Dog Sweater

Sorry for the post hiatus I have been working on drawing and stuff but have been working on a tedious homework project to post.

(unfinished)

But yesterday (Squee) I made my dog Mickey a sweater!!

Paper Munched

You know how I planned to paint and update my paper maché  mask? Yeah, my dog had other plans.

I tell you, if he was any less adorable he wouldn't get away with these behaviors.

Paper maché!

So I've started working on my first paper maché piece, It's a mask. Here of some shots of my WIP:









I'm leaving it to dry overnight and will paint it (and hopefully show you the finished product) tomorrow!

Ahk

I haven't posted in a really really long time so. . . double post! Yay!

Some faces doodled during lunch

And the diagram of the digestive system looked lonely so I drew it a friend.

I'll try to post more regularly!

Also I've signed up for another portrait class.

Great free font!

fantastic font featured by abduzeedo called banana split.

Practice?

Another creepy ball of skin, working on subtle texture:

Made a brush!

Made what is pretty much my first custom brush, I figure if I use it it'll be for background elements:

At the top is the actual brush and the texture it creates. 

yay

My photo on the CBC on the island website!

Lazy sunday post

Great artist Michal “Sepe” Wrga featured on bldgwlf:

I totally went into the html and made this into a bitching link. Pride.

awesome video

for anyone interested in digital painting there's a great walkthrough here:

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials_3/video_tutorial_liche_priest/liche_priest_01.php

Game 7

perpetually sick

I'm not feeling so hot tonight but I don't want to miss two posts in a row so here's my drawing of a cell I just did for bio:

did you know you can change the size of the photo seen in the actual post?

because I just figured that out.

worthy blog post? I think so.

Embrace the new!

I got a bunch of things done for the blog today! yay!

1. Bought dog shampoo (unrelated to blog)

2. Bought not one, but TWO new toned sketchbooks (awesome)

3. And the most exciting a brand new comment system! so try it out! (hint hint)

Portrait classes

So I thought I'd put all the pictures from my portrait class side-by-side just to see if there was mesurable improvement:

I'm thinking yes.

These classes have been so incredibly helpful! I've gone from misshapen alien blob to identifiable human face!

They haven't just been helpful from an art point of view either, I happen to have pretty bad social anxiety so being in a room full of strangers can be pretty difficult.  But being in a group and just concentrating on drawing has been amazingly helpful (and about tenfold cheeper than therapy :P ). 

I shall include a link to my most awesome art teacher and I suggest that anyone in the victoria area take a look at his classes. (also look at the lemons, they will blow your mind)

Last portrait class

I had my fifth and final portrait class last night and got a lot more done than usual:

. . . some day I'll get a scanner. . .

And since this is the first legitimate post in a very long time I'll try to get back on track posting everyday.

Tiny rant

for months I've been trying to figure out how to paint blood digitally and I cannot find a single useful tutorial! All the tutorials I come across have two steps:

1. Download splatter brush
2. Use

no, no, no. That is not a tutorial! People could probably figure that out on their own. Also not all surfaces are flat, they are curved, which effects the behaviour and lighting of the blood.
So this goes out to the thousand idiots posting those tutorials; get your ass off the internet so I can't find what I'm looking for!

Anyways I'm wishing everyone that isn't posting those stupid things a good day.

blahhhh

I've been falling a bit behind on my english work so I'll have to skip a post tonight. So here's a link to my super outdated deviantart. And another great artist featured by abduzeedo.

Occupy Victoria

I went to see the 'Occupy blank" protest in my hometown, It was mostly people complaining about smart meters and a few 9/11 truthers.
















All the people who had signs about legitimate things seem to have left quickly

4th Portrait class

Portrait I drew this past thursday in my portrait class, I believe the model's name was Victoria. I was pretty proud because it actually looks somewhat like the model :P

I love the monochromatic colours! Hue Variation for the lose!

wow

wow wow wow, check out these awesome illustrations by Kai Spannuth.

Missing posts

So I've missed the past thousand days (school) so here's some more photoshop shortcuts:

http://webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/photoshop-secret-shortcuts

Retouch

Brown hair to blond, started forever ago finished today :P

For those wondering why this lovely woman is all over my blog it's because she is my only friend awesome and willing enough to model for me!

