Well I finally got a chance to put these pics up. These are from my trip to New York City. When I was there I got to meet up with a few well known artists Donato and William Seccombe.
Donato (the one in the bottom picture) is an extremely successful fantasy artist. If you aren't familiar with his work I recommend clicking his name and seeing it, it is fantastic. I hopefully will be able to visit his studio sometime soon. Unfortunately my trip was too short and event filled for me to do it then, but next time.
William (the one in the top picture) is a great figurative painter and graphic designer. He also has a great blog wseccombe.blogspot.com. So go check it out, read his stuff and follow his blog. Believe me it is worth it. He updates often and shows some great demos.
Well that be it for now, I shall bid thee farewell. Goodnight to some and good morning to the rest.
Hey there folks. Awhile ago I was contacted by a website called whohub.com. It is apparently a site where professionals answer interview questions. They wanted me to answer questions related to illustration. It seemed like good fun so I decided to do it. I figure it lets me answer specific questions that don't get brought up here. So if you are interested check it out and enjoy.
http://www.whohub.com/level20artist
Yet another oil painting I did awhile back. This one is of a guy who works at the local music store. This was his first time modeling and despite his issues remaining still and answering his phone while modeling, the painting turned out quite well. I wanted to get a feeling of loneliness and solitude in the piece. Originally the background was empty but I added the windows to help activate the space. For a simple portrait I think it turned out well. I do especially like the blue lighting in the area around his shoulder.
And fun note I actually painted this on masonite. I did a drawing of him first then scanned it into the computer. Placed a flat neutral brown under painting behind the drawing in Photoshop. I then printed it out at a height of about 44 inches. Finally I matte mediumed it to the masonite and then started painting.
Well I have posted quite a bit today. I think I may get some sleep now but I still may post more later today. Look forward to my picks from my trip to NYC, the interview I am doing, and some new fun website things. Night for now..... or morning.
Here is one of my latest self-ports. It is done in my water based oils. I was trying to capture my joy of finally being back in the north where there is snow. as opposed to Florida were they do not even have seasons.
I liked what I did with this, especially the slight color variations in the hair and on the face.
I had shown this to the well known fine artist Jerome Witkin, and he had given me possibly one of the best compliments I have ever received. When he saw this piece he told me he quite liked it. That it was very poetic and that it reminded him of a Victorian Age painter Arthur Rackham. Mind you Rackham is one of my favorite illustrators of all time, and for an artist of Jerome's caliber to compare a piece of mine to him was a truly great honor.
That's it for this post, still only halfway done with the stuff I need to post.
NOT MY ART
Well I finally found sometime to finish my movie review. It's been awhile since I went and saw DBE and my anger of the movie has died down so this won't be as extensive of a rant as I had before. This could also be due to the fact that it was exactly as terrible as I expected.
However, I did just recently see Star Trek for the second time, and for how bad DBE was Star Trek was that good. So I decided to talk of that as well.
And for note I wanted to repeat my stance on my review; "Now, is my opinion one that should be held in high regard? Are my views so eye-opening that anyone who reads this will regard my comments as genius?.... HELL NO. However, I do wish to express my opinion, as this is my blog I want to add a bit of personal flare and insight into my tastes."
I do give warning now this will CONTAIN SPOILERS.
Where to start with DBE? How about the characters? Chichi, she was at best bland. She just didn't matter, she was the stereotypical love interest who is there just for the sake of, well, being a love interest. She added nothing and had almost no personality. The Chichi from the old show, while on many occasions irritated me greatly at least was unique, the one in DBE could have been easily replaced with a card board cut out.
Bulma, Yamcha, and Piccolo were pretty bad as well but I want to try and make this review not too long. So lets look at Goku....ohh dear God Goku. It was as predicted he was a dumb angsty teen. He actually asked his grandfather if he could teach him something useful like how to get girls. Are you kidding me? What made Goku so endearing in the old show was that he was blissfully ignorant to the outside world and just cared about training. They took the uniqueness of the character and made him the same crappy-cookie-cutter-cutout as every modern day lead male role. Ha I think I like that crappy-cookie-cutter-cutout.
