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):

Pit Stop

Joyride

Air Patrol

Mechanized Parkour Racing League

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.

"In the Realm of the Shadow Lords" illustration development

We're having an "Artists Among Us" gallery show at the place I work, with the theme "Retro Arcade". Here's the show description:

The idea for this show is to pull from our rich history of Bally and Williams Pinball and video arcade games. You can do an art piece on any theme that inspires you - or create a piece based on what pinball or video games mean to you! Use your creativity and do the artwork in your own personal style.

Original Joust poster illustrated by Williams Electronics artist Python Anghelo

For the subject of my art submission, I chose the classic videogame Joust. I felt like there were a conspicuous number of great elements in the game that would be fun to paint. Knights riding ostriches! Pterodactyls! Floating stone platforms! Sounds like the sort of thing you'd find on a heavy metal album cover (which is another thematic convention I drew inspiration from). The only way it could be more metal was if the ostrich shot lasers out of its eyes-- oh wait, it's been done before.

Thumbnail sketch

I kicked things off with a thumbnail sketch of the layout. I started out in Photoshop with a fairly limited color range, using Gradient masks to lay in colors from warm to cool. I already knew what my image area would be, as I had the opportunity to borrow a spare electronic lightbox from our Topbox department, and could spec things out accordingly. Since the image area was primarily horizontal and curved, it lent itself well to a panoramic-style layout.

Comprehensive rough

Working the sketch into a rough, I tried playing around with angling of elements, searching for something that felt right. It was a fairly organic process, tweaking things like scale and placement as I went along.

Rendering work-in-progress

Initially I envisioned something of a fisheye-lens view, but as the painting further developed, I found myself toning it down to emphasize the horizontal orientation. I also added some diffuse color, harmonizing it via Photo filters, and progressively tightened up the details. With this illustration, I really pushed for a higher level of polish using all the tricks and techniques I could come up with. I leveraged the use of layer styles like Inner Glow and Inner Shadow to quickly lay down lighting and shadow effects, and used Bevel and Emboss for detailing in the armor.

Special attention was paid to the flow of the overall layout, making sure there was a definite hierarchy of visual weight (through the level of texture, color intensity, and repetition), employing traditional design strategies to direct the eye. With all the things to look at, areas for the viewer's eyes to rest were also important.

Rough diagram of the intended visual rhythm

Once the art was completed, it was sent out for printing on clear film. To take advantage of the fact that the art would be lit, I asked that a sheet of special effect "sparkle" material be mounted to the 2nd surface (back) of the film substrate, with some areas masked out by a layer of screenprinted semi-opaque white ink. This enabled some of the highlights, and anywhere magma appeared, to have a prismatic glittery shine across the LED lighting. It's hard to see in photos, but in person it's an attractive look.

Sparkle material showing in the highlights and lava

I'm happy with the way the final printed piece turned out. It looks great amongst all the fantastic game homages in the show, and it's a nice way to showcase glass art. All in all, the project was an enjoyable, engaging design exercise.

Mounted backlit film

Final digital illustration

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.

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.

Geek Bar Nerd Lurve Valentine's Day cards

For my latest Geek Bar Chicago assignment, I was asked to create a set of small Valentine's Day cards for their "Nerd Lurve" event, reminiscent of the cheesy cards kids give each other in grade school. I was given bits of text to work with, with a few suggestions for visuals. I sketched ideas out on my Note 2, then laid them out in Illustrator:

 

I decided to build the illustrations in Photoshop, using layer effects to apply texture and shading to simulate the look of cut paper, to give them a handcrafted look. I think they turned out just like I pictured them in my head, which can be a rarity:

Pretty fun!

Geek Bar Lounge Friday ad

For my latest Geek Bar assignment, I was tasked with creating an illustration for their upcoming Lounge Fridays, "ultra-casual friday nights at Geek Bar, when patrons are encourage to wear their pajamas." The image suggested was having bar folk hanging around in pop culture-inspired accoutrements, with mugs in their hands. I was also given the request to "specifically include a blonde figure in a pokemon cap and baby blue bathrobe, and pink haired figure in a yellow captain kirk bathrobe." Sounded like fun.

Having people stand around in costume was pretty much the same idea I had for the Nerd Year's Eve ad so I decided to change it up a little, by skewing the perspective to suggest lens distortion. I scribbled out a quickie thumbnail in Sketchbook:

Once I determined that was the direction I wanted to go, I created a more comprehensive sketch in good ol' pencil and paper:

I got this reply: "This is awesome! I wonder about having everybody standing on a lounge day, but it looks so cool I don't want to mess with the artistic process. If there is any way to make a few people sitting that might be neat."

D'oh! Right, lounging. Got it.

I added a couple of people seated at tables on the ends, and we were off to the races. I created the lineart in Mischief, then took it into Photoshop. Because of the description, I knew the illo would have to be full-color. I started with a layer of base colors, then used Levels adjustment layers with masks to pull out the lights and shadows. I also used another adjustment layer to vary the saturation on the characters depending on their foreground/background placement, to help establish dimensional hierarchy. I then applied a low-density Photo filter layer for a little color harmony. And since the characters were in a cel-shaded style, I added some texture to the background to provide some visual interest:

It didn't occur to me until some time after I'd submitted the final art...
How is Boba Fett supposed to drink with his helmet on?
Ha! Oh well, that just makes the illustration funnier.

Another illustration under my belt, and I'm satisfied with how it turned out. I'm told they'll be re-using the ad monthly, and the concept was proposed to make slight modifications for each iteration, if I was willing. It's an interesting idea, having it be an evolving illustration, so we'll see how that turns out.

Mira's Bear in a Tutu

My daughter Mira asked me to cut out a crayon drawing that she did of "a pink teddy bear wearing a tutu" which I thought was fantastic:

I loved it so much that I had the urge to embellish the drawing, with Mira's permission, along the lines of "The Monster Engine" illustrations by Dave DeVries. I painted it up in Autodesk Sketchbook for Android on the Galaxy Note II with a Wacom Bamboo Stylus feel, and I'm pleased with how it turned out:

It was a fun exercise, one that I'll have to do again in the future.