Super Crazy Art Post

Here is a random assortment of sketches that I have been working on all week!

MOCCA 2012 Wrap Up!

So another year has come and gone for MOCCA fest, and it was a good one. I caught up with a lot of folks that I met last year. The first day started slowly, but then after a while it picked up pretty quickly, and I sold a few books. The funny part is that because of the theme of the book, a lot of people didn't know about a lot of the more obscure games in the book. However no matter, MOCCA fest 2012 was fun, and I am already thinking about what to do for next year (maybe Saturday morning cartoons? I dunno.) Most of the days were spent trying to sell books, networking with other artists looking at some great stuff, and basically enjoying the show. While I wasn't selling, I also got in a lot of sketch practice on the spot. All in all it was a great time. Now, back to business.

 

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Six Million Dollar Man and Sasquatch and MoCCA fest.

Ok so  back in the day I was obsessed with the Six Million Dollar man. There was one episode where he met up with a bionic Sasquatch (this is awesome classic tv people...and you can't beat that). 

This one was actually a sketch that I did when I first started this blog way back when. I def. like to go back to earlier things that I have  done and try to improve upon them. So, here it is. The Bionic Man and Sasquatch. It's a weird obscure thing to paint and post I know. Now that it's done I can move on.

In other news, I finally sent off my book to be printed for Mocca fest (woot!). Tonight I am going to pick up the redesigned banner, and that's all that she wrote. I should then be ready for the show next week. I will do a post show wrap up after the show is done. I am pretty excited to network and meet new (fellow) solo artists.

I have also submitted an application to be a part of the Asbury Park Comic con. Last year I wanted to do more than one, so  I am gonna try for two this year, esp if I have all of the work done already (re: book and banner)

Stay tuned for a pre-show and post show wrap up!

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Nintendo Tribute: R.O.B.--(Don't do any art)

It's been a while folks, and the reason for that is that I needed to take a break. Not for anything serious, but more because I was not happy with what was coming out. I would try and rush different pieces, over and over, and in the end it would look like crap. So I would spend a lot of time  pouring over a piece only to throw it in the trash (lame).

A friend of mine said to me, "Why are you trying to hard? Why don't you take a break?" The only one that is really going to see this is you any maybe a few people that happen across this blog. So...last weekend I decided to not pick up a pen, not a stylus (well I might have worked on something for a little bit) but that was for about 20 mins. I literally did nothing art related. I saw some friends, played a lot of video games, I went to a party, watched a lot of Netflix....but no art. You know what? It really worked.

Sometimes when you are stuck the best thing to do is to not do anything. If you push too hard, then you might just push the creativity away and that's not the desired end result. So....when you're not sure what to do, sometimes the best thing to do is "nothing".

So, I took a break, did more lessons and study during the week and then came up wtih the portrait of R.O.B. (Your Robotic Operating Buddy from the old school Nintendo days).
I wasn't even planning on doing this one, but it came out pretty well.
In the middle of working on this one, I also figured out some process things to make the end result look a little better.Woo! This one is going in the book!

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Fashion Sketching!--Art Book News!

Happy Sunday all! Today it's pretty chilly outside and so today is a good day to sit inside and get some more work done. (I am always doing working, working on something, etc. etc.) 

1) Fashion Sketching:

I was recently asked to participate and donate several fashion sketches to the event (where they will be sold) so I have started to do several sketches on paper where they will be sold at the event.

The number of sketches that I put together and the cost per sketch is still TBD, but you can see a sample of them above.

2) Art Book Progress:

In other news, the art book is pretty much done. I basically have finished pieces for the following games:

-Bubble Bobble

-Clu Clu Land

-Elevator Action

-Mega Man2

-Mighty Bomb Jack

-Ring King

-DuckTales

-Kung Fu

-The Legend of Kage 

I still have some more work to do for one more piece, and then from there it's on to doing the cover, designing the interior, etc. etc. and some more materials (including the postcards). 

What's fun about this process is that I have been learning as I have been going along, so from when I started working on the first piece until now, I felt that I have gotten a lot better and learned a lot.

So I basically need to be done with everything by the end of this month and then get ready for the show...(it's the shipping time that I have to account for).

At any rate, that's what's new. I will post the cover once it's ready, and eventually I will reveal the name of the book too! 

See ya soon!