At least Roshi had moments of perversion, so that was a nice touch.
Lets see story/writing issues. Kind of vague I basically am just going to vent on what I found...... unpleasant. First of all the main part of the story takes place in 2 weeks. During this time the moon changes phases about 12 times. Apparently whoever made this movie never bothered too look out side their window too see that the moon takes a bit longer than that. Considering the moon is SUPPOSED to be important you think someone would look it up.
There was also this scene with what I assume were supposed to be saiba men in an underground lava pit. These creatures for some reason are almost invincible but fortunately can be destroyed in lava, boy that sure is convenient. Since the dragonball they were trying to get to was surrounded by lava and unreachable I thought this is where Goku would be able to fly, however, instead he makes a bridge out of Saiba men bodies and hops across the lava. I assume how dumb this is needs no further explanation.
Then there is Piccolo, most of his issues I find are in his story. He was captured and sealed in some artifact blah blah blah but the he escapes. Nice and typical. But wait how did he escape? I have no f'ing clue. They don't ever bother to mention which I guess normally wouldn't be relevant except for the fact that they were making a new artifact jar and planned on trapping him...... does anyone see the flaw in this? Perhaps he may ESCAPE again.
There is also the graphics. Dear god the end with the flying car was so badly green screened, it made 15 year old Sci-Fi channel original movies look like Lord of the Rings by comparison.
And finally Goku's abilities. He for some reason is the Avatar for he is an air-bender. He learned to use the Kamehameha which is an air-bending technique???? Which he is learning to use to light candles, as part of his training. Wait what? Why does an ability that uses air light things on fire? At least it's not like someone used it later as a form of CPR to bring someone back to life... ohh wait yeah they did. Hooray logic.
Then in the end Goku learns he was an evil minion of Piccolo as a giant monkey. And now the big finale, he transforms because of the solar eclipse... won't even get into how wrong that is. So, this must be where that large budget went right, huge gorilla? Yeah about that. He transforms and is a terrifying enormous.... 7 foot gorrilla, Ok? Then to top it off when he transforms back his clothes are perfectly intact. Wow, just wow has no one ever seen the hulk when clothes rip they stay ripped... arrggg the amateurish nature of this film is painful.
And with the wish of the dragonballs Goku wishes to bring back to life his Master Roshi who was killed by Piccolo. Yeah that makes sense he brings back the random pervert he knew for 2 weeks instead of his grandfather, who was all the family he had, yeah that makes sense.
Well fortunately after the abortion of a film that was DBE i got to see the glory that is Star Trek.
STAR TREK
warning this will CONTAIN SPOILERS
Since my rant on DBE went a bit long I'll cut this one down a bit, that is of course if anyone is still reading at this point.
Wow this movie was amazing. The cast was great great. Sylar was a perfect Spock and Simon Peg was hilarious, as well as who ever it was that played Chekov. Every character was true to their original self, it was a thing of beauty.
The plot basically was about some angry Romulan workers who travel back in time and mess up the universe. Now what this did was create some large differences between this continuity and the original. In this world Planet Vulcan is destroyed, Kirk's father is dead, oh and yeah there are two Spocks, one being the great Leonard Nimoy.
What this does is create a universe with characters that are so true to their original intent but set up more movies for brand new stories and adventures. I wouldn't be surprised if in one or two sequels we get to see borg. Something that the original story did not have.
So as remakes go these two films are on polar opposite sides of the spectrum. While one was poorly made with lack of faith to the original or any sense of creativity the other went above and beyond to create a truly fantastic piece of cinema.
As I said before these rants are just my opinion please do not take it seriously or with any malice.
Well that's all for now look forward to more posts coming very very shortly.
This post will be short and sweet. I am back. After the long absence of my computer I have it back and thus the posting shall resume in great amount. First up my silly movie review.
