Monday, May 31, 2010

Digital Illustration Class-Original 3 (correction?)


After posting the picture with an element I HATED on it (wispy nasty-white highlight), and after reading Mike Ferriss's comment I finally couldn't stand it, and got rid of it. Is that better?

(For process on this illustration and my usual go to my last post. Thanks!)

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Digital Illustration Class-Original 3-part 2

"Honestly it is not THAT early dear..."

If you couldn't tell the topic for Illustration Friday this week was "EARLY."

Process: "LOOK mama, no lines!"
  1. Come up with idea (this took awhile)
  2. I sketched the general idea out as a whole compilation.
  3. Researched different photo references for characters... (On Filemorgue)
  4. Drew the characters on their own sheet of paper. (as explained yesterday)
  5. Scanned them in and cleaned them up (as explained the past two days)
  6. Got the lines on a new layer (as explained the past two days..)
  7. Once I did this for both sketches, I compiled them into one document and immediately began adding my base colors.
  8. in order to keep everything easy to work and rework, I had 4 essential groups of layers: people, background, car, and cat. Everything I did for an individual picture yesterday I did it for each group here.
  9. Unlike yesterday I tested my colors with auto contrast...and other methods and found I really liked the computer's result...the only problem was that in order to get a true reading I had to merge my characters onto the white BG to get it...so in order to extract the colors I ended up paint-bucketing all the colors I wanted to keep onto my individual layers.
  10. As explained yesterday I had layers for Base colors, shading, painting (shape), merge layer (to cut in with eraser and to finish painting off). Throughout the whole painting I kept the layers separate. So anyway I paint on a new layer over the line layer which is on multiply showing the colors I already made and fixed (I am basically working to get rid of my lines all-together.
  11. I did so much in this painting I can't even begin to explain...when I look at the painting I can tell you what I did, but u get the general idea anyway. I was going to leave the painting as my tiger turned out (I have been enjoying the simple color exploration experiments), but found myself making softer transitions...
  12. the end.
Okay...final notes:
  • I really focused on the economy of my brushstrokes, and utilizing two colors per object. (Two colors to me means a base color and it's shadow.) Though towards the end I ended up throwing in a 3rd color (a highlight) in some areas.
  • This is not a finished illustration in my mind. The white background was intentional, so it's not that, let's just say when I stare at it I find myself fixing things, and changing this and that...."IF I find another thing that I HAVE to FIX I'm gonna go CRAZY!" Phew. I probably shouldn't have tried doing this all in one day. Anyway in regards to exploration and learning this picture definitely was that.
  • As in the past I found it hard to find reference on the internet to satisfy the picture in my head. To get somewhat close I used several pictures just for generalities, or to even just compare for human anatomy. (even now the picture in my head is not what ended up.)
Hopefully over the weekend I will try to get some of my files uploaded to the class server. >_< I am a bit tired. haha and I have an even harder master study and project next week!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Digital Illustration Class-Original 3-part 1

Okay, since the process to do these is pretty fast, and I was having a hard time visualizing what my finished illustration would look like in this style, I did several practice pieces today.



Llama:
  • I basically tired to follow the process from yesterday, but since I was technically inventing colors, it took alot more adjusting. i also ended up adding a highlight color.
  • For the paintbrush i used "oil Pastel Large" size 63 (which comes standard with photoshop brushes) I set the Flow on jitter pressure. Went to the Shape Dynamics options and changed the angle to directional (thanks to Mr. Babcock.) I did not use this brush yesterday, it is a new one I built.


Tiger:
  • I started to folow the process from yesterday but found myself completely skipping the final linework step...I did practically all the finish work on the copy-merged-layer. I really like how it looks like an acrylic painting.
  • Something else unique i did was when correcting the colors with Hue/saturatino I turned the lines off so I could see how they interacted with each other. i also did this with the shading too.
  • The brush I used for this was created like this: start with brush "Chalk 44 pixels" (which is also a default brush in photoshop). Turn on Texture, I used a paperish looking base. Turned off "texture each tip". I then turned it COLOR BURN mode. next I went to the Dynamics direction and turned the flow jitter to pen pressure (which allows the texture of the brush to show through at will). I also turned the angle jitter to directinoal (this is such a cool feature. I'm glad I learned about it.)


