STAYING INSPIRED #3

Here is one of my fav's. I've followed her for awhileand love her stuff. Check it out. Also wait til you see some of her gouache sketchbook stuff...
http://jawcooper.blogspot.com/

STAYING INSPIRED #2

For the Sequentialists (sp)? out there...
This guy has some good info. Wished it was updated more.... (kettle, black)?
Anywho.
http://gregsmallwood.blogspot.com/

This artist's sketchbook make me want to cry. She rocks! Go tell her!
http://web.mac.com/alina.chau/Ice-Cream_Monster_Galleria/Welcome.html

Stay Inspired

I posted this on my facebook page but every illustration/concept/character artist new grad should read this while eating milk and cookies.
Oh, BTW this site is pretty incredible. It's full of great resources and information. Get on there and help the community grow! Chris Oatley.com
Chris also has a podcast that's pretty awesome as well at: Paper Wings!

At the Circus!

This is a piece I did for a class project waaay long ago back in the winter of 2010. I get a lot of questions on it, so I thought I'd go over my process. I was messing around a bit with line weight and color, and am pretty happy with the results.

A couple roughs

After we rounded down to the 2 best ideas... (The dynamics of the circular composition of the clown poster and the character design of the Strong Man poster), we go to pencils sketching...

Ohhhhh, the spinning... urp!

Strong Man "AAAARRRGGGHHH"... toot!

After the pencils, I go and tighten up the sketch a bit more. From here I go and transfer to illustration board. I make sure that the lines are visible before I go to the inks. My personal favorite inks are Dr. Ph. Martin's Matte Black Star and Speedball Super Black. For me they have the densest coverage and best fluidity. I use a range (3, 5, 7) of Windsor Newton Series 7 brushes that I will probably have for life. Best brush I have ever used! Also, while inking I will sometimes use nibs and Sakura Micron pens. I use Microns and tech pens when I inking man-made objects and brushes and nibs when I want more organic feel.

Since I was going for a more "olde-timey" feel I wanted to change the color and harshness of the lines. So after I scanned in the inkwork I turned them a brownish tint.

From here I just start dropping in and playing with color in Photoshop.

Finally to help make it look aged and stained I throw in some paper textures on opacity layers, some scratch and rips alpha channels, and burn the edges a bit to deepen and age it more.

voila'

Spicing Up the Mustard!

Arggghhhh! So, I'm starting this up proper like.

As some of you know, my wife, child and I having been touring the U.S. since I finished my illustration undergrad from SCAD (or Savannah College of Art & Design) to everyone else. Currently we’re hanging out in Charlotte, SC and love it. (Though every time I post something about Charlotte I spell it Charloote…). So, I’m making this my creative outlet to share a little about my process, my inspiration, thoughts and network with some other artists out there in the great void. I must warn you ahead of time, I have no idea about what nonsense I’m apt to regurgitate, soooo that’s that. So, what do you think if I end my posts with “Excelsior?” I’m sure that hasn’t been taken yet… I’m so right brained. (tic) Here’s a little bit of what I’ve been working on recently for an ad agency in Atlanta, GA. I don’t know what they use these for, but they needed some character designs. 

First, I come up with 6-8 sketches. I do this in Photoshop because it's incredibly easy and fast. After I send off the roughs, I wait for changes and approval from the client (seen in red). Then I gets to work in Illustrator

Voila! Sorry I can't show the whole design.These pieces are still in production.