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Hi folks today we take a break from guns and cowboy cows to look at the results of a little exercise. This little sketch was conceived in photoshop under a strict set of rules. The goal was to free paint an image from the web. Rules were to not use the dropper to pick colors(or tones). Everything was drawn in a single layer using no undos. The trick is to practice looking and not overly rely on the other programs features. It was fun to work in a manner thats a little more traditional.

Stay tuned for more guns and cowboys next week.

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I while back I was getting ready to make art for the UAG’s Undead Show. I had two ideas, one became the Undead Manifesto and another was the Vampire Jesus. I wanted to use watercolor but I felt really rusty. So much in fact that the actual paint had dried up inside the tube. Luckily if you can get it out and add water you can still use it.

One can almost say the same thing about art. I did this life sketch in hopes to practice from life before going into imaginary images. It was really fun, coming out a bit better than I expected. Probably took about 30 minutes to an hour.

Our subject Penny only moved a little during the whole affair. She started with eyes open and front paws showing halfway she changed her pose. You can still see pencil marks on her forehead where the eyes used to be. It’s really helpful to draw from life the trick is finding something thats interesting in texture, color, composition and subject.

Vampire Jesus didn’t come out as well. but Undead Manifesto did.

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It is not often I dabble in Acrylic, but I had this idea in my head that I needed to put down. What came out of it is a final piece but at the same time its a concept for something much bigger.

Electronic Dream Box is my submission to this months Upstate Artist Guild show which is themed for Games. I work in games but I had to put myself outside that experience to get to the point I wanted to make.

First I wanted to create something with NES cartridge shape but bigger. This one piece is about 10-12 inches across. I would have liked to make it 2-3 feet across but I was short for time and more importantly was not sure until the very last minute of what I wanted to do for the label. Took me a while to pick a card label to base my version on.

Eventually I settled for Super Mario Bros. 3 for a few reasons. It is recognizable, it is simple and had a layout that went along with the way I wanted to look at games. This being how I think I saw them when I was a kid which was as an experience full of possibilities. Like making shapes out of clouds in the sky.

The original reads: Super Mario Bros. 3tm, Nintendo Entertainment System, Made in Japan, NES-UM-USA-1, Official Nintendo Seal of Quality.

I changed it to: Electronic Dream Box, The Digital Experiences Genesis, Made for Selfhood, WHO-WILL-I_B, Books, Art, Film Now Games.

It’s for sale for 69.99 at the gallery. I figure once I get more practice at acrylic I could do it bigger then the lettering would be easier. It’s really hard to do type with paint on board.

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This here is a poster I made for the a Game Tournament that will happen at the Upstate Artist Guild next week. Sure it was fun to conceive but what’s happening under the hood is just as exiting.

You see I’m racking my brain trying to figure out how I can make my next book be in color. Takes forever to do it in Black and White. My friends always tell me my pencils are tight enough I should just skip the inking. This little poster is a test in just that. All in all the process needs tunning but I’ll decribe the general gist of it.

I took two versions of the sketch, made them into layers and set them to multiply over a white layer.  One sketch was adjusted to hight contrast using levels, curves and other effects. This was the main dark outline. The other sketch was used for texture. I painted underneath both with colors. Then created an adjustement layer over everything to add shadows.

You can really see the texture of the paper and underdrawing when I take out the color.

Above is the original sketch and bellow is a pretty nifty side effect of just the sketch layers with a multiply efffect on top.

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Happy halloween folks. May your pagan rituals yield good harvests and what nots.

This here is an piece I did for the UAG’s October Show. It’s a watercolor but what I found to be really fun to do was ink on top. Now the ink I used tried to bleed a little.

That’s not cool ink, shame on you.

Come to think of it, bleeding (if you’re making zombie stuff ) is oddly appropriate.

“Zombie Manifesto” hasn’t sold as of yet it’s only  $100 bucks framed. Check it out in the December market show (at the UAG) or contact yours truly.

Look out, it’s the Pope! Cheese it.