Nexus Webcomic Cover

Hello Blog! I've not posted in a while but I have been busy!

I'm working on a Star Wars Fancomic, called Nexus. Here's the cover - fullview below the break + progress shots.

Shyla The Fallen

New artwork!

This is Shyla The Fallen from Rift. She's one of the leaders of the Guardians, but in the Defiant starting area, she's one of the many of the leaders that have fell to corruption. Evil fairies are just awesome anyway. I'll probably be drawing more of the little buggers. They're just hilarious.

I've been working on this throughout the week, between other work and filling up my sketchbook with ideas for another very cool thing I'm collaborating with an awesome writer. ;)

(click for larger)

I pretty much threw out all the habits I have formed in the past year or so and started over. Nearly everything was completely opposite of what I've been doing of late - lots of layers, lineart, complete background, and most importantly, I drew it via pencil and had the concept 90% there before it went into the computer. The one thing I didn't do which I regret is take the time to get some  photo reference. The pose is a little stiff and the hands aren't quite as nice as I'd like them to be - but overall I think it's one of the most put together pieces I've done yet.

Here's a gif showing the steps:

Overall this took probably 20-25 hours or so.
I did do some post-scan fixing in a blue ink pen between the ink layer and the scan. I also made a point to fix anything I found as I went along. Having the mindset of doing it right instead of just getting it done makes a huge difference.

This went generally faster than my other stuff that looks less complete, but there's a few areas I think I can do better yet too. There's places where I need to spend more detail, and alternatively others where I do too much detail but it doesn't add to the piece. Getting better though!

Thanks for viewing.

Butterfly

Been a long time, blog!

Here's something I finished while at Otakon this weekend. (click for larger)

Some closeups:

That's all for now but I hope to have more soon. I've gone back to the good ol' analog sketchbook (FINALLY). One thing of many that I learned this weekend was that I need to sketch more. WAY more. I really want to be able to not only improve my craft but also be able to draw a little smoother and faster. The only way to do that is to practice!

~K

Portrait: Tess & Otakon Update!

The last of the free portraits for now! Feels good to get these off my plate, even though I really enjoyed working on them. I have another (really big) commission coming soon that I can now focus all my energy on - whew!

And some detail shots:

Otakon Annoucement!
I got the confirmation for an Artist Alley Table this weekend! I didn't think I was going to get it as I didn't make the first round. This is really exciting, and also a great big kick in the pants to get some original work done!!! So, once I'm done with my current commissions I'll be on an official freeze until the show. After that I WILL reopen commissions AND DO THEM REGULARLY. Thanks to everyone who reads my blog and is also looking forward to more custom work for me. It means a whole lot. I love this art because of the enjoyment other people get from my work.

Thanks again and more to come soon!
~K

Commission Portrait Winner #1 - Asheline

I'm not ded yet! Just really busy.... as usual. >.>


One of the winners of the feedback submission contest!



The first of many new arts coming soon. Thanks Ash! I had a lot of fun with this one.
 ~K

Unclaimed Prizes

Hey folks, just a heads up that I have a few people who have not responded to my emails to claim the raffle winnings. If you happen to see this and haven't checked your mail, please do. :)

I'll send out a reminder email in a couple weeks, after which I will re-draw numbers and give the prize out to another person on the list.

New stuff coming soon, I've been spending time working on web development projects and am also trying to not do 500 things at once. So far it's been working out. Things move a little slower (I am spread across 3 disciplines - web, design, and art) as I work a little on all three, but actually completing things is far better than having 20 open unfinished projects. :)

Thanks as always!
K

Video Winners Chosen!

Just a quickee post to tell you that the winners for the How-To Video Raffle have been chosen!

I used a random number generator (....there's a website for that. Of course. random.org).

There were 41 participants who gave their email for the raffle with 6 winners. I emailed everyone to let them know whether they won or not, so please check your mail!

Speaking of mail, If you'd like to be notified when new videos are available, I've set up a mailing list.
Find it here: http://eepurl.com/ci9HD

Thanks again! I had some fantastic, useful, and inspiring feedback. I'm psyched to get the first part of the series done.

