Adam Osgood's Art Blog

Game Design & Zbrush Studies

2011-12-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

Mind Thoughts

2011-11-27T11:56:00.000-08:00

My 80 Dlist Boys were recently printed in MIND-THOUGHTS: "Collected" by Adam Kurtz. It's an honor to be part of this project and featured amongst some other fantastic artists.

Check it out here.

Even More Mother Concept Art

2011-10-30T21:43:00.001-07:00

Some typography explorations and a test render of Anna that I made with Maya, Mudbox, and AfterEffects. The result is coolish, but I think I'd rather draw the characters by hand than use 3d models. The process I used to achieve the flattened effect was to use toon shaders with a highly-detailed bump map (to pick up the strands in her hair) and then in AfterEffects split all the color layers and reassemble them like a screen-print.

More Mother Concept Art

2011-10-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

Played around with graphic interpretations of the Mother and Gaston characters for the flashback scenes... not loving these! More work to be done.

Also did a test animation using some 3D renders. Kind of like the result. Here's the before & after.

A slew of new things.

2011-10-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

Have been busy with my graduate animation project making and revising and revising again. Here are some images and type treatments that I'm playing with right now.

Gaston

2011-09-28T01:13:00.000-07:00

A little inspiration for a scene in my final project. Wanted to see how a comic-bookier feel might work. Referenced the ending of Moontide.

La Femme

2011-09-21T02:43:00.000-07:00

Another play on Cassandre. This time just using his palette. Very inspired right now by 80+ year old model, Carmen Dell-Orefice.

Maltese Falcon

2011-09-19T23:49:00.000-07:00

As part of my final project, I've been watching tons of Noir films and researching 1940's graphic design. Here's a scene from the Maltese Falcon re-imagined as a poster by AM Cassandre. Both of the source images below.

Concept Art

2011-08-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a painting I did last weekend to warm up a new game design project I'm working on. To follow my progress go to my other blog, Osgood in 3D.

Game Characters

2011-07-29T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've been employed this summer at NC State's Computer Science Dept. helping create characters and sets for a 3D game they are developing. Here are the characters I worked on. I did all the modeling & texturing on these with the exception of the red-haired female who was modeled by a coworker.

The second image is my original sketch for these characters, and a revision for "Bryce."

More 3D Fun

2011-07-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

Not a lot of updates this summer as I've been working 9-5 on a 3D game through NC State's Computer Science dept. However I've been inspired to bring some of what I've been learning at work with low-poly models, bumps, and Mudbox painting back home and incorporate it into a personal work. This is a preview of a bigger image that I'm working on.

I completely re-textured the female character with Mudbox painting and have been simplifying the geometry on both of them so that they'll be easier to pose and do more with. Also totally stoked about a new lighting technique that I'm using that scatters color from all surfaces to create a more realistic effect. (and the best part is there is only one light in the whole scene!)

Spies! Fog! Guns! Rooftop lurking!

2011-06-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest 3D render. To see all the process check out my 3D blog here.

One more with the red hair.

2011-06-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

Florence Welch from Florence & the Machines. Also a nice way to celebrate 5 years of my blog. Here are the previous red haired boys and girls.

Witch of Snake Mountain

2011-06-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

A little He-Man fan art, Evil-Lyn is simply the best.

Diversidade em Animacao

2011-04-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

My short film, "A Life Alone" has been selected for a film festival in Brazil celebrating LGBT works. What fun to see my abstract translated in Portuguese!

See the film here.

Art to Wear

2011-04-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

Been working for the past couple months on the multimedia portion of Art to Wear at NC State. It's a fashion show hosted by the College of Design & College of Textiles. The event takes place Tuesday at 7pm. Come if you are in the Raleigh area.

In a strange twist of fate I ALSO ended up making the logo (see my rejected logo entry here.) This was an unusual "collaborative" process since I was given an existing logo and several graphic treatments and asked to create something new while re-purposing certain elements. The frame, typography, and Art Nouveau style came from the logo I was given but have been altered to fit my drawing style.

