MidnightIllustration Sketch Blog

My process - Sketching for Personal and Client Work

2012-02-15T19:46:00.000Z

A belated Happy New Year! I've been extremely busy over the holiday season and through January, but I've just managed to find some time between jobs to prepare a new post.

Sketching is an incredibly important part of illustration - idle doodles can help generate ideas, people at train stations can be excellent impromptu models for a quick sketch, plein air painting and life drawing (especially the shorter sittings) can really push you to find out what works and what doesn't, etc. Just as rendering practice is important to learn how to finish a piece, sketching is important to become comfortable with starting one, or learning not to get hung up on that one idea you really liked, but just isn't quite right.

When I'm sketching for a personal piece, I'll either have a compositional idea in mind or I'll develop it as I sketch. If the former, I can begin to develop a few quick thumbnails around that idea. If the latter, I throw some lines and\or tones around (usually not colours this early on, unless I know the piece is going to be relatively simple - a single figure would be a good example) until I start to see something in the shapes. When there's something I think is promising, I can develop various ideas from that. It's very much an iterative process, and even if the first idea is basically the one I go with, doing more thumbnails stretches my creativity and compositional skills, and may just give me a slightly different take on the first idea that I wouldn't otherwise have found. The more you do, the more you see and the more you become familiar with what's going to work and what's inherently flawed.

Sketches for a client are a different matter - the brief is fixed, the size is fixed, and this time it's about finding a way to make everything work together. I still go through the same basic process, but I've got more parameters to adhere to.

What format should sketches take? It probably depends on your style. Personally, I try to make them reflect the style of the final piece as much as possible, albeit somewhat abstracted. If you have line-heavy finals, maybe prioritise lines; if you have a rendered style, get in all the major elements in blocks - probably use colour if it's going to be a colour piece. The idea is that the client has a clear idea of what they're going to be getting - surprises at the finals stage aren't a good thing!

I like to try to send 3 different sketches for any given piece. Yes, it takes time, but it has several benefits. Firstly, there's the creative boost from doing this over and over for various different pieces; secondly, it shows the client that you've got various interpretations of how a piece might develop, that you've got imagination. I don't send 3 when: the brief is very tight, and doesn't allow for too many different versions (I'll probably make minor shape tweaks and work more with different colours, here); or there's simply very little time.

Most of my recent work is still tied up with NDAs, but here are a couple of examples that I can show:

Morgue Skin Suit, © Cubicle 7

Here I had a brief for a black and white piece of the empty skin of a man (but still with eyes and teeth!) on a mortuary table, portrait format. With no colour to work with, a defined focus which had to dominate, and with the dramatic lighting needed to make this read clearly and feel creepy, my main area of play was angle.

With 1, I took a raking view across the skin, allowing a hint of another body to fill up the space. With 2, a straight look down seemed a good idea, but it was important to keep diagonals in the composition - horizontals and verticals can make images seem either more graphic-based, or even somewhat iconic. For a picture that aims to disguise how constructed the composition is, diagonals are vital. With 3, I decided to look a little further down the table, using some depth for interest. The angles are a little out, but you get the idea, and if chosen it could have been cleaned up later. The shadow looming over the figure adds a sense of mystery.

In all of the pieces, I'm avoiding any object stopping dead when it reaches the frame - this would start to make the piece feel cramped.

Sketch 1 was chosen.

*****

Rasputin Rakshasa, © Gunmetal Games

For this one, I had a cyberpunk brief of two anthropomorphic characters, one stalking the other through a ruined city street, portrait format. I wanted to show Rasputin, the stalkee, in the foreground, to make sure he was easier to recognise. My main areas of play were colour and the concept of 'stalking', which I pushed quite a bit.

With 1, I went for the dramatic. Perhaps the stalking is over, and the next stage, the pounce, has begun. Violets and yellows, complementaries, are an unusual colour choice which serve to draw the eye, and Rasputin is backlit for a strong shape. With 2, it's shadowplay. Hot oranges and cold blue-greens mark out a distinct temperature shift between the light and shadow, and the stalker and stalkee; contrast is also provided by how Rasputin is more active, while Rakshasa is more readied than actually mobile. With 3, the sickly-green and hints of more orange warmth provide a different feel again from the previous two sketches, Rasputin is once again backlit, and this is probably the clearest indication of both 'stalking' and 'ruined city street'.

Sketch 3 was chosen, with the orange\reds being pushed a little further for the red\green contrast in the final, to make Rasputin stand out a little better.

*****

That was the longest blog post I've ever written! If you made it to the end, I hope you found something of value in it

I'm not sure when I'll have something to post again - I've got NDAs on a lot of pieces, and I haven't been to life drawing for a while. I am trying to work out a sketching style with some watercolour pans (portable, quick), but I haven't got anything worthwhile to show yet - I'm not familiar with this medium, but Burnt Umber tonal washes may have some potential..

Cover work

2011-12-19T23:31:00.000Z

I've just finished a cover for Gunmetal Games' Interface Zero setting, for Hacking Rules 2. The dead space across the top is where the title will go:

This was probably the most unusual piece I've been commissioned to do so far, but it was great fun once I got my head around how to tackle the buildings (something which I used to find daunting, but no longer trouble me). The painting's in my portfolio blog, and I've added mention of it to my resume.

