Danny Trejo Sketch!

Quick sketch of Danny Trejo! I noticed a few people posting sketches of this guy on facebook. I've never drawn him before and decided to take a few minutes out of my day and sketch him as well. I've been painting all day and needed a break . . . sketching is such a release!

Ben Wahhh Painting for 3D Total

This is a painting I finished last week of my friend Ben Wahhh, owner of Deluxe Tattoo here in Chicago. I did this painting for 3D Total,as a step by step tutorial. The Tutorial will be published in a book this November, called Digital Painting Techniques 2. 3D Total puts out great books on digital painting. I did a different step by step for them a few months ago for their book "Digital Masters Volume 5" which will be available soon.
I'll be sure to share info on how and when the book can be purchased. You can expect that it will be a nice book filled with lots of great work and tutorials.

To check out books put out by 3D Total, click here.



Detail of eyes and nose.

For this tutorial, I wasn't interested in painting photo realistically. Instead, I focus on how to paint realistically while keeping a painterly look, which is much more interesting to me. Anyone can render the snot out of something, especially with photoshop, but to paint with a traditional feel, while painting digitally is to me, much more satisfying.

Look to the masters like Sargent, and Zorn for beautiful brush work, study the masters and then paint, paint, paint!!!

Morning warm up sketch.

Keith.

American Illustration 29 & Best of America Watermedia!

I've been crazy busy and will have some new work to share here soon, but for now I would like to let everyone know that I was accepted in this years American Illustration 29, there are some great pieces in the show/book . . . you can check them out here.





Two of my paintings were chosen for Volume 2 of The Best of America Watermedia Artists, you can check it out and flip through the book by clicking here. Sort of strange really, I feel that my work stands out like a sore thumb . . . doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the book. Still an honor to have been asked to be in the book.

Tweedy Sketch

I know, it's been a while since I've posted anything fully rendered or finished . . . it's been a crazy time for me. Lots going on, many projects happening all at once and I will share more here as soon as I can.

For now, here's an insanely quick PS sketch that I did of Wilco's Jeff Tweedy . . . I limited myself to only using two brush sizes and giving myself only 10 minutes to put down as much as I could. A fun exercise to practice. I plan on doing something soon with Tweedy, but as a finished illustration.

iLove iPad

The iPAD is rad!!!!! I sketched this with the Sketchbook pro app, it's the first sketch I did, just messing around with the settings and so forth! This is my new favorite toy!!! Even though the quality is pretty good, It's not something I would suggest for artists to use professionally. For that I recommend getting a cintiq. However, if you enjoy sketching in a cafe while listening to music and sippin' some Joe, the iPad is so much fun!

5 Hour turn around for The Weekly Standard!

Another crazy-quick deadline that I did for The Weekly Standard this past Friday! I was called around 1:00 P.M. and asked to do something loose and sketchy . . . which is a good thing considering the final was due by 5:00 P.M. that same day. It was a lot of fun to do, I love drawing and sketching, and wish I had more time for it. There's something very therapeutic about sketching, something freeing about it that I really enjoy . . . it also helps when your subject has a fantastic face to work with, so thank you Martha Minow!




Close up . . . I wasn't going for an ultra tight rendered look, in fact, I wanted the opposite, loose and alive . . . a quick way to draw.




This is a quick thumbnail sketch I did to explore shape and design.

Portrait sketch: Josiah Jindrich

Portrait sketch of my friend, Josiah Jindrich. Sketched with Sketchbook Pro in a little over an hour.

May Cover for The Weekly Standard

I painted this cover last Thursday. Normally I would have had All day Thursday and Friday to complete this cover, but I had already planned a trip away with my family and we were leaving Thursday afternoon. I was asked to paint the cover around 5:00 P.M. on Wednesday, so after my sketch was approved, I worked until 2:30 A.M. painting as much as I could. After a couple hours of sleep, I woke up and finished by Thursday afternoon, with enough time to shower, pack and head out on the road with the family. There wasn't much that was needed for me to paint for this cover, so that made making this deadline easier to achieve. If I had a little more time, I would have liked to paint in a bit more texture into the rocks, aging them a bit . . . that sort of detail is usually my favorite part.





Detail of face.