Thanks again!
K

"Doodle" 2-14

I missed a couple days as we went away for the weekend and Sunday I was just plain lazy!

But I tried to make up for it last night by starting to concept what I hope to be a nice and large wall mural:

I want the base to be symmetrical, but I'll be painting most of the detail individually so there's more visual goodies to soak up. I want it to have 'layers' of patterns. 

We went to the Art Museum in Philly this weekend as part of our getaway, and I was really inspired most of all by the depth and detail in paintings, as well as the ornate detail in some of the renaissance-period armor and weapons. I can't wait to go back. 4 hours was definitely not enough!

Daily Doodles 2-9 and 2-10

2-9-2011: Concept work for Vespora. This is a race that will appear to be a cross between a chinese dragon and a humanoid - getting closer but not there yet!

2-10-2011: We had our P&P RPG Group last night, and as we're doing a Star Wars Campaign, I drew my character, which is a Torguta (sp?) Jedi. I NEVER play Jedis, I'm typically the goofball who plays stuff like a Wookiee Scoundrel or whathaveyou. ;)

Daily Doodles 2-7 and 2-8

2/7/2011 - Turkey Bikini???

2/8/2011 - Hair salon advert

These have been great for relaxing and having fun, but now it's time for some bigger concept art or speed paints or something I think. :)

Portrait: Teufelia and Daily Doodle 3

Quickee post from this weekend's work.
Most of my effort was into the video pilot I posted everywhere, but in addition I finished this portrait for a friend:

Bit of a different painting style, which was fun. :) I counted this as Saturday's "Daily Doodle".

Sunday was also a quickee, but much needed practice on males:

Was all but 20 minutes of drawing though which was kind of lame. I'll do better tonight. :) Need to start working on some costume design for humans, male military-esque 'grunts' in particular. Way out of my comfort zone of pretti elves - so I'm looking forward to it. :)

Oh and...

Watch and Survey my Pilot Video Please!!

vimeo.com/19604178

That's all for now!

Pilot Video Is Ready!! Free art for your feedback! Yarly.

Woohoo! So I finally finished my pilot how-to video.

Like any other piece of art, I think I could have edited it for another 20 hours and still not be happy. But, I don't think I could have handled hearing my own voice for that long. Haha!

Find the video here at Vimeo.com:
http://vimeo.com/19604178

Feedback needed!
At the bottom of the video link, there's another link to a 10 question survey. Please help me out by taking the extra few minutes to fill it out, so I can get a feel for how this format is working.

Free stuff!
Anyone who also provides me their email address (only used for this purpose and no other), will also be entered into a raffle to win a free full cg commission, or one of 5 mini portrait commissions!

Shameless promo image of shamelessness go!

Doodle 1

Trying a daily doodle thing over at http://satellitesoda.com.

01: Doodle Fairy?
Super fun. Amazing what happens when you relax and just have fun! This was a squiggly line.

Behind the Scenes

While there's not much being posted by me right now, I'm still bustin' butt every night on two very cool projects, that I hope to have ready soon.

The nearest to complete is the How To Draw and Paint in Photoshop video tutorial 'pilot' video, which will hopefully get some good feedback and pave the way for a solid series. This is on the final tweaks to the audio, so it will definitely be out this week. LOTS of goodies to be given away once it's released, so stay tuned!

The other big project now has a name: VESPORA.
This is a collaborative Science-Fantasy concept between my fiancee' and myself. We're both writing the concept, he's applying some killer P&P-RPG mechanics he's been developing the past year to the concept, and I'm of course cranking away at tons of concept art. Really excited at this prospect and can't wait to show you some characters from the universe.

Also, we're still waiting with anxiety anticipation for the Otakon dealer's hall reservations to open up. As soon as we do, and we score a spot, we'll make the official announcement. Until then it's just more trolling their website and getting prepared by making more fun stuff.

Amellia

Putting some of my recent practice into application, I was able to pull together a pretty decent character concept in a reasonable timeframe.

Click for full size.

This was about 6-7 hours, Photoshop. Takes some discipline, but it's absolutely worth it to spend some more time on art foundations. I'm also getting more comfortable shooting my own photo reference when I need it. It's not as hard as you would think. :)

More to come soon! I have a few really fun things in the works.