I'm hoping to have a post up soon covering my approach to sketching for clients' pieces, as opposed to just sketching for personal work. Having said that, I'm going to be working solidly over the holiday season, so I'm not sure when I'll have enough free time!

Revisions

2011-12-06T12:05:00.000Z

I've gone back and polished up a couple of older pieces, Pathos and Robot - both were looking ready to either be ditched or spruced up:

Both are updated in my portfolio blog, and on the licensing page. I've a new portfolio piece on the go as well, so hopefully before too long I can show it (it's been a WIP for a long time, as there's not much time between jobs right now!).

Toned Paper Life Drawing from 25-11-2011

2011-11-26T15:13:00.001Z

Two-tone cheap scrap book paper - the tan was great, the one drawing on the deeper purple was awful, given that it was too dark and at any angle that was comfortable to draw from the graphite glare made it almost disappear on the paper (same value)...

5, 5, 5, 30, 15, 30, and the model was Dorothy:

I've got some rough newsprint kicking around, and coloured pencils seem strangely useful on it. Maybe for next time? I feel that I was to work a little larger than these A4 (and below) pieces...

Cubicle 7 Preview - Morgue Skin Suit

2011-11-19T21:42:00.000Z

Another of my pieces done for Cubicle 7 has been previewed on their forum, so I'm free to show it here (there are many more still under NDA!) - Morgue Skin Suit, for the Laundry book Mythos Dossiers:

It's also in my portfolio blog, in the Black and White section.

Alla prima no more...

2011-11-12T19:24:00.031Z

Well, having said that I could try re-painting the background, I wondered why I wasn't re-painting the background - so I did (also, this photo's better - I blew the lights out pretty badly in the previous shot, and messed up the temperature of the painting).

The usual method is to keep is simple behind the focus, and go for light, dark or mid-tone for the background; I think it's better, with difficult surroundings, to simplify what is seen dramatically in order to preserve the impact of the image being conveyed.

Next time I do the portrait, I'm looking forward to it being the actual model, and therefore backed onto a wall with somewhat controlled lighting!

I forgot to mention before that this was back to primed watercolour paper, simply because I had short notice to go painting and I had no Lana Vanguard cut, but I did have a primed board ready. Also, the toned underpainting was just beautiful to work on, and something I'll definitely return to for future alla primas.

Alla prima portrait

2011-11-12T12:06:00.003Z

I turned up with my painting kit, but the life model couldn't make it, so the portrait model stepped in, leaving the portrait painters without a subject! I was damned if I was going to lug my stuff back home, so I decided to paint the guy sitting next to me - Laurie, a very good watercolourist, who was painting the life model all day. Fortunately, he was quite amiable about being an impromptu sitter!

3 1/2 hours, approx 9" x 12", palette of Titanium White, Ivory Black, Yellow Ochre Pale, Venetian Red, Cad Yellow Pale, Cad Scarlet, Burnt Sienna, Cerulean, Viridian and a touch of Permanent Madder Deep:

I should probably have just darkened the whole surround, but I was trying to get a balance of the abysmal lighting in the room and something that would look reasonably strong.

After packing up, I had a few minutes left so figured I'd get out my sketchbook and execute a marker sketch of Carole - I'd never normally have the time to manage so many pens, but it seemed a good opportunity to give it a go:

Return of the oils!

2011-11-06T10:46:00.006Z

This was done alla prima on November 1st, working from a photo I took earlier in the year at Portland Bill.

My materials are changing again... the surface is Lana Vanguard plastic paper, no tooth and doesn't need priming! It's a strange surface, something that'll take a few more sessions before I feel I can offer much of an opinion on it. I'm also jettisoning the really vivid colours and the really strong mixers from my palette, so I can concentrate more on painting and less on managing the palette.

About 3 1/2 hours, with a palette of Ivory Black, Burnt Umber, French Ultramarine, Viridian, Yellow Ochre Pale, Titanium White and the tiniest touches of Cadmium Yellow Pale and Venetian Red, size 12" x 10":

Life Drawing challenge... from 21-10-2011

2011-10-28T17:35:00.000+01:00

I nearly forgot to post these!

5, 5, 5, 15, 15, 30, 30, and the model was Carole.

Right... next time I go (I've lots of work on, so I'm not sure when - but hopefully soon!) I'm changing materials again. I like travelling light, and I love my mechanical pencils. I don't like how long it takes to develop a sense of form this way, so I'm going to try taking my toned sketchbook and a white pencil (pastel or tinted charcoal) as well as the mechanical.

Email problems

2011-10-24T16:09:00.003+01:00

It appears that there are some problems with Yahoo mail at the moment. Everything seems to be working fine now, but I do have a couple of unread emails, received sometime overnight, that I'm unable to view. It could be just a glitch, but I've no way of knowing.

If you emailed me within the last 24 hours and I haven't got back to you yet, please try again.

Thanks.

UPDATE: thanks to help from Yahoo, the problem has been resolved.

New work for Gunmetal Games

2011-10-17T19:48:00.001+01:00

As promised, some work I've just completed for Gunmetal Games' Interface Zero setting:

Both the characters and the illustration are also in my portfolio.

