Black Chow - Charcoal Study

Today was a pretty difficult day. Just a lot of discouragement. In life, it's easy to lose your perspective and focus on things that don't particularly matter. Today was one of those days for me. I'm in the middle of a season of life where I am trying to find my direction as an artist. The danger in knowing what you want to do as an artist is the fact that you think it will come instantly. Of course,

that's never the case. What you will achieve will be the result of hard work and perseverance. 

So on days like today, when the art doesn't flow as freely out of my brain, my first reaction is to assume that I won't make it because a particular drawing isn't working. But that of course is nonsense. 

Sometimes you just need to reorder your priorities. And don't quit or give up just because it's not easy! There's something to be said for taking a break, but don't use that as an excuse to not work hard.

So, after some false starts, I finally knocked out this little drawing, and everything was okay again in Will's illustration world. (Haha).

Here is a study of a black chow for an illustration that I'm doing for an upcoming book project. Did this one in charcoal in my Moleskine sketchbook. I've been using charcoal more lately because I like the ease with which it creates deeper values, and the softness of the application.

Animals are so much fun to draw! It seems like every time I draw one I enjoy it immensely. ADs! Hire me to do your animal projects! ;)

And finally, I thought I would share this album with you. I've played it twice today, and it really was fantastic. I've never been a huge fan of Beck, but this latest album is great music to create to. Give it a listen:

Carolers Process Part II: Digital Composition & Coloring

 Hey guys! So, I haven't had a lot of time to work on this piece since the last time I posted, but I made sure to take some WIP shots of the compilation stage. Basically, I'm painting elements of the image separately, and then compiling them into a composition that I am happy with. 

 So, let's jump into it!

In the image above, I've scanned in a page of painted elements. They were all done in watercolor. After I scan these into the computer, I open the image in Photoshop where I convert it to black & white (or, Image > Adjustments > Black & White). Then I adjust the Levels until I have mostly black and a completely white background. In the images here, I actually made my levels too grey, which forced me to go back and re-do a lot of my work because the grey areas became transparent. (more on that later).

Also, note the cluttered desktop, and the Cory Godbey desktop background :)

Now I'm ready to copy everything to its own layer!

 This is a slow process. It's a good idea to have some music on to keep you motivated! (I've been enjoying the new Sigur Rós album, some Christmas music, whatever helps me work!) At this stage, I use the Lasso tool to select the element I want. I then Command + click on the RGB Channels in the Channels palette. I then invert the selection (Shift+Command+I) and make a new Layer. I then fill the selection with Black (Alt+Delete). After all this is done, I select all and copy to a new layer in my painting, and then place the new layer on Transparency Lock (it's a little button on the layer palette).

This might sound like a complicated process, but it doesn't take too long when you get it committed to memory.

Now all the elements are ready to be re-sized and moved into position.

Now that each of my elements are on their own layer and on transparency lock, I can start arranging them into a pleasing composition. This step seemed to take the longest. During the process I referred to my rough sketch frequently to make sure things were where I wanted them. Also, you'll notice that everything is a bit too transparent. That's because I didn't get the blacks dark enough in the previous Levels stage. That's important! But you can see that I'm starting to lay out the scene like I want it.

Since my layers are on Transparency Lock, this means I can color them however I want without having to do any complicated selections, so everything stays neat and tidy. At this stage, I'm just laying down basic colors. I've also discovered how to make some decent texture brushes, which I'll be using to add more color and texture to the final image. The characters are being colored here with just a flat color layer underneath the line work.

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So that's about it for this stage! My goal is to have this image finished by next Wednesday, so watch this space for the final image soon. Let me know if this tutorial-type stuff is interesting to you. I want to try to give you all a glimpse into what I'm learning in hope that you'll in turn learn something as well.

And finally, I want to thank Chuck Groenink for his kind advice that he's given me personally and through his blog. I have been very inspired by his work lately, along with many others. The new methods of working I've been experimenting with are largely influenced by his paintings. Be sure and check out his work here: http://cargocollective.com/greenink

Next Time: Final Color & Texture!

Carolers Process Part I: Thumbnails & Drawing

 

Here's a new personal piece I'm working on. I'm going to be chronicling the new methods that I'm trying out lately here on the blog, so I hope you'll enjoy following along as I get this one put together!

For this first stage, I started with a very quick thumbnail. I had one idea in my head, and it worked pretty good in the first sketch, so I went with it. I scanned this sketch into Photoshop, where I hastily added some values on top of it. This is what I'm referencing mainly as I work on the image.

