The way forward

I kind of touched on this in the last post... But who read it anyway?

As I said I'm going to be cutting back on my personal projects and even my Illustration Friday submissions for a while.  I feel like all the images I have been making have definitely helped me progress a lot more then I anticipated but with other commitments and interests coming into play I need to start balancing things a little differently.

Currently I have 3 projects on the go.  One is a pinup commission that won't go away, but it is looking good.  The other two are illustrations for a book my dad is writing.  I'm going to try a different approach on the last two illustrations.  They will be developed with the intention to be used purely as black and white images.  If colour works with them then that's great but I want these images to be able to stand on their own in black and white.  I will also be approaching them in a fairly planned manner, coming up with rough comps digitally, then pencilling from those comps and then inking (traditionally).  I really want to get more traditional mediums into my work and if I can bring more pencil, pen and ink into my work to start with, then great.

It seems like some paying illustration jobs will also be coming in which is fantastic.  I'm hoping that more actual "jobs" will speed up my development by challenging me in new ways.  I think a combination of tight deadlines, working with a brief and drawing point of views that I wouldn't normally should do the trick.

Although I won't be doing as many personal pieces or Illustration Friday submissions for a while, I do want to use some of the time it frees up to work in my sketchbook.  I feel like my faces are good but the rest of my anatomy isn't up to scratch.  Drawing dynamic figures is killing me and  hands are also an issue.  So I'll be pulling out the anatomy books (Burne Hogarth, Andrew Loomis etc) and getting to work on those in my sketch book.  I'll be working mainly with pencils but do want to end up working in my sketch books with ink only for a while.

Going through my portfolio, I have noticed that there are two or three "styles" that seem to recur over a few different pieces.  I'd like to refine those a bit and get them to a higher level of finish.

Well, that's basically where I'm trying to go over the next few months... Let's hope it works out!

Two new pictures

Wow.  It has been a super crazy time lately.  I have been busting my ass off for a while trying to get my portfolio somewhere near complete.  The good news is I have succeeded, so hopefully I get signed by an agency. 

What I can say about the experience is you definitely learn more about image making nailing one or two images a week then when you work on one for a few months.  I think it is a case of we all have a certain amount of shitty images to get through before we start striking gold.  And the more you do the more often you strike gold.  It's like hitting on girls, sort of.

These latest two are actually slightly longer running projects that have been hovering in the background while I've been busting out quicker works.  It actually works pretty well.  I learn something from each fast image I do and often get to apply it to the longer images.  These longer images also benefit from me getting a chance to tweak them more and look at them with fresh eyes, more often.  As I said I have finished these two.  There is another I have been working on which is becoming a bit of a white elephant.  But I will get it done...

Just a quick blurb on a few artist's I have been looking at a lot lately... Adam Hughes, JH Williams and Ryan Sook.  The connection with my work may not be obvious but there are a few things I really like about these guys work. 

Firstly, there is a real sense of depth.  Their figures are usually detailed and take centre stage, the middle ground falls back a bit because it is less defined and their backgrounds sometimes border on abstract.  It's a nice way to play with depth and stop your picture become too dense with detail. 

Another thing I have noticed is that it seems to be done at a larger size then what it is printed at.  This isn't a brilliant deduction on my part, it is common knowledge that comic artists work bigger then what the final piece will appear at.  What I have started to appreciate about this method is that if you zoom in on Adam Hughes or JH Williams III's work you will notice jagged, sharp edges in the more defined areas.  It looks almost pixelated.  These aren't pleasing on the eye close up, but when printed at a smaller size it looks fine and the human eye can't pick it up.  The moral for me is that details don't have to actually be accurate down to the tiniest detail, they just have to seem that way...

Here are the two pics:

Twirl

Alright, so this is an image for Illustration Friday.  The them was "twirl".  I found this picture enjoyable to make but the end result is a little off the mark to me.  I really enjoy the colours and texture.  But with hindsight I think the way I rendered the clouds doesn't quite fit.  The tonal pattern works but I think the motion blur I tried to get with the figure distracts a bit.

My Mom

My mom passed away on the 16th June last year of a heart attack in her sleep.  It was totally unexpected.  I've been reluctant to post it on the blog, it seems a bit impersonal and fake.  But I don't think anyone looks at this blog, so I'll write this anyway.

I've had a crazy time with it the last seven months.  I've been super busy with personal issues, work issues and building my illustration portfolio.  There's not been a lot of time to dwell on this event, which is probably a good thing.  Life carries on with or without you.  Thankfully my girlfriend, family and friends have been great. 

But there is no denying I've got a lot of pent up energy as a result of it.  A lot of the illustration stuff helps get it out in some way but it would be nice to devote time to more personal pieces dealing with this tragedy more directly.  I've got words I'd like to write and paintings I'd like to paint.  And I'll get round to those soon.

Recently I got in touch with an illustration agency and it looks like they want to sign me in Feb when my portfolio is big enough.  Really cool and some good encouragement at the right time.  I remeber my mom told me a week before she passed away that all she wanted for me was to have the confidence that I could do what I wanted to and be successful at it. It's been tough but it looks like things are coming together.  As always she knew what she was talking about...

Rest in peace Mom.

Some "recent" stuff

So my post rate has been lame.  But I have been turning out a number of pics, thanks in main to commiting myself to doing an illustration for Illustration Friday each week.  I've been pretty good with that one. 

It's been a really interesting experience, turning out work and not stressing over details too much.  Not trying to be perfect definitely lends itself to improving.  Some drawings I'll sweat over composition, others colour and others line.  Lately texture is beginning to play a bigger part in my work.  And it kind of bounces around a lot from there going back and forward the whole time.

I definitely feel I have a lot to work on.  Having said that, I do feel the hard work is starting to pay off.  Some pieces feel real easy and natural which is rad.  And the difficult ones always feel worth it, because I learn a helluva lot from them.  I'm not getting cocky though.  I'm miles away from where I want to be, but I feel like I'm starting to find some direction.

Anyway, here are a few pieces that I have completed over the last month and a half.

This one is an illustration that has been floating in my head for a while.  Basically two business execs looking at some figures.  Quite a boring subject, but I feel it could be used as an editorial illustration.  I mean, I could just draw shrooms and adventures related to them but that's not necessarily a huge market (the illustrations, not the shrooms).

This Clint Eastwood pic was inspired by a photo I saw on the cover of a magazine.  I really love the way you can get a small area  focus in photos.  The contrast between sharp areas and blurry areas always seems to work well and adds interest to compositions.  I'm not sure I nailed it with this pic but if you overdo a blur it can look terrible.  Colour wise I'm not sold on the piece but the likeness is good and I think it nails his character.

This was an illustration for Illustration Friday.  The theme was "Grounded".  I immediately thought of a hen.

Illustration Friday piece, the theme was "Prepare.  Average concept, but I was stumped.  Colour wise I really like it and the texture helps the piece a bit as well.

That's all folks.  If you'd like to see more of my work hit my Deviant Art page.

It's been a while

It has been a while indeed.  But it's because I have been really busy, honest.  Anyway, I will be posting a whole bunch of images up this week.  Stay tuned...

Illustration Friday - Seperate

Been very busy lately.  A lot of good things seem to be coming together, so at least it is a good busy.  Anyway, here is my latest entry for Illustration Friday.  This image was done on a limited amount of time, but overall I'm happy.  The process was actually quite smooth, I guess that means all the work lately is starting to pay off.

I've also done another two pics before this one.  If you want to have alook, just go to my Deviant Art.