Monthly Archives: December 2014

Nagging: Day 131

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Night time purple tree

I saw this photo and was inspired to do something similar. Seeing as I have a pretty busy day ahead of me, I figured I would just do something relatively quick and get my daily drawing done and out of the way. That way I can stay focused on other things. I’ve found that if I don’t do my drawing earlier in the day, and leave it until later, it’s constantly nagging at me. I guess that’s the nature of a “habit” anyways, right?

Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should draw for tomorrow? I’m thinking something that might end up as another comic book page down the road. Or, perhaps I should do something Christmas themed? I mean, I haven’t even thought about that yet and Christmas is almost upon us. It’ll be here and gone before we know it.

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Page Eleven: Day 130

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Painted comic page

Well, now this one turned out pretty good too! I think I’ll just keep on writing completely random comic book pages that may or may not even be from the same series! I’m quite positive that I’ll keep on learning new stuff if I keep doing this. I would have to try and keep the text all the same, and most importantly keep the art style the same. Though that last bit is going to be really hard to do considering how I tend to just do whatever works and not make any effort at all to try and get images to flow well together. So, like I said, I’ll keep on learning something new if I keep this up. Besides, I’m totally writing a comic, even though I’m not technically writing an actual comic. Who cares, this is freakin awesome!

EDIT: Also, Sphyxon, as I drew it the day before, is like pink/purple and stuff! So If this was a real comic the colors would be all wrong! Or… something happens between pages 1 and 11 😉

EDIT2: I’ve also noticed that the second panel doesn’t look zoomed in enough. So that’s also something I would have to get better at.

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Interviewed: Day 129

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Underwater Photoshop painting

Continuing with my underwater painting, I went ahead and added some green and red barnacle looking things. I think the red ones look alright, but the green ones though, they could use a little work. Not exactly sure what changes needs to be made, but something to help make them look more natural. Or maybe it’s just me. I dunno. Geez, is it ever hard to make an underwater scene look alien-like! No matter what planet you’re on, Earth or wherever, it all looks alien-like!

There’s also the obvious sub in the middle there. It’s just a placeholder. Well, it was supposed to be just a placeholder. I kind of got carried away and I kept on adding more and more details. Part of me wants to leave it all as it is and call it a finished product, but I think I could pull off a decent machinery design so I’ll keep pressing on. For one more day at least.

Everything is shaping up nicely. Seems everything I’m creating lately is turning out wonderful. Oh! Not to mention that I got asked to do an interview yesterday for a blog. Not just any blog though, Crystal Moody’s blog. The blog that got me inspired to start my Year of Creative Habits in the first place. I wouldn’t of even thought to do something like this if it wasn’t for her. So it’s a little bit surreal that she wants to interview me. I believe she said for an “artist of the month” type of thing. I’m currently in the process of answering some questions about myself, and my artwork. Pretty cool!

So much has happened this year, it’s all kind of unbelievable.

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Underwater: Day 128

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Photoshop painting of underwater

Thanks for the suggestion, Brad! This was so much fun to paint and I’m not even finished with it yet. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to make it an “alien” underwater scene, which Brad also suggested the other day. That way I’m not limited in what I can add to this scene by what’s already here on Earth. Limits suck. So let’s avoid them.

I think I have this “painting in Photoshop” thing down pretty good now. I’m still finding new ways to do things all the time though (those plants had so many do-overs) and Photoshop is so clever. When I was doing the comic book style text for yesterday’s post, Photoshop knew I wanted to put text inside those green boxes I had already created. The text, rather than having it’s own separate text box, made use of the boxes I had already drawn as the guidelines for the text. Pretty awesome. Not to mention incredibly useful. It’s also really smart when it comes to aligning objects properly. I don’t think I would enjoy adding text to my pictures very much if it wasn’t for those nifty features. Because without those features, math and rulers would be involved. No fun for me! Or less fun, at least.

