Saturday, June 30, 2012

Third Eye WIP


Coming along. Blocked in stuff, mushed stuff up... Gonna do, gonna do.

Friday, June 29, 2012

What the Deck?!

Picked this up today from Forest to Shore to paint for their upcoming skateboard deck show in August. Ah, yeah... no true idea what to really paint on this! I have some idea; naked ladies, flowers... stuff. Any ideas?

The format is what's really messing with me, it's way longer than what I remember skate decks to be, it's about 3' long by 10" wide looking at it right now ('cause, it could totally change shape while I'm not looking). I'll fiddle around with it in my head, but if anyone has anything to suggest I'm all ears :)

Third Eye


Taking a brief recess from my Katniss painting. Had to get this image out of my head, first. Underpainting is a little derp, but I'll whip it into shape ;)

Friday, June 15, 2012

IMC Day 6

Here she is at day six. Wanted to try to paint as long as I could tonight, but I'm too sick to put any more time into it. It's been unfortunate that this year something has been going around and there have been a lot of us getting sick this week. Personally, I've been feeling incredibly tired, achey, and been unable to focus--both mentally and visually. I feel sympathy for Chris Burdett, who has been in his room with a terrible flu all week long... Tonight someone else nearly fainted from dizziness after our last lecture and had to be led back to his own dorm room. Crazy stuff!

Sickness aside, I dug in today, and am pretty happy with the results I've gotten thus far. I probably won't be painting tomorrow morning, but all in all at this point I'm thrilled with what I have so far, and will have to go home, overcome whatever illness I have, and finish this baby!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

IMC Day 5



Finally dug in with oils today! Focused on the face, and am  really happy with the subtlety of colors I'm achieving. Redid the face completely, so that's where all my time today was invested. I actually made some minor changes right after I took this picture. I'm just sad that these photos don't do the paint any justice at all... I mean, really, really don't; holy crap.

Tomorrow will be a big day--or so I plan--to lay in most everything else. I'm super tired now, and am very excited to go in tomorrow and start fresh in the morning!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

IMC Day 4



Another slow-ish day. Primarily did a lot lot lot of glazing and small detail stuff in the bark. I also came to a halo concept that I liked. Very Wayne Barlowe! Almost, not completely...

Tomorrow morning I'm going to begin rendering Katniss. I decided to call this an early night to get a good night sleep, as I've felt super tired since breakfast. Also, I have pinkeye in my left eye! Wonderful. At least it's not the cold that's making rounds, I'd rather have a freakishly red eye than feel groggy and congested.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I had a wonderful portfolio review with Dave Palumbo. Today I also had Lauren Panepito give me some insight and both reviews are making me feel confident in my work and reinforce that I'm doing the right thing. Time for rest!

IMC Day 3



Here I am at the end of day three. I finished the under-painting early afternoon-ish, and started to lay in color after dinner. The upper, darker portion of the painting is way too cool so I made a note to myself to glaze in some sap green tomorrow morning. I refrained from doing so tonight because I didn't want to just keep working and end up doing something really stupid. I can go back to it with fresh eyes tomorrow.

Pretty excited, gotta say! starting to come together, and the parts I'm a little hesitant with--the color of the tree trunks, mostly--I know what to do with.I didn't expect to get quite this far today, so I can't wait to see how it will be at the end of tomorrow. I'm exhausted.

Monday, June 11, 2012

IMC Day 2


Today seemed like such a slow progress day, but I got quite a bit done, now that I'm looking at what I have. Bright and early this morning I mounted my drawing at 8:30 or so. Off and on waiting for it to dry, sanding, putting another layer of matte medium on it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

While I waited in between drying and lectures I worked on a color study, and then felt satisfied enough to start the under-painting. I hadn't originally intended to begin with a brown under-painting for the background--for in the color study I jumped in directly with the blues/greens--however I would love to add some brown undertones and blah blah blah... But, I feel I'm at a safe point to stop for the night and come back in the morning with fresh eyes. Until then...

Sunday, June 10, 2012

IMC Day 1




So here's the result from day 1: I had critique at 11 this morning with Scott Fischer, Doug Gregory, Boris Vallejo, and Irene Gallo. They stated this was a solid composition, and the only revisions were to change the angle of the large branch behind her and make it thicker, put the littlest bit of tension on the bow string, and to have the bird (that I added in last night and taped to the piece) oriented so it faced Katniss. Scott put it so aptly that I needed to "flip the bird", and you bet I did! I also fiddled with the halo idea for the hell of it before I decided to return to the dorm.

Spent a healthy 2 hours napping after lunch to make up for the lack of sleep from these past 2 nights. This is an early night as well, putting off mounting the piece for tomorrow. It's going to be a busy week, so I might as well get in a decent night's rest while I still can. More to come tomorrow!

Friday, June 08, 2012

IMC Prologue


So here's what I have for the critique session for this year's Illustration Master Class. I'm not too savvy with digital, so I did what I could with my laptop's trackpad to give an idea of the color scheme. Better than nothing! I have the colors matched with physical paint, so it's all good, planned out, et cetera. I just want to throw out that the model is my student, Emma, who is a big The Hunger Games fan and convinced me to read the series. I like to think this is a good way to thank her and show her how awesome she is! (But all my students are equally awesome, of course.)

Heading out tomorrow morning around 9 a.m. with John. It's going to be a long, but fast week! I will take progress shots of the piece as the week goes by on a daily basis--more or less, depending on how much I get done and how tired/busy I am. Stay tuned!

Monday, June 04, 2012

We Drew a Band


Tamieka: "I'm not sure what to do... I think I'm going to draw a band."
Me: "Wait... draw a band? Not, make--hm, okay, yeah, I'm in on this."

(guitarist drawn by me, drummer drawn by Tamieka, singer drawn by Stephan)

Sunday, June 03, 2012

Red Riding Hood

She's done, been done, but I only had a chance to photograph it today.

Lately I've been doing preliminary work for the incoming Illustration Master Class. It's so close! I'll post the drawing, sketches, everything here soon. Once the week begins this coming Saturday it will be fun to see how the painting progresses!