Visual Musings

Week 3

2012-02-10T01:23:00.001-08:00

James Paick class assignments 2nd week

2012-02-03T00:24:00.000-08:00

This assignment was to do three finished pieces using either two or three point perspective and adding some direct lighting elements using a curves mask (you make a curves layer, up the brightness then inverse it with "command I"then using white paint in the patches of light you want. It keeps your structure which is nice.) I think the top and parts of the bottom one worked out alright but the middle needs more work. I need to work on detailing things out a bit more. I think it will become easier as my visual vocabulary for environments increases.

Assignments for James Paick's CGMA Master Class

2012-01-26T17:45:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to get better at environment design, so when I saw James Paick's online class offered by CGMW master classes, I signed up. Here's the first assignment. We were asked to do five rough thumbnails in black and white. Other than the first one, I feel like I made them all too illustrative rather than designs. Sigh. Not that that's always a bad thing, but in this case I want the environment to carry the emotion, not the character interaction in a environment--which is what usually interests me. I'm going to try and stretch myself.

I hope to see some improvement by the end.

Family Skulls Cover

2011-12-14T23:10:00.000-08:00

Family Skulls is a novel by Luc Reid about a family that lives under a curse and the boy who is determined to break it. It's a fun story with realistic characters. The book with this cover should be going up for sell sometime this week or next on Amazon.

I just finished the cover a few moments ago. I had a blast doing this. It's a departure from my normal style. I think I'm going to do more of this type of style.

The Cave

2011-12-08T14:39:00.001-08:00

This is an older sketch for one of my Sci-fi graphic novels which I'm writing. I'll talk about it a bit more down the road.

Creation of Hunger from "Servant of a Dark God," a Wonderful Fantasy Novel by John Brown

2011-11-16T16:33:00.001-08:00

Below are the steps it took to get to the above image.

This whole thing began with an experiment. I had sat down to work and flipped open an art book with paintings by Richard Schmid. I recalled that he normally started his oil paintings with a wash of light color which served both to give him a harmony of color and a pulsation of color right from the get go. So I thought I'd give it a try digitally.

Next using a number of different brushes, using color burn, multiply, screen,and color doge, modes, I painted away, simply enjoying the fun shapes. At this point I had no idea what I wanted to paint. I let the abstract shapes "speak" to me, as I focus on design. I wanted something interesting on an abstract level. As I did so, that dark wedge shape caught my eye.. It looked lik a good candidate for a subject. I sifted around in that area, like a gold miner in a stream, wondering what I would find. A fairy on a rock? A troll?

And then I had a shape. Fairly ominous.

I believe it was about here that I decided to make it the character Hunger from a "Servant of a Dark God," by John Brown. Hunger is an interesting character. Essentially Hunger, just as its name suggests, has a insatiable hunger. Hunger moves through the ground and nature. When he finds a victim he forms up out from the ground using rocks, mud, grass and roots to make a body. Notice the branch like shapes on the left. Initially I focused on geting dark muddy feel and ambiguousness.

Then I went more strong in pose. I like this stage and might use the design for something else, but it wasn't my idea of what Hunger would look like--looked too wolfish. So I continued on.

And then we jump to here. I refined areas and left much of it dark. I think it works for a concept piece. But I wanted to explore Hunger a bit more.

A ton of work went on between the last image and this one.

I added a figure for interest and scale and got in there and defined the branches and muscles. I thought a lot more about the arms and mouth areas.

Doing this is a trade off. If you compare the earlier phases of Hunger you get more mystery/horror because of the unknown areas lost in the darkness. This phase you get detail and thus lose that edginess, but the detail does give the viewer more to look at, and slides the image more firmly into the "Fantasy" genre were wonder and awe are the main emotions people go to the genre for.

And nigh near complete. This stage I spent forever messing around with elements, trying to clarify shapes and relationships as well correct everything possible. For example I've added atmosphere( Hunger is"contre-jour" which means his figure is silhouetted against a light background--the light bleeds around his edges). I tweaked hungers expression to be a bit more crazy, defined the right arm (his left) and basically fussed like a mother rabbit would getting her litter ready for church.

Wise

2011-10-17T13:10:00.001-07:00

And there you are.

2011-10-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Carlos Huante Workshop

2011-08-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

Last March I took another workshop through Anatomy Tools which I haven't blogged about yet. This was a workshop from the monster mistro himself, Carlos Huante. I had met him at last year's workshop when Andrew brought him in to visit us. I was impressed by his instructing, so I signed up for the workshop.

Question: did I get my money's worth? Heck yes.

The class was simple. Before the class started Carlos had done three sketches of abstract human forms from which we could choose to sculpt--the idea being to teach us about the qualities of skin, fat muscle and bone without it being tied specifically to a real object.