Life drawing, 14-10-2011

2011-10-16T12:06:00.007+01:00

With what I have, line is better... too much tone too quickly destroys the form, as I can't get a full range of tone quickly, nor can I work large areas quickly without them looking scrappy... I'm trying to drum this into my head! I think I'd benefit from doing some sketches without time constraints, just to try to get a slightly looser feeling. I'm defining the heads too much in the quicker poses, perhaps?

Sometimes the models give you all the flow-lines you need, sometimes you need to hunt for them and exaggerate quite a bit...

5, 5, 5 (all approx, time-keeping was lax), 15, 15, 15, 30, 30, and the model was Debbie.

Hopefully within the next few days I should have some digital paintings to show you! I've also updated my resume with a couple of new projects, and I've tweaked 'Survivors' a little on the portfolio blog, repainting the focal woman's face.

Quick sketches

2011-10-09T17:53:00.005+01:00

A quick (and tiny, about A6) sketch of Dave, originally in wooden 3b but I didn't like the feel it gave, so I made another pass in mechanical 0.9 2b. It was a challenge to do much with the light that was there

A previous test of my 0.9 mechanical (which I really, really like) - Ukko the Dwarf, sketch from a Glenn Fabry panel:

Life drawing, 30-09-2011

2011-10-07T09:52:00.006+01:00

This is a little late because last Saturday my whole system managed to get messed up, and needed a clean install (these are taken from my camera, as my scanner's not ready yet). Monday morning I was ready to go, and then... all day power cut.

Hmm... well, the wooden pencil didn't fare too well. I found the small paper size restrictive, and my value range constrained vs using a mechanical. I tried a little smudging, but I'm not really a fan. I like the precision of the mechanical, but I'm not so fond of the very thin lines.

5, 5, 5, 15, 30, 30, and the model was Debbie.

I'm going to try A3 and a thicker mechanical next time (next week, though, as I'm sure nobody at life drawing would appreciate me sharing my cold...).

Big changes to the Portfolio Blog

2011-09-27T11:34:00.001+01:00

I've added a section for Black and White work (with some new work done for Gunmetal Games) and a section for pieces I'm now putting up to be licensed, while Project A finally goes live (although, as stated, it's on hiatus due to the freelance work I'm doing). The buttons at the top have also been shifted around, and changed quite a bit over on the portfolio site.

Life drawing from 23-09-11

2011-09-26T16:19:00.003+01:00

5, 5, 15, 30, 30, and the model was Tammy.

I'd like to sketch a little lighter and looser than I can with my mechanical pencil... maybe it's worth trying wooden pencils next week? These are coming out quite harshly, almost an ink-style in pencil, and I'd like to try for just a little more tone.

Brushes

2011-09-22T09:43:00.000+01:00

I've added a Downloads page to hold some of the Photoshop brushes I use, which I'd like to share. Check it out!

Life Drawing!

2011-09-18T21:00:00.007+01:00

I hadn't been life drawing for about 9 months, but I was back last Friday! Just the morning, and pretty short poses (longest was 30 min). Having messed about with large paper and various media in the past, I returned to my favourites of cartridge paper (just shy of A4) and mechanical pencil.

The poses here were 5, 5, 5, 15, 30 and 30, and the model was Tammy.

Revisions

2011-09-12T21:35:00.003+01:00

I've been tweaking Jormundgandr and Hydra, as well as cleaning out the portfolio. Here are the updated versions:

Survivors

2011-09-08T14:26:00.003+01:00

Finally finished, it's in the portfolio blog!

I'm doing a lot of studying, not so much actual painting at the moment. I've roughed out a few greyscale quick sketches to practice some ideas for refining my work... nothing major yet. It's mostly to do with restructuring how I think about the foreground \ middleground \ background divide, and the effects of various value patterns.

Cubicle 7 Preview

2011-09-03T08:46:00.001+01:00

One of the pieces I did for Cubicle 7 has just been released as part of an art preview for their upcoming "Laundy Files Agent's Handbook":


Eyeless Man - copyright Cubicle 7

The rest will have to stay under wraps for now!
Here's a link to the post with work from 3 other artists: link

Quick colour thumbs

2011-09-02T09:57:00.003+01:00

I do quite a bit of sketching that nobody will ever see - working out problems, studies, ideas that just aren't going anywhere... I thought it would be worth posting some quick thumbnail sketches I've been doing lately. The loose aim is to try to understand the mood real-world lighting can convey, as well as gaining a better understanding of lighter pieces (and the flow of light in general). These are all tiny (I think 500px on the longest side), and the only thing in my mind was the effect of colour:

I think it's worth playing about like this from time to time, without worrying too much about success or failure.

Update, and 'Machines and Magic'

2011-08-24T09:14:00.000+01:00

I've just found out that all four pieces (Glow, Ritual, Portal and Where Giants Once Roamed) I submitted for the upcoming book 'Machines and Magic', by Craig Musselman, have been included!

I've also uploaded a tweaked version of the Project A Warlord to my portfolio blog, replacing the old one - there's just a little more detailing this time.

I've also got a couple of pieces in the Ludlow Art Society's Summer Exhibition - it's the first time they've had digital works on show, so it's great to be a part of making digital work more commonly accepted in exhibitions.

