Ford car portrait

A car show be coming up with one in Croft Supercar show this year, the JCP Community farm asked me to paint a portrait of a car, it was actually the first time I painted one so gave it a shot. Had a look at the photo and figured how it should look snd get the position right, taken snapshots to show the progress from each step of how I did it.

source: https://www.jpcspecialistmotorsports.com

So to start out I used the photo they picked for me to do, took a thought of how it would fit on the canvas, Drew out the shapes and where to paint as the lines would be painted over.

Then used yellow and would do more than one layer over the texture of the canvas, started s9me with black before adding the grey highlights.

With the windows and more parts of the car coated with more layers, once ready would add other colours to the portrait.

For the final touches were the number 64 and the wheels, had to do circles to be sure they were right but found it a little tricky for making the number in a awkward position but was close enough and so far liked how it the portrait turned out in the end.

Didnt want it to have a blank background so gave a greyish theme and used masking tape sround the corners to give it a white border look for the auction.

House Cat Acrylic Portrait

 So I was given a new commission from a friend of mine to ask to paint his cat, so I used acrylic paints I still have needed to use before get a new set. So looking at the photo as the cure was mostly brown with stripes, I used mainly brown and had to get the pose right while having a blueish background, making sure the fire in different shades of brown blended together and did a tricky job for the detailed areas such as the ears and eyes. Previous mistakes of the body shapes so I painted over that part to make it into a shadow to improvise and like how it.

He was really pleased with how it turned out and worth the pay to know it was something he likes to hang up on display.

Portrait commissions

 Been awhile and got some new images I’ve been working in lately for awhile as I’ve been a little busy for course works and new ideas working on. So here are what I’ve been doing to show you all. Been taking commissions from a community and did some guinea pigs, chickens and a Shepard dog.

Heres what I’ve done for a commission Ive taken, it was a little slow with limited paint supplies but gotten much as I can get for this portrait for a bloke who wanted a painting of his dog so I thought o give it a go. At first at the Community farm I might have beeen rushing a little with the paint with limited time we had and get the image right by position while painting it, but luckily he gave me the picture of his dog to get the face do e. So i had to think of how to pull through and improvise, some hard time getting the shading right for the fur, but I think this looks really good and just some minor touches for some parts to complete it.

The farmer was very pleased with how it was made and shown it to others in the farm of my talent. I was happy of how it came about and be doing more work in the near future.

Weasel pen illustration

So had some drawings with one of my sketches and did a little improvement on the background for a certain weasel portrait using pens. One of the stuffed animals we used back in college and thought after going through my pages to use it. Making the background differently from the original photo to add some more natural features like a stones, a branch a rock with it crawling over it.

This be the original photo I took when during the day I did some illustrations of animals in college.

Early sketch of the weasel using brown pencil for experimentation and later on used pen for a different pose to try out ideas. 

Sketch and artwork updates

been doing some paintings and sketches lately and working on more to catch up on my skills so they don't get rusty. I've managed to get around to finish up the crab with a sandy background and some rocks but getting there, will need some white since I ran out so I had to improvise. still working on it and will let it dry first before get some paints needed to add a bit of layering. And will work on the top as some works and bit of shading later.

The latest one is a sketch of a creature I'm working on as a fire-based character from one of my childhood drawings as a kid and decided to go through my old sketches and remake them after all these years, making this character more agile, flexible with his extended tendrils in place of fires and have the body made up of armor and stone-like skin with the fire coming out of the gaps including the head. Was inspired by the balrog when I first saw it years ago when it first came out and made this. 

This one I did recently based on a watercolored portrait from my sketchbook when I was in college and make a new one on a canvas art using acrylic paint. Made certain to use a photo to help know the color and shading to get the texture right for the feathers and trees. Wanting to take more time drawing and painting while job hunting to be a good artist as I can be to get these noticed, so doing more as I can with more sketches for ideas for future projects.

Sea crab acrylic in process

A1

So what do you guya think of this so far, finally got around to finish up the crab with a sandy background and some rocks but getting there, will need some white since I ran out so had to improvise. still working on it and will let it dry first before get some paints needed to add a bit of layering. And will work on the top as some works and bit of shading later.

