Entry #3: Working hard, or hardly working?

Phe-ew, it's been a few busy weeks. Apart from working on the illustration for the new Dawn of Clarity album, I've been really busy on the blueprints for my new comic, and in the process promoting my facebook page. On top of that, I'm supposed to be on holiday!
But I'm not complaining though, I like this busy vibe. I always feel I do stuff better when there's some kind of pressure involved. And pressure, for me, is important. If I don't push myself to actually start with something, it will probably take a really long time before I finally do! A really, really long time...
Anyways, here's some of the new stuff I've been working on. If you haven't already checked out my Facebook page, here it is! It's the place to be for all the news and stuff, come visit and drop a comment or a like!

All round awesome guy Bobby Chiu shares some great advice on achieving a career in Illustration or character design. Check it out here.

And Wacom Europe has a very interesting article on their website about setting up a Wacom tablet with Photoshop.

See you next time, cheers!

Entry #2: About CD covers and comic books

Recently a friend of mine contacted me to illustrate the cover for their new album.
I immediately jumped on board because a) I like their music and b) I really welcome the challenge!
Now, it turns out that designing an album cover is not as easy as it looks. There are soooo many things to consider, soo many points to keep in mind while making the illustration. And the most difficult part of all is to crawl into the mind of the person who gives you the assignment, because even when they say they'll leave the design up to you, they ALWAYS have some sort of vision or idea about the end result.
Also, one must bear in mind that the illustration or design adds to the reputation or 'image' of the band, and that -while the illustration itself is actually a 'background' object - it's the first thing any potential buyer looks at.

What the hell did I get myself into...

I'm kidding ofcourse, like I said, I really love the challenge. So for the past two weeks I've been sketching and studying. Gathering reference material, listening to bands with awesome covers (yeah... I know). Digging through books of Frank Frazetta, Alan Lee, John Howe, etc...
I'm really trying to up my game with this assignment. And it's difficult, I won't deny it. But in order to grow as an illustrator, I feel this is just the thing that will help me.

Below are three designs that didn't make it.

And here is a link to their website: Dawn of Clarity.

In other news, I'm also trying out some sketches for James Gurney's 'troll caught fish' contest (read more about that here ). I really like the idea behind that contest, it's completely nuts!

Keiko Tanabe, an amazing watercolor artist, posted an online watercolor contest which I hope to enter as well. You can find the detail about the contest on this site.

And finally, I leave you with a character sketch for a personal project I'm working on. Meet Captain Greenskin, a rugged pirate frog, YARRR! 

Entry No. 1: ' About Birthday lists. '

It's always fun when you're allowed to buy or order your birthday presents in advance. Well, I think it is! It's become a bit of a tradition in our family to make small lists of stuff you'd really like to get for birthdays, christmas, that sort of occasions. I wouldn't really call them wish lists, because we have this unspoken rule that whatever you put on the list, has to be something the other can actually buy or get - (I try to sneak in something incredibly expensive once in a while, but no luck so far.)
So, with my birthday coming up on the 1st of september, I was asked to make a new one.
And I had absolutely no idea what to put on it.

I could choose books, but the look on my wife's face told me she'd rather not get me the same gift year after year, so that idea was set aside. I really need a new drawing table, but that would cost more than the birthday price limit (oh yes, there's a price limit too!). So for the first time I didn't really know what I wanted - apart from books that is, but I wanted to make an effort into choosing something else.

Around that time I got an email from James Gurney's 'Gurney Journey' blog, where I read he was about to release a dvd called 'Watercolor in the Wild'. Now I've always been a big fan of Dinotopia - Gurney's vision on a world where humans and dinosaurs coexist - and I absolutely love his youtube video's, so I immediately knew I wanted this DVD or, in my case, the download. My other half seemed pretty happy I chose something different than books, and gave me the OK to go ahead and download it when it releases! And then she asked me if I wanted to get some more videos/ tutorials/ downloads... After all, I hadn't reached the birthday price limit yet.

Here's the trailer to James Gurney's new DVD!

I snooped around in my digital files to find some other great downloads/ workshops and almost by accident I stumbled upon the website of Aaron Blaise, best known for his work as an animator for Disney's Brother Bear (and many more awesome stuff). Now it was either a really strange coincidence, or just plain luck, but the very day I was checking out his download tutorials, he offered a discount to readers of his newsletter. I got two tutorial videos, and his collection of photoshop brushes and textures! My list was getting pretty awesome...

For those of you who don't know Aaron Blaise, go check out his website at creatureartteacher. Aaron's video's are easy to follow and he's a great teacher; on top of that he creates some kickass art.

The paintings at the end of this post are created using his techniques on lighting and texture!

Aaron Blaise on Youtube

Finishing my list with something 'physical', I got myself a new plein air watercolor kit from Winsor and Newton. It's kinda cool, with an opening that fits your thumb, and a small container for water. I still got it wrapped and will 'officially' receive it on my birthday, so I can't really say much about it yet. I will probably dedicate a blogpost on using it in the field in the near future though. 

Well, that's it for this very first blog entry. Below are some of the paintings I made using Aaron Blaise's techniques in Photoshop CS6. All digital from sketch to finish, which is something I had never done before being a traditional 'pencil and paper' guy. I'm really happy to have stumbled upon these tutorials, I have to say they pushed my digital work up to levels way beyond what I was capable of before. I for one will continue to be motivated by, and learn from these masters. And I can only hope to improve my own art by doing so.

'Swamp Troll' using the techniques from Blaise's 'Frogman' video 

'Great Horned Owl' 

'Flower People'

Buttons, settings and layouts.

Hello and welcome to my very first blog post. It took me a while to get everything to my taste, but I think this will do for now. Besides, it's late and my eyes are starting to get all blurry from staring at the computer screen! However... having played around with all these settings for so long and not posting a little something something... well that just didn't seem right!
So, even if it is a short message like this one, it's still something to fill the emptiness on the page, and that makes me happy...   Stay tuned...

D.