Quasi Educational

Questions about Box Jellyfish

2010-04-30T13:49:00.004-04:00

Debbie Foster recently asked, "How do you get the effect of the incredible glow of the jelly fish?"

I dug up my source files for Box Jellyfish to look over the technique. I'd say the biggest factors in the glow are:

#1. No lines for the jellyfish. The jellyfish was supposed to look translucent and ethereal. I realized fairly early that a hard outline in my sketch would work against that. When I painted the sketch, I obliterated most of the underlying line work for the jellyfish. Looking at my source files, I can see there's only a bit of the jellyfish still present in the lines (it was probably too much hassle to clean up these bits). What line work is left is set to 'overlay' so it picks up much of the underlying tone in the painting. In the picture below you can see what I mean.

#2. I painted the jellyfish on its own layer. Here it's presented against a black backdrop.

I figured since the creature was mostly translucent, the light would pipe through the body structure (like fiber optics), emphasizing edges and any area that was more solid. I tried to approach the work thoughtfully, looking over underwater photography of jellyfishes and how camera lights render them with a spooky glow. It's sort of like an X-ray photo, but emphasizing the outer edges over the vacuous innards.

#3. I placed a blurry blue color dodge layer over the jellyfish, to give it a softer look and a diffuse glow. There's also another lighting layer used to place a soft glow on the areas of the background affected by the jellyfish's outstretched tentacles.

Aside from that, the reason the jellyfish glows is color choice and contrast. The picture is dark, the jellyfish is bright and blurry.

Hope that answers your question.

For more clues on how the picture was made, see the work-in-progress image I've provided.

Also see this study I did, using a long exposure photo of a nightlight in my bedroom.

Spooky.

-Jared.

Fantasy Illustration - Tiamat's Chosen - Final

2010-01-15T16:35:00.003-05:00

This is a mock fantasy book cover, set in the Forgotten Realms universe, that I did on commission.

The client wanted something that was akin to a Star Wars movie poster with characters sprinkled throughout the image. The blue character, Ningal, is some sort of important leader in the country of Unther. The other famous character in the image is Tiamat -- she's in the upper right corner. She's a dragon deity in cloaked in human form. The client wanted her depicted as a sort of spunky teenager girl.

During the process of creating this picture I worked out a design for each character before combining them into the picture. Here's the related character design blog posts.

Fantasy Illustration - Tiamat's Chosen: Designing the rest

2010-01-08T14:25:00.000-05:00

The remaining three characters in the Forgotten Realms illustration were original player characters which needed to be designed from scratch. Working from text descriptions and story details, the characters took form.

Zeldara was described as a druid with wild brown hair and natural earth toned clothing. I wanted to give her an untamed, living-close-to-nature look, so I added some scattered flowers throughout her tangled hair. Here you can see the build up from basic body, to clothed figure.

Xaxier is the key figure in the story. He's a tall and strong monk/assassin with questionable morals that fights with his hands. His key features are the three concentric blue circles on his forehead and golden eyes and skin.

Firaelia is a half-elf mage. She carries a rapier and casts Shadow magic. She is the shortest and most curvaceous of the bunch.

Finally, here's the height chart showing how they all line up with each other. Xavior and Ningal are among the tallest.

Coming up next, the finished illustration!

If you missed it, here's the previous character design installment: http://quasieducational.blogspot.com/2009/12/fantasy-illustration-tiamats-chosen_31.html

Fantasy Illustration - Tiamat's Chosen: Designing Ningal

2009-12-31T14:38:00.001-05:00

Continuing the character design feature from last time, next up on the design plate is Ningal. Like Tiamat, Ningal is a pre-existing character in the D&D Forgotten Realms universe. This design was very straightforward. In the sketch, you can see how she compares to Tiamat's design - taller, with a more athletic build. I always tried to be very conscious of making every character unique from head to toe - not just clothing and facial features, but also their body type and build.

Fantasy Illustration - Tiamat's Chosen: Designing Tiamat

2009-12-27T19:13:00.004-05:00

A recent book cover commission I worked on called for five detailed fantasy-themed character designs. In a series of blog posts over the next week or two, I'll talk about some interesting points about each of character designs.

First up is Tiamat, a canonical character of the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms universe. The client called for some substantial changes to her appearance, however, so she's very different in these design sketches.

My initial pass on her was a modern take on the classic design in Jeff Easley's Tiamat painting.

The client liked a lot of the design elements of the initial design, but had a younger, playful and flirtier Tiamat in mind, so it was back to the drawing board for a second pass.

In the second design she's shorter and less curvy, more impish rather than sinister.

I also came up with some variations on her outfit. #1 is the classic fantasy bikini, but this interpretation of Tiamat called for a more modest costume, so I tried a number of other designs. All of them feature dragon claw shoes, a nod to Tiamat's other form, a five-headed dragon. The client chose design #4, which you'll see in the finished illustration.

Pegasus Anthro in the Clouds - WIP

2009-10-09T12:42:00.000-04:00

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s a flying Pegasus anthro in a flowing white gown. This image is from my upcoming book, Draw Furries. Since we weren’t able to fit a step-by-step demo for this image in the book, (you know, limited space in publishing and all that) I’ve posted a series of buildup sketches, and work-in-progress snapshots of the painting process here on my blog.

Now here’s a meaningless question to ponder. Are Pegasi an offshoot horse species, a specific breed of horse, or can any horse be a Pegasus if you slap a pair of wings on them?

