Sunday, August 16, 2009

Same picture? No, wait...


About a week ago, I watched a video demo from an artist named Bao Pham. The demo was on a dvd-rom that came with a British magazine, ImagineFX, which I bought a couple of years ago but never got around to looking at the disc. My mistake, because Bao is an amazing digital painter. I spent nearly eight hours watching his computer monitor. If I looked quickly, I could see which brush he used and what lighting effect, but there was no sound in the files, no explanation for why he made the choices he made nor what he was doing with different colors. Still, I learned a great deal from the experience and wanted to show the latest look of my Jack and the Beanstalk to all of you. Despite appearances, I did not use the Dodge or Burn tool for any of this image, a statement that will not be understood by many visitors, but fellow Ringling students and alumni may remember teachers frowning on such Photoshop tools. Anyway, I hope it meets everyone's approval.

Friday, August 7, 2009

More Photoshop fun.



Once again, I'm going back over some of my old illustrations and seeing what I can do with a little more practice under my belt. In the original black and white version of Jack and the Giant, I was trying to convey atmospheric perspective through a limited value range on the giant. This time, I'm using that idea along with fading the giant towards blue and partially erasing the line work. Also, since I just learned how to turn a photograph of a cloud into a brush, of course I over used it. No matter. It still feels good to put some work up here again. New stuff will be coming soon.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Where's the ART?

Sorry, but there's no art ready for posting today. Shortly after my last post, the motherboard in my HP died. The Geek Squad said it would cost over $777 to fix it, which is more than I spent for the computer just under two years ago. Instead of going that route, I invested in a new Gateway. I just finished installing my Adobe software, but it'll be some time before I can pick up Corel Painter 11. As much as I learned to love Painter since graduation, it was a student version and I don't have permission to download it again. *sigh*

Oh well. I hope to get some more things finished for everyone to enjoy very soon.