The Shackleton Expedition

2011-04-08T23:08:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I haven't posted in a while, been busy making an interactive Flash project about the Shackleton Expedition. I was admittedly more interested in developing a thoughtful interface and a showcase for my illustration skills than loading the project with amazing interactive widgets. It is, however, very scalable and could be loaded with photo albums, sounds, and movies if time and money was available to make that happen.

Go here to try it out: http://www.adamosgood.com/folio/shackleton/

This is one of the first opportunities I've had to blend my illustration and graphic design work into a seamless whole. Need to do more of this!

I'm still alive, I swear!

2011-03-25T20:54:00.001-07:00

Here's some of the stuff I've been working on. See more at my process blog here.
The lady is the 3d version of her. Although her robotic expression could use some work!

The Boss

2011-02-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a little drawing I did of a "photograph" of the Boss character from my detective project. My very talented classmate Michael Delaney is setting these stylized drawings up in a 3D city and it looks amazing so far! More to come soon.

(He unintentionally but hilariously looks kind of like Conan, huh?)

Noir!

2011-01-29T14:24:00.000-08:00

These are some concept pieces I did for a team project in my animation class. My partner and I will be creating a looping animation that pulls the viewer through a day in the life of a private investigator.

Osgood in 3D

2011-01-21T11:24:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to plug my in-process blog about learning how to use 3D and it's application in a self-direction illustration project. Click the link to see what I'm up to.

Art to Wear Reject

2011-01-21T11:02:00.000-08:00

Here's my logo entry for NC State's "Art to Wear" event. It didn't win, but I still like it! Looking forward to see the winning logo.

The X-Men

2011-01-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

Playing around in Flash, fun!

Lady in White

2011-01-10T21:20:00.001-08:00

Here's a quick study for an expansive project I'm working on. The plan is to make a little story out of three illustrations drawn & rendered in Maya. (Kind of like Ray Caesar) I want to do something retro/futuristic with spies and robots. Have a big plan and lots of inspirational images but don't know exactly what it will look like yet...

On another note I was afraid that I was forgetting how to digital-paint, as it's been several months since I've tried. I'm glad I haven't completely lost it!

Lady Femme Learns to Fly

2010-12-02T16:09:00.001-08:00

I updated one of my older projects with a new title card.

View Lady Femme on Vimeo

Winning the Oil Endgame: Style

2010-10-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

Here's some parts and pieces I'm working on for my next animation project, called "Winning the Oil Endgame." It's based on a TED talk of the same name. I motif for the animation will be board games, hodge-podging elements from Risk, Monopoly, and the Game of Life.

A Life Alone Video

2010-10-21T12:49:00.000-07:00

A Life Alone from Adam Osgood on Vimeo.

Here's my final video. Hope you like it!

A Life Alone: Sketchbook

2010-10-18T15:42:00.001-07:00

Here is a sneak preview from my short animated film, "A Life Alone." The video needs a few tweaks, so come back in a week to see the full animation!

Barbie & Ken

2010-09-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

I was grinning ear to ear this afternoon as I was painting Barbie & Ken as well as three children (not pictured). I'm so thrilled that this illustration style & process that I have been developing over the last couple years is so useful in this animation project. I'm also thrilled with how naturally the designs are coming together.

Also, in a testament to simultaneous contrast Barbie is a blonde and her green hair will look very yellow in the context of the scene I'm dropping her in.

Neighborhood Scene Revisited

2010-09-28T17:40:00.000-07:00

I started playing with my puppet inside the neighborhood scene and wasn't thrilled with the energy between the two. I decided to add more detail and change some little color aspects. Here you can see a shot that will likely never be in the finished animation, but is more exciting than the actual framing with the tops of the houses cut off!

Also, if you look closely you can tell that I used a funky transparency mask on the clouds so that they look like tissue paper. I hope I can find other places to use this effect, because it looks pretty sweet.

Animation Color Keys

2010-09-27T17:22:00.000-07:00

Making major headway on my autobiographical animation. Worked out some of the details in my storyboard and did color keys for the whole thing. I didn't actually HAVE to do this step, but I see professional animation studios doing it and it just looks fun! I feel like I could refine these little drawings and have a storybook. I also feel like this simple retro style would be perfect for the animation all by itself! But the assignment is to do a puppet-show-theater style thing with a shallow depth of field, and that's what I'm going to do!

