Mike Blake illustration

Frosty Morning and PBM day1

2012-02-02T02:48:00.005-06:00

"Frosty Morning"

2012 Graphite, Watercolor, and Digital.

So I have to say that this picture does not exactly represent the weather here...the past few days it has been in the 60's! Regardless, I completed this for the monthly topic over at Childrensillustrator.

Whew, this piece is among my best, but I am still unsure if I am completely happy with it. So please give me any and all types of feedback! I need it. One thing I will say is that this illustration was groundbreaking for color and light usage in a complete background environment.

PICTURE BOOK MARATHON 2012 ~ DAY 1:

"Monster School cover sketch"

Picture Book Marathon (PBM) day 1.

2012 Graphite, and Digital

Plot: Basically the timid girl in the picture recently moved. Little did her parents know that she got enrolled in a school for monsters...nor did they believe her! In the end she comes to the realization that everyone is different, but good...even if monsters.

I have this idea pretty developed with sketches and everything. It wouldn't be too hard to write out a dummy for this.

Day 1 didn't seem that hard, but if I plan to make 25 more of these this month I will need to pace myself. I probably spent a little bit too much time working on this one. I have to say it was a lot of fun since I had like ZERO time to think and worry about things and just go with the flow.

Process:

concept

concept sketch

scan

warp, edit concept sketch

Do color/value comp

print comp lightened. draw with pencil on it.

Trace and finalize sketch

scan

add colors in photoshop.

IF- Twirl & my life defining moment!

2012-01-24T23:48:00.008-06:00

"Twirl my bubbling, boiling brew!"

2012 Graphite, watercolor and digital paint.

I have hit one of those defining moments in my life. After I graduated last year, I contacted some art representatives and several of my favorite artists to get feedback on my portfolio. They had a lot of good things to say, but also pointed out specific concerns that afterward greatly bothered me. From that point on, I set out to resolve their concerns, and my own.

Which leads us to my new illustration in this post! The last few weeks I've given you a glimpse of my recent experiments, and I feel at this point I now have a process that is quick, easy, fun, organic, and professional (and I feel I resolved everyone's concerns, including my own). I completed this illustration in under a week (3-5 days) so I anticipate starting a new portfolio from scratch with this illustration as my cornerstone.

Just as a matter of business I will be very busy in February. First of all my brother requested that I make a cake topper for his wedding in February...and second of all I am a participant of the 2012 Picture Book Marthon (link). The last time I created a cake topper it took me a month straight, working ONLY on it. The picture book marathon requires that I create a new book idea every day in February, or at least so that I end up with 26. The majority of the entrants are writers, but since I'm an illustrator I just need to create a rough draft of what the cover might look like (introducing the characters, settings, etc), but balancing that, starting a new portfolio, and completing the cake topper...should be interesting.

Private Commission Project!

2012-01-21T23:07:00.005-06:00

"Gad B2 comission." 2012.

Grahite drawing and Digital colors.

I'm up against the wire tonight, so I wont say a whole lot about this piece. Basically my client wanted a picture of him and his 3 classmates, watching a nuclear explosion with a B2 flying away. In the seat directly behind them are their new squadron mascots (if anyone was confused.) I really spent alot of time nurturing and finessing the under-sketch as I fully planned to leave it visible (and not paint it out, like I have in past illustrations.) Hope you enjoy it as much as they did.

As a matter of business, you might have noticed with my last few posts, the illustrations have been different. I've been spending a bit of time exploring and trying to pull upon ALL my strengths, instead of ignoring some of them. I think it is safe to say that I have found a solution. The past few posts (minus the private comission) have been quick/ simple illustration tests. I am currently working on a finished portfolio piece, that goes beyond any of them, utilizing ALL my strengths. Make sure to stop by early next week, which is when I hope to have it done. It will be worth your time!

My GREAT day: the horned bunny of DOOM!

2012-01-19T00:03:00.002-06:00

The Horned Bunny of DOOM! January 2012

(graphite & vine charcoal underdrawing, digital painting.)

I had such a great day that I wanted to share this fun and silly illustration!

After completing Sherlock Holmes (in my previous post) I immediately wanted to create a Children's illustration using the same underdrawing method. I have also been wanting to try using Vine Charcoal, as opposed to my typical graphite, for the underdrawing! So I created a children's illustration using graphite, vine charcoal and digital paint! It was so easy (which might be helpful if I get the job, I interviewed for today), and it was SO much FUN!

The pencil is great for technical things with defined edges and shading, however the charcoal is so versatile and dynamic it's great for letting things evolve (foliage, brick wall, fur...etc) until it looks RIGHT! The girl was completely preplanned, but the background and the narrative for her surprised look appeared as I started playing with the vine charcoal...this method of slow evolution was especially helpful for the tree trunk, the rabbit's fur, and the stone wall.

The other thing I did for this piece was fall back into my watercolor mindset, of a cool and warm underpainting...of which ended up being my foundation for the rest of the colors. Since I am not one of those artists that can decisively throw down a bold color that magically relates to the others in the composition, almost ALL of my colors are a result of me adding layer after layer of light washes of color.

In the next day or so I will post an illustration I completed as a commission (and was paid quite well for it too.)

IF- Prepared

2012-01-14T23:14:00.003-06:00

"Prepared." 2012 Graphite and Digital.

Here is this weeks fun illustration! I barely squeezed it in-between a paid project/commission I am working on. I'm sure I could spend several more days on this illustration, but I need to move on, so I can finish my paid one. I chose to illustrate this weeks topic, "Prepare." As to the subject, I've noticed a huge resurgence of Sherlock Holmes (movies, TV shows, etc), and thought I would take a fun, yet conservative stab. I tried to leave alot of things in this illustration unresolved, yet conclusive (Which are probably the most memorable, and powerful illustrations) and I also filled it with a bunch of fun details, which Holmes world and personality immediately populated the picture with. (As to where his HAT might be...well it is by the the front door of course!)

This past few weeks, this thought crossed my mind: There are countless things that make an illustration mediocre... for me, I'm starting to realize that most my illustrations are SOMETHING out of NOTHING. In other-words create an entire illustration mostly on a funny/profound idea or concept from my head. Though the idea is great, the characters and what surround them are often flat, and lifeless. As a new movement (at least for these fun weekly illustrations) I am going to branch out into the world of either well known characters, or well known stereotypes (people and personalities that come naturally to me, and easy to imbue the drawing with their personality.)

In the past I've been building my illustrations off of a detailed pencil sketch, for this one I tried to not only leave as much of the pencil intact, but to let it do most of the work...IE have the color support it. To be quite honest I'm very pleased with the results.

IF- Grounded

2012-01-07T13:00:00.003-06:00

My take on the topic for illustration friday. Completed it in about 5 hours (from start to finish.)

I have alot of projects going on right now and even more coming up in the next few months, but expect at least one illustration a week like this one.

Christmas 2011 (parody cover, and other COOL STUFF!)

2011-12-27T11:23:00.010-06:00

Parody cover I designed as a gag gift for my wife.

(c) Copyrighted characters pictures,and logos belong to their respective owners.

Before people start labeling me as as a.....*shivers* Twilight lover... Pay attention to the gravestones in the foreground. Setting that formality aside, I made this cover as a joke.

My wife wanted the newest LEGO harry potter game and I am never one to go the direct route... Since my wife and I are not fans of Twilight, I thought it would be a fun joke to make a cover for a fictitious (but believable) Twilight LEGO game, buy the game she wanted and then replace the actual cover with mine.

I built and painted the main illustration from a sketch up. Everything else (but the main illustration) on the wraparound were elements I researched and gathered from the internet (including the final wii template). After printing the completed wraparound, I replaced the Harry potter LEGO one with it. Visiting the nearest used game store, they wrapped it up in cellophane as a favor, so that it looked BRAND NEW. Before heading home I packaged it up in a used Amazon box, brought it home, announced my gift for her had just come, and immediately wrapped it with gift-wrap so that upon opening she would never suspect it had been tampered with.

How did it end out? My hard work paid off. When my wife opened her gift she was so convinced the game was real (just from the front cover) that she didn't even bother looking at the back, handed it to me and said, "You're going to have to send it back." I had a hard time keeping a straight face and not laughing. I asked her, "you mean you don't want to play it?" haha. "As IF," she replied, "besides we wont be able to return it!" For about 10 minutes I had her going and finally pulled the cover to Harry Potter LEGO out and had her open the cellophane on LEGO "Twilight" and we had a good, long laugh after that.

Blake Family portrait. (Watercolor and colored pencil.)

If Christmas break wasn't busy enough (between my normal job and finishing the Twilight cover) I ended up making 8 postcard sized illustrations and an 8x10 portrait of my parents and siblings IN LESS THAN ONE WEEK! Starting on monday last week I completed 2 postcard illustrations everyday except for friday and saturday, which was when I completed the family portrait. Honestly despite the stress to get them all done it was alot of fun to go back to traditional illustration. I might even go back to traditional for a little in order to develop a simpler portfolio.

I included a couple of my postcards below. I will probably post the rest on my Deviantart account. Each of my brothers and sisters, and their counterparts had to fight over them in the white elephant gift exchange we did this year. It was alot of fun!

As a final note my generous wife purchased several things for me, including THE ART OF Peter De Seve (Sketchy past). I sat down for HOURS and just basked in his amazing glory (and stressed about how inadequate I am in comparison to him 0_O haha )

Long overdue post~ Scary house, portrait, and colorpicker!

2011-12-07T00:46:00.011-06:00

I could paint old scary/cool houses like this all day!

This was painted using my NEW colorpicker! (see bottom of post)

This is what I did for my Plein Air FINAL (Unlike my 23 other paintings for the class, the painting portion was done digitally and off location.) I tried to utilize everything I learned over the semester in this painting, and feel I did a good job.

I did this for my final in my BFA degree capstone (ICAP) class.

I love filling my sketchbook with portraits of people from around me, so I decided to make it part of my final for ICAP. The point of this portrait was to take something normal (a class member...which happened to be a fellow illustrator, EVA) and make it (her) special/extraordinary (Watch out! We're delving deep into Art Theory here... haha). I really enjoyed how the drawing turned out.

Finally, a couple weeks ago I decided to venture out and participate in a Japanese PaintChat. Though their program was over-simplified, I discovered something, like an extra arm that I didn't know I had, that I now absolutely NEED! Basically they had a colorpicker that remained available simultaneously as I PAINTED. I found it very natural, easy to adjust COLORS and find them again... Oh my GOSH! where have you BEEN?! Once I fell in love, I HAD to find a similar action in Photoshop!

For me in Photoshop: 1.the HSB Sliders were too halting. 2.Constantly having to open and close the ColorPicker box (only available from the color swatch icon) was such I pain. 3.And the color swatches gave a good/solid range, but did not allow the full/creative control I wanted. (I've personally been using swatches for years, but until now I didn't see a need to change. )

As I dug deeper on this quest I discovered that, until CS5, the color picker could NOT be put on a shortcut key, and you could NOT have it open and work on your document at the same time in PHOTOSHOP. I own CS4, so that is where Anastasiy http://anastasiy.com/colorwheel comes into play. Basically some GENIUS decided to bank on Adobe's serious lack of ingenuity. It is an extra plugin that you, or anyone, PC, or MAC, can add to any version of photoshop (CS3 and above):

Example of me using the Anastasiy Colorpicker while painting.

It makes picking and reacting to colors a THOSANDS times easier.

Honestly after researching CS5's solution, I like this plug-in EVEN MORE ( since it stays continuously open, instead of being connected to a complex keyboard shortcut). Right now I am still using the "Trial" version, and for $14.00 I am going to have to buy the "Full" version, but until the 15 days run out, even the trial/limited version does EXACTLY what I want. With this tool I can NOW do ANYTHING with photoshop!

Having said that, the only quirky thing I've ran into so far, is that when I use eyedropper, from Photoshop's tools, the color does not register on the colorpicker plugin. But since color selection is SO easy, its not that big of a deal. Thank you Anastasiy!

Once again here is the link to Anastasiy : http://anastasiy.com/colorwheel

[Edit 14 December 2011: I bought the official/FULL version today for $11. The full version syncs with the photoshop eyedropper. Repeat the full version of the colorpicker sync's with photoshop's eyedropper.]

Christmas illustration and some...other things. 0_o

2011-11-19T21:16:00.006-06:00

"The True Meaning of Christmas"

illustration for flier.

With about 4 weeks of school left I volunteered to do a Christmas illustration for a flier for my church. Yah, I'm a bit crazy. Actually I had less than a week to create the illustration, make it into a flier and get it printed! So I'm very crazy, but yet I got done and it turned out great! They even had me make a poster with it.

So if you can't tell I've added a couple photos from my senior gallery show:

The gallery gave me 20 feet of wall space and I
only planned for 6. That is why I added curtains!

I had a pretty good turn-up and really enjoyed showing off my work and talking about it to everyone. I even had an opportunity to talk to some professionals from the Graphic Arts world and they had good things to say.

Here is a close-up shot of how I organized and hung my work.

Out of the illustrations displayed only one was from a class, but I've reworked it so many times that I don't even count it anymore. Except for the center illustration on the 2nd row, every single illustration was created over the course of the summer and fall semester on my own.

"Death always so near." Self portrait with skeleton.

Large scale charcoal figure drawing.

As a bonus, I thought I would add the OTHER side of me that rarely is focused on here (GASP! Realistic!?)

