year end submission- fingers crossed

I have been working as an academic advisor at Henry Ford Community College and noted a year end submission for an art journal the school had. even though they called for only alumni- I figured I would submit a piece any way- the deadline is December 31 2011- I sent this piece on Christmas day about 2:30 am- I sketched it out in Sketchbook Pro- with a Wacom tablet- lined and colored it in Flash- then brought it into Photoshop for the hair texture- I thought it came out good- as Always looking for feedback- have a happy new year everyone- keep flying....

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fx-mulrooney-head display

was fooling around with blender sculpting tools and decided to finally start my 3d project for my character fx mulrooney. The end goal is to create a CG comic where one can follow the story in regular comic form using cg characters- I decided on making it a blender project and showing work in progress to kill two birds with one stone- get my blender certification by creating tutorials for work i have done and have a cool product for the masses- since fx mulrooney is a more stylized character, I though it would be fun to go this route- here's keeping my fingers crossed- and here is a sample to look over now.... peace

ink and color and tone

just playing around with photoshop- I roughed a face in photoshop, inked and colored on layers- the color layer I added noise to to get the texture that seemed real cool.... hope its enjoyed to look at

blue man- watching movies

I was just watching the extended versions of Lord of the rings trilogy on Encore and noted the use of color as a way to express mood. My sister asked me during the marathon was the TV color off- because some scenes looked washed out and blue tinted- I reminded her that is the way they look on the dvd's as well- it expresses a mood of hopelessness and gloom- These films are definitely well crafted.... I can say this about Peter Jackson, and the country of New Zealand- when you have a world class director, a world class effects company (WETA), and a country that backs them 110%- you get a world class movie- here is my poorly drawn sketch of Borimir-- cheers

digital roughing

I am trying to get back into comics but I want to do much of the process digitally so i have been practicing with the wacom and photoshop- here is a sample of a copy I am trying in photoshop- note I could have just traced image as other do but i decided to sketch out with teh reference as a guide for pose and proportion- hopefully i can rough in the computer- scan out to board and finish in pencils- fingers crossed.... the original is a sample of roger cruz's work- a really cool penciler in the comics pro-land

anime watcher- ghost in the shell

I always seem to like drawing while watching anime- so its 8:20 on a Friday evening and I am watching ghost in the shell on netflix- so here is my rendition of the major... It has been a while since i have seen the original movie- I generally watch the OVA's and the style is really different. the movie looks like a animated comic- the characters are that well done... the rendition i did was done in sketch book pro

Just to see if i can

I decided due the economy that I will be spending some time to put together some professional comic art submission samples this winter and send out some some of the comic companies-I talked to my mentor Arvell Jones and he made a profound statement that I will have to try to reach as my goal- "not only do you need to draw well- you need to build up your speed.... which I image I am as slow as Christmas-( it only comes once a year)... even if my goals are too lofty- by the end of this journey I will be better than i am now- which is what i can hope for- so the next several posts I will try to post here as well as on deviant art, concept art.org and CGSociety... ( got to get use to marketing myself better--- here is a image I created in photoshop- I know its rough but it does have some style to it- it is my attempt to recreate Boris Vallejo's Conan- the pose (granted not as dynamic as Vallejo's) is a rendition of book cover from Conan the Magnificent- written by Robert Jordan-- one of my goals is to keep advancing in digital media for comics as well as traditional- less paper us- the economy is forcing my hand....please comment

cartoon faces

just creating some cartoon and anime faces.

I created the brown colored in sketchbook pro and the black and white version in photoshop

working with copying and rendering anatomy

Here is a picture I tried to copy a drawing of- I wanted to add contour and rendering to cover both challenges I have with my art- as one could see, I did not plan this drawing out well. I tried to eye-ball proportions and placement instead of measuring or grid-ing my image; so my character looks shorter and more squat that the image- I also only followed the face to a point. It's not an identical copy- rather my interpretation of the image and form... I used Sketchbook pro and layers. One layer for the sketch-line and a second for the rendered shadows- I used the pencil tool for the line and the brush tool on large brush low opacity for the rendered skin look- my main challenge is properly describing shadow ( cast and core)- so the image was necessary. I can at least see how it should look. If I were to do an image from memory; I would have to identify the location of the light source. When I truly master my imagination and skill; I should be able to draw and render this character in different poses and light directions- realistically- so studying light and shadow and anatomy is still an ongoing effort- peace....

