26 mars 2013

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.

19 mars 2013

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.    ;-)

12 mars 2013

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!

05 mars 2013

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.

01 mars 2013

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!