For this speedpaint, I tried a different approach. As always, I work from back to front, blocking in the background before moving onto the figure. The difference is that this time, I started with the lightest colors and built up to the darkest shades (sort of like using watercolors), whereas in previous pieces, I started with my darkest colors first, and worked up to my lightest colors. Because of this, I think the finished piece has a slightly more pastel color palette.

Photoshop CS3, 45 minutes.

Finding a method for quickly painting reptilian scales proved difficult, so this is yesterday and today's speed paint. I did the background and basic body structure on the Komodo dragon yesterday, and then some retouching and scale texture today. I believe in total it took about an hour and a half. I'm not quite satisfied with the results, but that's not the point of these exercises. It's to expose myself to new challenges.

I think I'm in a rut with the greens and browns. I'll try to work some different colors into the next one.

New speedpainting. Going to try to get back into the habit of doing one a day again. :) Photoshop CS3, 1 hour, 9 minutes

It was my birthday on the 9th. I turned 28. I went to Animal Kingdom to celebrate, where I encountered this crow. He looks like he's standing on water, but it's actually a solid object that's been painted to look like water.

I encountered this Muscovy duck and her newly hatched ducklings yesterday and thought they'd make for great subject matter for a new, long overdue, speed painting. :)

Photoshop CS3, 1 hour

Snowy Egret found wandering around at Sea World.
Photoshop CS3, 35 minutes.




California Sea Lion at NY Central Park Zoo.
Photoshop CS3, 35 minutes.

Been awhile since my last speed paint. Here's some new ones. :)



This is a Snow monkey aka Japanese Macaque from the Central Park Zoo in NYC.

Photoshop CS3, 46 minutes.



This speed paint is incomplete. The scene I was working on was filled with wall-to-wall people (it was taken at Crane's Roost this year on the Fourth of July). My meticulous approach to the human figures, and all the color variation in clothing slowed me down immensely. After an hour, I still had a great deal of the scene left to do, and I had lots of work to do that day, so I called it quits.

Photoshop CS3, 53 minutes.

Recently, I started getting into doing daily speed paintings.

I had been thinking about how important it is for artists to practice painting techniques by doing paintings from photos or life. And I thought to myself, instead of just thinking about how it's a good idea, why don't I take my own advice and put some time into doing it? So... I did. I've been selecting photos based on various challenges (fur, foliage, water, reflections, interiors, lighting, etc), and doing one a day, with a limit of 1 hour to complete it. It's a really fun, quick way to get a daily dose of coloring, learn new techniques, discover faster ways of laying down colors, etc. When I'm coloring an illustration, I'll sometimes have photos to help with the general feel, but I rarely have direct reference, so shadows and highlights come from my preexisting knowledge. The speed paintings have allowed me to observe how shadows and highlights really effect an environment.

Here's the one's I've done so far:

Speedpaint 15 - Tiki


( Many more behind cut )

One of the chapters of Domo we worked on:



The Domo book is coming out in September! Can't wait!

By "popular" demand, (OK, just six of you actually, haha, but that's alright), I'm going to try and make an effort to post on LJ a little more often. Here's a picture I just finished up for my children's illustration portfolio.



This image was originally done in color, but upon completion, I found that the color detracted from the focus of the piece, her red shoes. So, I put a mask around the shoes and turned the rest grayscale. I think the result is more effective. Though it's a little bit sad to spend all that time coloring just to throw out colors at the end. Eh, c'est la vie!

The illustration is based on the story "The Red Shoes" by Hans Christian Andersen, which you can read in its entirety here: http://hca.gilead.org.il/red_shoe.html Upon reading the story as part of my research for the illustration, I was very surprised by the heaviness of its religious message; the version of the red shoes I read as a kid was about a ballerina who puts on a pair of red ballet slippers that force her to dance until she dies from exhaustion. Although in either case, it's a pretty dark story.

(You can view the original color version on my art blog: http://lcibos.blogspot.com/2009/06/red-shoes-complete.html)

Wow, it feels like it's been forever since I last posted here. The funny thing is, I still check the friends list every day (part of my morning routine ^_^). I guess I just haven't felt motivated. But I'm wondering, does anyone still read this journal? Would you like me to post more? What would you most like to see posted here?

General update on me:

-I'm still working on building up my children's illustration portfolio. I need about 5-7 more pieces to call it done, and then it's off to publishers and agents. I'm hoping to be done with it before the end of June. You can see some of what I've put together so far in the top row of my gallery, here: http://www.jaredandlindsay.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=3

-I spent the last two months working on two chapters for Tokyopop's Domo: The Manga book. It's a full-color book, so Jared and I had the opportunity to experiment with doing color comic pages. I had a lot of fun with it. TPOP recently posted some of our sample pages up on their website here: http://www.tokyopop.com/Domomanga/tp_article/2759413.html (note that the cover was done by a different artist).

Oh, and here's some WIP stuff for the current piece I'm working on:
http://lcibos.blogspot.com/2009/06/red-shoes-wip-1.html
http://lcibos.blogspot.com/2009/06/red-shoes-wip-2.html
http://lcibos.blogspot.com/2009/06/red-shoes-wip-3.html