happy holiday greetings

I sent this out today as my poor man's holiday greetings- I did it in photoshop of a smart element made in illustrator from a photo- since the true work is in the rendering not the proportions- it was good practice on spotting colors and blending them- still have a lot of work to do but its a start- maybe after a hundred of these I will be comfortable about rendering... oh well- here it is

sketchbook bro 6 (um pro)

just got sketchbook pro 6- wanted to see if it has some real upgrade- WOW- its cool to me- i especially like the zoom in feature with the pencil lines not getting too blurry as on sketchbook pro 2011-makes smooth clean lines simpler and the add of coptic colors and more brushes is a needed add- I noticed the added french curves and the control curve feature will make vehicles and smooth curve features easier- even my loose style is enhanced with this tool- cool beans

just a test- need more practice with hair

I did this for a test style sample for a writer in our comics group to see if I can agree for a look of her character for her story- i also did this to test my self at inking brunette hair- still have some work to do but its not a bad start- I modeled the features from Terry Moore's characters in Strangers in Paradise- if she likes it maybe it will be seen in print.....

playing with screen-like-tones

I have been looking at a lot of anime and may have to do 8 pages of a story that should have a manga feel- I wanted to play with screen tones as a substitute for  gray-shading black and white images- I started playing around with filters in photoshop- specifically the halftone filter. I created a couple of versions of this in a file and place the file into my image.... I then scaled down the file and duplicated it several times and tiled the images, then reduced those down to one layer... if the screen was too opaque - I reduced transparency to 45%- I did a quick and dirty selection then cut away the inverse of the selection to get a sort of friskette... I wanted to treat this layer similar to a graytone layer so I cold either blur the edges of the frisketts or erase edges with low opacity soft eraser--- I still need more work before I can put this into production...here the image

nostalgia

hey- wanted to put something up- in such a big chaotic rush trying to make this art thing work- so I was looking thru my hard-drive to piece together what motivated me into this this idea that I could think about drawing for a living- I found some epic failures and some cute first baby steps- I found this bear sketch- probably  modeled after the The Open Season Character- Boog- one of my first attempts at digital painting- animal hair no less- wow what was I thinking- I hate rendering hair- this is one of my stumbling points to this day- I suppose on that day I thought I was Boris Vallejo- anyway- here is the Pic I created- ciao

sorry for lag in process- but now I try to draw initial shadow shapes- I got this process from Matt Khor's  rendering tutorial- using masking layers created by shapes in the flatting process- I try to identify how shadow will work with the different areas- this is the side i need to keep working and discovering- I put the light source behind the character and above- so shadows are in lower right of forms...

quik sketch- flats away

okay I am going step by step with this piece for instruction for me and others.. Once the line work is done even roughly we can go to the flat color stage... the point of this stage is to define certain color areas for further rendering- or least that's my story- with some pieces- this may be the next to the last step- if cel shading is appropriate- for a more gradient shading- more steps are needed- so I have colored misty's suit, hair and skin-tone at the flats stage- from here I can go one of several directions-

quiky sketch- WIP

I wanted to do a color piece so I mocked up this sketch- hopefully the next few posts will step through this piece of  a fan piece of Misty Knight-this prelim sketch was done in sketchbook pro- I usually sketch loose on first layer- reduce opacity on layer and then create  finer details on next layer up. I will do this several times till I get defined usable clean line... my next step will be to bring image into photoshop- stay tuned

taking a break- penciling

just taking a small break between two different comic projects- I am extremely behind - but am getting better at penciling digitally- so wanted to get image out using photoshop with a brush with scatter and shape dynamics- at opacity of 35 and flow of 35 to simulate a pencil stroke- so here is a stylized version on superman... I was trying to channel jack kirby but looks closer to  Jon Bogdanove

just a little love for the family

my sister asked me to send her an image that she could use for her avatar on her intranet job communication site- where they post messages for projects and conference online- so I made this cartoon image to represent her- I was going to create in in Blender as a more rendered cg character bust- I sent this image to her for an approval stage- so i could start on a Blender project- she was so pleased with this prelim done in Flash that I just gave this to her to use.  She even came back and stated maybe I could do a bunch of them and market them to businesses- don't know if that is feasible- but always open to new opportunities.... maybe will do research- anyway here is the image- ciao