Busy!

2011-08-18T23:48:00.003+01:00

I haven't anything new I can show you, as I've quite a few pieces in progress under NDAs...

In the meantime, I've dug out an old cast drawing from a little over two years ago (yes, the cranium really did slope like that!):

WIP Survivors close-ups

2011-08-09T18:15:00.001+01:00

I've been doing some work for Cubicle 7 recently, so that's been my main focus - I can't show it yet, not until the book they're for is published. I have been able to do a little personal work that I can show, though:

Still a long way to go... none of the close-ups are of completed sections (since I try to work the whole canvas at the same level).

Survivors early sketches

2011-08-03T08:22:00.000+01:00

New personal piece, these are the early stages of development - I had the basic idea in panel 1, and then decided to expand the breadth of the piece.

Project A lives!

2011-07-26T20:40:00.001+01:00

It's taken a while, but I've got something to show for Project A (aside from the button at the top right, which will become active before too long)!

Project A is a re-design / re-imagining of a well-known story, and I'm going to reveal what it is and what my take on it is on the Project A page. I'm designing 9 characters for it, and this is the first (the basic ideas for all characters have already been roughed out):

The original sketch (the guy on the left) was my first attempt at figuring out a base for the design (and was posted on this blog back in March!). I'm working out each character's place in the story as I sketch, so this first pass is essentially my 'brief'.

Character development - where can I go? What can I do that fits with the basic idea? I decided to pick something that was a far cry from the first draft, but it felt right to me. When I go to render, I'll probably still tweak a little. At the right you can see some gesture sketches for poses.

The finished character piece:

Deff Dread

2011-07-18T17:41:00.000+01:00

As noted before, this is fan art and copyright belongs to Games Workshop.

Process:

The final is in my portfolio.

Quick note on signature change

2011-07-18T14:30:00.001+01:00

My digital work has, up to this point, been signed 'Midnight' - for the sake of simplicity, given my user ID is MidnightIllustration (or MidnightIllo, where characters are limited), all future works will be signed 'MidnightIllustration'.

Speaking of new work... 'Deff Dread' should be up soon!

WH40K fan art teaser pic

2011-07-12T17:51:00.000+01:00

I'm working on another piece of WH40K fan art at the moment, still tweaking and balancing several areas of it. Here's a teaser:

Hydra

2011-07-05T09:55:00.006+01:00

Finished, and uploaded to my portfolio.

Hydra WIP pictures

2011-06-28T19:38:00.001+01:00

First sketches, working with big shapes to find something I liked. This first one wasn't bad, but seemed a little too familiar a composition.

Maybe a dragon instead? Still, another composition that just doesn't seem very original. The space at right is because I didn't know what ratio my picture would be, and wanted the opportunity to easily experiment.

Back to the hydra. Ah - better! I liked this, and thought it worth taking further.

Okay, starting to refine it. The heads are becoming clearer, and the figure's roughed in.

Expressions emerge! The figure also gets some detail.

A colour pass, to give an idea of where the piece could go. Flying spectres appear.

The piece has been blown up and refinements have begun - it's about balancing big blocks and gradually getting finer and finer detail, but not until everything is reading well.

The yellow was too strong, contrasting too much. Knocking it back, I continue to work up the details.

That's where I am right now. There's still a lot left to do - the hydra head at bottom left, for example, needs a secondary light source thrown on it to balance the piece more.

I have deliberately omitted a lot of the atmosphere so far - dust particles, the hydra's breath, etc. I'll usually tackle this towards the very end, once I'm sure my shapes are reading right.

Ladies

2011-06-22T16:24:00.002+01:00

Ladies, finished. I've also uploaded it to my portfolio blog.

A Hacksaw and a Dinner Knife: When Framing Goes Wrong

2011-06-17T19:52:00.007+01:00

Remember those exhibitions I mentioned in the last post? Well, I was getting one of the frames ready for the first one, screwing the d-ring hooks to the back of the frame, when the screw just stopped. I couldn't turn it in, and after a few tried realised I'd mangled the head, so it wouldn't come out either... and it was protruding a good 5mm from the wood. Hmm...

What if I cut a new hole into the screw head, and tried using that?

It actually worked, which surprised me. Saw across the screw head, and then... the screwdriver was the wrong size! Still, I keep a dinner knife handy for opening matte medium jars, scraping excess medium away, etc, and it proved a useful handle.

Might be worth a shot if this happens to you. Doesn't look too pretty, but who's scrutinising the screws on the back of a picture frame?

Some recent sketches. The back of the guy's head and the guy bottom right were done while riding the bus to Kidderminster (oh thank you, monitor power supply which started crackling that morning), the rest are people who just got caught in various photos I snapped over the last year or so -

Another oil, I think it's finished, 10"x12", inspired by the boats around Poole harbour. For this one I brushed the matte medium with a foam brush, to keep the surface smoother without sanding. Seems to have worked quite well.

Ladies is done now, but I'm hanging on to it for a few more days before posting it.

Slow going...

2011-06-09T17:05:00.000+01:00

I've not had as much time as I'd have liked to keep working on Ladies, as I headed off to the UK Games Expo on the 4th, complete with portfolio, business cards, etc, and I've been trying to figure out the best way to display digital prints for a couple of upcoming exhibitions (I've shown a couple of oils before, but not my digital work, so I'm pretty excited about this!).

