inkjetcanvasblog

Nexus Webcomic Cover

2011-12-04T17:53:00.001-08:00

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.

Click for full size.

I'll be updating this comic every Tuesday starting next week. This is meant to be a collaborative project - I'm enlisting the creative talent over at swtor-haven.com for various sub-plot and co-star characters.

Here's some progress shots from this cover, which took about 7 hours in Photoshop:

Click for full size.

Much of my updating art-wise is going to be over at the webcomic's URL nexus-comic.com, so please do follow me over there, or via twitter @inkjetcanvas

Shyla The Fallen

2011-08-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

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!

Portrait: Tess & Otakon Update!

2011-04-18T06:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-11T07:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-02T06:37:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-02-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-11T05:43:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-08T19:14:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-02-05T13:16:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-04T19:36:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-01T06:37:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-24T10:34:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

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:

2011-01-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

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"

2011-01-04T05:56:00.000-08:00

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?

2011-01-02T06:21:00.000-08:00

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.

Latest: WoW Portraits

2010-12-30T07:12:00.000-08:00

Portait of Zaraeda, a Death Knight. (World of Warcraft Fan-Art)
Click for full-view.

Even though I haven't done much work over the past couple of months, I'm surprised to see the improvement between this piece and the others before.

This was about 3 hours of work, about 50% larger than the fullview size.

I'm currently working on another one that is also being recorded, hope to have that up this week yet. :)

Genkigeek - Part 1: Sketch to Lineart

2010-05-18T12:37:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! This time, I recorded the process from the very beginning. This is the first part, from sketch to pre-color ("lineart", but I cant really call it lineart anymore... its much more than that!)

This picture is part of a blog design I'm working on... more on that after part 2. :)

Time spent so far - ~70 mins?
Click picture for larger view.

Please enjoy!

Genkigeek - Part 1: Sketch to Lineart from kristi b on Vimeo.

Video Length: ~10 mins
Speed: 600% normal speed
Medium: Photoshop CS4

Music: The Third Eye by Pillows, Gold by Lamb

Part 1 of 2 on recording a piece of art from start to finish. I did switch computers midway and missed a slot, hence the fadein. I also couldn't find appropriate music for the last 30 seconds or so - sorry! I'll plan that out better next time ;)

Photoshop Inking Video: Nym

2010-05-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

Hey!

I realized I never posted this video here. I did this a few months back -- hopefully I'll have time to create another video sometime soon.

The sketch was done in pencil (I dont do that often, honestly), and the inking was done in Photoshop CS5, with a Wacom Intuos tablet.

Pencil to Lineart - Nym from kristi b on Vimeo.

Lolth: The SpiderQueen

2010-04-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

This was something I wanted to do for a while. If I'm not relaxing by playing video games, I'm usually into one of the Forgotten Realms paperbacks. While not a big fan of Drizzt, I do really enjoy the Drow culture and their twisted goddess; Lolth.

(click the image for a larger view)

Lloth, the Queen of Spiders or Queen of the Demonweb Pits, is the goddess of the drow^[4], a chaotic evil deity who revels in chaos. She patterns her life and the lives of her worshipers on a regimen of chaotic acts and the veneration of spiders. The way that new-born spider broods tear each other apart to survive especially appeals to her. She promotes this by encouraging her worshipers to kill their rivals, thus ensuring that they are the strongest of the 'brood'. Her love of chaos often makes her appear mad but the wise see her as a calculating individual who is always several steps ahead of those who believe that they can anticipate her. She is cruel and domineering, forcing her will upon her followers and her enemies, a will which instructs the strong to crush the weak in the most torturous way imaginable. source

I painted this with heavy influence from the Renaissance period painters depicting their monarchy.

I spent nearly the entire weekend working on this - probably about 18-20 hours.

Here's some of the details at 100% size. The file was about 6000 pixels wide. :)
Most of the detailing I did by hand, such as the lace and the spider webs. The only pattern I imported was the dress, as that would have taken forever. >.>

I don't have many process images for this, as I was experimenting alot. However, I am really happy with how I worked through the 'lineart' and will definitely be using it again for the next picture.

Thanks for taking the time to check this out! I'm very proud of this one.

WoW Art: Warlock Blood Elf

2010-04-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Been a while, but I finally am getting around to doing some personal/fun artwork. :D
This is (YET ANOTHER) fanart from WoW - I will be moving away from it.... at least that's what I keep telling myself but I know better. *ahem*.

(click for larger view)

Download a widescreen wallpaper of the art here (updated to better quality)

I remembered to screen cap this one throughout the process. :)

The rough sketch - My goal was to distort the proportions and go for a more stylized look. I wanted more personality in this picture. Attitude! I didn't expect her to be a DDD-cup. Yeesh.

I make a new layer and refine the shape a little bit more.

Yet another layer and sketch on the clothes. I had a lot of fun with this one - this outfit is based off of the old PvP "Season 2" set. In my opinion the best looking gear-set they ever made. ;)

ANOTHER layer, and start working out my linework. Next time I'm going to go back to doing this process all on one layer. It has it's benefits doing it this way, but it's also kind of tedious...

Time for color! I rough in the background and start shading the form. Way too many layers for this one.. >.>

Working out details.

I went back and adjusted the background, and then the colors of the dress. The dominant red BG was over-powering the figure, and didn't help with backlighting much.

And.... i forgot to screen after that. Once all the color was in place, I smooshed all the layers together (except the BG) and added in lighting details and refined many of the edges. I also colorized the linework to make it blend better.

Silber: Process

2009-10-25T05:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-25T06:56:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-10T14:02:00.000-08:00

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