Tag Archives: digital art

Butcher

I have a list of images as long as my arm and even if I could do one a day, it would take me two months! I should be excited but that’s not the word for it. Overwhelmed is.

Not only that, most of these are getting a background. I can do it, but it requires a little more thought and planning. You look at certain people and ideas come to mind. For instance this guy had a very primal theme; Atlas.

He’s not a massive person. Still the image gave me a good starting point. I ran with it from there.

So this is as far as I got before I had to leave for work. Promised piece is coming up! In the meantime, enjoy your day.

Everything Needed

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Last week, I showed you how far I’d gotten but not the steps before. Yeah a lot of things change when you’re working on a picture. For example…

         In the earlier versions, something kept bothering me. Once I began shading it came to me; her left I seemed wonky! Now, I could have went back to the beginning and redress it on that layer, but instead I simply erased it.
         Using the magic lasso(W), I drew a selection around the other eye, then copy merged the area. Make sure you choose copy merged from the edit menu, otherwise it will only copy the selected layer of art!
         After you paste a new copy, move it to the area. While still highlighted, go into your transform set and choose ‘flip horizontally’. This will create a mirror image of the other eye. Of course, it can’t look exactly the same, so I recommend using your skew and rotate functions to align it properly and scale it correctly. In my case, I had to select the pupil, move it to create the illusion of looking forward and then shade the area.

She looked a little like Popeye before I fixed her eye...

Remember, the most important part of your image is the linework proceeding the actual coloring. However, if you make a mistake, you can always fix it. That’s all for me, I gotta get back to drawing!

Back to Forward

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Told y’all it was back to digital! I am entering a monthly contest they have in one of the groups on DeviantArt, so I need to get hopping on this image. Wish me luck!

Centrifugal emo

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      My life is starting to settle down finally. A little art seemed to be in order, so I kicked out a political piece. Because I’d definitely vote for Cap!
     All of my paying work is out the door. I’m so happy! Weels have gone by. I am going to have to change my contracts though. Most people don’t want me to display the art anywhere because it’s private. That’s cool, but I think I’m going to get out of the business of hiding my best pieces. I need to, at the very least, be able to display them in my portfolio!

TGIM

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Ok, deep breath.

Hey guys! It’s going to be an awesome week for me. I took up the challenge of creating a color image with multiple themes. Since I haven’t done this before, I figured, “why not?”. Yes I’m a dumbass. Oh well…

The themes were a servant, night lights, reflection, perspective and a landscape. So the kid in me figured Silver Surfer on his board looking down on the nightside of earth, staring at our cities. Bam! Combo!

So far, I’d gotten most of the way when I was reminded (well, told) that I needed to finish the digital piece I’d started. Makes sense.

For an added bonus, the hand of Galactus!

After a little more work, it turned out pretty nice. Of course, the talent is the real arbiter of it’s value, but sense I almost never draw background stuff, I was pleasantly surprised. All this while listening to enough Evanescence to kill almost anyone. I worked harder at playing this weekend than my actual job!

Man, I miss work.

TaDaaaaa!

I LOVE to Prey

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In the midst of everything I was going through, I had gotten a long way on this picture. It wasn’t until this morning however, that I remembered to post this! I’m definitely off my A game…

As you can see I’ve been blending in my shadows and highlights for this image. The way I usually do this is to take whatever layer of color I’m working on and, using my selection tool (W), I select all of that color. Once you’ve done that, create another layer above your resource layer and press Ctrl+Alt+G. This will create a clipping mask from your selection, allowing you to color or draw at will without bleeped from your parameters! No more line tracing and erasing!

The down arrow next to the layer denotes a clipping mask

My next thing may just be a “me” choice, but it’s worked and I’ll use it until I find a way that works better for me. If all my colors and art agree, I’ll make a copy of the psd file and flatten the image. From there I use the smudge tool to blending and mix in colors. The reason is because it doesn’t give a completely perfect gradation, which looks more realistic to me. I have my own, but my favorite is a tri-point brush I got from an artist named Genzoman(deviantart name).

Well I’m off to work. Hope you have a great day and do your best!

Aquadesert

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So, here I am on the Camden line train, headed home. Usually Friday night is my pool playing night, but since someone at Otakon broke into my vehicle, I have no pool cue.

Die screaming, thief.

So, as kind of a lark, this week has been about me doing traditional artwork with prisma colors. It’s not a bad way to remind myself of certain principles that are needed for digital work. For instance, making sure you have complimentary colors!

You also have to have and idea of what you’re creating. Believe me, I envy guys who can whip ideas out of thin air. But I need a little feeling out time with my images…

It looks less boring this way

Of course, I can tell that my sense of proportion suffered while I worked exclusively in the digital medium (band name, called it!) So breaking out the sketchbook or watercolors freshens up those tactile abilities. Don’t forget! As for me I have a mermaid to finish, so I’m turning up the Tommy Heavenly6!

Workrelease

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For a change of pace, I pulled out my sketchbook and begin to draw the old fashioned way. It helps me get my sense of scale back, as well as the touch needed to create. I’m not much for imaginary images (yet), so these exercises help me somewhat.

There has been an increase in difficulty with gaining new customers lately. One of the artists who mentors me said to not be surprised in lulls when it comes to clients and to take any downtime to work on personally gratifying projects. I do have a pretty ambitious one in mind…

A single picture containing every single member of my family who ever served this country.

As you’d expect from four generations worth, that’s a large undertaking. Add to that the need to procure images and information…yep, not a small task.

Guess I better get started, huh?