Well it's been a while but finally something new!

More Marker Sketches

Wow, I can't believe it's a month since I last posted. Bad form! Have been busy for the last few weeks on a completely non drawing related project. I have at last had a chance to read some of Andrew Loomis's, Creative Illustration. What an amazing book, and what a great philosophy he had. In general I try not to spend to much time looking at other artists. Firstly, because I genuinely don't want to be too influenced by other people, and secondly because inevitably you end up coming across some incredible artist who's half your age, and frankly it can be depressing;). It's so easy to look at some great artist and want to draw or paint more like them in some way. I think we have to resist that temptation. I think Loomis said it best, and I quote, "There is no better way than the way you do it best, and that is bound to be your way, with your own taste and ability at work" Andrew Loomis.
Wise words to be sure. Anyhow, when I haven't been holding a shovel over the last month and my aching body has allowed I have tried to sit down and throw out a few doodles. Here's a few, and as I keep promising myself the next post will hopefully be something a little more finished!

More Randomness

Here's a mixed bag, a speed paint and some marker work. I really have to focus on doing some more finished pieces.

The Keeper

Another quick marker sketch.

The Witch

Copic Markers

So up until a couple of weeks ago I was using Prismacolor Markers. While I assumed they were the gold standard of marker I was getting really frustrated with how quickly they would run out, especially the lower percent ones. It was getting to a point that I would barely get more than a couple of evening uses out of them before they would start drying up. This was getting expensive and so I decided to finally do some research into possible alternatives.

And that is when we met, meet my new best friend, the Copic Marker! I'm using the Copic Sketch, with a brush on one end and a medium broad nib on the other these markers are perfect for the kind of work I do.

I love these things, beautifully made, refillable, you can get replacement nibs and although they are initially more expensive I will very quickly be saving money.

Possibly better quality ink also. The image above is Prismacolor Marker on copy paper.
Compare with the image below also done on copy paper with Copic Marker. Both are approximately the same size and yet the Copic does seem to have a more consistent distribution of ink than the Prismacolor.

Interestingly enough I find cheap copy paper takes markers far better than premium quality animation paper. I do have to say though that so far I am not very impressed with Copic's marker pad. It's expensive and apart from the fact it's bleed proof I see very little reason to spend that kind of money on it. I find cheap copy paper to be far better.

The image above is done with the Copic's Warm Grey, W2 and W4. The rest were done with Toner Grey which so far is my favorite. I'm finding I'm using T2, 3 and 4 the most, so far anyhow.


So while this may be old news to some of you, if your a marker junkie like me and you've never tried Copic's Markers then do yourself a favor and give them a try. And no, there not paying me to say this!

Changes

So I'm mixing things up around here a little, hopefully for the better. Have added categories on the left there among other things which will give access to older posts etc.Here's something I've been working on over the last week, done in Photoshop and Painter.

More Thumbnails

So here's a few more for the lineup.

Marker & Ink

Here's a little quick sketch I did the other week. I love the Prismacolor marker and Ink combo. Great way to get ideas down quickly.

Quick sketch

Been crazy busy at work so haven't been able to post as regularly as I would like. Hopefully things will return to normal soon.

Creature Thumbnails

So here's a few more creature thumbnails done over the last week. These are fun to do, low commitment sitting on the couch. Throw in some copy paper, some markers and a cold one and you've all the makings of a good night!

The Butcher

Soldier Design

This piece and the three posts below were all part of the same test for a game company. I don't think I captured the style of the game but was fairly pleased with how it turned out. In truth I have never played the game or even heard of it before doing the test, (I'm not a gamer) and only had some of there promo work found in an image search to go by. Still it was a good exercise and designing this type of thing is interesting.

Click on image to enlarge.

Mac vs. PC!

Up until this week I had never really worked on a PC before and was shocked at how dark everything on the blog looked compared to how it looks on the Mac. With this in mind I think I may need to repost some things so they look closer to what I had originally intended.

This is something I did a couple of weeks ago and I will be interested to see how it looks when I get to work and view it on the PC. In this day and age this type of thing should not be an issue. Anyhow for you PC users things will be getting a little brighter around here!

Creature Design

So here's a piece I did during the week. Below are some of the thumbnails I did before tying this one down.

Thumbnails

So here's some thumbnails done over the last couple of nights. Have started to develop one of the ideas and will post the finished piece in a few days.

In 3D!!!

So I was messing with levels in Photoshop on an old watercolor I did and this came about. I'm guessing it's depth is achieved in a similar way to 3D glasses. Maybe a cheap trick but thought is was kind of interesting. Don't look at it for to long, it starts to hurt!

Happy New Year!

Well clearly my sketch a day experiment fell apart!
At the sixtieth day I decided to stop. While I've plenty of stuff to post the problem is a lot of it just isn't post worthy and when doing something like a sketch a day you inevitably start posting crap! So in the interest of not boring you with my doodles I've decided to only post more finished ideas. This will of course mean much fewer posts. I have a large project I've been working on which I will hopefully be able to share some of the fruits of soon. 
Over the last few months I've been doing a lot of study with the view to making the transition from animation artist to concept artist which has been and continues to be an incredibly exciting and difficult journey at the same time. Learning to paint has to be one of the most challenging things I've undertaken, but very enjoyable and with each day that passes it makes a little more sense. Practice, Practice, Practice!
Before I go I do want to mention one thing. About two months ago I came across a blog by artist James Gurney. For anyone interested in art who hasn't checked it out then I suggest you do yourself a favor and pop over there. Another very informative new blog is Armand Cabrera's, Art and Influence. It's packed full of great information. Both sites are well worth a visit and sit at the top of my daily reading list.
So on that note I do hope everyone has a fantastic and creative New Year.