Girl:
  • So for this picture I actually branched out and completed a full character (head to toe) final sketch, but in order to cut back on time in painting I stuck with just the profile.
  • As expected I started out with the process established yesterday, but found myself merging several steps, and even going back and forth...so basically like yesterday but scrambled.
  • Once I was 100% done I found myself playing with the color options...color balance, levels, auto contrast etc...I was basically trying to idealize the colors...

Further notes:
  • All sketches were done on a 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of cheap print paper. I usually filled up a good portion of page and scanned them at 300 dpi (did that for you Mr. babcock).
  • I acquired a photo from FileMorgue and used it for reference for the girl: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/144167 (btw filemorgue is a site that anyone can use anything on it and not get in trouble!!!)
  • For the tiger and llama I used photos I took at the Kansas City zoo as reference.
  • I put my wacom on a 15% tilt (like on a drawing table) to see if it would relax my pen grip, and it did a pretty good job.
  • Oh yesterday I misquoted some info...in order to get rid of red and blue sketch lines, in the HUE/Saturation menu take the saturation to -100 and the brightness to +100. Do that for Cyan, blue, magenta, and red...or whatever color used as a prep sketch.
How I used my reference photos for these:
  • Part of the problem when I use photos for reference in the past, is it is hard to stray from what is there...so this is what I did to avoid that:
  1. stare at the photo and find what emotion the character is, or might be, or you make it convey, then find ways to generalize/exaggerate/summarize the character.
  2. Next I put away the photo and drew from memory as much as I could...basically I'm trying to get my own characterization before I look at the reference again.
  3. After I get well established I then look at the reference again and add extra details, and make minor corrections. If you look at my reference for the girl, you will see how drastically different my sketch turned out. I also imagined expressions and using a hand mirror made them in order to see what they might look like on the characters.
OOOOkay...now to try and think of a good narrative illustration I can do and finish by tomorrow (in order to make Illustration Friday deadline).

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Digital Illustration Class- Artist copy #3

My version

Original done by GURIHIRU and the process:
1.sketch

2. The missing Link*
3.Alternate BG.
4. Final BG and added highlights.
*Ok, I know that this picture is not, and was never a part of this picture's process, but it was a rare picture I found on their blog which depicts what is probably done in order to go from 1- 3 .

My version: (sketch based off original illustration)

Original illustration:


This particular masterstudy is not my typical...I started off doing one illustration (as I have in the past) but found myself realizing it wasn't what I wanted to learn, so I broadened my sights with the same artist! In order to fully understand (or at least as much as I could) I spent alot of time reseraching the style/process, and then began to make theories how it was accomplished digitally. What you see here in this entry is only the result of what I learned (so it is only 1/3 to 1/2 of what I actually did. haha)

My version (I based my sketch on the final drawing)

Original art by Gurihiru:



Artist: Gurihiru. (a pair of Japanese artists who work together under the same alias as comic artists, character designers, and illustrators. One does the layout,penciling, while the other does the coloring.)
Year: 2009-2010
Source: I found the images used spread over their English and Japanese blog:
http://gurihiru21.blog11.fc2.com/
http://gurihiru.blogspot.com/

The desired Technique: Understand how they do their quick paintings/studies. I've seen alot of artist depict character and personality in drawings, but Gurihiru does an incredible job at it. Just browse through their blogs and see what I mean!

Regardless i've been told that I need to simply some elements of my art...and I feel that what I learned will help alot.