practice focus

sorry have not been posting due to me doing some projects that could help fill out my pockets- or at least for a month or so- but I am now in the realization if  I eventually want to do story boards I need to focus on 3 things- posing and staging- #1,  light and shadow-#2 and line quality #3 and on both board and in computer... If i narrow my focus on making a strong composition and staging characters for story advancement and drama building and motivation- that will help my work stand out.... and 2nd if i deal with lighting in even the most limited sense- i will get a depth of field to the composition and last but not least- practice on creating clean line will add that  extra polish i need.... so I will be posting several images getting my self ready to upgrade my portfolio.... so here is a test using a cartoony head style and cel shading-- as can bee seen- I got a lot of work cut out for me

peace

playing again with anime studio pro

After and between a few assignments I wanted to start playing again with anime studio pro and blender to get ready for  new FX Mulrooney projects that are outstanding... So I wanted to try to test myself on recreating appealing characters with in anime studio pro... at one point I though with the new flash that creating vector characters for anime studio was now impossible since they don't have a ESF file format export any more. But found out there is .fxg format that can be brought into illustrator and converted to illustrator 8 format or eps format with illustrator 8 set up that can then be imported into anime studio pro and lots of clean up if necessary.... Since anime studio pro has its own image forming tools I wanted to test my self on... the trick is actually layers for further animation with out clutter- I can either take photoshop image into program and create layered vector art in the program or create layered art in illustrator or need create images in flash and save out layered features as different symbols and then import via illustrator- so either way a lot of pre-planning has to be done to create a animatable form for anime studio pro- so on the left is the image created in anime studio pro in many layers- top right is photoshop jpg taken from flash render- and bottom right is flash rendered object on one layer... whew

Watching robotech movie

I was blown away at the draftsmanship of this Robotech movie I  am watching on Netflix- the addition of the 3g spaceship scenes makes this a major animation movie that probably wont get the credit it deserves- I suppose I am  fair-weather anime fan- I only give credit to the big box office productions...So here is a small tribute- got to get better with my draftmanship and color- but will keep trying...

tunnel rat

just trying to loosen up my sketchbook pro skills- I put ti down for a piece to do some comic work on photoshop cs5- but will try to do some concept work in the near future and to be honest sketch book pro has its focus on concept design and digital tools geared to the concept design artist- so i had to really learn how brushes are made again- so off to youtube and vimeo for some tutorials... I created this tunnel rat image with sketchbook pro and a some custom made brushes- I wasn't planning on anything special but the control with the linear brushes after they are created is exceptional- got a lot more work to do on painting and coloring as one can see- but I will let you take a peak at the image- Tunnel rat- peace

anime look- spike

just looking at Cowboy bebop movie and decided to pull off my rendition of Spike- this is a  another cel shade practice piece for me.  The image was done in photoshop cs5- a program that is increasingly becoming my  digital art tool of choice... The initial line work was sketch on background layer and finished on layer 1 using pen tool, ( with both fill in and create stroke) the brush used is  round hard brush at 100%opacity and 100% flow with shape dynamics  minimum diameter set at 65%  to give an even thin line... The base color and shade are done 3 layers between background -- layer 2 for facial tone, layer 3 for clothes, and layer 4 for hair--- I used lasso tool to map out ares of tone then later use lock transparent pixels to stay inside the lines for further rendering... for feathering effect- i used the smudge tool set at 80% strength.  For any further layers I used clipping layers- also to stay within the lines... my last set is the erase the background layer and add a hard brush tone with low flow for the background....