Colour

I thought I'd try colouring in an image from black and white.

Was pretty fun.
Keen observers might note that this is the portrait I posted earlier, I did use the liquify tool to make the proportions of the face a little bit better.

Happy thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving!

and because it's thanksgiving I refuse to make a proper post and instead make a proper pie for noming.
BUT FRET NOT MALAYSIAN SPAM BOTS!
I give to you a great collection of speed painting videos.

Because nothing says happy thanksgiving like a speed painting of a sea monster.

Portrait 1

Just a quick post of the portrait from my first portrait class, I didn't get as I got the second time:

Let's pretend the grain is for artistic purposes and not from my lack of scanner.

I keep drawing noses too small >.<

Portrait class

this is a drawing I did in my second portrait class. It's been really frustrating because I understand the theory behind drawing a face, I understand the anatomy and I can draw the individual features, but when I try putting it all together there's some kind of disconnect. I will keep trying however, and I will not stop 'till I am FEMKING OF PORTRAITS!






















I've developed this habit of putting 'fem' as in female in front of words to imply it being female. Language is a rule that's made to be broken *puts on sunglasses*

October!

Me last year at Halloween. . .
















. . . I was blurrier last year

Line art

I was in the mood to colour so I pulled up some old line art and coloured it . . . with a mouse. 
Yeah, you're impressed.

Shortcuts!

So I watched a fantastic youtube video of someone's digital painting process (here) but I couldn't help but to noticed their workflow was rather slowed down by their lack of shortcuts. So here's a short list of some of (what I find to be) the most useful photoshop shortcuts:

B : brush tool

option while using the brush tool (B) : eyedropper tool (colour picker)

Q : quick mask

D : changes foreground colour to black, background to white

X : switches foreground and background colours

command+J : Duplicate layer

command+shift+option+N : creates a new blank layer, a longer one but extremely useful

hit V, release, then option+ '+' or '-'  :  Changes the layer mode. Try it, you'll understand


Those are just a few of the ones I use on a daily basis. If there's any confusion don't hesitate to ask!

MELON UP!!1!1111

So I was walking past the grocery store and these melons caught my eye. . .

It is now impossible for me not to imagine this being screamed by a japanese super hero.

It's a post

A lovely friend's been kicking my arse to make a post today, so here's an illustration of the 'Vandertramp' verbs I did in grade 9:

You never said it couldn't be a lazy post maggs :P

The 3rd Dimension Eludes Me

I keep trying to paint on photoshop, but everything ends up looking like a 7-year-old let loose on MS paint. No matter what I do it always looks flat.

I am, however, relatively happy with how I paint lips.

















If anyone out there has any tips I'd love to hear them.

Retouch

A quick retouch for CBC radio 1:















It may be shallow, and is probably the least interesting thing you can do on photoshop but I just love retouching.

Honestly Subtle Retouch

Just Practicing some new techniques.

Subtle Retouch

The key to a good retouch is keeping things subtle:

Let's pretend it's still wednesday. . .

I've been pretty sick this past week, but yesterday morning things became a lot worse as it felt like death had crawled into my throat and made it his home. I got tested for strep throat and should have the results in a day or two. Today, incidentally, the pain in my throat has increased about tenfold.

So here's a photo to make up for my lack of photo yesterday:

Little blurry, little grainy, but I like it.

2 legs? 2 mainstream. . .

Yeah the middle legs are weird but I only got 2 1/2 hours of sleep so. . . okay, I don't have any real excuse but at least I'm trying.





















Toned in photoshop.

Also I got bored and did another quick sketch and coloured it in photoshop:

I do like the lichen texture I got on the body.

Posting hiccup

Woke up sick at 1:30am and realized I hadn't posted today (yesterday?)  Tuesday anyways.
So here's a little project I did for my old blog, cute little social media icons called "hiccup." Fitting, don't you think?

Anyways here they are on deviantart free for you to use in any way. If you do end up using them I'd love to see, but that's not required!

Hiccup-Social-Media-Icons

Also I just realized that there's a function on here for making hyperlinks, apparently I've been doing the whole "<a href="http://nelsopotato.deviantart.com/art/Hiccup-Social-Media-Icons-185762459>hiccup-social-media-icons</a>" thing for nothing.

