Soft-Shack: The Artwork of Nasan Hardcastle

Everything Starts with a Plan

2012-02-13T17:30:00.000-08:00

I've been a little too busy lately to paint much in my spare time. This week doesn't look much better, but hopefully I'll have a little more to share by next post.

Sketchbook 2.0

2012-02-06T15:24:00.001-08:00

I bet you thought I was talking about new software. ;)

Nope, this is just some new 'hardware'.

You might remember my custom made sketchbook from a couple of years ago.
Link and Link.

I present to you his new bigger brother!

I found I was missing drawing on a full sheet of paper and the idea occurred to me to just make a bigger sketchbook. My smaller one is great for it's portability, but there are some times when I want to take something a little bigger (especially if I won't be needing to stand or walk around at the destination).

It's basically put together the same way as my smaller one.

You can see both of them together in this photo.

-bonus sketch from my new, bigger sketchbook-

"Saint George and the Blancmange"

Waiting in the Shallows

2012-01-30T17:36:00.000-08:00

Completed this one in three hours -one hour a day. I just wanted to do a sub.

I consider paintings like this to be more like a doodle. I didn't spend any time doing thumbnails to find good a composition or color scheme. I didn't even play around with drawing different kinds of submarines to paint!

Still, doing something like this without any kind of planning (and just seeing where it takes me) is fun to do from time to time.

THIS happens . . .

2012-01-23T15:47:00.002-08:00

Remember that speed-thumbnail exercise I did in my previous post? I took one of those little thumbs and decided to take it to a more finished piece. But . . . I wanted to give myself a little challenge.

At my previous job, I was required to work around specific color schemes for a certain publication. This was always a challenge since the subject for each cover was different and the color theme for each issue was usually something atypical I usually wouldn't think to use. I really enjoyed doing those because they challenged me to think up creative ways to incorporate that color into a composition in ways I normally wouldn't gravitate too. ( Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind doing some more of those, either!)

So behold! I found a random color generator on the web and this was the first choice which came up.

To make things even more interesting, I used Google's special image-recognition-searcher-feature-thingy to find similar images to my thumbnail and this came up. I decided to use one of these images to distort, scale, and paste multiple times to create some sort of an environment in my painting.

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Voila! The finished piece!

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Here's a process of how it went. Bonus points if you can figure out which image from the Google search I used to create the environment.

Quick on the Draw

2012-01-18T17:17:00.000-08:00

I read in another blog about a sketching exercise in which I do one little thumbnail per minute. Man, that's crazy, but so refreshing. I noticed I really started looking at the big shapes, the overall design, and major values. I haven't done any quick painting like that in a while. Doing one a minute really makes the time fly by.

Although none of these are really anything to look at, the value comes in training the mind to visualize things quicker. (plus all the things I noticed in the previous paragraph.)

A Day in the Life of an Adventure Guy

2012-01-13T15:56:00.000-08:00

I generally spend no more than maybe 15-20 minutes on each one of these. I work at 150dpi at about the scale you see here.

If I chose to take one of these and create a finished painting from it, I would take one of these single ideas and start playing around with composition, lighting, scale, contrast, etc -and do maybe 8-10 additional little sketches based off it.

Blue Eyes: The Movie

2012-01-04T16:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, another sideways one. ;)

Another Fine Mess

2011-12-27T10:02:00.000-08:00

I make breakfast with my grandparents often, but after years of use, their pans and spatulas start to wear out. I drew up this little cartoon to go along with the new ones I found for them.

Blue Eyes

2011-12-20T17:07:00.000-08:00

More 1 Hour Studies

2011-11-30T16:27:00.000-08:00

Second verse, same as the first . . .

But this time I created a very noisy chalk-like brush to do two of them. The idea was to create a way to prevent myself from 'skrubbing in' a color. I wanted to work on being able to see a color, and then lay it down in paint. Sha-bam! -None of this 'sneak up on it' 'airbrushy' 'semi-transparent' malarkey.

1 Hour Landscape Studies

2011-11-23T12:26:00.001-08:00

I found it easiest to do these when both the reference and study are about 1/6th the size of the computer screen I'm working on. I also use a messy brush and don't zoom into the painting. I try to keep everything on one layer too.

I spent no more than an hour on each.

Armor Amore?

2011-11-15T17:28:00.000-08:00

More armor . . .

-but next week I think I'll move on to something else.

Fun Fungi Guys

2011-11-09T17:04:00.001-08:00

Fungi just for fun.

Finding Mr. Ripe: Timelapse

2011-11-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

Until Youtube changes their format to accommodate vertical paintings, you'll have to tilt your head (or your laptop) to view this one. Sorry for the kink in your neck. :)

It's a real shame they only have horizontal video options. Tall paintings really get the shaft.

Take that Youtube! My painting is sideways!

Finding Mr. Ripe

2011-10-27T15:44:00.001-07:00

Voila!, it's done!

View the previous posts to see a progression of the piece as I've worked on it the last few weeks.

If you haven't been following along, this was done for a 'Gallery of Terror' -a Halloween themed blog to which some friends and I have contributed over the last several years.

Life After Life: Flimflammery

2011-10-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

So, I'm getting really close to being done with this painting.

As you can see, I've worked through the tough spot (see last post), and rays of hope have started to shine -yeah, I think this will turn our alright. :)

It's probably good I'm posting all this in my blog. I think I tend to forget how much I work through each problem while painting. It's good to remind myself how much tweaking and adjusting I do all the way to the end.

I've put a little more work into the figures and have fleshed out their hands and adjusted their overall proportions to be a little more accurate. I took the time to photograph my hands in similar positions, in similar lighting, for reference. I tilted the guy's head back. I felt it really important they have eye contact.

There's still work to be done, but after all, I'm just sharing a work in progress.

I've slightly adjusted my original story idea and changed a few things. My goal is to try and say as much within the painting without needing to rely on a title or explanation.

I added some pumpkins and will later paint in the vines for the final version. I felt it really needed something more -plus pumpkins are so 'Halloween-ish."