Also, here's the first set (of the neighborhood from the childhood scene) rigged & lit in After Effects. I tried to make it look like the set it built out of different kinds of paper and painted finishes. The whole thing should end up looking somewhat handmade. If you look at this and the little boy puppet from my last post you can get a pretty good feeling for the look of the film.

Character design.

2010-09-24T12:03:00.001-07:00

Dear blog, sorry to have neglected you. I'm in school and it's just a lot of work! I have been creating a lot, check out my little explorations on vimeo.

I'm currently working on a 1-minute animated autobiography. It's going to be Richard Scarry animal-style. This is the puppet I created of me as a little boy. And no, I don't remember being dressed like a hipster BUT that's a real shirt! I wish they made things that awesome now. Capped sleeves, diagonal arrows, great color combo. If I had a time machine I would make go back and get that shirt.

Paul Poiret

2010-08-16T05:01:00.000-07:00

This summer I wanted to do a project in acrylic to use up some of the remaining boards I had lying around before I moved to Raleigh. I ended up with 3 paintings based on vintage illustrations from fashion house Poiret. The illustrations date from around 1910 and are done by Paul Iribe & George LePape, who were commissioned over many years to create drawings of the Poiret fashions. This is a topic I touched back in 2006 when I was working on my senior thesis for my BFA in illustration. Similarly, I created 3 illustrations based on the fashion of Poiret. This time, however, it was far more homage because I used the existing compositions & color palettes from the Iribe/LePape images. While I made quite a few changes, the similarities are uncanny. The image below shows my paintings on the right next to their inspirations.

3D

2010-08-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with ZBrush today, getting pumped up for the 3D stuff I'm undoubtedly going to have to do in the coming weeks when classes start. Here's a head I spent a couple hours "sculpting." I haven't figured out out to use more than one object yet, so I wasn't able to use spheres for his eyeballs. Next time!

Gaston

2010-07-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a little painting I did for fun over the past week. It's what I imagine the puppy that I had last summer might look like today. I gave him back to my mother, who is a dog breeder, which hopefully doesn't sound too heartless. He really was the love of my life for the week I had him, but the idea of leaving him in a cage in my apartment during my 9-5 was too much to bear. (how boring!) He ended up going with his puppy brother to a home with two little old ladies that probably give him a whole lot of love. And plenty of cigarettes?

...Anyway I had finished the clothing part and then almost scrapped the painting because I was running out of time (more on that below) but really his face and arms wasn't so hard. I also have been wanting to spray a matte finish on something and then put a high gloss varnish in certain areas on a painting for a while, so this was a good opportunity to test it out. Although you can't see in this digital image AT ALL, I glossed the "smoke" and his eyes and nose. It's a cool effect that I'll use again.

Now the other part is that I'm moving to Raleigh tomorrow to embark on a new adventure: the graduate animation program at North Carolina State University. Wish me luck!

CS5 Play

2010-07-10T10:50:00.000-07:00

Just got my CS5 Master Suite in the mail last night and wanted to play around with Photoshop's new features. I think the new settings with the brush are pretty cool, but really not all that life altering. I tried my best to use them in this image, but don't like the result as much as the process I've been developing with the previous versions' more limited capabilities. Basically you get some stringier looking brushes and the ability to pick up color that is already on the canvas with a new "mixer brush."

Overall, the software loads quicker and feels more responsive, but on the other end of that is too sensitive and feels a bit glitchy compared to CS4. For instance, I kept accidentally moving or closing my palettes when I was just trying to access them--something that's never happened to me in past versions even thought the interface is the exact same thing. The canvas is a little jumpy when zooming/panning as well. BLERG. (Also played around with the "content-aware fill" which is far less cool than what it was made out to be)

80 Dlist Boys: Clavicle & Reed. THE END

2010-07-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here's the last two. It feels great to be finished with this project, as it's been a year and a half in the works. Some times it was like a weight on my shoulder, calling me to finish it and others it was a great way to express some creativity on the fly... I started it for a couple reasons:

I wanted to practice mark making and become more confident in my marks.
An opportunity to play with portraiture and test the limits of distortion against recognition. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but because this was a sketchbook project it was easy for me to not get hung up on the guffaws.
Playing with beauty... how is it that these 80 men can all be beautiful but all be so very different looking? As my friend Maggie said about the difference between faces, "it's all about the spacing."
A productive time waster: when I started this I had a hole in my schedule everyday that I needed to fill.

