Pin It

I know that this and some of the other thing posts are actually of older work but sadly when moving my blog over the a new host there were…complications. But the good news is that I’m posting again and getting back into the groove so you know do a dance of joy or something.

Moving on.

Above is a sketch of Emma Frost aka The White Queen. I’ve always like Emma not because of the fanboy logic of “she’s hot” because she’s a character–a creation. She can be anything you can imagine and simply imagining a “hot chick” is just plain boring. I like focusing on her skills as a manipulator and how coy she is in her evil. I like to think of her being one step ahead, aloof yet inviting and oh so deliciously evil.

Pin It

I put this together rather quickly the other night. Even though I have had a lot on my mind lately, I do find that doing a speed paint is welcomed distraction. I have probably just over an hour invested in the piece above. I first did a rough drawing with a blue line pencil, scanned it in and then ‘painted” over it in Photoshop. As you can see this time around I drew one of my favorite people on the planet.

Sir Sean Connery.

Needless to say he is the man and if you think otherwise we could never be friends. He is the end all be all of cool. End of story.

Be sure to check in next week for another speed paint installment of  “People that I would give a kidney to” or just subscribe to my blog and automatically receive all my blog updates! Pretty nifty right?

Pin It

Quick sketch for a weekly sketch group over at Penciljack.com. I spent probably about 30 minutes on this in photoshop with no reference.

I feel really bad for not posting this sooner because it would’ve been good for some of you guys to jump on board for this but I didn’t so I suck. I know. I’ve heard it all before. But recently this means a even more to me because my mom had a recent battle with cancer and now my dad may have lung cancer. I should find for sure later today.

Above are the 4 sketch cards I did for Blueline’s upcoming auction for Cancer. Just did 4 basic head shots so yeah I did cheese out there (I suck remember) but all in all I like the way these cards turned out. I know that in the grand scheme of things doing a sketch card is just a drop in the bucket but at least its a drop in the bucket. You know what I mean?

If you want to participate or bid on a card  please visit Bill Nichols’ site

Pin It

As of mid January, I have completed and mailed off 150 sketch cards for the upcoming Marvel 70th anniversary set. As I’ve said before working on the set was a real blast and I look forward to doing more cards in the future. Doing the cards also made me fall even deeper in love with my Copic markers.

I cannot stress enough how much Copic makers rock. You could create a band with Bowie, Hendrix, Zak Wylde, Jeff Beck, Cliff Burton, Keith Moon, and they wouldn’t rock as much as Copics do. I think mainly because 3 of them are dead so the other members of the band would be really freaked out. I mean Jesus man there would be 3 corpses on stage with them. How fucked up would that be? Sorry what was my point again? Oh yeah Copics rock!

Click here for a list of all the great artists who were part of the Marvel 70th Anniversary set.

Pin It

I did a couple semi-quick studies of my #1 celebrity crush Scarlett Johansson so I thought I would share. Nothing major just trying to capture her heart…er… ahaha. Did I say heart? Silly me I meant likeness. I was trying to capture her likeness.  But primarily I did it as a value study. Nothing really all that special but I’ve been  in an art slump lately and this is the first thing that I’ve liked in a while.Plus I told myself that I would start posting more studies and doodles. I have a ton of stuff just lying around that I really need to scan and share.

So the process for this one was I first did a pencil rendering then scanned it in and “painted it” in Photoshop. Oh how I wish I could do transitions and even tones in traditional media as I do in Photoshop. Anyway let me know what you think. Thanks!

Pin It

Pin It

I had my first experience with the Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art school last month. I know I know the name is about as cool as your dad dancing but the concept of the group is actually great. In a nutshell it’s a figure drawing group that focuses on unique themes and models and pops up in practically every state in the US.

The Dr. Sketchy I attended is in Charlotte, NC and like all of the other Dr Sketchy groups they have contests and prizes. The contests were simple and fun. For instance, the rules of one contest was that everyone had to draw with their non-dominant hand and in another people simply voted on the best piece out of a 20 minute session. The winners were selected by either by one person or by everyone voting on their favorite piece. I won 2 of the 3 contests and my prizes consisted of a gift certificate to a local restaurant and a bottle of wine.

