A few pictures of the process so far

Here are a few images displaying the change between my original thumbnail, (which was a few inches in size) to a color rough of that thumbnail, to a pencil rough which measures about half size to the final art.  

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A couple sketches

A few sketches

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A few tidbits

I've been doing lots of research lately on uniforms, insignia, patterns, and vehicles.  I won't be posting up most of this, as it is mostly diagrammatic in nature, with lots of notes and the like.  And I would like a lot of it to be a surprise when it does finally come out.  However, here are two little bits I did recently.  One is a color sketch of an SS officer, and another is the nose art for a fighter pilot.  All are WIPs, but give an idea of the kind of stuff I'm working on right now.

SS officer in black uniform, used early in the war

Nose art for a P-51 Mustang

More sketches

Here's some more stuff!  I'm happy with how some of the characters "likenesses" are coming out, so I'm keeping some and reworking others.  Much more to come.  Thanks for stopping by.

Helga version 2.0

Here's another sketch of Helga.  More coming soon.

Kinchloe and Maya

Here are two more sketches of characters.  The basic ideas are here, now to work on the refinement and details.  Thanks for stopping by!

A few sketches of girls

Here are two more sketches of characters.  Thanks for stopping by.

Character sketches

Here are some sketches for an ongoing project.  Many more to come.

Sketch phase

Here's a tiny snippet of a sketch that I hope will turn into a full fledged painting.  It should be a fun one.  Thanks for stopping by!

It's coming...

Work on a new piece has begun, and I'm really excited about this one.  It feels nice to "stretch my legs" a little bit and work with a large format.  I'm looking forward to putting some paint to paper.  

(Feel free to click the image to get the full view)

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Suspicious Behaviour?

Here is an illustration for an article by Isaac Blum in Humor Times. Check out the article here!

Cover pencils

As the painting itself is now finished, I wanted to post up some of the steps.  Here are the final pencils and a little look at the painting as it was coming along (it's really more of a look at my workstation.)  After I have it scanned and shipped off, I'll post up the final piece.

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Superman, the gangster!?!

Here's a current project. Below are some thumbnails I sent to the client and then the pencil rough that followed.

More to come!

A Few Screen Caps...

Here are a few sneaky previews of a painting I'm working on. I'm pursuing a more "traditional" look for this piece even though it is digital. I'll go more into detail later with the finished piece, but my goals for this project remain centered around texture, edges and light.

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A Little Bit of Process

I found some pictures I had taken to show process for a few projects and thought it might not be a bad idea to post them up here.

Here are a few shots of the spider-man/venom painting I did a while back. This was me just starting the final pencils on the illustration board. I stick very closely to my pencil rough, seen on the left, for this portion in order to maintain the composition I planned in the thumbnail. Afterwards I will fix up my drawing by looking at any photo reference I might use. (For example: to get subtle anatomical details.) Please excuse the disgusting photoshopping on the final pencils on the right, the drawing wasn't very visible in the original photo...

Here you can see the drawing as it's coming to a finish. I'll be posting up the final art soon.

This next project required a bit of touch-up with the background and smoke, as I really hated the look of it as it was. This consisted of color matching and painting the area that was originally smoke, obscuring his face, which was then followed with airbrushing the background and smoke as well as a few effects. I had done some digital airbrushing after the color matching portion of the painting was done, but I really wanted this to be a completely traditional piece.

At this stage I had only done the color matching on his face and then placed a sheet of paper frisket over the entire painting, making sure to cover the entire live area.

After the frisket is down on the board, I took a VERY sharp blade and started to cut around the shape of the figure. This can be very time consuming depending on the shape you are cutting around. You also have to make sure not to cut into the board or damage the paint in any way.

I laid down a flat layer of gouache to serve as the lighter area of the background. A nice thing about using the airbrush is being able to get perfectly flat tones while also keeping the surface texture of the paper or board you like. I always enjoy seeing the texture in paintings.

I then laid in some sepia mixed with black in a gradient. I wasn't going for a perfect transition, because generally I feel like that is too mechanical and stiff for my work. Notice you can see the reflection off of the transparent paper frisket.

After the background was laid in, I worked on my favourite thing with airbrushes. Highlights, gleams and effects. They are so fun to do, especially with a painting that is utilizing dramatic and harsh lighting. Obviously, the paper frisket is gone by this point, so you have to be really sure of what you're doing. This is the finished piece.