Matt's Art Blog

Stone Cold!

2012-01-10T12:33:00.000-08:00

I used to watch WWE all the time. Of course when I used to watch it, it was call the WWF. I first watched during the Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Roddy Piper, etc era, which was a great time. I stopped watching WWF for sometime, then got back into watching it in the late 90s during high school. This was the era of Stone Cold and The Rock. Stone Cold was one of my favorite wrestlers as he was a fan favorite of everyone else as well. I have plenty of fond memories of watching WWF with my friends all gathered in Bill's basement.

Figure Drawings

2012-01-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

2 figure drawings from last semesterat Watts Atelier. I really wish I had an extra hour to finish up the first one.

Remetee Skull Designs

2012-01-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

For almost 2 years I was creating t-shirt designs for Remetee. Here are just a few that I did. It was a lot of fun being able to do this, definitely something I never thought I would do at all in my life. I really enjoy drawing skulls and working with my Art Director Brett really helped me push my abilities. The other real cool part was that I got to create them traditionally. Most of them are done in pencil. Maybe did one or 2 in charcoal and in oil paint. I also did a bunch in ink.

Bustice!

2011-12-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

Drawing I did of Sara Underwood as her character Bustice from Attack of the Show. I have been watching AOTS for maybe 5 months or so and I got to say its rather entertaining, I got hooked right away. Drawing is done in graphite on Bristol paper.

Zoo Sketches

2011-11-28T12:59:00.000-08:00

Haven't done much sketching at the zoo lately, but here are some sketches I did about a month or so ago. Hopefully I will get back into going to the zoo and sketching, its always a lot of fun.

4 New Figure Drawings

2011-11-27T12:39:00.000-08:00

4 more figure drawings from that I have done within the last 3 weeks at Watts Atelier. I have been really happy with the ways these have been turning out. The only thing is that I wish I had more time to spend on them so they could be finished up.

Life Drawings

2011-11-12T13:06:00.001-08:00

Some life drawing that I have done in the last few weeks or so at Watts Atelier. Ranging from 30 mins to 3 hours. I feel like I have been rusty lately, but these last 2 weeks things are starting to come around.

Gears of War 3 - Clayton Fan Art

2011-10-24T13:55:00.001-07:00

So the Gears of War games has been one of my favorite gaming series for the last 6 years. The 3rd one was recently released last month. So I decided to do some fan art. I did this piece from a 3d render I found online. The biggest change I made from the 3d image was designing out the anatomy more. I have been studying my anatomy a lot lately, so I wanted to practice it on this piece. The character I drew here is Clayton Carmine, the 3rd Carmine in the series. Each game features a new Carmine, in the ABC order. The first one was Anthony, second was Benjamin, and the third Clayton. The image is graphite on bristol paper.

Figure Drawing From Last Term

2011-10-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

Figure drawing that I did last semester at Watts Atelier. This is one of those drawing sessions you wish you had more than 3 hours to finish a drawing. You can see every muscle on the model its hard not to want to draw everything. Models like this are always fun to draw too, especially when you have been studying anatomy for awhile. Basically I just ended up with a nice torso study that I am happy with. If I remember correctly I spent the first 3 sittings on just a linear lay-in. Also, I am not sure how the fore arm got so long, when I got home that night I noticed how long it was and it looked so comical that I laughed.

Zoo Sketches - Lizards

2011-09-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

I went to the zoo today to do some sketching. The lizards were quite cooperative, especially the Gila Monster. What was cool about the Gila was that he was in a monster type of pose too. I then went outside and drew an Iguana. Unfortunately it moved before I could finish the sketch. I took the sky buckets over to the Takins, but found out that their exhibit is closed. I miss the Takins, they are fun to draw!

Figure Drawing and Figure Quick Sketches

2011-09-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted many life drawings lately, mainly due to the fact that I have not done any drawings that I have felt good about until recently. So here is a figure drawing I am quite happy with and some quick sketches that I did last night in class at Watts Atelier. For not taking a quick sketch class in years, these came out much better than what I was expecting. Quick sketch is tough, but its actually a lot of fun, you get a bunch of different poses you wouldn't typically get in a longer figure drawing.

