Tag Archives: digital media

Lots of work and a big decision…

Leave a reply

Hey guys! We’ll, let’s not stand on ceremony; I found my next house! (I hope) I’m going through inspections and appraisals now, but my financing is already in place, so hopefully in late March I’ll be closing 🏠

Unfortunately… I’m having to make a choice to move on from someone. With my mother dying from COVID last year, I slowly came to realise that I no longer value having constant companionship. So…

Yeah.

Anyway, my life is changing in other ways as well. I’ve already set goals for this year, and looking forward to achieving them. Quite a few are art related, so you get to come along my journey. Isn’t that fun?…

So look for me to start paying a little more attention to this page. And here’s what you were REALLY waiting for, lol. One more vid to completion!

Paint and clear coat
Advertisement

The Luxury of Sleep

Leave a reply

Hey guys! Sorry but I’m super busy with something that should cover my bills for a considerable amount of time if I can accomplish it. But hey, I’m a former paratrooper. The difficult can be done immediately and the impossible takes slightly longer. 😉

So I decided to show you the difference a little time makes. I was happy with this when I first produced it. But one of the ways that you know that you’re growing as an artist is that your old art looks primitive when you see it later. You see where you went wrong.

So fix it.

As you can see, it’s a lot more refined and the hair looks more like hair, lol. I kept her muscularity without losing the graceful flow.

And her hands aren’t big and thick.

And since one person liked my video, here’s another. Again, older work, but just as fun.

See you next week!

Cooler

Leave a reply

image

   Good news everyone!  My client apparently would be “much happier” with the actual digital file. I get to work on it a little longer to fine tune things I wasn’t happy with.

image

      Of course I intend to take advantage of this. But no sooner did I begin than work became hectic. I mean REALLY busy,  to the point of me having to be in three places at once.

image

       Anyway, her face isn’t the challenge with this image; I’m okay with those.  It’s the overall look. I’m still not sure who this character is. I haven’t decided how to present her or what way to tie in her background.
       Help?

Internalize Your Love

Leave a reply

image

      Baltimore comic-con is coming up and I gave myself a commission for a new friend. I don’t get to goof off either;  I need to finish it by tomorrow!  So I’m trying to work on it as much as possible.

image

      Of course I have no idea what kind of background I’m going to give it. I usually go to a person’s Facebook page to put those personal little touches on their art. So hopefully she appreciates it.

image

      Plus, adding the grey background is necessary when the character has any white on them.  Otherwise you can end up leaving the area blank.

image

      I’m nowhere near done! Shading, adding details and all while considering the background layout. Will I make it?…

When It’s At

Leave a reply

image

         The only thing I’ve learned in the last few weeks is to stop stretching myself so thin! Seriously, you would think there’s an actual workaholic gene at work here…

         Speaking of,  I didn’t make it to Otakon this year.  I’m a little bummed so I drew a few sketches about it. They suck, so here’s another one that I just started instead:

image

     For bonus points I get to hear Whale sing “pay for me” in the background. Look them up,  they’re why the 90’s were awesome.

image

Gone from Here

Leave a reply

   

image

          Two things; inpatient care should ALWAYS be proceeded by the word “voluntary”and there’s nothing wrong with getting your brain tuned up if it maintains your status on the mortal plane.  If a repair job is over your head,  don’t be afraid to call in the experts.

          I should have more art to show you. I do,  but it’s traditional art and right now it’s a little bit of a reminder of my recent crack up.

        I’ll come back to it, I promise.

         For now, I’m showing off a piece that I did this weekend. It was for a friend and I’d promised to do it a while ago. It was very cathartic to pull this together so quickly after my hospital stay. Actually it was amazing! Can you tell how content I am right now?

Color Blind part 3

Leave a reply

image

      So now we’re ready to add color to the image first I select a new layer and change it’s setting to color. I do the same for the brush, softening and lowering it’s opacity as well. I like to add color in strokes so it feels more like painting. Plus I don’t really clean up my brushstrokes. I like a little roughness to my art!

image

      Remember to add any layers of color necessary to achieve the look you’re after. Flatten your image when needed; it’ll save file sizes from getting out of hand. I leave mine in so that you can see the steps in the photos.

image

        The background color felt a little too dominant compared to the foreground. I use the hue/saturation tool [ctrl/cmd+u] to change the color and lighten it.

image

        I still have a little work to do, but you get the idea. Try to choose your palette BEFORE you get to that last step. It’ll make life a lot easier. Have fun!

Color Blind, part 2

Leave a reply

image

       Wanna hear something funny? When I dropped in my color for this image, I did it in color! Had to correct that after I realized it. From there I create a clipping mask and began adding my highlights and shadows, each separately. I’m allowing a little bleed over into the hairline because it helps set up the tones I need for the scalp.

image

      Next I add the hair and eyebrows. When I feather in the edges of hair I like to use a custom brush that I got from another artist, Genzoman. I don’t always want to make them and a good idea is a good idea, especially if it’s freely given. The eyebrows are a little too dark, so I’ll erase them with a low opacity soft eraser to get them right.

image

     When you’re doing eyes,  it’s hard sometimes to not go overboard with detail. I create a more realistic look when I dial it back a little. Also it took awhile to not add little bright dots for highlights the way I did when I drew anime style characters. It’s a good look in that context, but a little soft brush goes a long way.

image

     Finally, I began texturing the hair. I didn’t want to go for a flat sheen. Too plain.  So I added some stray strands to give it personality.

      So now I’m almost set! Next time you’ll see the final product, so keep an eye out!

Color Blind

Leave a reply

image

      Didn’t I promise you guys a greyscale image that I’d color by blending them in?

      I can’t remember….

      It doesn’t matter though, cause I’m doing it anyway! I begin by drawing my subject from a very bad phone shot. No, I won’t show it; I’m a videographer my rep would suffer! Besides, this is really just a sketch. Once it’s done I began by changing the color and opacity. I create a separate layer for all the line work needed. Always make sure you’re using hard edges at this stage.

image

      Once you’re happy with your line art you can divide it up if you choose. I always put all the interior detail work on a separate layer, so that I can change it to go with my color fills. I’m pretty sure that’s not standard or anything,  it’s just something I prefer.

image

       Today I took a cloud brush and stamped in some green clouds. Why? Hell if I know!  Just kidding. I actually have an idea kind of bouncing around in my skull. After that I create another layer and use the selection tool (w) to outline the main layer of art. If it doesn’t come all the way into the line, choose [Select> Modify> Expand ] to increase your selection edge by increments of pixels.  So much fun!

      Once you’ve gotten a good setup, make sure you have the interior of your outline. It you see your selection ants on the border as well, press [Ctrl/Cmd +shift +I] to invert your selection. The next step is to pick a midrange color and using either your brush or paint bucket,  fill the selection area. Pretty easy, right?   
      That’s it for now. I’m going to go drink and play while you practice. Just like a real teacher…