The new bouncing baby.....painting

I wanted "Bad Ass"! I wanted her to look like she's been drug through hell and is going to get up one last time, just to kick YOUR ass.

(Unfortunately I can't find the sketches, so we will start further into the process.)

Took me awhile to get the idea down. A very long while. I have a hard time when I don't have time constraints. I keep second guessing, going back, re-doing old ideas, etc.

I also have a problem with not zooming in. I'm not talking about zooming in and working every little tiny detail. I'm talking about zooming in to the heart of the picture. Get in there and let the viewer feel like they are involved. I always want to keep moving out to add more elements to the piece. I have to force myself to crop and move in, "trim the fat". I was trying to go overboard here. I still think I could have gone farther, but I'm generally happy with it.

Tried some new techniques. Basically some watercolor brushes used as stamps. It wasn't a complete success as far as I'm concerned, but I learned some things that worked and some that didn't. The thing with digital is that I each time I learned someting, I had to force myself to keep going forward instead of going back and applying what I just learned.

 

and.......VOILA!!

Cleaning the morgue

When I was in college, there was no Google image search. If there was, I didn't know about it. You had to take your own photos or find some in your morguefile. I started keeping a morguefile while I was a freshman in college a long, long time ago. I eventually became lazy, and just started keeping the entire magazine. Believing that someday when I needed that picture, I would remember where it was, and that I would go find it.

Enter Google image search. Remember how I mentioned that I was lazy? Well it comes into play here again. Why go dig out my years old morguefile, when I can just "Google It"? This is where I show some other vices. Stubbornness, and (mild) hoarding. I still have that morguefile, and collection of magazines.

So....It came time to start packing for the move. I wanted to "cut weight", as they say. However, I didn't want to just throw away the morguefile and all the magazines (hoarding).  Luckily, I had an epiphany. I will just consolidate all those pictures, and cut up those magazines and put them into a sketchbook. I don't really need a morguefile anymore, so I will make all of that stuff into more of an "inspiration book".  It won't take much time (wrong), it will be an interesting project (true), and will cut down on another box for the move (Ha! Bullshit!).

 

This will apparently be a much longer project than I planned. I have kind of started organizing the sketch books into subject matter, but I'm not being too strict about it. I want more of a randomness to the images. You never know where your inspiration for an image will come from. If I had it too strictly organized, I would never stumble on to the obscure idea that someone else may not have thought of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I know. It's kinda like scrap booking. Without the glitter, stickers, and awesomeness.

My unnecessary two cents

Sometimes, technology revolutionizes how we do things. It makes a job simpler, or does it better. Other times.......uhhh....well......

So tell me. What does this do? More to the point, what does this improve upon?

The pen? Scanning technology? Does it make the job simpler?

I doesn't appear to significantly improve any of these things; yet.

Right now it's more of a "Look what I can do!" gadget. It's neat. That's it. (I could be missing something though. It's been known to happen. *Gasp!* Yes, I know. Shocking.)

However, what I am interested in, is where this is leading. This is the opener. To work out the kinks. What's next? Digital chalk boards for teachers with a traditional classroom and an online classroom? Combined with cloud technology to allow you to make notes and sketches and instantly have them sync with your computers and online storage? Sketch straight to your blog? Do a full tonal drawing for your painting and have it instantly be saved to your computer. You now have your traditional piece and a digital piece saved with no scanning or photos. Completely merging traditional and digital. Make an oil painting that is saved digitally as you go? So much for software imitating traditional tools after that.

Alot of great possibilities, but for now I'll stick to my traditional pen and pad.

 

 

Sometimes you just gotta say.....

"Sometimes you just gotta say.....What the f#*k. Make your move." - Tom Cruise - Risky Business

I've mentioned it here before. I'm moving. Most of you didn't know. Most of you don't care. However, there are one or two people that do. This also somewhat explains the lack of art updates. Have no fear. They are on the way.

Where am I moving?: Hampton, Virginia  I will be sharing an apartment with a longtime friend.

Why am I moving?: Artistic community - I will be spending most of my time in the TAD studio in Richmond. I will be around other artists that inspire and motivate me. Being within shouting distance of artists that you admire, and being able to ask their opinion on your work is invaluable.  Not to mention they are great people and fun to be around.

A change - Yes, I'm leaving a full time job with benefits. Tom Cruise said it best; and it is that time in my life and my career to make a move.

Do you have a job there?: Yes. My portfolio. That will become my full time job. I will get a part time "joe job" to pay the bills and put some food in my stomach, but the focus will be on improving my art and developing an Illustration career. I have been preparing for this for over a year. I already have my survival money squirreled away.

Who are the artists?: I could sing their praises for awhile. I'll spare you my fanboyishness (yep, that's a word), and just leave you some links. You can check them out yourself.  Sterling Hundley, Josh George, Jeff Love, Edward Kinsella III - There are more great artists in the studio, these are just a few.

There ya go. Any other questions, just ask.

Packing all of the important stuff. I may have to leave some clothes behind to make room for my books.

 

 

OMG! It's flying at my face!!

 

If you have me on any of the social networks, you have probably already seen this. I just had to post it here. What a great video. In fantasy illustration, there are endless creatures that have wings. You need to know how the wings work in order to paint them convincingly.
This is a great video for screenshots, or just pausing. A straight ahead view of an owl flying right at your face! Pretend it isn't an owl. Maybe it's a dragon, or a harpie, or maybe.....wait for it...... A GIANT OWL! Oh no!
There are several addons in the Firefox browser that let you download flash movies (I use this one}. Then I use VLC to watch most of the movies on my computer. It has a handy little screen cap button. So you can watch the movie for the shot of the wings you like the best, then pause, and screen shot.