IF- Stripes

2011-11-09T00:44:00.002-06:00

"Page full of STRIPES!"

Occasionally illustration friday has a topic I can't pass up...well this was one of those....haha! I love stripes and boy did I have fun with everything on here! I know that it isn't exclusive to ALL stripes, but covers a large portion.

I'm thinking about doing more of these quick fun page of sketches in the future. Maybe attempt to do 100 children!!! On this page I have 10 girls, so maybe the next set of 10 will be boys?

As expected I've been super busy the past few weeks. Saturday I finished my last illustration for my senior show. Yesterday I set up my illustrations in the gallery and today I made my final touches to the overall setup. Tomorrow I will have professional portfolio reviews....the list goes on and on. I will be pretty busy for the rest of the semester (with Homework, final and client projects all piling up). Saturday is the official gallery opening, so after that I will post some pictures up? hopefully. ^_^ Cheers!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T19:53:00.003-05:00

Evil Shirt mini Illustration.

Ok...despite my insanely busy schedule I HAD to do at least one Halloween pic. Halloween is my favorite holiday, and fall is one of my favorite seasons, so they go hand in hand when it comes to illustration.

So I am still toying with using full lines in my illustrations. If I do, the key is to spend more time finessing and getting it JUST right as I did above. The other key is to make the linework thinner and let the color and value do most the work.

Regarding my senior show, I am mostly on track. Tonight and tomorrow morning I finish the last 2 of my 13 in total illustrations being displayed, and then wednesday I get them printed, thursday trimmed, and then have them ready to hang by monday. Whew. If that was all I had to do life would be ok, but add my full load of other classes, and homework, and my job, sigh....

Have a great Halloween!

Final Semester- Germs 2 AGAIN!

2011-10-22T15:57:00.003-05:00

Just so you know that I am alive, I am doing a post to show of the great things to come. I have been HARD at work touching up all my old work...and making new illustrations. If this illustration isn't enough of a hint of the great things to come, check out the updates for my website: http://www.jerbl.com/monisawa/ This semester is getting pretty crazy, so I don't know if I will post for the next two or so weeks.

Also in the way of news, I did not win the short story contest, but got a prize anyway. Amelia ended up doing a illustration of what my story WOULD have looked like if it had been made into a manga/comic. Go check it out: http://flossandchaos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=90 my picture is the one titled "Click, Click".

"Wolfe Jr. Mystery" illustration, random sketches, and a short story.

2011-10-14T01:33:00.007-05:00

Wolfe Jr. Mystery

illustration

My wife loves the murder Mysteries of Nero Wolfe. After watching some of the Dramatized versions, I realized it is almost impossible not to fall in love with Nero Wolfe and the cast of characters surrounding him. I wanted to portray a hypothetical novelization of Wolfe cast with children.

Regarding the illustration itself, it opened up the final pathway I needed to gain absolute control and stability for future illustrations. It seems in the past I have had to relinquish some aspect of my illustration creating process to chance, but no more. I found a way to work totally greyscale, and on a separate layer work on my color a little bit, and then go back to my greyscale at any time to further render. Ultimately if I broke it down I had 5 layers:

Layer 1: linework/sketch

Layer 2: Value/greyscale painting

Layer 3: Ambient color fill. Layer set on Soft Light.

Layer 4: My actual colors. Layer set on Overlay.

Layer 5: finalize/sync/freepaint.

They are not necessarily in the order they are arranged in my file, and to be quite honest I probably have over 20 layers, but you get the idea.

Bonus "Sketches"

I loosely use the word "sketches", because they are essentially mini illustrations (minus the pencil scribbles at the top). The purpose of this scanned and edited page from my sketchbook was to show the different types of illustration processes that I prefer.

1.The striped hoodie is my current process, the one I used on Wolfe Jr.

2.The beach scene was done using my old digital illustration line-art process.

3.The girl in the pink shirt is a style I want to explore/get better at. I love using black and simplified color that way.

If I were to label in order the time it took to create each of the sketch illustrations from longest to shortest, it would be 1, 2, 3. I'm contemplating on spending more time on illustration process type 2 as a secondary style, but for now type 1 is my prima donna.

Finally, I recently participated in a short story contest over at FlossandChaos. Go ahead and check it out: http://flossandchaos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=90#p153 If you can't figure out which one is mine, it is the one titled, "Click, Click."

Final Semester- Illustration: Foreign Lands

2011-09-27T00:50:00.003-05:00

This poem is from "A Childs Garden of Verses" by Robert Louis Stevenson. The book is out of copyright protection and can be viewed here: Gutenberg.org . I chose to illustrate this poem because it reminds me a lot of my childhood, and the fun children can have exploring and using JUST their IMAGINATION. Often TV, Video Games, comics, and sometimes even books limit the infinite bounds of a child's imagination by feeding them a bunch of stereotyped, processed, and commercialized garbage.

Oh my! Cross your fingers for me, I might get TWO illustrations done this week!!! As a side note, this illustration is the second installment of my new and improved greyscale-to-color method...and amazingly enough it looks like it will work in ANY situation. I shall try it on a more complex image. If I have time I will post something about the process I used for it later this week.

Honestly I can't believe I did that to myself with all the leaves on the trees, but I couldn't stop rendering until everything FELT right. I really feel like this illustration turned out successful.

Final Semester - Illustration: Creatures of the night

2011-09-23T11:34:00.003-05:00

I started and completed this illustration last night. I made it for the ChildrensIllustrator monthly topic, "Night Creatures."

It was mostly that I wanted to retry 'greyscale to color' based on a tutorial from Rokoroko: Link here, but partly because who ISN'T enticed by the topic "Night creatures"?
The key differences from my old 'greyscale to color' methods was:
1.Using a brush to paint the unwanted color OUT/AWAY with a mask.
2. Utilizing the blend mode "soft light."
Everything else I did for this illustration was from my own methods.

I have also been looking for a way to simplify my illustration process and make it shorter/more profitable. My current method(s) continued to get complicated and I found myself becoming bored...since the complex route was NOT the direction I wanted to head. Not only that but my characters were becoming increasingly stiff and lifeless (I was overworking them).

So as a result, I discovered last night that this process guarantees absolute control, and a solid, animated illustration. I'm excited to explore further to see how exclusive this method is/isn't based upon other situations (daytime, complex colored backgrounds, etc.) I'll keep you posted.

Illustration gallery roundup...(as of yet)

2011-09-20T20:36:00.005-05:00

As part of my final semester here at UCM I am going to participate in a gallery show. I thought everyone might be interested in seeing my line-up thus far (more illustrations still being made as we speak). These are also the core illustrations of my actual portfolio.

You might also notice some changes to the images you are familiar with...the biggest being that I had to blast the darks and saturated colors out in order to get a good print. Sigh... WHy can't images print the way they look on the screen?! (Rhetorical question btw).

Final Semester- Illustration: GERMS

2011-09-16T23:59:00.004-05:00

For some of you this illustration may look vaguely familiar. A little under two years ago I created the original for illustration friday. The idea hit me hard and quick, as some great ideas do and since then it has been receiving a bit of recognition on my Deviantart account. In reply I wanted to bring it up to my current specs. Instead of trying to update the old version I recreated the whole thing starting from concepts and thumbnails, but this time I designed it for a children's magazine (such as Highlights, or Jack and Jill) where a poem could easily fit inside it. Don't think of it as replacing the old illustration, however think of it as a new and different one.

I've also noted that a lot of my pictures are STILL turning out dark...so today I experimented with a helpful method:

Take your "completed" picture >copymerge and paste. >desaturate it. >duplicate the desaturated layer and then either manually mess with levels, or try the Equalize option. >Adjust layer opacity until the right moderation of lights and darks. >Copy merge the greyscale layers. Paste as top. Turn layer blend mode to Overlay. >Take original color/final layer and place under that layer then adjust the greyscale layer until it looks almost right. >Can also manually adjust brightness of greyscale layer by HUE/Saturation -colorize. Turn off saturation and then move brightness up or down until right. Finally copy your original color layer place over to get rid of the BITE that levels/equalize gives to your colors. Adjust the opacity until satisfied.

As a side note my wife and I came up with a 5 year plan for our future...I graduate this semester and with that comes a lot of planning. You should hear more about it in the future as we hammer out the final details.

Contest

2011-09-09T12:25:00.004-05:00

A good friend of mine, Amelia Parris, is hosting a short story contest. The winner will have their story made into a short manga! Amelia's work is highly professional, so expect good results for the winner. Go here to find out more: http://flossandchaos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=90

Expect to see a story or two from me (depending on school and project restraints.)

Final semester- first illustration update!

2011-09-03T22:49:00.003-05:00

Soooo....here is my first update. The hardest part was getting my illustration project schedule kicked into gear, but honestly it is going well and I am excited! I can't promise I will update every week as this IS my last semester at college and I have many comprehensive classes, but rest assured illustration work is being done!

Okay for the illustration above it is another installment of my "Mr. Grump" Easy Reader that I wrote last year. It is one of my favorite scenes from the book.
And here is a test I did for a spot illustration! I did it not only as a test for a typical 'spot illustration' for a magazine article but this illustration was done 100% in CMYK mode. I was talking with fellow illustrator Jeff Porter about digital illustrations and he mentioned that working in CMYK instead of RGB brought better results when printing for him. I didn't notice a huge difference with my colors when working in CMYK, but when I printed it off I was quite surprised at how nice the colors translated. So maybe I shall work in CMYK in the future?

For other news I am honored to announce that a question of mine, regarding Plein Aire to professional Illustrator Greg Newbold, has been answered in a two post reply:

part 1

http://gregnewbold.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-outdoor-painting-palette.html

part 2

http://gregnewbold.blogspot.com/2011/09/thoughts-mixing-more-vibrant-color.html

Have an enjoyable weekend!

End of summer...and webpage update!

2011-08-16T00:59:00.005-05:00

Paint-over of my old "wtc-Tomb raiders" illustration

Today officially ends my summer "ILLUSTRATION-a-THON!" If you count my pencil illustrations I reached well over my goal of 12 illustrations, however my greatest victory was that I did alot, I accomplished alot, and I learned even MORE!

With the start of my final semester tomorrow I can face my new and rigorous illustration and homework schedule with confidence. Part of that confidence is that summer really helped me nail my voice stylistically, so that I wont spend as much time wandering around.

Regarding the illustration above it may look familiar to some of you. After I completed the masterstudy from my last post, I realized that the same paint-over method approach would work on an old painting while keeping the original vitality (problem I've dealt with in the past). So I attacked my old Wtc-Tombraiders illustration with my more recent style and rendering. The hardest part of doing this is that I had to do a lot of backwards engineering...since I was trying to correct a lot of anatomical mistakes and other issues. X_x Hope you enjoy.

As part of my self-imposed fall semester illustration program...I plan to regularly update my website...so I did one massive overhaul tonight adding some of my most recent work and throwing out the weak links. Hope you enjoy that as well.

http://www.jerbl.com/monisawa/

The Misadventures of CLINK! part 2 (and a masterstudy)

2011-08-09T20:49:00.005-05:00

Opening of Clink part 2.

Ok loyal readers I have completed another part of "THE MISADVENTURES of CLINK" (my wife's birthday comic). So that I don't bog my blog down (oh that rhymed haha) I have made a separate appendage to my webpage (link only available below).

PLEASE GO HERE TO VIEW Clink PART 2:

http://www.jerbl.com/monisawa/clink-web/main-about.html

MASTERSTUDY::

I recently came across a new artist that intrigued me, Amedeo Modigliani. Born in the late 1800's he was one of many who paved the modern art movement. His work is mostly abstract and unfinished looking, but I really like his character designs, some of his paint application and how quickly he seemed to resolve a composition.

Since his work is generally very sketchy I took it upon myself to finalize one in a Paint-over/quasi-masterstudy utilizing what I knew and several other artists techniques. I ended up using a bit of Greg newbold, Jack Vettriano, and ALOT of Amedeo Modigliani.

My masterstudy/paint over of a Amedeo Modigliani painting.

This is the ACTUAL size of the image I did the

paint-over/masterstudy on. SUPER PIXELATED! haha

(btw I count the masterstudy as sketch 2 of 5 and Clink-part 2 as 3 of 5)

Sketch illustration-1 (of 5?) Rapunzel

2011-08-04T14:57:00.003-05:00

8x13 Graphite (0.9 mm) on Bristol board. 15-20 hours.

Please CLICK on the image for FULL VIEW!

Just completed this...I would've finished it last night, but 4am is not the best time to make final decisions. haha ^_^

This was made in behalf of the monthly topic over at Childrensillustrator. There was a lot of topics to vote from, but the majority came to Rapunzel. I strongly voted for Baba Yaga, and since it didn't win, my witch ended up looking a bit like her.

I based the narrative loosely on what I knew and researched about the story...

::STORY::

"Basically a man is caught stealing from a witches garden in attempt to help his wife. As punishment he promises to give his first child to the witch. As expected the witch takes the newborn child and at the age of 12 locks her up in a high tower. Several years later a prince happens to be riding by and hears her singing. They end up falling in love with each other. As it usually does wind eventually got blown back to the witch, so in a rage she cut off Rapunzel's hair, throws her out into the real world, and then using Rapunzels hair tricks the prince. After the price climbs the tower the witch shoves him off and he becomes blinded by the fall. Spending a long time wandering alone through the wilderness he hears Rapunzels singing and finds her getting water at a waters edge. They embrace, she cries into his face and he miraculously can see again. As to the witch, in her haste to shove the prince off the tower, she lost Rapunzel's hair, and since she had no way to get down she stayed trapped in the tower till she died."

