Tag Archives: black and white

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Hey guys! The holiday is over and we can all go back to not feeling guilty about not having a postcard life. I didn’t call anyone; there’s no one to call anymore.

Anyway, I’m working at creating new art, so here’s a video of a previous piece that I worked on. Like most, Chadwick Boseman played a lot of characters, but it was his role as Tchalla, the Black Panther, that made me happy.

When he passed it felt so unfair! I had to do something with that energy. So like many of my fellow artists I did a picture of him.

This is the video of that process. Enjoy.

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Halloween

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I made it! A buttload of pictures were completed for #inktober! Including a very special one…

So, it’s never come up but I have a couple of wily and fun ginger sisters in my life. I’ve drawn them before as Jean Grey and Dark Phoenix; it seemed appropriate, given the personalities involved. But one of them REALLY loves Halloween. So… I made her the Goblin Queen!

I started out with a couple of thumbnails to get the design I wanted.

Then I did a rough sketch. This is when I decided to add a pet goblin. A queen needs her subjects!

After doing a clean line version of my image and choosing a pallet, I begin coloring, doing the leather and skintones first.

Next came the cape. If you know the character, you know her original design by Marc Silvestri was very sketch and tattered looking. I didn’t want to go THAT far, but still wanted to stay in the spirit of the original.

Next I added some background accents. I was going to make it feel a little more Dante at first, with suffering souls and all that. But I decided against it.

Finally I added an appropriate sidekick and made sure all of the focal light fell on the main character.

My friend was really happy with her gift. But I’m no dummy. I have to draw the other one soon. They ARE sisters after all.

Surrender to Winning

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Freelance life can be great. You’re hired based on your skill and hustle; you get to decide most of the rules of engagement. Yes, for outgoing, social people, it can be a wonderful experience….

…. for the people who hate the concept of other people, not so much.

Now I understand that this is a me problem. I need to be liked. My clientele will want to feel a connection to me. I get that. I shouldn’t be unavailable. It makes perfect sense.

But if I could just draw or paint all day, on a mountain, I would. I have learned though.

Anyway… when I was working on this, I was fresh out of the hospital and trying to find a job. I was a month behind on my mortgage.

And NO ONE was buying my work.

So I started doing portraits. I’m sure that it would take me forever to pay just one month worth of bills this way. But it did make me a lot better at it.

The good news is that I can put my own twist on them. So maybe it’s not so bad. Or maybe I’m becoming better at my people skills…

Recollect

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    All of my favorite people seem to be either dead or out of my life in any meaningful way. That’s the kind of observation that can ruin your holidays!

I’m sure I’ll be fine.

     So last week I decided to do an online tutorial, live on Facebook. It was pretty successful; I had no idea so many people were interested in Prismacolor shading process for markers!

    A couple of people told me I had a unique look and wanted to know where I learned it. The school of trial and error was my reply. Sure, I’d like to be able to have the style of an Artgerm or Warren Luow, but I’m proud of coming up with my own solutions.

   Having said that, I often find myself inventing a wheel that already exists. But the process of finding and implementing the solution teaches me a lot.

     This will never end for me. I’ll always be learning something new and exciting in art. Always picking up a new technique. When I look at my old stuff all I see is what I did wrong! 

Rather than get discouraged, I take it to heart. If I wasn’t growing in both knowledge and experience, it would still seem fine to me. If your stuff from a few years back still looks great to you, you’re stagnating.🙁

     While I’m content with the praise I received last week for this image, I know that next year I’ll cringe a little looking at it. 

      It’s only natural.

Artzoned

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image

    I sold this picture while working on it, riding the train! Isn’t that crazy? The lady in the seat directly behind me watched me create it and asked if she could purchase it. I was so happy!

    Now I’m not so sure it was the right thing to do.

    She could have easily had me create a commission piece. This was an attempt at speed work. So it has flaws. But if she enjoyed it, that shouldn’t matter, right?

    Right?