Mech lumberjack

I did the initial version of this in ink. I wanted to try flat colors, with a limited pallet. It was a challenge, but I think it turned out pretty good.  I looked at various lumber trucks to find some inspiration, as well as the sloth.  Originally I thought about mimicking a panda, but I couldn't seem to make it work.

The Creature From The Black Lagoon

I really love the vintage horror movies. I purchased this movie along with Frankenstein, Wolfman, Dracula, The Invisible man etc. about 7 in total. I found a photograph of a scene and wanted to draw it for inktober. I think it turned out great. I did it with the Apple Pencil using the Procreate app!

Image DUUUUMP!

I have moved away from Photoshop in favor or the Procreate app for the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.  It has made it so that I don't have to hide away in my studio to sketch or draw.  I'm enjoying learning to simulate a more painterly effect in my work.

Below I have included a bunch of images that i did with the app.  Some of them are finished, but most of them are simply musings or incomplete ones as well.

Face study 1

Face study 2

Face study 3

Screaming child on Santa's Lap (incomplete)

Linework for a comission

Finished commission

Project that required making
a monster from a superhero

Some thumbnail color studies
He-Man and Skeletor, of course!

I'm pretty pleased with this one.
I wanted to do a study of Frank Frazetta's "Night Stalker"

An attempt at a landscape.  I just got bored with it
after I got stuck and just couldn't get
myself to complete it

And my latest study is Orko from He-Man MOTU.
I referenced a drawing and then painted it.
I think it turned out pretty awesome

Lion Statue Study

I've never quite been able to replicate something that I see exactly how it is.  I still enjoy a study now and then.  This one took me a few days because I forced myself to walk away and come back another day, put a bit of graphite down, come back the next day, etc.

Study I did of a statue of a lion (reference below)

Giraffe

I decided to take a drawing class because it was low-key and I have more time to devote to it right now than I do to the Fundamental Lighting class by Sam Neilson.  This time i'm taking a class from Thomas Fluharty.  below is the pencil study, and below that I played around with the values and added color in PS.

This lesson was on looking at shapes first and foremost.

Grandpa Butterfield

I had done this little painting months ago after My Grandfather died.  I sure miss him.
Done using the Procreate app on the iPad with a crappy stylus.  Transferred to Photoshop to add the words, and to reposition the painting a bit.

Mattface

I can't remember how I came to do this project, if it was a study, or if my excellent friend Matthew Walker asked me to do a portrait.  I've had the reference for months.  The other day I sat down for a couple of hours and had a lot of fun working it out.  I changed the lighting in the painting, mainly because I could make it more interesting.  The original photo wasn't dramatic at all, and didn't have a very good range of values.  at any rate, I had a lot of fun creating this loose painting, and I feel like I learned a lot in the process!

The entire painting is done with red, because it is his favorite color!

This is the finished painting

He loves pixels so I simply used the mosaic filter and played with it until i got something that looked good.

The Line art...

 

The Mattface reference

Thirtysomething Mutant Ninja Turtle

My 2-year old is watching TMNT.  I've been looking at it from the parent perspective, and it's been fun to watch him enjoy it as I did, although I was much older than he was when it first came out.

I was doodling in my sketch book and imagined where the Turtles might be today, being closer to 30 years old.  Some people are in better shape in their 30s than they were when they were teenagers, and some are not.

I imagined what they might be like if they were a typical working dad in their 30s with kids.  This work in progress is something along the lines of what I imagine that would be like.

I still have a bit to go on this one.

I had been taking Sam Neilson's class about color and light, and so i'm doing the best that I can to apply those principles here.  I haven't finished the class, unfortunately due to working more hours at work and working on a commission on top of that.

Lesson 1...again

There were lots of things that I didn't like about my other attempts, and some things that I did like.  I watched some of the critiques that Sam gave to other previous students, and learned a lot.  There are still things that I still don't quite grasp, but I think I made some strides by doing it again.  I need to pick up the speed on these assignments, but work schedule and children vie for my company as does my wife, so these things just take time.

anyway,

fundamentals of lighting class with Sam Nielson

I jumped on board with Schoolism's kickstarter, and the first class I'm taking is called Fundamentals of Lighting.  Sam Nielson works for Disney's Avalanche Studio, and so far I'm loving his class.

lesson one was really basic, which is exactly what I need.

here is my completed assignment.  I know that I did this one too dark, and there isn't enough contrast.  I could have played with the level adjustments, but I felt like that was cheating?

anyway, the bottom right image is the image before placing textures.  I have a lot to learn, haha.

edit:  I decided to tweak the lighting anyway, and I think it looks a lot better.

