Not What I Normally Do, Fun Though

Recently I landed myself a small illustration job designing a logo for someone's auto shop. Logos are not something I'm real comfortable with but I went for it and it turned out pretty darn good! 

It's also the first time that I've completed a finished piece completely in photoshop paint so here's what I did:

after a great deal of sketching fonts and getting the image right, I came to this general idea and the next step was a bit tougher...

Then...

this piece just kinda came together. :)

Is It Ever Finished?

I don't know if I'll win, but after showing some people and getting feedback on small things it was well worth going back to this piece. Just a little lighter, eh?

Moar Space Theme!

I've been working on this piece for some time. With my overwhelming pickiness getting in the way, I think trying to work digital and traditional is clashing a bit. 

Maybe I just need some critiques! 

Space themed! :D Yay!

Another contest! Due the third thursday of for this contest here! I love science fiction and hopefully that'll show in the final piece. If I don't win again, hey, I'm getting my process down pretty well. Starting out I thought I just had to make a few sketches, think about a plethora of ideas that I'll never complete and then paint.

WRONG.

It takes a process.

So of course I always start out traditional but I have found ways that digital has helped me, especially with value and color planning. This first image was the beginning to an end. I like that space ship and the character slowly creeping off into the unknown land.

Then after this I added more to the story. Can you see the little guys near the bottom? Very rough sketch (I'm miss my tablet! poor broken tablet...) but I just really wanted to know where that light was going to be and how dark the mountains should be against the night sky.

Will update on this piece! Illl probably change a dozen times before the finish, but I'm as confident as I can be in where the work is going. ^_^

Only one contest this month...

 I didn't do the Jack and the Beanstalk contest :( but I'll do the next one! It is space themed so I feel that I must!

I did however complete the Diverse contest (but may not have turned it in on time! gosh I'm bad with deadlines this month!) and here is the process for this piece.

I decided to mess around with photoshop again by creating a pencil sketch/digital sketch. Fast forward through more thumbnails and I got this next image. I think still think this is the best drawn here. If only I could just re-draw the final...but alas the contest is over. ;)

This next color sketch didn't work out as planned and ultimately I hate it. What it did do for me was make me backtrack and plan the colors a bit more.

Again I used photoshop to mark out these colors in the original sketch. This was helpful! I think I may start doing this with my color pieces from now on. Saved me a lot of mistakes and some (SOME) frustration haha.

Aaaaannnnd the final. Again, it could be better! My painting and drawing are rocking in some places but crashing in others. Moral of this story...KEEP PRACTICING THE CRAFT...and make deadlines.

So I have a long way to go

I've been wondering if I should try mixing digital with traditional again. I did that with the experimental portfolio, "The Boy and the Changing Being" maybe I could explore that again with this piece. 

Anyway, this was for the 3rd Thursday contest. I didn't win this one either, but now I look back at it, definitely wasn't fun enough, or finished enough. So of course I add it to this blog. Maybe I'll do better next time. 

and the final...

Definitely think I could go darker on the right side. Still, I think this piece wasn't fun enough for kids. I'll try for a little more light hearted scene next time for the Jack and the Beanstalk spread. 

Discovery Draw It Again

Like every piece of art I make I had many hiccups so I needed to hold my breath while submitting it to the contest. I think it was fairly successful but it could be better!

In the meantime, here is the process...

I always start with thumbnail sketches, but I already posted those on my other website for the 12X12 month. Here is the sketch and the color sketch. I think the problem lies within not making a full, fleshed out sketch before making the color sketch, a mistake that I managed to avoid in another piece for another contest. I'll post that later.

Only a few pictures taken. I think I may need to upgrade to video to just to make this look recent, I kinda feel like I'm going old school here. Anyways, here are the images that I did manage to document and will be going for a more update look in the future :)

Discovery!

This little piece here is the for Susanna Hill's awesome illustration contest that is pretty much world famous, Discovery. If any illustrators out there sees this post and want to enter, you should definitely go here for the rules.

