Day 14: Theodore Roosevelt as.. Heavily Armed Teddy Bear on Moose!

Theres clearly something wrong with my color profile or whatever its called.  I just got Photoshop and it's doing the same exact thing Corel Painter does.  Light beige grays turn into pitch black blues when I save them as jpgs.

Day 13: My Dream Job (30 day drawing challenge)

Click to enlarge!

Space is a wide open vacuum thats always expanding.. and I'd feel claustrophobic as hell in space.  Not to mention I almost puked while on a ferris wheel.  I'll stick to drawing astronauts puking in space, thank you.

Day 11 & 12: Reptar and Stephenson

My choices were The Dinosaurs from the TGIF show "Dinosaur", Dino from The Flintstones, Yoshi, or Gozilla

Day 11 - Most Influential Person

Day 11 is below day 12 because I didn't like it as much. lol  I didn't know what to do for this one.  This is hardly someone who changed my life and molded me.. and I honestly feel silly for just drawing him because I only read one book of his.  But the book Snow Crash got me interested in reading about mythology, ancient Mesopotamia, and Christianity/Islam/Judaism a bit more.  It's probably the one thing that has changed most about me recently.

Or it might just be Tenzin from The Legend of Korra.  He taught me how to air bend.


Also used Google+'s Hangouts on Air feature to record a sketching session and send it straight to my youtube account.  Later on I downloaded the clips and edited them in premiere pro.  Was extremely nice.  If you want to see how often I go back and forth and then eventually give up on value/color:

Drawing Challenge Day 10 - Useless Superpower

Look, it's Tea-Time! He's a master of disguise because of his knack for creating royal hats out of thin hair. He can also materialize rather nasty tasting cups of tea. Though, like many heroes and villains, he too has a weakness.. his kryptonite is the fact that he can only use his powers at 5pm in the UK.

Drawing Challenge Day 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Day #4 - Favorite Muppet or Jim Henson character.

I don't have a particular favorite.. so I googled a bunch that had an interesting style to them.  I had a list of Clifford, Pepe, Crazy Harry, and Animal.. but I decided to go with Sweetums.

Day #5 - Favorite Musician or Band.

I went with Bear McCreary.  I don't know if I like the soundtracks because I liked the shows.. but I feel extremely productive when I'm listening to, say, the Battlestar Galactica season 3 ost.

Day #6 - An Idiom Literalized.

Day #7 - Favorite Movie Quote.
I couldn't remember many quotes from my favorite movies.. so I decided to watch one that I thought was funny.  Role models.

Day #8 - Favorite Animated CharacterI was going to go with just Ren and Stimpy, but I also find Adventure Time to be pretty damn hilarious.  I don't know if that makes me immature or not. lol

30 day drawing challenge!

I've been procrastinating.  I'm a molding potato.. and video games have taken over my dreams.   So, I'm going to ween myself back to productivity with this 30 day drawing challenge that some friends of friends of friends have started on Facebook.

Day #1 - Self Portrait

Day #2 - Mythological Creatures.  Frost Giants?  Or just giant vikings?

You can tell I waited till the last minute and just started scribbling.  :(

Day #3 - First Album/Co

If I ignore the Christian albums/hymns I had forced on me as a child, the first real album I remember buying was this WCW soundtrack.  I didn't even watch wrestling that much.. I just remember randomly grabbing Final Fantasy 7 and this off a shelf.  Was the first time I really listened to Metallica or Limp Bizkit.

In A World Where the Internet Doesn't Exist!

I really want to get this topic out of my head.. and what better way than to show a gopher bashing it's own brains out before buying a scammy cable television package that provides him at max 2 hours of quality content a week?

I think it's kind of ridiculous what people pay for when it comes to cable television.  Sometimes I think that the only reason people buy it is to have something to mindlessly flip through after work while saying "1000 channels and theres nothing on!"

