Hot off the Cintiq!

This is my first painting made on my new Cintiq. It's a little tricky to get used to, especially after almost a decade on a tablet, but I liked it. Hopefully, a few more pieces and I'll get the hang of it. I haven't done a piece this ambitious in a while, but I've been trying to tackle bigger environments and moodier environments. I don't usually use so many photo textures, but I've been trying to get a better handle on my photo bashing technique. I'm hoping to make this number 1 in a series.

SPECTRUM WINNER!

You guys might recognize this image from this blog ;) It just got accepted into Spectrum 21! Another blog banner brings glory. I'll know it's a fact if my next banner gets in next year.

Congratulations to all the artist that got in this year! Check out the full acceptance list here:

http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/spectrum-21.php

Just a fun fact, but the time I spent painting this last February marks the very first time I watched The X-Files, courtesy of Netflix.

Color keys! for UP.

I took 25 days (almost in a row) this past December to try and build up my speed and color/light understanding. I took 30 minutes each night to create one color study from UP. I chose the beginning sequence since it's basically a contained short film on it's own with a beginning, middle, and end. To make sure I stayed speedy and really focused on identifying color, I only used one kind of scraggly brush and tried not to use the eyedropper tool at all. It's become such a part of my workflow, I confess I did eye drop over the course of these paintings, but I only slipped a few times. It feels very excercisy, but I learned so much about the color decisions that went into these sequences, and perhaps even more importantly, I often found myself noticing differences in the way scenes are light and colors are chosen compared to my when I do my own work. This is definitely the best way to walk a mile in another artist's shoes.

Happy New Years! Welcome to 2014!

I got pretty busy at BrainZoo after my TMNT explorations and then there was Inktober, which blew out another month, but I've been working on this Rapunzel idea for a while now. I've had the idea for a real long time and it's nice to finally put digital pen to tablet. 2014, here…we…go!

The last of Inktober 2013.

While I'm not a compulsive sketcher, I do love to sketch and it was actually challenging to sketch something everyday for a month. Unfortunately, not everything comes out gold, so here are the last two good sketches of October. I did weed a few out and I'm not ashamed to say I redid a couple. Lesson learned: I've clearly crossed over to the digital side, cuz' man o man, I was begging for control Z. The ink was only flowing freely into accidents, but it's nice to know it can still come back and the daily sketching is a habit I've done the best I can to continue. I'll start posting those soon.

More Inktober 2013.

Inktober 2013 flashback continued.

As promised...