I shouldn't let myself post when I'm this tired.

Edit:
Monday, I didn't post Monday.






(also you can just click on the image, enlarge it and copy it to your computer instead of downloading it. Don't you love PNGs?)

Pose exercises

Pose Drawing practise, done with the help of this tutorial.

I'm getting back into that "post everyday" thing.

Portrait

Portrait of a man with a broken nose

A super quick 10 min sketch

I've just started a portrait class so hopefully I'll improve over the next few weeks.

Planes of the face

Another quick study

done with this lovely tutorial.

Gesture drawing

Tried to do some quick gesture drawings. . .

Failed at doing some quick gesture drawings. . .

But this is a great site for anyone who wants to practice.

Skin

Halfhearted attempt to make some realistic skin

font is called clumsy.

Quick study

Please excuse the laziness, done with a mouse and very little care.

made with this Head Drawing Tutorial as a quick study.

Just for fun

Silly, just for fun vampire edit.

California

So here's the painting I painted.

I don't really have a name for it, but the colours remind me of california.

Also at the risk of sounding vain, I'm going to say what I like about it. If you disagree or have any suggestions I'd love to hear them too.

I like the colours and the sense of depth they create. I also love the contrast of the smooth warm background with the cold energetic foreground.

More than anything this was an exercise for me to try and be less imid about painting and regardless of the quality of the painting it was definitely beneficial.

acrylic on canvas board

Mind explosion

I painted something. . .

that I actually like.

I haven't taken a picture yet, but it's an abstract kind of colour study thing. It was mostly done for me to get over my trepidation and I actually love how it turned out, which probably means no one else will.

must. read. TUTORIALS!!!

So I've been feeling pretty darn lousy today and decided to read through a couple articles on digital painting. Surprise, surprise they're super helpful.

I've included some of my favorites:

Epic Eyes

I wish I had read this earlier. You'll have to highlight the text on the page if you want to read it (it's black on black) but even with just the pictures and the gif it's a good thing to look through.

Awesome skin tutorial

A walkthrough of painting four different types of skin colour. Well explained and beautifully illustrated.

Lovely Clouds

A crazy level of realism is achieved with rather basic skills.

And the ever useful, drawing a head

By the way, this is how many tabs of tutorials I have open. Except for one wich is an article on crows.

(which is kind of awesome)

Another terrible eye

I am disappoint.

. . . eye am disappoint

EYE think you'll like this!

lolololol

but no, It's no good.

Or maybe I was painting a digital painting of a shitty painting of an eye? Because if that was the case I nailed it.

I did at least find the right brush settings for light freckles!

Effort

I've been on deviantart looking at tutorials for arts and digital painting. I never realized the site could be such a good resource!

Obviously I still have a ways to go.

Skin colour tutorial:
navate.deviantart.com

Digital Painting

Painting is not my thing, digital or acrylic.

but I'm going to keep trying!

Post-Secondary

So in a couple of days I'm going into my final year of high school and so it's time to plan for my future (scary.) I've actually been thinking about it for a while but today I finally really got down and did some research, making and printing out go-to booklets to help me plan. One for each of my three dream universities:

Emily Carr, Concordia and Kungl. Konsthögskolan.

colour coded for convenience.

The fonts I use (not that you can see them:) Chunk Five and Garogier.

http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/ChunkFive

http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Garogier

Lazy Kid

Vampire me, sucking the patience out of my parents by begging for a second dog.

Sorry!

So I've missed about a thousand posts.

So here's a png of some birds for anyone to use in anyway they so choose.

I'm having issues remembering what a group of birds is called. It's not a gaggle or a pack or a herd. . . I'll figure this out.

edit: It's called a flock. I remembered :P

Missed a post

I really REALLY really hate painting.

we're supposed to be "experimenting with brush strokes" and I can't get any to show up I don't even know how that's possible. And acrylic paints are quite possibly the worst medium EVER. They have to be like an inch thick on the canvas if you want them to blend AT ALL and they're bloody expensive!

If I ever get the idea to try painting again, someone PLEASE stop me.

and yes I missed a post yesterday. I blame the evil paint.

I have fallen into incoherent insanity thanks to it's stupid evil malevolence!

never. again.

Girl and cat

My next door neighbour and her curious kitten.