The whole package plan thing requires you pay around 100-200 dollars a month.. or less if they pull you into a contract with a bogus discount. That money doesn't even go to a specific channel or program you enjoy. I read somewhere that ESPN/ESPN HD gets 4 dollars of your bill no matter what.  Meanwhile, say you like the SyFy channel, 21 cents goes to SyFy a month. Your 21 cents doesn't pay for specific programs you enjoy.. and the company is more likely to pay for the cheaper project.. like reality TV.  Lets not even go over what happens when your favorite show goes on a 4 month break after 6 episodes.  Reality shows and winter olympics?  Ugh.

You could support your favorite TV shows more by just paying 2.99 on itunes each week (assuming that apple doesn't take some ridiculous amount of profit from selling the episodes).  And you'd save massively.

At this point with the technology we are capable of it's like these cable/satellite companies are really just scamming everyone. I can't even see a younger adult who understands the internet even intelligently paying for a package plan. It's a waste of your hard earned money.

Heres a great link on the topic: http://afrodaddy.com/shelter/cable-tv-overpriced-scam-there-are-other-options

Gopherk yourself cable/satellite providers.  Lets move on to digital media now.

Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones

I've been working on color theory and value.. but I could still use a lot of advice!   The only books, dvds, or sites I've found on the subject are Practical Light and Color with Jeremy Vickery, Color Theory:  The Mechanics of Color with Richard Keyes, and This ImagineFX tutorial.  I also feel like these Force books (Force:  Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators, Force:  Character Design from Life Drawing) have helped me loads in just generally drawing.

Here is Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones.. I personally can't see the likeness at this point, but I've had others say it does look like her. lol  Also recorded the entire process and upload it to youtube.

Help! Landscapes, color theory, and digital painting techniques?

I've been attempting to practice landscape/environment painting, and with that I realize that I need a better understanding of color theory.. and maybe even some digital painting techniques that professionals use.  I'm at the stage where I suck so bad at environments and color that I generally want to quit early on because it's so frustrating.. but I know quitting only leads to NO IMPROVEMENT. lol

Could anyone give me some advice?  Techniques?  Books?  Dvds?  Videos?  ImagineFX articles?  Useful brushes?

I use Corel Painter 12, the scratchboard tool, and a blender.. every once in a while pulling out the oil brush.  I'm sure any kind of brush can be applied to any program.. what would you recommend?  Whats your workflow for painting?

I'm unsure of how to go into great detail on any of my pieces also..

I'm working in black and white first because I'm not confident enough to work with color AND value at the same time.. though I don't want to continue like this for much longer.  If I do continue like this, how can I work on the value and then use layer modes to add color into that? Seems like I use layer modes and the colors don't match at all. Should I just go over the black and white with more saturated colors slowly?

Here are a few of my recent studies.. I kind of feel like I'm hopping around blindly until I get something right, and I hate it.

First environment sketch and some notes from Practical Light and Color by Jeremy Vickery:

My most recent studies:

Some things that have helped me get to this point recently:
Practical Light and Color by Jeremy Vickery (Gnomon dvd)
Color Theory:  The Mechanics of Color with Richard Keyes (Gnomon dvd)
This ImagineFX tutorial from Issue #31 on the subject of colour!
And I've frequently watched these Feng Zhu videos.. lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCmz3XuS6TI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy9MMdzbWcw

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Environments and doodles.

Working on environment sketches.  I gotta admit, I'm the most unproductive person in the world.. and it feels awful!  I got out of this mode somewhat briefly in January and now I'm right back to it.  I will destroy my desire to waste time! ...but first i'm going to play ME3 multiplayer.

Some things that have helped me get to this point recently:
Practical Light and Color by Jeremy Vickery (Gnomon dvd)
Color Theory:  The Mechanics of Color with Richard Keyes (Gnomon dvd)
Force:  Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators (Figure Drawing book.  EXTREMELY helpful.. two chapters brought my figures to life.
Force:  Character Design from Life Drawing (Second book in the series.. even more amazing.)
This ImagineFX tutorial from Issue #31 on the subject of colour!
http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/index.php
http://lovecastle.org/draw/
http://www.characterdesigns.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCmz3XuS6TI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy9MMdzbWcw