Halloween Fun Times

Halloween this year was a lot of fun!  I made the trip to Fargo/Moorhead to celebrate with my friends.  While there, I had some photo's taken of my halloween costume.  I went as Heather Mason from Silent Hill 3.  Below are some photo's I edited to try and capture the effects and creepiness the game has.  

Spooky Woods is actually.. spooky!

I have just updated my Commission/Side Projects page with the final images of the Spooky Woods Productions logo.  The design is complete!  Below is an example of the newest version!

In this newest version, the shadows aline with the top letters more than the previous one.  We also wanted to play with the tree shadows more so that when the image is flipped upside down, it looks like a creepy forest on top.  

The next step of this project is to set up a photo shoot with the cast so I can begin working on the movie poster.  Ciaran already has some solid ideas, we just need the shots.  

Overall, I'm happy with the result after working with Ciaran on this design for a couple months now.  He has been a great client to work with!

Quick Fix

After trying different formats for the videos, I believe this website will not allow me to post high quality videos.. So!  I have created a youtube account and will provide links to view them.  Here are both links:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw1Uj2ZVSkI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ippt_xjVTL4

I will also be providing these links on my Video page too.  Enjoy!


** Made another freestyle design today too :) **

New Video

I did it again.  These are just so fun to make!  :)

p.s. I'm not sure if its this website or how I am formatting my videos, but I can't seem to improve the quality of this one (they are fine on Facebook).  I'll have to do a little research and figure this out..

Semper Fi

Made this logo for a friend who is a Marine.  I had it in my head for a while now to make a design for him. I think it turned out fun :) I love doing side projects for my friends!

Fun Times with Quick Designs

So I just got my first smartphone two weeks ago (Sidekick 4G) and I am having sooo much fun discovering what this mini-computer-in-my-hands can do!  Especially how I can utilize it for my digital art.

One thing I already know is I'm gonna have fun customizing it.  I'm sure I'll need to make a separate folder just for mobile background designs/wallpapers.  Example of one I made tonight when I got home is shown below:

I am also finding apps on this thing that I can make designs, digital art, and photo editing.. all on this awesome device (would recommend a stylus though).  If I create one I dig, I'll upload it on this website.

Commission skillz

I am attempting to make a logo design for a coworker.  He is an aspiring movie maker and this is his company.  I thought it was a fun idea, so here's the first wave of ideas I created for him.  If he digs it, I'll push these even further.

 

Testing a New App

I downloaded a new app for my Mac the other day and finally tried it out.  I love the expressive line quality you get with this program, it has a simplified, design-y look.  However, its hard to control the brushes and there isn't nearly as must variety and customization that you get in either Photoshop or Corel Painter.  But I am still excited to see what kind of illustrations/designs I can produce with it.  So I present the first attempt at using Livebrush (with some new Photoshop brushes as well):

The downside to my week so far:  Photoshop has been crashing A LOT on my Mac lately.  I'm not sure why this is.  I'll probably have to connect with some computer experts and figure out what is causing it.  Hopefully it is a easy fix.  

Playing around with video making

Finally got around to downloading Screenium on my Mac.  So now I can explore making videos of my digital painting (I think its cool to watch.. they make it look so easy).  This is my first try at it so be gentle!

Resume Designs

I am brainstorming designs/illustrations to use on my resume.  As an artist mine is.. really boring.  So I decided to spice things up.  Here's one I just whipped out today to get the creative juices goin'.

Also downloaded a BUNCH of new brushes.  I messed around with the effects on photoshop and tested the new brushes out.  So far I am loooving it! The splatters and patterns create such a great texture and I can easily customize them to make them my own.

Urban Arts Academy Mural Project

Life in the twin cities has been a crazy adventure since I've graduated and moved here.  Met a lot of cool new peeps and getting involved in some art-related internships.  One of my most recent projects was the mural I created and directed at UUA.  While I didn't do it alone (the little kiddies were a big part of this project) it felt great to get creative and messy again.  Check it out!

Digital Paintings/Illustrations

 "Self Portrait"

 "Sexy Assassin"  Inspired by Frank Miller's work

 "Patterns" (Cause the pattern brush is awesome!)

 "Hunter" Love using the eraser tool as well, another Frank Miller inspired piece

 "Dreamscape: V3"

**Go to My Works link to view more!**

Building Your Own City

For Thanksgiving, I traveled to the twin cities to visit my sister.  During the weekend I spent there, my sister took me to St. Anthony Park where it had a great view of the city.  I took my photographs of the cityscape as we explored the park.  I planned to use these photos as reference material for the city I'm constructing for the graphic novel later.