Anthro Pegasus under development. From basic form thumbnail to rough sketch.

Final sketch.

Color WIP. Follow the numbers.

Domo Invaded My Life!

2009-10-08T18:27:00.001-04:00

Domo invades my life and work.

I just received my author copies of DOMO: the Manga from Tokyopop. Thank you, Hope Donovan (my editor)! I'm really impressed with TP's production values on this project. The book is in FULL COLOR and the trim is slightly larger than a typical manga, perfect for DOMO's highly visual stories.

Lindsay and I put together two chapters for the book. Like with our previous book, Peach Fuzz, Lindsay drew the line art, while I did cleanup, coloring, and effects.

Aside from myself and Lindsay, several other artists participated in putting DOMO the manga together. They include:

Priscilla Hamby - A.k.a. rem (http://www.blackmoontides.com/)
Sonia Leung (http://www.fyredrake.net/)
&
Maximo V. Lorenzo (http://8bitmaximo.com/) Who did a 4 page comic that shows up in the exclusive 7-Eleven version of the DOMO manga. (Way to go Maximo! I love the penguin rock band!)

So, next time you're out, drop by a 7-Eleven or you local book store and check out a copy of DOMO: the Manga. If you're like me, and hardly ever get out of the house, you can always pick up the book on Amazon.

BUT WAIT! There's a SPECIAL option. I'm now taking pre-orders for the Domo book through my website. Go here to place an order: http://www.jaredandlindsay.com/comics.html If you order a copy before October 17th, you'll get a bonus original sharpie marker rendering of Domo-kun by Lindsay Cibos included with your order. PLUS, purchasing a book enters you in our Peach in Portugal Giveaway (see details on my website here: http://www.jaredandlindsay.com/home.html)!

Swine Flu - ATTACK

2009-10-05T13:31:00.010-04:00

This is a picture I worked on a while back as a companion piece for Viral. I never posted it on the blog and it seemed perfectly appropriate for this week's IllustrationFriday topic, "germs".

See the little green piggies? They’re coming for you.

...that reminds me. I'll need to look into getting vaccinated. I don't want to get sick/get other people sick, at all the art and anime conventions next year.

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Sketched on 9”x12” Strathmore Bristol, finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 3. The image came together over a couple of days.

I used this picture and Viral on my most recent self promotion postcard. The explosive word bubble on the front is where the addressee sticker goes, but you can just imagine he's coughing his lungs up.

Unfinished Business

2009-10-05T13:20:00.006-04:00

An associate of mine recently informed me that I never posted the finished images for Strength, or the Uncle Sam - What's for Dinner.

Strength

Uncle Sam - What's for Dinner

Aren't they handsome together.

-- More art soon!

Strength - WIP

2009-09-10T23:07:00.004-04:00

AKA Strong.

Another entry for IllustrationFriday.com. The drawing is finished and composed, but I'm just starting on the painting. More soon.

Impatience: Full Walk-Thru

2009-09-08T12:12:00.006-04:00

When I back up an image on DVD, I clean up any unnecessary intermediate files saved along with the big milestones. Before I delete the intermediate steps, I use them to build a developmental walk-thru that details the process that went into creating the image. These step-by-step guides are often helpful to look back on if I'm confused about how I did a painting technique or a special effect.

Here is the walk-thru for Impatience, along with step-by-step into annotations.

Concept sketch to digital rough.

Rough pencils to finished sketch.

Progression of the colors.

Ted Kennedy Funeral - Quick Sketch

2009-08-29T14:14:00.008-04:00

It was on TV in HD. Used the freeze frame function and did some quick, spur-of-the-moment portraits.

Caution

2009-08-27T23:25:00.007-04:00

My take on "Caution" for IllustrationFriday.com -- Just got it in under the wire.

I had two ideas for this piece. (Actually, three ideas if you include the quickly dismissed “semi-naked chick in caution tape” concept.) The first idea had to do with a runner bursting through a repeating black & yellow caution-tape finish line. The line marked the edge of a cliff and the runner continued past the edge, lunging into the sky. Was he flying or falling? Who knows? Maybe I’ll do this picture sometime. It seems like a strong concept.

The second idea was some sort of smiling swindler trying to take advantage of a person. The key to this piece would be the use of the black and orange-yellow color “caution sign” palette. It hit me that the swindler’s tie would make for a perfect pathway for the repeating black & yellow caution pattern. Several days later, the picture was complete.
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Sketched on 9”x12” Strathmore Sketch paper. Finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 3.

Mushroom Princess - Leisure

2009-08-24T16:21:00.003-04:00

Rough sketch with colors

Inspiration for colors

More art soon.

Reverse Engineering a Peach

2009-08-22T11:57:00.003-04:00

A couple of days ago, I was seized with the irrational desire to do a Princess Peach fanart picture. I wanted to do something cheesecakey, like a Gil Elvgren picture, but mixed with a James Jean-like surrealistic thread.

As preliminary work for the picture, I compiled a bunch of Princess Peach character art from around the web. When working on a picture based on a famous design I'll look over the official art and draw a couple of takes on the character. Working style into someone else's design is largely an unconscious process. However, to gain a more complete understanding of the character, I decided to formally break down the design and rebuild it.

I found two different full body renders of Princess Peach. The first is from the New Super Mario Bros. DS game(left), and the second is from Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii (right). At a glance the characters look the same, but resize the images so that their heads are the same size and then it's immediately obvious that the Smash Bros. Peach is taller than the New SMB Peach. I decided to toss the shorter Peach and work with the more modern Smash Bros. design.