Really Awesome Painting Resource

Story, Composition, Value - these three things are my primary focus as I am creating new art right now. I need to get back to my roots and learn the basics. I got the photoshop part down good, now it's the stuff of the masters that I must pick up.

In that quest, I've used my lunch hour to browse videos and websites, and today I found a gem!
http://emptyeasel.com/art-tutorials/painting-tutorials/

I went looking for some foundation-education; the stuff that's been around for hundreds of years and what they teach in art skool (which I didn't go to, I trained as a designer). ;)

Things in particular I learned that I am really looking forward to applying:

Value:

Notan - Japanese for "Dark-Light"
http://emptyeasel.com/?s=notan


http://emptyeasel.com/2008/08/19/using-notan-as-a-painting-strategy-a-step-by-step-painting-tutorial/

http://emptyeasel.com/2008/12/09/two-reasons-why-values-lights-and-darks-are-so-important-in-paintings/


Composition:
http://emptyeasel.com/2010/12/10/how-to-create-the-illusion-of-distance-in-a-picture/

http://emptyeasel.com/2008/10/21/6-time-tested-ways-to-create-visual-paths-of-interest-in-your-paintings/

http://emptyeasel.com/2006/11/24/9-steps-to-creating-better-compositions/

http://emptyeasel.com/2009/02/10/repoussoir-a-classical-and-contemporary-art-technique-for-better-compositions/

http://emptyeasel.com/2008/07/24/8-rules-of-painting-you-shouldnt-live-by-and-why/

Things I don't want to forget:

This post is encouragement when I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and think I'm not good at too many things. :)

For me, with art I go into highs and lows. I feel great about my work, think I'm 'good' and 'talented', and crank out some new stuff and then the high goes away and I feel the weight of 'all that I have yet to learn'. But, it feels more like 'everyone is so much better than me' - which I know isn't true, any more true than everyone in the world is smarter/thinner/prettier/priveleged than I. It's a silly perception and something that will drive you to the ground if you let it get into your thinking.

So this post is to remind myself that I'm really good at certain things;

Things I really like:
Drawing People (especially women), Faces/Expressions, Color, Shiny Things, pin-ups

I'm not so great at (right now):
Environments, Depth, Extreme Values (shading), huge scenes or storylines


That's not to say I should ignore the second list, but to remember that I enjoy and have more skill in the first, and I should put my focus on the things I enjoy and get better at them, while gradually adding in the things from the second list.

Here's some great words of wisdom from this post:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=178582

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter.”
- Confucius

This isn't a step-by-step list, but rather a reminder that there are always different approaches to the same thing. Some people seem locked into thinking you have to approach this thing in this way or that thing in that way but never think to approach this thing in that way or that thing in this way.

If you're trying to learn perspective, for example, you're not stuck just reading books (reflection). You can also try looking at perspective drawings from other artists and either replicating them or overlaying perspective lines (imitation), or you can try setting up the perspective points on paper or draw on sheets of glass like the old masters and work it out yourself (experience). Heck even if you feel you really understand perspective it may be worthwhile to try other approaches if you never have, you may gain some deeper insights you had no idea about.

- Anid Maro

I think it's fairly common understanding among more experienced participants in any discipline that practicing a variety of skills related to your discipline is essential for improvement, but being conscious not to study such a broad variety of things as to over stretch yourself without gaining sufficient proficiency in any of them.

Finding out what you want to do and how to do it through experimentation and whatnot should be the first step, then when you find that one part of your discipline that you want to master, you focus on that while prioritizing additional skills.

Focus on your primary, while giving less than equal attention to secondary skills, and paying cursory attention to tertiary skills, being careful not to under-study those additional skills, since all skills play on each other for advancement. To me it doesn't make a lot of sense to become a master of human anatomy if your primary focus is on landscape paintings where there are few, if any human actors present in the painting. Still one should have a good foundational knowledge of all other aspects of their art, as these "lesser" skills will ultimately come into play into your art at some time in the future, and in the future your focus may shift to some aspects of art that you had preciously deemed lesser, or unnecessary to your advancement.

the ability to keep a wide-open mind to different possibilities is a hugely beneficial tool to have in your possession when undertaking these kinds of tasks.

