Walking in the snow...

This illustration is for the bottom half of the page that Santa (see previous post) sits on. As usual it was painted in Corel Painter after having drawn and inked it. I'm enjoying this book immensely, children's books are so much fun! I work in quite a few different styles, but i have to say that this kind of work seems to come out of me a lot easier than some of the other types of things I do.

Santa....

This image was painted today for a small part of the top of a page from a book I'm working on.I thought I'd add it here as it seems to fit with the general theme of this blog.

Fairy....

I've been a busy boy lately, haven't had much time for sketching and the like, but I did manage to paint up a rough sample or two for a publisher I'm in touch with..... here's one of those images....

Stream-Step by Step.

Here's another stepbystep Pegasus Painting. I'm having so much fun painting and drawing him, why would I want to stop. I painted this in Corel Painterx as usual but today I used the oil brushes for a change. I painted this entirely without reference.

STEP ONE The rough sketch was drawn straight into painter using the pencil option. It's very sjketchy but there's enough info for me to read it and paint over.

STEP TWO As usual, I start with a watercolour underpainting for a base to work from.

STEP THREE Details are added, tones are blocked in to help the form.

STEP FOUR I'm adding highlights. These add to the mood of the piece, which I genreally like to set early on.

STEP FIVE Setails added to trees etc. Again , thinking form!form!form!

STEP SIX Moving to the back of the landscape here. adding detail and atmosphere to the background. Also moving through the image to add details and highlights throughout.

STEP SEVEN More tonal work.

STEP EIGHT Closeup on the background, I'm adding more detail, although this area is a very small part of the image, I feel it's important to get this to look real and the blue adds to the atmosphere and depth.

STEP NINE generally moving through and tightening it all up.

STEP TEN more work on the horse himself and general work throughout.
STEP ELEVEN-FINISHED!!! I reverese the image as i work, as part of my standard working process to check to see if there are any 'off' elements, but today I liked it better reveresed, so that's how it'll stay. I enjoyed this painting very much. All in all, it took approx 8 hours from start to finish.

Pegasus.....Step-By-Step

This illustration was a lot of fun. I saved it in step-by-step stages as usual working habit now) and thought I'd post it on here along with my others.

This sketch is one from a few drawn and painted for an idea I have in mind that I'm working on in my spare time. This was drawn in my sketchbook, a rare feat at the moment as i'm doing so much digitally now, even inking.

STEP ONE

The sketch.

STEP TWO

Firstly, in my mind, I decide upon a colour pallette I'm going to use and keep it in mind at all times through the working process. i lay down scratchy, quick washes in the genral colours with the watercolour brushes in Painter X.

STEP THREE

Next come the tones. I work up the basic lights and darks with the watercolour brushes, laying darker tones over the underdrawing, although the sketch wasn't elaorately drawn, it does house enough info for me to just splash colour around.

STEP FOUR

I lay in darker areas here for the landscape. At this point, my mindset has changed from a light to dark, to a dark to light mindset. I've effectively switched from being a watercolourist to being an acrylic painter, or an oil painter here. The highlights will be gradually strengthened through the following steps.

STEP FIVE

Colours added, form starting to emerge from the lanscape... rocks etc.

STEP SIX

Adding details. I use a combination of the natural oil brushes and the airbrush at this point. Just adding gestures to guide me through the amount of detail I'll be adding. As you can probably guess, I don't always have a 100% idea of what it's going to look like. Note, the figure has gone from the top of the hill. It was unnecessary.

STEP SEVEN

I've thrown some cloud coverage down to give me an idea of the 'atmosphere' of the illustration. I find this a necessary step so I don't get to picky with detail etc. and I still get the 'feeling' I'm trying to evoke: height, weather conditions etc.

STEP EIGHT

Building up muscle tones on the horse and on the wings, generally looking through the image to strengthen weak areas and tighten detail. the clouds in the background have recieved treatment over the last few images too.

STEP NINE

Here I'm adding more detail to help 'sel' the scen e and add to the scale of the image... rocks, birds, and trees on the hill etc.

STEP TEN

As very often happens (and it's a joy to be able to do this digitally....) I don't like the tilt of the horses head, so i change it-as easy as that!

STEP ELEVEN

More detail and highlights added.

STEP TWELVE

More of the same. Note the clouds below the horse and girl are become more 'formed' and stylised.

STEP THIRTEEN

Here, i punch up the contrast a touch and sharpen the image for clarity. Note the trees on the hilltop are missing again. I didn't think they added anything to the image. Highlights added to the horse to make it stand out from the background, trying desperately hard to avoid a 'cut-out' look.

STEP FOURTEEN

The clouds are finished, and they are toned down by strengthening the 'purple' colour over the top via a 'glaze' from the watercolour brush., same with the hill, this pushes the horse and rider forward and helps them to stand out more.

STEP FIFTEEN

THE FINISHED IMAGE...

Note the change to the horse's mane. I wasn't a fan of the 'unruly' look so I replaced some of it with a straighter look and blurred it off, hopefully giving it a look with even more movement.