trying to upgrade my anatomy skills-online

I will start to scan the net looking to upgrade my anatomy skills- I will report on what i find- here is my day 1 exercise- I just put this together in sketchbook pro- step one- I scribbled form starting with a peanut shape- identifying the torso- I muddled around to first identify the limbs and then next identify the perspective of the pose- this should have been done in reverse- but you can see my mistakes. My next step is to identify the scaling of the limbs. Then I would identify the contours of the muscles in perspective- accounting for overlap and scaling size--- as you can see i still need a little practice- but I will do some reading either with books I have or on the net before my next post--- note this image was done on two layers- one sketching loosely- the second cleanup.... peace

still trying to upgrade skin rendering skills- face- test

I decided this time to start with a cleaner line drawing using sketchbook pro and then bring it into photoshop to render in layers- layer top- line drawing- bottom layer solid color- layer in between a render layer- rendering was done in line color using a soft brush (hardness at 0) then bringing opacity down to 35% and flow to about 25% and just stroking into place-my goal is to follow contours of the face- establish a core shadow- darker shades are used for cast shadow regions- I will do some reading on texturing and rendering in pencil before i put in another entry- any critique is appreciated- my next steps will be how to identify edges even more cleaning during coloring process.....

trying to upgrade rendering skills- need critique

Still trying to use digital tools to color work as solidly as possible- so here is a test trying to render skin- as one can tell i did not spend any time for the hair- my next test- i used photoshop to draw-color and render this image of a muscle dude. I noted that the line is still not clean enough- my next try is to do the line in sketchbook-pro then render and color in photoshop...

watching anime

I am just checking out DVD's I bought for my niece called Gunslinger Girls- a neat anime tv OVA series about intrigue and pre-teen female assassins- based in European settings- the girls are part cyborg as well so its a pretty cool series and my niece ate them up. But I was thinking about a Manga French Connection while watching and sketched up this image- anime is good inspiration- it will work well for finishing my FX Mulrooney series

head sketch

just trying to calm down from stress of helping to complete a comic for Detroit tradecraft- lots of last minute hours almost stressed me out- sleep is a good thing for an artist- I will have to determine a sweet spot between work and rejuvenation- rejuvenation is a needed blessing to revive juices and keep you fresh to the ideas always getting better- not just getting by..... so as a short break I am sketching this head image- my goal is to get as good with the tools as a finished piece as just sketching - I need more patience and sketching practice- but hear again is a head study- I think I will work on hands and figures next

hanging with my cat

just hanging with my cat this evening and decided to see if can draw her posing for me- not that the cat posed for me but cats don't pose they just lounge- so here is a pic with my cat lounging- just another image using sketchbook pro- I really did not have a process- just doodling and looking at my model for proper light setup and realism- I think I did okay- any critique is useful

boy- blue sketch

just puttering around today looking for a possible process to get my fx mulrooney 3d comic project up and running- I think I will try to storyboard the layouts digitally- I am trying to figure it out-my biggest concern is time- I still am a lot faster thumb-nailing and laying out page composition by paper and pencil- the computer has a way of limiting expression that way- maybe if I had a Cintique- i would be more inspired to go this route- but was looking at The Animatrix dvd this morning at the bonus features and the need to draw is still there- if i can make this project a cross between anime and the Flight of the Osiris- I will be the man!!!- here is my quick rendition of a raver-kid closeup- I will try to do more full body scenes to loosen up my drawing hand for storyboarding... this was done in sketchbook pro

the pro- progressive

here is another progressive I tried at copying a pose out of a cool- yet adult comic called "The Pro" written by Garth Ennis, penciled by Amanda Conner ( an incredible female comic artist ) and inked by the famous Jimmy Palmiotti, and colored by Paul Mounts. I wanted to find a style that suits me and my rather loose sketching style and this book was cartoony and graphically advanced enough to be really popular with a comic readers crowd- so here is my rendition of the character out of costume in a reclining pose. Again I am looking for critique on my inking and coloring. I sketched it in Sketchbook-Pro and inked and colored it in Photoshop- my critique on my sketch is that the arms still have to be better defined but the pose looks good....

the businessman

here is a quick sketch I made while conversing with another artist/ instructor about the state of the economy and the most up to date 3d programs- I don't know how we kept switching from politics to technology but that happens when you talk to people about stuff you like such as art- we wonder how we can potentially make money at this game- and what are its future in a crazy economy to how one can foresee a future for our kids and those coming after us. I always seem to drain my phone when the guy calls- ( i will not mention names- lol) anyway I sketched this quick image in sketchbook-pro while on the phone- lets you know how my mind flows even in downtime...... cheers

FX Mulrooney concept image

I wanted to get back to the basic and start pushing out FX-Mulrooney again- I put out the first comic book in 2000 with the help of a great writer- Craig Linne- who wrote the first 4 issue story arc. pencils for books 2 and three are essentially completed- Darnell Sealie contributed the great dynamic backgrounds and book 1 inking and lettering were done by the fabulous creative director and designer- Patrick Hatfield. After years of lingering in storage I decided after the the pending trademark for FX Mulrooney is now going to R status- will finish the series up with issue 4 being done in 3d software. So here is a concept head (done in sketchbook-Pro) that ( with others , I hope to complete ISO drawings this month) that will be presented into FX- Mulrooney (R) Bullets- a mini-comic containing first 10 pages of book2 and concept design notes for FX Mulrooney 4- 3d- so I will be busy in August- ciao

