Demos

Title: Fincher, the Slave King   Final digital image: 11" x 17" 300 dpi

This demo will take you through the process of a character I designed.

It all begins with design and before the more finalized sketch that you see above, there were numerous preliminary sketches that I did to get the right look of this character. Once I got it, I did this drawing on 11" x 14" paper (kind of large for the intent of scanning it into photoshop to work on top of).

The next step was to scan it so that I could open it up in photoshop. The problem was, my scanner is small, so I had to scan it in 4 different parts and stitch it together. I had never used photoshop before  doing this piece, so needless to say, I had a myriad of problems!!! But I learned a tremendous amount by doing it!

Once I had my four different parts, I went through a lengthy process to stitch it together, and I wont explain that. Instead I will give you the extremely fast and amazing way to do it! So here is what you do : IN PHOTOSHOP, GO TO FILE; AUTOMATE; PHOTOMERGE. ONCE THE PHOTOMERGE WINDOW POPS UP, CLICK THE BROWSE BUTTON AND SELECT YOUR FILES. MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE ALL THE RELEVANT FILES THAT YOU NEED IN ONE FOLDER ALTOGETHER BY THEMSELVES. CLICK THE TOP ONE AND THEN HOLD DOWN THE SHIFT KEY AND CLICK THE BOTTOM FILE. THIS WILL HIGHLIGHT ALL THE FILES IN BETWEEN AS WELL. CLICK OK AND THEN CLICK OK IN THE PHOTOMERGE WINDOW. (MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE "BLEND IMAGES TOGETHER BOX" CHECKED BEFORE YOU CLICK  OK). BEHOLD THE MAGIC! DEPENDING ON THE NUMBER OF IMAGES AND THE SIZE OF THEM THAT YOU ARE MERGING, IT COULD TAKE A BIT OF TIME. THERE ARE COMPLEX CALCULATIONS THAT THE PROGRAM MUST MAKE, SO BE PATIENT.

After that is done, voila! ready to rock n roll.

AAAAHHHHH!!! bright green!!!....there is a perfectly good explanation for this (you'll see). Once you have your character in photoshop, the next objective is to remove/isolate it from the background. The reason for this, is so that you can work on your character independently from the background and on its own layer. You can change its size at will as well as its location within the picture space. One great benefit of using photoshop is using layers, where you can work on one thing and not affect another. so here is what you do to cut it out from the background:

1. First make sure that you have a strong visible contour line that encompasses your whole character.   As you can see in the first picture, I had undefined areas, so, I grabbed a little round brush in photoshop and clearly /quickly defined those areas.

2. Press command + L to access the levels adjuster. Adjust the levels so that your background is whiter and cleaner. Play with it.

3. Create a new layer and put it behind your drawing. This means that in your layers palette, the new layer you just created, will reside at the bottom (under your drawing). Now, grab the fill tool, choose an obnoxiously bright color, and click on the new layer that you just created. If you close the "eye" on your drawing layer, you should see that your new layer (beneath it) has just been filled with the color that you have chosen

4. Grab the magic wand tool from the toolbox and click on any area in the background of your drawing layer. You should see the "dancing ants" moving around the edge (or close to) contours of your character.

5. Press the delete button.The result should be similar to what you see above. You may need to take your eraser tool and do a bit of edge clean up.

I realize that there is quite a gap between this photo and the one above and I apologize for this. One thing I now do is save many different progress versions. So I usually have 15 or so files of the same art piece. This way you can go back to old files if you need to.

Anyways, after I isolated my character from the background, I created a new layer under my character and filled it gray. Then I changed the blending mode of my character layer to "multiply". This got rid of the interior whites on the character, leaving just the line drawing on top of a gray background.

Next, I wanted to add some texture, so I added a scratchy grunge background and set that layer to "multiply". If you like using photoshop, then I would highly recommend checking out   http://www.cgtextures.com/  This is site has fantastic textures, and for a nominal yearly fee, its pretty much unlimited.

I darkened the background and began pulling out some lighter tones on my character. Nothing special here, just straight painting. you should experiment with the blending modes in the layers palette while you paint, because you just may end up with something unpredictable and fantastic!

This is where I used a different blending mode other than "normal". On a new layer, I painted  white directional light stokes using a soft brush over my character coming from the above right hand area. I believe I then set the layer blending mode to "soft ligt". So, everything directly underneath the white paint strokes became lighter. This took no time at all. This light source will be my primary light source, and I am using it to focus on the horn, head and shoulder region of the body.

This is where the environment begins to come to life. I envisioned a dungeon, where this creature is being held captive. It will be dark, cold and wet. I used photo reference to add in the window in the upper right corner. I began painting on top of the photo to change its texture. I used photoshops amazing color controls to alter its color. Here is a really important tip: IF AND WHEN YOU PHOTO COLLAGE WORK INTO YOUR PAINTING/ILLUSTRATION, YOU HAD BETTER MAKE SURE THAT IT INTEGRATES SEAMLESSLY INTO YOUR IMAGE. IT NEEDS TO BECOME PART OF THE ATMOSPHERE. THIS CAN BE ACHIEVED THROUGH EDGE MANIPULATION, COLOR, TEXTURE, AND PERSPECTIVE TWEAKING. I see far too many photoshop illustrations where these guidelines are not employed especially with respect to edge manipulation.