On this piece, I'm going to be creating the image with separate "parts". So instead of just putting all the line work down in one drawing, then painting it, I'm painting and drawing elements of the whole image separately so I can rearrange and edit the final piece in Photoshop.

I did each of these main character drawings in about 40 minutes.

For the next stage I'll be scanning these into Photoshop, 

adjusting levels, and separating the line work!

Next Time:  Painting, Compiling and Adjusting!

2013 Sketchbook: News Update and WIP!

Because it is mere days until I hope to offer my new 2013 sketchbook (and due to the fact that I simply cannot wait!) I wanted to drop in a little sneak peek of a WIP painting I've been working on the last several days.

This piece entitled "Fisherman's Song" will be included in its black and white form in my forthcoming sketchbook. A color version (which you see above) will be included in a digital version of the sketchbook, which will include some bonus content, and will be available for download on Etsy. The plan is to offer the physical sketchbook, as well as a digital version which will include a few color paintings. The above painting will also serve as a promotional postcard, which I plan on sending to art directors, etc.

The above piece was created to be a part of a series of 4 new drawings that I created specifically for this personal project. I did them all over the course of The Lamp Post Guild's "Art of Personal Work" with Cory Godbey. I would strongly recommend you take this class if you're interested in building your portfolio, getting the attention of potential clients, or just interested in developing your voice as an artist in general. I cannot stress enough how beneficial this class was in my pursuit of illustration as a career, and I hope some of you will find it to be helpful as well!

Our Fall Class begins on Nov. 18th, 2013, and registration is open! You can sign up at http://lpg.pathwright.com/school/catalog/course/the-art-of-personal-work-cory-godbey/

and you can find an article by Cory on the importance of personal work (and a discount code!) here:

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/11/personal-work-making-it-count.html

Thanks for reading, and I will be posting more soon!

-Will

Beauty & the Beast: Watercolor

Taking a quick break from some LPG sketchwork to post my progress on the Beauty & the Beast piece that I worked on over the course of the TLC Workshop weekend before last. This is the final watercolor, with just one or two adjustment layers in Photoshop to bring life back into the scanned image.

I'm pretty pleased with the overall painting. Personally, I feel like this is one of the best "finished" watercolors I've ever done, although there is a great deal of room for improvement here. I really need to work on my application of the media - I tend to just mush the paint around with no objective for the strokes. In future paintings, I'll be trying for smoother layers of color.

The next step will be digital adjustments. Happily, I think I've gotten much more color information down in the painting than in the Winter Dragon one I did last time. Hopefully that will make the digital stage much easier!

Anyway, that's about it. What do you think? Keep at it, or go into a career in the Fast Food industry?

(JUST KIDDING)

TLC Workshop Recap: Monsters & Maidens

  

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending the TLC Workshop with Justin Gerard and Cory Godbey. It was a terrific weekend full of good friends, great artwork, and lots and lots of knowledge passed around! These are just a few photos from a very full weekend.

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(Above) Justin Gerard demonstrated some methods of picture-making that he uses frequently, including techniques blending ink and watercolor that were used by Arthur Rackham (if you're interested in this method, a detailed description of it can be found here.)

Iain McCaig, who has worked as a concept artist for Star Wars and many other feature films, stopped by on Saturday to give us an energetic and inspiring talk on telling stories with our art and character design.

The "digital room" where I worked. The Arts Umbrella where the workshop was held was a terrific space. Small, but just right for a workshop this size.

This was the state of my Beauty & the Beast piece on Saturday night. Lots of reference lying around, and I had Just got the drawing transferred to watercolor paper and refining it. I had a pretty rough time deciding on a composition that worked for me,  so by this time I was ready to commit to a drawing just so I could try out some new watercolor methods.

Justin worked on a Beauty & the Beast illustration that was absolute dynamite. It was really nice to be able to see him work in watercolor over the course of the weekend, and I learned a great deal about the actual application of it, which has been something I've been pushing to learn recently. Justin was eager to share all kinds of knowledge about illustration and his working methods.

And here's a sneak peek photo of my drawing. It has lots of issues, but I pressed on. I told myself I couldn't go home until I had gotten watercolor on the page, which I did! I still need to finish that aspect of it, and I'll post the final when it's done.

And lastly, here's Mr. Cory demoing his digital workflow in Photoshop which he uses mainly for client work. Cory is a fine fellow, and it was great to hang out with him for the weekend. His drawings are mind-blowing works of art and I enjoy his approach to character and composition.