I need to get into 'crunch' mode to finish this before the weekend -which may mean working on it for 2 hours each night rather than the regular 1. ;)
But honestly, at this stage things tend to come together pretty quickly.

Stay tuned! . . .

Life After Life: Mumbo Jumbo

2011-10-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

Here's where I start to lay in the base colors and begin painting over the whole thing.

This is also the stage where I usually become most frustrated and feel the most doubt as to whether the painting will turn out to be as worthwhile to paint as I'd hoped.
-To some degree, this happens with EVERY painting I do.

Thank goodness for artists who blog. In the last several years, I've discovered this stage of doubt and hesitancy in painting is pretty universal.

I usually get through this by working on little sections at a time and 'trying out' different things just to see what would work. It's not very obvious between the two stages below, but I tweaked the composition quite a bit. I discovered the image was really getting heavy towards the right side and used the warp transform tool in Photoshop to re-position things.

Sometimes, I get so frustrated I start grabbing big chunks of the painting and move and slap them down to try and find the right balance. Turning my frustration into action has never really failed me and usually turns out to be pretty beneficial. I can't afford to hold any one part of a painting sacred and need to be able to 'destroy it' to 'create it' the way which would work better.

As I continue to work, I discover the need to add more details here and there. Some of that is evident in the second image, but there's still more in my head I realize I need to modify or add to bring more interest to the piece.

Stay tuned for next week . . .

Life After Life: Gobbledygook

2011-10-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

So here's the next stage of the painting.

I've chosen one of my sketches to refine and stretched it to fit an 8x10in 300dpi document. I actually sketch over the drawing three times, each time refining the drawing even further. I was searching for a general design and movement to the piece and wanted to play with the idea I found in the sketch -to have white (or lighter) shapes against black (or darker) shapes, and vice versa.

It was also at this stage where I defined where the eye level would be. With the help of perspective-fu*, this helped me place the environment inside a believable space.

Because I had the luxury to do so, I left the sketch overnight to allow myself a fresh view of it the following day.

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This next one is a result of my playing around with some values and colors underneath the sketch. I set the sketch to multiply and move it to a layer above the color. I also save this out as a separate document and reduce the dpi by half to save file space. When I settle on a direction with color, value, lighting, etc, I'll take the color information back to my original sketch to finish it with.

You'll notice I changed things around on this color comp. Just as with the sketch, I set it aside overnight night to get a fresh view of it the following day.

In the original drawing, I noticed the figures were a little to small to my liking. I adjusted their scale. The items in the foreground didn't seem to flow very well in relationship to one another (and to the composition as a whole) so I started moving them around too.

I pulled out one of my compositional grids to help me figure out what to do with them. I knew that something wasn't working well, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I think this helped quite a bit, but I'm not 100% sold on it yet. I'll probably keep playing around with it all the way to the end.

The goal is really to try and solve as many problems as I can in the early stages of the painting. I still anticipate quite a few hurdles as I go along, but at least the problems I've addressed now won't (hopefully) come back to haunt me later.

*The ancient martial art of showing a painting or drawing who's boss

Life After Life: Gibberish

2011-10-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

For the last 4 years, some old friends and I have contributed to a 'Gallery of Terror' blog every October. It's a fun way to keep in touch and there's usually a theme to follow.

This year's theme is 'Life After Life.'

I thought it would be fun to post a week by week progression of how I develop my piece for the gallery.

My process begins with scribbling down ideas in the form of thumbnails and little notes to myself. Since the creation of my handy-dandy homemade sketchbook, I can do this much easier on the fly and don't have to rely on trying to compile doodles from scraps of paper throughout the day (at least I don't have to rely on doing that as much as before.)

Most people are disappointed when they peer into my sketchbook, since I use it mainly for brainstorming and figuring out good compositions, not making pretty pictures -that part comes much later.

Here are 4 pages from my sketchbook for this piece. Decipher them if you dare!!

When I feel I've got a good idea, I also create a reference folder on my computer (sometimes with sub-folders within it) and start gathering images (generally off the web) to help me with some of the details of the painting, specify a mood, and sometimes even spark further ideas for how I could develop the painting later on.

Here's a screen shot of the reference I've collected so far. This is pretty average for the amount of reference I collect for any image. Sometimes there's a whole lot more.

Anyways, I'll be sharing what my idea is for this gallery piece in the following weeks. Or at least you'll be able to see it for yourself as it develops further.

Ambush: Process

2011-09-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

I never did share the process of this other painting. Enjoy!

Confrontation: Process

2011-09-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

Confrontation

2011-09-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

Here's the finished piece from last week.

Sneaky-peaky

2011-09-06T16:20:00.000-07:00

Something I have in the works . . .

Abandoned, but not forgotten . . .

2011-08-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

You may remember this image from several months ago. I left it in a semi-finished state -until I decided to try a different technique. Now it doesn't look half bad.

R.O.C.K.

2011-08-24T18:11:00.001-07:00

696 Words

2011-08-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

A newly hired co-worker asked us for advice (to share with her college friends) about our careers. I thought I'd also post my response here. Maybe it will help you.

How was I introduced into video game production / how did I managed my entry into the field:

I think this question has several answers in part. To boil it down, it really helped me to know people in the industry and keep in contact with employees from previous jobs (or students from previous colleges/universities). Every job since college has been acquired due to the people I've known from previous acquaintances, whether in school or other work. I might even add that jobs and opportunities I had while in college worked the same way. I was the student newspaper staff artist while at Ricks (now BYUI) and my associations with the editors there helped me land a cartoonist position with the editor or the student newspaper at USU –which helped me land a position with the local paper as a Sunday editorial cartoonist. My association with a teacher at USU helped me land a position with my first job out of college, and work associations with friends there have helped me with every job since.
That said, people skills and relations are a vital part of any job. Never, never burn bridges and treat people with respect, even when you disagree with them.