To understand the character's build, I first need to determine her body proportions. To help with this process, I placed the art on and use the size of the character's head to figure out the height of the body. While I can't be sure of exactly where Peach's legs end underneath her gown, I can safely approximate Peach's height at around 5 heads tall, typical for a cartoon mascot character.

Typical adult proportions are around 7 1/2 heads. That would mean Peach, at about 5 heads high, has roughly the same body proportions as a 6 year old. Now, I'm sure the designers never intended to pair her up against a real human, but when you do, it illustrates how weird she looks. It seems that Princess Peach has an adult figure with a child's proportions.

Next, I figured out her anatomy by establishing some basic landmarks for her body. How long is her torso compared to her legs? Does she have a long midsection or a compact one? Where is her navel, and where does her torso end? Because Peach rarely struts around in anything skimpier than a ballroom gown, it's hard to be certain of her body lines. Doing my best with the clues in the visable anatomy and clothing, I created a model for her body.

To double-check my model, I compared the length of her legs against the upper torso and head. For most people, the legs (starting at the hip joint and running to the foot) are about the same length as the torso and head combined. It appears my take on Peach confroms to these proportions.

With the body lines established, I've acomplished the goal of deconstructing Princess Peach. Now that I know how she works, I can use the grid to translate her design to a side, back, or 2/3s view and create my own character design sheet.

For my rendition of Peach, I don't want her to look quite so young. Using the teen photo as a proportion guide, I cut up and stretch my sketch of Peach's body until her body matches the target proportions. This is the design I will use to create my illustration.

Wrapped

2009-08-20T16:23:00.003-04:00

Art created for the weekly illustration challenge site, IllustrationFriday.com. This is my take on the subject “Wrapped”.

“Wrapped” started with the octopus. I liked the idea of using its out-jutting tentacles as a framing device for the picture. I considered using a modern day diver, or an unfortunate swimmer as his victim, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was making the picture more mundane than required. Since there were no restrictions (and I’m already using a monster octopus) why not delve completely into the realm of fantasy, and make its victim into a mermaid?

There you have it. She’s wrapped.

The final image with a more restricted color palette.

I consciously limited the palette and degree of brushwork in this piece, modifying my painting style to match up with the sort of quick-turnaround work seen in magazine spot illustrations. I was shooting for two days, but the work took a little longer than expected – maybe 2.5 days in total.

The final sketch, drawn on a half sheet of 9”x12” Strathmore Sketch paper.

Basic color tones, plus “paper bark parchment” texture from cgtextures.com. I was glad to see that a little texture could bring the Octopus to life. Almost no shading or painting required. A nice trick when you can pull it off.

Color + dramatic shading.

Wrapped

2009-08-17T20:55:00.005-04:00

Work-in-progress of a new picture for IllustrationFriday.com. Mermaid meets Octopus. Flesh meets beak.

I'm going to cut back on the detail for this picture. I'll also be more restrained with my coloring. More spot illo, less Hildebrandt. Hoping for a two day turnaround.

Here's the work up.

Concept sketch (red/blue) with revised lines (black).

Rough sketch - Details on the mermaid character.

Rough sketch - Composed with the crop and ready for the final sketch pass.

Impatience

2009-08-13T23:29:00.004-04:00

Someone just can’t wait to be king. ;)

Art created for the weekly illustration submission site, IllustrationFriday.com. This is my devious take on the subject, “Impatience”, for the week of August 9th, 2009. Similarities to any royal family, or member of any royal family, either living or dead, are purely coincidental.

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Sketched on 9”x12” Strathmore Sketch Paper. Image finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 3. About 5 days from concept to completion.

This is the earlier, incomplete version that I posted on Thursday night. Lots of painting and palette alterations have happened since then.

Diary of Abandoned Pictures

2009-07-19T17:20:00.004-04:00

As I back up images off my hard drive, I’m pausing to look back at pictures that never saw the light of day (aka the internet).

These images, sometimes scraps, sometimes nearly complete, litter the art directory on my hard drive. I never know what to do with these things. Occasionally I'll pop into a directory and browse the artwork. Very, very occasionally, I'll make a half-hearted attempt at finishing one of these remnants. I never get anywhere with these pictures though. There's always more important, more modern, or more relevant work that needs the time.

Incomplete projects can really weigh you down, and over the last several years, I've accumulated quite a few. I abandon these pictures for any of several possible reasons. In some cases, the images ran up against long term projects and had to be abandoned. In other cases, I was unhappy with the creative direction. Some pictures are contest entries that I didn't feel confident enough to submit. Finally, some pictures I completed to the point required to fulfill a task, and then left otherwise incomplete.

Whatever the case, it's time to make a record of these projects, wipe them off the hard drive, and move on. Life is full of endless possibilities. There's no point living in the past, or getting hung up on pictures that were never meant to be.

Fantasy-ish Girl Caught Changing.
An example of what happens when I try and make a "quickie" image. I wasn't happy with the direction the picture was going and realized it would take more time an attention than I was willing to give it. Therefore, it was abandoned.

Mage Fighter
Mage fighter was an image I desperately wanted to complete. The character art was in the cel coloring portion of Digital Manga Workshop. I intended to have the picture set is a London alleyway, but because of the time constraints on the book, I only managed to finish a small portion of the background before I had to move on. Note the woman's cockroach familiar.