Above is one of the pieces I did for Dr. Sketchy. It wasn’t one of one of my winning pieces but it’s the only picture I took that night. I was lucky enough to win two of the contests, winning a bottle of wine and a gift certificate, and my friend Bryan Fowler won the final contest of the night also receiving a bottle of wine as his prize.

The group is ongoing but meets at different times of the month sometimes at different locations so I suggest checking out their Facebook page for the latest news.

Pin It

Merry Christmas everyone! Above is a piece I did for a forum. I frequent and I thought it would also make a good holiday piece to ring in Christmas.  I have never drawn Harley Quinn before and overall I’m happy with this piece. There is still a lot of rendering to go but I’m calling it done for now because I have a few other projects on the horizon that I need to complete.

Just to let everyone know I’ll be kicking off the new year with a contest and there are two commissions that I’m sending out very soon to two very special fans. I appreciate your patience and I’m sure you will find it worth your wait.

I guess that does it for this post. Until next time loyal readers.

Pin It

The finished piece

This is probably the longest post that I have ever posted, and by probably I mean it is. Anyway this tutorial was originally supposed to be published in SKETCH! magazine. I was contacted to do a tutorial so I put this together but for some reason it was left on the shelf at SKETCH! and never published. But hey that doesn’t mean I can’t share it now so here it is! Hey if anything you may learn what not to do.  So let’s get started.

Programs such as Photoshop and Painter offer a whole new world of tools for artists to explore. But I have also seen this new medium hold people back by hindering both their work flow and ability to learn from their mistakes.

I find too often that people are afraid to simply commit when painting digitally. They spend all their time making tiny adjustments and tweaks while working on a million different layers. Although this may work for some I find that it hinders the creative process and can kill the energy of your work. So in the upcoming steps I hope to offer a new approach to painting digitally.

Before we begin, I should mention that this tutorial was created using Photoshop CS2 and assumes you have an intermediate understanding of the program. I have most all of my brushes set with smoothing, shape dynamics and color dynamics turned on. My pen pressure is turned on and the opacity and size jitter and I used a couple of custom brushes for this piece and pretty much in all my work. If you want a copy of my brush set just make a request here and I will be more than happy to send you my brushes. If I receive a lot of requests then I will just make them available to download.

Ok enough of the tech talk and introduction let’s get to work.

Step 1

Pin It

Step 1 the line art and preparation

First things first, I suggest always starting off with a tight drawing. This can be either a pencil drawing that you have scanned in or something you have drawn digitally. Whichever method you use just be sure that your drawing is accurate with fairly clean lines. It is very important to have a strong foundation to build from; otherwise you will be polishing a turd. Trust me on this because I’ve spent a great deal of time polishing turds and no matter how shiny it is – it’s still a turd.

Step 2

Pin It

The initial wash done with a multiply layer

A blank white canvas can be a scary thing. Even with our nice little drawing, all the white is intimidating, its like some sort of a pale demon sucking all the life out of our innocent little drawing. So let’s get rid of it with a splash of color. Create a new layer and set it to multiply. Now pick a very large brush to quickly lay down color. We are looking for big bold sweeps of color, no little brush strokes; we are establishing a mood and vibe. This should take almost no time at all. Just work off of instinct and let it happen.

Since I am painting Phoenix in this tutorial, I lay down a warm base of colors to establish the mood. I put down the digital equivalent of a watercolor wash letting the brush do the work for me. It is important to vary your strokes; I even tap the pen on the tablet as if it was a real brush.

Step 3

Pin It

Roughly blocking in local color

Now that all the white gone I can focus on our gal. But before I do, I flatten the layers and save it. My method of digital painting is really just a pseudo watercolor approach. I equate the flattening of layers to a watercolor wash being dry.

So with that in mind, I create a new layer, set it to multiply and use the same method of large brushes to lay down another “wash”. Still sticking with warm colors I lay down green, yellow and brown, which are the base colors of Phoenix.