What did I do in college to prepare me for my current role:

I might start this answer by telling you what I did outside of college to prepare me for my current role. I think I put three times as much work into my art assignments outside of class than what I did in class. It pained me to see students around me only use the class time to work on things. I researched, and sketched, and painted, and treated every assignment as if I was working professionally for a client. Instead of looking and comparing myself to the students around me, I was looking and comparing my progress to people’s work already in the field. I also assigned myself additional tasks and projects independent of school to improve my skills.

What do I think helped me succeed in this field:

I think people skills have a lot to do with this part. It might seem funny that I’m speaking about people skills, but it’s really the core of any successful relationship, whether working or otherwise. Learning how to work as a team and put a project before my own wants and agenda –to see the bigger picture is very important. Sure, there are times I feel differently about how something is done, and sometimes I don’t like it at all. It’s okay to voice my opinion, that’s part of being on a team -to give each person an equal chance to voice an opinion and to respond to it in a respectful way.
Hard work comes second and I’ll refer you to the previous answers I listed above.
Because of the number of jobs and different positions I've had in the last 10 years, I think a variety of skills and the willingness to continually learn new skills, workflows, programs, etc has been a major plus to my success.

How would I go about it if I had a second chance:

You might as well ask me how I would live my life previous to today if I had a second chance. :) I think I would have worked better on people skills and honing my art talent. I still strive to work on both, and recognize how important both are. Maybe that’s why I say that.
I really wish colleges and universities had business classes for artists. I think business skill is one thing artists are lacking once they get into the work force after college –especially in regards to freelance/self employment. I probably would have attended more of those classes.

What an entrant into this field cannot do without:

-A thriving desire to push one’s personal skills, willingness to be flexible, great personal skills, being able to see the big picture, and respect for those around us.

2011-08-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

Each one of these took about a 1/2 hour to an hour to do. I just found some images off the web to study and restricted myself to a messy brush so I wouldn't get caught up in the details.

I found this to be really refreshing for a change. My favorite is the guy with the red shield. He was the last one I did of the four, and already I could see greater confidence in my strokes of paint and choice of color.

S'mores . . .?

2011-08-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

-and a video.

USS Cygnus

2011-07-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

I remember watching The Black Hole as a kid. If it's ever remade, I think it would work great as a science fiction horror movie.

I painted this up a couple of evenings ago. I didn't spend a lot of time on it, but was inspired by that movie while I worked.

Speaking of movies . . .

Die Panne

2011-07-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

-ps. conceptart.org is gearing up to launch version 4.0 of their forums. They're having a great sale on all their downloadable educational videos and some are a REAL deal! The sale ends the first of August, so head on over to The Art Department to if you want any.

50

2011-07-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

I did this as an exercise a while back. One a day for about a half hour each day.

What's that? Humidity?

2011-07-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

This week has been hot and muggy. In fact, I wouldn't mind crawling into a nice cool crypt somewhere to escape for a while.

I painted this guy up while testing out some new home-made Photoshop brushes.

If he's too scary for you, don't worry, my talent is bi-polar enough I'll be painting nursery-friendly images again before long. ;)

Ludicrous Gauge, Go!

2011-06-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

Long ago in a park far, far away . . .

2011-06-23T16:01:00.001-07:00

-some old work from projects long ago.

I have done a Mommy Blog

2011-06-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

. . . or to be more precise, I have (done artwork for a) Mommy Blog.
This is a header, link banner and some additional portraits for a friend's blog.

Magic Picker 2.0 is out!

2011-05-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

Last summer, I found a tool for Photoshop which basically puts a color wheel in a panel to keep it perpetually accessible while I paint. But what I got was much, much more.
I can't believe how much use I've gotten out of it, nor how many paintings I've enjoyed using it for.

It would be an understatement for me to say that this panel is the most valuable tool I have in Photoshop.

Just this week, version 2.0 has been released, and now, besides all the previous cool attributes it has, I can also plot out various color schemes right within the color wheel itself! How cool is that!

Head on over to: http://anastasiy.com/panels and check it out!

Pain

2011-05-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a little rocky for the last couple of months.
Yes, this is kind of how things have felt.

Stop, Drop, & Roll

2011-03-24T17:54:00.001-07:00

That's what I should have done several weeks ago while working on this. Halfway through painting, I realized it wasn't the direction I wanted to take. It's a decent painting, but I wasn't liking it.
Instead of setting it aside, I made the mistake of trying to finish it. But because I wasn't happy with it, I ended up not touching it, nor painting anything else in the meantime.
I should have Stopped, Dropped (this painting), and Rolled (on to something else).

-okay, okay, I admit that was a pretty bad pun.

Remove Thyself from Distraction

2011-03-17T18:31:00.001-07:00

The warmer weather has been a big distraction to me lately and it's been more challenging to focus on personal art projects.

Another 'distraction', which has plagued me as a artist, is the wide range of colors available to me when I paint. I thought I'd share an experiment I've been working on as a way to 'remove this distraction' when I'm starting a painting.

What I do is find ANY image in which I feel a good range of values and a color system exists. The trick is really to find a good image in the first place. It can be a painting by another artist, a photo, a design, a video still, or whatever. I then reduce the size of it in an image editing program so it's only composed of a handful or more pixels.

I then take a screen capture of it at a zoomed in view. Now, I can color sample from these swatches as I paint, knowing I have a decent limited color palette which already works in a pre-existing image.

To illustrate this experiment, I took 9 of my paintings and reduced them down so you could see what they'd look like as pixels. All of the above images are from my blog. Can you guess where they're from?

I used this method (but with an image not of my own) when starting this painting, which I posted earlier in my blog. I found it really interesting what I could accomplish with only a few colors and values.

Have you figured out which swatches are from which paintings yet? Here's a cheat sheet:

Click to view it larger.

Austin-Putilov Timelapse Painting

2011-03-09T18:45:00.001-08:00

Austin-Putilov

2011-03-03T15:43:00.000-08:00

What kind of name is that?