progressive images- need help with my inking and coloring

attached is a couple of images i show progressive levels of finish- I was told I need help rendering my drawings and critiques are welcome- so i will be putting this blog entry out on the net for my benefit most of all- wanting to be critiqued- the first is a progressive of a face- in both cases I sketched the image using sketchbook-pro- it is similar to photoshop- but with more focus on sketching rather than photographic image processing as what photoshop was originally meant to do- Its a pretty cool program- but i have still to get a knack for coloring. The image was then brought into photoshop cs5 where the pen tool was used to simulate inking the image and finally cel colored in photoshop.... here is my weak point inking and coloring- I am aware that inking the image as a way of flatting out your image and color should help to bring out the shapes again- I don't think I accomplished this on this image- any suggestions... the other image is of a gun-girl done in similar fashion- I learned quickly from this that my inking with photoshop was super slow so i may not be professional at this process yet- the inking however does enhance the sketch- but again the coloring seems amateur-looking- so again I need help coloring...... again anyone with skills- please comment

flash images dumped

I had a bunch of minute flash images that I made and placed on tagged social site and thought they were cool enough for posting here- so here they are- many have a birthday theme to give to some of my friends on their birthday's- I believe in recycling of course- lol

new anime texture with photoshop

This was a test to see if i could create an anime-looking character efficiently- but knocking the image down to bitmap mode in photoshop after taking out all saturation made this cool looking textured feel to it- replacing grays with multiple black and white dots. I don't know if this is efficient for printing but it sure looks cool on the computer- will check this more as a possibility for more FX Mulrooney (R) titles- it reminds me of what is in newspapers

sketchbook-pro practice

Hey purchased a copy of Sketchbook-Pro from Amazon- its was pretty economical- but had a hard time warming up to it. but I keep trying- I am thinking about doing a comic in a style similar to Will Eisner because you don't see that graphical style anymore in comic books and its still cool even though its reminiscent to comic strip days. So the pic is my rendition of Eisner's Spirit- I may use Sketchbook Pro in my process- its starting to grow on me....

Flash Tutorial for Detroit ACM SIGGRAPH Meeting

Hi just wanted to post a quick image of the end result to a flash cartoon character vignette- this type of image can be used for flash greeting cards or print. I will be presenting a turorial showing some basic flash cs5 Drawing tools in creating this image during Detroit ACM SIGGRAPH July 19th meeting. I decided to maybe do a series of these images and maybe place a tutorial on YouTube- if the response is positive- The meeting will be on Tuesday, July 19th at the Art Institute of Michigan, Novi Campus from 6-9pm- hopefully it will be well attended.... see ya- oh PS- I post processed this image in photoshop by adding noise to the skin and the basketball in the rear- so if i wanted to do print in CMYK- the textures would make it look polished- another trick for ya

new image- back again

I found out I was not inspired- I seemed to get it back with this portrait of one of my tagged friends- somehow a pretty woman's face inspires a dude- so here is a quick portrait done in photoshop cs5 using a Wacom Intuous 4 tablet. it seems to do a full body image I need to focus more on the face first then finish the body- not the other way around- I am going to put up a tutorial soon- but this quick face sketches are fun

last of an era past

In my last effort to reach out for a normal life of seeking women has gone- I just have to admit that I am a strange one and will be one at least in this lifetime and if there is a woman for me out there- she will most likely be strange too- so here is a picture I did at a young lady's request- in the back of my mind I thought she wanted to be the one- but was mistaken- oh well -another one bites the dust (Queen)- looking by the image I need to put more time into drawing women- any comments are appreciated

inspired animal drawing

I have always said- that an inspired artist is the best artist- it give him or her purpose and makes them draw more- one thing that inspires me is a request from a lovely woman- so when I was told to draw a giraffe- I was game- so to my new friend- I will call Byrd- here is a giraffe- I did this in Sketchbook pro- pretty cool program once you get use to the brushes- peace

new thursday sketch session

I went to theScarab club after a long time being there due to no money issues and brought my computer and wacom- I first scribbled a sketch of the model in my sketch book in pen to loosen up my hand- then i brought my computer and opened up photoshop cs5- I used the brush at 100% opacity and low flow about 15% and selected scattering so it looked like colored pencil and out came the first image- as i kept going my skill level for popping out the sure things became less and less- I think my brain was on overdrive since i thought i was going to get a call from a new friend later that evening- as the time for my phone call came and went (with no call)- i started drawing like crap- Oh well the true artist is not distracted- will have to practice more- anyway- I found out scribbling the form is more forgiving on the computer than on paper- I surprised myself- gotta keep drawing

blender 2.55 beta modeling sample

still trying new things with blender- here is a cup of cold coffee- I need to figure out how to make it look hot- still testing trying things out- I made the cup using curves beveled to another curved object- will write a tutorial once I can control the effects consistently- cheers

the dude

trying to figure out a cartoony style using flash- unfortuanately the cs5 version of flash does not allow exports of eps files- bummer- so putting a vector file into anime studio pro can't be done like it could in flash 8- oh well here is a pic anyway