At the end of the class on Sunday, Justin & Cory did a Q&A with us on the business of art, how they got their start in illustration, and things that we as new artists can do to gain exposure and attention for our own artwork. It was a great session, and it really answered a lot of questions that I've had in the recent months about "where do I go from here?"

After it was over, we all took a look at each other's pieces. There was some terrific art being made over the course of the weekend. That evening we attended a farewell dinner at Vivendo's Italian Restaurant in the Country Village and it was so nice to just spend time with good friends who love art. We're all in this together! 

If you ever get the chance to attend one of Tara Larsen Chang's TLC Workshops, I would highly recommend it, especially if the guest illustrator is someone who has influenced you in your art pursuits. For me, Justin and Cory's work was a huge factor in my decision to become an illustrator, so it was a great opportunity to meet with them and learn from their work and experience. I hope that you will be able to do the same if you attend.

And with that, it's back to work for me! I have a painting to finish!

Craft of Illustration: Character Studies

I haven't been posting much of my work from The Lamp Post Guild class I've been working through, "Craft of Illustration" taught by Justin Gerard, primarily because it's mostly been rough sketches and thumbnails up to now. But these are some character studies I just finished up to share with the class that I thought I would post here. The scene I'm illustrating is from C. S. Lewis' The Silver Chair in which Jill Pole leaves the castle of Cair Paravel sailing through the night sky on the back of an Owl. I'll be sure to post more as I start to finish up the illustration.

Winter Dragon: Watercolor (Traditional Underpainting)

So in my last post in this series, I showed you the finished drawing. Since then I've plunged into the watercolor stage of my process. This piece actually marks a lot of progress for me, for several reasons. First, this is the first watercolor I've ever done that I've felt "good" about. I've managed to achieve some pretty good texture, keep the colors within a predetermined scheme, and get a fairly unified look to the whole thing. Secondly, it's the first painting I've done that stands alone as a finished watercolor painting, but still leaves room for some digital manipulation, which I will complete in the last stage.

The image I'm posting (above) was tweaked just slightly to bring up the levels from what the scan gave me, but otherwise, it is untouched by Photoshop. Over the course of the painting stage, I used these steps, which I will give you here in case you are interested:

 

Here's a very poor picture of what the underpainting looked like. 

Pretty rough, huh? 

1. Light underpainting - wash of warm brownish undertones to unify the colors.
2. First washes of local color. This was the stage where I added in my midtone colors, leaving my lightest areas untouched, and saving my shadows for a later stage.
3. Final washes of darker areas - adding in shadows, etc.
4. Final touches of local color, a little more fine tuning.

The final watercolor. Wrinkled, but still alive and kicking!

That being said, there were a lot of things I learned, and things that I will do differently next time:

1. Instead of doing a wash over the whole painting, do a light underpainting on individual elements of the image, such as the trees, the dwarves, the mountains, dragon, etc. This would eliminate some of the dramatic bleeds that I got.

2. Stretch the paper. I skipped this stage, but it was only because I forgot to do this before I drew on it, and didn't want to lose my drawing. Overall, the drawing held well.

And that's about it. I'm sure there were other things I noticed but can't recall at the moment. Anyway, I got through the whole ordeal without incident, and was pretty pleased with the result!
Now I will retreat into my digital laboratory and tweak the DNA of this thing with Photoshop. We shall see what madness shall ensue!

Character detail.

Up Next: Digital Process!

Winter Dragon: Drawing & Color Comp

Yesterday I put the finishing touches on a drawing that I started back in January. It was in response to an ArtOrder Challenge entitled "Winter Dragon". The challenge was to come up with a Dragon and give it characteristics that displayed how he interacted with the world around him. Or something like that. Anyway. It was January. I got started on a much more serious, depressing, savage, dragon-killed-my-family-and-destroyed-my-homestead type piece, and had some great sketches (which I might finish at some point). But instead I opted for a much more light-hearted scene. Two dwarves and their dragon pal having a cookout. I was pretty pleased with how the drawing came out, but still trying to find that balance between being too sketchy and being a tight, finished drawing that isn't too detailed or over-cooked. So, there you have it! Tomorrow I'll be working on starting the watercolor stage (which I'm pretty nervous about). Hopefully we'll end up with a final image that will look something like the color comp above, but with much more detail.

