Here's a sampling of the some 40-plus illustrations I let loose upon the world:
Showing posts with label robots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label robots. Show all posts
Friday, April 1, 2016
March of Robots 2016
For the entire month of March, I participated in the March of Robots sketch challenge: drawing at least one robot every day for 31 days, and posting the results to Instagram. It was a fun exercise, and my main goal was to explore different styles (both analog and digital), and really just try and generate work at a regular pace. I think I came up with a fairly diverse set of robots, and it was very cool seeing what other artists came up with. Tons of creativity and skill out there!
Here's a sampling of the some 40-plus illustrations I let loose upon the world:
Here's a sampling of the some 40-plus illustrations I let loose upon the world:
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Inktober 2015
Last year I participated in the "Inktober" drawing challenge for the first time, and while I didn't get to fulfill the drawing-a-day goal, I did manage to generate a number of images that I liked. Here are my favorites (originally posted to my Instagram account):
All of these pieces were drawn in a toned paper sketchbook, using a combination of pens, grayscale markers, and colored pencils. With each illustration, I tried focusing on worldbuilding and narrative, giving a glimpse of a larger story, which is something I feel these examples best exemplify.
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| Pit Stop |
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| Joyride |
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| Air Patrol |
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| Mechanized Parkour Racing League |
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| Arrivals and Departures |
All of these pieces were drawn in a toned paper sketchbook, using a combination of pens, grayscale markers, and colored pencils. With each illustration, I tried focusing on worldbuilding and narrative, giving a glimpse of a larger story, which is something I feel these examples best exemplify.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Glare
Haven't done a painterly robot in a while, decided to revisit an old doodle in Sketchbook on the Galaxy Note 8, playing around with the smudge tool and layer blending modes. Lots of happy accidents with this one, I learned a few things about manipulating pixels, so all in all I'd say it was a successful exercise.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Galaxy Note 8 setup
Not too long ago I bought a slightly used Galaxy Note 8 off of eBay for surprisingly cheap, and have since been using it to do preliminary sketches and comps for my Geek Bar assignments. Combined with the Wacom Bamboo Stylus feel and an Otterbox Defender case with stand, it's a very comfortable and portable digital sketchbook setup.
The 8-inch screen offers a decent amount of real estate, most definitely when compared with the Galaxy Note 2 (which remains to be great for on-the-go sketching). The soft rubber nib on the Wacom stylus combined with the surface of the Otterbox's built-in screen protector makes for a drawing experience that feels like working with natural media; I'd say the closest analog might be felt tip markers. Good stuff, y'all.
The 8-inch screen offers a decent amount of real estate, most definitely when compared with the Galaxy Note 2 (which remains to be great for on-the-go sketching). The soft rubber nib on the Wacom stylus combined with the surface of the Otterbox's built-in screen protector makes for a drawing experience that feels like working with natural media; I'd say the closest analog might be felt tip markers. Good stuff, y'all.
Friday, December 19, 2014
With Mischief in mind...
So lately I've been messing around with a vector drawing/painting program called Mischief, and it's really interesting. Because the program is vector-based as opposed to raster, filesizes are small, and you can work within what they term an "infinite canvas". Mind you, even though the artwork is vector information, it's a proprietary technology (which is referred to as Adaptively Sampled Distance Fields a.k.a. ADF) that isn't handled the same way as Adobe Illustrator with splines and bezier curves, and as such can't output files useable by Illustrator. What you can do, however, is output layered Photoshop files at just about any size and resolution you want, up to a max width and height of 20000 pixels-- at 300dpi, that would translate to about 67 inches! I did notice that outputting a piece of art really small, say an inch high at 72dpi, introduces some odd artifacts, but I'm more likely to output a file bigger than smaller so I don't consider it an issue.
I've never really been comfortable drawing lineart with Photoshop, because I had problems with the quality of the linework. Mischief offers a freehand curve smoothing feature that takes care of that rather handily; I find that I genuinely enjoy drawing within the program, especially on a large Cintiq with multi-touch. It feels natural, it's just a really smooth experience overall.