Honestly this may look like a complicated and hard illustration, but it just fell together for me. I decided what elements from the story I wanted to portray, loosely sketched them, and then pulling out the bristol and mechanical pencil I let them evolve until I was done. I used the same basic approach as from my 10 hour illustrations , in the sense there is no right or wrong reality. It was also nice to spend time on many different narrative elements instead of one ultimate/all conclusive illustration.

Hope you enjoy! I don't know if I will complete 4 more pencil illustrations before my semester starts, but so far I am doing great!

Mermaid City

2011-07-31T00:55:00.003-05:00

I have to say I had so much fun working on this illustration

that I could do a whole children's book on the story! haha

Yes, you can believe your eyes...this IS the MERMAID illustration! haha. So is it worth the wait? I spent 13.5 hours painting today to get this done...so it BETTER be worth it. (Haaaaaaand Craaaaaamp! X_x )

As a general announcement this will be the last full illustration for my summer program. Fear not loyal readers, I plan to complete at least 5 more pencil/sketch illustrations before the summer ends. Plus my last semester starts in a few weeks and by then I will have another heavy illustration program in place.

This illustration took about 3 weeks to complete. I am glad I took this long because it gave me the chance to do it right. At one point I hit a MAJOR roadblock...it was so bad that I couldn't even lift my hand to paint...no motivation! I overcame this issue by simply plunging in headfirst. No special formula to success. I have since discovered that I have the must fun during the planning/sketching/value-color comps stage and the FREE-PAINTING stage (which is just me, my brush and the canvas. The point in the painting where I do not need reference matieral, sketches, etc.) My problem occurred because I got stuck too long in the part in-between those two stages. (preparing what I call my "underpainting").

The key to this illustrations success is:

1.A solid SOLID sketch.

2.SEVERAL full-value exploring studies

3.A few different color studies.

I hardly used any reference for this illustration. Most the reference photos were used during the sketch stage. Hence the SOLID sketch I had!

Ceramics class and 3 birds with one stone poster

2011-07-28T23:02:00.004-05:00

As promised here is the lineup for the 8 week Ceramics course I completed. I have to really thank my teacher who practically "babied" all of my pieces through the drying and kiln process. Not a single of my pieces exploded or cracked. Even my two Raku tiles made it through unscathed.

Once again I completed another required course for my illustration degree, of which I wouldn't have taken in the first place. Not only that, but like my sculpture teacher from several semesters ago, I was HEAVILY recommended to continue exploring in the 3D world. I have to admit I had a great time, but it was partly because it was a risk free experience, knowing that I am graduation with my BFA in Illustration this fall. I'm not sure what the future holds anything in store for me with clay, wood, or any other hand-building material, but I know it is something fun to dabble in.

It seems every time I take these 3D classes I have

too much fun just exploring and pushing myself

to the limits. haha Unfortunately, or fortunately

we had little time to dwell on them. There was a

project due every week. So I had one day for concept,

and 3 days for execution.

Some of you may recognize this particular piece from a painting

I did a masterstudy of last summer (Link)

of a Zinaida Serebriakova painting. Right now I don't have a good

color photo of the completed piece but will continue to work on getting one

I wish I could have spent more on the painting aspect,

but I had zero time to do it.

Here is a close up detail of my fountain pot

before it was fired the first time.

I really regret how dark the glaze came out in the end,

but I had no idea what I was doing. haha

As promised here is the three birds with one

stone poster that I completed this week.

Also plan on seeing the infamous "Mermaid" illustration by saturday evening. I was able to get over a slump I had by just plunging through a difficult part (which practically left me unmotivated to work on it). So expect it soon! ^_^

10 hour SURPRISE illustration!

2011-07-26T08:54:00.004-05:00

Not the mermaid illustration. ^_^

Well there you have it folks, this is my MERMAID ILLUSTRATION. What? No MERMAIDS?! Oh...you are right. Sigh....haha. Once again I am posting and it isn't my mermaid illustration...but I have a good reason!

I was spurred on to make this illustration after I had a conversation with my good friend Amelia Parris about what my current work lacked. We came to the conclusion what I needed was to spend MORE time in the FINAL rendering stage. This is a bit difficult since most everything in my illustrations is made up.

My initial plan was to work at publishing size, double the inches after practically rendering everything, and then once done cleaning up and adding final details shrink it back down. This actually worked, but not in the way I anticipated. This worked in the sense it simplified my rendering at a lower size resolution so that I ARRIVED faster than if I had worked initially large.

My second solution was to break the single TRADITIONAL narrative format(which is what I have been doing practically my whole life) apart. THis allowed me to relax, have fun and actually kept me engaged for the entire piece. I found myself motivated to render every clear random detail, more and more because of this non-linear format. I had so much fun working on it that from about 3:30pm to 3:30am (I total of 9.5-10 working hours) I practically worked on it straight! (and let me tell you I had a BAD hand cramp! haha)

The other decision I made in order to spend more time in the rendering stage was to use more reference photos. In the end my characters were a bit more realistic than usual, but I was surprised at how much actually came from my head. (my personal practice is to render as much as I can from my head, THEN use photo reference, and THEN go back to my head.)

So I hope you enjoy this monday surprise. Plan on at least seeing the 3 birds poster by the end of the week. Based on how much effort and time it took to completely render my big-small illustration up above, it might take longer to complete my mermaid one...oh and I should mention that this week my Ceramics class ends...so I have those deadlines as well. See ya!

Portrait Illustration

2011-07-23T23:26:00.003-05:00

Portrait of a girl. (completed in about 4-5 hours.)

So that I wont ruin my mermaid illustration I decided to complete it next week. The illustration is turning out good, but I didn't want to rush it just so that I could have another illustration just done. The 3 birds-with-one-stone illustration is actually pretty far along as well, but it is also not done. So instead of giving you a blank blog post saying "OOPS. GUESS YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT" I decided to give a special bonus I completed as a practice illustration. Hope you enjoy!

I am starting to learn that I have far greater strength in smaller illustrations that are less complex...so maybe I will spend more time on those and eventually work my way up to the more complex ones.

Sketch illustration- 3 birds with one stone

2011-07-20T22:17:00.002-05:00

Three birds with one stone.

The good thing about working pro bono is that I can share with you whatever I am working on. This sketch is in preparation for the new poster I was asked to do for a class at MCC Longview.

For those who are regular followers my mermaid illustration is turning out great, and I plan to have it done by the end of the week, and maybe the birds poster will also be done.

In my sketching ability I am undergoing a great transformation, and I think the greatest reason is my refocusing on my memory sketching (photographic memory) and then portraying by what I know and remember. Due to the nature of my school classes a large void has been created of reality vs. imagination, so this is me finally bridging it back together. Too much measuring, looking, and rules can cloud the mind where as gesture, knowledge and intuition can bring freedom and stability.

Sketch illustration- new paint method

2011-07-19T00:06:00.005-05:00

This was meant to be just a quick test ( spent about 2 hours on it)

I guess we will count this as my first pencil illustration for the week. ^_^

Initially I wanted to attempt my traditional Colored pencil/watercolor wash technique digitally(For both application and color methods), but ultimately ended up with a quasi colored pencil/watercolor/acrylic look. This test might be an indicator for future work. It definitely has a more FINISHED look...and I am very pleased with how easily the colors turned out.

Illustration 6* - MACATUTOR!

2011-07-16T12:52:00.004-05:00

I'm really starting to get the hang of my painting style and methods.

This weeks color illustration is part of a self promotion poster for the tutoring services available at MCC Longview for art students enrolled in the basic computer courses. Right now I am the only tutor. haha Eventually I will put text and information on the picture.

I have already started work on my next color illustration, and it involves the childrens illustration group on deviantart. Their theme this month is "mermaids." I'm really excited about this piece, so look forward to it!

*(Btw I count Grimm as illustration 4. and then the poster for Dance as illustration 5.)

Dance poster & Figure Painting

2011-07-09T21:45:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. Last week I completed two color illustrations and so I kinda took this week off to relax a little bit, plus I am dealing with a pretty heavy deadline in the summer class I am taking (more about that in another post.)

Here is the poster I completed for the dance classes offered at Longview.

Spent the most time on the figures, and rushed the design aspects.

Kinda on the same theme as my figures above I thought I'd throw in some of the work I did in my Figure Painting class last semester:

This is about where I ended up in my acrylic painting methods. I achieved this by painting completely greyscale, and then building the color up first with light washes and then punching it with solid colors from a limited pallet. I hope to continue this method in my Plein aire class this fall.

I'm going backwards in my progression. This was another mile-marker in the sense I got a real control of form and value by using a monochromatic range of color...but my problem occurred because I would then lose control of the figure when I started to add light washes of newer colors over the top. (an effect easily satisfied in photoshop with the multiply function. sigh...)

18"x24" on gessoed strathemore drawing paper (how I did all my paintings for this class). Our first class we painted her nude and then the next we could either paint over our old one with her wearing the dress or paint a new one. I painted over my old one. This was my first full session figure painting in the class.

At first I just jumped headfirst into painting unsure of what I was doing, but by the end of the semester I had really built up my confidence...most of this was due to the dozens and dozens of small test paintings I did at home (none of which will see the light of day. haha) I hope to do more of these in the future and should maybe spend more time with acrylics (since it really helped me understand more about my Photoshop painting process).

GrIMM fairy tale - part 3 -FINISH!

2011-07-03T00:23:00.003-05:00

So this has been a crazy week (including my 11 month old getting the flu today...) . I will show you later the work I did yesterday for the poster I am working on. Meanwhile you get to look at my completed GRIMMest GRIMM FAIRY tale rendition of King Thrushbeard! (for the contest over at ArtOrder -link-)What do you think?

This was my first full illustration using:

1. my abbreviated illustration method (see previous post regarding 3 hour illustration)

2. Limited Pallete of colors. (broad first, then limit early on...but as go along allow to evolve from those limited.

Other tidbits of info:

1. I can no longer run from my past. LINES! you will notice I internally left or even created black outlines. Wow! I love it. Essentially it works because I combined it with my painterly method and did not allow the lines to dominate.

2. Blur eyes constantly. As I was painting it was occaisonly hard to see the forest through the trees...so blurring my eyes helped focus and see where I needed improvements.

The rest of the story: KING THRUSHBEARD:

Ok we left off our main character, the princess who had been married by her father to a bard who had come to the palace to sing and beg....and after experiencing the hardships of reality by losing all her merchandise she decided to be a scourly maid...and coincidentally got work at the palace. As she was doing her duties there was a ball or party going on. It was in honor of a visiting King, King Thrushbeard. He noticed her beauty, though, in tatters and dirty. He asked her to dance, though she initially refused she eventually gave in since she didn't want to offend him. As they danced she suddenly realized, or he told her...that HE was her husband the bard. He wanted to teach her a lesson and had done all those things, including dressing up as a bumbling solider who shattered all their pottery. Well that is it. ^_^ haha

GRIMM fairy tale (W.I.P.) part 2

2011-06-29T23:18:00.004-05:00

This week is pretty busy for me, I have two deadlines hitting about the same time. So to be short I will post a couple process shots of my GRIMM fairy tale piece and tell a little more of the story.

Here is my "photo-CHOPPED" sketch (GREAT improvements made from my original sketch)

This is my final color palette.

(I made 2 color comps. 1 based on intuition. and 2. based on an an painting from the early 1800's.

I chose to go more with number 2.)

I am open for suggestions and all feedback. Thanks! (whew...making good headway...about 3 days left!)

Okay, more of the story of "King Thrushbeard." We left off last time when the king married off his daughter to the first beggar who came to the door, which happened to be a bard.

Well the bard took her to his humble home and immediately put her to work, since they were poor. She had to learn how to cook, do laundry, clean etc. This was difficult and very hard for her especially since the food wasn't very nourishing. Eventually she found herself able to help by selling pots her husband had chanced across, at a local market. Since she was a beautiful woman she sold many while her husband went on trips to earn money.

One day a reckless soldier came tearing through the market and destroyed a large number of her pots. The princess was terrified since they were already having a hard time making ends meet, and was wondering what her husband would think.

Thats all for now....story to be updated/finished at the completion of the illustration. :) haha

Pencil Illustration - GRIMM fairy tale (W.I.P.)

2011-06-28T00:44:00.004-05:00

0.9 mm lead on 11x14 bristol board.

Once again ArtOrder (link: art order) is hosting a contest that I feel I can relate to. The topic is the nitty gritty original GRIMM fairy tales. Since I didn't want to do the cliche thing and use a story that has been overdone I had my wife point out her favorite in her Grimm anthology. My favorite story was "King Thrushbeard." I will tell more as the week progresses....but essentially a king invites many suitors over to his palace for his daughter. She laughs and mocks every single one. In frustration her father vows that he will marry her off to the first beggar who comes to the castle...it ends up being a bard. haha Imagine his surprise. Well I wont spoil the rest of the story till later. enjoy the illustration!

Well unlike my series of 5 sketch illustrations I did a few weeks ago, I knew this one was going to be made in color so I was pretty relaxed knowing that I would edit it in photoshop. Regardless of that, this IS one of the most complex pencil illustrations I've done yet...haha and I plan to do the "Limited palette method on this as well. The only catch is...there is going to be ALOT of colors...and I need to have it done in 5 days? Oh boy....haha!