I think most any video player will probably have screenshot capability. VLC is just the one I use.

What a little time will do

I spent all weekend working on this site. Making graphics and backgrounds, fixing the layout, etc. Now that I have had a day away, I realize that the "rust" looks more like blood. Yeah. That's a little much. I'll have to fix that.

Decisions, decisions...

 I can't seem to make a decision.

I've been thinking about this for awhile. I wanted a logo/signature that I could use for branding. I've had this design running through my head, and been using some version of it for my signature on my paintings. I figured it was time to take steps to finalize it.

Most of my work right now is digital. I wanted a traditional feel to this. I wanted the spontaneous, quick stroke, "signature" look. Like it's a natural signature. I figured no better way to do this than sit down with the paper, ink, some pens, and some brushes. Everything was done using bottled ink. No bic pens.

 

I did a ton of them, trying different strokes, speed, etc... I then collected all of the pages and scanned them in. I went through with Corel Draw and cut the ones out that I thought looked ok. I exported each of those as jpegs and loaded them into picasa, then made the little movie above. Picasa makes that amazingly easy.

The slide show is just a feature in Picasa's web albums. Damn those Google products can be handy. You can also make slideshow movies that you can upload to your web albums and youtube, right from your Picasa on your computer.

I am going to decide on one of these soon. You are welcome to help. I've numbered each one of them so you can tell me if there is one you prefer. Most are pretty similar, just small differences. It's only a little more than a minute of your time. I know; that's asking alot in this internet age.

Something shiny

ArtOrder.com Grimm Tales Challenge Wylie Elise BeckertI'm in the middle of packing and getting ready to move. Maybe I'll fill you all in on that later.  Maybe not.

In the meantime here is something wonderfully shiny to distract you.

Another challenge just finished at Artoder.com

The challenge was to illustrate one of the original Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Not the happy entertaining stories we know an love today. The dark, scary, life lesson stories.

The voting is going on now. Stop over and look through the lineup and see some great work, AND VOTE

I have a project that is in the works, that I hope to share soon, and I still have to update from Illustration Academy. Wait till you see the pictures of the studio. F'ing amazing. Oh yeah, and some of my work from the Academy.

 

 

Aaaaahhhh!

There are few feelings better than finishing a project. That moment you are done, for better or worse, and can put everything away. It's done. No judgements until tomorrow. The client, teacher, judge, etc. may kick you in the balls tomorrow, but you have done every thing you can to produce your best work.

This is a great feeling. What makes it the best for me, is knowing I can just sit down in a comfortable chair, and stare at the wall for awhile. No guilt. Time to decompress. All that time spent on the project, thinking about it every waking moment, is over. Aaaahhh! Time to empty what little brain space I have up there. I'm going to have to start filling it up again soon....sigh. I guess the decompression time is over.

Illustration Academy

I did it last year, and it was one of the greatest experiences. A month of non-stop picture making. Seriously, 16 hour days were the short ones! It was great. I slept for a day after the last week of the academy. Although that might of had as much to do with my celebrating the completion as it was exhaustion.

This year I will be going again, and with mostly new instructors (to me). Last year, the academy was held in Richmond, VA and in Kansas City. I was in Richmond. This year everyone will be gathering in KC. It will be great to see the instructors I did meet last year.

Unfortunately, due to expenses, day job, and a move coming up, I'll only be able to attend for a couple weeks. Oh well. A couple weeks is better than no Academy at all.  Check it out. It's well worth the money and time if you want to learn.

Check out that damn faculty! Mark English, John English, Sterling Hundley, Anita Kunz, Jon Foster, Brent Watkinson, George Pratt, CF Payne and more!

 

CGHUB Challenge

I mentioned this in the last post and didn't bother to post a link. I'm dumb.

Here you go. Take a look at that list of prizes!!!

It's not why we do this, but damn, it doesn't hurt.

Eowyn & The Nazgul

I just did this for the Eowyn & The Nazgul Challenge over at theartorder.com.

These challenges are quite the experience. I ended up spending a couple of all nighters at my aunt's dining room table while I was on vacation. That wasn't the plan originally. I started on it the day the contest was announced. I just had problem after problem getting it how I wanted. One day not being able to draw, the next day re-working everything I did the previous day when I couldn't draw, then a day or two of 2nd guessing my entire idea, throw in a few days of completely debilitating self-doubt and there you are at 5am the night before the deadline at your aunt's kitchen table.

In the end it turned out ok. It's not my favorite piece of all time, but I don't hate it (That happens alot).

What I really need to do is stop obsessing over a finished piece. I could keep working on any one of my pieces for the rest of my life and never be quite satisfied.

So..on to the next piece. I have some actual paying gigs to take care of that are not exciting at all, but necessary to have income.

Maybe I'll have time to fit the CGHub/ImagineFX challenge in.

Anyway, go check out the lineup of entries to the challenge. There is alot of amazing work!

http://theartorder.com/2011/05/16/eowyn-and-the-nazgul-challenge-line-up/ 

 

Welcome!

I am slowly figuring things out and putting this site together. As far as usability goes; Squarespace is as easy as I could hope for. Now I just have to figure out what I want it to look like.

So...The gallery is pretty small so far. I'm only putting things up that have been completed recently. I'm hoping to add one new image per month (or close to that).  All my other work just isn't relevant to what I'm wanting to do these days. If you must see the old stuff, you can go to my deviantart page. It will be in the links.

As for this blog....I have no idea what direction I'm going to go with this. Obviously I'll be showing what I'm working on, my latest completed work, etc...  but I would like to make this a little more than another gallery of my work. I'll be thinking on it. Maybe we will just fumble through this together and see what happens. Hopefully there will be some reason you want to add it to your list of blogs.