Very early in the first World War, the Russians wanted some armored cars. They didn't have the production capabilities to make any and decided to order them from the United Kingdom instead. The Austin Motor Company built the original models sold to the Russians. Improvements were made to the design during the following years.

Not long after that, the Russians decided to build their own version of the armored car using the Austin chassis. This task was given to Putilovski Works -hence the name Austin-Putilov.

FT-17 Timelapse Painting

2011-02-24T16:16:00.000-08:00

Worship Now!

2011-02-17T15:55:00.001-08:00

I was afraid this might happen. I leave a large face to find somewhere and whadaya know, some guys go and make a shrine of it behind my back.

Thanks for the comments on the earlier, unfinished piece. I actually completed the painting a week ago, so sorry if I was too quick for you. :)
Maybe I'll do this again some time.

Tank you very much!

2011-02-10T15:34:00.000-08:00

I don't normally gravitate to mechanical stuff when I sit down to create. One of my goals this year is to do more mechanical things. "I'll do a tank!" I thought. A tank is mechanical and might be fun to draw, but I didn't want to do a modern tank. So I found this one and I completely enjoyed re-creating it in the view seen above.

As a side note, I discovered some interesting things about it as I researched. The FT happens to be the 'trend-setter' for tanks as we know them now. Designed by Louis Renault, this was the first tank configured to have a fully rotating turret on top, driver at the front, and engine at the back.

Your brain: I need it . . .

2011-02-03T15:42:00.001-08:00

I want to try something different with this image.
What I want to do is give you the opportunity to help me finish it.

I'll give you until next Thursday to post your idea(s) in the comments and I'll pick the idea I like the best to finish it off.

Questions to stimulate your mind:

When is this happening?
In the past?
Right now?
In the future?

Where is it taking place?
In our reality?
On our planet? -on another planet?
In a fictitious reality?

Tell me about the climate in this scene.
Avoid letting the colors of the painting dictate to your mind where it might be, unless you have a really good reason for it.

What is the significance of the face?
Is it religious?
Is it being excavated?
Buried?
Discovered?
Defaced?
Created?
Or is it not significant or not the main focus in the scene?

Tell me about the scale of things in the painting.
How big or how small are things?

Suggest elements to add to the scene if you wish. Like I said, it's not finished.
What else is here?
Is there wildlife or fauna? -or none at all?

How populated is the scene? Who would or wouldn't be here and how many? What might they be doing? How advanced would they be?

That's No Moon! . . .

2011-01-27T15:44:00.001-08:00

Towards the end of last year, I began doing some brainstorming on what I could assign myself for personal art projects this year. One thing I want to do is round out my portfolio a little more, but I was having trouble narrowing down how I was to do that.

I found that, even though I had a goal to do more art and fill my portfolio, my goal was failing. Instead of wanting to do more art, I discovered I wasn't doing anything at all -hence the lack of posts for several weeks.

I learned that my struggles didn't stem from having a clear direction on where I wanted to take my career, but rather, grew out of the fear of either loosing employment or missing out on a well-paying future career in art. If you can believe, I've had four different art careers in the last ten years and spent almost a year looking for work during the last recession. My first two jobs were with large and seemingly secure companies. One laid off about 3/4 of their employees due to financial problems. The second job found me working for a boss who, when the economy took a nose dive, tried to keep the studio afloat by stealing money from his employees.

Several years ago, I learned of two different motivations which influence how I live my life. One is a way to move through life towards the things I want to obtain, or achieve. Another way is to move through life away from the things I want to avoid, or fear. An author compared this to trying to drive while only looking through the rear-view mirror, or going shopping in a store with a list of all the things I don't want. As you can imagine, this way of thinking can contribute to a very frustrating, directionless life.

Just as the Cheshire Cat told Alice, in Alice in Wonderland, that it didn't matter which path she took if she didn't know where she wanted to go, I found my desire to produce art overwhelmed by the attitude of 'wanting to cover all my bases' instead of aligning my ambitions along a specific path. The art world is very broad, and I found myself exhausted even just thinking about how I was going to achieve my goal.

Thankfully, recognizing how I was thinking, and with inspiration from some of my favorite artists, I've been able to bounce back, and restructure my goals with a more specific 'toward-motivated' direction in mind.

Santa Timelapse

2011-01-07T19:26:00.000-08:00

It's not Funky Chicken . . .

2010-12-30T15:22:00.000-08:00

. . .but it is a funky timelapse of a funky painting.

Now you know . . .

2010-12-23T16:34:00.001-08:00

. . . what Santa does the other 364 days of the year.

Edit: 12/30/10 -This painting won a contest!

Sketchbook: What I've learned

2010-12-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

I've had this custom-made sketchbook for a little over a year. I filled it with 100 half-sheets of 8.5x11 paper and have used every page. In the process of using it, I've learned several things which have helped me use it more often. I want to take a moment and share them:

Keep the sketchbook someplace easily accessible. Whether it be on my kitchen table, the edge of the couch, or corner of my desk, I've found I sketch more when it's in easy reach, or at least in easy view, from where I happen to be.

Keep a favorite sketching implement near it at all times. Nothing sours sketching more than trying to use a drawing tool I hate or even just marginally like. Adversely, nothing tempts me more than to doodle or write more than using a pen or pencil I really enjoy using.

Attach the sketching tool to the sketchbook. This step insures that the pen, pencil, marker, etc, stays with the sketchbook at all times. I created a loop out of fabric to hold my pen with my sketchbook. When I pick one up, the other comes with it, and there's no more worry about my pen breaking and leaking in my pocket.

-In short, I guess the general idea is to tempt, tantalize, and make sketching, drawing, and doodling as easy and fun as possible.

Voldemort as a timelapse video

2010-12-02T21:27:00.000-08:00

Oh, no! I've become one of those artists who records themselves painting!

Cold Turkey

2010-11-24T10:13:00.001-08:00

That's almost what I would be eating this Thanksgiving. We had a big snow storm come through last night and close the freeway to my parents house. Thankfully, the roads a better today.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

"Mort"

2010-11-18T16:14:00.000-08:00

-as in "Volde" . . .

Don't Worry . . .

2010-11-10T17:49:00.001-08:00

. . . he knows it's behind him.

AWESOME FREE!

2010-11-04T16:09:00.001-07:00

Got your attention? Are you an artist looking for more training?

If you havn't heard of Feng Zhu's School of Design, or more specificaly what he's doing on Youtube, you're in for a real treat.

Feng Zhu is a very talented concept artist and designer who has worked on a plethora (always wanted to use that word somehow) of film and game projects. You have heard of some: Transformers: The Movie, Star Wars Episode III, Xmen: Evolution, and the upcoming Tron movie.

He has lately taken up teaching his trade over in Singapore.

Now to the real reason for this post. Feng has been posting videos of his student artwork critiques on Youtube. These aren't speed paintings. Feng talks about his student's work and then walks the viewer through the steps he took, during a class demo paintover of said students work, to make the image more effective.

These things are packed with information!

If you're familiar with the Gnomon training DVDs, you may be surprized at the comparable worth of these videos. As of this post, there is 12 hours of tutorial demos! I repeat, 12 hours!!

-and these aren't those low quality, blurry Youtube videos you may expect. They're High Definition, 1280 x 720 videos!

I havn't even made it half way through all the ones he's already posted and have found them to be very valuable in my illustration/design process.

Want a link already? Click here!

Yes, Charlie Brown, . . .

2010-10-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

. . . there is a Great Pumpkin.

The Archangel Tyrael

2010-10-23T17:54:00.001-07:00

Blizzcon is gone,
The grass has ris
Where my contest submission is.

It's gold!

2010-10-15T15:15:00.001-07:00

This last year, I've been experimenting with the Golden Mean a little bit with my artwork. I even made my own set to use. While doing some research, I discovered several more guides used for similar purposes -all above. (feel free to grab these for your own use.)

There's a whole wealth of documentation on the web about this, of which I'll let you look up at your leisure-

. . . But something I saw another artist do (and I can't remember who) was to stretch or squash the guide to fit their painting. I hadn't thought of doing this before, and whether or not this 'breaks' the rules of the Golden Mean, it has nevertheless opened up new possibilities for me to use it in my art.

I've found it adds a nice sense of composition to my artwork. I don't literally use it in every piece, but have always tryed to at least keep the idea in mind whenever I compose a painting.

Below are a few examples where I have literally used it. I've found that the face is a good place to start -a natural place the eye gravitates to, but it really could be anything.

Lazy Bones

2010-10-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

Somebody committed a lot of time and effort
designing something to just lounge around in.

Would you trust this place?

2010-09-30T07:42:00.000-07:00

Three's something odd about a giant fish serving food at a Sushi Restaurant . . .

We, Two(?) Kings . . .

2010-09-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

Two Ancient Persian Kings I did for a work publication.

The fun part about this is no one really knows exactly what they looked like. I could take a certain amount of liberties . . .
-to a degree, anyway.

What Energy Level Do You Need?

2010-09-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

Due to amount of artwork needed for the publications we produce at work, I hardly ever get to color any of my own drawings. Finally, I get to do one cover (lines and colors) just by myself!

Which battery do you think he chose?

Upgraded

2010-09-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of working on a Logo 'Upgrade' a couple of
months ago for Primary Therapy Source.

Is Math Mental?

2010-09-03T16:12:00.001-07:00

Maybe . . .

But if it were like this, school would've been far more interesting.

Broken

2010-08-25T19:25:00.001-07:00

My personal computer has been sick for almost the entire last month. Maybe I should let this guy work on it?

A Tribute to the Monk

2010-08-06T06:06:00.001-07:00

. . . A Monk from Diablo III, that is. . .

Photoshop Tips and Tools

2010-07-30T15:59:00.001-07:00

MAGIC COLOR PICKER

If you have Photoshop and are frustrated by the in-program color picker, here's something you may really, really like.

Anastasiy, over at anastasiy.com, created an awesome color picker panel for Photoshop CS3, CS4, and CS5 which acts just like the color wheel found in Corel Painter, plus it has a few extra neat features.

What I like best about it is that the panel stays open all the time. I don't know why Adobe hasn't understood yet the importance of this yet, but even their newest HUD falls short.

(I hate the HUD. It takes holding down two keys plus a stylus button to open it, and then I need to alternately press or not press the space bar with one of my remaining fingers to change colors.

Hellooo! Adobe, have you ever watched a digital painter work? I need something faster than that.)

It works with both RGB and CMYK modes, can resize to whatever size desired, and even minimize like other Photoshop panels. It has a lot of neat features packed into it.

Follow the link above to read more about it.

VALUE PROOFING

I've taken to checking my Photoshop documents for value/contrast lately. I used to create a separate copy of the image and desaturate it, or use an adjustment layer, but wanted to see if there was something faster I could use.
I discovered the Proof settings in Photoshop include all sorts of color modes, including a bunch of black and white modes. You can find the proof setup menu here:

The nice thing about this is I can set up a custom mode to one of the black and white color modes. Then all I need to do is use the short cut keys to turn the preview on or off. Below is the mode I use to check values in my paintings.

PRACTICAL LIGHT AND COLOR
Jeremy Vickery

Lastly, I picked up a copy of Practical Light and Color, published by the Gnomon Workshop.

I thought I had a pretty good understanding of light and color before watching this, but it sure opened my eyes to things I never considered, let alone knew, before.

Highly recommended.

Monk (a taste of things to come)

2010-07-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

Chance of me finishing this = very good.

Hair Troubles -now in color!

2010-07-16T15:24:00.001-07:00

Bend it

2010-07-05T21:13:00.001-07:00

No, I didn't think much of it.

Hey, remember that thing back in . . .

2010-07-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

Back in December, I posted about a home-made sketchbook I made to help me draw more.

It's half full as of this post, and I wanted to share some of my experiences so far.

I primarily wanted to get in the habit of drawing more, but I soon discovered that a personal sketchbook is more than just a place to draw.

I also use it to doodle, draw up quick thumbnails for painting ideas, record notes (both literally and visually), and brainstorm ideas.

My sketchbook is not filled with pretty pictures, nor is the writing anything somebody else could decipher. The thumbnail drawings are scratchy -some even resemble the marks someone makes trying to get a dry pen to write -but there's an image in there, I swear!

One of the most unexpected and rewarding experiences I had was taking it into an art gallery, sitting down in front of a painting and taking notes on composition, colors, anatomy, and whatever. I absorbed so much from that and wished I had started carrying around a sketchbook with me years ago.

I've taken it to places where I might have to wait for a while. Dentists, Orthodontists, Barbers, and auto oil service places are too quick for me to doodle very much.
But Doctors offices, auto mechanics, and waiting in line for a premier showing of a popular movie gave me plenty of time. (sometimes too much time . . .)

I was amazed at the variety of peoples faces to draw. There is also a fantastic amount of detail and variety to be found in everyday architecture. The more I drew, the more I found myself really looking at things -even when I wasn't sketching.

So, scattered around this post are a few of the 'nicer' doodles and studies from the last 6 months. Most of them are very small and I'm a little self-conscious about posting them, but it's something I've really appreciated doing and I hope it will inspire you to start a sketchbook as well.

Hair Troubles

2010-06-25T17:21:00.001-07:00

A Shiny Study

2010-06-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

Done in one evening for a change.

. . . Small update: The painting in the previous post won a contest over at Parka Blogs!
Thanks everyone for the congratulations!

Giddap!

2010-06-10T16:02:00.001-07:00

Voilà!
The finished piece . . .

Rootin' Tootin'

2010-06-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

A work in progress. I'll have more to show next week!

Alchemy and Sculptris

2010-05-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Alchemy

Here's a program that's been out a while that I've just recently been learning how to better use.

A quote from their site:

Alchemy is an open drawing project aimed at exploring how we can sketch, draw, and create on computers in new ways. Alchemy isn’t software for creating finished artwork, but rather a sketching environment that focuses on the absolute initial stage of the creation process. Experimental in nature, Alchemy lets you brainstorm visually to explore an expanded range of ideas and possibilities in a serendipitous way.

This program enables the artist a variety of interesting ways to generate new ideas. Although a little difficult for me to explain in writing, it basically helps stimulate the mind to think creatively by creating shapes randomly -from which the artist can try to 'see' new ideas. -Kind of like looking at clouds or ink blots, but the cool thing is that I have a certain amount of control to manipulate the shapes in various ways.

Maybe that sounded like gobbly-gook, but visit their site if your interested in learning more. -Or look up some videos of it in action on Youtube. The program is free to use.

----------------------------

Sculptris

Here's another free program that allows the artist to sculpt in 3D. I was surprised to learn that it didn't require an installation and was very simple to run. I opened up the program and was able to sculpt right away without knowing beforehand anything about how to use it. The interface is very simple and straightforward. I scupted a simple face here, but I've seen Youtube videos of people doing complex full figure sculptures.

It also has a pretty slick painting ability, although I'd recomend laying out the UV's in another program first before using it to paint anything.

Frosch

2010-05-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

This is one of two characters I'm currently concepting for a personal project.

I want to create a character based off a frog, but be different than anything I've seen before.
This first page is my initial stab at it after gathering various references from the internet. I'm just trying to get a sense of what makes a frog a frog since I can't really poke fun of what one might look like until I understand what real ones look like.

I knew I was on to something towards the bottom of the page when I started to laugh. I like the idea of an 'avacado-shape' with the appearance of his pants pulled up to his eyeballs.

----------------------------

The next page is me running the character through various poses and expressions. I want to make sure the anatomy works for the character -in other words, he's a funny looking creature, but different than anything I'm familiar with. I want to make sure that things like arms, legs, feet, mouth, etc (not to mention how they're all attached) are recognisable as such.

You might notice that the first several drawings look a little stiff, but becomes more 'fluid' as I continue sketching and work towards the bottom of the page.

I still believe this character could use some more exploration before I'm truely happy, but so far he's looking pretty good.

Animals goofing around

2010-05-13T18:16:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of cartoon animal pieces I did recently for a contest.

Megalomaniac

2010-05-07T16:10:00.001-07:00

I did this for one of the articles at work. The nature of the publications I work on results in doing some additional research into the subject matter I'm illustrating.

To be short, Alexander the Great was kind of a messed up guy. -Both physically and mentally.

-but he was fun to draw . . .

Gobber part 3

2010-05-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

I decided to add a frame to him. I admit it's not the most interesting way to finish this image, but I really only considered it an experiment with Sam's technique after all (shared in previous posts).

-now, on to something else!

Gobber part 2

2010-04-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

Alright, so here's the second part of my experience with Sam Nielson's technique. If you haven't discovered already, his tutorial is actually split up into two parts: Part 01 & Part 02.

The first image leaves off kind of where I was in my last post. You may notice that the flat colors have been tweaked a bit.

The second image has the occlusion layer turned on, and I've painted the primary light source onto the viking. I used pure white on a layer set to "Overlay."
I had originally started with a layer filled with a mid-grey color, but found it better to just paint in white on an otherwise empty layer. This limited the "overlay" setting to only effect where the light was. (I got a little confused as to whether the layer was filled with grey while looking at Sam's tutorial. )

I noticed that the overlay layer really brought out the color underneath. My original flat color for the skin, especially, became way too yellow. So, after painting in all the light I wanted, I went back into the flat colors and adjusted them (while the light layer was still on) until I got colors I was happier with.

The third image is a secondary light source. There's only just a little bit of it on the right side, but it doesn't take that much to help round out the forms on the character.
Note: There are NO shadows painted in anywhere (occlusion layer excepted)! The more I approach painting from the idea that I am adding light (primary, secondary, reflected, etc) to an object (not shadow), the better things have turned out.