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Nintendo Tribute: Ring King

 

This week's post is "Ring King" from the NES. I played this one a bit, but I did NOT play this one as much as I played Mike Tyson's Punch Out (Ring King didn't even come close). This one was especially difficult for me, because of the issues with anatomy. In addition I am finding that for some pieces, there is a discrepancy between the initial sketch (which I am pretty happy with) and the final execution. For example, you will note that the width of the character between the sketch and the final piece are dramatically different. This is because between the two, the tricky part is making the painting look convincing, while keeping the energy and dynamic action in the final painting. It's tricky. So much so, that I had to start this one over at least 3 times. In the end though I like it, and it's going to go in the book. After this one, I just have one more left to do, "Legend of Kage", and then i'll be done. Then it's on to the cover, and the surrounding promotional materials. 

p.s.

I love the fact that the game is tested and proven by Ray Leonard Jr.! What?!?!!?!?

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Mighty Bomb Jack! (Again)

So here is the final Mighty Bomb Jack piece. I had posted this before, but of course I am never happy with anything that I do, and until I am, I am always tempted to do things over and over again and experiment. In fact that is one of the benefits to Photoshop, and it's hinderances as well.

There are so many layer settings, button options and menu options in the program that the possibility for outcomes is almost infinite. This of course makes this overwhelming when you are trying to develop a style and be consistant. I am working on another fun piece now (Elevator Action) which is getting there, but I had to basically start the thing over three times, because I was not happy with how it was coming out at all (and I might be a semi-obsessive-compulsive perfectionist)

All in all though the theory is that the more work you put together and the more work you do, the sooner you will arrive where you want to be. At least that the goal.

Anyway...enjoy!

Snake Plissken!

Just a little Snake Plissken action for your Sunday!

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"Monst-Her"

I call this one "The Monst-Her". This is basically a combination of "the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Swamp Thing" but the female version. Not anything really dramatic to speak of, but just for fun.

The idea came to me while I was down in Central America. I definitely took a sketch book with me, and along with finishing up the other sketches for the tribute book, I also put down whatever came to mind. This was one of those ideas.

In addition, I was also reading "Color and Light" by James Gurney (you can get it at Amazon here if you are interested). It's a pretty great book, pretty simple to get through and has a lot of really informative tips on setting up color palettes, and color schemes. 

I had definitely made my way up to working with creating color schemes, and up until now I was using color scheme designer. The thing that I was missing though was about color gamuts, and limited color palettes.

In short, using the color wheel, you essentially limit the colors that you use by drawing a polygon (a triangle, a rectangle, etc.) and then sticking to the colors within the polygon. What you will then get is a color scheme that is complimentary with each other (as long as you stick within the shape). Below is an example of a gamut mask pulled from the color wheel.

I found a site called livepaintinglessons.com that allows you to create your own gamut masks and you can use that as part of your piece/painting.
Now you can use this same technique when creating your own pieces.

In other news the art book is coming along nicely, and I will posting the Mighty Bomb Jack rework next!

'Til next time..

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Nintendo Tribute: Double Dragon

Ok, so the next in the Nintendo tribute series is Double Dragon. You played as one of two brothers or friends (I think), who had to fight your way through hordes and hordes of street gangs to rescue your girlfriend. For this particular piece I decided to try to work on anatomy, but do it in a simplified manner to suggest the form, but not go overboard with the details. Hm. It took me a while to post this one, because I wasn't too hot on how it came out, however since I need to finish things I decided to post this one as a means to move onwards and learn from my mistakes. (Practice practice practice).

Steps are below:

 

In the end, it's not the worst, but in practicing I learned a few tricks a long the way to make the painting process easier. If I go over my original sketches and create a simple line drawing, that will eliminate having to work so hard when starting the color phase. Also, anatomy anatomy anatomy and values. Very hard to master, but I will be psyched when I get it. So that's it for this one, next up is Jimmy Lee (Double Dragon part II).

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Nintendo Tribute: Mario

A little surprise this week as I did an extra mini piece. You can't have a Nintendo tribute without Mario. Even though Mario has been done over a million times I haven't really done Mario before, and so I figured "why not". Here is the final!

(Final!!)

Here are the steps:

I started with a basic round brush, and then instead used different brushes that I created from an actual paintbrush. I noticed that the end result looks a lot mote textured and not as flat. In addition I used a color palette from an already existing Mario image, so that I can get the colors right (before they were looking really pastelle-y and too soft.

Next Up: Double Dragon! Yee Haw!!!

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Nintendo Tribute: Bubble Bobble!

The Nintendo Tribute for this week is "Bubble Bobble". Another game I played endlessly, it was super fun and involved dragons, bubbles and fruit! How fun! Below is the final piece, and below that are the steps! This one is going in the book as well! Enjoy!

1. Sketch

2. Values and shadows

 

 3.

 4.

 5.

 6.

Final!

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