Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Pie-Rat!


Avast, me hardys! Thar be Pie-Rats!

For this blog post I thought that I would share with you my first ever animated GIF! This is a nice way to show all of you a quick version of my digital painting process. Like the Harry Potter tutorial, I'm following the same basic steps of line art, flat colors, shadow pass, lighting pass, and an overpaint. Only for this painting I skip the grayscale process and go straight to color.

As far as the subject goes I was laying in bed the other night and thought that it would be funny to paint a "pie-rat"! So I when I woke up the next morning I thumbnailed some possible ideas and compositions. Once I found what I was looking for I sketched our little friend out. After a little bit of painting we have our master of the seven cheese!

Oh and on a side note I recently purchased CS6! This was my first painting using the new software. Overall I'm pretty happy with the new version of Photoshop!

Have a fantastic day everyone!

Monday, January 21, 2013

More Sketch Madness!







Just realized that I haven't posted sketches in awhile...sorry about that! I rummaged through a bunch of recent sketches and had an ample supply of monster sketches on oatmeal paper. Love these things!  Also, I included an old self portrait. All theses sketches were created using ether one or a combination of  theses mediums: graphite,  Prismacolor col-erase pencils, Utrecht design markers, and ink.

I'm looking for more feed back on my blog! So in effort to get that going I would like to offer up a free signed 11x17 inch print of your choosing from my artwork. To enter is simple, comment on blog posts and I will put the names of the people who comment on the blog in a hat at the end of each month. The winner will be chosen at random out of the hat and an email will be sent to the with to the winner! It's that easy! So common all you faithful readers lets see those comments!!!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Albert Einstein...One Creative Dude!

  I was at a lecture the other night at UVU. The speaker/ teacher Howard Fuller made some really interesting points. He talked about attending a PTA meeting years ago. At that meeting the school board was discussing the curriculum. They expressed the need to drop one of three classes. Naturally art was the big target. Comments such as "My kids are going to draw or paint" or Who needs art"  were made. Howard, being a artist, spoke up and explained that art was more than drawing and Painting. Art is more than sculpting or graphic design.  He said that art was about creativity! It allows people the opportunity use a different side of their brain. To think outside the box. He made a valiant effort to keep the art program going but ultimately it fell on deff ears and was dropped. It's sad really, I know tons of creative people who express them selves through art weather it be through drama, painting, music, sculpting or whatever. Art programs in schools and communities give us healthy ways to express ourselves. Let's remember that always! 

I myself, am super blessed to come from a creative family. My parent's were supportive and always encouraged me to draw. My dad is a fantastic artist/ musician and my Mom makes the most amazing quilts. My brothers and my sister are equally gifted in various forms of art. My brother Brad is a talented animator/ film maker, my sister Carly loves to sing and my youngest brother Dave is a very gifted photographer! It's been a real treat to see my own kids be creative. They are alway crafting or drawing something. Sometimes, I'll see one of their drawings and it will spark a great idea for a monster or some weird creature design. Sorry to brag, but it's important to foster creativity in everyone. I could go on forever about this...

Okay my latest painting...Albert Einstein. The idea to paint Mr. Einstein came form a conversation with my friend Rani. She wanted a print, of my Sherlock Holmes, for her husband. He is studying computer science. He told her that he wanted to surround himself with images of inspiring people. When she told me this I immediately wanted to paint Einstein! I really admire Albert Einstein for many reasons, but most of all for his creativity. Here are a few fun and interesting quotes from Einstein: 

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." 
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." 
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." 
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." 
"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." 
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." 
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." 
"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." 
"The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable receiving." 

Wow this was a long post! With that have a terrific day and lets keep the creative juices flowing!!!

Monday, January 7, 2013

The Bird Man (Tony Hawk Sketch)

Like most artists, I spend a lot of time sketching. Often, you can find me in a corner of a room somewhere drawing monsters, aliens or a cartoon of some form. I'm sure my wife gets sick of it from time to time. Really though, It's my most favorite part of creating art!