Dreamer Preliminary Sketches

2011-08-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

Preliminary work I did for the Dreamer illustration. A bunch of thumb sketches and the final drawing. I also used a ton of tracing paper to help me make the poses more dynamic. The guy I did the illustration for had a specific idea in mind and he gave me a rough sketch of what he wanted. His idea was basically the first thumb I did but more zoomed out, which would not have worked because of the horizontal composition. So we agreed on thumb sketch 4. As I was looking for reference, I came across a piece that was quite inspiring and I thought it would work well for this illustration, so I did a couple more sketches and sent them over. He liked the new sketches but wanted the character sitting underneath a tree, so I did 2 more sketches and the first sketch is what we went with.

Zoo And Padres Sketches

2011-08-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

Well I feel like its been over a year, but I finally got a zoo sketch that I feel is of the quality of my older zoo sketches. Lucky for me the komodo dragon was very cooperative. I wish the other animals were as cooperative, every time I went to draw one they would move. Here are also some sketches I did at some Padres baseball games awhile back.

Dreamer

2011-08-12T16:27:00.000-07:00

I just finished this illustration on Monday, it a title illustration for an RPG coming out shortly called "Dreamer" for the PC, done in oil. This was the most complicated, difficult piece I have ever done, but what I learned from it was quite invaluable. I don't even know how to explain it. Even though this piece was so difficult, it also turned out to be the best piece I have ever done and a lot of fun. The great thing about being an artist, is always being challenged and always having to push yourself harder and the reward you get for doing it, and finding out what new things you have learned. Probably in a week or so I am going to return to this painting and do some touch ups here and there on it, I am real happy with how it turned out and want to make it that much better. No matter how far you get in go in art, there is always so much further to go!

Sack Boy From Little Big Planet

2011-07-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

This is a still life painting of Sack Boy from Little Big Planet done in oil. My roommate bought the collectors edition and it came with a plush Sack Boy so I decided to do a painting of it. I really love the creativity of these games both game play way and artistic style. It would be real fun to buy the other plush Sack Boys and Girls and do a larger still life painting of them all. I just wish they had a plush with the shark outfit, I loved wearing the shark outfit when I played.

Anatomical Sculpture Finished Finally!

2011-07-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

I finished this about a week ago, but finally baked it today completing the process. I may go back and do the bones of the fingers someday but I got to say it was a lot of fun sculpting this and I learned a lot. It is far from 100 percent accurate but it was still a worth while process. The cool part now is that since I baked it, I can hold it in my hand and feel the forms, quite interesting. I am now working on a leg sculpture for class.

Long Pose Figure Drawings

2011-07-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

I took a long figure drawing class last term taught by Erik Gist at Watts Atelier. This was my first long figure drawing class in probably 4 years and it was a lot of fun. I have been doing so much pencil work recently for the designs I do for Remetee so I really wanted to take a long figure class to see what I could get out of it. I am really proud of the male drawing, I spent an extra 8 hours or more at home fixing it up after the semester ended. I like the female one as well but I had a lot of issues with it, mainly the drapery covering her body slowed me down. I may go back and touch it up as well if I find the time or desire. I got a lot out of the class, my Game of Thrones drawings would not have come out nice if it wasn't for this class.

Sansa Stark - Game of Thrones - Portrait Drawing

2011-06-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

Here is my next Game of Thrones drawing, done in graphite. I am very sad that this season is over, but I look forward to the next season! I found a good pic of Sansa Stark played by Sophie Turner online so I decided to do a drawing of her. I spent a lot more time on this drawing than I had originally intended, maybe its because I took a long figure drawing class, but I rendered the hell out of it. Overall I am happy with the drawing, but I feel like I lost her likeness a bit. I don't draw a whole lot of teenagers, so that makes it just that much more difficult to do. I hope she kicks Joffrey's ass next season!

Arm Anatomy Sketches

2011-06-06T23:28:00.000-07:00

Here are a few sketched I did from my sculpture. I thought it would be a good idea to sketch what I sculpted to help put it into memory more.

Eddard Stark - Game of Thrones

2011-06-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

I have been watching Game of Thrones series on HBO and I got to say that I love the show! I have not been this excited for a TV show in ages. So I found a hi res image online and did a pencil rendering of Sean Bean as his character Eddard Stark, one of my favorite characters from the show. I have been taking a long pose figure drawing class this term and I feel like this has complimented what I have been doing in class well and vice versa. I am going to guess that this drawing took somewhere between 20-30 hours.