Anyway, here are some teasers \ close-ups of the current state of Ladies -

Ladies WIP

2011-06-02T09:00:00.002+01:00

Early stages, block in not quite done.

Inks

2011-05-30T17:46:00.000+01:00

I think it's important to try something different every now and then, even if the results aren't exactly stellar every time.

W+N Inks, pens, marker (just over A6):

FW Inks, Gel pens (A5):

In future, I'll mix my black and white inks from the off, rather than trying to wash with them - not sure if I'm doing something wrong but the black looks just as black when thinned, so it's down to endless testing and guess work for the wash. Much easier to mix up the shade of grey I need!

LAS plein air

2011-05-23T23:52:00.001+01:00

The Ludlow Art Society went out to Brockhampton Hall last Saturday for some plein air painting. My idea for the moment is to pick something simple, a single, strong play of light or shape. Here's what I came back with:

Oil, 10"x12", palette of Titanium White, Sap Green, Green Gold, Naples Yellow, Sepia Extra and Terra Rosa.

Eowyn and the Nazgul finished

2011-05-17T08:56:00.003+01:00

Here's my finished piece - go check out all the entries (160 of 'em!) at ArtOrder!
I've also added this piece to my portfolio.

Eowyn and the Nazgul Teaser

2011-05-12T08:00:00.003+01:00

Port Sunlight Flowers + Sketches

2011-05-05T14:40:00.003+01:00

I've just finished a new oil painting, based on some flowers I saw while wandering around outside the Lady Lever Gallery late last year. I'm still finding my way with oils - illustrative, or painterly? Finding the right balance for me isn't easy. I started this one with a toned board (thinned Yellow Ochre Pale and Raw Umber), which helped quite a lot in establishing the initial tones. 10"x12".

Some anatomy sketches, pen with a light watercolour wash:

Sketches

2011-04-29T16:55:00.001+01:00

I quickly sketched this guy a few days back while sitting by the castle; the fish and shrimp came later (much as I'd have loved them to have been circling the gentleman, I just hadn't been near enough turp to see anything like that!). I've really come to love this A5 book -

Here's a teaser, part of an idea that's nearly come together, but not quite -

Quick portrait

2011-04-22T17:59:00.000+01:00

Last weekend, my friend Alex agreed to sit for a quick pen sketch - here's the result:

Eowyn and the Nazgul

2011-04-15T16:02:00.005+01:00

ArtOrder's got a challenge going that I just can't say no to - illustrate the scene, from the The Lord of the Rings, where Eowyn faces off against the Witch King.

Here's the value sketch:

edit (just turned Saturday!): and here's the colour sketch:

WIP 1:

LAS Spring Exhibition

2011-04-15T15:57:00.000+01:00

I'm exhibiting a few small oils at the Ludlow Art Society's Spring Exhibition. It's at Ludlow College Harley Centre, from Sat 16th April to Monday 25th April.

If you're in the region, come and check it out - there's some real talent in the region, and there'll be a selection of paintings by Keith Noble, the Society's President.

Portfolio Update

2011-04-13T15:34:00.000+01:00

My portfolio has been updated, as mentioned in the previous post.

To stop this just being text, here are a couple of sketches after Frazetta:

Dragon... part 4?!

2011-04-11T16:19:00.000+01:00

Yeah, I didn't expect to be coming back to this. Here's what happened - I was checking out various paintings, when suddenly, like a careering out-of-control juggernaut, it hit me that I'm not making good use of edge control. It suppose it started with life drawing a few months ago when I began leaving things out, and suggesting areas for better effect (to focus the eye better on what is there).

I'm going through my portfolio - within a week I'll have torn down all the pieces in it and replaced them with revised versions, as well as adding a couple of new pieces.

I'm going back to Dragon for a couple of reasons - first, posted my process here, and second, it shows the changes to good effect. It looked like this:

It was static. If stuff's flying through the air, it should be flying through the air, not suspended... Particles of dust, various other bits of debris will be kicked up, and the background won't be as sharply focused as the foreground. I also dropped some texture in, at the very end, to break up some of the surfaces. It's easier in oil, with a transparent glaze at the end, but in Photoshop I think a texture layer can be really useful here.

WIP, sketches, teaser

2011-04-04T10:13:00.000+01:00

On Saturday night I was out watching a couple of bands play - I figured it'd be a good time to try some life drawing (well, maybe it's not the traditional academic type, but it still counts)! Liner pen, A5 book (anything else is too cumbersome, and it's interesting trying to capture so much movement in the dark, especially when dancers keep hurling themselves in the way!); these pages are of Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) -

These are of Hotbox the Womb -

The next WIP of Jormundgandr -

Finally, I'm entering a contest over at ArtOrder to design the ultimate fantasy human fighter. A few teaser shots -

Jormundgandr progress

2011-03-25T22:14:00.000Z

A WIP - I've cleaned up the piece and begun defining the important shapes. The effects you could see in the previous colour thumb will come next.