It was difficult, but rewarding. I learned so much about how to design form and how to show muscle tension from this class.

As well Carlos, Andrew and crew went to extra lengths to make it educational, including bringing in some amazing original sculptures which Carlos had just completed--very kind of Carlos. As well, at the end Carlos gave us a challenge to finish the sculpt at home and the best one would get a six month mentorship with Carlos . I didn't win--there were far better sculptors there than myself--but I'm glad I gave it a try, because I learned a lot about Carlos's thought process and about forms and muscles. Sculpting is a great way to learn form.

Here are a couple of photo's of my final sculpture which Carlos designed and helped move along, occasionally tooling it himself when I got far afield.

Nap

2011-08-23T21:52:00.001-07:00

After the Battle

2011-08-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

As I drew this, I wondered who was missing him at home.

Coming Home After A Hard Day's Work

2011-08-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

This was a quick sketch. I'm happy about how it turned out. I've been scanning in watercolor dry brush textures I've made and charcoal textures as well. One of the most useful was made by getting paper with tooth to it and a square piece of charcoal, I lay the charcoal sideways on the page and make a single mark. This makes a rectangle that I then scanned in and captured as a brush. I set the flip x and y jitter on(not to be confused with the angle jitter). This tones down a bit of the repetition in the stroke pattern. Same can be done with dry brushing with paint.

Picnic

2011-08-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

The Crossing

2011-08-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

2011-08-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

Nessie

2011-08-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

Let's Be Friends

2011-08-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

2011-07-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

2011-07-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

2011-06-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

Story

2011-06-10T01:17:00.001-07:00

The image just flashed in my head. Likely I'm going to use it for a personal project I've been working on.

Yippy Skippy!

2011-06-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

On the Farm

2011-04-29T13:17:00.001-07:00

A shout out to all those farm boys in the fantasy genre.

2011-03-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

2011-03-12T22:56:00.000-08:00

Shattered Plains

2011-03-12T22:45:00.000-08:00

2011-03-10T23:13:00.000-08:00

Abbott Thayer Study

2011-02-24T10:35:00.000-08:00

Above is a study I did of an Abbott Thayer painting that Kim Kincaid had posted on her blog. On a purely visual level there is much to love of Abbott's piece: the wonderful edge work, subtle gradation of values across the cheek to socket and nose (due to occlusion) and the warmth of the over all piece. As well, I believe it has a lot of story to it. It is idealized some but still has an everydayness to it. Great model and gesture. I think she conveys a duality. First is that of insecurity, with the tilt down of her head and eyes peeking up, almost as if she's having a private meeting under her hat while watching what is happening, preparing herself for whatever she's about to do. Second there is a resolution and quiet determination to her. She's facing forward. She's going to do it.

I think duality--or inner conflict--is the essence of interesting character in any media. At least it's a powerful tool.

I didn't do the color, but instead focused on values and edges.

color sketch

2011-02-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

Just experiments in technique. Did this in Photoshop.

When working from my imagination, I usually start in black and white and then work into color. This time I got brave and I went straight for the color. I started off by drawing the profile with the lasso tool(a mask would be better, I was being a bit lazy.) I used the round soft brush to block in the colors focusing on making the form turn and thinking about how the color temperature and value would be shifting as the form turned, just as if I were drawing a fleshy sphere. I stuck with just the skin color, and I kept the brush as large as I could for as long as I could. This had two benefits. The first is that the edges and colors blended automatically, and second, I didn't get lost in details as soon as I might otherwise, which helped to keep the value masses simple.

After that, I used a rake-like brush and captured oil strokes to define the plains of the face and get sharp edges and a traditional feel.

blowin' smoke

2011-02-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

My Bet's On the Monster

2011-01-17T15:46:00.000-08:00

Rock Giant

2010-10-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

The Murk

2010-10-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

Kaladin meets Syl

2010-10-14T23:58:00.001-07:00

Another random picture from "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson. This moment takes place near the beginning of the book. Of couse the term beginning is relative because the book is HUGE! Nearly fifty hours in audio book format. So far I've loved it.

The Way of Kings

2010-09-24T15:59:00.001-07:00

Old Sketch Revisited

2010-09-17T16:18:00.000-07:00

And Sometimes I Get Deep

2010-09-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Mercreature

2010-09-14T21:24:00.001-07:00

The Complex Process of Changing Into a Merman

2010-09-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

First time ever captured on film.

Girl

2010-09-04T15:28:00.001-07:00

This is another one of those random sketches that just got out of control. I think this is my favorite way to paint, just start and see where it takes me.

I-Pad = Cool and Useful

2010-09-02T23:30:00.001-07:00

This is my first real sketch done on a borrowed I-Pad. Not great, but then it's not that bad either, for painting with my fingers. I'm pretty excited about the potential in its portability. It's a sketchpad on steroids.