Anatomical Sculpture Class Parts 3-5: Deep Muscles

2011-05-31T00:27:00.000-07:00

I have been slacking a bit on updating my sculpture, but mainly due to the fact that my camera has been shooting blurry pics. It is working fine now, I don't know if it was because of the time of day or if its just old, I use an old, not professional crap digital camera. Anyways these are the last 3 weeks of me working on it and since its all deep muscles, I don't have much overlapping ones in yet, so you can still see everything that I have done so far. I got to say that I have really enjoyed sculpting, its been a lot of fun. Tomorrow I will probably do some sketches from this sculpture tomorrow.

Anatomical Sculpture Class Part 2: The Skeleton

2011-05-04T00:29:00.000-07:00

So here is the next part of my anatomical sculpture of the arm, the skeleton! I put a lot of extra time out of class working on this. It could still use many more hours of work and is probably far from be 100 percent accurate but should be more than sufficient for what I need it for. I got to say sculpting is a lot of fun, and its good to break away from what I typically do, drawing and painting. I feel its forcing me to pay much more attention to subtle details of the forms. Usually when you think of a typical bone you think its round and cylindrical, but that is far from true. There are many sweeps, turns, and hard edges, its very complex. Tomorrow I will bake it before class so the clay gets hard making it easier to put the muscles on top of the skeleton. I have not sculpted the hand due to the fact that we will not be going over the muscles of the hand in class, but I plan on adding the bones of the hand after the whole sculpture is finished. I am really happy with the way it turned out, the sad part is that I will never see it again after I sculpt the anatomy on top of it, these pictures will be all I have left of it.

Figure Drawing and Zoo Sketches

2011-04-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

Figure drawing I did last semester at Watts Atelier that I finally got around to shooting a pic of. I remember last semester I was struggling with my figure drawings, but was pretty happy with the way this one turned out. And some zoo drawings I did a week or so ago. I really wished the monkey and the lizard held their poses longer!

Anatomical Sculpture Class Part 1: Armature

2011-04-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

I am take a sculpture class at Watts Atelier this semester. We are sculpting out the anatomy of the arm. So this week we had to build the armature that the whole sculpture will sit on. I am no sculpture, but typically the armature itself is the skeletal structure for your sculpture, but since this is an anatomy class as well, next week we have to sculpt the bones of the arm, and then the following weeks will sculpting muscles over muscles. In the end you would be able to see a lot of what is sculpted so I am taking progress shots along the way. Here are a few pics of the armature that I built.

So next week I will have pics of a skeleton.

Godzilla Revisit

2011-03-28T01:08:00.000-07:00

So almost a year ago I did a Godzilla painting where he is fighting Mecha Godzilla. Well I went back to that painting and did some digital work on top of it, making Godzilla more rough and scaly. So here is the new painting, below is the original.

Figure Paintings!

2011-03-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

So this last semester at Watts Atelier I took a figure painting class. Now I haven't done figure painting in 4 or 5 years, lots of portrait and still life, but not figure. These were done in Sir Erik Gist's class, yes he has been knighted by the unholy undead, scary stuff... Anyways the class was quite the challenge and a lot of fun. Paintings wouldn't have come out as nice if it wasn't for his help. The girl sitting was done in broader range palette and the other two were done in Zorn palette. Paintings were done in 6-9 hours.

More Arms

2011-03-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

Arm studies from today.

Anatomy - Arms

2011-03-18T14:54:00.000-07:00

Some anatomy studies I did today. I wanted to focus on doing just arms. I have been slacking on my anatomy studies and I need to do more of them. I am waiting for one more painting to dry and then I will post some figure paintings from class.

Anatomy

2011-03-07T14:39:00.000-08:00

I havent posted in a few weeks mainly due to the fact that I have been in a drawing rut. I feel like I cant draw well and the last several life drawings I have done I have not been happy with. I haven't done any anatomy studies in some time, so I thought I should do some and finally update my blog. I do have some life paintings that need to be posted as soon as I get the chance to photograph them I will do it. I probably should shave my face too, I haven't done that in awhile as well, maybe that's why I feel like I cant draw lately, cant focus cause of the itch.

