team to their jobs.

They were in need of some cool graphics to adorn uniform singlets and t-shirts so we went to work coming up with something that the athletes could be proud to wear. School colors are royal blue and white. They are the Irvington Vikings, so we played around with concepts that included a horned helmet, wings, a wooden shield, arrows, a wood grain texture, and some fun fonts.

For uniform singlets, we kept it simple with just the school name with the helmet and wings. That way they can use the same graphic for both track and field and cross country. I think they will get sublimated singlets for the teams.

Sublimated printing is a bit more expensive at the start, but it allows for more freedom with colors and designs and the shirts last longer wash after wash. This is especially important for sports teams where athletes don’t keep the singlets when the season ends and they are loaned to another athlete the following year. This is where screen printing can wear out over time.

For track and field, we also wanted some cool t-shirts that athletes can wear to trainings and to kind of advertise their team. I sent a few concepts to my brother and he had a few of track athletes that are in his math class give their input and we went from there.

When it was time for cross country season, we had fun with a popular saying for many cross country teams. They are planning to print these on a heathered navy blue tee.

These were so much fun to create!! Thanks Pat and Melissa!