Suarez Art

Batman + Inking Tutorial

2012-01-20T13:07:00.000-08:00

Since I get this question pretty often, I'm going to go through the brushes I use for my digital inking and also go through the process of a piece from start to finish.

First off, the brushes. I usually only stick to 2 main brushes and use a mix of scratchboard and inking techniques. The first is just the plain old standard round brush which I use for all the drawing and detailing. The second is the round bristle brush in cs5 which I use for most of the crosshatching, texturing and shading.

One big thing to remember though is that the brushes are only half of it. The other half is getting into the Scratchboard/Inking state of mind. The trick to this is to be constantly switching between drawing with black and also white, pulling out the lights, pushing back the darks, and just playing with the values until you get a look or texture that you like.

It'll be easier to see and explain in the process shots.

Here's the first stage to any piece, the rough sketch. I noticed since middle school I just default to drawing Batmen since it's so fun, it just happens naturally and I can just shut off my brain and draw.

A plain profile shot against a solid black background felt too boring, so I threw down some rain lines.

At this point you want to start blocking out the main light and dark values, but you also want to play around and experiment as much as you want. Later on you can decide what elements you want to develop and and what parts you're just going to blot out. So it's pretty much a free for all.

Plus, towards the end it'll be easier to see what works and what doesn't.

Around this point I realized if I'm going to have him in the rain I should work in some water flowing down his mask, also it'll add an extra element for you eye to follow.

It's important at these early stages to start thinking what kind of flow your piece will have.

Here I'm just fleshing out the face and the mask and playing around with the water and splashes. Its starting to become a dance between making it too busy/overworked or plain/boring.

This stage is more clean up. Smoothing out the shadows and blacking out any stray marks that I feel don't add anything to the piece.

It's also important not to smooth everything out too much. You want to keep some of the freshness and spontaneity from the original sketch. It'll go a long way to making the piece feel alive.

Around this point I hit a wall. I kept working and working it. But it still was't looking how I wanted.

Moments like these are pretty common and I've always found that the worst thing you can do is to try and muscle through. You'll only end up frustrated or even worse, you'll ruin the piece. The best trick is to flip the image horizontally to see it in a new light or take a break to come back with fresh eyes. I did both and it did't work. So I used another trick.

I lasso tooled the jaw and mouth and started distorting it and playing with the proportions. Sometimes you have to listen to your instincts ad trust your eyes. I knew something was off, but it wasn't until I started moving things around that I finally saw that his face was too long.

And here we're at the final stages at last. I waited till the end to overlay some rain on top because you don't want to overload your eyes while your working with a piece thats too busy.

And here's the final piece after some tweaking, smoothing and lots of second guessing.

All in all, I hope this process helps some of you to play around. I realize the way I work is very messy and unorganized. And it's not for everyone, because it's even tough on me sometimes. Each layer and each stroke is a gamble. I look back on all these step and find myself wondering "Is the water too distracting? Is the rain on top too busy? Would the composition be stronger if the head was blacked out? etc, etc." In fact I almost prefer the version without the overlaid rain and water.

But, in the end you can listen to these little voices and always have doubts, or you can say "fuck it.", keep working, move forward and don't look back.

Because in the end, your choices are what makes your pieces unique.

Marceline's Dad + Progress

2011-12-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

Here's the fourth in the Adventure Time series, Marceline's Dad. I think I'll probably do a few more versions of him, maybe even a battle scene with Finn. He's just such a crazy character, even for a Show like Adventure Time. I mean he pretty much murdered everyone on his first appearance, Everyone. Sure they came back to life. But, still. Pretty Effed up.

I also managed to save some progress shots, something I'm trying to get in the habit of lately. I actually thought I had saved more for this guy. But once you really get in the groove, you kinda lose track of time and just go into autopilot. Now it's just a matter of training myself so that saving progress becomes a habit.

The initial sketch.

Progress and cleanup.

And after that I went straight to the final. But, as a bonus I also have a potential color experiment. Still not sure if this ones getting color, just gotta keep tinkering with it and trying different stuff.

Ice King

2011-10-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Continuing on with the Adventure Time series, I tried my hand at the Ice King. I was excited for him because he's one of the characters that I can actually push the details and really make him gruesome but still keep him true to the original.

I was a little unsure about making him blue since I like keeping my inks clean, but in the end I think it added more than taking away. Either way here's a copy of the black and white version.

The next two in the series are actually already complete, Jake and Marceline's Dad. Marceline's Dad has to be my favorite so far, I really went all out making him crazy scary. There's not really many characters in the Adventure Time universe I can go all out on without changing their actual base design.