Sketches From The Zoo

2011-02-15T17:17:00.000-08:00

I went to the zoo today with a few friends to do some sketching. I felt like I had a real good zoo sketching day. First one in a long time. A bunch of these sketches are from previous trips. The monitor lizard is one from today that I am happy with.

Figure Drawing Fun

2011-02-12T12:50:00.001-08:00

Figure drawing I did last night at Watts Atelier. As hard as figure drawing is, it has never been anything that I have stressed over. Its usually fun and relaxing for me. Anytime you are faced with a short drawing session though you should never beat yourself up over it, just be happy if you render out a cool eye, or just get a strong foundational lay in. In the end its just practice and it should be fun.

Costume Figure Drawing and Anatomy Study

2011-02-07T16:23:00.000-08:00

Costume figure drawing I did on Friday at Watts Atelier. I spent the whole 3 hours trying to figure out the forms and structure of the drapery. Right now rendering is not a huge concern for me, but learning how to analyze what is going on in the figure and trying to draw it 3 dimensionally with just line is. Rendering can often be a crutch in an attempt to make your drawing look better when in actuality it doesn't. The drapery was very difficult to capture, while I like what I did here, following the folds was tough, especially since they changed substantially after each sitting.

Mas Anatomía

2011-02-01T16:15:00.000-08:00

More anatomy studies. With the 2nd piece I wanted to try to get a more anatomy feeling to them and less of a diagram feeling while still trying to retain the 3d look to them.

Yesterday's Figure Drawing

2011-01-29T11:23:00.000-08:00

Figure drawing that I did last night. I am real happy with the way it turned out. I just wish I had more time to spend on the feet, the only part I don't like. Next time I am going to make sure I have a more solid drawing down first, so if I don't get the chance to render it, at least the drawing part of it will look good.

Drawn in Black Interview

2011-01-26T22:12:00.000-08:00

I did an interview about my art on the web site www.drawninblack.com, here is a link to the interview, http://www.drawninblack.com/2011/01/the-drawing-is-the-most-important-part-interview-with-matt-k-smith/

Anatomy and Structure Studies

2011-01-23T13:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some tracings I have done over old master drawings. Basically taking their drawings which tend to be ambiguous and trying to find the anatomy and structure to give them a more solid 3d look to them. This is a very good way to learn anatomy and structure, it is like solving a puzzle and gets the brain thinking.

Figure Drawings

2011-01-22T13:47:00.000-08:00

Here are 2 new figure drawings I did at Watts Atelier, one from yesterday and one from last friday. I think this semester I am going to mostly work on linear figure drawings really to to nail down 3 dimensionality of structure and form with mostly lines. I feel that this is much more difficult, it forces you to really analyze what is going on when drawing the figure. When you have a stronger understanding of the forms, rendering will become much easier and you will have a better idea of how to pull your lines and strokes.

Ochocinco

2011-01-16T11:48:00.000-08:00

Here is an oil painting I did of Chad Ochocinco from a photo I found online. I have enjoyed the commercials he has done this last year, especially the one where he is playing the NFL game on Wii and he gets beaten by some other guy playing the game. This painting was also done with the Zorn palette as well. The Next painting I have in mind I will be moving away from the Zorn palette and probably be painting with 10 or so colors instead of the 4 used in Zorn. I am doing a few "warm up" paintings before I tackle a bigger personal piece I have been working on, just practicing painting more refined images that life painting doesn't allow for and concentrating on creating interesting brush work.

Portrait Drawing

2011-01-06T15:22:00.000-08:00

Here is a portrait drawing I did last semester at Watts Atelier. Class starts next week, cant wait for it to start. I will be taking a figure painting class, haven't done that in ages.

Mass Effect 3 - Commander Jessica Sheppard

2010-12-18T11:48:00.000-08:00

BioWare recently announced Mass Effect 3. Now I am a big fan of the Mass Effect series, definitely one of my top favorite games. Even though the game doesn't come out until next holiday season, I decided to do a drawing Commander Sheppard to get in the mood. I am also a fan of Jessica Chobot, host at IGN, and she is also a big Mass Effect fan as well. So I decided to draw Commander Sheppard as Commander Jessica Sheppard. For those that don't know Mass Effect you can create your own "Commander Sheppard" you don't have to play as the one you see on commercials and other videos. I don't know if I capture her likeness as well as I wanted, but I still like the drawing.

