Figure Drawings!

So I've been slacking on figure drawing lately and when I did it last night it definitely shows. I did a 3 hour session at a gallery in the city and it was soooo refreshing. I want to do it at least once a week (maybe twice) depending on how much cash I have.

At first I used my usual techniques for going for proportions and correct shadowing but after a great conversation with another artist there I worked on blind contour lines and emphasizing only certain parts of the form. I'm going out to buy some figure drawing books so I can improve as quickly as possible.

Present Colored WIP

Hmmm...so I think I'm satisfied with the front figure but I'm still not sure how I feel about the back. I want to keep it muted but I keep changing my mind. I'll just come back to it later when I have time so my mind is fresh.

Birthday Present WIP

So I'm doing a painting as a present for a friend of mine. It shows her in the foreground with her partner in the background. They're both pretty into Star Wars so I figured it was appropriate. I'll hopefully have time tomorrow to get the color in and then have it printed.

Yaaawn!

Another kitty! A quick paint job for a new friend in Brisbane. I used a cobbled together photo montage of his cat as reference.

"Host" page for Decay Comics

Demons! So I've been doing a little work for Decay Comics in Melbourne. This is a "host" page where the host, my demon, introduces the reader to the next story in the comic. I really enjoyed working on this so hopefully I'll be able to continue on similar projects. And it gives me an excuse to draw intestines and hey...everybody loves intestines!

Portrait Process

Man, I haven't updated in so long! I've been super busy with contract work lately but as soon as I'm allowed I'll be able to post everything I'm actually getting paid for. Fortunately, I've had time for personal painting as well so I've focused on portraits.

Besides quick exercises to express emotion in faces I've been experimenting in different ways of painting in PS. This portrait was done entirely in grays at first and then overlaid with color. I used a variety of layer filters to achieve the color I needed as well as just layering detail upon the original image.

Mini-Paint

So I decided to go ahead and paint my zombie. Kept it pretty simple. I'm still not sure what kind of style I enjoy while painting digitally. This falls under the "make as many small dashes as possible" category. At first I tried copying Leyendecker's style but failed miserably. Maybe next time.

Quick Sketch

So I've been wanting to do a zombie lately but I keep getting distracted by other projects. Did a quick sketch to fill my need temporarily.

A figure...again.

So I wanted to paint a plain portrait just onnnne more time. Did the figure without a background at first and then quickly added in a cave...for some reason. I would like to explore a cave location more...with tons of different light sources, reflective light, water, everything. I would be a good challenge for me. Why do I always paint massive hands?

Kitty!

Just a quick warm up before I get into a long piece. Based it on a photo of a kitten playing in a field. It's funny that something that took less than 45 minutes is better than most of my portfolio right now. :( This must change. Quickly.

Redo!

So in my daily quest to overhaul my portfolio as quickly as possible I decided to redo one of my old pieces. It originally was a mock book cover and while it makes me cringe looking at the original, I like the composition. So! Below is the touched up version. Underneath is the original to give you an idea of where I came from. On to more stuff!

Wedding Present

So here's a fantasy illustration I did as a gift to my friend (the groom). The final was giclee on canvas at 20" x 24". It was gallery wrapped with a 1.5" red border. The colors came out great and looked way better printed large and in charge. I only paid $94 in total (forgetting the amount of time I put into the actual painting) which was crazy cheap for the quality I received. I'll post a pic of the actual print itself when the photographer gets back to me.

Maybe next time I'm invited to a wedding I'll remember to bring my business cards!

Halo Minis...

So in my free time (outside of paying projects) I've been drawing some Halo fan art. Pretty simple, but they make me laugh. It's nice to relax with a cartoon style instead of doing everything realistic all the time. Enjoy!

Character Study...

I've started to do character designs lately and this is my second try at this guy. I've been trying to increase my speed on these but its difficult for me to create a design that I like while doing a sufficient render. I'll also probably reboot this blog since the stuff down below is complete crap and from a year ago. Cheers to the present!