Thumbs for Jormundgandr

2011-03-22T18:26:00.000Z

I'm entering a challenge, over at CGHub, to illustrate a scene from Norse myth. I picked Thor battling Jormundgandr at Ragarok. Here's the sketch process:

Sketch 1 - seems more of a beat-down than a battle, but this was the first sketch.

Sketch 2 - I really wanted this to work, as I liked the idea of Jormundgandr crashing down onto Thor. A problem, though, is that by looking down on the Norse God he's almost trivialised, and the Viking kit plus the foreshortening makes him look like a dwarf! Back to the drawing board...

Sketch 3 - nice and active, but far too feminine a pose for butch Thor!

Sketch 4 - yep, this felt better. It's got that feeling of simplicity (good for the being who must have inspired the very first dumb blond joke), but it's still very active.

Sketch 5 - refined, lighting up Mjollnir (Thor's hammer), and expanding the canvas to show the setting a bit more. Crashing waves, plummeting meteors, etc

Sketch 6 - colour pass.

Dull plein air

2011-03-22T18:16:00.002Z

Some programme makers from BBC2 contacted the Art Society recently, looking for some people to be filmed painting the view from Whitcliffe. It sounded interesting, so a group of us headed out there. The crew were really friendly, but the day wasn't great - the view was flat (horizontals... no sense of depth, not one rock or trail to give a sense of leading in...), the sky was grey, the light was diffused... ugh. The 'finishing strokes' also weren't, as I'd been painting for about two hours then, and stayed after the crew had gone. Not easy, but interesting to work with something that I'd never have chosen myself. 12" x 10".

Warhammer 40,000 fan art WIP

2011-03-15T09:22:00.002Z

My latest digital piece is something a little different - I'm attempting fan-art. This is something I don't normally do, but it seemed like fun to try. However, I started to feel a little anxious when I began the sketches. The art of Games Workshop played a major role in inspiring me to start drawing, many years ago, and it feels a tad weird to be working on a full illustration set in one of their worlds, even if it is just a personal piece.

Trying to capture the sense of the Warhammer 40,000 universe was interesting - what defines it? It's pretty dark, macabre, generally gothic (depending on the factions), and usually highly ornate. It's also violent and tumultuous. A challenge, certainly... I wanted to avoid Space Marines, since while they're iconic of WH40K, they're also very obvious. In the end, I went for Eldar as being still easily identifiable, and Chaos, Slaanesh in particular, as being a good enemy for the Eldar and also requiring a lot of pink, which isn't a common choice for a battle scene!

Some close-up from the piece, still very much WIP (which means, given it's a personal piece, anything and everything may yet change!) -

Busy!

2011-03-06T14:25:00.007Z

I've finished another small oil piece (10" x 12"), this one on primed paper - far more fun to use than the canvas boards I've found so far. Having given it only one coat of acrylic matte medium on each side, I had the board waiting for a couple of weeks with a drop of linseed oil on it. A fortnight later, the oil drop hadn't sunk in at all, so it's safe to say that one coat is all that's needed - helpful, as it saves a lot of time in preparation!

This painting was the first test of my new palette - in order to learn more about mixing, limitations, etc, I wanted a setup that was easy to travel with, but still comprehensive. I ended up with Titanium White, Cadmium Lemon, Cadmium Orange, Permanent Rose, French Ultramarine, Winsor Blue GS and Mars Black. I'll try this 7-tube palette out over the course of several pieces, but it seems to work quite well.

I also received some prints from photobox.co.uk - I figured it'd be worth looking to see where I could get decent prints, so I ordered these as a test, and I'm very happy with them.

I've also started getting together a few ideas for a personal project, which as I'm still working it all out is just 'Project A' for the moment. The first few sketchy ideas (names withheld until later) -

Lastly, I've been elected to Ludlow Art Society's Committee - hopefully I'll be able to make some useful contributions to it.

Boat + Sketch

2011-02-26T11:37:00.005Z

A warmer oil piece, 12" x 10", on Winsor and Newton medium grain canvas board. I'm not a fan of this surface (too much interference with detail at this size), but I think the picture turned out alright.

Sketchbook drawing, approx 5" x 9". If I'm going to the trouble of doing something like this in future, I really should use better paper!

I've also added 'Minotaur' to the portfolio blog. Go take a look!

Strength

2011-02-11T16:20:00.002Z

This was a quick piece for an ArtOrder challenge - a character based on the concept of 'strength':

Coast

2011-01-30T11:20:00.002Z

Just one this time - a 12x10 oil on primed watercolour paper.

I'm now aching to paint something a little warmer! It may be time to experiment with canvas panels - it just takes so long cutting and priming boards, that's time I could be spending painting.

Sketches for 'Portal'

2011-01-16T09:00:00.002Z

I'm working on a new digital portfolio piece - these are the rough character sketches, the colour sketch, and some work-in-progress detail shots:

Also, my seascape was accepted into the Assembly Rooms' exhibition.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T14:31:00.001Z

Happy New Year, everyone!

To kick off the year, a self-portrait, approx 3 1/2" x 5":

Some holiday sketches from my A5 book:

I hope 2011 treats you all well!

Life Drawings, 18-12-2010

2010-12-18T16:45:00.003Z

Some recent life drawings, Wolff's Carbon on Snowdon Cartridge (A3 - smaller than I'd like, but all I can lay my hands on right now).