Rachel

2010-06-29T18:18:00.001-07:00

I like Sean Young. And I don't care how crazy she is.

80 Dlist Boys: riverwestchi, trippppp, ibader, mmaraaron

2010-06-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

The end is near...

80 Dlist Boys: glowstars, pw417, ikuku, slopehead

2010-06-15T18:03:00.000-07:00

More more more. This is an interesting group because I've met all four of the gentlemen in question. Here are some notes:

Glowstars is a dear friend of mine from Milwaukee. He is also an artist/designer and has a blog.
pw417 is a cool guy from Chicago that I met several months ago and humorously bumped into recently.
ikuku is far more handsome and masculine in reality. Somehow the drawing got a little squirelly. He's from Poland and I had the pleasure of sharing a few drinks with him while he was in the US back in April.
Slopehead was possibly the first dlister that I met - he gave me free lodging (and an amazing welcome to Brooklyn with a homemade steak & asparagus dinner) a few years ago the first time I went to NYC.

Janelle Monae

2010-06-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

Painted this little lady in the afternoon after finishing some real work. Was tons of fun to just paint something and not care too much about the result! (meanwhile, two almost-finished acrylic paintings are staring me down begging for those final all-important brushstrokes).

Also some fantastic news, my Mad Men heads made it into the 3x3 pro show. Found out a couple weeks ago.

80 Dlist Boys: awesleyc, johnny_bebop, jperkins, sloc0898

2010-06-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

4 more. Kind of wish I could have gotten johnny_bebop & sloc0898 on adjoining pages because of their tall hair!

80 Dlist Boys: xelamonster, BenPhilBeck, OshKosh, ralowe

2010-06-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

4 more as promised. A few comments:

I've been looking forward to drawing BenPhilBeck for about a year now, carrying around a little picture of him in my sketchbook and really muffed up the likeness. In his photos he's got a really fantastic Don Draper chin and an optimistic look to him. Somehow I ended up drawing him really devious. Rats!
The reason ralowe is upside down is because his DList photo is upside down. I actually drew him upside down, as well, for an extra challenge.

80 Dlist Boys: QueerRocket, Serpentine, thebenjamin, bikeculture

2010-06-02T08:37:00.000-07:00

Here's my next batch of four (still have a couple up my sleeve and only 8 left to draw for the entire series). I decided to start drawing in the people from DList that I've actually met in reality. Thebenjamin is a cooky fellow from Raleigh and bikeculture is one of my favorite people up in Madison. (although I really missed the point with his portrait, he's much easier to look at that I have drawn him)

80 Dlist Boys: heartbeat_city, javad, socialwhore, dizeek

2010-06-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

I've been lagging behind online, but not in reality. I've got 10 more dlist boys ready for action after this post. Keep looking for more.

Clavicle

2010-05-11T10:02:00.001-07:00

Here's a painting I did, meant to be the third in the set with Handhearts & XYZach. I don't think it fits, though, so I'll do something else!

80 Dlist Boys: yeehaw83, bluelines

2010-04-26T09:11:00.001-07:00

The latest two drawings. I wasn't ever planning on drawing myself into this project, but then I did. Doing a self portrait proved to be very difficult within the context of the rest of the drawings because I have been attempting to capture the beauty in each Dlist boy from a single photograph by carefully focusing on proportion and scale of features. For no. 53, it was hard to draw what I saw as opposed to what I know.

80 Dlist Boys: bw12343, zaceman, brahm, berkhippy

2010-04-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

A few more in the sketchbook. I'm pleased with these 4... I think the combine the confidence and expressive mark-making that I started doing in nos. 37-40 with the exactness and refined qualities from the first quarter of the book. Berkhippy's hair was a nice challenge after drawing so many wavy wonderful haircuts.

