#095 Boba Fett (in Blazing Technicolor)

Spent a couple of hours today coloring my INKtober sketch from Saturday. I used a more comic book approach for this one. I think it turned out pretty good!

#094 INKtober Day 4: Whale Convoy

Whale convoy in the sky!
Used a dark grey brush marker for some of the lines, which was a bit of a mistake when it came to the final product - looked a bit washed out.
Big thanks to good ol' Tony Cliff for his great tutorial on cleaning up scanned artwork. Made a huge difference this time around!
Also, as I mentioned on Twitter last night, if anyone has a request that you would like me to try (note the italicized try) to draw for you, I'd be happy to. Just shoot me a comment, email, tweet, whatever.
'Til next time, troopers!*

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*Not really sure what that means. But take it to mean that you're part of the club.

#093 INKtober Day 3: Space Creep

THIS IS A 100% GENUINE, AUTHENTIC SPACE CREEP.

Really fast one today. I was feeling kind of lazy. But Day 3 is on! I promise I will post Day 4 earlier in the day!
Nite.

#092 INKtober Day 2: Dwarf

Quite frankly, this guy freaks me out!
It's INKtober day 2! Hooray, I actually have enough self-discipline to pull one off again for the second time in a row! Let's see how well that keeps up...
I think this one made me realize how pitifully lacking I am in anatomy skills. But! This is for practice! For Improvements! For FUN. And it is. Thanks for checking it out, and a huge thanks to Jake for featuring my blog over at Agent44! I am honored and flattered.
'Til tomorrow Friends!

#091 INKtober Day 1: Boba Fett

It's October! Or INKtober, I should say!

I've decided (in a somewhat last-minute fashion) to take the INKtober Challenge as given by Jake Parker here. The object is this:

Every day in the Month of October, draw a pen & ink sketch!

It's that easy! And it's a great way to stretch your creativity.
So what better way to start than with the baddest dude in the universe, Boba Fett himself. I did this portrait with Zig Micron pens (I hope that counts as pen & ink!) in my Moleskine sketchbook. I think I should have probably left out Cloud City in the background, but I kinda liked the background element in there. Overall, it took me about 30 minutes.
So thanks Jake for the challenge, and I look forward to seeing all you other INKers come up with!

#090 Starship Attack

A really fun experiment in seeing how much of the glow FX layers I can cram into one piece in Photoshop. You might remember I posted the drawing of this earlier in the year. Well, I have a lot of downtime with a semester break from school, so I'm really trying to bolster my skills with the time I have. So there you have it. I'm really proud of those planets. Don't they look realistic? Did it over the course of the last couple of days. Mr. Jake Parker over at Agent44 said it was cool, so I don't want to hear any arguments! (Thanks Jake!) Now, on to more awesome stuff!

#089 Just For Fun

Here's a ten-minute Photoshop job for ya. Just for the heck of it. I'm really into Apollo missions, space stuff, and Polaroid color photos right now. So there ya go. Have fun.

#088 Through the Flames

Well, it's been a long time since my last post... things around here have been pretty hectic. My school schedule has been super crowded taking a class this summer. It's a tough class that I've heard many of my fellow students say was difficult for them in the past as well. But this drawing (above) was a finished drawing for an atmospheric perspective assignment we had. And I was super proud of it - I think it's one of my favorite drawings that I've ever done. It comes from a story I have in the pipeline about giant falcons and dragons (in case you didn't gather that from the image, which I hope you did)!

Anyway, just thought I'd put something new up. I am warning you though: the next several months could be pretty sparse as far as posting goes. I'm actually planning to possibly take a break from school for a semester for a trip that's in the planning stages (no, I'm not disclosing any more information than that just yet!). But I'm sure it will inevitably turn into more artistic opportunities that will be shared here. Just stay tuned!

#087 Submission!

You might remember I mentioned something that I would be doing with my Silver Chair book cover. Well, I just did what I said I would be doing.
Entering the IlluXCon annual Scholarship Contest!!
Each year in Altoona PA just about every major sci-fi/fantasy illustrator known to mankind gets together to hold IlluXCon where they teach classes, host lectures, and get to hang out with wannabes like me. And every year, they offer scholarships to up & coming students whose art catches the eye of 5 judges. So I submitted my humble illo for The Silver Chair so I could be in the running for one of those coveted scholarships. I really really really want to win. So wish me luck! If it really happens this'll be the chance of a lifetime!

My Final Submission:

Approaching Harfang Castle
Photoshop & Painter 11

#086 New Painting WIP

Here's the beginning value stage for a new painting I've started. I think it's gonna be pretty cool. I've got two other projects going at the same time before my summer semester starts: "Jewel Heist: Mars", and my final personal revisions for my Silver Chair cover. Honestly, I'm ready to move on from the book cover project. There's a lot of things I want to fix, but I'm not sure yet if it's worth it. I'm just tired of looking at it so much! Anyway, I've got until the 15th of June to make revisions before I can reveal what I'm going to do with it... he he he.
They say new artists need to get their first couple of hundred paintings out of their system before they really start getting good. I believe it, so the more the merrier my friends!
Happy Photoshop Painting!

#085 Silver Chair Book Cover: Final

So here is the final version of my book cover project for C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair. Again, looking rather anemic in my browser, yet not completely unsatisfying to see this piece in a finished form.

However, the term "finished form" is a bit misleading. Because, really, this piece is not completely finished. I still don't feel right about this painting (which was done in Corel Painter 11, then tweaked a little in Photoshop). It just feels like it needs something more.

Now if you follow me on Twitter, you may have heard my desperate pleas for suggestions. I need some post-production advice on this thing (obviously it's kind of late to be fixing compositional issues), but I would love to hear about anything regarding the lighting, color, etc. Is it washed out? Too muddy? Tell me!

And I would really like to hear any suggestions regarding a brush, Photoshop or Painter, that would allow me to add stars easily to the sky. This seems like a no-brainer, but I really wasn't able to put stars into the composition, due to a lack of technical ability!

So, thanks in advance to any feedback you might have. As an added bonus, if you leave a comment, I'll respond back in the comments section telling you how wonderful and brilliant you are. Okay?

And I still have a little revelation about this project that I will share later... nothing much, but I'm kind of excited about it.
Alright, enough for now. I look forward to your comments!

-Will

#084 Jewel Heist: Mars (Color Comp)

Here is a brand-new project I just started. The color comp is kind of washed out looking in the browser (still trying to work on that), but I want to go with a strong red/blue color scheme. The concept is: a dude is frantically dashing from his spaceship to grab some glowing jewel, while ominous starships above the canyon rim search for it with their ray beam thingies.
This will mostly be an experiment in color, sci-fi concept realization, and perspective. And really, just to see if I can knock out an image in less than a week when I'm not in school. I think I can do it!
Hope you guys like!
_______
P.S.: I will be posting my final Silver Chair book cover, and a sort-of-exciting announcement about it soon! I still have some post production work in Photoshop to do on it. Hang tight!