After the contest I'll post normal Draw It Again posts...which means all my mistakes and treacherous (lovingly treacherous!) journey to get to the final.

Traditional or digital art? Ready Fight!

Yes, more Will Terry videos. Lately I've been wondering this myself as I've worked with both digital and traditional. I mostly work traditionally but I don't have anything against well made digital work. A good way to put it.

My Little Bio :)

My little bio here makes it official! I'm a reviewer yay!

Not only will this teach me more about the market, I'm also finding new artists/illustrators and writers who I throughly enjoy. William and the Missing Masterpiece by Helen Hancocks is a super adorable PB story about a cat detective in search of the thief who stole the "Mona Cheesa." It has a cats, art, and corny, silly humor. Of course I like it. ;)

Why Didn't I do This?

Oh yeah, Lily's page goes first and that's how it would be read. OY!

Yes, I sent out Stitching Butterflies

I've been very busy lately (got a full time job in a lab testing inks woo hoo!) but other than that I've become a reviewer for children's lit! My bio isn't on the website yet, but it will be soon so I'll post that. Positively thrilled by this as I throughly enjoy critiquing what others do that I love.

Also...I sent out Stitching Butterflies to David Fickling Books for their Inkpot contest and I'll post these on here because, oh yeah, this blog is called "Draw It Again" and I definitely should show my lovably agonizing process.

To keep anyone who reads from suffering as much as I did (or as much as my mate Sean did...) I'm only going to post half the process in crappy iPhone photos. Bad photos, but it gets the point across.

THAT is just half of Stella's.

THIS is Lily's.

I wish I had documented better, but that is a lesson for next time! 

New Everything Girl!

I finished it! Though I may go into photoshop to clean up that white on the right side. It does't look that bad in the original. 

Look at the difference in just two years! It's the main reason why I'm going back to this particular manuscript, to see the drastic change in drawing technique and character creation. I think I've cleaned up a bit during the years! Now it's just a matter of cleaning up more...that's why this blog is called "Draw it Again" I suppose~

More SB Sketches

 Moar sketches, this time in color though next time I should clean up a bit. Even if it's a sketch I should have it similar to a final finish. For now though, I've figured out their color schemes and personality enough to write paragraphs about them.

"Stitching Butterflies" MC Sketches

Lately I've been making character sketches for Lily and Stella, the two Mc's of the story I'm working on, "Stitching Butterflies". I plan to send this one out as soon as I get a couple of finished drawings and a rough book dummy. So excited for this one as I think it has a chance with all the great competition out there. I really wish I was the one who wrote and illustrated "If You Want to See a Whale" which has just recently been added to my favorites even though I'm a couple years late haha.

Anyway, here are some of the sketches...the ones that are most legible. Right now I'm trying to get down their personalities, their roles. I need to get the irritated, "I can't believe you just said that to me" look out of the way but that will be put on here later today. Maybe even I'll even have a final final final of "Everything Girl" on here.

Busy March! Now it's April's Turn

So I did draw those compositions again (maybe the blog should be "Paint it Again" or "Make the final Draft 50 times or More" or even "Edit Again and again...and again") And here are the results and comparison:

Before

After

Before

After

I readied my portfolio, labored over print quality, and made everything nice and neat for Mr. E.B. Lewis. After the work I put in I was finally getting the critique that I wanted. Maybe I could even present it to an agent and finally get an illustration job. YES! That is what this portfolio will do. It's so good it hurts.

Well it did hurt. It hurt in the "what was I thinking this is awful?" kind of way and after the critique I wanted to burn and be done with it.  

I didn't I promise!

I've had worse critiques before, and he did like a couple of them but ultimately he told me to throw away everything in the portfolio besides two or three pieces. These:

That and how my presentation of the portfolio was bad and how I was doing everything WRONG. I could also go into how the story doesn't work and how the boy doesn't look the same in every image and how he doesn't have any emotion like a child should...but I won't really. 

That was what I needed.

Thank you E.B. Lewis!

ON TO THE NEXT PORTFOLIO!