-Sepulverture

I think somewhere along the lines of "I just did 3 quick line drawings of this piece of drapery, now I ought to sit down and do a longer rendering of it to get a more rounded understanding of this thing I just drew".

It took me a while to see this, but there was a period earlier in my development where I made a truck load of progress in a very short time, and on reflection I realized that it was because I was mixing methods a little bit. Quick Quick Long Quick Quick Long. Something like that.

I also realized that for myself if I simply push and push and continually study that I will not learn as much as if I do a series of studies, then completely forget about drawing for a day or two, or if I did a lot lot of studies, even several days while I digest what I just studied and try to observe the things I just studied in real life. If I spent the last week studying drapery, then It typically would do me well to spend the following day or so sitting outside somewhere and just watching peoples clothes to see how they react to different movements. I also spend a lot of time standing in front of my mirror with some loose garments on making the same idiotic pose over and over again just to watch how the folds in the clothes react.
- also Sepulverture

"Intruders" - some practice work

This piece was supposed to only be a sketch - something to warm up and try something new. But then It evolved into this thing I spent about 20 some odd hours on, haha.

I sought some feedback on two popular artist forums, Conceptart.org and CGPad.org - which was really helpful and helped me see a lot in the picture I wouldn't have otherwise.

Here's the progress over the course of last week:

Overall, I'm at the point I usually am when I spend this much time on one piece of work - I dislike it. I see all the things I could have done with it and none of the good stuff. In 3 months I'll like it again and it will be fine as it usually is, but ah well. :)

Additionally, while I really enjoy spending time in those two websites I mentioned - great artists, really good learning experience, and good feedback - it's been a little discouraging as well, as I see just how much I have to learn.

Maybe I just need to focus on the things I really enjoy and expand from there - people, portraits, pin-ups. But definitely more original art. I have a few unfinished WoW pieces that are going to stay that way for a while as I work on some more original concepts. But man, that well is awfully dry. It's been unused for way too long.

Thanks as usual,
K

"Kiss Kiss"

I'm on an art-rampage!

Subject is Lady Nazjar - a random World of Warcraft NPC (instance Boss) that I found fascinating. :)

I had a great time with this picture. It was also a real test to see if I can make a mostly complete portrait under 4 hours. Why is this so important? For me, it's an exercise to think about the WHOLE image from the start. The time constraint is my personal fire to keep the composition in my mind as well as the detail. Plus, after 15 years of on again/off again art-ing, I know that anything over 6 hours starts to burn me out.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it and picked up some techniques for next time.

Click for larger view.

The main reason I knew exactly how long it took me is because I recorded the whole thing from start-finish this time. I won't be doing this for EVERY piece I do, but I like to share the process so that other people might learn from my trial and error.

Lady Nazjar "Kiss Kiss" - timelapse digital painting from kristi b on Vimeo.

Video speed: 700% - total view time: 31:42 minutes
Actual time spent: 3 hours 40 minutes
Medium: Photoshop
Music: Dieselboy - East Coast Science Vol 1 (Side B)

Great practice in seeing a portrait to complete in under 4 hours! I did not sketch nearly as much as I should have, but I had a pretty solid idea of what I wanted the picture to look like from the get-go.

Enjoy and let me know what you think! Is it fast enough?

Shimitsu - Goblin with Explosives... what's not to like?

This is another WoW art piece, based off my Goblin Rogue I've dabbled around with. I really love the goblins in this expansion, I personally think they turned out better than the worgen (which is a shame!).

This took me probably 10 hours altogether due to the fact it's new years and there was partying to do. :) That said I'm trying to keep these portraits down to under 6 hours each, and recording them really helps gague my actual time.

Shimitsu - click for larger view.

I recorded most of the process this time! Hooray! Though, the software I used wasn't very good, and it crapped out on me about 75% of the way through. But! I have a MUCH better program now and the next one is going to be sexy. Promise. I'd love to get feedback on these as well if you watch them - I think some parts could have been sped up more.

shimitsu portrait - 0 to 75% from kristi b on Vimeo.

Thanks for viewing! More to come soon.