Unity Mitford

2010-04-22T16:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a little study I've been playing with of the stone cold Unity Mitford. She's from a British family of 6 sisters that lived the entire span of the 20th century and were rather famous socialites in the 1030's. Unity in particular was an avid Nazi who shot herself in the head the day Britain declared war on Germany. I've been working on traditional paintings of the more wholesome sisters and this was just to get in the mood.

80 Dlist Boys: hashlover, spanishguy, parklife, perquin

2010-04-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

Some more... Tried to do a chubby pen/minimalist thing with parklife and was disappointed with the results. To add insult to injury I wrote the wrong name on his page... sad. I'm so close to finishing this project, I can taste it.

Dlist Boys: newbie123, taxthetime, dinodave, thevero

2010-04-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

White

2010-04-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Here are some fashion studies I did a week ago. First time I've painted traditionally in several months... felt good!

2010-04-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

I just found a link back to my blog on Logan Lynn's blog for the painting I did back in February. Awesome that he saw it!

Also, here is an updated version that reflects my initial vision better (Damn you Photoshop color profiles!!) The orangey color in the first was always supposed to be a true red and looked that way up until I saved my jpg for the interweb.

Bette Davis

2010-04-01T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a little drawing I did - not thrilled with the likeness but had fun with a more energetic / quick style.

80 Dlist Boys: GetInnocuous, XOffender, penknife, xyzach

2010-03-30T15:35:00.000-07:00

These four represent a really exciting moment in my sketchbook project - I started "sketching" instead of "drawing" and I feel like I hit a real high with number 39. It has just the right amount of confidence, energy, and uniqueness. XYZach is #40, the halfway point of the project.

80 Dlist Boys: HandHearts, Studly-E, dannydiaz, chicagobrian

2010-03-09T19:08:00.000-08:00

The next four... Starting to feel a little too tight and not suiting the needs of a sketchbook. The entire point of this project was for me to explore and I've definitely stumbled upon a formula. I did attempt to do something different with chicagobrian -- there was this wonderful wild quality in his photograph that I tried to capture by drawing a little bit looser and by skewing his face but the result doesn't appear intentional or as refined as the earlier pieces. It did however provide great inspiration for the next set that I'll post...

80: ignite, pardonme, larkboy85

2010-03-06T19:13:00.001-08:00

The first two from this set were the end of my journey in Berlin. I did Larkboy85 back in Milwaukee. A good set... had a lot of fun with the moodiness of Pardonme. I've got a bunch more to share. I finished my 40th drawing today so hold on to your hat! I'm halfway done.

The Great Gatsby

2010-03-01T16:18:00.001-08:00

This is from a book-cover project I started in October and just finally decided to finish. Below are process, including the first color sketch which included a belly-band that would be templated for use on other classic book titles. I decided that it would be more fun to incorporate the text into the illustration instead, plus pushed the color palette more towards the fantasy realm.

80 Dlist Boys: janlo, popstitute, jimmy-z

2010-02-24T08:59:00.000-08:00

I've still got a few more up my sleeve. This is an interesting bunch. I started "Janlo" in my car while I was getting an oil change in October 2009 and didn't finish it until December.

The next few were done during relaxing moments in my trip to Europe for the new year. I drew "Popstitute" at an apartment in Prague while I was waiting for my travel buddy to get out of bed. Stylistically this is probably the most distant from the bunch because I chose reference photography that wasn't straight-on. I think it helps show his attitude and was definitely a nice break from the formula.

"Jimmy-Z" was done in a cafe in Berlin called "Circus" that I returned to a couple more times to draw. They had tasty sandwiches there and hot cocoa that was really deep in flavor.

Logan Lynn: Feed Me to the Wolves

2010-02-21T21:08:00.000-08:00

Here's a painting I did of a musician named Logan Lynn. I'm also including the process because it might be interesting to someone out there.

XYZach

2010-02-05T10:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a new painting inspired by the happiness I got out of painting "Handhearts" below. Another Dlist boy.

Handhearts

2010-02-01T20:16:00.000-08:00

Here is a little painting I've been working on for fun. Inspired by a photo of a Dlist Boy named "handhearts." This actually fits perfect as my annual "red-haired" winter painting and it's fun to see how I've grown in four years. Here are the previous:

A Single Man (or Single Lady in this case?)

