More artsy, less fartsy!

Yeah. It's another version of Bobby Hill vs Evil. Long story short, they wanted some tweaks to the piece...which required me to break out the lightbox and fix things up. This time, I experimented adding the "tick" marks in with photoshop so they'd have a nice uniform look to them. I also added some texture lines to the lampshade trim.

This weekend, I plan to add color. Same color scheme as the previous versions...although I might add some additional shading .

To the right is my map of Blackgate Prison. No it isn't a map for an RPG campaign or a miniature terrain project. This is a topdown map of my Killing Floor map I started designing back in 2010. I put the finishing touches on the map here and there over the last couple of months.

It is sort of like the Horzine building map where it sort of connects to the underground lab level. This map you actually have three different sections that are basically their own map (although you'll see snippets of the other maps in the "window box" areas around the edge of the map. Odds are, I'll end up just putting it together in UDK as the KF SDK is really clunky (using Unreal 2004 is like me laying out a book using paste up boards and an exacto knife...doable but torturous). But I keep drifting back to the idea of using the KF SDK simply because it would give me an actual functioning level.

I have another map I started back in October of 2010...but I can't show it until I make some serious alterations to it for "reasons".

Blood Sorcery!

Go check out Blood Sorcery for Vampire the Requiem. This is the latest title I graphically designed for Onyx Path Publishing.

Fun Fact: Kruella is still one of my favorite fonts.

Other Fun Fact: I have a library of over 100 blood spatters that I've made over the years using india ink. About 75% of them have shown up in various WW titles over the last 12 years.

Inked!

After three attempts, I finally got the piece inked to a standard I can live with. I'm still debating blacking out the back wall completely (which is why I love photoshop).

I left a few tick lines on the bed spread, although I see some on the back wall which will need to be cleaned up (or painted over if I just black out the back wall).

But once clean up is finished, I'll take the piece into Illustrator and run live trace on it to give me smoother lines. Although, looking at the piece at size, I don't think it will be a problem just to color over the tiff as is.

Now, I start researching my color palette for this piece. All desaturated earthtones of course.

Revenge of the Pencilator

I gave the piece another going over after a catastrophic inking attempt on Saturday. The redone piece is on a piece of art paper specially made to stop bleed from ink and markers (yeah...but apparently not as good as they thought). Thus far, I haven't had any horrific bleed but all I've inked thus far today are the geometric areas of shadow on teh wall.

I did make a few changes to the piece in the penciling stage this time. I removed the footboard thing, shifted the door up a bit and spent a little more time on the teddy bear. He has big evil eyes now ( and yes, they will be glowing along with the relic on the table). Hopefully, I can get this thing inked now and get to the coloring.

Lack of daily doodles over the last few days...

Had to give Bobby Hill vs Evil some work. This time I repenciled the piece at 140% size to clean up some of the detail work. Unfortunately, I didn't notice how off the door was until now. So...I plan to fix that in photoshop. Just needs to move over towards the left edge a bit and enlarged up towards the upper edge.

How? Once I scan the piece in, I'll reduce to down to actual size for coloring and I'll take the door from the original scan and paste it in. Once it is in, all I have to do is make it blend in with the shadows around it and boom...done. 

What has this taught me? I still have some way to go before I'm ready to dive back into illusttation work full time. 

Tune in this week and you can witness me meltdown as I try to ink. I've already tried brush and ink and it has failed miserably, so it's time to go to the old standby Pigma pens.

Finished Pencils

As I look at this piece, I can already say that the foot of the bed thing is going away. I'm going to do a  fog/smoke effect on the bottom of the door to give the impression of something trying to get out.

I'm going to put together a second version of the piece this weekend as this piece still isn't blowing my skirt up. Yes, it depicts what it was supposed to...but it isn't something that is uniquely in my style of presentation and composition.

Daily Doodle(s)

Today's doodle comes from a sketch I did back in 2001 after watching the House on Haunted Hill. Most of my illustration work is inspired in one way or another by film and television. I have always prefered pieces that had a cinematic quality to them rather than something that looks static or posed. As a consequence, I've always preferred to given the source text for the pieces I do as opposed to having a specific scene. A specific scene leaves no room for interpretation and you are limited in your options for the piece. 