Here is a painting of Thane and Grunt from the series I did as well, I posted them awhile ago on my blog, thought I would re-post them again in the spirit of ME3. I will probably do another painting of one of the characters sometime shortly after I get some other work out of the way. Maybe one of Legion?

Wednesday Zoo Drawings

2010-12-15T14:19:00.000-08:00

My friends and I went zoo drawing today. I almost wasn't going to go, I over slept and forgot about it because I was up late last night painting and have tons of work to do today. But I got myself up and out the door. I haven't done much zoo drawing lately and it shows, sketches are not as strong as they used to be. I am hoping after the holiday break I will get back into it more, its always fun to go to the zoo and sketch. The takin I sketched was from last week or so when I was there and the rest are from today.

Ho Ho Ho!

2010-12-12T19:03:00.000-08:00

In painting class on Tuesday we had a model that dressed up as Santa Clause and yes that beard is real! I haven't painted in over a month and probably several months since I have done a portrait painting, got to say that I am quite pleased with how this turned out, had some help from Meadow of course!

Life Drawings

2010-11-27T12:38:00.000-08:00

I have been slacking a little on updating my blog that last couple weeks. Here are some recent life drawings. The portrait I did last night. I hadn't drawn a portrait in awhile now so I thought it would be a good idea to do that. I also haven't used the conte pencil in awhile as well. I have been using wolfe carbons recently and I got to say after using the conte again I miss it.

2 New Still Life Studies

2010-11-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

These are 2 still life paintings I did when I was back in upstate NY for a wedding a couple weeks ago. These are also done in the Zorn palette. This time though, since cad red was so expensive, I pick up a random red color that I thought looked similar. At first I was unsure of how this new red color would work as I was used to using cad red light. This new red turned out fine (I think its called Grumbacher Red), basically what I am getting at is that you don't necessarily need an exact color palette to paint with, as long as you have basic colors, just paint and practice.

King Cesar!

2010-11-09T00:26:00.000-08:00

Here is a drawing of King Cesar (from a photo) one of Godzilla's buddys. This originally was going to be 3 hour sketch like the Godzilla sketch I posted earlier but turned out to be a 15 hour or longer rendering. Unfortunately I couldnt get a good scan of it, did some digital touch ups, but still doesn't compare to the original drawing. I got to say that I am really happy with this drawing.

Godzilla Sketch

2010-11-05T00:16:00.000-07:00

Here is a sketch of Godzilla that I did from a photo I found online. I believe it is from Godzilla 2000. I used to love Godzilla when I was growing up. Unfortunately I have only seen a couple movies after Godzilla 1985, so I am not familiar with the "newer" stuff.

Figure Drawings

2010-11-02T16:08:00.001-07:00

Here are 3 figure drawings. The 2 female drawings were done at Watts Atelier, from life and about 3 hours long. The male is from a Russian book, about 6 hours.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T02:27:00.001-07:00

Skull sketch. I really want some candy right now.

Unfinished Skull

2010-10-29T14:03:00.000-07:00

Had to take pic down, the image got bought.

Like I have mentioned before I have been doing work for Remetee, drawing skulls and such. Since I can't show my work, at least for a long time, I decided to do one for fun. Typically I do them on bristol paper with pencil, for this I wanted to do one on black paper with white pencil for fun, but this should give you a basic idea of what I do for them. I also had my friend Kathy sketch a little on it for the head design, she sketched something abstract and I took what she had and turned it into the pattern on the forehead.

More Bridgeman - Torsos

2010-10-20T15:53:00.001-07:00

Just some studies I did from Bridgeman. I will probably head back to doing more Master study anatomy trace overs for the next few studies I do.

Bridgeman Legs

2010-10-14T13:08:00.002-07:00

Just a few anatomy studies from the Bridgeman book.

2 More Paintings

2010-10-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 more paintings don in Zorn Palette. I am so glad that new classes start this week at Watts Atelier!