2010-01-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

Here's Julianne Moore from her new film, "A Single Man." Does anyone know why Julianne Moore only take roles in films set in the 1950's and 1960's? Not to say that she isn't great in them, but it just seems curious.

Many apologies, also, for neglecting my blog. I did some traveling during the Christmastime and just haven't had much time to produce. I do have 4 or 5 new Dlist Boys, though, that I will roll out in the next few days.

Seasons Greetings!

2009-11-23T17:17:00.000-08:00

Here's my new Gocco card. It looks better in person because it's in silver and metallic blue ink (sparkly!) I'm also showing my process here. The first image is the thumbnail that I drew and colored to provide a road map for this project. The second image is the ink drawing, colored in with the appropriate ink colors, and the third image is the actual screen printed card. You can see how different the print is from the screen artwork because the way the ink bleeds and the offset from the two color process.

80 Dlist Boys: deadstar, sqcw, jackpollack

2009-11-07T09:13:00.000-08:00

MAD MEN

2009-10-20T22:24:00.001-07:00

I put the finishing touches on the Mad Men.

Contemporary Authors

2009-10-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a promo piece I just finished. The styling is inspired by the 80 Dlist Boys project, but I wanted to be a little more expressive with brushwork.

80 Dlist Boys: Dorian Gray, JJS III, Blaa, Braulio

2009-10-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

I'm so backlogged on this project - I finished these a few months ago and kind of forgot about them. Definitely not the best in the series, I think that they perfectly capture how cornered I was feeling with this series, where each new drawing fit a formula. I took a break somewhere in the middle of drawing Braulio and finished him last month. I'm trying to be looser and freer with the new additions.

Poor Peggy Olson

2009-10-09T08:20:00.001-07:00

A thing like that!

2009-10-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Here's the mischievous Peter Campbell. This one was fun - first time using Photoshop CS4 & my new MacBookPro. I felt a greater sensitivity and response with the brush tool, which is very exciting.

Coldest mother on television?

2009-09-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

I like this a lot, but I want to capture Betty Draper just a little younger looking.

Donald Draper

2009-09-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

Here's Don. This was a second try, the original is below. I think part of the reason I had so much trouble with him is because he's known for being a very handsome man and it is hard to retain that handsomeness while exaggerating his more pronounced features. I also want to point out that Liz Lemon on 30 Rock says, "he looks like "a cartoon pilot." How do you tell if a large chin is "cartoon pilot" or "Jay Leno?"

Roger Sterling

2009-09-21T19:02:00.001-07:00

I also did one of Don Draper, but it became to sculpted and real. I'm happy, however, with the simplicity of this one.

Midnight Snack

2009-09-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

Here's Joan Holloway! I was at this point in the middle where it was so perfect and graphic and retro. I want to start minimizing.

Teela

2009-09-15T10:31:00.001-07:00

Here's a little sketch I did of Teela from "Masters of the Universe."

The Tigers Have Spoken II

2009-09-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

I decided to completely redraw the artwork on this one by hand (the original was done on a cintiq). I like the looseness and the gesture in the original, but it wasn't what I pictured for this project. I don't think I've ever redrawn something without making major changes to it, so this was a challenge. Knowing that I was more or less repeating a previous action. And, FYI, I never want to draw chains or railroad again.

You can see the process above (thumbnail drawing, rough sketch, Final A, Final B).

Basterd

2009-08-30T17:35:00.000-07:00

Saw Inglourious Basterds last week - what a great flick. Highly recommended. Here's my rendition of Lt. Aldo Raine.

Middle Cyclone

2009-08-23T14:17:00.001-07:00

I drew this yesterday during breaks from a lengthy & tedious graphic design project, and colored it today. I'm happy with the way it turned out--just as I imagined it when I drew the sketch a few months ago. This CD is all about nature and animals (plus lots of twisters). There is also a really lovely song called "Prison Girls" that inspired the girl.

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

2009-08-21T13:06:00.000-07:00

Here is the final artwork. The idea behind this drawing is based mostly off of the first song on the disc, "Margaret vs. Pauline" which is about how everything is so easy for Pauline, while poor Margaret keeps getting the short end of the stick. I blended this with little bits and pieces from all the other songs to create the whole narrative, with Margaret being the victim of the car crash in "Star Witness".