Painting with Mischief, on the other hand, is still something that I think could use some work. The toolset is pretty barebones, and kind of reminds me of the early days of painting on the old homebrew app Colors! for DS. But I have no doubt the developers will get the program up to speed sooner than later.
Here's an attempt to create an illustration fully within Mischief:
Still a bit rough around the edges, but with a lot of potential, I'm really digging Mischief. At only $25 for both the Mac and PC version, it's definitely an affordable drawing and painting program worth checking out.
I've never really been comfortable drawing lineart with Photoshop, because I had problems with the quality of the linework. Mischief offers a freehand curve smoothing feature that takes care of that rather handily; I find that I genuinely enjoy drawing within the program, especially on a large Cintiq with multi-touch. It feels natural, it's just a really smooth experience overall.
Painting with Mischief, on the other hand, is still something that I think could use some work. The toolset is pretty barebones, and kind of reminds me of the early days of painting on the old homebrew app Colors! for DS. But I have no doubt the developers will get the program up to speed sooner than later.
Here's an attempt to create an illustration fully within Mischief:
Still a bit rough around the edges, but with a lot of potential, I'm really digging Mischief. At only $25 for both the Mac and PC version, it's definitely an affordable drawing and painting program worth checking out.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile
Autodesk just released their latest version of Sketchbook Mobile today, and what better way to commemorate a new drawing app than with a cyborg portrait?
I really appreciate all the new additions to the program, they've genuinely elevated the utility of my Galaxy Note 2 as a portable digital sketchbook. Things like selection tools, smudge brushes, gradient fills, and guides are warmly welcomed. Unfortunately, even if you already own the previous app Sketchbook Pro, you'll have to pay to upgrade Sketchbook Mobile in order to access its full feature set. Still, it's only a few bucks... For the cost of a comic book, I can't ask for much more.
At any rate, great app, available on iOS and Android.
I really appreciate all the new additions to the program, they've genuinely elevated the utility of my Galaxy Note 2 as a portable digital sketchbook. Things like selection tools, smudge brushes, gradient fills, and guides are warmly welcomed. Unfortunately, even if you already own the previous app Sketchbook Pro, you'll have to pay to upgrade Sketchbook Mobile in order to access its full feature set. Still, it's only a few bucks... For the cost of a comic book, I can't ask for much more.
At any rate, great app, available on iOS and Android.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Tachikoma... Stiiiiill working on it.
This project is feeling like I'm rebuilding a muscle car in my garage... I work on it bit by bit, whenever the kid manages to take a nap, or my wife takes her out while running errands. It's coming along, perhaps at a snail's pace, but there's progress.
Here's my "to-do" list:
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
Tachikoma polish continued
After some constructive feedback, here's another iteration of the Tachikoma rendering:
Monday, May 21, 2012
Works-in-progress
Gah, I've been so busy lately... Haven't had a lot of opportunities to work on my own stuff, but I didn't want too much time to go by without posting something here.
I've been working on this piece during my daily commute, re-working an older illustration into something a little more painterly, using Colors! 3D. Unfortunately, the file seems to have gotten corrupted, so I'm not able to output it at high resolution. I might take it into Photoshop and build it up more from there:
I've been working on this piece during my daily commute, re-working an older illustration into something a little more painterly, using Colors! 3D. Unfortunately, the file seems to have gotten corrupted, so I'm not able to output it at high resolution. I might take it into Photoshop and build it up more from there:
I'm also doing a paintover of another previous illo, a more dimensional version of the anime-style Tachikoma. I'm working out all the shading in Colors! 3D, and then I'll take it into Photoshop for a more finished polish:
Friday, March 30, 2012
08th Div. Tactical Cyborg Ops
More exploration of Colors! 3D:
I took a pic with a 3DS camera of a sketch I had doodled in a notebook. Then I set it as a background and blocked out the silhouette and some tonal values. I mostly worked everything out on one layer, and then copied it over a couple times to add depth. I erased away from each layer whatever I didn't want to pop forward; in some cases, I tried using the eraser tool at low opacity to blend pieces into the background, with mixed results.
While the 3D is admittedly pretty gimmicky, it does have me thinking about spatial relationships, how to make stuff come forward or recede into the background, and that's cool.
