Still Workin' it!

Current Job - Sneak Peak

TO CLEAR SOMETHING UP!

This isn't the whole composition, I cropped and arranged only three of the people in the entire Illustration for a sneak-peak. The piece as a whole has six people sitting around a table of sorts, you'll have to wait for it to be published before I can share the whole piece here.



I'm currently working on a two page spread for a magazine . . . at this time I can only share a tease-piece, still a work in progress with lots of details, a lot more people then shown here and lots of liver spots!

More progress with my Tom Hanks Caricature!

Not finished yet, but getting there . . . just a bit more to go, some more textures, and maybe a little more work on the hair and some of the edges. Currently I'm working on a large two page spread for Golf magazine. Six people and a lot of detail, will post soon.

Axl Rose for REVOLVER Magazine

OK, I can share the rest of this piece with you all now. This is a full page illustration that I did before Christmas for REVOLVER Magazine. The idea for this piece was to show Axl on his throne with his Yoda near his side as a guide of sorts. I guess Axl had this weird little oracle woman with him at all times and the rest of the band made fun of her and called her Yoda, which may help explain why Yoda is in this illustration? You'll have to buy the magazine and read the article.

My first idea for this piece was to do a Norman Rockwell-ish painting, sort of like a Saturday Evening Post cover, I had a cleaner design behind Axl, a small circle with flames. It's a fun idea, Axl in nothing but a kilt and shoes with Yoda and all that painted in a warm and totally ideal American family setting, totally backwards of something Rockwell would have painted. Long story short, last minute and I mean the very last, the idea was changed dramatically and I had to trash that idea and paint flames everywhere in the background all in under three hours. This means that I had to also re-work a lot of what I had finished painting on Axl and Yoda, having to add warmer color, reflective light from the flames, and so forth so that they would feel like they were really within this surrounding.

* UPDATE * New addition to this post on 1-17-08. A few of you have requested to see the Rockwell version, so I've added the artwork to this post. This was the direction I was heading, it wasn't quite finished, the next step was to add some items to the ground around Axl, like bottled water and bowls of fruit and energy bars . . .

Schoolism Course is FULL!

Just want to let everyone know that my January class is full, but my April 3rd class is open for registration.

Today I did this job for next weeks issue of The Weekly Standard. I started this job at 5:00 a.m. and finished at 8:30 p.m. Talk about a long day . . . there's some things that I know could be better, but for the time I had to pull this one off, I feel pretty good about it . . . this is the fastest I've ever done something like this for a magazine, my eyes barely work, and my hand is sore, crooked and bent. Time to go to bed.

*FUN FACT*

One thing I feel I should add, about the Obama doll. It was meant to not look exactly like him rather to look more like a cheezy doll . . . think of a ken doll or something.

Tim Burton Split Complementary Palette

Last night after my wife and I put the kids to bed, we watched a bit of T.V. and I painted a bit more on my Tim Burton. I'm painting this with a Split Complementary Palette (see palette). For me painting with a "limited" palette makes sense, even more so when painting with photoshop. In photoshop, there is such a HUGE amount of colors to choose from, if you're not careful, it could be very easy to go nuts with your colors. By using a limited palette in this case a split comp. palette, you're automatically creating harmony within your painting, and from there you can bend or push those colors the way you want in order to make the painting work. It's amazing how much color you can get out of using a limited palette!

Hank you very much!

I'm so sorry, my title is so cheezball . . . but I couldn't resist! OK, so this is the next phase, continuing to block in the face . . . spending a little more time detailing features and adjusting relationships. I'm digging the loose look so I may keep a lot of that loose feeling while tightening some other areas. I'm not sure yet, I'm just letting it happen.

W.I.P.'s

Some more work done on the "secret mouth" painting . . . . one day, it shall be revealed. And a sketch/block in of Tom Hanks . . . not sure yet where or what I'm doing with it, more of an excercise at this time. I may change it around add some sort of senerio or I may just keep it as more of a straight portrait?

Sketches and Doodles!

As of late I haven't had as much time for myself as I used to . . . it's been hard to find time to sketch from life or just doodle for a bit. So I've decided to try to make time here and there, and just get my sketch on. The first bit of doodles up on top were done on my pc with a great program called "Sketchbook Pro", the second attachment are a few sketches I did while sitting in Church. The doodles were a lot of fun, basically I just would draw a shape, and shape and then from there just create, or rather let it just happen.

Tim Burton Sketch

This is a quick sketch I did last night while watching one of the Jason Bourne movies with my wife. Last week we saw Burton's latest film "Sweeney Todd" and loved it, so I felt inspired to do a little sketch. This was sketched and blocked in with photoshop.

SCHOOLISM!

Greetings one and all, I hope everyone out there had a great Holiday, I'm back in the studio and ready for the New Year! I'll have some new work to post soon, for now I would just like to remind folks out there about Schoolism, I've got one more slot open for this semester, feel free to visit Schoolism's website and check it out, Register today.