LEGO TEST

This was an illustrationtest for lego. Not sure what happened with it, so I think I was the kid not picked for dodgeball and have to sit this one out. Ah well, there's always next time!

Thumbnail.

I still like the energy in this one, hate it when it gets lost in the final!

Final Illustration

Leggo my eggo! In my head that's what the human is saying.

SKETCHES AND STUFF

The first image is a page of some digital sketches I did at a coffee shop. Some of these people I actually saw with a little embellishment here and there. I would like to say I am very diligent and do this everyday but then I would be lying and my catholic mom would smack me with a spoon for such an offense. When I can sketching these little studies are very fun and liberating but damn is it hard to draw cute chicks.

This next one was a submission for an ArtOrder challenge run by Jon Schindehette.  It;s a great sight with a lot of insight, interviews, competitions and opportunities. I met him briefly at the San Diego Comicon and he was a real genuine guy. Anyways, the brief for the challenge was to create an illustration from a provided character reference image in the style that was designated. Think anime-ish with robots and creatures in armor.

Below is the comp as well as the finished illustration. It wasn't chosen but there's always a next time! Gotta keep your head up!

-Patrick

THE TURN

Doing turnarounds is a real pain in the butt, however, it is part of the production process wether it be for animation or gaming. Everyone I know hates doing them and most teachers I have met hate teaching it. As a teacher I always try to pass things down to my students that I wish I had been told in school so instead of avoiding it I integrate it into my class curriculum. Every term I ask the students to take one of their characters and do a 5-point turnaround. Nowadays for games and animation most orthographies (turnarounds) can be pretty simple because of how good the 3D artists have become.

Nevertheless, what I tell my students is that if you can visualize your character in ever angle possible and are able to communicate that idea clearly to the next person in production, that makes you a more effective designer. Also, if you can do a 5-point turnaround a 3-point is cakewalk.

Below are turnaround demos from my class, the second one has some notes that I gave my students and hopefully will benefit some of you out there.

Best of luck.

By the way, I demo the turnaround 4 times a year and I still don't like doing it....lol.

Zombo Process Part 1

OK for those of you looking for some insight into how I work I'll break it down for you as much as I can with this one.

The topic was pretty open ended, just El Zombo. For me it was obvious that I do zombies. Usually you see me do all this fun kid stuff which I totally love doing, however, as most of my close friends know zombies are by far my most favorite genre.

I started sketching around with Photoshop and this was the first composition that came to mind.


Nothing beats a scary bus stop in the middle of the night, right? I think I was watching thriller on YouTube when doing this so I would not have been surprised if a zombie with a red, thrashed jacket appeared in the final iteration.  This version was looking OK so I went to bed with the feeling of accomplishment and in the morning would rock out a cool piece.

Next morning hits, I sit down at my computer and start to do some studies and break down the scene. I do this to establish a visual vocabulary so that when I get to the final drawing I have already choreographed the shapes and visual language that I want to put down. This helps to maintain a fresh, loose feel to my line work.

As I was about to begin the lineart I stopped and said to myself, "I really do not like this." To me it felt flat, no suspense and it was hard to read the 2 characters at the bus stop. I took a break from it and I started hashing out ideas for a new piece. What I usually do is a few rough sketches and show my wife. If she goes meh I pass it up but if she looks at me with a thumbs up I start to flesh it out more. She knows what my style is a little more than I do at times so I am fortunate to have that second pair of eyes. Anyways, this is the first thumbnail, not much there at all but I just have the basic shapes in place. Think of this as the gesture of my illustration.

 I scan it into Photoshop and I start doing some quick lineart figuring out the layout and flow of the piece. Now I am adding a skeleton or framework to it.

Now is the next stage of cleanup, I started with the focal point, El Zombo and the girl, and I worked my way around them. I did this because it helped me to create a path for the viewer from every corner of the image to them. Controlling the viewer's eye is very crucial in illustration. I have seen very strong draftsman detail out every single corner of their drawing. Technically it is flawless, however, emotionally it is flat and boring. Be very careful not to detail everything, only detail areas of importance that you want the viewer to stop and look at.

On a separate layer I start working on all the zombie kids in the arcade. I kept them on another layer so I could move them around. Again, thinking about flow and spacing I was designing the zombie kids to lead your eye around the page.

This is just a rough perspective grid that I would turn on and off during my process.

Lastly, I print it out, tape it to a lightbox and redraw the final lineart you see below.

Hope that gave you some insight into my process to this point, if you have any questions please let me know in the comments section.

-Patrick

EL ZOMBO

During the San Diego Comicon I met some truly inspiring artists and all around great guys. One such person is the big boss man Dave Wilkins. A great artist and cool cat, he is one of the creators of the awesome title El Zombo. This year he released a book of El Zombo containing short stories and pinup art.

Here is a link to the Facebook page with more info.

Anyways, I was extremely honored when he asked me to contribute a piece to his next El Zombo book project. After a few months I finally had a chance to sit down and crank it out. I just wrapped on it this week and thought I would share it with you all. It;s a little darker than my usual stuff but still retains some of my signature stuff.

Hope you all dig. I will do a future post showing more process stuff and an alternative pinup that I scratched at the last minute. Thanks for looking and make sure to check out the El Zombo page, so much awesome in one link!