I've also added my finished Dungeon Delve picture to my portfolio blog. There are a lot of amazing entries for this one.

Oil Painting, 18-12-2010

2010-12-18T16:31:00.004Z

The finished trompe l'oeil painting:

Hopefully, Ludlow Assembly Rooms will accept it for their show.

Recent Sketches & Life Drawings, 05-12-2010

2010-12-05T11:53:00.000Z

I've had a bit of spare time to do some sketchbook doodling :

Ludlow Assembly Rooms is running an art exhibition competition, open to anyone who hasn't had a solo show. The deadline is Jan 2nd, and I'm putting in an oil painting - here are the sketches:

Some life drawings from last Friday, done with a Wolff's 2B carbon pencil on Winsor & Newton medium surface cartridge paper:

Recent Sketches, 21-11-2010

2010-11-21T13:05:00.000Z

A couple of alla primas, each around 2 hours, both 14"x11":

It's always fun to paint really hot pictures, even if you've only got photo-ref (still, this is just oil painting practice!). It's funny how comparatively little white you use for something like this, with Cad Yellow Pale and Orange stepping up for most of the lighter areas.

In the pic below, I used mostly transparent paints for the foliage and rocks to simulate all that beautiful texture nature's so rich with - you've just got to work so much harder with opaques sometimes. The water was painted very thinly, then the highlights were knifed in. A fan brush used to stipple would probably also have worked pretty well - maybe next time.

More "Dungeon Delve" work, this time the colour sketches. Working up the two I thought had the most promise (left, centre), I picked the one that I felt best expressed the idea of being lost (and terrified) and that I could do the most with, taking it furthest (right). I've got a lot further (and toned the lights down so they're not so harsh!), but I thought it'd be interesting to show these. The right-side was my sketch submission posted on ArtOrder.

Recent Sketches, 07-11-2010

2010-11-07T17:39:00.000Z

On 30th October the Ludlow Art Society held a still life painting day - a big table with a load of things on it, take your place and off you go. Not many people turned up, which was a bit disappointing, but it was great to be working alongside other artists. This was mine, oil, 14"x11", I think a little under 4 hours:

A couple of life drawings:

I thought I'd have a go with my palette knife - I'd not used it before, save for slicing paint from the piles at the sides of the palette to the centre for mixing. I figured the best way to learn what it could do would be to attempt a painting using nothing but the knife - an interesting experiment, even if the paint outlay was horrifying! The photo was from a trip to Bristol Zoo. 11"x14".

Finally, I've entered ArtOrder's Dungeon Delve challenge. Here are thumbs so far; I'm currently favouring 5, but 3 is interesting too.

Recent Sketches, 24-10-2010

2010-10-24T10:00:00.001+01:00

A couple of digital sketches, executed quickly in one afternoon:

12"x9" oil seascape of part of Seal Island, St Ives. Approx 2 1/2 hours. I wanted to experiment more with the principle of big blocks of value, so I chose a subject which suited this (being easy to break into light\middle\dark blocks).

Recent Sketches and Life Drawings, 17-10-2010

2010-10-17T15:08:00.000+01:00

Another quick oil sketch, approx 4 hours, about 12"x9" - I took a photo of this guy during a trip to Chester Zoo. Colours were Titanium White, Trans. Oxide Red, Terra Rosa, Fr Ultra, Phthalo Blue, Cad Yellow Pale, Perm Madder Deep (a superb Alizarin replacement, darker than Perm Rose) and Mars Black.

edit: took a new photo of this pic, as the first one blew out the whites and screwed up the values on the lizard's face. This still isn't a great shot (I haven't figured out how to properly photograph oils given what\where I have to work with, but at least this one's better!).

Ah - life drawings. Hmm. Trying charcoal pencils (Conte) and a bit of vine. It's going in the right direction, but I'm not overly happy. Next time I want to try H for lines, vine for large areas of tone, and B for everything else. From left to right: 5 min, 5 min, 15 min, 30 min but received a phone call midway through, 30 min.

On Friday night (and into Saturday morning!) I was sketching with some friends, seeing what I could do with a small sketchbook and a thick marker.

A quick look at some sketches made for an illustration I've just begun - as always, fast and loose in the early stages, just getting a feel for what's going to happen.

Recent Sketches, 09-10-2010

2010-10-09T11:25:00.001+01:00

A quick (3 hour) sketch of the morning sky over St Ives, ~9"x12".

A couple of digital sketches.

Recent Sketches, 3-10-2010

2010-10-03T10:37:00.001+01:00

Couple of digital sketches, this time using a colour underpainting.

New Sketch

2010-09-16T08:32:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd try a new way of sketching. Generally, if I plan an idea beforehand I can decide what would be better painted on a separate layer, but if I just start by throwing shapes around and pulling something out of them then this doesn't work as well (I end up with either messy edges, or a ridiculous number of layers).

Taking my cue from traditional painting, I attempted a digital underpainting - beginning with a few lines to find something I liked (on a new layer), before scrubbing some tone in under that, then giving the tone some colour. With that done, I could see what layers needed to go where, and began the overpainting. As with traditional work, I could paint opaquely or more transparently, working back to the underpainting if I need to.

