Brought To You By The Letter Q

Yeah...umm...I'm not gonna even try to justify this or why I even made it. I imagine this is what the Count would say if he looked through the archives of this art blog or picked up any of my sketch books. Mean bastard.

Today Was a Good Day

This came out of left field...I was humming the song not too long ago, and this came out. And for those who can't tell...its supposed to be Ice Cube...you know, the 'gangster rapper' who does children's movies now. Crazy huh? This was fun to do, and while doing it...I think I finally found a style to run with when/if I ever get Redux Deluxe back running. I didn't even have to use my AK...I can't believe today was a good day.

The Punisher: Finished!!!

So, here's the final(?) version of my Punisher picture. I'll probably go back and change some of the colors and shadows and such here and there...but this is pretty much the final version. And to think, all I started out with was a crappy sketch. Wish me luck for the draw-off!!


**edit**: So I went back and revised most of the shadows (mainly in the background) because they absolutely made no sense whatsoever...and adjusted some hues and stuff here and there...and came up with this version. Yeah...I'm not touching it anymore.

WIP: Punisher Continued

Slowly making progress from my last post.

WIP: Frank Castle, A.K.A....

Just a little sumthin' sumthin' I've been doodling. Not even remotely close to finish, even though the colors imply otherwise. This will be done before May 25 at midnight (thats when its due for a drawing competition at the Pencil Jack forum), so expect to see the full finished version then.

Heaven Leigh

Funny what you come up with when you're just sketching some randomness. I have a couple of 'super heroes' that I've created, and I'll post those here too sometime...but here's one that I just made up real randomly while just sketching. I could definitely see myself fleshing this one out a little more and even making short stories with her. Her name is Heaven Leigh, and she's a human angel...a guardian angel in fact. But when she was sent here to Earth, she had to shed her wings to make her mortal. Anyways, as far as special abilities and such goes...she has super strength, and can fly...and really...you don't need much more than that. Oh, and she has a direct line to the Big Guy upstairs, so that dwarfs any heat vision and all of that other stuff.

And this was my first attempt at doing stuff in Photoshop, and while its very different than GIMP, a lot of the things are very familiar. Its a must that I continue practicing with Photoshop, because I feel there are alot of things that I could get accomplished easier in PS than I can do in GIMP. So with that said...introducing Heaven Leigh:

From Start to Finish: Gambit

Me completing a picture from start to finish is definitely a rare occasion. And to mark this once in a blue moon, only once in a lifetime thing, I've decided to post my process in how I came about to the final product. Keep in mind that I've learned all of this stuff on my own, so I know that I probably do everything posted here the absolute wrong way, or that there are better more efficient ways of going about how I came to the final...but you live and you learn. And if some people who are reading could give me some pointers and useful steps...please believe that it would be greatly appreciated.

So I started out with a rough sketch:
No fancy art pencils here...I've always used regular #2 pencils. This was done with a #2 bic pencil on 8.5"x11" paper. I have a terrible habit of drawing things too big for the paper, and I know I can fix this by using actual comic board or A3/A4 sized paper...but unfortunately, I don't have any. And I don't have a scanner that can accommodate paper of that size. So, the foot and the card at the bottom are too close to the end of the paper...which usually means problems.

The last post I posted a WIP (work in progress) inking of this pic. No special pens used here either. I normall have art Staedtler pens, but this time, microball pens. They vary in size, so I used a heavy thick one for the outline of Gambit, the medium sized one for the outlines of major shapes and parts, and the fine tipped one for details. And here's how that turned out:
Unfortunately due to the scan, part of his fingers got cut off...so I rescanned it and tried to get as much of the pic scanned as possible. This was to be my first beginning to end coloring job in Photoshop, but I decided to stick to what I know and used GIMP. My next one will definitely be Photoshop though. I did a new process that I've seen alot of people do, which is lay down the flat colors first without any shading. This made things go by much easier and much quicker, even though that part is sooooo boring. I love shading, and this felt like a chore...but it had to get done:
Then when the flats were done...now it was time for me to have a ball and get to shading and adding highlights and effects and stuff. Also, I had to flesh out the energy effect for the lower card and add some to his foot which I couldn't do on traditional paper. I also added a motion blur effect to the cards here as well by using the magic lasso tool in GIMP. I didn't like the weird ghosting looking outline it left around that, so I blurred it later on with the blur/sharpen tool to fix it:Oh snap!! We're rolling now. But this would look a million times better with a background. And since I'm really not a fan of drawing backgrounds directly onto the picture, I drew it on another page. I already had a basic idea of what I wanted to do, so it let me take some liberties with the background and not make it as detailed as this part. So we wound up with this, a Sentinel from the X-Men comics:Yep...pretty plain and basic huh. Actually, I'm not happy with this part at all...but it doesn't really matter because I knew that you wouldn't be able to see most of it anyways. So here we go again, with the boring flat colors...yay...(end sarcasm):Okay, I knew that this was going to be the background, so I had to flesh this out a little. I shaded it, and added textures to it because I wanted him to look metallic...because...well, he is. Then I added some particle effects to his hand, some glow reflection stuff, some sky, clouds, stars and a moon and came up with this:Its not all that detailed, and there's ALOT that I hate about this, but its cool, cause you won't see much of it anyways. So, I flattened this out to .png file as well as the other Gambit part, and then made the Sentinel the background, and posted Gambit on top. I desaturated the hell out of the colors for both pieces, blurred the background, added some minor details here and there...and came up with the final product:Cool stuff huh? Yeah...its okay...and doing this was definitely a learning experience. Now I just have to get to inking all of these 'in progress' sketches...and maybe get to that Gladiator one...

So much to do...so little time.

A Work In Progress

Seems like if I open up all of my old sketch books, I'll see one or two completed pictures, but hundreds of 'work in progress' pics. I don't know whats up with that, or why I can't seem to focus on getting any sketches done. I guess its like my art attention span is so short, and I start to see so many problems that I can't fix, so I give up and go on to the next one. Or, I have drawing ADD. Both sound like disorders that I need to work through.

Anyways...

I think I finally found my niche and doing things that I want to do. I know for sure that I'm tired of doing half pictures, and I want to do full ones that feel complete...mainly so I don't feel like I don't have anything to show when that question comes up...'Oh, so you like to draw? Can I see??' And I would feel more like a real artist handing over a portfolio than a pretender handing over half done stick figures colored in crayon...exaggeration, I know.

But this is what I've been up to recently. Yeah...still drawing multiple pictures at once, with several more stuck in my head...but they'll all get out eventually. The first one is a Roman-Greco time period gladiator games one. I have to do some research for some roman architecture from that time period, cause I don't want to blatantly rip off the Colosseum...but if it comes to that, then thats what I'll do. The second one is for a draw off competition. The subject was Gambit of the X-Men...and I feel like I've been seriously underestimated at what it is that I do, so I have to come out the blocks swinging taking no prisoners, just so I can get some damn respect over there. Feel free to let me know what you guys think. Much Appreciated!!