Wandering Koala Perched upon a Lamp Post

Another sketch in preparation for the Wandering Koala graphic tale inked with a Prismacolor® brush pen and colored in Adobe Photoshop.

Fake it 'till you make it

I've written before about how the media you use should look like the media it is. That makes digital a little bit of a sticky wicket. It certainly has its own look, but at the same time it's really good at mimicking other media.

So is it wrong to try and make digital look traditional? I think so, because on is missing a real opportunity. There are things digital can do that nothing else can, and one would be silly to not take advantage of it. Of course, what does that mean? Certainly the time saving and money saving benefits. But what about the look of the final product?

I think even if one wants a work to look traditional, they should let a little of the digital's nature shine through to give the work that extra umph.

The two illustrations above were drawn with a Japanese brush pen and then colored in Adobe Photoshop to look like watercolors. But if you look very closely, you'll notice they are digitally colored, and I think it adds.

But what do you think?

Wandering Koala leaping thru the air

Here is my latest sketch of the Wandering Koala leaping thru the air. Drawn with a Japanese Brush Pen and colored in Adobe Photoshop.

Story Illustration: Wandering Koala crunches The Mad Accountant

Here is my latest in a series of Wandering Koala adventures rendered in digital watercolor. Enjoy!

Art Philosophy: Digital Watercolor

In the 80s, several beautifully crafted graphic novels were released that used watercolors for the coloring producing beautiful hardcover volumes. In the 90s DC released a line of comics called Milestone that again used watercolors to produce a unique look. Unfortunately they did not use high quality paper like the graphic novels of the 80s and the effect fell flat.

I've always loved the look of watercolor and the actual experience of producing watercolors. There is such a hand crafted quality to it. Which is why I find digital watercolors so ironic, and yet so beautiful.

The illustration above was produced in Adobe Photoshop using flat colors, one watercolor brush, and a few filters and photoshopping to give it a watercolor look even though the color is 100% pixels. I really like the end result, even if it is cheating.

What do you think?

Putting It All Together

 

I've been working on a new style for my characters and a new style for backgrounds. I finally put the two together and came up with this. It was inspired by a trip to the grocery store this week. It was about 40 degrees. I noticed a little old lady all bundled up walking out of the store and a young guy in a t-shirt and shorts behind her. The contrast made me laugh. Temperature is definitely relative.

Let me know what you think.

2012 Christmas Card

This is it! Today's the day! Presenting my Christmas Card for 2012!

This took longer than usual for several reasons: 1) crazy busy at work, 2) not sure what I wanted to say, and 3) learning new techniques with a new program (Corel Painter 12). But I think it turned out beautifully and is one of the best I've ever created. I hope you enjoy it. And feel free to share with all your friends and families.

And Merry Christmas to all!

Character Sketch: Princess Ballroom

You've probably noticed I've been pretty quiet on this blog. Why, you ask? I've been working on an animation project. It should be finished soon. until then, enjoy my latest character sketch:

This was inspired by Princess Knight by the great Osamu Tezuka, a graphic novel that was recently released in English and I just finished reading. The story itself was kind of a mess, but the drawings were really nice. The style was more early-Tezuka then late-Tezuka. There was a strong influence from Disney cartoons.

This was drawn in Corel Painter X with the background rendered in Adobe Photoshop with Painter texture drawn on top. Overall it turned out well, but I don't think it's a style I will keep exploring.

Stay tuned for the upcoming animation. Here is a sneak peek:

Exploring the mysterious caverns and caves below the ground

I've always been intrigued by images and stories about caverns and caves below the earth. Maybe that's why Mole Man is one of my favorite villains--it certainly isn't because of his powers or stories that have been told about him.

While exploring a new digital painting style, I thought the style would lend itself nicely to rock formations. And it did. Then I had to decide what to fill the caverns with. After all, it isn't the rocks alone that make these stories so interesting, but the exotic creatures and plants one finds down there. So I created a collection or unseen beasts based on the works of George Méliès and a gargoyle. The colors are the palette I've been using from old Steve Canyon covers. The characters were inked with a Zebra disposable brush pen and colored in Adobe Photoshop.

Overall, I like how it turned out, but it isn't exactly the style I'm going for. Back to the drawing board.

The shape of the canvas matters

I've been experimenting with a new style created from an amalgamation of things I've learned from past styles. (One of these days I'll settle on one--no, really, I will!) The style was meant for an illustrated novella, so naturally I created it vertically.

But I wasn't very happy with the results. I had moved on to another illustration, but something in the back of my mind said it had a lot of potential and only needed a little tweaking to realize it.

So I tweaked. I changed the format from vertical to horizontal, and wallah! Success. I'm much, MUCH happier with the result. But don't take my word for it.

Digital Watercolor - Ladybugs

I've begun an exciting animation project, and as part of that I've been trying to come up with a style for the background paintings. I've created animations in the past, but I've never been happy with how the backgrounds turned out. I've studied hours and hours of animation, and the backgrounds I've been most impressed with were the ones created in watercolor and gouache (opaque watercolor). But I'm not the greatest watercolorist, and doing them on paper and scanning them in would add to the already incredible time burden.

So I decided to go digital and let the computer do the heavy lifting. I've tried several different methods in Corel Painter, the greatest paint program ever created, but I've never been satisfied with the results. I even tried using Brushes for the iPhone.

Then a few months ago I developed a technique to add textured shading to illustrations in Adobe Photoshop for a black & white illustrated novella, The Caveman Conspiracy (a Wandering Koala tale). I loved the results. I wondered if the technique could be used with color to create digital paintings. But how to approach it?

Then today I went to see The Secret World of Arrietty by Studio Ghibli. While watching the film, I studied the backgrounds and thought of a similar technique. Of course, I don't have a tenth of their skill or talent, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try.

So using the shading technique and a texturing technique I developed while working on Wandering Koala uncovers the Sixth Figure, I came up with this. I really like how much it looks like a watercolor painting, how bright the colors are, and how quickly and cleanly I was able to create it. It still needs some work and refinement, but I think I'm on the right track.

But that's just me. What do you think?