Dragon Rider

     This is a series of my process work for the "Delusions of Grandeur" image I recently completed.

The first two pages are mainly idea pages. I was originally going to pursue a more typical "fantasy" type image and began trying to envision the dragon as well as the rider. This was ok but I felt it was very cliche. I wanted to do something slightly more original in the concept or idea of the image. So while doodling for ideas I came up with the idea of an actual knight riding a kiddie ride dragon. I got a few laughs from showing it to my wife and kids, so I was confident this was a good direction to go in.

     I took the image I roughed out on the right side of page 2 and began looking at reference pictures of knights and these types of rides. I did the first drawing on tracing paper (the one shown here is tracing number 3). This was done to solidify the line work so I could paint it easier. I made a copy of this sketch and used a set of gray scale markers to work up a set of values (range of white to black with NO color) that would make the shapes read.

From here, the image was taken into Photoshop where the real fun would take place! The final color version was resolved and some adjustments were made to the drawing to make the pose more natural and the to make the knight more awkwardly perched upon his steed. I knew that because of the complexity of his armor that the background needed to be somewhat simplified comparatively. So I chose a simple storefront location and let him ride.

The final image can be seen here. I hope you enjoyed following along with my process of creating this image. I feel it turned out pretty well and it was nice to get back to the basics of illustration. It has been a while since I've applied this fundamental approach to creating an image. This has been the way I've made most of my images but for whatever reason, recently, I've abandoned it until this image. So, now that I've 'found' it again, I need to hold on to it and apply it.

Thanks again,
TTYL

Sketchbook Journal

This is a page from one of my sketchbooks. I don't usually write "journal" entries but every once in a while I grab my pen and put some thoughts down. Mostly I do this when I'm frustrated and need an outlet, so I don't go completely off the deep end.
Anyway, it's too difficult to read so if you want to please click on the "image" and get a larger, more legible, version. I was thinking of typing it all for here, but I thought it would be more interesting to show the actual page as it was written.
Thanks for following along,
TTYL

The Red Umbrella

While I walking out to my car in the rain, I happened to notice this lady trying to find her car while talking on her cell phone. It struck me as an interesting concept for a painting. I don't know how far I'll actually take this but I did get it as far as an initial color concept in watercolor. This actually turned out much darker than I was anticipating but since I was just playing with a quick concept I tried to follow where the watercolor was taking me. So it became this almost nighttime walk home through a torrential downpour in the city. I'm pretty happy with the result because there are some pretty interesting things going on in the background that I like. The umbrella and the ground also turned out pretty nice.
This was started with a loose graphite sketch just placing the main elements using only the thumbnail [above] as reference. Next, I jumped right in with the initial watercolor washes, trying to establish a simple value structure and letting the colors mix and layer upon each other. Before the background was completely dry, I used the end of my brush and some paper towel to remove some of the pigment from the paper. This helped to establish some texture and color tonal variety to the background as well as set the initial tone for the rain. Once the image was dry I added some ink lines to the main figure to help bring her into the foreground, then I went over the entire piece with colored pencil to draw in the rain and rain drops on the ground. I had to also darken some of the area in the sky and right next to the figure to further increase the depth in the picture. A few more rain lines and quick color washes and I called it done.
I hope you enjoyed the process of completing this sketch.

Wet paper.

I've been messing around with watercolors a lot lately. I've been just trying to experiment with some new styles and get deeper with some different media than I normally use. So, watercolor is a great place to start. Watercolor has been a part of my repertoire of artistic weapons for about 6 years of so. I have done very little "serious" work with it but mainly use it for studies and quick sketches. Though, the pieces I have done with it I thought have turned out pretty good [click here to see one]. So, bring out the water, brushes, and sketchbook and see what happens.
For those that have never used watercolor don't be afraid of it. It's pretty quick and it can do some amazing things, from simple 3 wash images to near photo-realistic results (which takes lots of patience and a very well thought-out image). I'm far from photo real but that has never really been my intent with images. I am an impressionistic realist; which I guess means it should look like a real painting of something with light and color. The following paintings were executed rather quickly over the course of about 2 weeks and I don't know if anything will ever come of them, but they were pretty fun to do.
Thanks for following along. More to come soon.

Please click on the images for a larger version.
[Above] Untitled. Abstract watercolor design.
[Right] Lazy Eye. Character design/study.