It seems to work quite well, and it doesn't take too long, but it does help set up both values and layers quickly. I think a colour underpainting would also work.

I've included the underpainting layer as well as the final sketch (I'm also painting larger this time).

Recent Sketches and Exhibition, 05-09-2010

2010-09-05T12:09:00.000+01:00

My old oil, back from the exhibition, along with a shot my Mum took of it while it was there.

A quick oil (just over 2 hours) - I took the photo coming home from town late Thursday night, figuring it'd be interesting to try a night sketch

I've also got a new piece up on the Portfolio blog.

Portfolio blog

2010-08-20T14:48:00.000+01:00

I've just put up my online portfolio:

http://midnightillustrationportfolio.blogspot.com

There's a link to the right, as well.

Ludlow Art Society Summer Exhibition + Ritual

2010-08-15T11:37:00.001+01:00

I'm exhibiting an oil painting in this year's Ludlow Art Society Annual Summer Exhibition - the show's running from Saturday 21st August to Monday 30th August. Once the show's over, I'll put up a photo of the piece.

I've also just finished a new portfolio piece:

Sargent Oil Sketch, Alla Prima

2010-08-08T11:32:00.000+01:00

I wasn't aiming to replicate Sargent's technique (I don't know how he worked, and whereas he was a master of brushstrokes, I've only really just begun my first few faltering steps in this area), but I have a book which contains a photo of a painting of Sargent's ("Head of Ana-Capri Girl", I think) which inspired me to try for a likeness.

My palette was Titanium White, Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Yellow Ochre Pale, Transparent Oxide Red, Permanent Carmine, and Ivory Black. The board was hp wc paper, 3 coats of acrylic matte medium, no sanding.

The sketch required warm highlights, and it was interesting to see how various mixes of white, Naples Yellow, Cad Yellow Pale and Yellow Ochre Pale provided different effects when lightening colours, as opposed to the paler, less saturated lights created when using white alone. About 3 hours.

Looking at my work, I really need to unify my colours more - I do it digitally, but for some reason when I'm oil painting it doesn't gel as well. Something to work on for the next few!

Dragon, part 3 - Rendering

2010-07-21T14:58:00.000+01:00

I flipped the image so I could tackle any drawing mistakes - this is a really useful thing to do whether you use a flip function or a mirror, because there are some things we just, for some reason, can't see unless there's a way of gaining a fresh perspective on the work.
As I painted, I noticed that the arching of the dragon's back had become less pronounced at some point - this is why the previous poster sketches are so useful, as it's easy to start to lose the power of the big shapes once the details are included, unless you've something simple to check against.

I try to work the whole picture at once, bouncing around between the various elements, knocking some areas back and bringing others forwards - it's a balancing act. I'm trying to keep the focal areas alive and interesting, while giving as broad a treatment to the other areas as possible without them looking out of step with the rest of the piece.

With the main picture done, I put in the finishing touches, little details like dragon spit, the cracks on the monitor, etc, and tidy up any areas still a little too loose. Once that's sorted, it's done.

Dragon, part 2 - Sketches

2010-07-14T15:09:00.000+01:00

I refine the greyscale sketch to try to pin down some of the shapes a little more clearly (a). The red lines show a rough perspective guide. Greyscale allows me to concentrate only on the values, without colour being a concern just yet.

I add a colour layer and glaze some simple colours in (b). However, I'm concerned that the picture is too focussed on the left side, with the right being a little boring. Re-adjusting the figures seems to do the trick (c). By this point, I've flattened the layers and am continuing to mess about with the colours (and values).

The reason I do these poster studies is so that I can gradually find my way into the picture, and so that I've got something to refer to when I'm painting. It's easy to lose sight of what's important once the rendering begins, but I find having these helps.

I also go back to my sketchbook and draw the main elements (in this case, the characters) in a little more detail (d). Again, this is pretty loose because I want to be able to chop and change as I see fit when I'm painting. This is really just to give me a vague sense of direction.

In part 3: beginning the rendering.

Dragon, part 1 - Idea

2010-07-07T10:35:00.000+01:00

I thought it might be interesting to show my process for creating a digital picture. I don't have a rigid working method, as I'm always trying new things and I think it helps to be flexible, but I can show what I'm doing right now.
As this is a personal piece, it's a little looser in construction than a professional piece might be.

I start by making some quick scribbles to give me something to work with - I just want to get some lines, some possibilities down first (a). In my toned sketchbook (which I prefer for composition sketches, as I can quickly get down both lights and darks), I rough out what seems to be a promising idea, but the flow of the dragon's head isn't reading well. I sketch another one, but I don't like where it's going, so abandon it early. I make notes around the thumbnail: what I want to include in this picture, different angles to try, ideas for important details, etc (b). Then, I start working in greyscale in Photoshop, which gives me the ability to make lots of changes and try lots of variations in a short space of time. I'm not looking to do anything except find the big shapes, and I'm open to making lots of changes, as long as the main idea stays intact (c).

In part 2: studies, value and colour poster sketches.

Tartarus Melee

2010-06-30T10:29:00.000+01:00

Beginning

2010-06-23T08:30:00.001+01:00

Welcome to my blog, which, work allowing, I'll try to update regularly.

I'll start with a few recent digital illustrations...

... and a few oil pieces: