Behind-the-scenes on "the western woods"

Another speedpaint!  This was my last one before the week from hell known as "finals."  Unfortunately, I'm still not completely done--I'm taking a required science course over two weeks at my college to get it out of the way.  Yeah, it's not gonna be fun, but at least then I'll be done with it!  (Darn you liberal arts educationnn!)

My latest paint was referenced from RiNymph-Stock on deviantART.  She has a lot of lovely stock photos, so if you need references or ideas, be sure to check out her wonderful gallery!  (The photo I used can be found here.)

So let's get on to the step-by-step!  :)  Check it out after the break!

Some kids just won't leave the nest: Pippin!

One of my favorite aspects of storytelling is undoubtedly character creation.  From the moment I picked up my first pencil and started doodling, I was creating characters and stories to immerse those characters in (I'm fairly certain that a lot of these old "books" I wrote/drew still exist somewhere in my house, probably under my bed).  My love of character creation really blossomed, however, when I joined Neopets around the age of twelve.  From there, I took up role-playing, and for several happy years my friends and I developed countless fantastic characters and stories.

Though I'm older now and I've mostly retired from role-playing, I still look fondly at the vast spectrum of characters I hold close to my heart.  I've no regrets about my role-playing; thanks to it, I learned a lot about creating well-rounded, believable characters that can truly touch someone.  If you go on my deviantART, you can actually find a link on my Journal that will take you to a Freewebs page that basically lists all my "canon" characters.  Although I do not draw or write about these characters anymore, I still like to remember they exist (which is why I have yet to retire that page from the public eye, I suppose).

There are other characters, however, that refuse to be simply set aside with fondness.  There are some that just somehow take hold of your attention and, no matter what you do, won't leave you alone.

Continue reading after the break!

Behind-the-scenes on "stars from my heart"

As a sort of celebration to finally getting my Photoshop CS2 installed on my beautiful desktop (<3), I decided to work on a painting I thought of last night while listening to "Cosmic Love" by Florence + the Machine.  When I finally made myself stop, it was about two hours; a pretty solid speedpaint.  (I saw "finally stop" because this was one of those pictures I feel like I could have kept tweaking for hours if I'd have let myself).
Here is a first "final" version I completed, then a second finished version I completed after tweaking:

Now, I want to address some of the thought process that went into this painting.  I had an initial idea in my  head, and normally I probably would have just plowed into it.  However, I thought better of it.  Recently, I've been reading the newsletters from Disney Visual Development Artist/Character Designer Chris Oatley.  One of his recent newsletters talked about the "The Starting Buzz"--something I'm sure every artist has felt.  "The Starting Buzz" is when you get an idea for a picture and are so excited you just leap right into it, only to find shortly that you just lose interest.

I am definitely a guilty of practicing this.  After reading Chris's newsletter, I really took a look at my art process and decided to make some changes.  What I'm going to talk about here is my decision to take more time in "pre-production," the beginning of the drawing process when you figure out things like composition, maybe some basic colors, etc.

It took me several tries to figure out exactly how I wanted to frame "stars from my heart."  When I was finally pleased with the composition and started laying down some base colors and values, I'll admit I almost lost faith.  I was having trouble seeing the finished product and felt like I wasn't making progress.   Once that happened, I actually decided to slap some drastic colors and textures onto the picture, just to sort of make a big leap and see something new.  And you know what?  It really helped!  It kind of refreshed the picture for me, and I carried on.

Two hours later, and I had what you see on the screen.  I'm not saying it's perfect--far from, of course--but it was a joy to draw and I really felt like I learned a lot during the process.

So remember, guys: Pre-production is one of the most important--if not the most important--part of the drawing process!  Don't plow through it--embrace it!  :)  I really think it makes the end product much more satisfying!

Mad About: New Textures and Brushes!

As any of my art friends will tell you, I ADORE wasting time by browsing deviantART looking for awesome brushes and textures (especially textures) to download and use (or abuse!).  There is really nothing more exciting than trying out a new brush you just downloaded, seeing what you can do with it, what new look you can give your drawings that you had not been able to achieve before.

For my most recent picture, "words," I used not ONLY new brushes I had downloaded, but a new texture as well!

The new brush that I tried out for the lineart was created by Kecky on deviantART.  I have been following Kecky for awhile, and her art is truly some of my favorite.  So when she created some brushes to download, I got really excited!  And a first run with them did not disappoint.

One of the best things about using new tools is that it takes a few tries before you really figure out how to use them properly.  While I used one of Kecky's brushes for the lineart in "words," I am sure that I will be using all of the brushes in many pictures from now on, and I have no doubt that I will discover new and better ways to utilize them!

The new texture that I used came from Ransie3 on deviantART.  The paper/word texture was absolutely perfect for the background, and really pulled the picture together, in my opinion.

Here's to discovering new brushes and textures to further feed our creative juices!

Sources:
words by myself on deviantART
kecky's magical brushes by Kecky on deviantART
Big Textures 11 by Ransie3 on deviantART