Speedpaint 25 - Tiger 2

I downloaded some new texture brushes the other day. Thought I'd do a close-up of a tiger to figure out some fur painting techniques. Haven't figured out a technique that works yet, but it's a start. I'll keep working at it.

This time I painted the figure before the background. I wanted to put all my time and effort into the tiger since he was the primary focus of the composition. I used less saturated colors on the background to try to get the tiger to "pop" more.

Photoshop CS3, 59 minutes.

Speedpaint 24 - Tiger

For this speedpaint, I tried a different approach. As always, I work from back to front, blocking in the background before moving onto the figure. The difference is that this time, I started with the lightest colors and built up to the darkest shades (sort of like using watercolors), whereas in previous pieces, I started with my darkest colors first, and worked up to my lightest colors. As a result, the finished piece has a slightly more pastel color palette.

Photoshop CS3, 45 minutes.

Speedpaint 23 - Komodo Dragon

Finding a method for quickly painting reptilian scales proved difficult, so this is yesterday and today's speed paint. I did the background and basic body structure on the Komodo dragon yesterday, and then some retouching and scale texture today. I believe in total it took about an hour and a half. I'm not quite satisfied with the results, but that's not the point of these exercises. It's to expose myself to new challenges.

I think I'm in a rut with the greens and browns. I'll try to work some different colors into the next one.

Speedpaint 22 - Crow on Turquoise

New speedpainting. Going to try to get back into the habit of doing one a day again. :)

It was my birthday on the 9th. I turned 28. I went to Animal Kingdom to celebrate, where I encountered this crow. It looks like he's standing on water, but it's actually a solid object that's been painted to look like water.

Photoshop CS3, 1 hour, 9 minutes
Soundtrack: Joe Hisaishi - Studio Ghibli Concert 2008; Ghibli to Issho

Draw Furries: New Book!

I'm proud to announce the upcoming release of Draw Furries - How to Create Anthropomorphic and Fantasy Animals written and illustrated by me and Jared Hodges, published by Impact Books!



In a nutshell, Draw Furries goes over drawing anthropomorphic and animal characters. It's 128 full-color pages, covering step-by-step anatomy, poses, and species-specific details (wings, tails, eyes...) for feline, canine, equine, rodent and avian characters, plus coloring and backgrounds! The book also includes a bonus guest gallery featuring art by the very talented Bara-chan, Kelly Hamilton, CookingPeach aka Miu, and Makime!

Here's some sample spreads from the book:




The book comes out the beginning of December. I'm currently taking pre-orders for signed copies of the book through my website (also includes bonus freebies like our promo postcards for this season ^^).

To celebrate, I'm holding another contest! I'm giving away one copy of Draw Furries: How to Create Anthropomorphic and Fantasy Animals! Here's how to enter. It's very simple. All you have to do is link to this blog entry (on your blog, website, twitter, facebook, etc.) to help spread the word about Draw Furries. Then, e-mail me with the link to your post, and you're entered in the drawing! The contest ends November 30th. Thanks and good luck!

(Note to international readers: I don't mind shipping internationally, but due to the increased costs of shipping overseas, if you live outside the US or Canada, you'll have to cover the cost of shipping if you win. Sorry!)

Illustration Friday "Flying"

Speedpaint 21 - Ducklets

I encountered this Muscovy duck and her newly hatched ducklings yesterday and thought they'd make for great subject matter for a new, long overdue, speed painting. :)

Photoshop CS3, 1 hour
Soundtrack: Grandia OST

Domo: The Manga - out in stores tomorrow!

The Domo: The Manga book I worked on is coming out tomorrow. It should be available in bookstores nationwide in the manga/graphic novel section! It's a full-color graphic novel published by Tokyopop involving that lovable brown monster guy with the big mouth! All the stories are lighthearted and fun, perfect for kids and great for fans of Domo and/or funny animal stories. Here's the Amazon link to more info.

Two chapters in the book were done by me and Jared Hodges (pencils = me, Jared = colors).



You can see more sample pages here.

Etsy!

I opened up an Etsy shop here! Come browse around! :)

More prints and sketches to come. Want to see something added there? Comic pages? Original drawings? Particular print? Let me know!

Caution Creatures - Complete

A smorgasbord of poisonous/venomous creatures for the Illustration Friday prompt "caution". Represented are the black widow spider, poison dart frog, coral snake, blue ring octopus, puffer fish, wasp, and box jellyfish (Not to scale with each other). :)

The picture was fun to do, but took longer than expected to finish it... probably because my working size was 8"x6" at 600 dpi, so I ended up making it far more detailed than necessary. Whoops.

Pencil + coloring in Photoshop CS3