Thursday, October 29, 2009

Today's Nonsense - November


Yes, I know the title says November... It's supposed to be that way because the newspaper will publish in November.

So here is my newest comic! I hope that everyone enjoys this early preview (before the newspaper comes out, or they publish it online at: http://en.wordpress.com/tag/mike-blake/ ) Thanks for your support!

41,3,3,2

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Illustration Friday- Fast



Dad ~ "I probably should've taught him how to use the brakes first..."



As you can tell this was very different from my regular art. It became the complete opposite of my intentions (virtually no brush-strokes)...Oh my gosh I got so BORED! This process was rewarding, but tedious....towards the last half I hated every minute I spent on it...sigh.


Needless to say this picture became much more of a large scale project than I intended, but the characters and their movement were complex and required time and attention. For a fun note I taped a regular piece of paper on my Wacom to give more control to my selection and fill process! haha!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Car family sketch


I was driving away from school and saw this family in their car. They so inspired me, that I had to draw them! ^_^ Unlike my normal sketches, which I do with a pencil in my sketchbook, I did this one on the computer. Tell me what you think!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Gouache-computer test...

I had some extra time since one of my classes canceled...I wanted to draw a pic. For this sketch I wanted to use Gouache. But just like my previous attempt with Acrylics, I ran into some detours...and before I knew it i had scanned my Gouache mess and began painting over it digitally.

For the process...I'm beginning to realize that I enjoy scanned paintings! The painting sets the color palette, and overall layout. It was also fun to have the painting so that I could imitate the medium. For other techniques, I ended doing something I havn't in years... using a filter! I used "paint daub" and then adjusted Hue/saturation to get the colors "Just right!" haha! Then to finish it off I adjusted the lighing with Levels.

Illustration Friday-Frozen

Another week has passed by and another Illustration has been completed for "Illustration Friday!" This weeks topic was Frozen...if you couldn't tell. Haha! ^_^

This is a postcard. I'm loving my color choosing process more and more because I'm gettin much closer to my expected outcomes! And I'm becoming more used to my 'brush' technique as well. Yay! For the picture I was really trying to avoid extreme lighting, but in the end I couldn't tell the picture no.... haha!

Any comments, suggestions, or complaints?
Thanks

Exploding car of death!

I was chating with my good freind and fellow artist, Amelia, about her recent car troubles. Haha! Her description of the chaos and frustration inspired me to do this sketch! ^_^

Amelia does an online manga called, "Dowsing." Drop by and check her out!
http://flossandchaos.com/

Friday, October 16, 2009

Redo life again painting!



Have you ever had a moment in your life where you wish you could "Redo" something, or how about a more technical term, use the "Undo" button? haha! Well today I had one of those.

I hadn't used acrylics in awhile and had had wonderful results in the past! Well I guess I went too quick and got frustrated at how hard it was in comparison to photoshop! haha! So I scanned the painting and touched it up....alot. On the bright side I had the colors right there, and could easily select from them. It was also fun to imitate the effects of acrilic with Photoshop! Haha!

This picture was all from memory. Yesterday I was driving to school and saw a neat little alcove next to the road. It perplexed me, so I wanted to remember it.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Illustration Friday-Flight! haha





Wow! I am totally ecstatic about this weeks illustration I did for Illustration Friday! If you don't get what is going on in the picture just think, "Flight!" or "Flying!"haha! ^_^

This picture is first and foremost a painting. I did several prep sketches before hand, but never scanned a single thing! ^_^ WoW! Ironically my favorite element is how the lighting turned out, becuase I wanted to avoid extreme lighting situations!!! XP urg. In my sketches, and even up until painting I struggled with the angle, because I saw it in my mind, and wasn't sure how I could portray it to give the picture a sense of depth, yet simplicity. I feel that it has been conveyed to the best of my ability.

