Art Jam 15: Captain America

Another Artjam! wednesday. This time we selected good ol' Captain America, cuz, you know, the up coming movie and everything. Once we decided which character we were going to draw, I started with a couple of sketches. This serves me as warmups, because its very rare that I'm happy with the first idea.

They suck. I know.

So after an hour sketching and not going anywhere, EDSFOX convinced me that it was time for some concept art style. Try something new for a change. This is how I started the piece:

First the background. I imagined Cap to be in a heroic pose, with the camera looking up to the sky. Maybe a town is burning down in flames faw away. This is completely backwards from what I usually do. I usually start with the sketch of the character and then place it in a place. But different is new and new is always better.

Then I sketched the pose and silhouette of the character (heroic remember?) , with the intention of creating everything with the brush strokes in Photoshop.

I don't have in between stages from the initial strokes to the final touches, but all I can say is that the process was kind of discovering where I wanted Cap to be in relationship with the background.

At first I haven't thought of the Shield, but my buddy Eds reminded me that it was such an icon, I had to include it. At the end the important aspect was a very bright light, contrasting with the background, giving him details only in certain parts I wanted to enhance for the viewers (face, chest, left hand and shield)

The cool thing was that I almost finished the whole thing in a very short period of time. I know that it doesn't have that much of detail, but, I think this is the essence of concept art, just with brush strokes and gestures, artists create remarkable and wonderful worlds that later will turn into fantastic entertainment.

If you want to see some wicked painting styles check out the entries for The Rift videogame contest.
Also one crazy artist: David Rapoza

Until next time, keep rocking and drawing!

Art Jam 14: IronWar

Full view please!

Long time since my last post.

I should have posted something sooner but here it is. My tribute to Ironman and WarMachine. I should say that I grew a rather stronger preference towards Warmachine, I dunno why.

Here is the process:

1. Sketch

 

Although Ironman's lines are semi clean, this is how it started, setting both characters in position. I tried to make them as dinamic as I could, given the fact that they are both avoiding the explosions and flying at mach 5 speed (hehe). Then I proceeded to draw both armors in place.

2. Clean up

Using a clean hard brush, I cleaned all the sketchy lines, leaving some of them as I saw fit.

3. Finished piece

So there you go. I hope you guys like it.

Be sure to check EDSFOX version of Ironman.  He did an awesome job!

Til next time dudes.

The Batman

Almost 3 weeks without posting anything. Blame me slacking off. 

No, really I've been busy with some freelance graphic design stuff. Not what I really wanted but hey, money is money right?

So here is the last illustration I worked on, as part of the ArtJam! sessions, (that have been halted too) my first Batman Piece ever. I I think I will color it, but Cell Shade style, just to not leave it alone. 

But I will definitely do another Bat-piece. A better one.

Art Jam 12: The Crow

90's rule

Tribute to The Crow.

Sketched during last week's ArtJam! and colored yesterday.

I kinda rushed the coloring and decided to do it Cell Shaded style because of the time I had to my disposal. I was sick with the flu last week, and I kinda slacked off for a bit. I know that is not an excuse :P

Done in Photoshop CS5. Around 5 hours.

Art Jam 11: Chun-Li

Talk to the hand biatch.

This piece is special.

2 weeks ago, we decided to pay tribute to one of the toughest and hottest videogame babes ever, that is of course Chun-Li. I decided to go for a different kind of pose, something I have not done before. This is to push myself to do other things and explore new alternatives. Plus, EDSFOX dared me again to paint it, instead of color it (all digital). 

And even though I begin the sketching during the ArtJam! I wasn't quite sure of the final result. I was not happy with the first 4 sketches, and it took me almost an hour to do one that was sort of decent. So yes, I didn't finish that day, or even that week.

I finished the final art line just in time for the next session, and we did a coloring marathon during last week's ArtJam.

Overall it took me two sessions of ArtJam! to finish the piece, mostly because of the pose and the style of coloring. This has been the closest to painting that I have ever done, not just using the lines over the coloring, but integrating everything as a whole... or at least I tried. 

I'm thinking of making a Cell Shaded version of this one but I'm not sure anymore. It was a lot of fun but at the end it wore me out. 

Check out EDSFOX's version of Chun-Li. It kicks ass! 

Hope you like it.

Art Jam 10: Monster

Monster done in the last Art Jam!

When talking about what we were gonna do, we decided to go for a monster. And lately I've been playing Shadow of the Colossus on the old PS2 (in case you don't know it is a killer game!) so I was kind of inspired on doing something with hair and stone. I tried to keep it as rough as possible, not minding much on the details or something that appeared to be noodled a lot.  This is what came out.

Check out EDSFOX's and Luis Larm, and Adan Flores monsters, everyone has a different style, which is great!

And here is a picture of that day. Edsfox on the left and me on the right, courtesy of Adan Flores .

Art Jam 9: Morrigan Aensland

eldropper's version

2 weeks ago, the Art Jam subject changed suddenly from dudes to babes so, we obviously picked Morrigan as our subject of study. I did my piece and EdsFox did his, and as usual , we colored each other's drawing. But he requested as a personal favor that my coloring this time was more of a painted style, instead of comic book-ish. This was indeed a challenge for me, but I wasn't gonna back out of it. At the end he liked my work. 

But, I did wanted to color mine too, because I just thought that a Cell Shaded look it would end up being perfect for the drawing. Here is how it ended up.

Artline (by me)

Edsfox Version (full view pls!)

And here is Edsfox lines colored by me in a painted style. 

At the end, it doesn't matter which is your style, or what techniques you use, what matters is that you feel right doing it and that you like the result of your work. I't doesn't have to be perfect, it is just another step closer to achieving your goal of becoming a better artist.

I'll update this post with a video of the sketching of the art line later on.