Sea Shell Painting - Zorn Palette

2010-10-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

Small painting I did the other day. Got 2 more paintings to post but they are wet still. I don't think I have mentioned this yet, but I do most of my still life paintings and many of my portrait paintings in Zorn Palette. The Zorn Palette comes from the artist Anders Zorn. It consists of Ivory Black, Titanium White, Yellow Ocre, and Cad Red Light. You can also use Blue Black in place of Ivory Black. Sometimes I have both blacks out, I like the blues I can get with Blue Black, but I also like the warmer dark's I can get with Ivory Black. For this painting I used just the Blue Black. Anyways the reason I like to use this palette is because for me I just focus on value and warm or cool. With only 4 colors, you will not be able to color match, you will only get within range, but it is still amazing what you can do with only 4 pigments. I also feel like working this way has helped me see color better, so when I have to use more pigments, I have an easier time figuring out what I have to mix and make my judgments more on warmth and value rather than a specific color.

Gorillas and Takins

2010-10-07T14:10:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the zoo with a couple of friends. Today we drew takins and gorillas. I got to say that I had a good time drawing and pretty happy with all of these sketches. Most the time I am lucky if I get one I feel good about, but today I like them all.

Skulls and Anatomy

2010-09-26T23:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't painted much lately so I decided to sit down and paint a couple of funky skulls from life. I will be starting to work on a personal illustration piece soon and I want it to be all done in oil. So I had to pick up the slack and do some practice, even though painting from life is a completely different process than painting an illustration, I still find that doing life studies to be very helpful. Probably will see a bunch more studies in the coming weeks. Also here are some anatomy studies that I have done recently for the anatomy thread I have going on The Illustration Board. Right now I am the only one posting, feel free and participate its always more fun when others do. These studies were traced over from old master drawings out of the Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters.

Remetee

2010-09-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

So I have been doing pencil illustrations for the clothing brand Remetee. They make designer clothing, mainly shirts which have a lot of grit to them. This has been a lot of fun for me because I get to draw cool looking skulls. But besides just drawing cool skulls and what not, something that this job has helped me improve upon has been my design skills. There are a lot of ornamental design shapes within the shirts, which is something I normally don't draw or think about. So what I am hoping is that when I go to create a fantasy painting now I will have a better design sense and create more interesting looking armor, props, weapons, etc., but also create a more interesting flow to my compositions. Here are some of their shirts which have my skulls on them, unfortunately I am not allowed to post the actual drawings.

New Figure Drawings

2010-09-22T16:33:00.001-07:00

Figure drawings from this last semester. Range from an hour and a half to six hours. The 2nd one down is from a photo from an unknown source.

Influence Map

2010-09-15T00:04:00.000-07:00

Here is my influence map. I definitely could have used a bunch more squares, couldnt fit everyone on that I wanted to.

Two New WoW Cards

2010-09-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 illustrations I did awhile back for Blizzard on the WoW TCG Icecrown expansion that released today. If you buy the box set and send Blizzard the box code you can get a foil version of the Death Knight that I did. Pretty cool huh.

Portrait Painting

2010-09-11T01:09:00.000-07:00

Haven't painted a portrait from life in a few months. Had some help from the lovely Meadow Gist. Check out her work at http://meadowpaint.com/

More Anatomy

2010-09-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

I have been doing anatomy studies for some time now. I used to just copy diagrams from Goldfinger, but I found that that only gets you so far, at least for me. Doing diagram studies can be boring and not the most exciting thing. What I have been doing lately have been taking master paintings like Frazetta and Phil Hale and using tracing paper and tracing out the anatomy over their drawings. Now what this does is make me think more about how anatomy works and how they designed it. Also on top of that it makes it more like a puzzle, instead of just mindlessly copying a diagram, I have to figure out where the pieces fit. I have also been using the Figure Drawing Design and Invention book by Michael Hampton. The book goes over more structural aspects of the body with more simplified anatomy. The leg studies I did today I used that book and the Eliot Goldfinger book for added anatomy.

Links:
Goldfinger
Hampton

Anatomy Studies

2010-09-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

I started a weekly anatomy study thread on the illustration board for people to participate in, http://www.theillustrationboard.com/index.php?/topic/286-the-weekly-anatomy-learning-thread/. Here are the studies that I have done so far.