I am open to suggestions and ALL feedback. ASAP.

Arrietty ~ Hayao Miyazaki movie Review

2011-06-25T09:52:00.023-05:00

First propaganda released for Arrietty from Ghibli.

As part of a long tradition my brother pre-ordered the newest Ghibli movie, which this time was the Masterpiece Arrietty. I was anxious, but mostly due to the fact it was the next Hayao Miyazaki-involved film.

By my own tradition I also avoid propaganda, reviews and especially trailers of upcoming Ghibli movies, Arrietty was no exception. So every time I watch a Miyazaki movie I never know what to expect, and walk away with the raw sensation of what the movie was trying to communicate (not what the mis-leading trailers, and often connected personal expectations that let me down.)

I could sum up the movie in a single phrase, “EPIC quality in SMALL proportions.”

Screen capture of scene in movie.

Ultimately the movie followed the original story-line from the book, “the Borrowers,” by Mary Norton, but was given a life that only Hayao Miyazaki can give.

I've never seen such a blend of stunning background art, and hand drawn animation before, like Arrietty presented it. Unlike previous Ghibli movies, where characters occasionally brush into the background paintings, Arrietty forced the studio to delve into them.

In regards to the plot, it carries several of Miyazaki's common traits:

“a cute strong willed girl who takes control of her given circumstances” and there is “no evil, just conflict.”

Basically it is a slice-of-life movie that sets you down into the problems and concerns of people the size of your pinky. Throughout the movie you feel part of their terribly isolated world, which is lost in the haunting tangled folds of reality. The movie is filled with natural/gentle humor and delicately touches the heavy emotional side of life. In essence you half expect a cliché Disney ending where everything works out and is tied neatly in bow, but we get dropped off at another typical Miyazaki door , “life is filled with infinite tomorrows.”

Background artwork.

Surprisingly, unlike previous attempts such as with Kiki's Delivery Service and Howls moving castle, Studio Ghibli succeeded in nurturing a new director under Hayao Miyazaki's care. Although this felt like a number of Miyazaki movies, master animator and director Hayao Miyazaki stayed mostly on the planning/story side (Story boards, character designs...etc).

Miyazaki concept sketch.

This type of relationship Ghibli plans to continue in the future with more movies in order to avoid the company collapsing when Miyazaki actually retires or passes away.

Due to the animation quality, character designs, and stunning backgrounds I will definitely get the “art of” book when it comes out.

More stunning background artwork.

In the mean time America has to wait till February of 2012 before Arrietty hits the U.S. Shores. (That is ridiculous. thank heavens for Amazon Japan and Ghibli always including English subtitles.)

[edited: 7 November 2011: cleaned up and clarified points.]

IF- Launch ~3 hour illustration

2011-06-21T18:08:00.004-05:00

With the recent progression of my illustrations I felt my process was too slow and clunky....especially involving COLOR. So last night I scripted up illustration process and today I enacted my evil plan:

concept
thumbnails
final sketch
scan
"marker" outline pencil drawing
Do several color comps on the value pencil drawing
Finalize colors (simplify)
Build pallette of colors. (3 values for each color: light, local color, dark)
Paint
Finilize painting.

None of the process is exceptionally special or secret...it is just what speaks to me best!

I did this illustration in 3 hours, actually less than 3. It is not meant to be perfect and/or complete...more of a test to see how close I could get something done with this method while still looking professional in 3 hours.

Part of my new process was to FURTHER control color by having a limited palette. This method really really worked for me.

Anyway off I got to WATCH Miyazaki's new MOVIE! The last time was Ponyo and that came out about the same time I started this blog. Its been awhile... I most likely will do a post on my thoughts.

note: I left the illustration large so you can see the texture and painter quality I have been working towards.

Illustration 3 - WTC Tombraiders

2011-06-18T13:26:00.006-05:00

[EDIT: August 16, 2011. Did a complete "paint over" of this painting. To see go here: http://monisawa.blogspot.com/2011/08/end-of-summerand-webpage-update.html

[edit: 11:oo pm june 18. made some adjustments to painting.]

I'm not exactly sure if it is done...but I am highly HIGHLY satisfied with the result.

I plan to do a "process" post on this illustration...in fact I was going to do it right now, but I spent 1-1/2 hours longer than I intended. X_x sigh. So I need to go do family things now. haha So plan on seeing that in the future. Also if anyone has any feedback, I would appreciate it!

Quick impression of what I learned:

1. The pencil sketch made a world of difference for a foundation. (This was Pencil sketch #2) Though sometimes I also enjoy just going with the flow based off a loose sketch.

2.Let go of the sketch. When I made the sketch I thought it was perfect, so painting over it and keeping what it was seemed impossible, so just let it go and let the painting evolve into its own thing.

3.My greatest weakness right now is color...and I feel that when I control it at all times I have the greatest success. In times past I would use the Auto contrast feature to fix all my problems, and the jump from what I was doing to what it ended up was so extreme I no longer had control. So this time I used the auto contrast feature only in small leaps....and made my greatest changes manually.

sketch illustration-5 (of 5)

2011-06-12T00:06:00.004-05:00

By far this is one of the most complicated illustrations of the 5 I've done the past week-week and a half...and I'm pleased with the result.

In regards to what I've learned doing these sketch illustrations....I prefer arriving somewhere rather than being somewhere. Basically I have re-emphasized my desire to let the artwork evolve rather than plan every single detail. Through evolving I am able to arrive somewhere I never thought possible...and most the time end up being genuinely surprised at the world I get to peak into.

These 5 illustrations have also given me a starting point on:

1. what I am capable of doing.

2.help realize what I like doing. (and can be profitable at)

3.Establish a consistant and marketable style.

The only issue at this point is to get this quality of illustrations in color. That will be my next focus...So next week I shall continue my summer illustration program with Illustration #3 pencil to painting! See you then!

btw I dedicate the hanging animals to my cousin Sarah. haha mostly the squirrel. ^_^

Sketch illustration-4 (of 5)

2011-06-08T01:39:00.003-05:00

So much for sleep. haha! (140am) Here is my 4th installment of pencil sketch illustrations. Whew...I have to say it is nice to get back to Bristol board. By the end of the week I should have all 5 pencil illustrations complete.

sketch illustration-3 (of 5)

2011-06-04T22:44:00.003-05:00

It seems that I am doing a pretty good job at staying on top of these pencil illustrations. So far I've made about one every other day.

This particular illustration was difficult because I decided to try it on a more affordable paper that I had a larger quantity of... (watercolor cold press 90 lb). The paper was crazy textured which didn't allow for the subtle shading I prefer, it really didn't want to accept the graphite as much and when it came to erasing it would just smear. So fail on this type of paper. I did what I could with the illustration. hope you enjoy! ^_^

Sketch illustration-2 (of 5)

2011-06-03T18:20:00.003-05:00

So there you have it. I ended up doing a full blown and somewhat complicated illustration. I had been batting this idea in my head for a few weeks, in fact it was supposed to be illustration #3 for my summer project. I completed this pencil drawing in less a day.

I don't know if anymore of the 5 will be this complicated, but honestly it was quite easy to do! (easier than my old methods). Staring out light and working in pencil by progressively getting darker allows for more change than I ever thought possible (or maybe it is just the bristol board.) Plus working in pencil (or most dry media) is second nature to me.

Sketch illustration-1 (of 5)

2011-06-01T17:09:00.002-05:00

My initial plan was to do a quick pencil line drawing on bristol board so that I could do a greyscale oil painting, scan it and then convert to color...however as i started to lay down the shading with my .9 mechanical pencil I kept rendering, and rendering and rendering. Before I knew it the oil paints sounded less and less interesting.

I am such a practical persons and find it hard to sketch or make finished sketches of things that are not going to become a full rendered-colored illustration. So over the next week or so (instead of my third illustration) I will complete a total of 4 more penciled illustrations. They will be simple, exploring and fun at the same time.

Following after my initial idea for the illustration above, after I have completed the five pencil drawings I will then pick one of them and make an color illustration of it. Perhaps I will continue this process for the rest of the summer! It is fun to complete many ideas in a highly rendered fashion in the time it takes me to complete one. Plus by having a full value pencil drawing it makes for a good start as an underpainting.

Illustration contest & webpage UPDATE!

2011-05-27T22:25:00.004-05:00

Update #1:

This is an old illustration from last semester that I touched up this week.

I was informed by my fellow illustrator Jeff Porter about a contest that was being held at the ArtOrder. I had three days to complete this illustration. I did it and it was exhausting. I have since learned that three days is a "Comfortable" time period to complete an illustration in the real freelance world. 0_O Well anyway I did not win anything in the contest, but it was a great opportunity. I also have made many adjustments since I finished it for the contest (so it no longer qualifies as being done in three days..haha) It is still not perfect in my opinion and I will continue to tinker till I get it right.

Update #2:

I have overhauled the gallery on my portfolio website and some of the images will even be different then last viewed here on the blog so go take a look:

http://www.jerbl.com/monisawa/

Illustration 2 - Veteran's club

2011-05-25T16:00:00.007-05:00

I was asked by the Veteran's Club at MCC Longview to make a poster that would promote their existence and purpose. They wanted a poster that was similar to the old WW II posters. They also wanted the poster to have vibrant colors. Eventually I will include text around the figure (hence the huge open space around uncle sam).

Well that is that! I've finally found what I have been looking for. A style and technique that not only looks "finished", but leaves infinite possibilities and personal interest for future illustrations.

I think the first key is that I need to work on smaller/simpler illustrations first...before I tackle on the epic subjects (hence my first summer illustration...which has great modeling, but it is very clunky.)

The second key is working the illustration as if it was an acrylic painting. (see Greg newbolds post 1, post 2 for a visual...which btw I won a book from him this past week in honor of his blog being online a year!) I spent most of my time looking for the answer in digital artists. My big break came when I started looking more earnestly in traditional media and applying their approach in photoshop. I spent most of my time studying and doing masterstudies in acrylic illustrations, and oil paintings ranging from the mid 1800's to the early 1900's (might post some of em later if requested).

In regards to uncle sam I built a Maquette out of Super Sculpey. I based it off several of the posters I found online and my own exaggerations. The maquette was nice for visual and shading purposes, but it was not the end of all ends. I allowed the illustration and character to evolve as the illustration progressed.

Detail of illustration at 50% of actual size:

Illustration 1 - Cat-astrophe!

2011-05-21T12:13:00.005-05:00

"The cat managed to fit his mind control unit on a human and quickly went to work doing important matters!"

My intention for this was to be a full spread as if from a children's book. The idea for the concept came to me while driving home one day and a bird flew right past my windshield. Ideas rarely come clear, forceful, and funny all at once, but this was one of them.

This illustration ended up taking a little under two weeks to complete. It was fairly complex and one of those, "is it done yet?...how about now?...is it ever going to get done!!!" illustrations. Make sure to click and look at the image closer since it has a lot of beautiful painterly texture.

I am behind in attempting 12 complete illustrations this summer mostly because I spent so much time exploring painting methods and brushes in photoshop....but thats ok with me. Progress is progress...and this is some of my best work. I am open for suggestions and critiques on this piece! Please give me input.

illustration Project- Michael Jordan tribute

2011-05-17T02:32:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. I promise I will have several more this week.

Well I have to say that this is a little more realistic than I normally do with my illustrations, but it was part of the assignment. The theme was sports cover magazine. This was my final assignment for my illustration classes at UCM.

I chose basketball, mostly because Michael Jordan was my hero as a chid. I used to spend countless hours imagining I was Michael Jordan shooting hoops after school. Ironically I lived in Utah at the time and while most people were crying their eyes and hating Michael Jordan for defeating the Jazz at the championship title several times, I was glorifying him. Though my basketball skills ended (or never even started) back then, my respect and admiration for him did not.

I got a pretty bad grade on this assignment, mostly because I took too many creative liberties in interpreting Michael Jordan's face, but hopefully I fixed that and most of the concerns voiced in the critique.

This was another great step towards getting my illustrations to look more finished and less messy..I accomplished this by the brush in photoshop I have been attempting to develop all semester...though just in the past week I have already jumped ship to a new set of better and more amazing brushes (oh I can't wait to show you the results!)

Happy Birthday Cheri comic -part 1

2011-05-09T12:21:00.010-05:00

It seems that meaningless birthdays just come and go every year. Since my wife is turning to the significant age of thir~ *WACK! (just got wacked in the back of my head) Looks over shoulder at her... How about...23? She nods her approval. I wanted to make this one special!

Not just that, it also is giving me the opportunity to do comics again (its been over a year). I'm a bit rusty, but have picked up at a pretty decent pace. My talented friend Amelia (see her webpage here) has also been giving me personal suggestions for the comic layout, and Missa, my sister, feedback on the story. Thanks!

The comic is by far not meant to be perfect (since I am working full time on my illustrations) and most undoubtably is FULL of mistakes, so please be understanding. :) I also plan to make one last run over the whole thing when I am done with all the parts...so if you catch something terrible please tell me.

Without further adieu I present:

Cheri's Birthday gift PART 1

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

page 5

page 6

IF- Lesson

2011-05-04T00:51:00.003-05:00

With my spring semester all wrapped up today I am gearing myself for my self-imposed summer ILLUSTRATION PROJECT. (not very catchy title is it. I need to work on it.) Basically for the entire summer I will complete ONE illustration a week. I will push myself and spend at least 6 hours a day 5 days a week working on only illustration.