For this sketch, I drew the one of the most famous Skateboarders in history... Mr Tony Hawk! I have watched the bones brigade films since I was a little kid. When I was 12 or 13 I got a Tony Hawk pro model skateboard for Christmas! He has done a lot for the sport of skateboarding and continues to be an innovator and pioneer! Here's to you Mr. Hawk!

What do you guys think should I finish this one in a painting?

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Officer Mike!

My latest commission... CHP Officer Mike Earl. Mike has been a good friend for sometime now. I have a deep respect for the men and women that serve and protect us. Every day these brave people risk their lives and face the ugly side of life so that we wont have too.

A while back I was visiting my brother in Southern California. During the visit I got a call from Mike asking if I wanted to go on a ride along. Tired from the long drive from Utah, I reluctantly declined. A few hours latter I get a text from Mike the read something like this..." You missed the wrong night for a ride along! I was involved in a high speed pursuit and got to use my beanbag gun!" Dang it! Next time brother... next time!

Oh and by the way Officer Earl and His son love Star Wars, hence the Rebel Alliance patches on his armor. Thanks for all you do for us civilians!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Harry and Hedwig Digital Painting Process.

Happy New Year everyone! I have a lot to be thankful for, I had an amazing year with my family and I learned a ton as an artist.  I can't believe how fast 2012 went by!

For this blog post I thought that I would share my digital painting process in Photoshop with all of you. My process isn't the end all be all way of painting in the computer but it works for me. Special thanks to Mr. Harry Potter for being our model for the day.
 1.  For step one I start out with the sketching phase. I spend a lot of  time here thinking about what I want to create. After a few thumbnails and lots of exploration I produce a final sketch.

In this step we are going to first separate the line art from the background. To do this click on the channels box next to your layers and  command click for Mac or for PC control click the RGB window. This will select all the white in the image. Now simply inverse the selection pull up a new layer and fill it with black or whatever color you choose. Then deselect the the image and you should have the line art separated on it's own layer. I label this layer "Line Art"

Also, I fill a new layer with gray and place it at the bottom of the art work and call it BG or Background.

In the original paper sketch I drew Hedwig all wrong but thanks to digital technology I was able to erase and redraw her the way that I had envisioned.
 2. The next phase is a quick one. For the first few steps it is important to stay zoomed out, usually no bigger than a thumbnail or a comp. On a new layer underneath the "Line Art" layer  using a large brush I block in the flat colors. This helps me to separate the all the different elements of the character. Also, I can harmonize the values by using the same color for different elements like the hair and the sweater. This helps later on in the color phase. I label this layer "Flats"
 3. Like step 2, this should be a relatively quick phase of the painting. On a new layer I change the blend mode to multiply and place it above the "Flats" but underneath the "Line Art" layer. Using a large soft round brush I establish a lighting pattern and block in the values and the shadows. I label this layer"Shadows". 

Here is a little tip on shadows: Form shadows are soft as they describe the object and cast shadows tend to have a sharper edge because they are blocking the light. 
 4. Now comes the more tedious part of the painting. For this phase slow way down and take your time. This is what I call the overpaint stage. Open up a new layer above all of the other layers. In this step I zoom in and start using more painterly brushes, like brush #24. On this layer you will paint out all of the line art and clean up the edges and values. This will take a lot of time but it will be the very rewarding if done right. 

After you are done with this step merge the Overpaint, Line Art, Flats and the Shadow layers in to one layer and continue to clean up the painting. Remember to keep the background layer separate.
 5. Now that the overpaint phase is done it's time for a background. Following the same steps previously outlined, I paint in the background on new layers beneath the characters. I thought it would be fun to have Harry and Hedwig in some dark remote part of the Hogwarts castle.
6. Once our values are done we can start glazing in a little color to help the mood. It's been said that if you get the values right you can pretty much paint with whatever colors you want. For this step I use multiply and color layers. Using mostly high key low saturation colors I start to tint the painting. Try to use colors that complement each other in this case I used the primary colors Red, Blue, and Yellow.

Well, I hope this gives you a little insight to my process. If you have any questions feel free to email me. Have a fantastic New Year! Now get out there and paint!