Is a collection of pencil sketch, concept pieces I did back in January. I drew a happy apple, an ecstatic popsicle, and an exhuberant creamsicle. Also pictured was a cutesy little marshmallow guy in a beanie that has a problem with law enforcement. And lastly, a generic style henchman illustration for a cartoony card game that has evil scientists and doomsday devices.

Penciler's Progress...

Progressing right along. Still working some stuff out like the shadow on the left side of the picture frame and the width of the kids shoulders. I'll probably narrow them up a little more. But the idea is he's pulled his legs up and he's sort of in a ball as he's terrified of the thing in the closet. 

I'd like to point out I suck at drawing kids. It's one of those things where I have to just keep modifying things until it looks right ( probably raise the collar on the pjs as well). But getting the kid just right is the point of today.

I added a "funky" relic on his nightstand to add a little more character to the piece. I'm still trying to figure out what to put on the right side other than the closet door. Still roughing in the folds in the quilt as well.

Penciling pt 3 or a Doodle A Day pt 3

Today's doodle was a practice in one of my weaker artistic areas....drawing architecture. I've always had trouble with either adding too much detail or not enough. This piece here, is closer to what I am going for...although looking at it now, I can see a few places I think I need to make some tweaks.

The piece itself is a Romanian castle. I've actually drawn this castle several times for Dark Ages Vampire...once in Under the Black Cross, Devil's Due, and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head. The actual location is Bran Castle, although I took several liberties with the landscape (mainly the mountains.

Fun Fact: I watched Forbidden Planet this morning and I had forgotten what utter horn-dogs the crew of Leslie Nielsen's spaceship were. Seriously...they were eyebanging Alterra from the second she walked into the room.

Other Fun Fact: The effects for Forbidden Planet are far superior to the effects in Logan's Run.

Now back to penciling my paying gig piece. I have to be 2/5 done with it by end of day today to stay on schedule.

Warm up Penciling pt 2

Watched the Black Cat this morning...so I figure I'd draw up Boris Karloff as Hjalmar Poelzig. Again, just a warm up piece to get me back into doing not so cartoony stuff (I've been doodling kid friendly stuff for the last 8 months). Again, using the Mignola principle...you either put the heavy blacks in the foreground or the background. The background will just end up being a flat color with a lightened portion to simulate the light being cast from the right side. I went a little more towards realism for this one...well...realism for me anyway. This one is definitely more like the style I used for Midnight Circus and the Syndicate headshots. 

On a side note, I really miss doing NPC headshots. From about 2001-2004 it was my big artistic thing that I did on a lot of White Wolf books. And to be honest, I still feel like some of my best work were the headshots I did.

Also to the left you will see the Dudes of Legend layout for page 1 of the comic. I did this about a year ago. Right now, there is just me, Brian, and Craig (wearing a Hawaiian shirt). There is a fourth guy, but I have no idea who that was supposed to be...maybe Vinnie...although the bloody butcher apron screams Chad Brown. He does like to murder Central American prostitutes.

I was gonna go Batman the Animated series styled with it, but it's looking more and more like I'm gonna go full balls Mignolient with it. Can't really say for sure though...just depends on the mood I'm in when I decide to pencil it.

Fun Fact: The cover to Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime is what really started my artistic style down the more graphic style road. 

Other Fun Fact: My portable drafting table kinda sucks. I miss having a full on drafting table for doing art. I also miss having a desk to do nothing but miniature painting on, but that is a rant for my other blog.

I am now going to go take a nap or something.

Warm Up Penciling....pt1

Started doing warm up pieces this weekend to shake the cobwebs out before I start penciling  Bobby Hill vs Evil. I never go in to working on a paying gig without doing some of these.

First one of the day is an Abe Sapien piece. Simple Mignola styled piece...character in foreground and a creepy graphic element  in the background. I opted for a Piranha skull rather...it just looked more evil.

Once I get the Bobby Hill vs Evil piece penciled, I'll practive my inking on this guy as well. Now, gonna go do a couple more and then settle in to do the big piece.