going for tha Green

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY

BEGINNINGS

Seeing as this is my first blog for the year, I thought I would talk about ......Beginnings. Every picture has to start or come from somewhere.

As an illustrator, the images that I create do not come from some divine inspiration or muse, but 98% of the time come from some kind of text giving me a description of what is wanted, some of it very specific :

Art Description:

Assassin Devil
— 6 feet tall
— Devilish humanoid
— Female
— Indigo skin
— Unappealing devil face with the left half covered by frightening iron mask that looks like a demonic face
— Two horns
— Lithe but muscular
— Wears dark leather armor with iron parts that resemble demonic body parts (iron pauldrom with iron horns sprouting from it)
— Wears a cloak made of shadows and darkness
— Wields a black longsword made of shadowstuff
— Has devil feet.
— Looks at us dourly with her sword held at the ready
— Vignette image on white background

............ sometimes something as vague as "I need a warrior with a pruple sword".

Once givin the description........the divine inspriation comes in handy in putting the words into a picture.

The longer more specific description above comes from over at Jon Schindehette's blog ArtOrder. It is the first of the challenges I worked on this year........anothe beginning.....and is what gave me the idea for this blogs subject.

Since I have my first step ....... a discription of what is needed for the illustration, the next step is to turn that need into an image, so I start to scribble.....and that is litteral. My first initial roughs are nothing more than little gestural scribbles:

these little scribbles are on the back of the piece of paper where I took and printed out the description for the image. I had folded it up and kept it in my pocket for reference and it also gave me little sections to do my doodles in while playing with the image. The one on the bottom right is the one that I liked best and started there to develope the concept further.

Once I had my visual concept, it was time to take it further and get a little more detailed:

In the top left of this you can see the refined scribble. That was the first thing drawn on this page, the others are me still playing with the concept and looking for the best positioning to make it a non-static pose.

These two sketches are a continuation of the process, and they really weren't working for me, but the sketch in the center.......

....that one said work with me. I liked the positioning and the movement of the figure. The attitude of the head. It all worked better for me than the original concept, so I went here and fleshed this one out more:

....and this is the finished sketch I went with for the painting:

So, there is the process from beginning to end, description, concept to completion, and its like the Dave Edmund's song says " From Small Things Mama, Good Things One Day Come". From the humble little scribble to the finished painted image.

KRAMPUS CHALLENGE

According to Wikipedia entry, Krampus is a mythical creature who accompanies Saint Nicholas in various regions of the world during the Christmas season. The word Krampus originates from the Old High German word for claw (Krampen). In the Alpine regions, Krampus is represented by a demon-like creature. While Saint Nicholas gives gifts to good children, the Krampus warns and punishes bad children. Traditionally, young men dress up as the Krampus in the first two weeks of December, particularly in the evening of December 5, and roam the streets frightening children and women with rusty chains and bells. In some rural areas the tradition also includes birching by Krampus, especially of young girls.

I had started out to do this challeng over on Art Order, and even got the drawing done, but sadly enough I got busy with a few things and did not get home in time to send in the drawing, such is life, but I do not regret it since the time was well spent with my family, and they do come first.

Anyways here is the little ( 11 X 14 ) ink I did for the challenge. It is on a heavy Bristol and available for  $45.00 .

This will most likely be the last post for the year, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years, and that all will be safe.

Tracy

Quazi's Paradise

here is the painting just off the easel for BEAUTIFUL GRIM

BEAUTIFUL GRIM

This is for my friend..............

My name is Daarken and I am a concept artist and illustrator working for Mythic Entertainment. My friend Leif Jeffers, an animator at DreamWorks, and I are organizing an art auction fundraiser that will be held next year.


Earlier this year my girlfriend, Cat, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 25. On November 3rd, 2009, she had a bilateral mastectomy after going through 16 weeks of chemotherapy. As you can imagine it has been hard for her, not only mentally and physically, but financially. In order to help alleviate some of her medical bills Leif and I wanted to throw an art auction. The proceeds that are left over after her medical bills have been paid will go to a breast cancer related charity to be determined by the artists in the coming weeks.

We currently have artists contributing that hail from all regions of the industry: concept artists, animators, photographers, sculptors, fine artists, illustrators, you name it. The theme for the auction is "Beautiful Grim." The interpretation of "Beautiful Grim" has been left up to the artists. A tentative deadline for the art has been set for February 1st, 2010. Venues to hold the event are also currently being researched, but so far we are considering either San Francisco or New York.


...............and yes I will be donating a piece to this.

LEAP

Here we have the completed painting detailed in the previous post.

REALIZING A PROBLEM AND MAKING THE CHANGES

Ok, in this one I  had a concept for a painting, liked the idea and did the little concept sketch, doodle, rough.......whatever you  want to call it, and still liked what I was doing..........pretty good so far. I have an idea, a sketch and am ready to start on the painting.

Now I get into the painting............things are going good in my mind and am just rockin along, background done, moved onto the central figure and thinking .....yeah, this is cool

the horse is doing fine, got the the dude working it with the axe ......cool axe Trace.......nice one there...........and then I sit back and LOOK at what I have done, and something just isn't right. Got sort of an S shaped pyramid compositional thing going on......some action happening, but still something is wrong.........Ah  Ha!! the arms aren't working .....too big, anatomy is off.........so I paint them out, but as I start to paint them back in..........IT still isn't right. So I just sort of sit back and really REALLY look at what I have going on here, and quickly come to the conclusion that it is the whole positioning of the rider..........it just doesn't work. Balance is off. Not believeable and he would fall off.

Back to the sketch book and play with it...............

                                           

.......now this really works for me, arms opened up for balance, still got an S like pyramid thing going, very fluid movement in harmony with the horse. Go with this I say to myself, so I begin to flesh it out and add a little detail to the figure..........if it doesn't work for this then I still have something I can play with later......... still a cool axe, so for a little bit of fun I scan the sketch and place it ontop of the painting in photoshop:

                                   

Now I really like it...............the changes were the right thing. They turned a painting that would never really work from a waste of time into a viable piece of work.  After seeing the potential for this in the little digital mock up, I truly begin to play with the figure and

add the details to it so that I can get a little better idea of what is going to go on. Big round belt buckle to mirror the roundness of the shield as well as the axe head. Two handed sword adding a third diagonal   and continuing the upward motion of the sheild arm as well as the horses movement .............directional lines are cool and an effective means of motion and compositional tools as well. Added a little oval thing to the harness creating a little triangle thing happening with the small circle of the shield and the belt buckle. All these little things that I am mentioning are what I saw AFTER doing them. While I was doing the drawing and adding this here and that there..........this was not going through my head, it was all subcontious activity and not planned.

Just like the legs of the horse and the arch of its back leading you up to the figure from the bottom.

After getting all of this going and transfered back to the painting it looks sort of like this:

                               

and here is a side by side comparrison of the old version and the new version......both in about the same stage of progress:

                         

At the writing of this, the painting is 95% completed and bennefiting from the changes made.  I am happy.

The ability to be your own critic and look objectively at what you do is a vital asset. Be open and honest with yourself .........an AD will as will everyone else looking at it .............and realize that not everything you do is going to come out exactly as planned. What looks good in a black and white pencil doodle won't necessarily be all it was cracked up once you start to add colour.

If you have any doubts about a piece, and you have the time......set it aside for a day or two, don't look at it and when you do go back to it, the answer might just be there for you. If that doesn't happen try showing it to a friend and see what it is that they are seeing in it. Be open to advice and try not to take it personal....especially if you want to improve and grow as an artist.