Well, actually they aren't 100% complete. I'm trying to stick to this black and white + 1 color scheme to these pieces, and that's the point where I'm struggling to find out what works best.

Val Kilmer as Batman

2011-09-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

Cause he's fat.

What time is it?

2011-09-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

Finn the Human

Marceline the Vampire Queen

It was late one night and I just had an urge to draw Adventure Time, sometimes these things just happen and there nothing you can do about it.

I'm going to turn these into a whole series and see what I can do with the rest of the characters. I have a Scary, Demon Marceline in the works and have a few ideas for Marceline's Father and the Ice King. But, Princess Bubblegum is giving me some trouble right now so I may have to come back to her.

Both of these took one night each, so hopefully the rest go down that easy, too.

Finn City.

Judge Dredd

2011-08-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

Finally coming back to some good old fashioned black and white pieces. But I needed a warm up and my go-to subject is usually a grizzled busted up Batman, but I've done him way too much recently. So, I went with my old standby I haven't done in years. Mr. Dredd.

I've actually never really read much Dredd comics except on wikipedia, but his design and every piece of art with him has always been just so bad ass and iconic. It just hits you.

I even kinda enjoyed the old Judge Dredd movie, thankfully I was mostly oblivious to how badly they fucked up the actual character. But, at least it still looked cool.

I'm pretty hopeful for the new movie, the original creators read the script and said it actually tries to be faithful to the comic, so that's something. At least they already confirmed that he will not be taking off his helmet, which is basic stuff right there. Helmet looks a bit big for my liking... but we'll see.

Face Revision

2011-06-07T05:59:00.000-07:00

So, I went back into the first yellow face I did.

http://suarezart.blogspot.com/2011/04/face.html

And I wanted to change the colors and finish it up a bit. I think I'm starting to develop more of a sense of what color schemes appeal to me, and I just felt that bright yellow is way to harsh now and blown out.

So after a few hours and way to many color revision layers, this is what I ended up with.

The actual piece has the colors darker and more saturated, I think this version is a bit easier to take in at first.

New Face Progress

2011-05-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

I went back into the face and kept working on it. And it seemed the more I put into, the worse it was looking. I just kept adding layer upon layer and change upon change, but just as I was about to give up and do major overhaul, I accidentally turned off a few layers and found an earlier version of the piece.

And I realized I liked this version way more than the one I was working on, I even think I works much better than the one I posted yesterday.

I guess it's hard for me to realize when I'm overworking a piece. But, this version has all the information I was trying to portray, everything after this was unnecessary.

But, who knows, maybe I'll feel different tomorrow.

New Face

2011-05-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

Just another face done for practice. I'm really starting to like this color scheme, but I want to keep playing with it and see how far I can push it.

I've also been trying out different effects with the layers and just seeing how much I can throw at a piece before it becomes too much.

ACKK ACK AAACK ACK ACK

2011-05-18T20:13:00.000-07:00

ACK ACK ACKK ACKKK AAAACK ACK aack ack ack AAAAACK, AACK ACK ACK ACK!

aack ack ack AAACK ACK ACKK ACK.

aack ack ack AAAACK ACK ACK... AAAAAACK ACK ACK ACK!!! ACK ACK AAAACK AAAACK.

AAACK ACK ACK aack ack ack ACK ACK! ACK ACK!

Nother Face

2011-04-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

Same as before, just some practice. Next one I'll try a different color scheme I think.

Face

2011-04-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Just playing around with brushes and colors and layers.

Batman

2011-04-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you just gotta draw a batman.

Piggy Cop Zbrush

2011-04-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

This is the beginning stage of my zbrush model of Pig Cop.

This is something that's been on my mind for a while, and now is the perfect time since I want to update my modeling portfolio and set up a demo reel.

I'm going to try and go all out with this model.

Swamp Pig

2011-03-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

I completely forgot to post this piece, it was made around the same time as the pig cops and executioner piece.

I remember I was keeping it secret because it was for a competitive blog project that is currently on hiatus until all of us trying to put it together get some actual free time to spend on it.

http://illvsill.blogspot.com/

So there will be updates on that eventually...

For this piece I chose as the assignment to make a comic book cover with the title "Swamp Pig". The cover had to incorporate a monster and a chick and the catch was it could only be black and white with one accent color. But, like I said we never got to the judging stage so I've just had the piece laying around.

Obviously, since so much time has passed I'll have to think of a new challenge from scratch. I am glad I managed to get this piece out of that project so far. I got to play with making my own title from scratch and figuring out how to compose a comic cover.

I even can see the comic now, it'll be a mix between Sin City and Babe. Are you listening Image? I've got a blockbuster on my hands.

Now on tumblr!

