Alchemist painting

Finished this Friday night. I got to experiment with a new digital painting technique over pencils that seems to work better but still not crazy about it. I'm still trying to get my digital stuff to look more traditional, but feel like I'm fighting it every step of the way.

This was originally supposed to be used for a GM screen for Carmine, but was decided against. It's cool though...I learned a few things and honestly, I hated the original drawing anyway - it was a concept sketch that got drafted into service for the first book with a little clean up that I was then asked to paint on a fairly quick turnaround. If I'm asked to revisit this guy again, I'm starting from scratch. LOL.

And before anyone asks: yes, I totally based the color scheme for him off Mal Reynolds in Firefly, and those are indeed Louboutin inspired boots. LOL!

Have I mentioned that I freelance?

So that may seem like a goofy question, but it is actually quite valid. I honestly don't think that I've ever mentioned other than in passing on my Google profile that I will absolutely accept inquiries about work for a new or existing client! God forbid, I figure that it might be a good thing to mention.

I accept both design and illustration commissions. I generally charge $35/hour, billable by the quarter hour, unless it's a project that I can easily quantify into a set amount, like a business card design where the art elements like the logo are already provided. If you have a particular project in mind, but the budget is tight, I've been known to take work at a (slightly) reduced rate if it piques my interest enough. The very best thing to do is to drop me a line with the particulars, and we just might be able to work something out. =)

Sketch o'the Day...Iron Man finished in Photoshop

Took me about an hour or so to clean up edges & tweak with hues/saturations in Photoshop to colorize my grey tones from the Copics. 

Sketch o'the Day...Jazzry's Cap Commish colored

Hey folks. OK, I know this isn't technically a sketch, but it IS what I worked on today. =) My friend, the very talented Jazel Paul Riley asked me to color one of his pieces if I got bored or otherwise found some time on my hands. Well, I saw this awesome Captain America pinup that he posted up on Facebook the other day, and the rest is history!

I gotta say that I had a blast with this piece. This is actually the first time that someone else has asked me to paint their work, and it was an honor & a pleasure. Hell, I might start taking requests! LOL

I'm not sure exactly how much time I have into this offhand, but I'd estimate a good 4 hours or so in Photoshop CS3..

Pencils & inks : Jazel Paul Riley
Colors: yours truly

Carmine drops May 1st!

Well, my work on Carmine is finally at an end. I approved the cover proofs as of last week, and the book has gone to press! Now that it's come to fruition, I can finally post the cover designs that I've been busting my butt on!

I designed the logo, cover layouts and bordering. I also penciled the figure of the dude on the front cover (for some reason, Tai has the hardest time drawing guys that don't either look like a girl or gay LOL). My studio partner Tai penciled the slayer chick, clothing & weapons & painted the figures.  The background was a composite of the "ancient document" designs that I had done for the interior of the book. 

The back cover was all me. I designed the layout and painted the background. 

Here she is in all her glory! I had to make a full bleed version for final print, but that didn't change significantly from what was here. Last minute addition to the back cover - the price, which everyone had overlooked! Gotta love those last minute, semi-frantic calls. Hehehehe.

Continued WIP...Bride of Frankenstein

Still plugging away on this one. I've gotten a good chunk of her body mostly done - I'd say abut 80%. Still have more shadows/highlight/texturing to do, but I'd say she's definitely over the hump. Lots of work still left with the background, but I'll get to it once she's pretty much done. Have some flame light sourcing for the background that I need to finish painting as well. Generally pretty happy with how she's coming along so far.

This is what I'm doing RIGHT NOW!

I know, I know, I'm not the fastest artist out there, which definitely cuts down on my posted content. I figured that I'd go ahead and take pics of pieces while in progress and get them posted up in the meantime. If anything, it shows some of my process, and if anyone out there see me doing anything really screwed up (especially since I'm still pretty new to this whole "digital" thing) they can drop me a line and tell me what the hell I'm doing wrong. LOL.