Singing the Praises of Corel Painter X

I've been using Corel Painter for a couple of years now. I'm currently using PainterX, there are a few more thingies on it than it's predecessor. I've been doodling away at a project that's in the back of my mind in muy spare time and today, I wanted to have a play with Painter's inking pen functions. This is the before and after; from the drawing to the finished line art, for me, for digital media, it comes pretty close to the real thing.

Pegasus

here's todays image. I've got a bit of a thing happening with 'flight' at the moment.
For the first time since I've started using them, I'm very comfortable with Photoshop and Painter. I've developed half an idea of a working procedure that really seems to suit me, it's rather like the way I used to work when I used traditional media.

pictures from my exhibition.....

I've recently had a solo exhibition at the Region's gallery. It was fun, humbling, honest and the opening night was downright scary. But all in all it was a wonderful experience. I enetered 22 images in all, here are a few of them. I entered pieces using most of the tricks up my sleeve in various mediums including: acrylics, oils, graphite, watercolour and gouache. the exhibition was called 'The Eternal Student', the reason for the title was that I feel I'm forever learning. Thankfully I've been asked to come back for another exhibition, I'd like to focus on just one theme next time. Watch this space......

Red Dress....

I've just come back from a long weekend with my wife and son and hadn't drawn all weekend. This is what came out of me upon my return.

As usual, it was painted with Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop.

Fairy tale Illustration...

This image took me nearly three days to 'paint'. some of it was hard work, some of it was an absolute joy. I'm pretty happy with the result. It was rendered in my usual photoshop and Painter.

New Step-By-Step Illustration...

Here's my latest step-by-step demonstration...

I've been asked by one of my publishers for some animal samples. Although I have a huge amount of wildlife drawings and paintings, I don't really have all that many animal illustrations, so I set about doing a few. (see the kookaburra image from a previous post...)

This one was an absolute joy to paint. I had great reference for starters... my Mother-in-law took the photos on a recent trip to the UK, it's very handy having relatives who take great photos and it's always worthwhile to keep a lot of files for reference, here's proof.

I call this image 'The Sparrows of Redgate Cottage".

STEP ONE Here's the reference I used for the image. Note, I turned the cottage around, just in case the owners ever saw it, I'm not sure if the M.I.L. got permission. I'll carry on as if she didn't.

STEP TWO Here's the composited image with some painting done for the sky, the posts in the foreground and the road. Photoshop is fantastic for this purpose. It's a lot easier to put an image together this way.

STEP THREE Here I work out the the sketch to paint over. I keep it very basic as the photos have a whole heap of information. If I started this image from scratch, with no reference, I'd have to add a lot of info at this stage.

STEP FOUR I've added a colour overlay in Painter, I'm starting out using the 'chalk' option.

STEP FIVE See the chalky look to the colour?I use the chalk option for ease of getting the colours down quickly.

STEP SIX Some details added and keeping a watchful eye on the tones at the same time.

STEP SEVEN More detail. I start work from the back and gradually move forward.

STEP EIGHT I'm looking right through the image now and thinking about the relatiuonship between the background and the forefront. I begin adding a few highlights for clues and a little bit of work on the sparrow.

STEP NINE More tonal work to pull the whole thing together.

STEP TEN Tweaking some of the colours... the road, the path etc.

STEP ELEVEN Working right through the image, adding detail to the bird too at this point. This is the fun part for me, the finer detailing.

STEP TWELVE Lots more work on the foreground. Working out the relationship with the sparrow and the background, I want it to stand out so I add some gentle highlights, trying hard to avod the 'cut-out' look. I always bear try to bear this in mind.

STEP THIRTEEN Toning the whole thing and adding more detail, the image is really starting to come together at this point.

STEP FOURTEEN More of the same. The red of the gate really provides a nice break between the front and the back of the image and also, gives me a title.

STEP FIFTEEN The finished image. I'm pretty happy at this point, but no doubt, as I do, I'll go back and touch it up in the future. I forgot to mention that I painted this as a cover image, so I left a fair amount of space at the top for type. There's nothing worse than dodgy typestting over a lovely image. Another thing I try to bear in mind at all times.

Another Scrooge Sketch....

I love Scrooge's Character. I've said here before that "A Christmas Carol'is one of my all-time favourite stories. I've just been having a play and this is what I came up with......

kookaburras

I had the urge to do some wildlife art this weekend. One of the publishers I'm dealing with wanted to see some more animal stuff, which I sent, but my portfolio doesn't seem to have enough of it, so I created this image.... and put some text on to pretend it's the cover of a children's picture book.

Elven Warrior

This image is one of a few recent attempts to get a 'fantasy' fix out of my system. I used to do a lot of this kind of thing, every now and again, I get a real Jones and have to exorcise the ghost. This sketch took approx 2 1/2 hours in Photoshop and Painter.

Stranded...

Here's an older image. I'd forgotten all about this one. It was one of my earlier digital efforts, just thought i'd post it here as I've been a little busy over the past week.

This image was designed as a wraparound cover for a children's book, with the main centre of interest being the right hand side of the illustration, leaving room on the back for a blurb. It's a little more over-rendered than my newer stuff as I'm concentrating on my newer digital works having a more natural media look and I only used the 'airbrush' tool back then, still, I think it stands up ok for all that.