2011-03-15T13:52:00.000-07:00

I finally ventured into Tumblr, this blog is still going to stay the same and focus only on art.

My Tumblr on the other hand is going to be open to random shit, art from people I like, stuff that inspires me, and my own art every once in a while.

http://suarezart.tumblr.com/

If anyone here as a tumblr too and wants an extra follower, post your link in the comments!

Inked Venom Final

2010-12-16T10:51:00.000-08:00

Well, technically this version of venom isn't inked since it's all digital, but whatever.

It was a lot easier to focus on the details and shape and form without having to worry about the color.

I tried out adding a color layer on top in Photoshop and I think it does the trick of adding a sense of color without taking away too much from the linework.

I'm going to have to experiment and see if this method will work on the other pieces that have this inking style as well.

Venom Tron and color version

2010-12-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

I made these for a contest over on Satellite Soda, the theme was Marvel-Tron. I highly recommend visiting their forums, it's a fun community of lots of great artists posting awesome work.

For the contest I chose to do venom since he's one of my favorites and I figured his look might look cool "tronized." Sadly I forgot about the contest until the day of and turned in a horrible rushed venom. The next day I worked on it a little bit longer and made this version, but I still wasn't very happy with it.

Then I decided to try one with out the glow and lighting effects and just try and use simple colors. Something comic-booky.

But I still wasn't that happy with it, I knew I wasn't going to be able to get it to the point I wanted with out committing a lot of time and effort into it. But I wanted this piece to be a fun project for practice, not something I would need to spend hours working on to get it to the point I wanted.

So, I decided to put the color version and work on finishing it off in black and white.

President Xenu and Kif

2010-12-08T16:12:00.001-08:00

This started as a doodle just for fun, but now I think I might use him for a bit of a larger project that will incorporate some nice design elements. I just wanted to draw a fun monster or old man or just something that I knew I could spend a good amount time just getting lost in the details. That's my favorite part just zooming in and wandering around, it's relaxing. My own form of meditation.

Half way through this piece, it struck me that this alien looked really familiar...

It hit me that I made a realistic version of Kif from futurama, so I went ahead and added his signature little space suit and saved this version for fun.

Hiccup and Toothless

2010-10-31T14:18:00.001-07:00

Finished my take on Hiccup and Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. I wanted to go with a more Frazetta/fantasy, epic feel. I mean after all it is vikings and dragons, plus I'm not too good with doing cute.

My first idea was actually for a much bigger piece than this, but it ended up being trickier than I expected. So, this piece is more or less practice before I tackle the real thing.

Also I tried to keep the rendering a bit simpler on this one since I knew I wanted to color it from the start.

8 Armed Lady Final

2010-10-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

Finally completed this piece. Just like I figured from the start it didn't really end up like what I originally saw in my head. But, that's what happens when you let the piece be in charge.

All in all, it was a good experiment and it ended up being more of a stream of consciousness than anything else.

Current Progress: 8 Armed Lady

2010-10-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

Now that most of the main elements are already in the piece, the next step is just refining, fixing and finishing.

The biggest problems I still need to solve are some issues with her breasts and upper torso area. I also still need to see whats going to happen with that background. I like the direction it's heading in, but its still a long way from being finished.

Next post should be the final.

More Progress

2010-10-04T20:47:00.001-07:00

This piece is starting to come together a bit, I still have a lot more rendering more rendering to do, but I'm pretty happy with the shapes and forms so far. Also, I need to start figuring out what to do with the background.

The bubble shapes on the right side are supposed to be silver and metallic bubbles, I'm still not sure how I feel about them. I know I want to use some kind of liquid shiny materials in this piece. I still have some ideas I want to try out.

Also another big part of the piece I need to start fleshing out more is making it reversible. I want it to work just as well if you view it upside down.

New Piece Teaser

2010-10-01T06:01:00.000-07:00

Been trying to spend the little bit of my free time on a new piece. I'm using these pieces to try out new stuff and figure techniques out.

This is just a small segment of the piece, but the rest is too rough to show just yet. Plus, I'm still figuring out in which direction it's heading. I have some crazy ideas for it and some effects I want to try out, but I don't know what will stick, and what will look good and what won't. The only way to find out is to try them out and then get rid of them if it sucks.

I've found with pieces like these it's best to just go with the flow and see where it takes you.

I'm almost certain that in the end this piece is going to look nothing like what i had planned. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad. We'll see in the end.

The Executioner

2010-09-08T09:44:00.000-07:00

This is for a contest to draw The executioner from Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil: Afterlife. This is actually the first piece I really started experimenting with digital inking on. But, I didn't get around to finishing it till now.

There's really not much else to say. He's a fat guy with a bloody axe.