Gymnastics Postcard Concept
During the 2008 Summer Olympics, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson -members of the USA Gymnastics team - took gold and silver in the women's individual all-around. For 48-hours or so, all of America was excited about their victory. Then Michael Phelps won his 35th gold medal and all eyes shifted to him.
I considered doing a patriotic promotional postcard featuring these girls arching through the air hand-in-hand. Never got around to doing the picture, but I had blast sketching gymnasts in all sorts of body contorting poses.

Sephiroth

Uhm... Yeah. Next.

The Zodiac
Set the way-back-machine to 2004. Sometime before working on Peach Fuzz volume 1, I started on the project of anthropomorphizing figures of the western zodiac into female characters. The series was taking longer than expected, and after completing 3 or 4 designs I ran smack dab into an 8 month long comic project. I put the Zodiac characters aside and never touched them again over the next 5 years. People really like these characters. I still receive emails about this project from time to time. I'm sorry, but the Zodiac project is officially over.

Cancer was nearly done and Aquarius was inked.

If it's any consolation, Lindsay later finished the designs as a series of chibis.
They're so freakin cute.

New York Anime Festival Mascot
The picture I planned to submit for their mascot contest. Somehow this picture became my ultimate nightmare. I ended up with 3 different versions of the character, and several differently styled color approaches. Unhappy with the results, and running up against the deadline, I left the picture unfinished.

Maybe it is finished... You decide.

The Art of Success: HOW ARTISTS SUCCEED AT CONVENTIONS!

2009-07-08T14:05:00.009-04:00

Over the years, Lindsay Cibos and I have kept careful sales records, charting what pictures and products were successful with audiences at anime conventions. I started writing this document as a personal meditation on what works and what doesn’t at conventions, so that I’d have a better idea where to apply myself when it comes to creating images. What I found through writing this is that I was not only creating a list of factors that contributed to whether an image sells at conventions, but also a list of traits that helped explain why some artistic endeavors appeal on a broad scale. I thought my findings might be of interest to other artists, so I’ve taken the time to compile them. I hope that through sharing this info, other artists might also be inspired to share their own knowledge on the subject of creating successful art.

Conventions: Passing attraction. Picture yourself walking through a typical anime/comic convention dealer’s room. If the convention is worthwhile, then the floor is an overwhelming sensory experience. A vast diversity of people pack themselves into living channels that run down the length of cramped aisles. Strange and horrible smells arise from the crowd, assaulting your olfactory nerves. Ambient noise rings a deafening crescendo in your ears, forcing any conversations to take the form of highly focused yells. Your eyes dart from one visual highlight to another. You’re barely able to focus on navigation or destination. Everything around competes for your attention. You find yourself drifting along with everyone else.

Within the crowd, there are other distractions. Some attendees dress in elaborate costumes celebrating characters from popular shows, video games, comics, and anime. Other attendees wear bizarre fringe fashion and fetish-wear designed to display the maximum legal amount of skin.

Every aisle in the hall is lined with venders doing everything they can to attract people to their table. They erect huge displays featuring hard to find merchandise, they shout out enticing bargains, they stand on their tables and clash enormous replica swords together, and they play J-Pop music videos on large monitors at the maximum volume.

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Now imagine yourself as an artist attending the convention. You decided to take the plunge, and put down $50 for a table in artist alley. Somewhere in this chaotic carnival of freaks and fandom, you reside. You set down an 8.5x11 inch art portfolio, and wait for a tide of people to crash into your table.

Will you succeed in generating interest in your art? Will you lose your time and investment, earn back your convention costs, or make a killing at the con? Like a general following Sun Tzu’s Art of War, it all depends on what preparations you made before the event and how you handle yourself at the event.

To be a successful artist, it helps to understand your product and the marketplace. What grabs attention and makes people want to buy? To help, I’ve broken down the factors I consider important to artistic success in a tiered hierarchy. From the standpoint of a convention attendee – AKA your potential customer – they move up the hierarchy making small, often subconscious assessments on whether the piece of art is appealing. If the art passes the test, it becomes more interesting to the viewer, and then they assess the work according to the next tier. Art that registers strongly on any tier is often successful. The more tiers a piece registers on, the more success it has.

Hierarchy of Traits Affecting Artistic Success

Venue
- Quality
- Size
Familiarity
- Famous Characters
- Popular Themes
- Popular Subject Matter
Appeal
- Cute
- Cool
- Sexiness
Controversy
Quality
Price
Personality

Over the next several blog posts, I’ll elaborate on this hierarchy. You’ll learn what makes an impact at conventions, and why. As you look over this list, you'll find these factors don't just apply to art at conventions either. The principles work just as well in the online marketplace, and can also be used to analyze the appeal of other artistic works, including fashion, writing, or even music.

In the next installment we’ll focus on the venue, the first and most important factor on whether your art will have an impact with an audience. See you next time!

Viral - Finished

2009-07-07T20:21:00.003-04:00

Viruses are fascinating little cellular machines. Since viruses are inert and virtually lifeless, they require other forces to spread them around. When a virus, like influenza, stumbles into a specific type of cell, like epithelial tissue, the virus activates. It breaks through the cell's defensive barrier by providing a forged protein passkey. Once inside, the virus assumes control of the host's biological machinery, and uses it to replicate itself. The cell makes so many copies of the virus that the pressure eventually ruptures the cell and new viruses spill out, infecting the surrounding cells.

That's some scary stuff!

Here's hoping we never see another influenza epidemic like this one.

