Time to grow up!

Wow, it's been way too long since my last post, but I have actual real excuses I promise. 

I've been working on a huge project for work (which I can't show here for a long time), but the main reason is all the baby stuff I've been doing... that's right - we have a baby on the way!  So late February I'm going to be a Dad for the first time and I can't wait!

It looks tough being a pregnant lady, so I've been helping my Wife out as much as possible, and along with the never ending construction of flat-pack furniture and nursery painting, my blog and galleries have fallen by the wayside.  The upside is that impending fatherhood has opened up many new avenues of inspiration and as a result I have a few big projects in the pipeline which I hope to share soon.


In the meantime this little guy (or girl!) is from the invitations I designed for my Wife's baby shower.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy new Year,

Shane S

Our little hero...Part 3

So here's my final Schoolism assignment - got five stars for this piece!

This final stage was mainly focused on bringing the piece together using all the techniques previously covered and polishing it a bit more.

I really enjoyed painting this and I think it's given my future work more focus; I've finally figured out that I enjoy rendering fairly realistically BUT on a cartoony/cute foundation. I guess I find it more satisfying creating characters with a wider appeal than the ever popular monsters, goblins and other unfriendly beings. That's not to say that I don't plan on dabbling in the grotesque at some point in the future!

As usual, all comments and critique welcome.

For the greyscale sketch of this painting click here

For the colour sketch of this painting click here


Shane S

P.S. Look out for my Schoolism.com review in the near future.

'Guyver' Digital Painting process...

Click to zoom!

A few people have asked for a guide on the technique I used for my Guyver painting, so here you go!

It's just a basic description of my process so is far from an exhaustive tutorial, but feel free to ask any questions if you'd like me to elaborate on any of the points.

I used Corel Painter 10 for my painting and Photoshop CS3 for the final adjustments, but I'm sure the whole thing could be produced in photoshop if that's all you have to hand.

I can't take full credit as I actually picked up the foundations of this technique from a blog post by the extremely talented Sam Nielson.  Please check out his blog, you won't be dissappointed.

Part 1 of that post can be found on the The Art Center Blog here and part 2 here.
I highly recommend reading them as Sam explains the process far better than me!

Shane S

Velociraptowl...Part 2

I call this a Velociraptowl... it's some kind of owl/raptor hybrid if you couldn't guess by the name!

To see an earlier greyscale version check out this previou post.

Shane S

Guyver!!!!!!!!

Guyvaaaahhhh!

I was dead set on not painting anymore fanart, but this was for a competition so I think I can just about get away with it

Plus I loved that show.  To me it was kind of like an ultra-violent animated Power Rangers; very cool to a thirteen year old.

I've recently been rewatching the original 12 part anime, and apart from the terrible voice over I think the action scenes still hold up.

See below for some detail shots;

For a process/tutorial on how I painted this image click here.

Shane S

There's a snake in my boots...Part 3

Nearly there!

This was the last assignment working on this painting, so technically I should be finished...but...there are still some techniques to be covered in the final two lessons so I'll come back to this one last time to make those improvements and implement any tweaks from Ryan Wood's video feedback.

This is the third work in progress version of this painting.  Here's Part 1 and Part 2.

Two more assignments to go!  I'm really going to miss such useful feedback every week.

Shane S

Our little hero...Part 2

Here's a colour sketch of this previous greyscale painting.

I tried out a few new techniques for this one and tried to be a bit more adventurous with the colour.  I also held back on rendering the details too much - always a challenge!

Shane S

Velociraptowl Cartooned...

Just trying something a little different from my usual style, this time using the linework to add to the image rather than hide it away under the rendering.

This is actually a twist on a creature I previously designed, the Velociraptowl.

Shane S

There's a snake in my boots...Part 2

After a useful critique from Ryan Wood, I made some changes and added colour for the week 4 assignment.

The original greyscale (and more smiley) sketch can be found in this previous post.

For future assignments this image will be polished a bit more, so keep an eye out for it.

Shane S

Our little hero...

I have a new love - textures!  I've always seen them as a bit of a gimmicky shortcut, but after learning how to use them properly a whole bunch of new possibilities awaits.

If I ever have a daughter to call my own, I hope she's a little trooper like this.  :)

Week 3 of Painting in Painter with Ryan Wood.  Look out for a coloured version in the near future.

 As usual, coments and critique welcome.

Shane S