Developing this city where my story takes place has been a challenge because I haven't been able to put much time into that aspect of the graphic novel yet.  It is also challenging because I'm completely inventing it.  It was recommended to me during my BFA critique that I draw from what I know.  In addition to these photos, I also explored Broadway in Fargo and took pictures of the older structures there.  The city plays a big role in the story.  However, this semester I have been focusing mainly on drawing and developing my characters.  I have learned that a lot of work goes into rendering and creating characters for a story.  It has been taking me longer than expected to reach where I am with them currently.  The characters need to fit the mood of the story and the settings they are in.  The next stage of developing my graphic novel will involve more cityscape studies and more in-depth ideas for how I want it to look.  When I returned from my trip I did some quick pen studies of the city using these photographs.

 

 

 

 

I have a rough idea of how I want this city to look but nothing too specific yet.  In the story, the city is undergoing major changes and most of it is being rebuilt.  There is the new part of the city where most of the beginning characters are from and the old abandoned parts (but you later discover people still live there).  I'm going to be working with the old verses the new in my storyline.

Playing With Markers

This semester I've been experimenting with Faber-Castell's big brush markers in my figure drawings rather than ink washes (which I used to create value in most of my previous work).  These markers come in a variety of color sets such as:  cold greys, warm greys, skin tones, classic, basic, and pastels.  I have been using the large brush markers rather than the small ones for my bigger studies since the small ones wear out so fast.  I started using them mostly in my drawing co op studies to illustrate contrast and light more on the figure and to have looser line mark making with ink.  The ink mimics that of an ink wash, but is more controllable.  I can also build up contrast with crosshatching.

I plan to purchase the warm grey set next and experiment with those.  I also need to order replacement markers for my current cold grey set.  After about six or seven large figure studies (and a few small storyboard layouts) the markers begin to wear out.  My lightest grey value is no longer usable.

In many of my character sketches I hadn't reached the point of using contrast with the figure.  Drawing co op has been helping me both understand the lights and shadows on the figure and studying the human anatomy more in-depth.  The markers initially offered me a quick way of illustrating value studies with my characters, settings, and storyboards.  Now I aim to utilize this medium more in finished works in the future since I am beginning to feel comfortable with handling them and how my mark making determines the form of the figure.  I have been trying to incorporate more variety with how I render the shadows on the figure.      

Eventually, I plan to experiment with both ink washes and markers.  I like the spontaneity of ink washes that you can't accomplish as well with the markers.  However, I like the expressive brush line quality you get with the large brush markers.  I would like to combine these two methods in future studies.

Loosen Up!

My main goal with my drawings this year is to loosen my line work and give more animation to the figure.  Since my current project this semester is a sports-themed graphic novel, having an understanding of the figure in motion as well as utilizing dramatic perspectives and character expressions, are key for making this project engaging and successful to my viewers.  Many early studies of Rayne and Riza (the two main characters of my story) were stiff, flat, and generic.  I am also influenced from the manga style.  I have been trying to broaden my range with my artist research outside of just manga and comic artists.  Some of the fine artists I've researched so far include:  Isabel Bishop (loose line work), Michael Angelo (figure studies = amazing), Jacopo Pontormo (longation of the figure), and Francisco de Goya (narrative prints).  Some of the manga/comic artists I'm looking at include:  Ashley Wood (Metal Gear Solid), Frank Miller (Sin City, of course), Yasuhiro Nightow (Trigun), Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), and Ito Oogure (Air Gear).

In my character concept art, I am still experiencing problems with proportions, foreshortening, motion, and expressions of the characters.  While my goal isn't to render them realistically in the graphic novel, I still want them to be believable to the viewer.  It was for these reasons that I joined drawing co op at the beginning of the semester.  My inventing skills are still inexperienced and underdeveloped, so I need a model for referencing my characters and their poses.  I also want to continue studying the human form so I can be more expressive with it and capture the energy of my characters in my work.

I also use quick gesture poses to help me draw my characters in these same poses later.  I began doing more gestures outside of drawing co op to get specific poses I wanted to illustrate my characters in.  Gesture drawings have also been helping me loosen my line work.

I also discovered this semester that I really like sketching in colored pencil rather than just pencil.  I feel more freedom with exploring the form of the figure and how I want it on the page.  Colored pencil also cannot be easily erased, so I'm not tempted to fix every line that doesn't work.  Using the colors also helps me build value in my sketches.  This makes me less hesitant to add in the ink marks over the finished colored pencil sketch.  I'm enjoying the interaction between colored pencil and ink.