So make sure you get vaccinated. Don't let the viruses win without a fight.

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Sketched on 11”x14” Strathmore Bristol, finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 3. This one took somewhere from 2 weeks to forever to put together. The four point curved perspective made the picture maddening, but I persevered.

Viral - From Sketch to Colors

2009-06-28T17:21:00.003-04:00

Sketch

Color concept

Viral - This'll be the Death of Me

2009-06-24T20:55:00.004-04:00

Just in time for pandemic swine flu, my latest editorial illustration is about a disease spreading in an urban population center.

I'm 2.5 days into the sketch. Like NASA planning a trip to Mars, I'm being very methodical with this project, carefully plotting the position and height of characters and objects along their curved paths in three point perspective.

Tomorrow, I'll move from concept sketch to rough sketch.

American Values & a Critique

2009-06-23T12:26:00.007-04:00

I present American Values, a critique by Demonlover11 of Deviant Art AKA Nicole, and my response. I indicated Nicole’s comments in red.

As always~ Loving your work! (umm... I'm just a student so I don't know if it's worth much but I kinda got into a critiquing-mode when I saw this and couldn't help myself ^^; )

Look at you, all critique and stuff. BTW, are you out of high school now? Got any big plans for college?

It's kinda dark compared to most of your pieces but I like the underlying meaning and the perspective play; however, there is something about the heaviness of the foreground that dwarfs the background both in an way that I'm almost positive you did to emphasize your point about American values and also in a way that takes away a bit from the loftyness of the perspective and the holier-than-thou and superiority complex that seems to be seeping out of the man.

The foreground is heavy for several reasons, including the character's girth. ;) For one, it's close to the viewer and brightly lit, so the colors are more vibrant, the range between light and dark is more intense, and the details are clearer.

As for the character, personally I don't see him as acting superior. I read him as a man supplicant in his beliefs. He's proud of what this nation represents. That's my reading anyway. At this point, I'm just another observer.

Is that a single tear in his eyes?

While we're on the topic, here are two interesting opposing concept s of American exceptionalism:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34T8zwOzW54&feature=related
(We're good because of the moral actions we have taken historically and continue to take.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf1kTiCWDe4&feature=related
(We're good because God (by this he means a specific Christian god) made this country and us exceptional.)

The heaviness of that corner robs the piece of the effect of the man towering over his conquered lands. It's the dark and bold lines/colors of the man and the trash upon which he stands that interfere with the illusion of height and distance and the absence of middle ground to establish a strong sense of background and foreground...

I'm going to cut you off there for a second because you hit something I was having trouble with. I wanted the trash piles uniform in color and composition. This leads to a sort of sterility across the landscape that's only broken by the play of shadows and the value diminishing effects of atmospheric perspective. While this was true to my artistic intent for this picture, I found the lack of a dramatic break between foreground and background unsatisfying.

I've considered placing shadows over a large segment of the background to make the break between sections cleaner. Maybe I'll try it when I'm cleaning at in the folder on my hard drive, just to see how it looks.

As I was composing this response, Lindsay read over your comments and did a quick color alteration to a jpeg copy of the image. She focused on the foreground elements, and increased the red saturation among other things. Here's how it turned out. I actually like it quite a bit. I think I might have to apply some of these changes to the full scale image.

Also, I'm not sure you "need" a middle ground to establish a strong sense of foreground and background, but it couldn't hurt. :)

maybe continue the floating trash from the bottom right a bit over the rubbish heaps with the same chroma and intensity of the things underfoot to really draw into the perspective and show depth? It also might be that the horizon line is a tad high from his placement- although you do have mountains... so it's difficult to decipher- (Although I am on cold medication so it might be my eyes- and if that's what's wrong I'm so sorry m(_ _)m ).

I'd actually argue the horizon is a little low. Look at how his body is angled and find a point where the lines converge. I haven't done this, but I bet it's slightly higher than the current horizon, like somewhere around his shoulders. Either way, I don't think it's very important. Maybe I'll look back in a month and slap myself for f-ing up the horizon, but right now, it looks okay to me.

Get better soon, and thank you for the thoughtful critique.

Oh the Horror!

2009-06-09T22:31:00.002-04:00

To be so close, and yet so far from finishing this picture. Eagle eyed artist out there on the web, if there's something I should fix, now's the time to let me know. :)

Till tomorrow. Everyone have a good night and don't let Uncle Sam get you.

What's for Dinner

2009-06-08T21:24:00.005-04:00

I'm exhausted. The piles of dead are proving to be a tough obstacle. How much detail is too much? What's the best brush for the job? Are the sketch lines more of a hindrance than a help. Etc. etc. I thought I'd have painting down to a science after all these years, but every picture seems like starting over. ...annoying. :p

Anyway, time to quit for the night. I'm sure things will come together once I have some time away from the drawing table. Time to clear the head.

More tomorrow.

Domo-kun, Where do the Months go?

2009-06-07T11:46:00.006-04:00

Time flies when you're working on a comic. I look up from my desk and two months have passed. Yeesh! I guess drawing and coloring comics have relativistic effects. Time slows down for the artist, but continues at its normal pace for the rest of the world. If I could only apply this time distortion to my bills. Paying rent once every 3 months would solve many of my problems.

