Rough Justice

This week, I picked up a copy of "Rough Justice: The Comics Sketches of Alex Ross." It is a visual feast! As I mentioned before, I love books where I can see the artist's construction lines and thumbnails. This book is loaded with these types of images. I love having the pencil roughs and color tests to pour over. The light and shadow work alone would have been enough to make me buy the book.

One of the things that I like about Ross' style is his use of edges. They really make his work feel solid. Also, how he make his characters appear "real," but still retain that "painterly" quality.

Another plus is you get Ross' commentary. It really enhances the book to be able read about the thought process that goes into some of the works.

In case you couldn't tell, I really like "Rough Justice" and hope to learn a few things from it as well as enjoying Ross' works.

Slipping the Bonds of Gravity

This is another old painting that I started years ago, but never finished. Well, this one is done now. I won't go into what this painting represents to me. I think that it would be better for you to interpret it for yourself.

I'm glad that I finally found the time to finish it. This was another painting that I felt needed to be seen rather than languish on my hard drive.

Wanda Maximoff - The Scarlet Witch

This painting of the Scarlet Witch has probably sat around unfinished for 3 or 4 years. I decided to finally finish it. The hardest part of completing this painting was to try to be faithful to where my skill level was at the time. I felt that adding too much refinement would probably unbalance the image. I think that I was able to true to my original vision for the piece.

I always liked this pose and I think that it should be seen, not hidden on my hard drive. It felt good to finally get it off of the unfinished pile.

Deep in the Baila (Dance)

I had a little free time and decided to do a quick painting. I chose a music / dance theme. I played a lot of Salsa and Merengue in the background while I worked on the painting. I wanted to capture a glimpse of that "lost in the music" place that I go to when I'm really into a dance.

Unfortunately dance classes and practice take away time from painting. Hopefully, I'll find a good balance between the two soon.

Jungle Elf

This painting started out as a warm up sketch, then it evolved into a value study. I wound up pushing it a bit more by adding a background. I decided to try working out a depth of field effect. Then I played with giving the environment a a sense of temperature, to portray hot and steamy.

The general idea of the figure was that if, if elves lived in the forests of the world, they'd probably be found in the jungles, too. I wanted her to be both primal and elegant. I leave it to you to decide how much I succeeded in what I was trying to accomplish.

Catching Up - Santa's Elf

I haven't posted to my blog in quite a while. I'm going to try to be more regular.

This was done for Christmas, obviously. I consider it one of my best attempts at portraiture. All the pieces came together for me on this one. From the skin tones to the hair to the texture of the fur, I was very satisfied with the results.

This painting raises my personal bar, which is a good thing. I don't think that you can maintain status quo. You're either moving ahead or falling behind.

Happy Halloween - The Witching Hour

Just a quick Halloween greeting!

Inspired by this stock photo from Tigg-stock.

Marvel-Disney Fusion

A little something that I painted to commemorate Disney's recent acquisition of Marvel; a fusion of Natasha Romanov (aka The Black Widow) and Jessica Rabbit.

Pretty Girl Art

I decided to paint a kind of manga fusion portrait. I planned to use my usual technique for creating a fully rendered painting while adding some manga elements; Large eyes, hint of a nose, angular head shape, etc.

I started with a sketch over a neutral color background, blocked in the lights and darks over a midtone and blocked in the skintones.




















Next I carefully blended the skin color transitions, worked on the hair, refined the details and worked some of the background colors into the skin and hair. The following is the finished painting.




















One of the things that I focused on in this painting was to portray the appearance of skin texture. To accomplish this, I used some of Painter's digital watercolor brushes on various paper textures. I also used some custom watercolor brushes of my own design. Following is a detail of the skin texture.

SciFi Armor Sketch

A sketch that I pushed a little further than usual. It was mostly about working with texture and a limited palette. I wanted to create a look of worn armor against a subtly textured background. I think that the trick, when working with texture brushes, is not to overpower the subject by using every brush in your repertoire. I believe that I did pretty well in holding back this time and am pretty satisfied with the result.

The Art of the Matrix

The concept art portion of my personal library is growing nicely. I picked up a hardback copy of The Art of the Matrix for $3.00 today!

This book has it all:

• Concept art and designs
• Storyboards
• Screenplay
• Assorted thumbnails and other art

Lots of ink drawings. Many color pieces also, which I assume to be guache. A very good find indeed!

HellGirl

Most of the art boards that I frequent have activities that center on a monthly or weekly theme. Artists will paint or draw works based on that subject or theme. One board's theme was to create a female equivalent of the Hellboy character. This was my take on the subject: Lucy Van Pelt, the original Hellgirl!

The Art of Star Wars - The Clone Wars

Another trip to the bookstore yields another visual gem. The Art of Star Wars - The Clone Wars is full of concept art. As I've been noticing, more and more of the concept work is being done with digital painting programs. There is still a fair amount of tradition marker work, but even that is starting to be produced with digital tools.

As for the art itself, its loose and vibrant. There is just something about roughs that really draws me. It may be the telling of a story or the relaying of an idea artistically, without much detail or refinement. It takes a very skilled and imaginative artist to pull it off.

I would have liked to see more storyboards, but that's a minor nit. All in all, its a very enjoyable collection collection of concept art and background studies.

Blue Wizard

I had a little time today and was able to knock out a quick, monochromatic doodle. If I was going to push it further, I would probably have punched up the the highlights to provide more contrast and maybe added some type of embroidery to the hood.

Pinkerton

I came across an old scribble today that I thought was worth sharing. I believe I'd recently watched "Pale Rider," starring Clint Eastwood, when I scratched out this sketch. I always liked those dusters that the "lawmen for hire" wore in that movie.

Art of Guild Wars

While browsing at Half Price Books, I came across a piece of artistic goodness called "Art of Guild Wars." Its just the type of "Art of" books that I like: Lots of sketches, roughs and concept art. Aside from the figures, there is a fair bit of environment work, too.

You can view samples of the concept art on the Guild Wars gaming site.

Blue Mystic

I took an hour or so for myself to do a little painting. I put on some Melody Gardot and Diana Krall, while pushing some color and textures around until I had an interesting background to work from. I decided to work without drawing an initial sketch this time. Using the colors from the background, I blocked out the figure and then, refined it. Since I finished in under two hours, this would qualify as a speed painting.

It was relaxing to do a one sitting painting. I have to find the time to do them more regularly.

Unfinished Works - Elf Portrait

Sharing another abandoned piece. I can't remember why I stopped working on this one. I suspect that it was during one of times when I had several paintings going at the same time. I still like the composition. I was trying out repeating an element in the painting. In this case, it was the angle. You'll notice that the leaves, the top of the tunic, canting of the head (and subsequent angling of the feature, direction of the eyes, angle of the hand and slope of the shoulder (our right).

Repeating an element or color kind of "harmonizes" the painting. If done well, the viewer probably wouldn't recognize why the painting is pleasing, just that it is.

After looking over this one again, I may take a crack at finishing it, but no promises! LOL

Character Study - Orc

A quick character study of an Orc. Mostly, it was an excuse to slap textures and colors onto a page to see what would happen. Turned out to be a pretty fun piece to do and its always nice to be able to post brand new work.

Bigfoot

Goofing around with a photo. It just seemed to need a Bigfoot, so I painted one in.