My process (for all):
  1. Sketch: Do a sketch based on their final drawings. I did my sketches in 3 stages; sketch with red, then sketch with blue, and finally do a sketch with graphite. Note: I have noticed that some comic artists use blue and/or red pencils for preliminary drawings, where afterward use ink or pencil as the final step. (most use Prismacolor ColErase). Gurihiru also uses a mechanical pencil which uses 2mm lead. For the final pencil drawing I used 4B weight.
  2. Scan and clean sketch: Scan sketches in. Clean up by utilizing the Hue/Saturation feature and knock out the reds and blues (do this by putting saturation at -100 and brightness at 0.) Adjust levels to get rid of apper and 1/2 the noise.
  3. Add Background: make a bg layer that is just white.
  4. Color Lines: Select wand (with contiguous unchecked) all the white (try to leave as much grey and black linework as possible), invert the selection and turn the line layer opacity down. Make a new layer above and color the lines in. (this is especially helpful in getting the linework seperated from its white background.)
  5. Base Colors: Create a new layer and begin to slap colors down. Once get basic color down(jus the base colors) use magic wand and select each color, while utilizing the hue/saturation option. Click on the Colorize option and adjust each color individually.
  6. Shading: Make a new layer. Set the blend mode onto multiply. Then add shading wisely.
  7. Paint the shapes: Start a new layer and start painting. Basically we are trying to establish the actual shapes and get rid of the linework. Eventually turn off the linework.
  8. Paint-soften transitions: make a new layer and utilizing the eyedrop like before I use my painterly brush on 'Wet edges' option' to soften up some of the transitions.
  9. Erase/cut into shapes: Copy merge all the layers (except the lines) and past above everything. Go with the eraser (set on the same brush settings used in 7) and cut into the shapes. (make sure to turn off viewing all the other layers, but the one you are now working on...and the white bg.
  10. Paint-final linework: Make a new layer, move the line layer above it, turn the lineart opacity down (it's basically so you can add all the fine detail linework that we erased earlier) and begin doing the final linework.
  11. Finalize background: Add background elements. done
WHEW! how come pictures that look so simple tend to be more complicated? haha




As a final bonus I am going to add the illustration that I ended up NOT doing and one of the things I focused on:

Visual pathways:
(before I changed my mind on what I was going to do for this masterstudy I spent alot of time breaking this picture apart...perspective, balance...etc. This was one of the elements I reaped from it.)

The first picture is the unhindered original..the bottom one
is how I depicted what I thought the visual pathway
through the picture might be. It is interesting to see and
to my surprise is very complex, and visually compelling.


This is probably what happens to us in about 1-3 seconds:
1)start, 2)get stopped by Bannister, 3)reflect back onto tiger backside and travel down tail, 4)head down the stairs and get reflected by picture border and plant, 5)head towards next largest object, which is the cabinet, 6)travel up, but get caught by window light, 7)get thrown inbetween plant and fishbowl right at the cat's face, 8) get distracted by the next biggest object (the door), then go to the 2nd cat's face, 9) get led outside, 10) the white leads eye back into the picture, 11)FINALLY stop at the tiger and understand the whole picture.

Geez, now onto the next part...my original illustration...sigh. ^_^

Monday, May 24, 2010

Digital Illustration QUESTION!!! (anyone please help!)

Obviously there is a lot of rules being utilized in nature, but in regards to one, two, or three point perspective is there a short-hand version I don't know about?

First of all, I've been discovering that artists utilize an OFF-SCREEN vanishing point, where if drawn, would be 3 feet away from the actual boundaries of the picture. This also occurs in close-encounter situations of our naturally boxed-in world (for example in a single bedroom). Without breaking the 18x24” sketch-paper out just to draw a 4x6” picture, I really cannot contain (depending on the circumstances) both vanishing points.

Second of all, I am not very patient when it comes to NITTY-GRITTY perspective and rules. In fact this past semester I have been exploring somewhat organic shapes so that I could avoid them altogether. I have heard that practicing drawing boxes, helps the understanding of shorthand perspective, and it has helped my overall understanding, but is there something more practical,quicker,easier?


Thanks!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Digital Illustration Class-Original 2

Well another week has past...and boy has it been a busy week. This week's "Illustration Friday" topic is, "Equipment." The topic was hard at first to come up with an idea, but before I knew what was happening I was doing a topic familiar to me. As you can you tell I've never been a Boy Scout before... Boy did I HATE wearing those shorts. X_x

Right now I feel like jumping up and running all about shouting my happiness (as if I just made a wild 3 point shot in basketball.) I really enjoyed the whole process of this piece, and consider a major mile-marker of learning. i have to promise you though that it didn't turn out exactly what I had in mind, but in the end it was for the better. For example my original sketch had the character and all the objects already planted on the ground. I definitely enjoy working smaller right now (especially for this class) so i can spend more time on specifics (instead of general, wide-sweeping masterpieces...) I also found that i enjoyed working with huge bristles for my paintbrushes, with little or no smaller bristles.

