Saturday, January 15, 2011

felicitate [verb]

(fi-LIS-i-teyt) - to compliment upon a happy event; congratulate

wow, it really took a bit for me to get the difference between felicitate and facilitate. i know they're totally different but they just sound so flippin similar that the rusty gears in my head were havin a tough time processing it. =}

i've been listening to a lot of Rihanna lately and i suggest u guys do it up the same way. =) her latest album is really quite entertaining - if u like that "chick power" sort of thing. it really gets me in the mood to draw these sexy badass ladies lately.

anyway, first off, i wanna share what's going on with my art table today. this is just a bit of proof that i may actually have a slight addiction to starbucks (or maybe coffee in general cuz i cleared off 3 of my coffee mugs yesterday). i think either yesterday or thursday i was fortunate enough to get 2 cups! wooohooo!! anyway, either i'm addicted or i just need to be more dilligent about throwing out my cups once i'm done.
now off to today's post. this is another one from my holiday sale. this was commissioned by a repeat client. the ones i've done for him in the past were those 4-armed ladies. this is his character Amy Thatchen. the model that inspired this piece (and for a few other pieces as of late) is the lovely PlastikStars on deviantart. i really like her face which lends itself well to stuff that i draw. not to say that i'm good enough that i'm able to capture her likeness. just that she inspires me. my muse, if u will, currently.



this is my first real attempt at digitally painting water. (and i use the term "painting" very loosely here cuz i don't really have any educational clues on how to really paint.) i certainly have a long way to go when i look at others that know what they're doing but i do think it's a decent attempt. u know how sometimes u avoid drawing something in fear that u won't do it right? well, water's one (of many) of those things for me. hopefully now that i've done it, it only gets better from here. the client didn't ask for the water, that's just something i decided to drop because i was feeling inspired. why would a chick with, what appears to be, a lightning gauntlet be doing in water?? no idea. sounds dangerous though.

shot 1 - line art
shot 2 - i put on the flat colors. this time i decided to drop the water and skyline (and sun) early on. usually that's one of the final steps which is probably a mistake on my part. but this helped set the mood. as u can see in the next shot, i turn that sun to more of a sunset color to match the purple/pink water
shot 3 - this is where i add on the shadows to the figure. i used darker shadows than usual for her shirt to try to show it's wet. (not sure if i succeeded in that task but again, i'm trying to get better.) since i've established in my flats that her bra is a dark red, i used a dark red color for the shadows on her shirt to try to show that u can see through the wet shirt a little. in retrospect, i really should've put actual water on her to make it even more obvious that she's wet. but nothing i can do about it now. =P i also put in the clouds as well and colored the sky to keep the proper mood going.
shot 4 - i put the highlights on her and start to build up on the water. i start with dark spots on the water, followed by lighter spots. i add the extreme highlights on her skin and get that lightning effect on her gauntlet (which took a few layers of Linear Dodges and Color Dodging outer glows).
final shot - added some blue color to her skin. put on more light colors on the water, especially where the water breaks and touches her legs. i put the bright reflection of the guantlet on her and the water. throw a light layer of orange and pink gradients on top of everything for proper lighting and it's done!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

mansuetude [noun]

(MAN-swi-tood) - mildness; gentleness

i figured it out! this year, the title of the blog will be whatever the word of the day is on dictionary.com. i've been feelin rather unedumacated as of late considering i haven't been in school for years nor do i read novels and things. so perhaps this will help me speak more intelligently than my usual rants of "ya know what i mean?" and "nope, i call bullshit on that!" maybe i can even back these silly rants with actual, thought-out sentences. (which, btw, i had a really hard time even coining the phrase "actual, thought-out sentences." that's how dumb i'm feeling right now!)

anyways, so ON with the new year! yays! something else i plan on starting this year is to post more progression images. now i'm no good with taking screen caps of the pieces i'm working on but that's what the layers in photoshop are great for! i just go back and turn off a layer to show how i work. hooray for technological advances.




so the progression shots are somewhat self-explanatory but maybe i'm wrong. obviously i start with the lineart. then i go in and put flat color on the piece for 2 reasons - first, it makes things a little easier to select if something needs to be changed in certain spots; second, it's easier for me to start with a base color and work up. then i start to put shadows in with colors like oranges, purples, and blues (as of late cuz i've always been a little fearful of blue on skintones). next are highlights and extreme highlights that are the really bright spots that make clothes just a little extra shiny. the final touch is usually the background and with this piece in particular, i added an extra layer of even more diamond shine to really help make it stand out. many hours later BOOM, 1 commission finished. =)
this was for a repeat client and i tried to get it to her before christmas since she was giving it to her brother. but i guess the blizzard that hit NY really slowed this down. what should've taken a 2-day Priority package to get to its destination turned into 5 days. nice. at least she liked it! (or at least that's what she tells me. who knows for sure!)

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

a new year - a new look

guess i'll have to come up with something new for my titles this year. can't run the same gag twice, ya know? i'll have to think of it soon. =) however, i do have a new look for the new year. not sure if i wanna change this each year. mostly cuz i'm so indecisive that i can't just choose a color or theme and be happy with it. i guess we'll see in 2012. (if we'll even make it that far. thanks, apocalypse.)

SO! i wrote 52 blog entries in 2010. hmm.....that's not even CLOSE to a daily account. i need to do better and yet i start my new year's post on 1/11/11. i think i'll blame it on the holidays. =P

i did do some artwork over the holidays, especially with my holiday sale that i ran. boy am i glad that not everyone needed their pieces done by Christmas cuz i would've disappointed them greatly. o.O guess this will be the blog that i dump a few images at once.



this is my cover for the december episode (#44) of the Supergirl:Lost Daughter of Krypton radio show on PendantAudio.com. i really don't know where i got this face from. i don't normally draw like this, especially the eyes. i must've been lookin through other folks' deviant pages and it just stuck with me at the time. =P however, i was really looking forward to drawing zombies since my fascination with them has increased as of late (thanks to Call of Duty and the Walking Dead). the trio in the back aren't exactly zombies, they're like Bizarro zombies. hence the lack of blood or missing body parts. one of these days, i'm going to zombie-fy myself. i can't wait!


if ur wondering why this doesn't quite look like my art, it's because it's a collaborative effort between me and theFranchize. i drew it, he colored it at the request of the client. i gotta say, i thoroughly enjoyed drawing all the little leaves and not have to worry about coloring them. =D she's based off of a model that the client provided.


this is another one of those illustrations like the ones i recently did of the babies. this is for a friend of her and her husband. in retrospect, i probably should've left the BG white or something instead of the orange. sometimes u hit it right on the nail, sometimes u miss and hit ur finger. =(




this is was one of my holiday sale commissions. it's of a moth-type character named Mina. the moth wings were really tough to do and i feel like i've just got more to go. one of these days i'm going to have to learn how to use textures in photoshop. i was pleased with the fuzzies tho. =)

i think i'll save the rest for tomorrow. this seems plenty. see! i keep myself busy i promise! ^_^