Silber: Process

Didn't go into great detail this time, because I did a lot of experimenting.

Getting right to it:

The rough sketch. Before I got to this pose I did a bunch of little sketches. Really loose, and I found that using kind of a fatter brush keeps me from getting into details too quickly.

Lineart. Refined some details as I went, shifted the angle of the arms and hands, etc. Pleasantly surprised at the hands - I have so much trouble with them still! It's really frustrating. :(

Here I started with the underpainting technique explained in the LehoPachi commission (check out the how-to links from some other great artists there), and then applied the flat colors, and then just squashed them all to one layer so that I could 'eyedrop paint' with the colors. This has it's benefits over trying to manage a million layers, but can also be hindering too, so it's just what works for you really.

So yeah... forgot to take another process screenie after that. ;) It went rather fast actually once the base was set. Lots of details, some texture brushes, and then a layer on top of the lineart to fill in the accents and final lighting elements. Viola!

Thanks for reading! Comments, feedback, rotten tomatoes always welcome. :)

Dragonqueen - Process

So I tried to remember to save screenshots while I worked on this one. :)

 

Started with a rough sketch, using a soft grey color brush, set to maybe 80% opacity. You should be able to build up the lines just like when you use a light sketch pencil. Digital work just imitates natural media, after all.

 Once I'm fairly happy with the linework, and I start noticing I'm zooming in and trying to piddle with details, I make a new layer and switch to a more hardier pen type, opacity ~90%.  Zoomed up it looks so sloppy! XD

Wanted to make this more than just a pretty girl, so I modified the canvas a bit to make room for the next thing....

Sketching the "big" Alexstraza.

Painted the BG a warm neutral-grey color, and started laying out flat shades for the figure. In this screen I cheated a bit and did a little pre-emptive shading just to make sure I liked where my light source was going to come from.

More flat colors. These are all mid-tone base colors.

Closeup of the figure in flat colors.

Mooore flat colors. Right now I have all of these on their own layer, but after a while that gets tedious and it's time to consolodate.

Starting to paint the dragon in the background. She's done all on one layer, with one or two brushes.

Messing with layer values (overlay, multiply, etc) to see how I'd like to set the dragon in the background. 

More color shifting, and some more dragon details, so that she matches the figure.

Going back to the figure, starting to shade and define the flat areas. Since I'm kind of sloppy with my colors, I keep the separate layers for this and lock the layer's transparency.

Details and textures on the leather/mail bikini. I took one of my scatter brushes and added a texture to it, through a leather pattern found on CGtextures.com. I defined the file as a "Pattern", then applied it to the brush.

More details. Shaded the textured parts by setting the layer to Multiply, and shaded underneath it with a duplicated layer that had nothing but flat color on it to start.

More details. Still have a ton of layers, and they got to be a huge pain at this point. Ready to flatten.

Flattened the figure (but not the BG) and added some final touch-ups and global shading for definition.

Closeup of the details on the figure. Done! :)

LehoPachi Commission - Process

Leho & Pachi Commission.

So, to start things off (again!) I'll post up my most recent commission and the process I used:

This is about an hour's worth of work - really sloppy lines, just to get the feel of the scene and get the proportions mostly worked out.

I wasn't sure about the scene so I did most of what ended up being the background in this step, though hid it later on...

 

... to try out a new technique that involved shading the characters on one layer in black and white before applying any color.

This is something that artists Sandara and Genzoman both outline in their respective how-to's on Deviantart.

It was a little akward but enjoyed it.

Here, I've created a new layer in Photoshop, and set it to Multiply to do the color. This was a little different than I was used to, as I typically eyedrop the color as I paint, and you can't really do that on a multiply layer. The color was intended to be flat at this stage, picking up the shades from the bnw layer underneath.

I also warmed up the BnW layer with the color adjustment tool - the black was just too harsh.

It worked out okay, but I think I was a bit heavy on the shading for the color. I think I'd use a different color than black next time and see how that goes.

 

Added in some details, polished up the color on a new (normal) layer, and called it a day.

Total time spent: ~6 hours. 

Size: 11" x 14"

That's it this time! I'll be breaking it out more in my next pieces for the purpose of this blog. These screenies were mostly taken for the commission progress updates.

Website Launch - AAF.com

Though it's been up for a couple weeks now, I wanted to note the launch of one of my largest web projects to date: http://www.auntieannesfranchising.com/

Design and visual direction was led by me, and the development into the DotNetNuke platform was done through our vendor.

The entire project was completed in less than 2 months, with a lot of blood sweat and tears from everyone involved. This was also a new sort of project for the company, as we've only done smaller-scale web projects in house so far. It was a great learning experience and while there's a few small things I'd love to go back and tweak, the design held together with little changes from the concept to completion. We've gotten great feedback on it so far - here's hoping it's a great asset for the company!

Other web projects I've worked on for Auntie Anne's:

Auntie Anne's in San Fransisco - Catering Website:
http://www.auntieannessf.com/
(One of my favorites still.)



A New Twist on Giving Back - PR Charitable Campaign in 2007.
atwistongivingback.com (no longer active)














Pretzel Perfect Store Awards - Internal recognition for management:
http://www.aainfosource.com/awards/
(disclaimer - the internal navigation was not my design and I really hate it.)



It's nice to look back and see the progress that I've been able to make on the web side of things. I'm still largely a print designer here at Auntie Anne's, but they're so supportive of our interests, and have allowed me to really get involved in the digital world more than I expected. It's much wanted experience for myself - and especially with the last project, it's paid off for both myself and the company (at least I hope for the company. ;) )

Rules Meant to Be Broken

Picasso: "Portrait de la mère de l'artiste" 1896.

Learning and mastering what it is to be an artist, or designer – it's a lifelong process and this cycle of what I can only describe as "learning and un-learning".

I was lucky to hear the owner of knockknock.com speak at the local art college a couple weeks ago. And she said a lot of great things that I really took to heart, but one in particular really hit on the thing I have been mulling over for the past month or so. She quoted Picasso:

"It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."
- Art quote by Pablo Picasso (link)

Picasso was an amazing artist, and perfect in execution, even before he explored cubism. To the untrained and uninformed, it looks like the man didn't know how to paint (Jackson Pollock, anyone?).... when in fact, the opposite was true.

He was a master because he could take all that he learned, and then do something completely different.

Sounds really easy in theory, but it's a concept that so few of us can really get beyond, and even fewer have mastered.

It's hit me personally in my efforts to master what I called "lineless painting". I struggled - for years, trying to find a way that worked for me to paint digitally without depending on my original sketches and lines. I found myself confined by the lines, and my final pieces felt a bit stiff and regulated to me.

I had finally learned a comfortable way to paint just a few months ago. It was like a revalation to me... like a fog lifted! I felt a great amount of creative freedom and a whole new set of challenges.

And now – now that I've become more comfortable with the approach, I find myself coming full circle again. "How can I take what I now know about painting, and bring my lineart back into my work to give it more character??". Ironic, isn't it? :)

My hope - or rather, my plan, is to further look at the examples of what I think my art is missing - immersive composition, action, movement - and literally "Learn to paint like Raphael" (in my case, the artists that are doing it right) - so that I can in turn, take everything I learn from the process and turn it on it's head and make it my own.

Whew. :)

Things I'd like to remember:
1. Always ask "why?". I want it to not only be beautiful, but to always mean something.
2. Don't skimp on the sketch. Don't skimp on the sketch. Refine refine refine. The sketch is the soul of the drawing. If it's wrong, no amount of skillful painting is going to fix it. Fix and refine first. :P