Process Day 1:
  1. Came up with an idea worthy of spending X,XXX,XXX hours on.
  2. I Drew a simple grid over picture (just for reference)
  3. Made a rough sketch based on some sketches I did earlier.
  4. Added a wash over my linework (this allows for my imagination to fly, or for me to see corrections I need to make). I usually just lighten the opaicy of the layer, make a new one over it and kinda trace. Squinting helps too...anyway, after that I draw draw draw. In the end I ended with 5 layers of sketches.
  5. Rough Value exploration. (This was difficult beause I was making up the light source.)
  6. Turn off lines and finalize value drawing. In order to get full range of value I checked my picture against the Value study I did for Zinaida's painting (see previous blog entries).
Process Day 2:
  1. I Checked the Value drawing, and made simple corrections.
  2. On a new layer I traced all outlines, wherever there was going to be different colors.
  3. Made a new layer and called it 'Color Flats.' Utilizing the linework I made with the trace i fill in all the colors with a base/ground color. Then i cleaned up the linework (made it go away)
  4. Utilizing the quick selection tool I select the shapes for all one color on the color-flat layer and after duplicating the Final Value Study layer, I click on it, open up the COLOR BALANCE tool and adjust the settings for Shadow, mid-ground, and highlights. Then I did that for every single color. (I made sure to have my Final Value Study layer on Multiply)
  5. Make a new layer and with light washes using a paintbrush adjust the colors further (more so than the color balance could) and I also added the random colors, which is the SPICE of illustrations. I also made sure to knock some saturation down in several sections, and built it up in others.
  6. Since I am not responding to real life, or a painting, i adjusted the colors how I wanted. Copying all the layers together I paste it back in and play with the auto settings (auto tone, auto contrast, auto color), and the manual ones as well to see how I can improve my overall colors. Apparently this was helpful because I realized that my picture was rather dark.
  7. In past experience I have found that if you copy an image and place it over itself, mess with the blending options (multiply, overlay, etc) and lower the opacity, it makes the picture very vibrant...well I did that too.
  8. Well if i wasn't satisfied enough i had to keep messing with the colors...copy-merge and pasting again I added a warm/photo filter, then hit Auto contrast...and just when I thought I might be done threw in a couple Hue/saturation adjustment layers, and adjusted some other things....sigh. Basically I am trying to take alot of the guesswork out, where mistakes occur before I use the paintbrush...so I can just have fun!
  9. Build 3 new brushes (all different sizes, basically have the same stroke) Set the spacing abou 4%, turned size-pressure off and turned it to opacity-pressure. This leaves the brush looking very painterly.
  10. Make a new layer, lock all the others (to prevent mistakes I've made in the past) and....now I paint, PAINT, paint.
  11. Once I think I 'm done I do one more auto contrast check. and Done.
What I learned/used:
  • Simultaneous Contrast. When I set out to replicate Zinaida's painting I was not expecting to learn this...in fact it wasn't even on my agenda, and i feel I focused on this MORE than the vibrant colors and painterly style. I found out that it works just like line-work, but without the lines...there's a novel thought.
  • Full Value and Color. Utilizing the study I did with Zinaida's painting I would occasionally check to see my range of value and color. This was very helpful.
  • Use of Black. There are several parts where I used black effectively, and they are partly what make me so happy. For example i put the DARKEST dark, only in the shadows of the character to anchor him, and then of course used accents on the character and on other places to balance the picture. I think my favorite part is the left foot and how I used it there.
  • Vibrant accents. I accidentally discovered the use of adding vibrant-colors in shadows and how it makes the picture more interesting and fluid (furthering the painting illusion). For the best example look at Zinaida's picture in the shadow of her blouse there is a StARK orange.
  • It is not good to be tense, find yourself not breathing, holding the pen tightly, spend 8 hours straight two days in a row painting, and holding your eyes open wide...it is bad for your health. haha...no but seriously.
Right now I feel like a mad scientist who is enacting his EVIL plan... haha

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Digital Illustration Class- Artist copy #2-part 2.