The illustration above was a pre-project test, trying to staple down my final style and methods for the roughly 12 or so illustrations I plan to complete over the summer. It came about after watching Omar Dogan paintings some of his backgrounds on BLOG TV and watching Will Terry paint these two illustrations on youtube (illustration 1 / Illustration 2.) I spent more time on the illustration than intended, mostly because it developed early on better than I thought it would...but ultimately had a great time. The methods were pretty similar to what I had already been doing except I enjoyed a lot of the broad to more specific brushstrokes both Omar and Will did. Seeing this in action really conditioned my mind in the right direction.

So be avid watchers this summer and make sure to keep on my case about getting them complete on time. ^_^ haha Oh and in the near future I will be posting some of my schoolwork from this semester as well! Look forward to it!

p.s. I'll bet you are wondering how this relates to Illustration Fridays topic, "LESSON" ...haha well watching Omar Dogan, and Will Terry's video was a lesson for me in the which this illustration resulted. ;)

IF-Japan Journey

2011-04-21T03:16:00.006-05:00

Geez it pretty late. 0_O and I have school tomorrow at 8am. haha Regardless it seems I can't get Japan off my mind...I really wanted to convey the hope of the future cresting through the rain clouds.

I am really trying to find a method for my digital work that looks finished...I feel I accomplished it with this.

I worked on the value structure, color syncing, and getting a finished look through a new method. The new method I tested was making a complete pencil rendering with value and everything, added color in photoshop, and then paint over the top over the colors and pencil-lines. This also makes it easier to do illustration anywhere without a computer (at least half of it)!

This was also a test for a full size painting I plan to do for my figure painting class. very successful! yay!

Illustration Project- Horoscopes Leo and Taurus

2011-04-06T00:31:00.010-05:00

I'm not much into the whole horoscope thing, however my illustration class assignment was to depict two of the twelve. I chose my wife's sign, and mine. I really enjoyed working on these and despite the rush to get two illustrations done at the same time I found myself wishing I could do the rest. haha SO I hope everyone enjoys.

IF-Stir + Japan Earthquake

2011-03-12T18:20:00.013-06:00

(27 April 2011 update above: Honestly I really shouldn't have published the illustration as it is below. It wasnt ready. Regardless I have reworked it with the warp tool function, revisited the value structure, and utilizing my new super brush of doom in photoshop repainted it! hope you enjoy the difference. I know I DO! I know its not much of a complete change..for example...Maybe over the summer I will get around to adding color back in. IN the meanwhile...off to go work on final deadlines.)

Among my greatest surprises this week was the Earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan. In the the picture I wanted to address the fact that no matter who you are, where you are, and what you are doing, you are not immune to the natural way of life: fear, danger, injury and even death.

It seems that we as a people like to forget that we are only part of a page which is being turned by time in the book called reality. We imagine to ourselves that we are part of a grand plot staring ourselves...and we become so self absorbed in what we are doing, and what we want to do, that we forget to remember that life is short and precious.

Events like this make me wonder what MY tragedy would be if a natural disaster hit nearby. Immediately my mind lists off my wife, son, parents, bothers, sisters, relatives, friends, my cat...etc. But during good times I am surprised at how easily this list is contradicted by the normal flow of life, which is filled with innumerable directions and distractions. Always remember WHAT MATTERS MOST!

Anyway....

Here is what I learned/explored with this picture:

Recently I came across a great blog entry from Freelance Illusrator Greg Newbold discussing the uses of value and color and it set my mind thinking...

I've heard of such concepts before, but end up usually stumbling across the finish line ignorantly because I was focused on having a good range of darks and lights which emphasis the focal point(s) of the picture.

...well this time I went at it from a value-relationship point first. The first picture you see below is my initial impression of what I wanted to accomplish. The 2nd one is what it ended up being (my final picture turned greyscale).

So ultimately I created a picture that not only LOOKS good with color, but also with only greyscale values. I accomplished the picture by setting the value with a greyscale layer, and then utilizing the selection tool, colorize, and colorbalance, I ultimately kept the same tonal values while making it color(though to further emphasize the woman as the main point I changed the umbrella to be lighter than the hair, and ultimately anchored the picture by making the table about the same as the hair.)

Illustration update- Hayao Miyazaki spree

2011-02-11T17:35:00.006-06:00

For my illustration class we were asked to use a celebrity, as long as they weren't obscure, and not only do a portrait of them but create background elements that would further identify the individual. The illustration was to be used in a hypothetical non-descript typical U.S. entertainment magazine. Naturally I thought of Hayao Miyazaki, but since I wanted to avoid the "fan-art" syndrome and addressing any of Miyazaki's work with a picture is beyond daunting...I wasn't sure. Well after batting around some other ideas (Jackie Chan, Julie Andrews...etc) I "manned-up" and settled on Miyazaki. Honestly...if you can believe it...my teacher thought Hayao Miyazaki was OBSCURE!!!! I had to convince him Miyazaki wasn't.

This illustration literally portrays every movie he has ever directed (except 1. Can you name it?) and several side TV series (I'm sorry Future Boy Conan! You didn't make it in.) In my opinion only a true Miyazaki fan could name all the characters in this illustration and the movies/shows they are associated with.

Here is the hypothetical layout I designed the illustration for. The magazine centerfold cuts the front of the bus away from the back 3/4's.

Now to start my new illustration...the topic relates to my new hypothetical client (US veterans service). Make a poster that addresses the availability for PTSD treatment(Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)... Oh boy. What a contrast to Hayao Miyazaki. ^_^

IF-Summer surrender

2011-02-02T16:22:00.014-06:00

Summer surrender:

How often is the summer days encroached upon by sweltering storms?

I admit I love the rain, but this can also be represented

by anything that ruins a good summer day!

(how ironic that I am talking about summer when I am snowed in)

------------------------

So I just found out classes got canceled for tomorrow...I hate missing class especially when they are art. Counting Thursday I will have been out of school for 4 days in a row due to this crazy snow storm. So this particular picture is a result of the sudden influx of time that is normally not available for exploration and technique improvement.

Technique:

The purpose of the illustration was to gain more control over semi-realistic color in a made-up large environment. Basically set the mood, and then build on top of it while still keeping the colors in sync. To get that I began by lifting a flat-even palette of LOCAL COLORS off of a photo:

As you might tell the colors are quite subdued, but utilizing colors from nature and from only one instant keeps the colors working with each other and not being over saturated or dark. I made sure to select colors from the same value range within the photo...which makes them all good LOCAL COLORs.

Next I painted the colors on my drawing and then utilizing the color picker toolbox I picked the color I wanted to make a darker version of it and then adjusted it in the toolbox and then painted it on. This is the result:

(As you might tell I also introduced some new LOCAL COLORS not on my pallette (such as the eye-whites)

Then I continued to push the range of colors both lights and darks up and down from the local color in a method I have learned over time. I also adjusted Color balance adding more reds in the shadows and yellows in the highlights.

and then after several adjustments from color balance, redoing the line-work, adjusting the content more and doing a final check with levels...this was the result:

Hope you enjoy. ^_^

Special project~ Abstract wedding cake topper

2011-01-07T13:17:00.015-06:00

Since I do not have the expensive equipment and setup

of a photographer, all photos I took did not do the figure justice.

Project Overview:

Early December I was asked by my sister-in-law to create her wedding cake topper. I do not usually get such strange requests, but I assume she must have been partly impressed by the cake toppers I did for my wedding. Along with her request she also wanted the figure to be abstract, melted-looking, and facial-featureless. She supplied a couple photos of figures she thought mine could relate to.

What my sister-in-law did not realize is that she asked me to do several difficult things at once. One was to create a figure, while the other was to create something serious and abstract at the same time. I am a little confident in making figures, but nowhere as confident as I am with illustrations. The other point I wanted to make was that when I made the cake toppers for my wedding the subject was funny, therefore highly interesting to me.

SO putting those differences and excuses aside...

Here is my process:

Much like an illustration I approached this figure in a point by point progression...Create a rough draft to visualize certain elements and then create the final.

THE SKETCH: Here is the sketch I submitted for approval. I spent many hours perfecting and trying to get a pose and subject that would be fairly interesting (despite the abstract and somewhat boring subject.)

POINT-BY-POINT rough drafts: Pictured here is some of the many point-by-point creations I did. THe white figures were quick impressions I did from my sketch made out of Crayola air-dry clay. I made sure to create them separate so that each character could be equally designed. Next I created the wire frame using the clay figures as reference. Eventually I began to expand and made one more rough draft of the inner-wiring. Finally I made a couple small "finished" versions of the figure testing new and different clay methods to me. I also, after this picture, painted the small figures to be sure my painting ideas would look good.

FINAL FRAMEWORK: Here is the final framework. I utilized methods and supplies I became acquainted with while taking my sculpture class. Also note I wrapped the braided wire in tiny aluminum wire so that the clay would stick to the wiring.

CLAY IN PROGRESS: As you can tell the figure is incomplete. At this point I am still exploring and since I left everything pretty general (how the two figures would relate and so forth) I had a lot of fun creating here. For the clay I used a mix of Super Sculpey and Scupey III. 1 part Sculpey III to 3 parts Super sculpey. The Sculpey III made the Super sculpey a little more firm and not as sticky.

ALMOST COMPLETED FIGURE: At this point I was practically done. I probably brushed the clay a couple times after this picture with Rubbing Alcohol to get the clay smoother, and adjusted and touched up the clay a bit more, but from here, off it went to bake! (Also note that the woman figure does not have her veil...the head was too lose so I had to bake the whole figure before I could make it).

COMPLETED FIGURE: As you might or might not tell this is my workspace at the completion of the figure. WHAT A MESS! Normally it wouldn't be THAT bad but we had some water problems so I had to tear my office apart...though there ARE a lot of strange things pictured I did use...haha

well anyway, for a more complete figure-making tutorial and reasoning for many parts of my process or any figure building ideas....go so this guys awesome post here: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18287 I learned a great deal from this tutorial!

Final illustration for FALL semester

2010-12-15T21:00:00.005-06:00

This past week I finished my finals and moved to another apartment...that was quite an adventure...

I did this cover as a redo for a junior reader book that I wrote this semester. The original cover was too stiff and it did not do the characters justice, nor in the style I imagined them in.

Due to time constrains every part of the painting and drawing process was done digitally in photoshop.

Unfortunately this will probably be the last post I make this year, since I will be busy watching my son and working on a wedding cake topper (pictures to be posted later on the cake topper), but fear not I will be back next year with even MORE surprises!

MCC posters...

2010-12-15T20:52:00.004-06:00

This past month I was commissioned to do 2 posters for some of MCC longview's classes. The first one was for a class that combines Creative Writing and Anthropology together, While the second combined Math and English (as you can tell). The Anthropology one broke ground for future projects with the MCC district.

For the Anthropology poster I made it utilizing what I call, "photo-painting." this particular method gets exhaustive since the actual full file ended up close to 2 GB.

For the math and metaphor I did a cross between digital and traditional. I made the sketch, scanned it in, edited it more, printed it off light, then did a nice final sketch, which I scanned in and colored.

IF_Savour

2010-11-27T18:24:00.005-06:00

Once again I found myself exploring different photoshop methods. This particular one was nicknamed, "mask painting," by the wonderful 3 ladies from Taiwan who made this amazing movie: http://nccu.edu.tw/95306074/oos/e_film.html

I only stumbled upon their particular method of painting on accident as I read through and analyzed their "making of" process: http://nccu.edu.tw/95306074/oos/making.html There are three pages of info and you could have google translate it if you want as well. They also provide two down-loadable .psd to show you their method of painting in photoshop. ^_^ (just as a note I did tweak their process with things I already knew which would improve my illustration.)

hope everyone enjoys!

IF-sneaky

2010-11-22T16:52:00.003-06:00

This may not seem like much of a mile-marker picture compared to some of my others, but I have been trying to find a way to simplify or sometimes even get rid of the background while making the narrative still involving and interesting. Hope you enjoy. (Thanks to Chira-chira on deviantart for the fun tutorial.)

sculpture project

2010-11-10T21:51:00.006-06:00

his semester I've been taking a sculpture class. So far it has been a great experience and I have learned more than I thought I would have. Here is the results of my most recent project:

The assignment was to take a fruit, make a mold with it, and utilizing the mold create more fruit out of plaster so that we could carve, paint, subtract with clay and do anything and everything we could think of.

My personal favorite was the sea-monster, while the majority of the class voted the surrealist tree growing out of the checkerboard as theirs (which was a close 2nd for me.) I really enjoyed the freedom this project gave, and the many things I learned.

I hope that you all enjoy!

Music passion illustration

2010-10-21T02:02:00.003-05:00

Here is my newest illustration for my Advanced Illustration class. Tell me what you think.

I'm alive! (Illustration update)

2010-10-15T22:45:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. School has kept my swamped. This is my most recently completed illustration for my Advanced Illustration class.

Tell me what you think. I'm still debating if it needs more work or not...what do you think? Should I spend more work on it or have I worked on it too much? ^_^ haha

Art explorations and my son MASON!

2010-09-15T23:58:00.005-05:00

Just to show you I'm alive I am posting this. I've been doing alot of exploring with value, mediums, and color recently...and this picture is only the tip of the iceburg. sigh... School and my awesome newborn son have been keeping me BUSY!!!! haha

Isn't he the cutest baby EVER!? (I'm not biased at all).

"The creature under the Bridge."

2010-09-03T11:11:00.003-05:00

I have more than my fair share of artwork to update on here, but I will settle with this for now since school has kept me so busy. Maybe I will do an image dump later...

