Here's a piece I made for ThoughtFaucet.
The monthly topic was "James Bond pinup girl".
I went a little movie postery on it.
J...
Hey guys, Been a while, and Ive definitely been keeping busy.
My new Cintiq just arrived today!
I'm stoked! Heres some thangs I painted up tonight, just messin' around.
I cant wait to dig in and really start using this thing..
J...
Hey all,
I finally have Glam vol.2 available in the store section.
36 full color pages including a centerfold insert!
$15 plus a flat shipping rate of $2.
Here is a look at the centerfold image...
I cant seem to find my usb camera cable, but as soon as I do I'll post some pics from SDCC.
Lates,
J
Hey all!
A pretty hard storm hit Chicago and I've had no power for the last 4 days.
It's finally on and theres a lot on my plate.
Comic-con has come and gone, and again I'm left with plenty of inspiration. So many great talents with such wonderful work... its truly amazing. A lot of cool stand up guys as well. First off, thanks to everyone who made it out and said hi or picked up a copy of my new art book, Glam vol.2.
It always means a lot to me, and keeps my goin'...
I spent a hell of a lot more time behind the table this year, and feel awful that I didnt get to wander around or meet a lot of people that I would have liked to meet. Especially when i realize how much awesome art and great people i missed out on. I always feel bad leaving the table... I got so much enjoyment from just talking to interested folks from all walks of life that would happen to wander by.I'll be posting a few con pics and talk a bit about it soon.
I'll be adding GLAM vol2 to the "store" over on your right as well as conjuring up a few other things soon. So please hang in there, and thank you to those who are still stopping by!
J...
So here's the finished piece...
I ended up desaturating a few areas. I realized I really tend to drift around a lot, jumping from place to place. Although I don't normally like to use the "airbrush", I ended up using it a lot more in this one as I went on. It helped to soften certain areas. Generally I tried to get a soft tone with broad varying shades then used smaller brush strokes to cast heavier shadows and hilites here and there. I find in difficult to make certain calls over time because it feels like I dont know whats good anymore after I stare at it for too long.
At some point during the process I start to play around with textures. This is usually what makes me start changing some things. I might like what something does and it skews me in that direction. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse.
Thanks to Bruno again for some tips!
J...
Here's a quick look at where I'm at so far....
As you can see I decided to go with a cloud back ground over the rock and water thing I had goin in the sketch... Thank to Bruno for hookin' it up with some sweeeeet P-Shop brushes. Thanks you Bruno for slowing down my machine!
There's still a little bit I want to "clean up" and still some painful decisions to make.
I will also play with a few "atmospheric choices." But I'm feelin' its almost time to move on.
J...
UPDATE:
That didnt take long... I already ended up making major changes to her hair and added some kind of hair bow thingy. As far as my actual coloring process, I'm a little all over the place... just feeling out what i think works. I do make sure to keep things pretty layered though. Sometimes I think Ive got too many layers...
I guess I instinctively tend to start painting detail in around the face. There's no rhyme or reason to where I start or what level of detail I work to. Since I feel that I run around aimlessly and uninspired at times it seems to keep me interested most. This is really rough and I'm sure that I'll end up pushing the contrast quite a bit as I move along, adding little things. And as always, who knows what the colors will be. I may even feel like dramatically changing her hair color or shape, who knows. I'm crazy like that. However, I'm liking the direction so far, so this is what I'm going with for now. I also seem to go really saturated with the colors off the bat. I may end up desaturating it a bit.
She's starting to look a little like my friend Jasmin. She was actually here this weekend from Dallas to celebrate our friend Sam's b-day! Drunken Karaoke was a good time! HAPPY BDAY SAM!
J...
I'll admit...
Generally my creative process seems to be a bit "scatterbrained" to say the least. Its not that I havent tried to be a bit more "organized" as I create, but Ive just found that when I just "let go", more or less, I tend to like what I'm doing a lot more. Being more guteral seems to feed the artistic urge I get. Lately, Ive been trying to do something a little different than the quick color splashes over lineart that have dominated nearly every post on this blog. I've recently decided to go with more of a painterly approach in Photoshop to my last few personal pieces, eliminating all line art. I ended up liking my last attempt (which is quite rare), so I thought it might be interesting to document a few of the steps as I create my next one. I'll consider this a learning process for myself... in hopes of creating things a little quicker perhaps.
I grabbed this rough sketch from my last sketchbook Glam, and decided to see if I can ruin it:
I started by cleaning up the sketch a little bit. Fixing proportions that I thought were off and pushing a few more shapes. Somewhat redrawing it. Making sure I'm happy with the structure before I paint. I also realized that with "painting" in mind I eliminated somethings that I would normally do with just a sketch or doodle, like the swirly little loops in her hair that just flow out when I sketch aimlessly.
Here's a look at both the fixed drawing and how it compares with the original sketch. Ill use the one on the right as more or less of a guide as I paint over the top:
I found out this is'nt the only time I make changes to my drawings. I try to limit them but constantly play with shapes and proportions while I'm blocking out color shapes. I try to stay away from anything too major though. It sucks to have to change the structure half way through the painting. That isn't very practicle. More often than not I have to just accept where it's going, even if I may not be fully happy. Learn... move on... and apply to the next one...
The process I'm taking here may be a direct result of working in Flash a lot. I've blocked out the shapes in solid colors, like I would a vector drawing, keeping parts of her body on seperate layers. You can see I've made even more changes to the look of the flower petal, stem and wings:
Chances are these arent what the final color will be. As a proceed I feel it out and usually have some sort of revelation, or something"clicks" and everything changes, Sometimes drastically.
Here's one with a slight background added:
Now comes more of the fun part for me. Once I have everything relatively blocked out, I start more of a painterly approach over my shapes. Adding textures with different brushes and the magic of photoshop tricks. I'll add updates as I get it done.
J...
Still here... but its not pretty. 