The comic job I'm referring to above, was a couple of chapters for Tokyopop's Domo manga . Since the company posted quite a few of the pages online, I'll just repost their link here. Please note that the first page in the set-- what I'm guessing is the cover-- was done by another artist working on the project.
http://www.tokyopop.com/Domomanga/tp_article/2759413.html

Lindsay Cibos drew the pages and I provided coloring and effects work. Having never done a color comic before, the Domo manga was a good opportunity to pick up skills along with a paycheck. I'm happy with how everything turned out. I hope that the pages look as good in print as they did in our homemade color proofs.

Looking over the blog, I see that I never posted the final art to the Box Jelly fish image. Another victim of comic relativity. Here's the finished image.

After completing the Domo project, it was back to work on portfolio pieces. I hope to land some work doing either editorial illustration or something else within publishing... Book covers would be nice.

Here's the string of four images I'll be working on over the next couple of weeks. The first one-- about people fetishizing technology-- is finished and colored. I'll post on the rest as they're completed. For now though, here's the sketches to look over.

Box Jellyfish - WIP 4

2009-04-07T13:43:00.004-04:00

Final sketch.

Black and white lighting test.

Color concept.

Color concept without lines. (Look at that jellyfish glow.)

Box Jellyfish - Sketch3 WIP

2009-04-05T23:52:00.002-04:00

Another day with the fish. Progress is slow but steady. How many days has it been? Just two? Seems like a week.

More tomorrow.

Box Jellyfish - Sketch2 WIP

2009-04-04T13:07:00.005-04:00

Somewhere, deep down I hoped I could have drawn this image in one pass. It wasn't meant to be.

I have to color a comic page for a new Tokyopop project Lindsay and I are working on. This will be interesting. I've never done a color comic.

Once that's done I'll print the sketch back out and start on a second pass.

All told, I'm pretty happy with how far this picture has come in a day. I wonder how it'll look flipped? I'll probably flip it and then print it for the second pass.

Gotta keep it real. Gotta pass the flip test.

Box Jellyfish - Sketch WIP

2009-04-03T23:58:00.002-04:00

Based on a conversation Lindsay and I had one night after watching a show about Box Jellyfish on Animal Planet. According to the show (not fact checking it right now) Box Jellies cause more human fatalities than any other animal (aside from humans, I'm assuming).

I think the show scared me a bit, which is funny because I don't live in the Box Jelly's home waters of Australia. I'm never going to have to deal with these guys. It's not like they'll float out of the ocean on an air current and be waiting from me at my second story apartment... right?

Ode to American Gothic

2009-03-25T19:33:00.000-04:00

Another crazy anime related idea I couldn't suppress. This was probably sparked from an article Lindsay showed me about Taichi Takashita, and his online campaign to establish a law permitting marriage to fictional characters.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/3283463/Japanese-launch-campaign-to-marry-comic-book-characters.html

Regardless of my feelings on this very important matter, it got me thinking about a picture combining a 2d cel-style character with a realistically painted character.

"It might create an interesting juxtaposition." I thought.

Initial image concept: “The image is composed like American Gothic, except with two people outside of a modern Japanese house or apartment community. The male character is a realistic looking guy, drawn in a photorealistic style. I'm not sure if I want him to look flattering, ugly, or average. I suppose he should be the type of guy who would marry an anime character. The female character is drawn in a generic anime style, and painted like an animation cel. She has a baby in her arms, drawn in a semi-manga style and colored with soft shading. The background art looks like a colorized manga panel, that is to say, it looks like a rotoscoped photo with screen tone. Add a color wash overtop to finish, but don't paint the bg.”

To get the background shot, I ended up having to do extensive photo research. I walked the streets of Tokyo on Google Earth for several hours collecting reference shots of buildings. Since I didn't own any of these photos and none of them where from the proper angle, I ended up drawing the background from scratch. It took the better part of a night, but it integrated into the picture far better than a manga-style photo trace would have.

I tried to echo contextual and textural elements from American Gothic throughout the image, like the patterning on the schoolgirl uniform. See if you can find everything. :)

---------------

Characters sketched on 11”x14” Strathmore Series 400 Drawing paper. Background sketched on a 9x12 Strathmore Series 400 Sketch paper. Image finalized and painted in Photoshop CS 2. 2d character line art inked in Paint Tool SAI. About a week from concept to completion.

Absolved Complete

2009-03-15T23:13:00.001-04:00

Success or failure.

I'm unsure.

Next picture starts tomorrow.

2009-03-12T22:53:00.003-04:00

Horary! The Shojo Beat Girl is finished. Glittery little tears fall from my eyes and flitter through the air like Dandelion seeds. It's so magical.

Last time I mentioned this picture, I discussed waking in the middle of the night, fixed on a costume design. What I didn't mention was my idea for the skirt. I wanted each pleat on the girl's skirt to depict a panel from a manga running in Shojo Beat-- thus representing the character’s interest in manga.

I was concerned that using manga panels might look too loud or tacky, but from the first pleat, it looked perfect-- color, pattern, and texture, all in one package. Even the magenta ink used for the printed pages, was exactly right color for my image palette. After the success with the skirt, I used another manga page for the patterning in the obi. It was on message with the picture's theme, and looked as good as any pattern I could create or source from elsewhere.