The fourth image is where I went in and added additional color variations to the flat colors. I'll let the image do the explaining.
I might add that there are no strong highlights yet! That's something I tend to jump too early into sometimes. That's the great thing about trying out techniques I'm unfamiliar with. I learn things about the way I normally paint. And doing things a different way, than I'm used to, helps me notice problem areas.

The last image is where I painted in highlights, added textures and details, tightened up and/or corrected areas, etc . . . I also colorized the occlusion layer.
I really don't like painting with black. To me, black isn't a color, but a value, and it tends to make things look sooty when combined with colors. I like to use dark colors rather than black.

Since the last part is pretty much how I usually paint, I decided to reserve that part for a separate tutorial -maybe for one of my own pieces . . .maybe if I get enough comments I'll do one. :)

Oh yeah, maybe one more tip: Always try to incorporate a sketch into some kind of environment, even if it's just something simple. My viking paint above is a bad example of that. Now I'm stuck and kind of limited as to what to do with him. An environment, among other things, can help dictate what kind of lighting to use.

One more tip? Okay, never start on a really dark or light valued canvas. The extreme values can influence the subject in ways not intended. Too light of a canvas can result in a painting turning out too dark, and a dark canvas vice versa.
I actually did this study on a mid-grey background, but chose to post it in my blog on a white background -I have no idea why.

I want to add some more to the final image before posting it -next time!

Gobber

2010-04-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

Sam Nielson posted a painting process "how-to" over on The Art Center blog.
I've been wanting to try this out ever since I read it, and got my chance after seeing How to Train Your Dragon last weekend. I loved the vikings in that movie.

Sam's style is based off of how 3D programs render shots to later be composited. It's a nice way to simplify an image so as to focus only on one thing at a time. So far, it's been a great learning experience.

I want to share what I've done so far and comment on the experience.

The first image is the drawing. -Pretty self explanatory, but crucial for a good painting.

The second image is the flat colors under the drawing. The linework has been lowered in opacity a little bit. Sam encourages the colors to be a little darker and even. I compare it to what the colors of things might appear as on a dark, cloudy day.

The third image is occlusion. I hadn't heard this term until I got into 3D applications. Basically think of this as light hitting the object from all angles -no cast shadows- with the darkest parts being where the least amount of light can bounce into. So cracks, creases, deep folds, etc are where the darkest values will be found. If you've ever done a drawing with "lost edges," that's what most of the lightest edges will look like -there won't be much definition there, if any at all.
I'm not sure if Sam hides the color layer when he paints in the occlusion, but I found it easier for me to change the layer mode to multiply and paint in a layer right above the color layer.

The last image is all of the different layers composited with my progress so far. The linework is on "multiply," the occlusion layer is underneath that on "multiply," and lastly is the color layer.

Visit the link at the top of this post for his tutorial -and also learn valuable tips and techniques from other great artists!

I'll be posting my continuing process on this (hopefully) next week.

Eminent Domain

2010-04-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here's another book cover I finished last summer. Now on Amazon.

Birds Spotted

2010-04-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

. . . on the covers of Studies Weekly Math, that is.

One More Skeleton

2010-03-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

Skeletons & Chains

2010-03-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

Prehistoric Brutes

2010-03-11T15:39:00.000-08:00

I can't believe this is the first time I've ever done dinosaurs for one of my jobs.

A Real Hero

2010-03-04T17:51:00.000-08:00

. . . at least when it comes to kids. This is the hero dog of whom I did sketches for in my previous post. His job is to teach kids how to live healthy -both physically and emotionally.

They named him 'Harry the Health Hound.'

Weekly Dawg

2010-02-25T17:14:00.000-08:00

For an upcoming issue of Studies Weekly, I am designing a dog mascot. After several days work and research, they ultimately decided to go with an average every-day kind of dog.

Still, I rather enjoyed the break from the regular routine. It was fun exploring the different breeds and how they might fit with our publication.

Violence!

2010-02-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

Some recent stuff from work. The Studies Weekly these pieces belong to deals with decision making.

But you can make up your own story. :)

My Company Has a Long Name

2010-02-11T16:22:00.000-08:00

Here’s some work I’ve been doing at my new job: American Legacy Publishing. We produce a publication called “Studies Weekly,” which helps elementary students achieve their individual state’s core learning standards.

Printed in newspaper and magazine format, the publications are continually updated to keep students abreast of world, national, and state current events related to their curriculum.

These are used in 26% of schools nationwide, and have been adopted by a growing number of state departments of education with authorization to be used as “textbooks.”

Our goal is to provide the most effective learning tools for K-6 social studies and science education by helping teachers in every state and grade level teach and assess 100% of their grade level’s state standards with minimum required teacher preparation and maximum success.

There is currently a math publication in the works for grades K-2. I’ve been assigned all the artwork for these issues and have just completed everything for the next season.

Below, take a look at some of the covers and spot illustrations I’ve done. I do all the drawing/inking, while another artist later colors them. The red lines are a template which I use to help compose each cover. There is also space reserved in the bottom area for subtitles and additional text.

The robot is kind of the ‘Mickey Mouse’ spokesman for the math issues and is featured in just about every one of them. Designed before I was hired, he has a compass and protractor for hands, along with other tools on every side of his body to help teach mathematics.

Alien Deterrent

2010-02-02T19:00:00.001-08:00

I SIT DOWN AND PAINT . . . my kitchen

2010-01-21T17:49:00.000-08:00

. . . as a study.

Beast of 2009?

2010-01-14T16:49:00.001-08:00

So . . . my first painting in the New Year was of this guy. I'm not sure if this is an sign of things to come or just the beast of 2009 going out the door.

3D Pitcher Bug

2009-12-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

For the Polygon Assignment in my Maya class, we were given the task to create some kind of imaginary bug and place it in an environment.

I did a series of exploratory sketches to find some kind of unique shape for my bug. I found it easier to think of a function or an environment for it first -and then design the bug. I also tried simply crossing the bug with random objects or animals -doing a quick drawing as each idea would pop into my head.