See you then!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all you wonderful blog readers out there a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This is an illustration of a changed Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge and a grateful Tiny Tim that I did for a Christmas card this year. I was pushing it for time, and barely got it sent to the printers in time. But I managed to send several out to friends and family.

Here's a bit of the process I used to create it - I used this project as a chance to

apply what I'd learned from Cory Godbey's "Fox" demo (which I really can't recommend to you enough). I look forward to continuing to explore more digital/traditional techniques in the coming year. Here's a bit of how the project progressed:

 Final drawing, scanned, cleaned up, and levels adjusted.

 Linework adjusted to a warm color, sepia underpainting on the characters.

 Flat color added.

 Adding in some lighter colors.

 Pushing the light and dark colors.

 

Painted texture applied over the characters with a layer mask.

Texture applied over background.

Color balance layer applied over the background, with local color added to the background elements.

And Finished!

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Merry Christmas everybody! Looking forward to sharing some new projects 

with you in the coming year!

A Parliament of Owls - Pt. 1: Thumbnails and Color Sketch

For the next several posts, I'll be documenting the creation of my latest illustration "A Parliament of Owls", a scene from C. S. Lewis' book The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair. This is a project I've wanted to attempt for some time. The goal is to create a finished illustration for each chapter in the book, along with various sketches and drawings which could potentially be used for interior illustrations. My "process" is constantly evolving, but I thought that all my kind readers would benefit from seeing how I work.

Of course, before I start drawing, I'm formulating ideas. This usually accumulates into lots of random doodles, lines and bad ideas on a piece of printer paper or my sketchbook. I read and reread passages of the book to make sure I'm thinking about the character & settings right. It's all about memorizing how I see the scene and getting something on the paper that starts to concrete ideas in my mind. Then to work out the composition of the piece, I do thumbnail sketches. And in this case I did... 3. You should do a lot more than this, just to work out the best ideas. Some people do hundreds. I say that's ridiculous. I did three. I'll probably regret it later, but there you go.

This is where a great tool comes into play...

PHOTOSHOP!

I often use this tool for creating thumbnails for several reasons. They are as follows:

1. I'm lazy. Too lazy to draw thumbnails on paper (okay, that's not really a good reason)

2. You can add grayscale value to your thumbnails and thus do value studies at the same time.

3. You can use the Lasso tool to quickly select and resize elements of your thumbnail to experiment with various compositions. This is the best reason I use Photoshop for thumbnails, and it saves me from having to redraw stuff over and over.

Okay, so in the sketches above I have limited myself to roughly 3 values - a dark, light and middle tone. I'm sure you fine folks have heard enough else about composition, size, contrast, and all that jazz, so I won't bore you (but if you need help with this stuff, leave me a comment, I'll go over it with you). After establishing basic value relationships, I move on to the next step...

This is a new step for me, but one that I have seen used with a great deal of success from some of my favorite illustrators, and that is the color sketch. This is again an area where Photoshop excels. Color exploration is certainly one of Photoshop's strong points, and you can use it to quickly lay in color, and manipulate it in a myriad of ways. Here, I laid down a layer set to Multiply over a copy of the original thumbnail sketch (#1). Eustace and Jill are in a tower late at night, having just been carried there by Glimfeather, a giant owl, to confer with the rest of the Narnian owls about a secret quest.

Nighttime scenes are difficult because the colors become desaturated and slightly blue. One great way I've found to explore color options for a piece is to paint in a "wild" color that you might not think would go. Then find the colors that complement it - color wheels are a great way to figure this out (but don't use them like a crutch). In this case I painted the whole thing in a deep blue. I wasn't sure what color would work for Jill's cloak, but by working off the color wheel I found that a desaturated reddish brown provided the perfect contrast to make her and Eustace stand out from the dark and shadowy tower and the Parliament of Owls.

Well, I hope you enjoyed that quick overview of this part of the process. Maybe you learned something. Maybe you didn't. Maybe you're ready to go to YouTube and watch cute kitten videos (please don't, go draw something instead). But at any rate maybe this has gotten you started thinking about how you can improve your next painting or drawing. Thanks for reading!

Next time: Character & Finished Sketches!

Brief Value Studies

Some very quick value studies in Photoshop for an upcoming drawing. I wanted to finish it today, but alas, you shall have to wait another day or so. Can you guess who this is?

#164 To Everything A Season

Quick Sketch of a Dude from the 1960's *

*this is not a self portrait. Unfortunately I don't look this cool.

*Also this image has very little to do with the actual blog post below.