For the background painting, I was inspired by the artwork of Ein Lee. You can find her DeviantArt page (featuring brilliantly ethereal anime paintings) here: http://einlee.deviantart.com/

Ein likes to use a program called Paint Tool Sai for painterly watercolor effects. Sai is a limited, low overhead, Painter knock-off, but to its credit, it manages to steals some of the best aspects of Painter. Also, the app is only like 2MB. You can download it here: http://sai.detstwo.com/sai/

Before long, I was futzing around with the watercolor tool. Originally, I thought I'd color the character art in Sai, but after using Photoshop to paint for the last two years, the watercolor tool seemed frustratingly uncontrollable. I fooled around in the background, washing colors around, and making little designs. Eventually I tried making a little Sumi-e painting; it would tie in with the Japan-ai theme expressed in the character art. A tree appeared and a stray line became the silhouette of an ibis. Somehow, this seemed like just the backdrop I was looking for.

What proceeded was a day of painting in Sai and Photoshop. The picture took time, but I’m pleased with the result, so I can't complain.

----

Sketched and finalized on Strathmore 400 Series sketch paper, and then painted in Sai and Photoshop CS2. It took about two days from concept to completion.

Absolved - Sketch Complete

2009-03-11T13:41:00.002-04:00

As of 11AM, the sketch is done. My old friend, the snake tool (a flexible curve), came in handy. Half way to a completed picture. Certainly is different for me.

Concept:
Absolved - In a dark space, a man is huddled in a drunken stupor, grasping a huge bottle of alcohol. Images signifying the man's desires erupt out of the open container. In this ethereal world, life's a party. Glitter, confetti, and pixie dust intermingle with money, cars, and women. Bright lights and magic reside inside the bottle, outside, there’s nothing but grim dark reality. Dreams don’t come true.
Toilet=disillusionment, or possibly the next destination.

Well, that was emo.

...Next picture, smiling girls and panties... maybe ;)

Absolved - Work in Progress

2009-03-09T12:20:00.007-04:00

That different thing I was talking about...

Any thoughts? Let me know.

Sugoi! to Absolved

2009-03-09T12:05:00.005-04:00

On Saturday morning, Microsoft takes Japan was mostly finished. The only thing left to paint was the character. Nevertheless, for some reason I felt the picture was looking too clean, too dull. Looking at the city, things looked peaceful. I realized that I wanted a higher degree of chaos. Wasn't there supposed to be a battle taking place?

Looking back at my concept sketches, there were originally smoke clouds rising from Tokyo. I thought adding about adding a cutout graphite sketch of smoke clouds into the painting. Mixed media dude! Like high school! Then I thought about a different, but equally mixed media approach.

Over the last three years, I've dropped screen tone into page after black-and-white page of Peach Fuzz. For some time now, I've wanted to use screen tone in my paintings, but it never felt appropriate. Graphically, screen tone, with its small sharp dots, is one of those trademark aspects of manga that just doesn't seem to have a place in paintings. Would it clash? Would it look to garish? It wanted to know.

At first, the toned clouds did look awful. The dots were too small and too loud. I reapplied the tone and as the dots became bigger, the image started to work. I ran a Gaussian blur to reduce the harsh edge on the dots, and -WAMMO- I was getting somewhere. Then I applied the sketch clouds over top of the dot tones to supplement them. After a wash of green-yellow and red, I was satisfied.

I think I'll be using tone like this more often.

On the character, I tried cel art for the face and hair. Like I imagined, the juxtaposition was striking, but it went too far. The flat art face became a jarring focal point. It was hard to see the rest of the picture past the cel art head. After several reworks, I decided to lightly paint the face, and draw lines around the contours of the hair. I think it still makes the point, she looks intentionally cartoony without overpowering the rest of the picture.

So now what? Image spamfest to all the CG galleries online. I hope that it gets a good reception.

And now, for something completely different.

How Microsoft took Japan - WIP Colors 1

2009-03-04T23:55:00.005-05:00

Eat Desert Last. That's the doctrine I stick with when working on these large-scale images. The character is the capstone. It takes the most effort, and is usually the most pleasing portion of the picture to look at. When you're done with it, you want to be on your way out of the painting. Maybe you'll still need to clean up a snag here, or alter the coloring there, but the last thing you want to think about is rendering the other 2/3s of the picture. That, more than any technical reason is why I start with background elements and work up.

--and there's also technical reasons, like overlap and such.

I got off to a late start tonight, picking up the painting after dinner. The preliminary painting and texturing for the X-Box flag and Tokyo skyline are done.

I'm working on the city now. God I hate the working on the city. I'm half-tempted to catch a flight to Tokyo, snap some photos, and drop them directly into the image. That's what a real manga artist would do. Or they’d buy a stock photo. Nevertheless, I suppose that's why I'm a quasi-manga artist. I make life 10 times harder on myself. Hopefully I’m learning something.

Work on the city continues tomorrow. Hope to have this done in the next two days.

Artist Life - Shojo Beat Girl - WIP

2009-03-04T17:33:00.004-05:00

Lindsay subscribes to Shojo Beat magazine. They're back to running another "Draw our Beat Girl" contest. While I wasn't planning to enter, (I have a portfolio I'm trying to put together. Random anime girl wasn't something I needed more of.) the more I thought about designing an iconic character for Shojo Beat, the more amped-up I became. I figured I'd treat it like any other art job. Lindsay showed me their list of criteria:
-Must contain SB logo
-Color
-Full body
-Faces reader
-Rockin' a cool outfit
-Accessories are a +++
-Representin'
     -Manga
     -Anime
     -Video games
     -Fashion
     -Japanese pop culture
-May contain the other SB chibi characters

Anyway, it gave me some solid boundaries to work within, and took me back to the days when I was doing personal character commissions for pplz on teh web.

