Curse - Another process shot

I said I would post updates.

Curse - Today's progress

Switched to oils. Having a blast.

Sartorialist Sketching

There's this amazing website for sketching. It's really a blog. A fashion blog.
Point is, it's full of great pictures when you want to doodle the night away.

I was comparing pencils, from left to right: PaperMate #2 HB, Blackwing 602, Blackwing. 300lbs Bristol paper.

Oh! And on a side note, I closed my Facebook account. (It's the third or fourth time.) It feels great. So light. I actually get to get shit done. Priceless. 

Curse - Process

Here's a studio shot of the Curse piece I'm working on.

The figure is basically blocked-in with a lot of work still needed on volumes and light.
I also blocked the blueish tone of the background. The yellow radiating light is next.

Bone Demon Head... thing...

Two days ago, I had a dream.
I mean... I dream every night but the dream I wanna talk about happened two days ago.

I dreamed I was working on an illustration. I was at the finishing touches. 

At some point, I became conscious I was dreaming. 
Now... I have lucid dreams every once in a while and most of the time, I go: "Woohooo! It's a dream! Let's go (insert crazy death-defying activity)-ing!"
But this time I was like: "Aaaw F**K! It's a dream! This awesome piece of work is not real, I'm not at my easel and I suck."
Immediately after, I thought that just maybe, I could try to memorize it and actually paint it in the real world.

And you know what? It kinda worked.
I went to sketch as soon as I got up and put down just enough on paper so I could remember the original image later on.

So yeah... I'm at the early stages but here's a character study for the bone-demon-thing I saw that night.

Comments welcome.

Pictured: My Blackwing. I love my 602.

Curse - Pencil

Here's the pencil for my next fantasy piece, Curse.
It's graphite on gessoed illustration board.

I will post more process shots as the piece advances.

Magma Golem - Follow Up

Still working on the drawing for the Magma Golem.
This one's been drawn over the last thumbnail I made.

Had the idea to add some kind of mask on the creature. Still haven't decided what that mask could be made of. I'll explore that in the next steps.

Having fun.

Finding and reaching new audiences

Today, I'll outline a very simple way to reach new audiences.
I've been doing this little routine for a couple of years now and I have no reasons to think it doesn't work.

First, you will need art. Art that you want to share.
Secondly, you will need pre-paid envelopes. Why pre-paid? Because credit card companies provide them, that's why.

Here, a couple of sketches I made to try out some new pencils and the envelopes of the lucky organizations who will get the art.

Next, I simply choose who gets what by using the shove-the-sketches-in-random-envelopes method.

I then ask my assistant to mail said envelopes.

(Yes. It's still that &*%$#@! cold in April in Montreal.) 

At the end of the day, I can go to bed knowing that I have not only reached new audiences with my art but I also made the credit card companies spend money on our valuable postal system.

Some will argue that robots open that kind of mail and that any document that is not a credit card application form gets thrown away without even having had the chance to (even remotely) make someone happy (or less miserable) with its beauty and depth. To these people, I say: the robots themselves see and manipulate the art and feel the kindness. They are not below the considerations of the artist. And who knows? It might even help to provoke the Singularity? Even if it makes it happen 1 or 2 nanoseconds earlier I will consider myself among the allies of our new robotic overlords...

I... er...

Ahem...

Okay.

Next week's post will be with real stuff. Real projects. Like. For real.

Milestone

Last week, I finished a piece. It's not great. It's nothing special.
And even if it was a piece made for a new portfolio project, it probably won't end up in said portfolio.

Still, it's a milestone because it's the first personal project painting I've finished in years. Procrastination, self-doubt and a thousand other things kept preventing me from finishing anything.

So here it is:

It's 20"x16", acrylics on illustration board. I only have a crappy phone picture because it (obviously) doesn't fit in my scanner and I probably won't have it photographed professionally.

I'm aiming this year's porfolio at trading card game art. (Like Magic: The Gathering and several others.)
I used Wizards Of The Coast's card database to pull a random card. I simply masked the illustration and used the card description as my brief.

I just wanted to share this with you. Hopefully, the next one will be better. And the next. And the next.

Anyways, I'll keep you posted.

Drink & Draw Sketch Club

Here are last week's Drink & Draw scribbles.
We went for improvisations on a theme. Each participants suggested a theme in turn.

(When the other guys post their stuff, I'll post links.)

Warm up impro.

Exotic animal.

The Pope. (Was elected the same day... had to celebrate the event!  ¬_¬  )

 Er... this one was «clueless house robot». 

Hockey goon.

Wrap-up robot... thing...

When attending a Drink & Draw event, I found it was always a good idea to number your drawings. Just so you have an idea how far gone when you drwe some piece of shit.    ;-)

Hyena study - Done

Here's a quick study in acrylics on canvas paper, 5"x7".

I haven't used actual paints for my illustration work for years now. (I've been storyboarding for the last 6 years.) I'm rusty and I need to get back on track.

This study was an exercise aimed at my painting muscle and it paid off. I spent about two hours on it and to my delight, the sequence was pretty fluid: drawing, underpainting, painting. Each step came as naturally as it can without me having to think too much about it. Which is a good thing.

I will be doing more of these while I work on my porfolio pieces. I need 4 to 6 good fantasy pieces done by next September to bring to IlluxCon and I intend to pull it off.

Any and all comments are welcome but the negative criticism will help me most in my endeavor

Oh! And on a side note, I've been reading books lately.
You know those wood pulp rectangles with squiggly black markings all over that you open up and gaze at? I love those.

Anyway, there are two books I would like to recommend to ALL CREATIVE people out there. They're must reads. For real.

The first one is Steven Pressfield's Turning Pro. Changed my life.
The second one is Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson. Positively liberating.

See you next week!

Hyena study

Change of pace tonight.

I obviously felt like painting but I went for a "just for fun" piece. It's a snarling hyena head.
Had time to do the drawing, the underpainting and the first pass on the mouth before I was KO.

I'm aiming for regularity and order in my painting practice. I decided an animal study could do no harm.

I'll keep you posted and show you the finished study when it's done.

Magma Golem - Back to basics

Bon! De retour aux thumbnails pour mon golem.
Ma composition et ma pose dans le sketch d'avant valaient pas de la m*rde.

Encore une fois, les commentaires sont bienvenus!

Magma Golem

Un premier sketch pour un projet qui m'est venu en tête l'autre jour.

Il a besoin d'encore beaucoup d'amour mais pour le moment, c'est un golem de magma qui est en processus de formation dans une coulée de lave.

Tous les commentaires seront appréciés.