Heidi illustration

This is an illustration from the book Heidi that I did for a contest.  I kind of rushed it so plan to go back and rework it a bit.  I'd like to change up the woman with Heidi and spend more time on the background.

A gift for "M"

I made this picture for my cousin's birthday.  M is just the coolest cousin and I'm hoping this'll entice her to move to the shore :)

Tattoo for who?

I've been doing a tattoo design for my good friends.  The tattoo is supposed to be a gift.  Anyway the design is meant to represent the mom and dad with the two smaller gears being their boys.  If they ever have a little girl I'll have to draw them up a nice little girl gear :)

Manchess Copy

Haven't posted in a while.  So today I did a copy of a piece by Gregory Manchess during lunch. It was a really cool portrait of a steampunk craftswoman. I think I'll take a few more shots at this one. I'm really liking how Manchess' brush strokes look and I'm learning a lot from his work.

The gifts are done and I'm ready to roll

I just finished up the two paintings that I needed to finish. I'm digging this style and so I think I might do so more stuff with this look. Kinda happy and whimsical. Is it bad to use that word, whimsical?

More Gifts

I got two sketches done tonight and was able to lay in a couple of washes of watercolor. I'm pretty psyched with how they're coming out. Tomorrow I can lay in some darker values and they'll be ready to take on our trip and given away. Now...must...sleep...

Waiting for paint to dry

I got rolling on the watercolor today. I got into it and just kept moving. I think it's done. I'll take a look tomorrow and probably see some things I'd like to work on, but mostly it should be done. I REALLY like the shadow from the gun in the lower left. It's probably the loosest part of the image and the nicest. Hope JJ likes it.

FireArm - the mech version

Just felt like messing around tonight. This is going to be a watercolor for my friend but I scanned it in and just started painting under the drawing. Quick and rough but fun. I'll see how the watercolor comes out. I may keep working on this in digital form....maybe?

Playing with Legos

I was in Toy R Us getting a duplo set for my son and while looking around I spotted some of the technic sets and they looked pretty cool. At work I'd been talking to Chris about Legos and we'd been sending each other links to some cool sites that showcase people's creations. In the end I left the store with a new duplo dump truck set and a technic compact excavator set. It was pretty fun to build and I'm astounded by how complex all the gears and linkages are. I'd really like to get a motorized one at some point.

Life Drawing

I did a sketch of my son while he was sketching in his book. Kid's proportions are so different and fun to draw.

Let's draw a Giraffe...

I just wanted to have some fun with this. No worrying about this and that, just do a fun fantasy image. The funny thing is that all the stuff I've been talking to Cory and others about is now a part of my process. For this image I kept thinking about the big shapes, "drawing verbs", and I even grabbed ref. The image was inspired by a picture I have of birds sitting on a giraffes neck. I just think that's cool. So it turned into this girl hunting on her snow giraffe with the aid of her seeker birds and a snow wolf.

Focus to set the tone

Spent a little time this morning messing around with the face on the quick sketch I did the other day. I was listening to a tutorial on youtube about painting and the arist said that he likes to focus a bit on one area to set the tone. This helps establish where you want to go with the rest of the painting. This seemed contradictory to what I'd always heard which was move around, don't focus on one area. But it makes sense to me and I think I like it. Sure you need to work the entire image but at some point it's nice to establish your level of detail and lighting.

Harmony

You need to try this. It's so much fun. HARMONY

Quick Sargent Copy

I did this copy in 15 minutes. I think I was too loose and should have spent some more time setting it up. I'll probably try copying it again.

Concepts I did a few months ago...

Done with my Syd Mead Contest Entry

And it's done! This is why I like entering contests. You have a due date and that's when the image is done. I ended up adding more detail to the wind turbines and the guy in the foreground. I'm pretty happy with how it came out and I learned a lot going through the process. Here is a Link to the entry.

In the home stretch

I think I got the design of the ship down. I'm also feeling that the composition is locked in. Now I'm just detailing and trying to make it look as good as I can. I think it's starting to get that sci-fi feel.

Being less tentative

I was looking at the marine from yesterday and his head just wasn't fitting in. So I just painted over it. Why not? Today I was much less tentative in my strokes but more thoughtful. I also used a larger brush and I'm really liking how that feels. Plus I was looking at the ref face a lot. I was looking back at Nathan Fowkes' blog and trying to get more of what he says about value into my work. He is SO good with that and I'm such a noob. Well I feel like this was a step forward and a fun step at that.

Messing around with the "Space Marine" head

Just messing around with this over lunch. I think I might have figured out a few things. I'll probably just keep trying stuff out on this head.

Telling a story

I should have blocked this in way earlier. Now I'm starting to explore the story that I'm trying to tell.

Making Toys

This morning my son wanted to put his trucks in a garage but we don't have a garage. So we grabbed some cardboard and made some buildings. It was really fun and felt exactly like making a low poly game asset. Recycling in its truest form.

Mead inspired sailboat

This is a rough of one of my ideas for the Syd Mead "vehicles of the future" contest. I'm pretty happy with the direction. I've been trying like crazy to get better with rendering my sketches. This makes me think that it hasn't all been in vain.

Trying out some more stuff on the cliff image

I'm starting to like this 2nd pass on the coloring.

A castle on the edge avec balloon

Messing around with this desert sketch

Sketchbook Page

I've been sketching a lot over the past few months so I thought I'd post a page from tonight. I'm using a cheap ballpoint because it won't smudge. The girl is from ref, the guy just started out as eyes, then nose, then mouth and that's me reading to my son.

Robot Image - Strength!

I've been doing some work on a watercolor over the past few days. It's part of a series of images showing robot toys in action sequences. Still a bit to do but it's coming along ok. I kind of want to work it over in PS a little but for now I'm staying analog. Thanks to my son for letting me use his trucks as reference. "Dad, draw trucks!"

Maybe a snake like train that hovers above the countryside. Show some sheep in the image to show how quiet and "friendly" this mode of transportation is.

Some rough sketches for the Syd Mead art challenge. I'm really interested in a hydrofoil type thing. I'm trying to take some recent talks I've had with Corey to heart and push the curves. Maybe I need to draw some more verbs and not be stuck on nouns. Like cruising or turning instead of "...boat...".

NVArt5 - ACCELERATE

http://events.cgsociety.org/NVArt/05/

NVArt5 - ACCELERATE
Images of future transport : In the style of Syd Mead
In this, the fifth NVArt competition, artists from all over the world are challenged to create vehicle designs for a future on the move ... transport in thestyle of Syd Mead.

Mech Watercolors

I wanted to do paintings for two of my good friends, Jay and Colin. I decided to break out the watercolors and make some original analog art. It was really fun and energizing to play around with the water and the brushes and just let things happen. Working on these was really fun and so I plan to do some more and work on my watercolor skills.