Back to the window. The window will become a secondary light source, and I am making sure the colors of my different light sources have variations.

You've probably noticed that I have started adding texture to the ground. At this stage, Im thinking of the ground a being cold dirt, perhaps with some snow due to holes/openings in the cieling where water, snow, and other things can get through.

Here, more environmental work has been achieved. I have added a third light source coming from the upper left. This light has a more purple hue to complement the light side of the creature. I added some holes to the wings where light rays have the opportunity to stream through.

You'll notice chains hanging from the top as well as a more defined ball and chain in the lower left corner.

Since dungeons are typically damp, I added a pool of water directly under the creatures head....There will be more pools of water to follow.

I have also added a fourth light source with candle. I imagined the creature  was lumbering around in this dungeon and stopped to rest or contemplate.

In regards to the body and head of the creature, more rendering of form and texture has taken place. specular highlights have been added to the creatures body to illustrate a more moist and wet skin surface.

 
Completed illustration. You can see that depth has been added to the environment. I created and opening in the wall on the left side that leads our eye back into space. Again, i used photo reference, pasted it in, and did a fair amount of editing so that it would harmonize with the atmosphere More puddles have been added, and the ground has been given more attention. For the final passing, I opened the file up in a program called Painter and added more organic brushwork to various areas of the image. Painter is an incredible program for the one who seeks natural media solutions in a digital program. It is unparalleled in this respect.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my process. Stay tuned for more!

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Arizona Landscape

This is a small 6" x 9" acrylic painting on illustration board of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. I worked from a photograph that I took. Below are chronological steps of my approach to this painting with descriptions. Approx time spent: 3 hours

First off, I started with a simple sketch, blocking in shapes, using a blue prisma color pencil. Dont spend too much time on the drawing, or you'll get caught up in the details and there is no point in doing that at this stage, as you'll see. I probably spent about 5 min or less on the drawing. You may tend to draw things too large, so be mindful of that as you are working on your landscape composition.

Once I have a decently composed drawing, I can begin painting. As I paint, I will continue to correct the drawing. I start by  blocking in the shadow side of the canyon's cliff walls. I dont really care about color so much at this point. I just want to get my shapes blocked in and the surface covered with paint. That is always my first objective after I have my drawing. I focus on painting quickly and freely, and I try to maintain that focus throughout the painting session.

After the shadow sides are in, I paint my light sides in. Now the picture is covered. It ain't pretty, but it's covered and thats all I'm after at this stage. Notice however, that I am tonally conscious. My shadows in the distance are lighter than my shadows in the foreground. I am setting up the criteria for atmospheric perspective.  Technically, I think its important to keep your first layers of the painting thin. If you build up too much texture too early in the game, you will be fighting the surface the rest of the way. This usually results in an unsightly finished piece. When I first started going out and doing plen aire, I would often cake on my oil paint real thick. Well, I ended up with a lot of bad paintings with interesting texture.

So, this is where I begin to make more considerations with color. I begin by slapping down varieties of more saturated colors on the foreground cliff (which is my focal point). By doing this, I am creating more atmosphere in the picture and pulling  the foreground cliff closer to the viewer and pushing the background away. By no means am I relying on the photograph for color. photographs typically do a bad job of displaying all the color variations and subtleties. So, I have use my knowledge and experiences to improvise. What I do use the photo for is shape observation.

At this stage, I start to define my shadow shapes more, while still keeping the painting loose and painterly. As soon as you tighten up, your painting will begin to take a different direction and will most likely feel overworked. I think this is a battle that all artists face...The battle of letting go.

Still adjusting and manipulating colors at this stage. I've begun developing the foreground foliage and chaparel more with warmer and brighter greens. I have also started adding some smaller brush strokes on the ground to indicate branches, so that I can start portraying a sense of scale.

Here I'm adding darker darks in the shadow side at the top of the cliff wall. The light reflecting into the shadow side is going to die out as it reaches the top. Im also making the color shapes within my shadow side more specific. Since the shadow side of this cliff occupies so much space in the composition, I really want to exploit a variety of colors within it. Planes within the shadows that are facing the sky will reflect some cooler colors in this case, whereas planes within the shadow facing the ground will reflect some warmer tones Its very important to learn how to see color as tone. Im making sure that nothing in my shadow side gets as light as my light side and vice versa.

This is the finished sketch. Im adding more detail (smaller brush strokes) and still continuing to manipulate color. I noticed that my horizon was running tangent on the left hand side with a rock protrusion from my foreground cliff, so I adjusted that and sloped my horizon downward more on that side.

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