I was recently accepted into a children group on Deviantart http://childrensillustrator.deviantart.com/
I am very excited to be a part of it and to work among so many great artists! They have a montly topic and this months -augusts- was "The creature under the bridge..."

Regarding the illustration I wanted to push the illusion of space with value. This piece is probably the most complex value painting I've ever done digitally.

Watercolor Illustration Process

2010-08-13T17:23:00.003-05:00

(for full size image go here: http://monisawa.deviantart.com/art/Watercolor-Illustration-Proces-175221360 )

As promised in my last post here is the process of my latest illustration:

First and foremost (as much as I HATE it and hate to admit) is to plan, plan, plan. If you plan you won't be left to either drown in a pile of garbage, or flounder for sanity amidst the heat of battle. Improv works...sometimes, but when painting (especially with watercolor) it best to have a good plan set in order. When i plan I try to anticipate as many problems/solutions before I run into them. Plus when you plan (as depicted here) it helps internalize the picture and everything in it. Basically I can account for every square inch of this entire piece and I can tell you EXACTLY why I did what I did.

Here is a brief description of the process occurring in the pic above:

1.EXPLORE SKETCHES: At this stage I am just getting the initial idea down. The point is for me to explore and search for key characters, settings, props, pic size, etc. I avoid worrying about following artist rules, systems, etc, and just draw to express the idea, or many others. (I only have 4 of my many sketches depicted).

2.FINAL EXPLORE: Utilizing the sketches from the previous step I set up the basic picture and NOW I worry about the principles of design (balance, perspective, focal points..etc). Normally, intermittently in this step and the next, I would do several thumbnails as well, but since I had a VERY good idea of what I wanted I didn't worry about it.

3.FINAL SKETCH: Printing out the completed sketch from step 2, I place another sheet of paper over it and utilizing a light table I quickly mark off the general shapes and begin to transfer and transform the sketch. Moving off of the light table I finish the pencil sketch.

4.LINEWORK: Taping the sketch from step 3 on the back side of a 9x12 sheet of 140 lb Watercolor paper I CAREFULLY trace or redefine the linework utilizing a colored pencil (Dark Umber Prismacolor) once again using the light table. (I had to be very careful not to smudge the linework...)

5.VALUE STUDIES: Scanning the final linework in, I printed it off (4 per sheet) and immediately began to explore the lighting and shading of the piece. The overall point is to try and exhaust all possible options so in the end I will be satisfied with my final illustration. This step is very useful for watercolors since it is near impossible to change once painted. (It seems for some reason I am really enjoying the obscure angled shadows...it helps me avoid rendering the pic completely lifelike..and plus they are just so much fun!)

6.COLOR COMPS: As you can tell I was a bit lazy with these...actually I spent quite a bit of time on them, but only ended up with two... haha! As you probably could tell I chose the 2nd one. I really wanted to have an overall balance of color, while being diverse, but simple.

7.UNDERPAINTING: Painting in the shadows with red, blue and violet, I establish the overall darkest parts of the piece.

8.HALFWAY: I included this pic to show how the underpainting reacts to the solid overpaint colors...pretty neat huh?

9.FINAL PAINTING: after hours of work, lots of watercolor washes, syncing, touch ups, and sweat (and taking care of a screaming baby at the same time) I completed the painting!

10. My easel: I included this to show how I set up for this illustration. As you can see I had both my value study and color comps prominently close. I also had some other watercolor studies studying the watercolor painting process for this painting above.

Well that is it. Comments, complaints? Would love to hear them. ^_^

Triumphant BRUCE

2010-08-13T00:29:00.005-05:00

Just completed this lovely piece. Watercolor, with Colored Pencil outlines on 140lb watercolor paper.

I had a nice surprise after I scanned it... I had to do very little tweaking to get the colors as close to the original as possible. This is the FIRST time I've ever scanned and felt this satisfied.

This was a commission for a relative (Lizzy). I probably spent more effort than they were expecting, but the narrative was fun, and I also used it as an excuse to produce a portfolio piece. ^_^ haha!

I also kept track of my process and will be posting it with an explanation soon.

IF_character cards "Breakfast"

2010-07-22T23:54:00.004-05:00

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. At one time in my life I loved it so much I had it for lunch as well. My lunch consisted of 100% pure sugar cereals... Eventually I stopped this trend and I actually went through a sugar withdrawal 0_o haha! It was terrible. The girl in the picture is about to get her wake up "fix." haha

Illustration was made for "Illustration Friday's" weekly topic: Breakfast.

Arnold Friberg Tribute (1913-2010)

2010-07-20T17:26:00.004-05:00

Arnold Friberg recently passed away. For years he has been an idol of mine, and I love looking at and studying his works.

To give a little background he is the Norman Rockwell of religion. His 15 paintings were chosen to depict Cecil B. Demille's legendary, "The Ten Commandments," he was commissioned to paint illustrations for the Book of Mormon, and he is most famous for doing a painting of George Washington praying at Valley Forge. Also among his accomplishments he did hundreds of paintings for the Canadian Mounties, was chosen to paint royalty, and the list goes on. The world has lost a great artist, and I am sad that he passed away. Thankfully his works will live on, and we can still experience them.

Regarding the picture, I focused on the Drama, and extremely BUFF guys that Friberg commonly depicted...even if they were 80 years old. haha!

I also consider this painting as my FINAL original piece for the Digital Illustration class I took earlier this summer. I emulated what I learned from Brandon Dorman's painting (see previous blog entries)

For more info on Arnold Friberg go to his website at : http://shopping.fribergfineart.com/ArtistBio.aspx

IF_character cards "Diary"

2010-07-15T22:44:00.004-05:00

Just for the record I've NEVER kept a diary. I prefer to call it a journal! At one point in my life I kept a journal 7 years straight and only have one day I have no clue what happened. ^_^ haha!

I am starting something new called, "Character cards." I will create a character and situation based off of the weekly topic for 'Illustration Friday'. I will focus particularly on personality and diversity, geared towards children.

Painting Practice

2010-07-01T08:54:00.003-05:00

It's been a few weeks since I last posted, so I figured I would put something up. I have to admit that I based this loosely from a photo of Juri Ueno, but took ALOT of creative liberties. (Background for example is practically made up.)

I honestly just needed something decent to practice painting and try some new theories on. All the colors used were from scratch (Eye dropper was NOT used on the photo reference.) I only painted with the standard Photoshop brush set on Opacity-pressure.

Digital Illustration class- FINAL

2010-06-17T19:51:00.008-05:00

My Final Project: (my website and blog update)

http://www.jerbl.com/monisawa/

Since I already had plans to update my current web-page, I utilized this class as motivation. As I started on trying to make changes, i got frustrated and ended up replacing my entire site. I don't think a single shred of my old one is left (even the images.) It seems that whenever I update I start all over. I left my old web-page up if anyone is curious: http://www.jerbl.com/monisawa/old-monisawa/

My focus on the new website design was absolute simplicity and being seamless. I also made sure to organize it in such a fashion where future updates and changes are easy (in order to avoid my massive overhauls.)

As a bonus I found myself modifying several images that I made over the past year or so for the gallery and other webpage elements. Utilizing what I learned in this class and last semester, I was able to really spruce/fix them up.

In a portfolio it should house your best work. I have heard that I need to have 100% confidence with every picture, if not they do not belong. If this was true i would never assemble a portfolio, so I use what I have. In order to avoid putting every 'good' picture I've ever made in the gallery, I really focused on getting the cream of the crop in. Even with that in mind, i think that 2 or 3 of my illustration might get removed. Any recommendations/Thoughts?

As part of my final I also revamped my blog design. I really had no clue how terrible of a set-up it was! haha. I even absent minded-ly took a screen-shot of it for this post because I liked the changes so much...

Please make any suggestions about my website and blog.

Class Reflective::

-What I learned in this class:

Giving critiques and analyzing peer illustrations helped me develop my own. (By seeing what worked and didn't work, and then explaining in words why.) I really appreciated anyone who commented on my pictures, they helped me understand my art better. Also thanks everyone for letting me critique/comment on yours! ^_^
Finding illustrations I liked and asking myself why, helped my work develop.
how to more effectively control the overall value, color and texture of an illustration digitally. (such as masks, color balance, hue/saturation, etc.)
more about brushes than I ever thought possible (brush-directional, texturized painting, etc)
Learning isn't necessarily in a classroom. The internet is a great resource for both tutorial and artist emulation.
I spent most of my life just DOING art, now I am spending it trying to understand WHY, and how to present it BETTER.
Doing master-studies builds a deeper appreciate and respect for the artist and their work. They just come alive.
Writing out my own artistic process helps me better understand myself and how to prepare for future illustrations.

-How will I continue to incorperate the new processes I learned/discoverd in this class?

Artist emulation is very useful and I plan to continue using it. From now on I will try to emulate some new element (style, process, technique...etc) in all my future illustrations.
I will also continue to use, and practice using, what I learned in this class. I will also refer back to our blog entries as needed.

-How do I plan on marketing myself better?

Once I get my website and portfolio stapled down (more professional) I will join more organizations and portfolio groups.
My website/blog philosophy: my webpage will be strictly a professional portfolio. updates will only be new illustrations I feel worthy to make it on. My blog will be a semi-formal place where I can blab/get advice from others/and enjoy myself. I plan on keeping all my posts relative to art. I did make sure to keep it simple so that when possible clients/agents visit it will be easy to navigate.

Digital Illustration Class- Artist copy #5 (final) Brandon Dorman

2010-06-11T08:54:00.013-05:00

My version first, Brandon's second. (make sure to click on them, I left them intentionally high quality).

This being my last study for this class I decided to do something different, by just focusing on the study. I will say that I did at least 7 prep paintings before I got to this one. Some were of portions of the painting and others were me experimenting with the technique (I included one of my own at the bottom).

Artist: Brandon Dorman
Medium:Photoshop
Year: 20xx (not sure)
Source: http://www.brandondorman.com/ (although I got the actual high res pic from here.)
Title: Red Sparrow

1.Final sketch(step 1) 2.Shape flats(step 2) 3.Value (step 3)
4.Colors(step 5-8) 5.Final Sync (step 9).

Process:

Sketches. Utilizing the grid system built into Photoshop , I loosely mapped out the picture. Once I got the basics established I turned them off. I did 2-3 more sketches after that.
Shape Layers. Breaking the picture into layers (3 to be exact), I block in each main section(such as the boy, the background, and the fire/smoke). Turned the lines off, while utilizing the generic brush, and eraser (spacing turned on 1%) I reestablish the shapes looking specifically right now at the contours. I made sure to leave some space for painterly parts (such as the hair), although I did erase/cut-in more later. After that I break the shapes down even further utilizing greyscale colors, while keeping like colors together (such as the skin.) this makes it easy to magic wand select it later.
Value Layer. Next I selected all pixels on a given layer (such as the characters), make a new layer and begin to define value with the generic brush set on opacity pressure. Do this for each layer. I started zoomed out and general, then worked my way closer in until I eventually was at 100%/actual pixel size. (notice I did not do this for the bg...which I rather regretted later)
Reestablish shape layers. Copy merge the value and shape together, and paste as a new layer. Next select all the pixels in this new layer, make a new layer and reestablished my value flats (since in my value process I corrected some of my proportions/boundaries.) Did this for my fire/smoke layer and Character layer.)
Light Colors. Then I selected a color/section on one of the new value flat layers, went to the Hue/Saturation menu hit -c0lorize and adjusted this layer to the brightest bright of that color. Did that for all the colors on that layer, and the rest (including the Background).
Dark colors. As I was doing step 5 I would utilized the selected portions of the page to also Hue/saturation-colorize my copy merged value layer. I would adjust it to the darkest dark of it's specific color (making sure that the brightest part of it would not be brighter than the colors on bright color layer.) (I did several tests of the coloring process before I worked on this picture...and it helped on my own pictures to drag the light and dark layers out from each other to compare as I adjust the colors)
Mask Painting. Making sure the light color layer was above my colorized value/shape layer, I put a mask on it, filled the mask with pitch black, and then utilizing my brush (I call Llama. Discussed here.) I paint. I learned that instead of utilizing opacity options for this painting step, it was better to utilize different levels of greyscale. (this part was fun and 'nondestructive' as Mr. Babcock would call it.) I made sure to save pure white till the very end, or at least wisely use it.
Further colors. Next I select all pixels in either layer, make a new layer and utilizing a brush I call "Babcock (one of the ones he taught/made for us) I add all the extra colors...and fix any that need it. I even decided to make a separate layer set on multiply for different color/painting effects (at least for the BG).
Final Sync. Next I copy-merge and paste each group of layers individually (so they are still separate) and utilizing my Llama brush I tighten/sync everything together. In this step I also included the rogue brush strokes, and tiny unique colors. It is in this step that I also cut into the drawing with the eraser(if needed). After a bit of working on this step I decided to set my Llama brush on opacity pen pressure (in addition to the flow pen pressure) and got much better results..easy cover and color control. (as a side note I found myself constantly changing the brush size with the option button on my pen to create the painterly/diverse effect).
That's about it.

The learned technique:

Whether intentional to the artist or not I have discovered a new method of painting. Utilizing masks and greyscale, I can easily establish form and a painterly style. having my Llama brush set on "airbrush" and constantly changing brush sizes also helps.
Compositionally he fit ALOT in his painting. By studying this I better understand how to do that. (also notice that he did not use proper perspective...manipulated his own, but yet it still looks amazing.)

