and the Winner is...

With an resounding 22 votes out of a possible 39, Entry #3 is our winner.

This Prince drawing was done by UNKO artist/designer Sam... with the hair. The process for this piece is A LOT more involved than you may think. This ENTIRE piece started off as a black rectangle. The lights and darks you see in the image are different pressure erasures. Yes... she did this all with an eraser. This is a process known as "REDUCTION", and is most often associated with charcoal drawings in the real world. In Laymen's terms, instead of drawing on white paper/canvas with a darker medium (ie. pencil, pen charcoal), this process forces you to do the opposite. She was drawing on the dark with white so to speak. See now doesn't that make this piece more impressive? Congrats Sam... with the hair, you have carved out your place in UNKO history by winning the first UNKO Challenge.

The UNKO Challenge: Vote Now

As promised here are the pieces from the first ever UNKO Challenge. Each participant was limited to using only the Wacom and reference images if needed. We've decided in an attempt to keep voting honest, no one was allowed to use any distinguishable markings, names, or designer's likenesses in their pieces. (After all you're voting for the image NOT the person that created the image.) Also try to keep the voting based on imagery NOT the person in the image. Leave your vote in the comments section. Click the image if you need a larger view. The winner gets nothing more than bragging rights but what artist doesn't like to brag?! So choose wisely.

*EDIT: If the CAPTCHA is not showing a field to enter anything, click the CAPTCHA image and drag it down or press the "tab" key on your keyboard until you see the entry field*

Entry #1


Entry #2


Entry #3


Entry #4

The UNKO Challenge

One of the quirky things about artists/athletes/ and musicians is that we all in our own minds feel that when we're in a zone, there is no one better, no matter how true/untrue that may be. And sometimes events come along that allow us to showcase our abilities and allow an outside party to determine who the best is for themselves. A contest is one such event. Allow us to give you backstory on this challenge.

Last week one of our intern designers, Eric "Senior Blanco" to be exact, walked into the Twitter arena with white silk gloves in hand, and slapped Blue the Great and I (the REAL Jeremy Biggers) with the double duel slap for the whole world to see. His exact words "@unkommonkolor @bluethegreat....i am on the wacom....you should be nervous....", "@unkommonkolor.....its your own fault!!! you guys brought this war upon yourselves!!!!!!!!!!!" , "@unkommonkolor......this is gonna get ugly...like tyrone hill, anthony mason ugly...." We decided to open the challenge up to everyone else on the team as well and make it an all out "Smash Bros" type brawl. Besides, a little friendly competition never hurt anyone... except that one time at summer camp, but they said they would drop the charges.

The stipulations are simple. We all work on Wacom digital paintings of any subject matter using only the Wacom and Photoshop. No vectors. No photo-manipulations. We will post our entries on Thursday, you all will vote on the best piece. We announce the winner on Monday. Pretty straight forward. Once we get in a few of these contests under our belt we will open the contest to the public and allow you all to challenge us... This should be fun. Stay tuned, and be sure to vote starting Thursday!