What if your pet had super powers?

My third entry into #creativeprompt challenge from Henrike Dijkstra.

Today’s challenge was to come up with an idea regarding what if your pet or someone you knew had gained a super power?

Thought of the ongoing power struggle between pets, specifically dog vs cat. Hey, I am a dog lover myself so went with dog having a super power and using it to get one over the cat. Seen way to many Youtube videos of cat's been so nasty. So here's to all you dog lovers out there.

Tools used:

• Adobe ideas
• Procreate
• Photoshop CS3 for quick tidy up

Winter outfit for an octopus

My second entry into #creativeprompt challenge from Henrike.

Today’s challenge was to create a winter outfit for an octopus. I know, cool aye.

I thought I'd put up some conceptual ideas (very rough) to show how I kinda got to the finale. See below.

The challenge for me was to think how I would tackle 'heating' for this marine creature. Some of my attempts were literal (like one with a scarf and hat) whilst others were more in line with capturing heat. The latter I went with.

The idea then was along the lines of capturing heat through means of  good old solar(sun). The orange pad on his upper head is the solar panel.

The final pose I chose was to be relaxed and overall for the character to be 'cute'. Some of my early sketches were a bit too menacing.

Some conceptual ideas:)

Tools used:

• Adobe ideas
• Procreate
• Photoshop CS3 for a little touch-up

Zombie Mouse

This was a fun little image created as a result of #creativeprompt challenge via Henrike Dijkstra found here on twitter. The challenge is to come up with some idea / character design.Its a great way to quickly come up with an idea. Lot of fun.

Here are two inked up versions I did on my iphone thanks to Adobe ideas app.

The challenge I wanted to put on myself was rendering the image with a certain amount of un-restraint. It was a good opportunity to push myself and let go. Overall it's chaotic, whimsical and a hint of umpphhh!!!!Which is good. I need to push myself in this new scary area. Wish me happy thoughts.

Thanks to Henrike for the awesome #creativeprompt challenge.

Too my wife - did the awesome typography whilst having breakfast. She is sooo awesome!!! What a machine.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Tools used:

Iphone with Adobe ideas

Procreate for rendering

Funny Wolverine illustration

Still can't get Wolverine out of my head. It's those killer curls, awesome. For this illustration I wanted to keep the image fairly clean and also wanted to try out the A-tone (mechanical tint) in photoshop. Credit here to Hi-Fi comics for the A-tone range.

Tried a new font called 'DK Lemon Yellow Sun' which my lovely wife suggested I use. Check it out online. Used here in the speech bubble. It has a lovely hand drawn quality about it.

A big highlight this week is finally joining up with Chris Oatley's Oatley Academy Live.  Lots to learn and lots and lots of people to meet. Very excited. 

So recommend that you go check him out. Find him here.

So long, take care.

Tools used:

• Adobe ideas on ipad for the inking
• Adobe illustrator for the type
• Photoshop CS3 for A-tone (mechanical tint)

Hulk - quick sketch

A quick digital mash up of the Hulk. I think I am still recovering from  Avengers age of ultron. The Hulk was like - smashing!!! Actually I just now remember that the 80's Hulk movie (yes I am that old) was the first movie I saw in cinema. Loved it.

If you like this Hulk you may also like another Hulk illustration I have done recently found here.

This image was created on my iphone 5 using the incredibly awesome duo of Adobe ideas and Procreate. You can find there links here, also in my previous post.

Phew, lot of linking going on!!!

Enjoy and take care.

Tools used:

• Procreate
• Adobe Ideas

Wolverine illustration

Fun concept of Wolverine.

I have a tonne of pencilled drawings, this been one of them. I said to myself, c'mon this needs to be finished. So I took a photo on my iPhone and then inked it using Adobe ideas. From there it was into Procreate to colour it up. Still can't believe just how great these two apps are. Couldn't recommend them more highly.

One of the main reasons for using the iPhone is the immediacy from using it. With a full time job and only so much energy to expend within a day this is a welcomed trade off. I can have the image inked and coloured whilst on the go. Just brilliant. T-I-M-E investment – yes!!!!

Here are the links for those great apps.

Procreate

Adobe ideas (Adobe ideas is now incorporate in an updated completely new App from Adobe called ‘Adobe Illustrator Draw’.

As always thanks for popping on in. Take care!!!