My final version:

The original


Process Animation:
(1.sketch, 2. value study, 3.Trace outlines, 4.Color Flats, 5 Color balance, 6.Color correction, 7.Paint!)

Well this is part 2 of my Master-study. I split it up since it was so complicated...plus it gave me opportunity for feedback.

  • Artist: Zinaida Serebriakova (Russian painter)
  • Year: 1930
  • Source: I actually found it on a Russian site, but it has since dropped the pictures. I have posted my personal collection on my brother's online image repository here: http://www.jerbl.com/images/post/list/SEREBRIAKOVA_zinaida/1
  • Overall Process:
  1. Detail sketch. (described yesterday)
  2. Value study (described yesterday)
  3. Select head, re-size it to correct proportions. Clean up and tighten the rest of the value drawing. Finalize by squinting at actual painting and seeing which parts stick out, or should be pushed back (overall balance.)
  4. On a new layer trace the outlines of all the general colors.
  5. Make a new layer, which will be called "COLOR FLATS" Fill it with your base colors.(step 5-6 was something I recently learned from Omar Dogan's Tutorial-Found HERE-)
  6. Select a color with magic wand on the color flat layer, then switch to the Value study layer and adjust Color Balance for each and every color. (Generally have Blue/purples in the shadows and yellow/oranges in the highlights.)
  7. Make a new layer and with the paintbrush make adjustments to color, and also add all the random ones.
  8. Make a final layer above them all and utilizing the brush, I made following Megan's Tutorial (thanks Megan), and the eyedropper, I pick out colors and paint, paint, paint! At first I started to use my brush under the size-pressure-function, but soon discovered that I can make a better/natural look if I left it regular and just adjusted the size of the brush utilizing the '[' and ']' shortcut, and occasionally adjusting the opacity utilizing the numbers 1 through 0.
NOTE: Since I am trying to understand the whole painting process in Photoshop, I only used the Eyedropper once on the original artist painting (as far as I can remember). All my colors were created through the processes above.
  • Problems encountered:
  1. I tried adding a texture..canvas, noise, etc...in fact several of them, but felt unsatisfied in the end. They usually ended up darkening my colors, or messing up the magic of the picture...any suggestions?
  2. I made the brush, and it showed up in my brush box, but after I quit Photoshop and came back it was gone... :( What happened?
  • The desired technique: As I mentioned yesterday, I love Zinaida's work for several reasons. One is the somewhat rough bold strokes, which are exact and volume defining. The other is the vibrant lively colors. I feel that this picture best portrays it in comparison to all her other works.
  • What I learned:
  1. After completing this study, I feel that I learned exactly what I wanted to accomplish...if not alot more. Her works are very rough in places, and yet smooth and well articulated in others, which leaves alot of discovery in her process...and gave me good opportunity to see how she used colors and brush strokes.
  2. Her constant use of Simultaneous contrast suprised me. (explained yesterday)
  3. I learned that she used a palette knife for the window frame and outside wall. (Thanks to Megan for pointing that out.)
  4. I knew that good paintings use alot of colors even though from a distance they look quite uniform, but i was incredibly surprised at how many this painting had. It was very inspiring to see all the colors involved, and their interactions.
  5. If I were going to pursue this painting further, I would probably build more custom brushes, such as a palette knife, brushes with only 2 or 3 hairs, and brushes which would fade after a certain distance of being used...etc.
Wow, I feel very proud about this particular study. I have admired Zinaida's woks for years, and I feel this a great honor to finally do something about it. On a side note, I hope that my original illustration will make it a fraction of the amazing-ness of this one. haha!

NOTE: I will post my .psd tonight on the server. Anyone is welcome to dig through it. (i even cleaned it up and named everything so it is easy to understand.)