Has anyone else tried sketching on an I-Pad, if so what have you liked and disliked and which apps have you liked the best?

I did this one with Brushes. Simple set of brushes and controls but it worked, and the playback of the painting process was really fun to watch--kind of like watching yourself perform.

Last of Summer

2010-08-27T17:29:00.001-07:00

Santa on the last stretch of Summer vacation.

King's Grave Night

2010-08-27T15:14:00.001-07:00

Here's a second version.

King's Grave

2010-08-27T02:12:00.001-07:00

Photoshop CS5

2010-08-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

I've always been frustrated with how digital paint acts and looks. While Painter has natural media brushes I've never been happy with how they react; Painter has always been too slow and glitchy and the oil brushes make my images appear plastic like for some reason. So I've used mostly Photoshop for my digital art. But the problem there has been getting a wet into wet look. Everything was always too sharp or instead had that blurry digital feel when trying to blend, unless you worked really hard at it. Until now. Though it still takes some work, and still isn't perfect, Photoshop CS5 does make it much easier to get that traditional paint look.

Christ Portrait

2010-08-04T19:32:00.001-07:00

Mistborn

2010-06-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

This started off as a random sketch and turned into a random painting.

Notice I even labeled it "random sketch" just to be absolutely certain that I didn't up and decide that it was a not random sketch, because...whoa, that would be very bad, somehow, I'm sure.

Much of the time I leave my random sketches alone to go work on the non-random ones, but the guy on the right clearly wanted to fight something. I decided that it was to be a scene that could take place in the Mistborn Trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson. And then I just kept on going to see where it went. The girl is Vin, the main character, and I'm not sure who the guy with the knife is. By the way, if you haven't by chance heard of the Mistborn books, you might want to give them a look. Excellent world building, and more importantly, excellent characters.

Web Comic

2010-05-08T17:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak peak of my upcoming web comic. Details forthcoming.

Moon Light Stroll

2010-04-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

MUTATION NATION/Ant Eater/Salamander

2010-04-10T22:58:00.001-07:00

Adam Ford Rocks

2010-04-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled across an awesome coloring techinque tutorial on Adam Ford's blog. I more or less used the process he shows to color my sketch.

Adam's tutorial helped out enormously.

Check it out. Not only is the tutorial awesome, but I love his work. His color and design sense are considerable. I'm very glad that I ran across it. Wow. Did I mention you should check it out? Now! Quick!

Creature and Animal Anatomy Workshop from Anatomy Tools

2010-03-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

This half shaved wolf was sculpted by yours truly with help from Mike Murnane, Andrew Cawrse, Damon Bard, Lenny Lee and a bit of advice from Carlos Huante who stopped in for six hours.

Yeah, count it, that's 5 amazing teachers for one workshop! Mike and Andrew were the full time teachers--not to mention very awesome(how many instructors can open up the Art of Star Wars Episode II to give examples of their work?) and the other three instructors were big time bonuses. All 5 are or have been in the movie industry working with creatures.

Anatomy Tools workshops rock! I learned so much about anatomy, design, sculpture, and character. Not to mention I got to meet a lot of very cool people who were learning along side of me. (Word to Derek, Daniel, and Will who were with me all the way--they did all five courses (I initially was going to do only level 2 and 3, but liked them so much I signed up for 4 and 5 as well. Glad I did.)

The workshops were put together very well. Andrew goes the extra mile time and time again, week after week. He must be dead to the world now after 5 weeks of intensity. Man, he's an animal.

Speaking of animals, I haven't taken a picture yet of my last sculpt I did for level 5 Character design. I will eventually. I think I might work on it a bit more before I do.

Anatomy Tools Workshop

2010-03-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

Sculpt done by myself with help and tooling from the instructors Andrew Cawrse and Eric Wilson. Model: CaSon MacBride.

Digital Waterhouse Study

2010-03-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

Signing

2010-03-25T21:02:00.001-07:00

For anyone in the St. George, Utah area, I'll be doing a signing for Eliza's Field of Faith this Saturday at the Seagull book by the Red Cliff Mall, from 12-2 p.m.. So come on down!

Anatomy Tools

2010-02-26T22:06:00.001-08:00

For the last two weeks I've been at an Anatomy Tools workshop. Well more like an anatomy boot camp than a workshop. They worked us hard. It was awesome!The instructors were Andrew Cawrse and Eric Wilson. They were both great instructors. And I learned so much about muscles and bones.

I did this sculpture this week with Andrew's and Eric's help. Anatomy tools site is at www.freedomofteach.com.

Color George Washington

2010-02-05T17:43:00.001-08:00

I've been learning a lot more about how color works, within the past couple of weeks. This used to be the same sketch as below. I looked at a number of old paintings of George for a reference to get face structure and coloring of his skin.