Tools used:

• Procreate
• Adobe Ideas
• Photoshop CS3

Hulk fan art_illustration

Hulk coloured up in Photoshop. Yay!!!

The background was done also on the ipad using adobe ideas. One such item found here on my pinterest board helped me heaps when trying to figure out how to do the explosion. Pinterest by the way is a great site. A reference depository of absolute greatness. Hopefully going to the link will bring up the smoke cloud. If not directly just scroll down till you find 'Thinking 3-dimensioanlly when designing smoke clouds'.

As always thanks for coming on by and visiting. 

And please feel free to leave a comment. I would love to know what makes your world tick too.

Have a great week.

Tools used:

• Adobe ideas
• Photoshop CS3
• Illustrator CS3 for the The Incredible Hulk text

Hulk fan art_inked

Avengers age of ultron is on this weekend. So can't wait to see it. And it just so happened that I was doing some muscular studies. One thing lead to another and....boom, the Hulk appeared. Hello Mr Hulk.

Always struggle with hands so I did a little reference gathering. Thanks Ipad camera. Luckily for you the viewer I didn't have to take off my shirt. Thank goodness for that!!!

Hulk inked on ipad over sketch using the wonderful adobe ideas app.

Happy friday everyone (that's tomorrow) New Zealand time.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Tools used:

• Adobe ideas (on ipad)
• Free model (may need to mention to smile for next time)

Character Concepts no.3

Been another busy week and only having time to do quick doodling. Where is the time going?

This Friday is going to be super exciting - live streaming from Anaheim, Los Angeles for Star Wars 'The Force Awakens'. Panel of guests include J.J.Abrams. Hope to see it after work!!!

Thanks for visiting.

Character Concepts no.2

In between doing the Star Wars fan art with Han and Chewie I try to do character drawings. Not always studies as such but just doodling....so here they are. 

I feel this keeps me fresh and also breaks up stale moments I have (and I have plenty) when on a more focused piece like the Star Wars Fan art.

As always, thanks for popping on in. Go Monday!!!

Tools used: (both on ipad)

• Adobe ideas
• Procreate

Character Concepts

I really love this part of the concept process. Fleshing out shapes and building up hopefully memorable character ideas.

I have until only recently been drawing directly on the ipad using these two awesome apps (Procreate and Adobe ideas).

I recently listened to a Chris Oatley podcast with artist extraordinaire Brett 2-D Bean (here).

Chris asked Brett about his approach to character design. Brett mentioned that he gathered very little reference to begin with. This freed him up to explore ideas and also not become a slave whilst reference gathering.

This is something that I have tried to aim for whilst drawing in the initial concept stage. The biggest reason for this is to find 'my voice'. This doesn't necessarily mean finding 'my style' per say. My voice is what am I trying to communicate. It just so happens that my work is humorous and lighter in content as opposed to darker themes. This is what I am drawn to (no pun intended).

Disclaimer...hehe. Brett did go on to mention that when he first started learning to draw he had to use reference. Couldn't agree more. As you become more confident (which means after drawing hundreds upon hundreds of images) you will not rely as much on drawing (whatever).

As always, thanks for visiting and have a great week ahead.

Tools used: (both on ipad)

• Adobe ideas (app)
• Procreate (app)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza toppings

TMNT fan art!!!!

What can I say. I love these guys. They are super fun to draw and as a character design they are awesome.

And they love pizza, c'mon. What's not to like.

I initially started with Raphael (Big dude). Then threw together some random face sketches and drew them on the ipad through procreate (another great drawing app). 

As I didn't have a strong idea how these were all going to fit together I did what I normally do...leave it for a few hours, come back and see what ideas were culminating in my brain. Still nothing, so wrestled with it throughout the week until I stumbled across the idea of a pizza menu. Then everything feel into place.

As always, thanks for swinging on by. 

Tools used:

• Photoshop CS3
• Illustrator CS3
• Adobe ideas and Procreate on ipad

Character illustration

A rather random idea that started with the man character here on called 'Mr Flick'. Mr Flick started as a pencil sketch that was transported to Adobe ideas.

Can't say this more than enough but Adobe ideas is a wonderful "free", yes you read that right...free program for the ipad. I just love the way it handles even with a cheap stylus. And best of all your lines are 100% vector. Absolutely crisp!!!

I finished off the concept with some help from Sketch-up for the vehicle and trailer. Mr bunny was done in photoshop.