Media Studies Poster


I was asked to do a poster for the Media Studies classes at MCC Longview, and this is what resulted. I made the ENTIRE thing in Adobe Illustrator CS4 utilizing only the BLOB BRUSH, save for the perfect rectangles and of course the type. (the 'clip-art' looking pictures I actually made too, utilizing the blob brush...or in my opinion, "THE TOOL OF ALL TOOLS" in Illustrator!)

Monday, May 17, 2010

Digital Illustration Class- Artist copy #2-part 1.

Master-study #2 part 1.


Since several individuals are posting half-finished pieces, and this particular master copy is much more complicated then my last one, I will split it into two parts. Part 1 will be today, part 2 tomorrow.

  • Artist: Zinaida Serebriakova (Russian painter)
  • Year: 1930
  • Source: I actually found it on a Russian site, but it has since dropped the pictures. I have posted my personal collection on my brother's online image repository here: http://www.jerbl.com/images/post/list/SEREBRIAKOVA_zinaida/1
  • Process done so far:
  1. Detailed sketch of basic layout/construction. Utilized a new technique where I start the pic out at like 33%, work general, make a new layer, turn the opacity of the first layer down, make brush smaller, zoom in at 50% and work a bit more specific. The next step would be the same except turn the first sketch off. I utilized many other techniques, but essentially ended up with 9 separate sketch layers. I also tried to treat the painting as I would a figure drawing.
  2. New layer, do a value study utilizing the paintbrush set on the opacity feature. Eventually turn off the final sketch I did in step 1.
  • Process plan to do tomorrow:
  1. I basically plan to utilize the concepts for color application I utilized here: http://monisawa.blogspot.com/2010/05/more-technique-explorations.html Except where I stopped for that picture, will be where I continue into the PAINT, PAINT, PAINT step for this one.
  • The desired technique: I love Zinaida's work for several reasons. One is the somewhat rouph bold strokes, which are exact and volume defining. The other is the vibrant lively colors. I feel that this picture best portrays that from all her works.
  • Noticed as worked:
  1. I noticed that she uses black quite curiously, she tends to lay it down in sections, and even use it as tool to sketch her painting on, then at times she will paint over those line switch color. I also noticed how often she uses simultaneous contrast. Where there is a dark dark, she often put a contrasting light (even if it shouldn't naturally be there...the pot's handle for example.) She also utilizes her black outlines to further the simultaneous contrast.
  2. I don't know about other people, but painting on the computer is different for me than painting in real life. On the computer my method is to get basically everything defined (overall construction, value, and the colors at least 90% as you want) then on a new layer tighten everything up utilizing the eye dropper and paintbrush to push and pull the colors in a painterly fashion. To paint in real life, (especially in acrylic) once a color is applied, that is that. Obviously one could paint over it, but the computer tends to add a bit more liberties.
That is all for now....

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Digital Illustration Class-Original 1

The topic of this picture is, "FEARLESS." Every week i will be making my original illustration based on the weekly topic posted on, "Illustration Friday."

Well here it is. The blockprint I always wish I could've done in printmaking. Not only did I not have to worry about cutting myself, but I didn't have to worry about messing up the print part. Not only that, but I got to cheat and see what my print was going to look like before I would have to consider trying...in fact as I was going.

Process:
  1. Make a physical sketch...
  2. Scan and sketch over it on a new layer.
  3. Sketch several more times making corrections and adjustments
  4. Do a new layer and make a value study.
  5. make a black layer and put a Layer ask on it.
  6. Put the final linework and value study at about 35% opacity.
  7. Carve away at the black until done.
  8. Add color on a new layer underneath the black layer. (multiply is not needed)
  9. Add cheap texture. put on mutliply
  10. Add noise layer (as instructed by Mr. Babcock.)
  11. Take the color layer opacity down to 80%.
  12. Add a couple Hue/Saturation adjustment layers to fix the background.
  13. Add another layer to put in final adjustments on color.
  14. Done.
One of the hardest tricks was letting the black and the simple colors define the characters and set the picture's depth...this was difficult and I struggled with it.