After finishing up the sketch for the MS takes Japan picture, but before hitting the sack at around 12AM, I made a couple of squiggly character sketches for my Beat Girl design. It was nothing special, but my brain was turning over the idea. I called it a night.

I woke up at 4:45 AM and miraculously had a pose and outfit design fixed in my brain. Aside from fighting the flu, my brain must have been stewing on it all night. I wish it always did this. I can't remember dreams, but somehow during maintenance mode, a character design got lodged in my skull. I immediately got out of bed and started doing rough figure sketches.

At 8:30AM the rough design was done. All before the first cup of coffee...

...

8:35AM Now I've had my coffee. :)

It's 5PM. The pencil sketch is done. Who knows why it took so long. I dropped some simple color on it to make it more screen friendly. Anything need fixing? Let me know. :)

How Microsoft took Japan - Sketch

2009-03-04T06:49:00.000-05:00

After several days at a convention, and another day immobilized from the flu, I'm back at the drawing board. I'm not feeling well, but I was able to get out of bed and get some work done.

With Lindsay's help (that coffee was amazing!), I returned to my Microsoft takes Japan picture sometime before noon. I had a complete rough sketch with a nice palette of colors spotted in. I considered moving straight to painting. However, after staring at the picture for several minutes, I felt nothing but dread. There was too much uncertainty in the line work.

Some artists can deal with loose lines. I cling to structure. If I'm unsure what a line indicates, or find an error somewhere, I'll go nuts trying to rectify the problem. I don't want to think about structural problems in a picture when I'm concentrating on the paint job. Ultimately, I decided to print out the rough sketch do another pass on paper.

8 hours later, the pencils are finished.

If you have any thoughts on the piece, let me know. Coloring starts tomorrow.

One final note. Thank you NeoLucky for your advice on the image composition. I listened and thought about what you had to say, but ultimately went with the third concept. I felt that the position of the helmet placed greater emphasis on the unmasking of the character than the other two drafts. Still, I appreciate your feedback.

Sketchbook014 - Megacon 2009

2009-03-02T15:17:00.000-05:00

Portrait quick sketch commissions and random face sketches from Megacon 2009. All sketches done with a .09mm mechanical pencil in blue graphite. The large shots on top are the portraits. The customer keeps the originals, so I archive the art with photos. Too bad the shadows from the overhead lights make a mess of things.

Further down the page are doodles of people I observed. Since the show is constantly moving, many of the heads are a mix hair and facial features from various people who walked by my table. I’ve numbered the more complete faces. Tell me if you see yourself.

Sketchbook014 - Megacon 2009 by ~Quasimanga on deviant ART

In other news, I now have the flu. Thank you Megacon. Here's hoping I recover quickly.

Cherry Blossom Pink, How Mircrosoft took Japan - Work in Progress

2009-02-24T22:53:00.001-05:00

Welcome to my first post. I'm starting with a simple picture post entry. I've got some education related posts lined up, stuff that I'm certain will reveal deep universal art secrets, but for now I'm just looking to get my feet wet on this blogging stuff. I'm also looking for feedback on a couple of specific elements in my recent picture. You don't mind commenting, do you?

"Wait! Are you just crowd-sourcing me for art feedback?"

You seem unconvinced that following this blog is worth your time.

"Where do I benefit?" You ask dismissively.

I'll tell you where you benefit! By taking part in my blog you'll...
Get a behind the scenes look at the art world.
Learn how to become rich and famous as a comic or manga artist.
Revel in personal drama and intrigue.
Gleam HOT insider knowledge on how an award winning artist develops his art.
Have a say on where I take my projects. Perfect for control freaks or aspiring art directors.

(The above was said with a tongue-in-cheek inflection.)

So this is the new idea. I'm trying something different. Art that's big, dramatic, has a message, is geeky, and editorial-ish.

Original Concept for Microsoft takes Japan:
Microsoft does what it takes to win the war for the videogame counsel market in Japan. Halo is rebranded to feature a sakura blossom pink suited Master Chief, with a face of a cutesy anime girl (cel style face?), and the flowing glossy black hair of a princess . A tsunami wave rips around the front of the picture and crest overtop of Tokyo. The wave is made of millions of green dollar bills. Foamy water droplets are glittering coins. The sky is red and white. The symbolic sun from the imperial Japanese flag rises over the city, but the center of the red sun is slashed through by Microsoft's trademark neon green X-box 360 logo. Consider putting dollar symbols or yen symbol in corner or in the wave?

I have three slightly different versions of Mistress Chief-Chan. The rendering is crude. Disregard that. Focus on the character's pose and how it ties in with the overall image. Tell me which you think works the best.

The first has concept has the character staring out at the viewer with an adorable face, as if to say, "We did it! We took Japan!" From my POV I think this version focuses the viewer's attention on the character at the expensive of the rest of the picture. I lock eyes with her and the image becomes a pin-up. What do you think?

The second version takes the most of the pose from the first and refocuses the character's face towards the mainland. She looks more accomplished and solemn. "We did our job..." is what I think her look says. Should this be the one I use? It's less cute but more... deep?

The third and final version has her posed differently and turned more towards the action. Her helmet looks like it was just removed and her gun rests on a shoulder strap. She has the same solemn look of the second version, but the pose makes her seem more concerned with events and less with a viewer. She doesn't seem to realize there is a viewer in this version. How voyeuristic. :p

So that's what I have. I hope you enjoyed this little exercise. If you have any thoughts, let me know. I can't seem to pick one.