Dropping In

Although I haven't been posting anything here in months, I have been keeping pretty busy (what an understatement) with my work at APM.

I've posted many new design pieces created for APM and their clients at my gallery.

My other artistic endeavors have been mostly confined to the pages of my sketchbook. Despite acquiring a beautiful new Wacom tablet (purchased in part by birthday gift cards from my many wonderful friends,) I have not had many chances to use it.

Rachmaninoff's Hands

My first and only finished piece created with the new tablet was this gift for my friend's 80th birthday.  He's been a classical music aficionado for most of his life, and he wound up liking this gift very much.

I was happy he liked it, but I was personally more pleased with the birthday card that accompanied it:

Machiavelli was a great instructor on the art of being a villain, but Al Swearengen will always be the Master.

"Switch" process...

I had a pretty big slow-down this week due to various other obligations, but after taking a few days off, I came back and created this piece today.

This would be my third color digital painting, so I'm getting much more comfortable with the tools.

WARNING: CARTOON NUDITY AHEAD. IF YOU OR YOUR WORKPLACE FINDS THIS OFFENSIVE, GO NO FURTHER.

Facial Recognition

Definition of CARICATURE from Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
1: exaggeration by means of often ludicrous distortion of parts or characteristics.

Definition of PORTRAIT from same:
1: a pictorial representation of a person usually showing the face.

For my latest piece, I put on my big-boy pants and tackled the manliness incarnate that is Ron Swanson.  Played by Nick Offerman on NBC's sleeper hit "Parks & Recreation," Swanson is a bacon-wrapped-turkey-leg wielding, wood-working, Libertarian, moustache-rocking purveyor of all things manly.  He also has a big, heart-shaped soft-spot for his co-workers, but don't tell him I told you.

Learning to paint, digitally or otherwise...

I've never been a very strong painter or color illustrator, so most of my experiences involve admiring painters/illustrators and their work from a distance.

About ten years ago, I bought the cheapest, no-frills, entry-level Wacom digital tablet on the market for about $40.  The working area is about 3" x 4", and the pressure sensitivity is nil...it's so difficult to get a varied line width out of it that I've given up on trying to ink anything I've scanned in.  Despite all this, it's provided me with a starting point now that I've finally begun to seriously study it.

After many failed attempts over the years to do anything with it, recently I started looking for tutorial videos on YouTube on the best ways to paint digitally. One artist in particular (Architectus777) was very good and thorough with his tutorials, covering all steps of his painting process.  Additionally, he covered in detail all the brush sizes and settings in Photoshop, which I've found is imperative to get any kind of results out of the process.
 
First came the handful of failed attempts at finishing anything, discouragement, etc., but after a couple of days of practicing with the tablet I was able to get the hang of the technical aspects.  There's no real easy way to blend colors in Photoshop, so learning how to pick up colors quickly with the eyedropper keybind is very important.

I managed to finish a couple of black and white pieces that weren't great but were pretty good progress for me.  There's always a feeling of relief and accomplishment right after I finish a piece, but after some time passes and I find all the areas that didn't turn out as well as I wanted, I tend to get a bit down.  I suppose I get frustrated that I'm not learning fast enough...

Over the weekend I was able to finish a simple, fleshed-out color figure that was also a pretty good mark of progress for someone who hasn't done much color work over the years. At this point I'm pretty excited to keep learning so I can get better.

Now that I've got some experience learning the tools, all I have left is to merely learn more about form, composition, lighting, texture, brush techniques, layering, anatomy, perspective, tone, and brightness/contrast, and I might become a decent painter.  Ha ha.

On the tumultuous waves of the deep blue internets...

Howdy all!  Welcome to my blog where I will post updates of new works and discuss processes, thoughts, etc.

For various reasons, I haven't done any personal work (outside of freelance work) for the past three years.  About a month ago, I was blessed with an unexpected surge of creative energy, and I decided to slowly work my way back into the artistic community.

Thanks for visiting.