Process: Physical sketches, computer sketch 1, computer sketch 2, color plaster(with shadingtoo), clean up edges, turn off lines from computer sketch 2, blobbify, clean up, final touches.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

painting practice

I was recently studying one of my favorite artists, Zinaida Serebriakova, a Russian painter, and was trying to decided why I liked her work. As I studied it I realized that it was becuase of her painterly effect! So after staring at many of her works, despite being sick, I wanted to try and see how painterly in comparison I could get with her on the computer! haha! You be the judge, but I feel pretty satisfied with my result. Needless to say I am in heaven! (I also did this as a sort of forgiveness thing. My sister made the cat for me and when I moved from home I lost it...and only recently did I get it back. :P oops! Sorry Missa! ^_^)

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Painting study

Overall this was completely experimental. For the past few months I have been striving for a 'Painterly' style, and through some wandering and experimenting with different brushes in Photoshop Elements 6 (ya...I don't really have photoshop...what can I say, it was free.) this picture is what resulted. I was incredibly pleased as I could focus on the individual strokes of color and light, much like I do with real acrylics or gouache. I spent about 5-6 hours, from beginning to end, on this study.

Here is a run-through of all the things I did:
1)Sketch: Previously I had made a quick figure sketch of some random person at school and several days later decided to revisit and clean it up...But I did it completely in Photoshop. ()_() whoa! ESCAPE from the tyraany and regimen of scanned LINES! (both pencil and ink) haha **It is pictured above.

2)The Flats and Blobbify: Next I added all my flat colors inside the sketched lines, turned the line layer off and rounded out the shapes, and carved away into some of the shapes(what I call Blobbify). I also began this process with the background, but it ended up being a lot more loose...changed alot as it was half from memory and half made up, and then ended up doing step three directly on the flat blobs. :P haha
**It is pictured above.

3)Painting: This part of the process was my favorite! The whole picture came together in whirlwind of splashing colors. I tried to work very lose and fluid (keeping my wrist as much as possible off the wacom surface). I found a brush I really liked and for the most part stuck with it for the whole thing (though I ended up using 3-4 all together). Regarding colors I tried to keep them simple and realistic, while only using approx. 2-3 colors per flat color (Base color, Shade (and all its variance), and highlights.
The background was done independent of the character on a different layer. **pictured above. When it came time to paint the character I masked off the entire blob/flat, went to a new layer and began to paint, paint paint. (as most Japanese and American artists tend to NOT do, I wanted to emphasize less on the chest, and more on the face and the overall figure. :P haha! I think the figure has a very natural feel)

4)Finalize: This step ranges in every direction. Basically 'what ever the picture reaquires of you, DO IT!' Haha! For this picture I added more darks and lights to 'Push and Pull' the depth of the whole piece. Even just tiny dashes of light and dark can make or break a picture! ( I really shouldn't speak as if this was a masterpiece...it was a study afterall. ^_^ )

other notes:
-Original size 600dpi 1000x 1000 pixels(the 1000 is smaller than I usually work, but it kept the pixels simple and easy to see immediate results.)

-Part of what gave me the effect I wanted for the brush, was I clicked on the option for varying 'Oppacity.' Varying size was already selected, so with this added, it gave a beatiful painterly effect! Yea!

Honestly this started as a simple study, but branched out into a full on piece. ^_^ I am sure everyone should expect to see more pictures with this style incorporated in the future.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Illustration Friday-Germs


"Doesn't EVERYONE know, boys are where all germs come from?"

Truthfully I think girls are more likely to send love notes than boys, but I liked the idea of seeing how girls might react! ^_^ haha

Wow, is all I have to say. This piece took entirely much longer than I expected, but turned out better than anticipated. Honestly I was more concerned with the Linework than lighting or coloring, but I am pleased with the outcome. (Though to my frustration, and my wife's, I was up till 4 in the morning completing it...sigh.)

This was inked, scanned, cleaned up and added color and lighting in Photoshop. As expected I used different tactics than I have for any Illustration Friday piece, for this picture namely, Airbrush, and layers, masking and so forth for the shading and lighting.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Today's Nonsense - October


In order to line up with the newspaper schedule I havta be a little ahead. I've been working on this comic (at least the idea) for about a month! Haha! I've broken from alot of my traditional ways, but yet sharpened some of my others! I usually wait to post the comic until the newspaper is published...but I was excited to get this one posted...and also decided to do it while I remembered. :P

This idea stemmed from the seemingly growing epedemic of the swine flu at Longview...all the teachers are nervous and some have even caught it! So everyone... don't forget to "Wash your hands!" ^_^