Two days ago I had quite an unpleasant day. It was a very windy day and I was waiting for a bus. I was carrying a bag and a drawing pad with some loose drawings in it. So I knew I had to be careful considering the strength of the wind. Unfortunately I was not careful enough. As I lifted the drawing pad the wind decided to open it. I dropped my bag and chased after my papers unfortunately I had lost all the work I did the previous day.
Sadly this was not the bad part. As I said I had dropped my bag...... it contained my computer. When I checked on it I realized my screen was damaged. I took it to Best Buy and now it is shipped off to get fixed. Luckily I have the three year total coverage. This does mean however that I will probably be without my computer for a month.
This means the new digital work I had wanted to do will be on hold. Including my Gothic Vampire. I had finished it and sent it to the client, however, I wanted to make some changes and try something new. So it will be awhile before I will be able to.
I will have some limited Internet access in the upcoming week so I will try and post as much as I can in that time. Including my movie review, a new self port, a figure painting, an interview I am doing, and my recent trip to New York.
So here is the update on some of my projects.
Goth Vampire: Postponed
Squid vs Shark: On the Back Burner
Mythology Character Designs: On the Back Burner
I should have some new posts soon if I do not I'll make sure I get back to you as soon as my baby gets out of the hospital, until then.
Yes yet again another RARRR. Well not really. However, some other loud unintelligible sound may be appropriate. As I do recall making a few of them as I was working on this. It took me awhile, but now it is done and overall I am quite pleased with my finish.
There's a lot of little areas that I enjoyed painting like the smoke out of the bazooka and Iron Man.
I hope everyone enjoyed seeing my process through this piece. I thought it would be nice to show everyone how I work.
I should get a copy of the magazine when it gets printed. I'll make sure to post it.
Not much time to talk too much work to do. Next up is my Vampire piece which should be finished soon as it is due Thursday. So yeah I will be stressing just a bit the next few days.....joy. Well that's all for now so I will bid you good night and give you my updated project list.
Goth Vampire: Final Painting
Squid vs Shark: On the Back Burner
Mythology Character Designs: On the Back Burner
After many revisions I finally had the drawing finished for my vampire image. I like the direction it is going in. I think the colors I use on this will really be what makes this piece sing. I am currently working on the finish to this. I was a bit late in posting the drawing, I've been a little busy. Well sadly not much to say today so here is an update on my upcoming projects.
Comic book heroes (mag cover): COMPLETE
Goth Vampire: Final Painting
Squid vs Shark: On the Back Burner
Mythology Character Designs: On the Back BurnerAs you can see my comic book inspired magazine cover is finished. I shall get it posted later this week.
That's all for now I bid you all good night.
Well i said I wanted to post more in progress work so here it is. I have the final drawing to the piece as well as a color rough.
After I finished the drawing I scanned it in and started my color rough in Painter. Basically in this stage I just work out all my value and color issues. The lovely thing about working digitally is that i end up just taking the rough and using it as an under painting. So I will go in with more layers and flesh it out for the finish. Saves time when you can seamlessly move from rough to finish.
I really like the color I'm using for this illustration. I wanted to go with a simple orange and blue complimentary color scheme. I usually tend to cooler colors so having such a warm environment feels quite refreshing to me.
And now progress updates:
Comic book heroes (mag cover): Final Painting
Goth Vampire: Color Rough
Squid vs Shark: On the Back Burner
Mythology Character Designs: On the Back Burner
As you can tell I have finished the tight drawing for the goth vampire piece I plan on scanning that in tomorrow so keep a look out for that in the next few days.
Sorry i have no silly rant or random commentary (that is if anyone actually finds that amusing) but i am tired so i shall just bid you all a fond farewell.
................ fish sticks....... sorry I couldn't resist.
Well I finally got a chance to put these pics up. These are from my trip to New York City. When I was there I got to meet up with a few well known artists Donato and William Seccombe.