Step 4

Pin It

Laying in shadows

Just like before I flatten the layers, save it then create a new layer set to multiply. I now go in with another wash of color. This time setting some of the values and laying down shadows. When doing this think of the form as simple shapes and planes. Don’t worry too much about staying inside of the lines because you can simply erase any mistakes that are huge, this is one of the luxuries of the digital medium. But really we want to “color” outside the lines so that the figure (in this case Jean) doesn’t look pasted onto the background.

You maybe asking yourself why flatten the layers and create a new multiply layer each time? The answer is because if you didn’t it would destroy all the subtle nuances of the under painting. I want the previous brushstrokes to show through in different spots on the painting. Again I compare it to painting with watercolors. You lay down a wash; let it dry, and repeat.  Because if you try to paint everything at once it will become mud lose all depth.

Step 5

Pin It

Adding highlights

You guessed flatten it and save it and create a new layer. Only this time leave the layer set to normal. I am finished with carefree washes for now and it’s time to start defining shapes with opaque colors. At this stage I choose to  make some adjustments such as playing with the hair.

As I mentioned earlier my brushes have the opacity set to pen pressure. This means the lighter I press the pen the more transparent the color will be and vice-versa. There is no need to be heavy-handed. I use finesse and try not totally paint over everything I have done. I use the opaque colors to compliment, not dominate.

I first focus on adding color to her face. I add a mild red to her nose and cheeks and a very light blue for the highlights. The contrast of light blue against the warm colors makes the highlight really “pop”. I use this same light blue to add highlights to yellows.

Step 6

Pin It

Defining shapes and edges

I now turn my focus to the greens of her suit. I pick a cool light green and start throwing in highlights. Again using a loose hand and confidence in my decisions. Remember to think in forms and not sweat the details. Not yet anyway.

Step 7

Pin It

Unifying the background

I like the way she looks right now but I have been ignoring the background. Time to correct that oversight. I stare at the background for a bit and look at the piece as a whole. It is always important to step back and look at the piece as a whole. Doing this prevents getting a sort of tunnel vision, which can lead to losing sight of the painting’s goal.

After staring at the back ground for a bit I see what could be turned in an abstract Phoenix. So I decide to pull it out from the chaos of the background. Again with loose strokes I darken the bottom of the background with a deep purple and use an orange and yellow to reinforce the shape of a Phoenix.

Step 8

Pin It

Color harmonies and pushing the values

This is a great time to save my progress. I like to overall look and feel but it seems a little flat and dull. So first thing I want to do is push the values. I will do this by creating a new layer set it to multiply. I then use a warm red to wash over the dark of the green. I also add a highlight here and there.

I use a warm red because it is the compliment of green and when you combine two complimentary colors you will end up with a darker and muted version of the base color by neutralizing it. Doing this will allow for her hair, which contains no green, to pop more since it will be a purer color. Doing this will put more emphasis on her face (the focal point) as well as adding more life and energy to the piece.

Step 9

Pin It

Push the highlights a bit more

I flatten the layers save it and create a new layer. However this time I am setting the layer to Color Dodge. This will give my lights a vibrant glow and really make everything hum. I must warn you though don’t overuse this technique or your stuff could have a cheesy look.

Ok so with that being said, I pick a light yellow and bump up the lights of my background, really placing emphasis on my abstract phoenix. I also hit a highlight here and there on the figure.

Step 10

Pin It

Finishing touches and we're done!

Ladies and Gentlemen: I introduce to you the final step of this tutorial. The most important part of this step is adding a rim light around the figure of Phoenix. This will help add an ethereal feel to the character as well as give her a little more form and volume. After doing that and playing with the hair a bit more I save it and call it done.

I hope that I have given insight into my process by more importantly I hope that I have given you some options and ideas next time you sit down to create a piece of your own. Thank you for taking to time to read my tutorial and please leave a comment, as I  plan on doing more tutorials down the road. So your input is valuable on what I should focus on in future tutorials.