Morning Monster

Morning Monster Ink outline

There are times when I want to do some more simple illustrations approaches, versus doing a full finished painting. With this piece, I experimented on a ink drawing I did that I really like and thought I scribble around  in corel painter to see what works.

Morning Monster-Colored

This is the end results. It has a illustrative quality with out overworking it. Usually I tend to want to do a full finished line less painting. But this work really well also for simple line and color work. I will be experimenting more with this and see what else I can do.

Character Sketch

Just two characters sketches  I did today. I really like how they came out.

Female Character Holding Plants

Male Badger

Friend Sketch

My friend randomly requested to doodle her, so I did! worked of a small photo reference from my ipod.

The Ocean's Secret

                   I was up late at night drawing, not tired but in a good calm mood. I sketched this out, which was difficult and time consuming for me to do since I was approaching a much different style than what I usually work in and at the same time try to develop a story behind it, something among ocean/sea and boats and sailors and such. Will keep in note incase I wanna develop it into some full story/idea since I like how the sketch came out.

sketches

scribbling around 

Watercolor and character sketches

Some digital character sketches and one watercolor study.

Doodles and studies

Here are some stuff that I been up to lately. I also recently sign up for Concept art forum, in hopes to get some feedback!

Just few sketches here and there

Study Poses and Shapes

Still continuing on my studies. Been trying to work just a pinch out of my comfort zone, with different poses that I don't usually do often and clothing that I don't often draw. Since I tend to learn towards more medieval/renaissance look.

Style/Shape study

Just doing some personal practice/studying.

line sketch

           sketches as usual.

Quick Sketch

Quick little sketch I did today.

Paper Making and Books!

Today was very exciting. I had my friend Jennifer come over  for we can get the chance
to make paper! We simply cut up and blended some old papers/bills and recycle them into pulp to be turned into new paper as shown below.

My friend who decided the color of our paper (pink and purple ish) once our paper was blended, we simply poured it on to the screen evenly and distributed it, till it spread nicely on the screen.

Once it it was on the screen and ready to go. We put a towel over it and try to squeeze the excess water out.
After wards he let it sit for a for a minute or 2, than flip it over on a towel carefully and let it fall off the screen gently, and "tada!" you got yourself a piece of wet paper. Now you simply press the town against it to squeeze anymore excess water. Last step is simply ironing it if ya want to speed up the drying process or a nice smooth finish.

Afterward I cut my paper in half once fully dry , one for me and my friend. I drew on it and tested it.

It works great for drawing, but not for watercolor painting, the paper starts to soak up and will tear. but I believe heavy paint like gouache will work, as long as you don't add water to it or is not to "watery".







last but least, I said I would post books that I have been reading, but didn't get the chance!


These are 2 books I recommend for artist of any field involving in color.






 This is a very easy to understand book on color. If your the type that likes simple and clean direct directions and want a simple and easy going start of on color theory and applying it to your painting this is the book for you.. It goes over a variety of important topics such as color wheel, and how to use color to create pleasing compositional and color coordinated pictures. What is also a nice touch is a page on how different time of the day effects color such as morning colors compare to evening. So if ya wondering how to paint a foggy or cold morning or a sunset colors in the evening. This book has it and in a very simple and clean way! You cant go wrong with this.

Recommend this to all artist of level.










The second book is Color and light. if your a more advance Artist (but also recommend to beginners if your up to it) and wanting to expand your knowledge on color and knowledge on manipulating color, you need this book. James Gurney goes over the formulas and methods of painting. This is not a step by step, but a book on understanding the fundamentals and technical side of color. The book provides in depth knowledge on color  and history on how previous artist learned and used color and their methods/problem solving. . if you take the time to read this book and practice through it. You will be able to pretty much paint any color and any color combination/harmony for your personal needs or work.





That is all for now, tomorrow if not, I will post another book topic, by the same author "James Gurney". But I think for today, the blog has enough agenda for reading.

Quick sketch and Custom brush

Hey guys! The weekend went pretty smoothly and it was pretty eventful, as previous said it was my mothers birthday and I also had to attend to a art reception which I will post soon when I get the photos from a fellow friend.

As for the picture above ive been testing some custom brushes that I have been making to fit my personal needs in digital art. So far, I really like the results, its smooth and gentle. My goal wasa pencil and pen feel in one brush setting. It works, and I will be using this brush for future digital sketching.

The importance of backgrounds.

When ever I draw anything, especially character related. I always remind myself to try my best to add a background of some kind. When you don't add a background and just leave the character floating in white space. The viewer cant really get much out of it on whats going on. In other words the picture lacks texture/space/idea. People will naturally ask in there head, where is this character? where is he going? Why is he holding a box of items?Where did he get the box of items? With no clues to indicate, the viewer is some what forced to used there imagination. which is okay, but with out any small clues. The viewer may get bored and eventually say its "just a character in blank white space" nothing much.

Now what happens when you take the time to add a background? You establish a sense of space. The character now exist somewhere that people might familiarize themselves. I also decided to add a variety of few random items, in a some what disorganized fashion. Hoping to give viewers, that the character is "moving". it can go both ways, moving out, or moving in. I purposely left it that way for viewer to decided on that. Although if I did wanted to show a character moving out. I would of tried drawing a different scenery, maybe a character packing the last item on a truck. for a character moving in, a character in a empty room setting up a poster and furniture. there are many ways to go with this. But I always found adding a background is a essential compositional tool/ingredient to helping expressing your story/idea.

New Paint Tubes!

I recently visited the art store to buy some new watercolor paints. As I paint more in watercolor, the inevitable happens of running out of a certain essential color. So I went to store, and bought me 3 colors.

Top priority that I needed was lemon yellow, one of the main primary colors I need for essential color mixing. and 2 extras that I have been interested in buying.

Ultramarine violet, a nice straight forward violet since its can be difficult to achieve a pure violet thats may have too much red or blue.

Last but least, Opera rose, a very saturated bright pink (like a typical bright pink rose color, you see in rose gardens). I bought this paint sincee there are time I really need to add a punch of saturation to my reds or I simply need a bright pink. Since to get "pink" in watercolor, you need to add water, which make it a very tint/light pink. which wasn't working for me. Here are the tubes of paint I bought, they are 2 in a half inches long, and about a 1 inch in width.

Since I am serious about making watercolor painting one of my main working mediums, I took the time to invest and buy the "Professional Quality Paint" and not student grade. As my art teacher says, if your serious about a medium, first buy the cheap brands to learn it. Than slowly replace your supplies as they run out with better/higher quality brand. These little paint tubes were almost about 12-15 bucks each! 30-35 dollars in total! but its worth it in the long run if your a serious painter.

Here is also some quick small scanned paint test I did. The paint tubes contains high amount of beautiful saturated hues. I look forward to using these paint in future paint projects.

Watercolor Sketches-Doodles

I didn't have much to do this week's  watercolor class! So I sketched a few characters/ideas that I can possibly use for future children books. I keep my ideas very simple and just have fun with the lines and colors, only problem I saw is I spelled "Apprentice" incorrectly! but no worries just for fun.I like these ideas so far, "The Baker" and "The Apprentice". I will definitely have to look further into this concept. I am not sure what the character on right is, by the looks of hes color, makes me think of a Santa helper or something.

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