Halloween

Another quickie sketch for the monthly creative blog, this time the theme being Halloween. So with all the things that are connected with the date I decided on the classic witch making some sort of potion, always seemingly involving unfortunate amphibians... Again this was an exercise in speed, what with the deadline looming but also interesting to see what I could get down in terms of composition, lighting and colour and how simply these elements would combine to make the illustration work.

Created in PainterX, with the cauldron glow added afterward in Photoshop.

Drowning

Second posting for the monthly challenge, this time Drowning. A chilling subject, the style was happened upon as I was playing with a large white pencil on the black background and ended up with the hand print shape. This I then used as determining the lighting of the piece. The Idea being that a sailor from years gone bye being dragged down to the murky deep by some hideous being. At first it was to be a tentacle and he was to be surrounded by the debris of a broken up ship, but I decided the drama was in the figure, and that the tentacled beast was a bit too much so I was struck by the thought of an alluring yet deadly mermaid dragging the unfortunate victim down. Pretty happy given the time frame and the trouble i had with the perspective, lighting and beast...not happy with the bubbles though...

Painter x, lots of hours over around 15 days

Mission to Mars!

Decided to start another blog, a monthly challenge where a brief is set, just one word, and you have a month to answer it in any way you deem fit. This was the first month's challenge the brief being Mission to Mars! After scribbling through loads of ideas I finally arrived at the idea of a kid making his own rocket to the stars from everyday junk. I did it loose and fast, and am actually pleased with the rough rendering of the image. Created in Painter x over the space of a week, about 4-5 hours.

Scribble

An idea for another pic one day. Based on a childoof memory of a fancy dress costume my dad made for me when I must have been around 5ish. It was a dinosaur suit with a head made from a painted cardboard box. Quality.

Korea

Went all black and white for this one. Based on an image from a book of war photography i chose this guy as his eyes really seem to tell a story of what he's seen, experienced and endured. I took a certain amount of license with his face, I made him look a little more square jawed all American hero and emphasised the point with the heavy black outlines around the jawline and neck area, almost to give it a comic book feel. Using Painter IX again, got my favourite brushes sorted out by now and have decided that it's best to have a few brushes that you use to create our own style rather than trying to mimic so many other fantastic artists out there.

Ben Grimm

How do you follow up the Lord of Darkness? With difficulty, so I simply tried creating something as fast as possible. I settled on Ben Grimm, aka the Thing from the Fantastic 4 thanks to his craggy rock surfaced skin...thought it would be a good exercise in using lighting as I wanted to create something quite dynamic. Not the best piece but was fun to crank through and get ever more familiar with Painter IX.

Sith

The very first attempt at something in Painter. Using Painter 8, copied the inside sleeve of the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack. I really liked the rough sketchy style I managed to get using oils, charcoals and oil pastels. The lightsaber was added in photoshop after. Took around 3-4 hours over a couple of nights.

Lord of Darkness

Second go with Painter IX. Much better attempt, using a photo placed on one screen whilst painting onto the canvas on the other (benefit of having dual screens). Took a long time, an hour or so a night over a couple of weeks, but I'm pleased with the result, was interesting how you learn about composition and how to use light and dark to create the image.

Mars Attacks!

First real painting (rather than a quick scribble experiment) effort of using Painter IX. Getting to grips with using the brushes and trying out the realmedia brushes and techniques used.