Anyway, here's a glimpse at what I'm working on at the moment. I've laid down flats and have some time into her face which is at a stopping point for the moment. I want to get some dimensionality into the rest of her body and will most likely come back to the face right at the end to give it some more polish.

Evolution of the King of the Sarlacc Pit redux

Don't play Hungry, Hungry Hippos with this guy. He'll win everytime!

It's been a few days since my last posting, as I've been a busy, busy boy as of late. Got a call from the author of the book I've been illustrating on Monday, saying that he and the publisher had a different idea regarding the design of the back cover which I had turned in about a week or so prior. They wanted to feature another piece that I'd digitally painted in a pretty simplistic way a while back, which to be quite honest, was the extent of my ability with Photoshop at the time (Not that I'm brilliant now or anything, but I'm definitely a lot better!).

I'd never really intended the painting to see print, especially in the state it was in, but if they wanted to use it I had my work cut out for me! I was never 100% happy with the first paint job - I felt he needed a lot more contrast & pop, and I needed to make him more painterly as opposed to something that resembled watercolors over pencil. I spent a big chunk of Monday, yesterday, and today getting him from the basic painting to the finish, and the rest of the day working on layouts. Finally finished the 3rd version of the cover about 9:30 tonight and sent it off. =)

Once we see print I'll have to post up my layouts for the covers, and not just the raw art. I really like how they came out, but I guess they'll have to stay secret for a little while longer. LOL

Two-Face, the second time around...

I love Two-Face. I think he's a fantastic, tragic villain, and I wish that he got used even more. We'll forget about Joel Schumacher's evil, evil Batman Forever, though. It was The Dark Knight that inspired my first big (and successful) piece since my car accident. My hands were working better, but I was so rusty from not drawing for so long on top of all the neurological damage and I could work for such short little bursts of time, that the drawing took me almost 6 months to finish.

Fast forward to 2011 with a lot of practice under my belt, doing the best stuff I had done in YEARS, and I really wanted to revisit that first drawing, and see what I could do with the subject matter. I have to say, I'm pretty damn happy with the results. =D

I posted my pencils the other day, which took me about an hour. The painting took me about 5 hours on & off over 2 days in Photoshop CS3.

FIRST!!!!1 (Gods, that's bloody cliche, but I've always secretly wanted to do it anyway...)

Hey out there. I have to admit it's a little weird and daunting to actually be starting a blog, given that well, it's a little late to just be jumping on that bandwagon. I had it stuck in my head that it was a lot harder to put one of these bloody things together than it actually is anymore, in fact it's a little freaky how easy it is to publish one's thoughts/musings/mental diarrhea up on the web.

Anyway, I've decided that it's time to really take my career as an artist about as seriously as I can at this point, and that means drawing as much as possible. I'm working on getting a new workspace since the current studio isn't viable anymore and is in the process of being dismantled.

Trying to build up speed, since I'm generally notoriously slow, but I feel like I've had a chance to clear out some of those mental blocks and have been doing a fair amount of quick sketching whenever time would allow. Also, I've had a chance to put some of what I picked up at the con into action, but in terms of drawing and digital painting. I've always had issues getting my digital paintings to pop, but have had some decent progress this week. Here are the last couple day's worth...

Repaint of a piece originally done for the Carmine RPG.  Lovecraft FTW!

and in color.

1 hour Red Robin sketch done in the comic book store.

Rogue sketch for my friend. Took me about 30 minutes to get this out, but then I kept going back to correct little things here and there for another 30. 

30 minute Robocop done from memory. Haven't seen the movie in years, but it left an indelible impression in my young mind LOL. I'm sure details are wrong, but what can you do?

20 minute anatomy study with ballpoint pen. Been a while since I really pored over the minutiae of the human body, and I really want to get it all solidly in place, mentally speaking. This will be the first of many, I'm sure

Thanks a lot for taking a look, and any comments or critiques are certainly welcome. I'll keep posting things up as I finish them, and will try to keep this as well updated as my deviantart page (bigrobot.deviantart.com) or my facebook.