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| 3D .MPO file |
I took a pic with a 3DS camera of a sketch I had doodled in a notebook. Then I set it as a background and blocked out the silhouette and some tonal values. I mostly worked everything out on one layer, and then copied it over a couple times to add depth. I erased away from each layer whatever I didn't want to pop forward; in some cases, I tried using the eraser tool at low opacity to blend pieces into the background, with mixed results.
While the 3D is admittedly pretty gimmicky, it does have me thinking about spatial relationships, how to make stuff come forward or recede into the background, and that's cool.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Ghost in the Shell Tachikoma, painted on the Nintendo 3DS
One of the unexpected drawbacks to painting with Colors! 3D is that it's almost too much fun. I was working on this illustration last night and really got into it, and when I'd finished I looked at the clock and it was 1:30 in the morning...
I was feeling kind of nostalgic about my old anime fanart days, and I happened to have a little Tachikoma toy sitting on my desk, so I decided to mess around with the photo background feature in Colors! 3D. I snapped a pic from within the program using one of the three (fairly low-res) cameras on the 3DS, and was able to use it to trace over.
And then, using the five layers the app provides, I was able to build a cel-style illustration. I'd have lineart, base color and shading on separate layers, and then merge them. I found that some of ctrlpaint.com's (originally Photoshop-based) layer techniques applied very well, like roughly dropping in color and then erasing what I didn't need before merging.
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| 3D .MPO file |
I don't work in cel-style all that much anymore, but I know there are a bunch of users on the Colors! Gallery that do, and I think they're going to love being able to use layers to create their art.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Colors! 3D for the Nintendo 3DS
I've had the distinct opportunity to play with the Nintendo 3DS app "Colors! 3D" (available in the U.S. starting April 5th, via the Nintendo eShop), and it's quite cool. If you like to draw or paint and happen to own a Nintendo 3DS, purchasing this program is a no-brainer in my opinion.
I'll have more to say about the program in upcoming posts as I put Colors! 3D through its paces, but all in all my experience with it has been great. I think it definitely has the potential to be considered a killer app.
Developer Jens Andersson and his crew at Collectingsmiles have created something really great, and I have no doubt that their hard work will be widely appreciated.
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| If you have a Nintendo 3DS, you can download the .MPO file here and view it in the camera app's gallery |
I'll have more to say about the program in upcoming posts as I put Colors! 3D through its paces, but all in all my experience with it has been great. I think it definitely has the potential to be considered a killer app.
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| Check out the.MPO file here and view the picture in living 3D! (Well, sort of 3D... More akin to a "View-Master" cartoon image, but still pretty cool!) |
Friday, March 9, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Sketchy sketch
Some robot and character doodles:
In other unrelated news, I believe Photoshop opacity masks have earned a place on my "These are a Few of my Favorite Things" list.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Walker Mech
Managed to scribble out this sketch while I was waiting for files to copy over to my machine...
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Another robot exercise
Scanned in a sketch that I thought was interesting and used Photoshop to play around with its forms...
I've taken it about as far as I'm interested in taking it, I've learned what I needed to :)
I've taken it about as far as I'm interested in taking it, I've learned what I needed to :)
Friday, June 3, 2011
Robot exercise
Here's an exercise using an old value sketch done in Colors! for DS, upscaled and taken into Photoshop, where I refined the drawing somewhat and spiffied it up with photo textures. Also played with blurring, the smudge tool, adjustment layers, and using opacity masks. The main goal was to try and keep it as loose as possible, just find a flow.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Yoshiyuki Takani, Master Robot Painter
I've been a fan of Yoshiyuki Takani's artwork since I was a kid... I never connected the man's name to his work until today, when I read an entry on Felix Ip's blog. Since the 60's, Takani has been renowned for his paintings adorning the boxes for plastic models of tanks, planes and mecha from anime like Macross, Votoms, Panzer World Galient-- pretty much anything with a robot in it, he painted. His dynamic illustrations gave robots real weight, making it easy to imagine these hulking machines bounding around with a tangible vitality.
I managed to cull a couple examples of his artwork from the web:
I managed to cull a couple examples of his artwork from the web:
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