George Washington

2010-01-29T22:18:00.000-08:00

This started out as just testing out some new brushes I created, and led to the guy below, and today when refining it, I thought I'd try to make him look like George Washington.

Revolutionary War

2010-01-28T21:20:00.000-08:00

Roman-esque Warrior

2010-01-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted of late because I'm still working on the portrait. But today and yesterday I took a little break from the oils to let the portrait dry before I doing the final touches. So here is a sketch for you viewing pleasure.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-17T16:53:00.000-08:00

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

One of my favorite illustrators is Gary Blythe. He illustrated "This is the Star." This is my own take on Luke, chapter 2, but it is heavily influenced by Blythe.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-16T12:18:00.000-08:00

Definition of Krampus according to Wikipedia: Krampus is a mythical creature who accompanies Saint Nicholas in various regions of the world during the Christmas season...While Saint Nicholas gives gifts to good children, the Krampus warns and punishes bad children. Did this for another ArtOrder challenge.

Same Rooster two different mediums

2009-12-11T23:34:00.000-08:00

Oils
Digital

Greetings

2009-12-11T23:19:00.000-08:00

Love cows. Yes, I do.

Mother's Arms

2009-12-11T23:15:00.000-08:00

I just like to paint mmmm...everything. As you may have noticed, I'm all over the place with subject matter. But I say that's okay

Peace be Still

2009-12-11T23:14:00.000-08:00

Hunkered Down

2009-12-11T23:09:00.000-08:00

I love England hills and mist and sheep. What are the chances that there'd be all three in one painting?!

Oil Sketch

2009-12-11T22:55:00.000-08:00

Lamanite Attack

2009-12-10T22:53:00.000-08:00

At the moment I'm working on a portrait, so I'm posting an unfinished sketch which I plan to finish later. At any rate, I always like to see the unfinished works of other artists--they usually teach me more than the finished piece. So hopefully someone will in enjoy this.

A bit of explanation on what the scene is about: in the Book of Mormon (yup, I'm a Mormon) there are two nation's which are constantly fighting, the Lamanites and the Nephites. In the foreground are Lamanites sneaking up on...well, only some light beams at the moment, but I plan on putting a group of Nephites around a campfire.

Atonement

2009-12-10T22:40:00.000-08:00

This is a very personal sketch for me. Once in a while I like to try to think of metaphors to help me better understand the magnitude of what Christ did in taking on the sins of everyone. It's just such a tough thing for me to grasp. So here you have the weight of the world literally on Christ's back. I like the sketch and think that I might return to it, refine it, and fix some of the anatomy issues I'm seeing.

Eliza Field of Faith Review

2009-12-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

I just got the heads up that Eliza's Field of Faith got a very positive review by Michael De Groote in Deseret New's the Mormon Times. Check it out!

http://www.mormontimes.com/arts_entertainment/books/?id=12067&hStack=1

Hurakan Challenge part 6

2009-12-05T22:58:00.000-08:00

This is for the Artorder Challange. Artorder is a blog by Wizards of the Coasts Art Editor Jon Schindehette. Shout outs to Jon for going to all of the work he puts into helping illustrators improve their skills.

"Eliza's Field of Faith"

2009-12-05T22:51:00.000-08:00

Eliza's Field of faith was published this September by Covenant Books. It's written by Rachele Pace Castor, and it is about the Mormon Pioneers settling in Dry Creek, Utah (now known as Lehi). It is my first fully illustrated children's book. The next group of illustrations, for your viewing pleasure, are from this book. Ahhhhh it's good to have it out.

2009-12-05T22:50:00.000-08:00

2009-12-05T22:49:00.002-08:00

2009-12-05T22:49:00.001-08:00

2009-12-05T22:48:00.002-08:00

2009-12-05T22:48:00.001-08:00

2009-12-05T22:47:00.002-08:00

2009-12-05T22:47:00.001-08:00

2009-12-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

Go Home!

2009-12-05T22:21:00.000-08:00

An embarrassing situation for just about any undead creature at any time, but it's got to be doubly embarrassing when waiting to ambush. But that said, I feel worse for the puppy.

Started this for my friend John Beenfield.

Unemployed Satyr

2009-12-05T22:17:00.000-08:00

Floating Head

2009-12-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

Just working on drawing from my imagination some more. I like the vein on his temple.

Walking

2009-12-05T22:11:00.000-08:00

Publish Post I've been focusing on working purely from my imagination, of late. So here you are. Some girl--I suspect a thoughtful princess--walking down a hall. Don't know her story.

Gotta Love the Classic Wizard

2009-12-05T21:55:00.000-08:00

Slinks in the Dark

2009-12-05T21:50:00.000-08:00

The end of the blog is my beginning

2009-12-05T21:44:00.000-08:00

I hereby officially start my web blog sketch journal thing.