I will upload the actual .PSD on the server tonight, and everyone is welcome to look at it. Regardless please give me comments, critiques...etc.
Thanks

More technique explorations...

If you couldn't tell this is NOT part of my project for my Digital illustration class. In fact it was only supposed to be a warm-up exercies, so to speak, for my ACTUAL illustration, but i got sidetracked, and thought this might be helpful after-all.

For the whole piece I utilized 3 basic techniques:

  1. For developing an idea and strengthening it... I utilized a technique from a professional artist named, Yoshitoshi Abe. He is a favorite Japanese artist of mine (Creator of "Serial Experiments Lain", and "Nie_7"). I first saw the technique I want to focus on utilized here by him: http://drawr.net/show.php?id=702962 The basic technique is to make an initial sketch, then overlay and fade the lines with a solid color wash. After the lines are faded let the imagination take hold, and break away from the drawn lines, by sketching over them. Repeat washes and sketches until satisfied.
  2. To further develop lines/shapes...I utilized a technique that I have been developing, and that is to do 3 complete sketches over the top of the each other. Essentially I utilize layers to trace over my old sketches, and as I do I make corrections. (if I don't get what I want after three tries, I do it more.)
  3. Finally for the coloring, I utilized another favorite artist of mine, Omar Dogan. For the technique I referred to http://omar-dogan.deviantart.com/art/Colouring-Tutorial-72826280 for most of my process. The basic idea was to start working on the background, mostly finish it, and once the overall mood was established, mask the character off, add black shading, add flat colors for each and every color, then play with Color Balance on the shading layer until viola..it is done. I've tried this before, but I've come along ways since then. Suddenly I've discovered a use for COLOR BALANCE!
If this was a real project, what you see in the picture would only be the beginning...basically a base layer for my actual painting. Utilizing the eyedropper, and paintbrush, I would push and pull the colors back and forth until everything looked painterly, and unified. Truth be told, I hate the 'photoshop processed' look often created by the multiply or burn feature. I also would probably lose the lines...I'm still trying to fit them with my painterly look...

So now that I just spent 4 1/2 hours being sidetracked...now on to my REAL project... :P (geez i love summer.)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Digital Illustration Class- Artist copy #1.

Original

My version


  1. Create Layer 1. Fill with black
  2. Create Layer 2. Put at 15% opacity. Sketch basic shapes with white.
  3. Create Layer 3. Begin to carve away with white. Go back and forth with eraser and white.
  4. Create Layer 4. Reestablish lines and correct proportions.
  5. Finish Layer 3.
  6. Create Layber 6. Put it under multiply. Sloop colors in utilizing the HSB slider (not the color picker) make sure to constantly compare and change as needed.
  7. Tighten up colors on Layer 5. Fit them in their boundary lines.
  8. Add layer 6, put it on Multiply. Add a cheap paper texture*
  9. Done.
*http://www.flickr.com/photos/schmod/419640051/sizes/l/
  • My Thoughts/intents: Obviously the original picture was made using BlockPrint methods, but I decided to achieve the basic result in photoshop. I was not trying to attempt a perfect replication, I was focusing on the overall aesthetics of the picture (how it pulls itself together) and how the artist used black.
  • The technique: Initially the simple, vibrant colored shapes caught my eyes, but in the end it was the incredible/dynamic use of black which caused me to focus on this picture. What I wished to understand was how the artists utilized the carved away technique, leaving some lines intentionally as noise, others as solid shapes, others as value, and others as line.
I will be posting my Illustration based on this master-study later this week.

P.S. Thanks Mr. Babcock for telling about the “Tip Feel” “FIRM” option for the wacom. Geez, I've been giving myself hand-cramps and headaches trying to force those 'blobby' lines to behave.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

My illustration class (the rest of it...)

Well here you have it... These are the last three projects I did in my Illustrations Concept class at UCM:

"The devil in the shape of my cat"
Pelican and Dr. PH Martin Watercolor on hot-press watercolor paper.



















"Eye-Candy"
Holbein Watercolors on Hot-press watercolor paper.



"My favorite place growing up was...my hill."
Digital Painting done in Photoshop.