Further notes:

Color-Comps: So there you have it. i think that this coloring method is very useful when creating pictures from ones imagination, or very little reference. Of course if I was doing an original I would also do color-comps before coloring(which are 3-5 color reference tests/explorations). As a usual disclaimer, I did not use the eye dropper on his painting at all...I utilized the color technique described above, and the basic RGB palette.
Brandon's Process? I feel that this process is somewhat close to Brandon Dorman's. Based on his Blog he generally has 3 different stages :sketches, greyscale paintings, and color paintings. So I personally feel that he utilizes his greyscale paintings as a base for color and then paints (as described above). I did email him and requested a higher quality image (preferably the original .psd) but he replied and said he was too busy right now.
Crammed Spaces: I really have no clue how he fits so much in a tiny space. I've noticed that good writers and artists have the ability to cut out all the useless crap and cram condensed ideas/concepts into one story/picture. This is something I am working on. (It can be frustrating trying to figure how close you want the character...and if it IS close, it cuts into the background, or even the possibility of adding any other characters...etc. Oh well, that will come with practice and time.)
Layer tango: I have had a hard time separating my painting into layers. I often will paint on the ones I am not supposed to because my random impulses to work on a different section. Doing this master-study helped me to see how to better organize my layers.

This was one of the last test paintings I did before I actually began work on the final masterstudy. It didn't plan it this way, but my wife came in while I was working on it and pointed out, "oh you're painting yourself?" haha! I had no clue.

Digital Illustration Class- Original 3

2010-06-04T23:15:00.010-05:00

Wow...so I told myself that I wasn't going to do any complicated pictures for this class (since everything is fast pace and focused on learning), but I suddenly felt driven to do a portfolio piece. So...please give me feedback ~(preferably anything that might be wrong, or bothers you. Be direct please, I won't be offended.)

The topic for this weeks Illustration Friday was Slither. (Yah, I know it was a stretch. :P haha) Honestly this scene reminds me alot of me when I was younger. I used to tear electronics, mechanisms, etc apart constructively to see what made them work, or how they fit together. (Though I usually couldn't put them back together again...haha)

Process:

Came up with an idea.
I made thumbnails. (lots of them)
Did several studies I call 'framing' or breakdown the composition utilizing lines of connecting relationships.
Did a rough full size sketch. (utilizing the framing from step 3)
Did another full size sketch (Slightly breaking away from the framing to be more balanced now that I put the characters in.)
Trace the sketch from step 5 on new piece of paper, then finalize sketch.
Trace sketch from step 6 onto tracing paper (as with any sketch step, I made changes as I went)
scan in trace from step 7, print off 4-5 copies (for future value and color studies)
With the print off, I did a value exploration with a 2B pencil.
Trace tracing paper sketch onto Watercolor paper with pencil (lightly.)
I inked the linework with ink and nib.
Scaned the linework in at high resolution.
Then I did more tests with the gristly oil technique on watercolor scrap paper.
Tape the inked drawing to a board and begin to paint with burnt umber* (utilizing the value study.)
I finished the painting, actually only utilizing burnt umber. I ended up not using white. Then letting the painting dry, I scanned it in.
placed the previously scanned lines, and finished painting in the same file, and line them up together.
Duplicated and desaturated the painting, and since I did such a good job with my painting I did not need to fix value.
Made a new layer, and painted my color flats on it.
Duplicated the desaturated painting...and began to select colors on my color flat layer, then clicking on my duplicated layer I called "shoot in the dark" adjusted the Hue/saturation and then the Colorbalance. (I called in shot in the dark because I did not do any color comps...so I made the color scheme up as I went...not always a good idea)
Made several additive layers set on Hard light, to add dynamic colors, or to tone down the gristly texture.
Duplicated my desaturated layer again, put it above everything, Colorized it and utilized it to sync my picture together.
the end.

*OK...usually when you do value studies, you do it in black and white. Well apparently my previous art teachers were so effective to convince me of the evils of black (for oils) that I tried to find one in supplies, and realized that I do not have it. 0_O haha. Honestly though I kinda preferred it in burnt umber, it had warmth and life.

What did you think of my blog process this time? Clean, cut period. If anyone wants clarifications I will reply.

The gristly painting has got to be the best I've done...which is ironic because after I finished painting my masterstudy, earlier this week, I vowed I would never try this with oils again (course I also said that after using Photoshop for the first time).

Technique: Baically I've learned that the texture like is caused by seperating the pigment from itself, which creates the gristly afffect. For this painting I used a stiffer brush, and got incredibly predictable results (unlike my masterstudy). For the inking I utitlized a differnt nib, which gave me more control, and seemed to work better on the watercolor paper.

Random thought: For years I thought detailed intracate artwork was spontaneous, and easy. I also thought that most artists did exactly what they envisioned in their head. I guess as an artist we are trying to bridge our imagination with real life, but at least for me what ends up being my best work were the ones that evolved away from my original idea and initial imagination picture (that blasted stepping into the dark/faith concept...geez.)

(!) Special thanks to Maho Garner for translating the article about Masamune Shirow for me!!!

Digital Illustration Class- Artist copy #4-part 2

2010-06-01T20:59:00.007-05:00

My version compared to the original:

Artist: Masamune Shirow
Year: 1988
Source: Appleseed Databook (or anywhere on the internet).
Day 2 process:

Well after completing the sketch and inking it (as described in my previous post) I prepare it for a typical watercolor-isk painting by taping it to a board. Pulling out my oil paints I begin from the back character and move forward. The effect I want from the oil paint is achieved by mixing the colors beforehand thickly, dab the paint-brush in and then with light tap it in the water, blast the paint down on the page. It also works to just put a thick dab of paint on the page and then dip the brush in water and go over it.
Well...my painting process didn't exactly work the way I wanted so I scanned it in after I got paint everywhere that needed (not caring so much about the colors at this point.) Thankfully I had also scanned my lines in yesterday at highquality so I put that in my same file, and line them up.
I duplicated the color painting, set it on desaturated.
make 2 new layers. One set on overlay (for the lighting parts) and the other set on Multiply (for the darkening.) Even with the blend settings on I was careful to apply the paint conservatively due to concerns of causing the painted texture to go away. I am just trying to get the value reestablished at this point.. Eventually I merge them with the desaturated layer, and cut out the background utilizing the wand and lasso (Note: I am not deleting the background, rather keeping it for later texture purposes)
Work on the background to establish the mood. Turn the texture background(I cut out earlier) on a blending mode which fits. I found that in order to stimulate a real looking airbrush, I turned off the size-pressure option and turned the opacity onto pressure, then I clicked on the noise option.
Next I made a new layer for my color flats. I basically block in large sections of color. Next I duplicated the desaturated layer, select one of the block of colorswith the wand, click on the desaturated layer, go to Hue/saturation menu, hit the colorize option and then adjust the color to where I need. Then after I got the general colors settled in I go over the top of them on new layers with the random colors, and also adjusting the existing colors more.
Made a new layer over the linework and colors, add the accent whites and other needed colors/effects.
Put a mask on the lines and deaden them ups a little to make them look as if they were painted.

I'm sure that more occurred, but this is all I can remember right now. I am going to put this one on the server tonight, and anyone is welcome to look at it to see more of what I did (or didn't do...haha)

Problems:

Like many Japanese artists I noticed that Masamune is very economical with his brush strokes...I am not that good, nor am I familiar with oil washes, so I did the painting did not turn out as I hoped. For my original illustration that I am doing I think I will do as Mr. Babcock suggested, and as I have done with my 100% digital paintings, namely do just a value study traditional, and then scan it in and color it on the computer.

What I wanted to learn:

My problem is I want to learn as much as I can about all artists , and their methods I focus on. When I selected pictures for this class I focused on a broad range of styles, and my favorite pictures from them. So I wanted to learn the style first and foremost.
I really like the way he uses his line-work. It is very controlled and amazing.
I liked the rustic gristly painted look his illustrations have, especially the machinery.

What's strange (ive been noticing as I do mastercopies) is that you build a deeper appreciation and love for the artist and thier work...and the artwork just comes alive! Wow. One more to go...but until then on to my original illustration. 0_O

Digital Illustration Class- Artist copy #4-part 1

2010-06-01T00:15:00.004-05:00

My version:

The Artist's original

Masamune Shirow Day 1:
My original intent was to just focus on the linework, but fueled with excitment upon getting an article of his translated by a great friend, I decided to do the whole thing (though I will not be doing the background since I do not have an airbrush). I am doing this 100% traditional as you will soon see....

Artist: Masamune Shirow
Year: 1988
Source: Anywhere and everywhere all over the internet (like alot of Masamune's work...though his work tends to be questionable in content.)

Process:

Prepare: As you can see above, even though I am copying a picture I created thumbnails. I did that and exploratory sketches to better understand the composition and what to expect or prepare for. I discovered what was best was to break the characters down into general shapes, and then to start adding more and more detail. Considering this picture has ALOT of intricate details, I had to be careful since I could easily get lost looking at a tree, and get frustrated as the rest of the forest might not fit in the picture.
The sketch: Next I start the sketch at the final size. TO save time I drew a light grid on my page and drew corresponding dots on the border of the printed master. From there I start general and light. As I increase in detail I also increase how hard I press the pencil against the paper. To start off i section the page off with angle-connecting lines, it was neat to see because some of them even connected at the several strategic points most likely set by the original artist. Eventually I try to get a few lines that are 95% absolutely correct so I can try to base other lines off of them and with that I start blocking the characters in utilizing general shapes. continue to sketch, sketch sketch.
The sketch part 2: My original plan was to do all the sketching on one piece of paper, but because there was so many details and my paper was already pretty saturated with color, I ran a quick outline of blue, then utilizing my light-table traced it onto a new piece of paper. After that I did the rest of my sketches on it. I outlined the colored pencil with a 4B pencil.
The inked lines: Next i take my completed sketch, tape it to the back side of a sheet of Arches hot-pressed watercolor paper, trace the lines on the watercolor paper with a 4H pencil utilizing the light from my light-table. Finally I go back to my desk and begin to ink utilizing a pen and nib. (I am at a disadvantage with nibs, since I have not used them much, but I supposed this is one of the things I wanted to learn from this artist.) Once done erase the lines.

Problems:

Either Masamune used a higher weight of paper, or a different one alltogether, because the ink did not exactly flow onto the paper as it did in the picture. It turned out fine, but I think the paper he used was a bit more slick.
When I was inking the lines I found myself stuttering the lines, and I discovered that this was due to me trying to be too careful by following his picture (which because almost every line is intragal I basically had to do it). So because I wasn't responding to the medium correctly the ink didn't get applied correctly. Once I got to the more broad sweeping lines on the girl in the front, it got easier to stroke it instinctively, not just reacting to his picture.

Tomorrow I am going to color it. i already did a color test run and thought he utilized acrylic washes, but it turned out too passive. Remembering something I read that he used to use oil as well as acrylic, I broke out my waterbased oils, did a test run with them and found instant satisfaction. Wish me luck. O_o

Digital Illustration Class-Original 3 (correction?)

2010-05-31T07:46:00.003-05:00

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!)

Digital Illustration Class-Original 3-part 2

2010-05-27T23:27:00.002-05:00

"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!"

Come up with idea (this took awhile)
I sketched the general idea out as a whole compilation.
Researched different photo references for characters... (On Filemorgue)
Drew the characters on their own sheet of paper. (as explained yesterday)
Scanned them in and cleaned them up (as explained the past two days)
Got the lines on a new layer (as explained the past two days..)
Once I did this for both sketches, I compiled them into one document and immediately began adding my base colors.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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!

Digital Illustration Class-Original 3-part 1

2010-05-26T22:01:00.004-05:00

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:

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.
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.
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).

Digital Illustration Class- Artist copy #3

2010-05-25T21:25:00.015-05:00

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):

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.
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.
Add Background: make a bg layer that is just white.
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.)
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.
Shading: Make a new layer. Set the blend mode onto multiply. Then add shading wisely.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. ^_^

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

2010-05-24T16:15:00.002-05:00

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!

Digital Illustration Class-Original 2

2010-05-20T23:16:00.003-05:00

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:

Came up with an idea worthy of spending X,XXX,XXX hours on.
I Drew a simple grid over picture (just for reference)
Made a rough sketch based on some sketches I did earlier.
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.
Rough Value exploration. (This was difficult beause I was making up the light source.)
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:

I Checked the Value drawing, and made simple corrections.
On a new layer I traced all outlines, wherever there was going to be different colors.
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)
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)
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Make a new layer, lock all the others (to prevent mistakes I've made in the past) and....now I paint, PAINT, paint.
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

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

2010-05-18T21:14:00.009-05:00

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:

Detail sketch. (described yesterday)
Value study (described yesterday)
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.)
On a new layer trace the outlines of all the general colors.
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-)
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.)
Make a new layer and with the paintbrush make adjustments to color, and also add all the random ones.
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:

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?
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:

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.
Her constant use of Simultaneous contrast suprised me. (explained yesterday)
I learned that she used a palette knife for the window frame and outside wall. (Thanks to Megan for pointing that out.)
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.
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

2010-05-18T09:11:00.003-05:00

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!)

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

2010-05-17T17:56:00.005-05:00

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:

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.
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:

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:

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.
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....