   

Just a quick post to update everyone on some changes that I have in the works for Drawing the Sword, and some changes that have already taken place.

1. Blog Changes - Over the coming weeks I will be slowly but surely making some significant aesthetic changes to the blog interface. This will include (hopefully) a redesigned header, a visually unified series of buttons/banners for the sidebar, etc. I want this thing to look good.

2. More Posts - I will be trying to be posting LOTS more in the future. I don't want to bore you with sub-par sketches, but I'm working like crazy to build up a portfolio, so there is going to be lots more to show you over the coming weeks. Also, I may start posting more stuff about what inspires me, what things I'm thinking about. I want this blog to be somewhat more personal, I want it to be a place where you can come to get inspired.

3. Lose the # System - This is something that is bittersweet for me. After a lot of thought, I think it would be better for everyone to stop "numbering" the posts. It was an integral part of the concepts I had when brainstorming the blog, but I think it's something has run its course.

4. Unveiling my Etsy store! - I'm in the process of setting up an Etsy store for Drawing The Sword. It will be an integral part of the Drawing the Sword online presence, and I hope to sell original paintings, drawings, art prints, cards, bookmarks, and possibly an occasional comic:) I will be updating you with more information on this as it comes, so stay tuned! Also, I'm looking for art print services that are reliable and produce quality results. If you've had any experience with this type of thing, please leave a comment on this post. I would love to hear of printing services you have had success with in the past.

5. New Gallery & Contact Page - I've also set up a 2nd blog (which was about the only way for me to create a dedicated portfolio page) where I've posted some of my best work. I'll be regularly updating this, so check back frequently. I've set up a contact page as well, so if you have any project inquiries, questions, or just want to chat you can check it out. The links are right up there next to my profile pic.

So that's about the shape of things. I hope to make this blog a much more exciting place from now on! Glad you're reading, and I hope you're feeling inspired already.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven

Ecclesiastes 3:1

#151 SKETCHBOOK 2012: The Falconer's Blade

The Falconer's Blade - 10" x 14" pencil on Arches watercolor paper

(click for larger image)

I am really excited to show you guys the first piece of art for my upcoming sketchbook! I did this one on Arches 140-lb. cold press watercolor paper with (my new favorite) Prismacolor Sepia Col-Erase pencil. I won't be releasing all the art for the book on the blog, but I'll be giving away a few sneak peeks to whet your appetite. There are spots in the drawing that are a bit weak, but I felt like I needed to just move on to the painting stage and not dwell on any particular part of the process too long. Now that I have scanned the final drawing I can paint - I have to have high-quality scans of all the parts of the book before I move on to the next step. This will be in water color, but I plan to include a variety in the book. I hope to do some experiments in oils in the next couple of weeks, and I hope to get them into the final product. Stay tuned for some watercolor!

#144 Desert Chase: Thumbnail/Brainstorm Stage

It probably goes without saying that when you start an illustration project, you do thumbnails. Lots of them. But believe it or not, I have to be reminded of that constantly.
I won't say that thumbnailing is my least favorite part of the process, but it certainly is one that I seem to shy away from. Trying to come up with ten solutions to an illustration problem of concept, design and composition is about like pulling mastodon teeth for me.
Many professional artists/designers will create upwards to 100 or so thumbnails before they begin to narrow it down to a design that will work. For me, ten is pretty good.
While sitting at my somewhat tedious "day job" I cobbled these thumbnails & sketches together on notebook paper & smuggled them into my pocket before the company secret agents came and handcuffed me, escorting me to a very dark room with a chair and a blinding light.
My thumbnails are usually very rough explorations of form and placement of elements. I don't worry too much about the actual look of the objects because I already have an idea of what they'll look like anyway. It does help to look up reference ahead of time because it gives you more confidence in the placement & size of certain parts of the image.

As you can see (or hopefully you can see) early on, I'm trying to establish perspective. So far I've been going with one-point perspective with a vanishing point on the horizon, located using the Rule of Thirds. You might also notice that I have some significant rock formations in the background. This is where reference comes in handy. At this stage I just did a simple Google search for "Utah rock formations" and took a good look. Don't copy reference, just make mental notes of outstanding characteristics of the reference material. Later you'll have a better idea of what you want to draw.
I also searched for vintage motorbike reference which will be an important part of this piece. Above you can see that I've made a lot of notes on what I want to include in the painting, as well as just general brainstorming about technique/mood/lighting - just all kinds of stuff.

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That's all for now. Next time I'll try to share some finished sketches!
-Will