Lazy Zoo Day

2010-09-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

Some sketches sketches from some sleepy animals at the zoo. There was a monkey inspecting his feces, but he didn't sit still long enough to get a good drawing.

Back From Vacation

2010-08-30T11:18:00.001-07:00

So I was in the Outer Banks in NC for a week. I was hoping I would be able to paint, but the only art store there had not a lot of paint in stock. Luckily I still had a sketch book and I did make it to the aquarium there to do some sketches. And I did some anatomy sketches out of my head for fun and one in the airport on my way there.

Delicious Cupcake

2010-08-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a painting of a cupcake that I did. After I finished the painting, I ate the cupcake. It was delicious!

Helping A Friend

2010-08-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

So a week or so ago a friend of mine was working on a digital mountain painting for a study from a photograph. He wanted feedback so I did a paint over for him.

Here is his painting.

Now my biggest concern was when he sent this over to me were the values and saturation. Right now everything is way too flat and dull. Not only that but the edges were way too soft for mountains.

My paint over.

Here I just painted the values more like they are in the photograph, greater contrast better sense of light and shadow.

The photo ref. I don't know the source.

Now its up to him to finish it.

Zoo Sketches and a Skull

2010-08-04T14:13:00.001-07:00

I have been slacking on posting stuff up on my blog. Here are some rusty zoo sketches I did today and a skull I painted a few days ago.

Life Drawings From Last Semester

2010-07-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the life drawings I did last term. These range from 1-3 hours. I feel like I had a lot of growth last term, drawing and painting, a lot of it was a struggle, but things came through and I feel like I got some strong drawings.

Godzilla Vs. MechaGodzilla

2010-06-24T21:03:00.001-07:00

An oil painting I did for the March Monster Madness competition at www.theillustrationboard.com. I finished this a couple months ago, but just got around to doing some digital touch ups so I could put it in my portfolio. This is the largest oil painted illustration I have ever done and was a big challenge and was a lot of fun. I wouldn't mind doing some more Godzilla illustrations for fun. Obviously Phil Hale was a big influence for the piece.

Digital Painting Tutorial

2010-06-23T12:59:00.000-07:00

I created this tutorial for my friend's forum, www.theillustrationboard.com a month or so ago and finally got around to posting it on my blog. Please check out is forum and sign up. Right now the forum is close nit, but we are trying to expand it and would love to see more people with different backgrounds posting up there.

Skull and Sea Life

2010-06-20T12:37:00.000-07:00

Another skull painting and some sketches from the aquarium. For this painting I decided to go for a pick out approach. While I like how the skull came out, I feel though at process itself was difficult. I haven't done a pick out in years though. I am thinking about starting my paintings more thinly going for a more Frazetta feel first, then painting opaquely on top.

Hand Studies

2010-06-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

I like to draw and study hands. I also like Joseph Clement Coll. So here are some hand studies I did from Joseph Clement Coll.

Paintings, Paintings, And More Paintings.

2010-06-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a handful of paintings that I have done recently. These were done in class and at home. I am trying to become a better painter so I can do more of my illustrations strictly in oil. It has been a lot of fun doing these and seeing my growth over the last 2 semesters.

Discover A Muse

2010-06-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in awhile, been pretty busy. Here is a piece I did for Discover A Muse challenge hosted by Jon Schindehette. We have to create an image of Veronika Kotlajic, who was the muse for the project. I had several ideas before I finally went with what I did. For this piece I wanted to create something along the lines of Oneechanbara, but make it more westernized. So I made her into a sexy nun zombie slayer.

Zoo and Zombie

2010-04-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

Here are my zoo sketches from today. I also have a zombie self portrait I did for a digital painting tutorial at www.theillustrationboard.com.

Life Drawings and Painting.

2010-04-24T15:02:00.001-07:00

Some recent drawings and painting that I have done in the last few months or so.

Zoo Zoo

2010-04-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

The usual zoo stuff. I am really proud of the spotted jaguar. It came right up to the cage and posed. The actual pose though was more dynamic I was more below the jaguar than how I drew it.

Old Anime Stuff

2010-04-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

These are some line drawings I did for Exalted by White Wolf probably last summer. I used to watch and draw anime a lot when I was younger.