I decided last minute to change the red-haired girl's eyes. They looked too beautiful & vacant, and I really liked the sadness and depth that I captured in the original sketch. I'm still not sold on which I prefer.

Fox Confessor - Half Drawn

2009-08-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here's an in-progress on the drawing for my Fox Confessor Bring the Flood album art. It's done in the style of the DList boys project - which is a divergence from the inky free style way that I did the Tigers Have Spoken. I'm not sure if this was the right choice - kind of wishing I went looser, but I'll finish and see how I like it then.

Saint Scholastica

2009-08-16T13:04:00.001-07:00

I have finally finished, after more than a year sitting on the shelf, my painting of Saint Scholastica. It feels so good to have this little weight off my shoulders, I must say. It's also interesting to look at this and see a couple stylistic approaches that I was veering towards last year and have now moved away from.

Here is the original post.

Starlet

2009-07-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a little something I whipped up. (I haven't painted in several weeks, so it seemed like a good thing to do)

Colbert

2009-06-21T15:34:00.000-07:00

Twilight Guy

2009-06-18T22:14:00.001-07:00

I've never seen the movie, but I hear this guy is pretty famous or something.

The First Lady

2009-06-17T20:21:00.001-07:00

The Duchess

2009-06-14T08:51:00.001-07:00

This was started as a demo for my class. I'm glad I finished it!

Neko Case Project: "Tigers" Final?

2009-06-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

Here's my final colors for The Tigers Have Spoken. Now I need to finish the other five albums to complete the set! I'm putting the finishing "inks" (done completely with my Wacom) - I think it looks better in black and white.

Neko Case Project: "Tigers" Inks

2009-06-03T22:09:00.000-07:00

I'm just about finished "inking" this. I wanted to finish the whole thing this evening, but I didn't get quite so far. I'm very happy with the way it's turning out. I especially like the blood splatter. If you are wondering what the gray part is, that's the sketch. It is set to a low opacity in Photoshop, with a result that is very similar to a light table.

Watercolor

2009-05-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

I wanted to see if I could accurately mimic the appearance of watercolor in Photoshop, so I played around with this. I made a couple custom brushes that "bleed" and applied a watercolor paper-like texture to the washy layers I created. Simple pleasures: my favorite part is the white necklace that looks as though it was painted with thinned white-out.

Grayscale + Color

2009-05-28T18:53:00.001-07:00

Here are two paintings I did as demos for a class I'm teaching at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. The first assignment was to learn how to paint in grayscale, using a full range of white to black with the tactile experience of traditional drawing/painting. The second assignment was to color that image.

80 Dlist Boys: Little Deer, Amourad, Stephenn

2009-05-11T13:43:00.001-07:00

I did these a few weeks ago and never got around to scanning them in. I like how Littledeer & Amourad have the same head shape but evoke completely different character within their facial features. I was disappointed with Stephenn - his photo's were all very lovely and in my quest for exaggeration I drew him looking like ET's twin brother. Oh well! Anyway I'm actually drawn up through #22. (which means I'm more than 1/4 finished with the project). I'll post the rest in a couple days.

Skeletor!

2009-05-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

As portrayed by Frank Langella.

Dolph Lundgren

2009-05-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

As He-Man! Another from the Masters of the Universe Movie. I'll eventually get to all the characters.

Evil-Lyn

2009-05-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

Here is Evil-Lyn from the Masters of the Universe Movie. It's a B-Movie definitely, but I love it. Evil-Lyn was portrayed by Meg Foster in the film and I had a lot of fun painting her crazy make up.

One-Hour Painting, Twin Peaks Edition

2009-05-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

Laura Palmer, Dale Cooper, & Donna Hayward

Hot N Cold N Old

2009-05-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

Bradley & Tori

2009-05-01T17:27:00.001-07:00

Princess Ri Ri of the Universe

2009-04-30T20:55:00.001-07:00

J Hud

2009-04-29T20:34:00.001-07:00

Another 1-hour drawing. It's so fun, all I want to do is this for the rest of my life.

Limits

2009-04-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

1-Hour painting of Tilda Swinton. This is a great way to get loose!