Fish Idaho

I decided one day to watch a Bob Ross video, and mimic it as best I could on my iPad using procreate.  I added the text using Adobe Comp.  I feel like it turned out rather well.  I had to stop referencing the video about 3/4 of the way through so I'm not sure how Bob's finished out.  I added the figures fishing, which gave me the idea to use the Adobe Comp.  I had added a paper texture I found online to make it look kind of like a poster.

Stick boy

Just a sketch I did while listening to general conference.  I just used one brush - the charcoal brush.  It's always a fun challenge to use a brush with a heavy texture.

Anatomy for the Artist with Stan Prokopenko

I've been trying to follow Stan Prokopenko's anatomy series since a few years ago.  I wish that I was more aggressive with it, but this is a sample of what I have learned/am learning right now.  the figure drawings are older.  right now we are looking at the spine structure.

I have learned a lot, and if I keep at it I know that I will improve.  a lot of these are just exercises, but were really fun and I continue to learn a lot!

  

#Proko#humananatomyfortheartist

Poo Factory

I did this for my Brother and sister in law who just their first baby--a girl! her name is Emery.

I've had this idea in my mind for a couple of years and finally got around to it.

on the inside of the card is reads:  "but probably not!"

hehe.

St. Patrick

So I moved on from Paper by 53.  I just wasn't thrilled with it, so I bought procreate, and I can't stand how cool it is.  I did this piece using that program, and I'm also including a link to the recorded video of me painting it.

here is the link to the video 

Orc-thing

Another Paper app post.  I'm struggling with whether or not I feel like I want to keep using this app or not.  It's fun.  But the brushes don't play nicely together.  Markers don't color over top of brushes very well, for example.  Colored pencil and pen seem to be the only tools that can go over the top of other tools.  It's a fun challenge, but is it a challenge that I want to take or is it a challenge that I'm forced to undergo because of the limits of the program?

Struggle bus

I'm playing with the Paper app by 53, and I'm using the Pencil stylus.  I'll admit that it is pretty fun, but it lacks a lot of things that I would think very important in a digital sketching app.  You can't color pick, and there are no layers.  You also cannot import pic or photos.

 The Pencil stylus is buggy for me at the moment.  Sometimes I will be painting, and all of the sudden it will smudge or it will erase.

Anyway I did this sketch of a bus.  I named it struggle bus because, well struggling.  

I will keep trying this app out, but I may return it before the 30 days and save for a stylus that offers pressure sensitivity.  We will see...

Coal Express

Merry Christmas!  When I set out to do this card I wanted to do a gamut mask.  As I was trying to figure out which colors to use, I started to get frustrated, and it wasn't going in the direction that I was seeing in my head.  I'm still trying to get comfortable with the whole gamut-masking technique, but I decided to try David McClellan's blog post about wams/cools/saturation.  I don't completely grasp it, however, I learned so much!  for example,

below, the image is completely done in blues, but the more desaturated, the color appears more red when next to the rest of the more saturated blues!  It's pretty fantastic.

I'd also like to note, that it was fun not using any layer effects or even any layers with opacity changes!  I used a gradient on the background, and I did a levels adjustment at the end because my monitor causes me to print too dark when I go to print things.  other than that it was our digital paint and no trickery.

above:  This was my original attempt with a gamut mask.  As you can see, I originally had a completely different direction in mine.  I hadn't gotten far before I got frustrated and wanted to try something else.

above: This was a little bit of value lay-in before I realized I needed to reach out to understand what I wanted to accomplish.  I didn't want it to be just blue, but wasn't sure how to introduce more color in to it so the image was color-cohesive.

sketchbook

Just a shot of a couple of my sketchbook pages.  the Mexican musician at the right spawned from the hat shape.  i can't remember why that shape was there, but I decided to brainstorm outwardly from it, and it grew into that, i guess.

the next page is just an orc-type creature.  I really don't like the confining space that a sketchbook provides, but it is important to keep sketching, and it's therapeutic even tho I throw plenty of tantrums in the name of suckery.

A knight, 3 men in a tub

a sketchbook spread.  I decided to take the knight into PS and paint him, but leave the other page in there as well.  I didn't use any reference of any kind, and it is evident.  I don't have references available when I'm drawing during my lunch hour in the car though, haha.  

I decided to use a super narrow gamut mask with a spot color.  I didn't end up using the blue.  I used the blue-green instead, for the atmosphere.  the image is really dark, but overall I really like the roughness of the brush that I am using.  

below is the gamut mask that I chose my colors from