Animal Sketches

2010-04-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

I went to the zoo and renewed my membership today. The monkey and gorilla were fun to draw. The monkey looked really depressed sitting there. Some of these drawings are from today and others from a week or so ago. The takin I drew that is laying down looks like he got shot by a hunter.

Zoo Sketches, It's Been Awhile

2010-03-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some zoo sketches that I have done recently. Been going to the zoo with my friends at Watts. Hopefully the momentum will keep going.

Bad-Ass Pistol Design

2010-02-11T23:31:00.000-08:00

I did this for the competition on the Art Order blog. Just has to design a bad-ass looking pistol, could be based off another gun or completely invented. It also had to contain a skull somewhere, whether as a design element or part of the guns function. I was going for a futuristic look, but I based mine mostly off a magnum, an old pistol probably from civil war era, a random futuristic pistol done for a game, and a couple other modern day pistols.

VTES: Heirs to the Blood

2010-02-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

3 cards I did for White Wolf's new card set that released today. This was one of the fastest deadlines I ever had to work with. I was happy with the way they turned out under the tight deadline. The work also went on vacation with me.

Some recent life drawings.

2010-02-02T14:13:00.001-08:00

The skull I did at home about 4-5 hours, and the other 2 done in the drawing workshop about 3 hours.

Grunt

2010-01-08T12:09:00.001-08:00

Another character from Mass Effect 2. Done in pencil on smooth bristol paper.

Leyendecker Face Study

2009-12-31T11:35:00.000-08:00

This is a study I did from JC Leyendecker. Done in graphite.

Thane From MAss Effect 2.

2009-12-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

Here is a painting of Thane from ME2, a game I cant wait to play. I did this painting to practice oil painting before I did an oil painting for a client. I want to try to do most of my work as traditionally as possible. I enjoy using real paint so much more than painting in front of a computer. I am really happy with the way this turned out.

Paintings from last semester.

2009-12-13T00:33:00.000-08:00

2 paintings I did in Meadow's costume figure painting class. The class was great and got me rolling on painting.

Unfinished Skull Painting

2009-12-10T13:04:00.000-08:00

A painting I never finished from a few months back. I think I will be painting more skulls soon though.

Mr. Eel and Mr. Fishy

2009-12-03T01:41:00.000-08:00

Some sketches I did a few weeks back at the aquarium. Same old eel and fish.

Justicar Broxlo Frostnuggle

2009-11-24T20:38:00.000-08:00

Here is the first WoW card that I did. Just released today. I am so happy he got a name.

Last Zwednesday

2009-10-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

I really like my lama portrait. The lamas have great features and characteristics, lots of fun to draw. The others came out ok.

Fishies

2009-10-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

Done in ball point pen.

Zhursday Zoo Sketches

2009-09-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 of my favorite sketches I did today at the zoo.

More Sketches

2009-09-23T17:55:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering why I draw the same fishes every time I got to the aquarium. It is simple, they are the slowest moving and are the easiest to draw.

Phil Hale And Zoo Sketches

2009-09-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

Phil Hale study I did for warm ups today and zoo sketches I did a few days ago.

Frankenstein Sample

2009-09-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

This is a sample piece I did for someone who needs icons done for a slot machine game. So the final image for this would be much smaller. I think I may have gone more "realistic" than what he was looking for. I will find out in a few days. Image took about 3 hours, sketch to finish.

More Aquarium Sketches.

2009-09-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

Went to the aquarium again today. I did these ones in ink. I think they look a lot better than the pencil sketches. I really love drawing the eels, they have so much character to them.

Aquarium and Zoo Sketches

2009-09-11T16:00:00.001-07:00

Some sketches I did at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla a few days ago and sketches from the San Diego Zoo that I did today. I wanted to draw the tigers, they were right near the glass, but there were too many people taking pictures of their kids next to the tigers. Next time I will have to go earlier.

Loomis Head Studies

2009-09-10T15:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some head studies I did from Andrew Loomis. There are a few placement issues in the drawings, but they came out ok. I was mostly studying the way he describes form, not that that is an excuse for drawing issues.

Paint Study of Clouds

2009-09-06T15:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a little digital paint study I did of some storm clouds at sunset that I took a picture of when I was on vacation. About an hour and a half.