Long Time

So, I went to an illustrator's convention...and I feel meh about it. There were two talks out of the seven I went to that were worth it. After I got back, I did not feel like creating anything for a while. I was so put off by the entire experience, I didn't create anything for a month or so. On top of wasting a lot of money I could have used to upgrade my tools. So no, I will not be attending Illuxcon in the future.

Finally I feel like I'm back in the groove of things. Painting all day every day off feels good.

Warhammer 40k is copyrighted by Games Workshop.

Colored

Piece colored. Experimented with filters and layer settings. I really wanted the jewel-like colors you see on a sunny day.

The Duel

Really pushing some perspective in this one. It's fun to experiment.

I get the feeling that color is going to take this to a much higher level.

Finished

Cleaned, tidied up, color corrected.

When things don't work

Colors are on. At first it felt like i didn't know what the hell I was doing. I kept putting stuff down and none of it was meshing. Then I looked at me handy dandy color wheel for 5 minutes and I had a direction. Went with a tetrad scheme this time.

Remember guys, anyone can instinctively know where to put something somewhere. You need practice and study to do it with confidence.

A little more tweaking and we'll call this done.

Also, an undead pirate.

Spider Scifi Update

Blocking in values. Experimenting with a few texture brushes I've had for a while but never used. I can't remember where I got some of these. All over.

Scifi version of the spider illustration. It's amazing how much more I'm comfortable with perspective than say 6 months ago. Might make the spider a tad bigger, change the persp angles and start coloring.

Finished

Finished Piece with detail of the cockpit. Learned a few new things.

Still Playing with colors and little details.

Update 7/23

Didn't work yesterday. Continued blocking in values and adding details. Completely forgot what I originally wanted the lighting to be, changed it to reflect the new lighting. Overall, happy so far.

Blocked out some values and started adding details for a new piece illustrating a scene from one of my favorite games. Pulling out all the stops for this one. Hopefully I'll get my new hardware before I finish it.

The Labyrinth

This was an idea I had for a redesign of the movie poster. It was initially for a contest over at cghub, but I got distracted by other projects, plus I wasn't sure where to take it at the time.

Today. Boom. It hit me.

WIP

This is what I've been doing for the past day and a half. It shows a little bit of my working method when dealing with perspective. It takes a while, but you want it to be right.

Important Lesson

WARM UP.

Sketch. Loosen your shoulder. Get the juices flowing. This is very important.

I never gave any credence to this lesson because I never needed it. Things would flow from my brain onto whatever media I was using at the time. BAM! Voila! It's great!

I recently moved and I had to take a little over a month off from doing anything art related. I was very unhappy. I attempted to try something a couple days ago and it was complete shit. It's like I forgot what I was doing. It made me not want to try it again for a little while. I can see why people would be afraid to pick up something they haven't done in a long while. They don't want to see that failure staring back at them.

It could be anything. Cooking, music, art, dance, filing, running. It's tough for anybody. I couldn't understand why someone can't pick something back up and want to do it every day. I probably made them feel bad and for that I'm deeply sorry. All you can really do is encourage them.

So stop beating yourself up for making something that isn't perfect. It's a warm-up routine. Nobody has to see it but you. Work on it for about 10-20 minutes and then throw it away or keep it in a sketch folder.

And get better. No excuses.

My sketch. About 10 minutes.

A Way To Work

Here's some examples of the way I concept for the beginning phase of a polished piece. I typically create a base layer so I don't have to draw everything all over again and then change little things I think the client might want to see differently. The zombie one never got off the ground, but Flat Like Fred was finished.

A New Idea

A rough for a new idea I've had kicking around for a little while. Can you tell what it is!?

LOTR Eowyn VS The Witch King

Started a part time job that's taking up a lot of my time I reserved for painting, but I'm fitting in as much as I can. Here's a process shot of where I am at the moment. This week is going to be tough to get any work done because I need to be trained and they schedule you full time for that. It's nice to get paid though.