Well, another illustration done. Completed. Finished...in the bag.

As always, thanks for coming on in and having a look.

Question? Have you tried Adobe ideas. And if so, what is one thing that you just love about it. Love to hear your thoughts.

Tools used:

• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Sketch up
• Adobe ideas on ipad

Croc man illustration

For this illustration I wanted to focus on rendering form in a different way than what I usually do. Specifically the arm closest to your view. 

A big thanks for a tutorial here by Kiwi-RGB 'PS, Gimp shading tutorial. It was really helpful to be able to breakdown the form into different techniques and take away the mystery that is in shading. It was super helpful understanding edge control for the forms. Want to know more definitely check out the link!!! A great tutorial.

Thanks as always for visiting. Have a great rest of the week.

Tools used:

• Adobe ideas for inking
• Photoshop CS3 for colouring
• Adobe illustrator for the brick wall background
• Sketch up for a brick wall model concept (sketch up is super awesome)

Batman Caricature

Did a batman caricature for one of my wife's workmates (Paul) for a leaving present. Was such a fun project to do. I have also included a picture of said Paul with said caricature, both looking happy.

Initially I started the caricature in pencil (no.1) with a really big zoomed up image of Paul in photoshop.

An earlier concept was to have Paul surrounded by other characters from the Batman series like Penguin, Joker and Bain (no.2). But it felt too busy so that idea was dropped. 

When the caricature was completed a simple background of green was firstly used. But again the image was lacking context. Thanks to my lovely wife we brainstormed and came up with the idea for the city line backdrop. So much more gotham!!!

As always, thanks for visiting. Any comments always welcome. 

Tools used:

• Soft 2b pencil
• Adobe ideas on ipad for inking
• Adobe illustrator for plinth and cleanup
• Photoshop for colouring

Joker faces

Over the last few days I have been on holiday and so I've had some time to do some more drawings. The Joker is a great character to draw. I tried for some varied approaches. My favorite is the bottom right character. Used myself to get the hands looking just right too. Yay for reference.

Hope you enjoy, as always thanks for visiting. Always welcome any comments.

Take care

Tools used: 

• Soft 2b pencil
• Mechanical pencil
• Photoshop CS3 and for left bottom version - Adobe ideas on ipad
• Ipad camera to capture my beautiful hands..hehe.

Rocket Raccoon final

 

Rocket now with the final gun choice. Yay!!!!

Overall fairly happy with the look. Hope to at some-stage colour this up.

Thanks for visiting and....countdown to Christmas begins. Can't wait. Holidays, relaxing times. Get to hang out with my beautiful wife. Maybe get some more art in too. Yay!!!!

Bye for now.

 

Rocket Raccoon Guardians of the Galaxy

The Guardians of the Galaxy was such a great movie. Loved the story - so entertaining.

So I just had to do a character - Rocket Raccoon. AWESOME!!!

Influences for the sytle was definitely Mike Mignola. I have always loved his treatment of black and white. There is also Skottie Young (Love his stuff) and recently I discovered artist Michael Golden.

After inking up the whole image I wasn't really that happy with his gun....soooo I decided to try some experimental options. Bigger the gun, bigger the impact.

Hope to get the finished image up next post.

Bye for now

Tools used:

• Adobe ideas
• Wacom Bamboo stylus
• Ipad

Digital character faces

Hello, and welcome.
Here are some faces I created recently using Adobe ideas and Sketchbook pro. Both on the ipad. 

Inspiration was to just play with shapes and see what came out of it.
These all initially start with quick fire doodling at my work desk.

This process so works for me as I don't over-think the drawing....well, not too much anyway.

Bye for now.

Tools used:

• Adobe ideas
• Sketchbook pro

Octopus illustration

Been able to ink digitally (still very much a work in progress) has become so much more achievable due to Adobe Ideas.

Having the functionality to re-edit your stroke work, control the width of the stroke is just too awesome. But the selling point for me is that lovely tapered finish of the stroke by using the brush tool.

It just makes your lines sing with vitality. And who doesn’t like some singing line work!!!!
And if that wasn't enough, Adobe Ideas is a free app through the apple apps store.

My inspiration for the style of the drawing came from illustrator ‘BeastPop Artworks’. Just love the way he uses colour. Check him out, great style.

Well, that’s another post done and dusted.

Bye for now

Tools used:

• Adobe Ideas
• Bamboo stylus on ipad
• Right hand