I’m not going to ask my usual questions today for what to do next as I’m still working on this one. So, for today can I ask for suggestions on what I could possibly add to this underwater scene? Color suggestions would be awesome. For plants and/or alien life perhaps. I’m definitely going to try and paint in some bright colorful coral. Not sure exactly how to go about doing that yet though. I’ll have to experiment tomorrow.

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Space Trek: Day 127

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Space whale comic book cover

I’m a little bit disappointed right now! Don’t misunderstand, I think the picture I did today is the absolute best thing I’ve ever created. However, it’s so good in fact, that I’m totally disappointed that this isn’t a real comic that I can flip through. I made something that is completely badass, and not even a real thing. It’s a strange and new feeling.

I’m not even quite sure what the plot of this comic-book would be. I mean, Space Trek? You’d assume you would be travelling through space in a “spaceship” of some sort. I think if this was a completely real comic book, then it would traditionally feature either some of the main characters (if not all of them) looking skyward all important-like, or the spaceship they use for the entire series, on the cover of the first issue. Unless, which is the case for this “fake” old-timey comic series, your ship is a organic space whale. I think the first volume of this series would be mostly about a giant space creature revealing itself to us and the panic that would follow here on Earth. A more sinister force would then show up, also from deep space, and the original space creature would actually help defend Earth. Only then would you meet the would-be heroes of the story as they assist. That would probably work.

So, I definitely don’t plan to top this image for tomorrow’s work. I’ll probably take it easy and keep it simple. So, now’s the time when I ask the readers out there; got any suggestions for themes, colors, etc. for tomorrow? Thanks for checking this out. Don’t forget to share on the Facebooks! I really appreciate it. Take care!

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Space Whale: Day 126

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Alien space creature descending on a unsuspecting planet

Well, this kind of looks like the cover to an epic comic book. And as soon as I figured out that my nebula kind of looked like a creature, I thought it looked like a cosmic whale thing from Star Trek. Don’t you think?

I have to say, this guy turned out really awesome. The planets too, for that matter. All of this was painted with the mixer paint brushes in Photoshop. Usually when I make a space scene (Thanks for the suggestion, Justin Earhart!), I use lots of features (like adding graininess to the image as stars) to create it. However, this time I just painted the whole thing. Sure, it takes a lot longer, but then you have complete control over everything and actually have to put in the work.

Speaking of which, this entire thing, from start to finish, took roughly 3 hours. Not too shabby for how awesome it all turned out. Sometimes, as any followers of my website would notice, it takes me days and days to paint something decent.

So, any suggestions for next time? My sister suggested that I draw something “jungle” related. So maybe I’ll try that. Probably something abstract and not actually trees and such, but who knows! We’ll see what I feel like tomorrow.

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Frozen: Day 125

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Blue, black, and white Photoshop painting titled, "Frozen Notch"

My god, did this ever take forever. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I started making this. At first the small brush strokes that make up the blue, black, and white image took an hour or so, followed by an hour and a half of tiny little notches to cover the entire painting. The things I do to “potentially” make things look cool. I had no clue how this would turn out and honestly, it wasn’t worth it! My hand is sore, and I don’t think it looks like anything special really. However, as always I learned a whole bunch about particular brush settings and color mixing etc. Overall, it was a very positive experience. Here’s what I started with (picture below)

Original Frozen Photoshop painting

Today, I also looked into how to get my artwork printed out. Snapfish.ca seems like a good bet. They have canvas printing which could be pretty neat! I have to look into it some more but this seems like the place I’ll shop at when I’m ready to sell my work. Assuming anyone will actually buy it. Perhaps today’s work isn’t the best example. However, I plan on painting at least 50 paintings in the next couple months so we’ll see if any of them are worth printing out! Either way, it’ll be a fun experience.

So, for tomorrow then, any suggestions? Colors, themes, etc. Anything would be appreciated! Write some in the comments. Thanks, Brad for the “ice” suggestion yesterday.

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