birthday gift to myself- ctrl-paint tutorial

I decided to treat my self for my birthday, so I got the rendering in photoshop tutorial from ctrl-paint.com- Matt Khor the author claims it was a photoshop version of art 101- so I peeped it out and tried to use some of the tricks on the attached image... it was a cool tutorial series that stressed seeing in value rather than color and the three types of shadow- cast( direct light), bounced light ( indirect light) and occlusion shadows ( dark shadows that may seem like lines due to proximity of objects to each other----the one thing I got out of doing the attached image is that practice and observation are key- so as you can see I need to observe and practice more- lol- peace

here come the boomers

just watching this anime series called Parasite dolls about a world filled with humans and androids called boomers- this is a take of of AD police series- bubble gm crisis- I thought I would do some fan images of boomers in photoshop- so here is my first- to create the brush texture- i added transfer and texture to the regular soft brush with shape dynamics- no scatter was used for this brush- so it kind of smears than blots- I was looking for a charcoal or patel-pencil look- I guess its close....I used eraser tool on highlights of the hair- and a larger soft brush on lower opacity for shading...

upcoming cover design for IF-x

I was asked to do a cover IF-X comics and I can't seem to say no to trying something new- so I mocked up my character FX-Mulrooney for a comic with an April fools theme. So if you understand the hardcore nature of my FX character- there is some humor in it- any way here was my process... first drew draft image on paper and cleaned up in photoshop.... but the base image anatomy and composition were weak at first- so i redid the image- focusing on a foreshortened and perspective of the piece with the focus on face- to show some expression. After a good compositional pose was created- I lightened the image on layer (not background) and set opacity of layer to 35- I then inked the piece ( in photoshop) using hard brush, the pen tool, and a combination of both. On layer below- i add the flat colors- one above that and below the line add shading on mutliply layer - using a large soft brush at low opacity and flow. and a final high light layer on normal. my last part is to color the background with a two color gradient... so that's it.... the image will be used with text and masterhead for IFX for the april Fools issue- cool....

quik photoshop drawing

I am trying to get ready for a toy character mock up I am doing for a local performance artist so I need to draw cute girls in action- I decided to warm up with some photoshop tools and created this as a test for me- its created all in photoshop- I sketched the image with small hard brushes at 100% opacity and about 8-15 flow(adjusting level to lighten up drawing)... I then modified brushes to larger brushes with brush shape modified thickness at 65%- and used pen tool (( note when using pen tool or illustrator brush tools-remember to hide ends of lines if possible)) to draw out outlines of the border shapes and use stroke path- this gave me a clean inked line look (on new layer on top)- created some layers underneath- at layer below laid out flat colors and did a shadow layer above flat colors (multiply layer)- all along use flat color(layer) areas as selection so I color in the lines- I finally add another layer between line and multiply layer for highlights and final rendering pushes- as a render I use smudge brushes larger at low strength for larger smoothing areas and small brush at 85% for hair renders....I keep background layer clear for a gradient selection two hue image- I use levels adjustment to get a less saturated mood..... and that's it- still have a lot to learn... every image I just wish to keep getting better...

any critiques....?

another head sculpted in blender

okay I am trying to get back into blender to get my cg comic project up and running- so i started sculpting this stylized cartoon head of a character I envisioned a mocked up this image after working through the blender 2.61 sculpting tools- I also rendered it in cycles to get use to this tool as well- I was happy to get somewhat close to the design I had envisioned- even though I did not model from an ortho-graphic- sketch- I fudged it so I think its close- any critiques?... my next test will be to take this high poly sculpt down to a low poly topography useful model- keeping my fingers crossed- cheers

troll

just trying to post something- been working on some projects and not getting sleep- hopefully i can slow down and work on my personal projects soon

here is a troll

dragon head- dump

hi, just checking my hard-drive for images for a CG concept project- I found this dragon head- that I did in photoshop and overlayed with a bubble texture- its still looks kind of cool- peace

year start face-blue hair

Its 2:55 am january 3 and I am falling back into old habits- creating faces- but I decided to mix up software- this stylized image was sketched in Sketchbook pro- lined up in illustrator and flat colored in photoshop with selections.... I was told by my sister that I had to plan out 2012 and she would help- so look out for new and fabulous things this year- happy New year- 2012- I can't wait to party- but no partying till I create magic this year- and I really want to party- so watch out

P.