IF-Summer surrender

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)

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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

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

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...

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

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

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

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!