Loss of Innocence

A bajillion hours. This was done for the Battle of the Sexes (Gentlemen vs. Ladies) Thunderdome competition over at conceptart.org. The guys and girls were given different topics - the blokes got "Loss of Innocence". I'm not sure how the voting is supposed to be tallied, but to be honest, who wins and who loses doesn't really concern me too much. I just wanted to push myself to my very limits and get a decent portfolio piece out of the process.

I'm going to start doing more illustrations from now on for the simple fact that I need to be doing more of them. In order to become a successful concept artist and illustrator, I need to get used to pumping these out as often as I can. Sure, studies are vitally important to my growth, and I will continue to draw and paint from life, but unless I test myself with these more creative endeavors, there's no way I'll be able to break into the field I want to be in.

I learned so much doing this piece... working out a composition, developing an effective coloring process in Photoshop, learning how to use different types of layers, experimenting with rendering different surfaces and textures the list goes on and on. I feel like I'm ready to tackle an even bigger and better piece... in fact, I'll go get started on that one right now!

i-Browse Coffee House

An embarrassing amount of hours was spent on this schematic. This is i-Browse in Alhambra, a coffee house I haunt at night and on the weekends because I get too easily distracted at home to get any work done. Gallery Nucleus used to be across the street.

As I was drawing the line art with graphite, people kept tossing me weird looks because I kept scanning the room, trying to gauge relative distances of pillars and tables. I must've looked pretty funny.

Value Studies

One hour each. For my Sketching for Environment class, we were asked to do value studies of landscapes with organic elements in them. These were done at the L.A. Arboretum this past Friday on my day off.

Period Architecture Sketches

About fifteen minutes to thirty minutes a piece. Drawn on location in Chinatown (Los Angeles) Olvera Street (Los Angeles), and Forest Lawn (Glendale). Our homework for last week was to sketch buildings which had a period feel to them, and to focus on the aspects of the architecture which gave them that distinctive atmosphere.

Watercolors

Two hours each. These paintings were done two weeks ago at a watercolor workshop hosted by Bill Perkins. I wasn't particularly used to working in such a loose and transparent fashion. There were many times I felt like I was on the edge of losing control of the piece - having to deal with water retention and the rate of evaporation are challenges I never had to struggle with when I was painting more opaquely. Absorbed an incredible amount of practical information though. Bill is a treasure trove of knowledge.

Studying Chen Shufen, Final

Three hours, and done. I adjusted the levels to add more warmth to the face and rendered out the hair as best I could. Not bad for a first attempt, I'd say. In total, I think I worked about a half day on this piece.

I'll definitely revisit this style in the future, but for now I'd like to try something new to keep me challenged.

Studying Chen Shufen, Part 4

Four hours. I'm almost done with this one - just need to finish rendering out the hair. I'll leave it for now and post a bigger final in the morning. It's good to step away from your piece periodically so you come at it with a fresh pair of eyes when you return.

I fixed pretty much everything from the last iteration. I'm learning so much from this study - edge control, glazing, indication, rendering, color balancing, quick fixes via the transform and move tools, etc.

I can't believe I'm even able to approximate the look of Chen Shu-fen and Common's work. About a year ago I told myself I would try hard to get to this level, but I didn't think it'd be so soon. It sure is a big step up from my first foray into digital nine months ago. Yikes. It's painful to look at your old work sometimes.

Studying Chen Shufen, Part 3

Two hours. Worked a little on the nose and hair, refined the silhouette of the face, and added a canvas texture to try and kill the digital look. Haven't decided on whether or not that makes it too kitschy (it probably does). Still have a lot of problems to fix in this piece. I need to reign in the details before the whole painting runs away from me.

Studying Chen Shufen, Part 2

Two hours. I worked on the eyes and nose a bit for tonight. I would plow on through, but it is currently two in the morning and I've got to be up for a six a.m. wake up call. I'll step away from it for a day in order to get a fresh look at the painting and check if any features need to be tweaked.

FYI, I am looking at reference for this piece, combining from a variety of sources and trying to match the style to Chen's approach. It's proving to be a lot tougher than it looks, but I'm really having a blast with the study, and learning oodles about digital painting in the process.

Studying Chen Shufen

One-and-a-half hours. WIP (Work in Progress). One of my favorite illustrators these days is Chen Shufen, a Taiwanese artist whose artwork of gorgeous gals and guys has come to define the look of book covers for romance novels in Asia. Her recent collection of artwork, Pure Love, just came out and it reminded me that I've been yearning to try to paint an illustration in their style someday. Might as well give it a gander now. I'll be working on this one whenever I can, which is often these days, since my busy post-work schedule is starting to lighten up a bit.

My plans for the fall quarter is to cut back on classes in general and spend more time doing both creative endeavors (character design, illustration, etc.) and specialized studies (anatomy, master studies, etc.). I've learned a gargantuan amount of information in the past nine months and I need some time to sort through it all.

As far as this doodle goes: I started with a graphite drawing on sketch paper, and scanned that into Photoshop to clean up the line work. I then started blocking in some basic colors, always mindful to indicate the forms comprising the face (this is where all those head studies over the past year have helped a lot). The next step from here will be to further refine the turning of forms and figuring out where I can loose some line work and where some contours should absolutely stay.

This is going to be fun.

Jeremy

Three hours. This and the following portrait were done at a three-day workshop Jeff Watts held on alternative portrait drawing techniques. We used a combination of charcoal powder moistened with water and laid on with a brush along with graphite pencil. It's a close approximation to actually painting - and a perfect blend of techniques I've been trying out in my recent watercolor and charcoal studies.

Monsters

I've been weary these days of doing only studies, so I bought myself a little sketchbook to flex my creative muscles. My aim with it is to provide not only a break from the norm but to also test my retention of all that I've learned so far. These three portraits of monsters were all drawn without reference. Don't ask me what the thing on the bottom right is. I have no idea either.

Unfinished Master Copies