As can be seen, I chose to do the version which crossed the bug with a pitcher.

While working on this assignment, I learned the invaluable ability of Maya to work with PSD files. Being able to keep all the color, bump, specular, UVs, etc information in one psd file was tremendous help.

I took the photo last fall in a park about a mile from where I live. Something I did which really helped when it came to lighting the bug, and matching it with the photo, was taking two photos of the same branch on the tree. I took one photo for compositing, and another photo with a red push pin stuck in the branch for reference.

The push pin was about the size of the bug and helped me to compose the environment -reserving enough space for the bug. The push pin also was a simple enough object to build a copy of in Maya and provided valuable lighting information. I lit the model of the push pin to match the one in the reference photo, swapped the photo with the actual photo to be used, hid the push pin model, and then placed the bug in the scene to be rendered.

I wanted to share what the bug looks like from other views as well. UV and textural information for the bug can be found in the Personal Work: 3D section of my portfolio.

I was sad when this class ended a couple weeks ago. I haven't really had a sit down, teacher guided class in Maya. Most of what I've learned so far has come through workshops and on the job training. It was nice to be guided from start to finish through a project, not to mention learn a little of the background of the program.

I'm probably most grateful I decided to sign up and shell out the cash for this class in the face of being in between jobs at the time. I learned so much more than if I would have tried to tackle the same projects on my own. With respect to my love of drawing and painting, I'd definitely like to get into this more.

Interviewed!

2009-12-18T16:32:00.000-08:00

Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

Steve Savage maintains "A blog about jobs, careers, and economics for ambitious fans, progeeks, Otariimen, and other members of the Modern Literati." Click the link above for a few of my thoughts on pursuing an art career, dealing with assumptions about artists, and advice on dealing with our current economic situation, etc.

I first came in contact with Steve several years ago while visiting another site of his: Seventh Sanctum. I was looking for some random name generators for a project of mine. Since then, I have never found a bigger ". . . collection of 'generators' that make random characters, plots, ideas, and more to use in your writing, games, art and more."

I emailed him with a few questions, of which he answered promptly and kindly.

Zoom ahead to last summer. Steve found me in a list of old emails and sent out an invite to connect to him through LinkedIn. Offering to help with my job searching activities, he referred me to a couple of contacts of his. He also later congratulated me, when receiving an update through LinkedIn, on finding a new job a couple of months ago.

CMYK color swatch wheels

2009-12-16T15:57:00.000-08:00

I did a couple of paintings last summer and discovered a major let-down with Corel Painter. There is no CMYK mode for PSD files!

Why?! Why?!

I love using Painter for my artwork. Why isn't there a mode compatible with Photoshop's CMYK documents?! I learned this the hard way after creating a painting -only to find that some of the most brilliant colors turned to mud when I converted it to be sent off to be printed.

Can I still use Painter to paint? Is this the end of my devotion to this beloved program?

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Last week, I had the idea pop into my head to look online for some swatch palettes constructed only of CMYK colors. At least this way, when I sample from them, it would help me stay within printable color ranges, I thought. (sigh, . . . it used to be 'stay within the lines,' now it's 'stay within the color gamut.' What's next?)

Fortunately, I found that someone (Glen Moyes) HAD made some CMYK swatch palettes and put a lot of work into them. These things are great! He's actually made both a version of CMYK and RBG swatch palettes for several applications including Photoshop and Painter.

You can find them here and here.

Using a screen capture of the color palettes he made, I created two more swatch libraries. Since I tend to jump too quickly into the saturated end of the spectrum (aww . . but it's so fun), I decided I would create a desaturated copy just for myself. This might be a big turning point in my artwork as it will actually force me to use desaturated colors longer during my painting process.

Sketchbook-phobia

2009-12-05T16:21:00.001-08:00

Real sketchbooks (the kind you buy from a store) intimidate me. I never grew up with them. Instead, I drew on reams and reams of plain ol’ paper. In school, I had a section in my binder with plain ol’ paper just for drawing. I have folders at home filled with drawings I did on plain ol’ paper.
Then I got into college where I needed to use sketchbooks as part of my grade. I filled them up, but it just never felt natural.
Even now, I still do my best thinking on plain ol’ paper.

So about 2 months ago, I came up with an idea that would combine the best of what I like about sketchbooks with the familiarity of plain ol’ paper.

So far, It’s been working out really well. It’s small and ring-bound (I like to be able to fold the cover around to the back of it). The thin masonite cover gives it a good solid feel that’s still pretty light. I can carry it around just about anywhere.

The book rings allow me to remove/add paper to it as I please. I can write/jot down ideas in it, paste extra notes in it, or throw away pages I don’t like.

Specifications:
Cover: roughly larger than 8.5x 5.5 inches, eighth inch masonite. (I made it slightly bigger than the pages to protect them.) The holes are drilled to match a regular paper punch in both size and spacing (see paper below).
Book-rings: ¾ inch rings
Paper: regular ol’ 8.5x11 inch paper cut in half. I punched the holes in a regular paper punch (punching two holes, then turning the paper over to punch two more). I also found that it holds 100 pages pretty cleanly, without bunching up, bending, tearing, etc.

Maya Class: Assignment #1

2009-11-02T17:43:00.000-08:00

I've signed up for a Maya class at SLCC. It's being taught by a friend of mine whom I've had the privilege of working with at my last two jobs.
Although I've picked up a lot about Maya and 3D at work, I've never really had a sit-down, teacher-guided class and it's been a lot of fun.

Our first assignment was to create some kind of still-life out of Nurbs -something I'd never really done before. We were also supposed to use Maya's built-in procedural textures as much as possible -also something I'd never really played around with before.
I decided to create all the textures procedurally for this one and pushed it as far as I could within the time frame.

I also learned quite a bit about post-processing and compositing things within Photoshop. It's such an easy thing to do. I wished I'd known about it several years ago.

I'll be posting additional assignments as I finish them.

Halloween lesson!

2009-10-27T08:58:00.000-07:00