Digital Illustration Class-Original 1

2010-05-13T17:01:00.002-05:00

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:

Make a physical sketch...
Scan and sketch over it on a new layer.
Sketch several more times making corrections and adjustments
Do a new layer and make a value study.
make a black layer and put a Layer ask on it.
Put the final linework and value study at about 35% opacity.
Carve away at the black until done.
Add color on a new layer underneath the black layer. (multiply is not needed)
Add cheap texture. put on mutliply
Add noise layer (as instructed by Mr. Babcock.)
Take the color layer opacity down to 80%.
Add a couple Hue/Saturation adjustment layers to fix the background.
Add another layer to put in final adjustments on color.
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...

2010-05-13T11:54:00.004-05:00

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:

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.
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.)
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.)

Digital Illustration Class- Artist copy #1.

2010-05-11T20:54:00.009-05:00

Original

My version

Artist: Maud & Miska Petersham
Year: 1929
Source: "The Magic Doll of Roumania." Go look at the other inspiring illustrations form the book at: http://www.tkinter.smig.net/ChildrenBookIllusrations/MagicDoll/index.htm
Process (all done in photoshop):

Create Layer 1. Fill with black
Create Layer 2. Put at 15% opacity. Sketch basic shapes with white.
Create Layer 3. Begin to carve away with white. Go back and forth with eraser and white.
Create Layer 4. Reestablish lines and correct proportions.
Finish Layer 3.
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.
Tighten up colors on Layer 5. Fit them in their boundary lines.
Add layer 6, put it on Multiply. Add a cheap paper texture*
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.

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

2010-05-05T18:41:00.005-05:00

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.

Blur of a Japanese Subway (Redo)

2010-04-20T20:57:00.003-05:00

This picture should look familiar... I was recently petitioned to submit one of my works in a local publication called Shorelines. Last year I won first place with this comic: http://www.jerbl.com/monisawa/comics/today-nonsense/special/01.htm This year I didn't submit, but that's ok, I have been so busy the whole semester. X_x urg... Anyway, so this picture was one I submitted for Illustration Friday last semester, and I decided to include it. However, after going through my classes this semester I couldn't submit it without making some changes...because I've learned alot. :P So now it is cleaned up and more presentable! Yay!

MCMA 2009 Awards

2010-04-10T22:00:00.006-05:00

So my wife and I just attended an awards ceremony held for all Missouri newspaper and yearbooks. Since I did the comics for MCC Longview's 'the current' for all of 2009, I won several awards:

2nd place (story illustration - Division 4)
I honestly was not expecting this to be part of the awards... 0_O haha! The article was written as a joke, and was purely ridiculous, but funny. When they called my name I was like, "Are you for REAL?" haha!

3rd place (entertainment Cartoon - Division 4)
I wasn't expecting this one to one...I had some others in mind, but whatever. ^_^

3rd Place (Editorial Cartoon - Division 4)
Honestly I was expecting this one to win. I knew as long as it was entered it would win, and it did. I really liked it, and especially how it turned out! ^_^

For 2008 I won first place with these comics:

1st place Entertainment
1st place Editorial Cartoon

Looking back at my older comics they had much more heart. Honestly I was a bit disapointed, since last year I won first place in both sections and this year I didn't, however this gives me time to reflect on my mentods and content. Since I am an illustrator, all last year I put the highest presidence to the art, and the content came second...I think that was where my mistake lay. This fall I hope to participate in UCM's newspaper, 'the muleskinner' and will up my content and art because the college is a Division 1, where more is expected of me. My biggest focus, however, will be to turn back to my older roots by cutting out all distractions (color, elaborate formats, crazy dialogue, etc).

School Project update

2010-04-10T09:52:00.003-05:00

I cannot represent the total sum of the work done so far this semester, but I include a few here, with brief descriptions. Hope everyone enjoys:

Class: Typography.
Assignment: Make a T-shirt for Graphic Designers utilizing a person from History instrumental in the creation of Type.
My Thoughts: I chose the earliest known inventor of movable type. Approx. 600 years before Gutenberg invented the European Movable type, Bi Sheng did it first in China.

Class: Typography
Assignment: Make a poster advertising a typeface. Utilize a style of design from the time period of the typeface you choose.
My thoughts: The poster turned out better than I expected, however it does not look like anything from the 1950's. I spent most of my time researching the clothes and hairstyles of the time period for the characters instead of focusing on the specific typefaces they used, and style of art. This ad format is based mostly off laundry detergent adds such as Tide and Joy.
Class: Design 2 (color Theory)
Assignment: Listen to an album by Godspeed You Black Emperor called "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven"and make a design based on one of the songs.
My thoughts: By the title of the CD alone one could guess how strange the music would be. The group is a kind of ambient/rock/newage band. It is really hard to explain unless you hear their music. I really enjoyed this assignment and was probably more surprised by how my picture turned out then anyone-else. My favorite aspect of this picture is the perpetual movement in the picture.

Ponyo, Kazuo Oga, and POSTER paint...

2010-04-01T09:36:00.015-05:00

Yesterday, "The Art of Ponyo," arrived. I read it cover to cover. As with most Ghibli movies, I was fascinated with the detailed backgrounds and especially the vibrant child-like colors in Ponyo. After finishing the book, I was immediately surprised to find out that Ghibli hadn't used watercolors after all (like the rumors I had heard). Nor had they used Gouache or acrylic paint. They had used poster paint for Ponyo. Not only that, but as I researched further I found out poster paint had been used for EVERY GHIBLI MOVIE BACKGROUND EVER MADE!!!

GAH! POSTER PAINT? For at least a year I have been attempting to understand how Kazuo Oga works (Oga is a background artist for Ghibli, well known for My Neighbor Totoro) .

Kazuo Oga is a master of depicting lifelike vibrant nature scenes, which bring Hayao Miyazaki's movies to life.

Based upon my limited knowledge and what I could gather from the pictures, I originally assumed Oga used acrylic paint. Investing in an expensive brand of paints, they proved to be vibrant enouph, but the paint dried so fast I couldn't get any of the effects I desired. This congested mess resulted:

I virtually gave up on acrylics for awhile, assuming I would have to be a master like Oga. Moving on I tried opaque watercolor and assumed satisfaction would be found...

The result was closer, but as time passed I ruled it out. At this point, I have tried virtually every kind of traditional paint only to find out that he uses... poster PAINT!? (and most Japanese animation companies as well.) Sigh.... After more research I learned that America uses mostly Gouache for their backgrounds, and some older animation actually used watercolor (Lilo and Stich brought this back in the present). Gouache is ok, but can be frustrating, and watercolor would be near impossible to achieve Ghibli backgrounds.

After digging, I found that Ghibli uses "Nicker Poster Colour", a poster paint that is higher grade than what is available in the U.S.. The company who produces it originates in Korea. Nicker Poster Colour is available on Amazon Japan to buy, but will not ship to the states.

According to the good folks at Conceptart.org this is what Oga had to say regarding his artwork:

"Basically, I use poster- color. Because as we have to paint much, we can't use expensive paint. Poster colors can show brightness or depth of color and, above all, it is easy-to-use. Talking about brushes, I use only two kinds of brushes, hira-fude (flat brush) and sakuyo-fude (pointed brush). For example, a sky or feathering clouds, misty distant mountains, rocks, plants… everything rough is done only by this large hira-fude. Old TV series anime used to be done in this way only. The last finish is done by sakuyo-fude carefully. I paint leaves roughly with hira-fude and add a few detailed leaves on it. Which is enough because the backgrounds of anime are shown only 3 or 4 seconds."

And according to a person who visited a Japanese studio, as recorded at Huitula.com, all Japanese utilize similar processes for background animation:

"Usually the works are being painted on just barely bigger paper than standard A4-paper, Nicker Poster Colour used with about 30 different colors in bottles. On a wet paper first the basic color surfaces and tones are being painted with a bigger brush, after which you move on to smaller details little by little. Also the straight lines are being painted with a brush, taking support from a ruler and a stick gliding on its groove. A paintbrush is used only very seldom to achieve some certain effects, still most of the painting is done with a traditional brush. Hair-dryers are also being used for drying the painting when needed."

Actually for Ponyo it utilized a combination of Poster paint and colored Pencil. Here is excerpts from the artbook:

Noboru yoshida, Art Director for Ponyo stated,"Usually I use poster paint to create the backgrounds; then I color the base in a pale color, adding subtle hues and shading on top of it. This time, with Ponyo, I added things like tints or detailed expressions with colored pencil on top of what I drew with poster paint..." He goes on to explain much more detail on pg 88 (other useful information about their unique process) but I will leave it out so you will go buy the book. ^_^

Okay, so now that I am done ranting, here is a SUPER amazing video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw6htaSNaJc
(video of Oga painting...with POSTER PAINTS.)

[Edit: 7 November 2011 Cleaned up text and clarified some points]

Photoshop buildings and straight lines...

2010-03-27T13:53:00.005-05:00

So I couldn't resist posting more evidence of photoshop process's I am learning on my own. This was just a quick study based mostly off a photo refference. I was focusing on building construction, straight lines and pure awesomeness in photoshop! haha! In the future you will see more buildings! Yay!

Color testing

2010-03-17T21:10:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates...school has kept me busy. Escuses, excuses... I know. ^_^ Anyway, I thought you all might enjoy my crazy (analytical) results of color studies...this picture is only the tip of the icebergs...basically the PROOF that I now understand more about computer coloring!!! In the future you will see my work take a positive turn with color because of this particular study. If anyone asks, I might tell you what I have been doing to understand color better, but since it is sooo dry, I won't bother making it public. ;)

Animated Sequals

2010-03-01T14:27:00.000-06:00

Today's Nonsense - January & February 2010

2010-02-10T19:41:00.007-06:00

February comic:

Ok folks, I am back on schedule for my monthly comic! In order to conform to my busy school schedule I am simplifying some features of the comic (diverse layouts, elaborate shading and backgrounds), but leaving what matters most (the characters and the event!) Hope everyone enjoys!

January comic:
This comic was made as a desperate attempt to show UCM's newspaper staff that I was serious about doing the comic for them. I still have not heard back... Allwell, I am enjoying the freedom of exploring new realms! As a random fact, I am reading Harry Potter for the first time and learned since making this comic that Ron does NOT say, "Bloody Hell," even once...and yet in the movie he says it as every other phrase...blasted 'Hollywood'.

illustration Friday-Focused

2010-01-30T21:25:00.003-06:00

Last night I spent several hours breaking apart about 15 pictures. I wanted to understand how the professional artists set up their pictures in order to lead the viewers eye through their works. Utilizing what I learned I made this picture. ^_^

I utilized pictures, illustrations, and many other things to bring together my composition. I focused on a painterly quality and how light formed on figures. Originally I wanted to draw a girl I saw at the store wearing a soccer uniform...but the picture then required something more formal... ^_^ haha!

Anyway, this is all in preparation for a large project I am doing at school which will last three weeks. (mostly just a small test run on what I want to do large scale...)

Hayao Miyazaki in typeface

2010-01-27T20:23:00.005-06:00

So for my first assignment in my Typography class, I had to make a portrait using 35 or less charactes from a specific typeface. I chose the font Helvetica, and actually did it in 39... :( yah, I know I really tried to cut it down, but the pic required it. ^_^ So if you can't guess who I did my picture of, then you don't know me. For those who don't...it is Hayao Miyazaki!!!! (Oh wait, my title gave it away.... geez. haha!)

Here is some fun side creatures I made. One is a sorry attempt at Totoro, and the other is my own character...I will call him 'Grumpy. I really like grumpy.'

Illustration Friday-Wilderness

2010-01-23T21:19:00.007-06:00

Earlier this week my wife and I were at the local bookstore and I happened upon a Norman Rockwell book. While I was there, I thumbed through it again and again, but that wasn't enough; I ended up sitting down and pouring over all the pictures and information given in it. I learned something new and that is that Norman Rockwell (at least for the later part of his career) used photos and literally copied them. That boggled my mind! (course he was the one staging the characters and scenarios in the pictures...but that is beside the point.)

I thought to be an illustrator every single element of the human figure had to be either from a live model or memorized so that I could draw spontaneously...well I was wrong. Not only that, but the Illustration class I am taking is constantly pushing me towards "simplifying the creative process. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you get to the same end, and if that means cutting corners, than do it." Of course I am a die-hard and I think everything has to be chiseled into stone and sealed with blood. So doing this picture was a good activity for me.

I wanted the picture to be painterly while looking smooth and full of depth. I think I achieved my desires. (And notice I did not use heavy black outlines! ^_^ ) I used several pictures for reference (figure, colorscheme,etc) while of course taking alot of creative liberties on the way!

I don't know if anyone remembers this: http://monisawa.blogspot.com/2009/10/painting-study.html but consider this new picture as its followup! What a difference!!!

Pic #2 update

2010-01-15T15:28:00.003-06:00

I completed this picture as a comission for http://www.jerbl.com/ . Jerbl.com is not only the hostsite for my website, but the guy who owns it is my brother! haha! This picture commemorates Jerbl.com's 3 year anniversary.

Pic #1 Update

2010-01-15T15:24:00.002-06:00

Due to the busy holiday break and new school semester devouring my time I am only now getting to get this posted. This picture is what I did for the contest on Deviantart.com. I lost completely, though I am not too disapointed. I still love the picture and enjoy how it turned out!

I'm alive!

2010-01-04T15:45:00.005-06:00

Just to show you that I am alive, I am putting the poster I made for MCC Longview's Acting class. I had alot of struggles, but I also learned alot while making this.