IMC Continued!

Well as you may have figured, the IMC was a blast! So much so, that I had no time to post any further progress on my painting, because, well...I was painting!! So anyways, here is a bunch of progress shots through the last sleepless hours "finishing" my piece. I say "finishing" because I did manage to fill all of the painting in, but for me there is still some work to do. A perfectionist is never happy!
Continuing where my last post left off, I got the polar bear in there and started on the secondary character:
Here's a detail of Aath's head:

Here's also a progression of his hand: I like to paint all of the flesh tones in one sitting so that I have all of the colors mixed up. I generally put the darkest and lightest tones in first, and then fill in the middle. Kinda wacky, I know...


Almost done here, just need to mesh some of the colors together first.

Cape Time!


And the final! Sorry for a not great shot. I will be continuing work on this and update with a nicer final image. Nothing like a full illustration in a week!

IMC Painting Day 1

Day one of painting! Worked like crazy to get the background filled in. Here's some progression shots! Definitely inspirational having some Greg Manchess paintings on the wall nearby.

IMC Drawing Progress

So the IMC is going very well thus far. As you've seen in my previous post, my initial sketch was brought before the jury and decisions were made! Here's a shot of the sketch post-crit with attached correction proposals on tracing paper. The basic consensus was that the bear needed to come down to make room for type and get him more in the other characters faces. The main character, Aath Ulber, as he's referred to in the story has too little of a neck and it is causing him to look akward. Also, the secondary figure in the midground was in a bad position and perhaps should be moved off to the left to get a more dynamic flow between the three elements.
Next, I began by photocopying my original sketch up %40 to match my final drawing size. The final was drawn on tracing paper to allow for underlaying of photocopies and sketces for easy adjustments. You can see her that I've made the front characters pose a bit more interesting and less stiff. Also, moved the secondary character left and brought the bear down.


Now I am starting to flesh out the main character, adding costume elements and designing as much as I can to make him beleivable.

Finally, I decided to make the secondary charcater even bigger as well as the bear. This I think ties the three together even more. I also changed the ridge that the bear is on to make it flow better with the jagged parts behind. This is my final drawing that I will print and mount on my masonite.

This is what it looked like when I left the studio tonight. I was able to mount the drawing to the masonite and apply a ground tone of Burnt Umber. I started pulling out some of the highlights in the bear and Aath because the mounted print had lost a bit of detail and I wanted to reestablish those areas. More process on the way!

IMC Preliminary Sketch

Hello! Been working hard preparing for the Illustration Master Class next week. It's finally here! I am very excited for the upcoming week of painting and lectures and critiques and hanging out with cool people and no sleep!
I will do my best to post a few times during the week with updates and perhaps some progress shots. So check back often.

Here is my preliminary sketch that they wanted us to bring to the first class for crits. It's 7.7" x 11.2" It's likey to change a bit from here on out so i'm interested in seeing where this will end up. The image was taken with my camera on my drafting table so please excuse the bad image.

Grumpy Polar Bears!

Getting started on some new projects lately. Next week I will be attending theIllustration Master Class in Amherst, MA. We have to pick an assignment given by the instructors and arrive to the class ready to get started on the painting. I've chosen a scene of a couple of travelers on an ice berg that have a run-in with an angry polar bear. I've posted my thumbnails for this project as well as a sketch for my other "Mother Nature" project on the collaborative blog Running With Paintbrushes.

Here's a few grumpy polar bear studies to get ready for this next painting. Check back for some process shots and updates throughout the week long class.

Armour and Progress

Well it's been a little while since I've posted anything. Been very busy lately doing some web design projects (gotta pay them bills!), and getting ready for the upcoming Illustration Master Class that I will be attending in about two weeks. Also getting started on my next portfolio project for my collaborative blog: Running With Paintbrushes.

Added my newest painting, Lilliana Vess, to my website also!

For the sake of giving you guys something new to look at, here's a couple little armour studies that I did not too long ago. First one's from the Met, and the Close-Helm is a replica that I own.

Happy Tuesday!