Will add another post when I get some more touches to it

Winter wonderland

So this might have been later but here was a portrait in blue water colour theme for a snowy winter as a Christmas gift for my grandmother’s friend, she asked me to make something of a landscape for her. Took a thought of what to make but since I thought Christmas was coming up, I thought why not make a winter wonderland theme but use blue water colour paints as a try out. Did a few that didn’t work so decided to do one in the day with faint blueish sky and snow, darker blue for the distance and trees. I shown it to my grandmother and she really liked it, even her friend thought it was really good so that was worth a Christmas present.

Peacock portrait

Did some watercolour using photos I’ve taken from a trip awhile ago and used them together to make a group portrait of peacocks, first time doing one with feathers but like how they look so far. 

The grass I thought to use my brush to make soft texture, same for the rough feathers for the smaller birds and leave some white areas where they have lighter colours

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Updats: Water colour portraits.

Been doing some painting over the summer and uploading some now here to show what I've been doing. So apologies for the delay and here's what I've been done.

Basically taken some snapshots of animals like the peacocks and thought to make a flock together using photos of some I've taken. Wanting to get the grass look right and tapped it to make patterns and different shades of green. Working on the feathers and will update the finished version of the portrait.

  

The next one I thought to make a wolf and originally inspired by House Start's emblem using colours and make the fur and background a winter theme. Worked on the shading and go a small frame for it to show how it looks after printing a copy for display.

Recent Updates

So I hope everyone enjoyed the summer as the weather as the nice sunny weather is over, been preparing for my first solo exhibition in a shop that's offered to set them up for me, so thought it be a big step to show my work to folks in town. Been taking evening classes at an art museum MIMA and enjoyed it to keep my skills up to date and meet other artists and other groups.

Did a glassing on a jar and wanting to do a wolf head, wanting to do something easier and simple for me since its been awhile that I did glassing. So far not so bad wand made the 'fur' texture since it was there was not much time to get it completely white.

From MIMA this was one of the life drawings I did from a model we did for working on ideas and techniques, so I used chalk and white coloured pencils with the brown paper to mix together, had plenty of time to get the body right and make some shading in most places.

Working on limited additions to the Shadow Wolf and decided to rename portrait and bought two frames for these after printing them for the exhibition and liked how they turned out in good quality.

Mountain Dragon

So been working on my new portrait for an art competition I heard about from my nana and thought I give it a shot. Decided to work on this as a fantasy theme illustration with a dragon standing on a mountain or something. First part I show was the sky and wanted it to have the texture of the sky and some light and dark cloud background. Watch some video tutorials for some ideas and will get this done hopefully and turn out well when I finish it. It's been awhile since I did acrylic paint but shouldn't be difficult form years of using a brush.

I managed to do the rest of the sky with lighter blue and fade into the horizon while the rest in the bottom corner could have some mountains and a forest. Been working on the mountain using different shades of brown, mostly something called burnt umber and black to mix with it for another coat with a bit of white for the lighter effects. The darker areas I needed for the shading so they don't look flat and have some depth between the dragon and the mountain cliff. 

Finally completed it, took awhile as I had other things that kept me busy lol. Been having some thoughts of what to add for the final touch either a forest, more clouds or mountains. So I chose the latter as I thought a mountain dragon would fit well in the scenery and heed much of the brown I had to for the texture. Changed the outer wings for a different colour but left some hint of orange so it had some highlights through and tried to add some more light for the head and other areas of the body. Hope you like it and let me know what you think of it or anything that might or could've worked or not.

Waugh Games Fan sketches

Apologies for lack of update, a lot of things have happened since I finished college and been doing some a few sketches and writing stories. So, to give you the heads up, I've been given a job by my dad to work as an artist in Waughgames which ain't so bad and did a large sketch of the Space Marine to show what I've done so far. I always have trouble doing the size as I'm use to doing sketches from a notepad to A3 sheets. So more to come on other games to set up to make it feel more like an art gallery in our shop.

New Genesis illustration: Votao Shen

So its been awhile since I last uploaded anything on my blog and been having a relaxing summer but been on the net just to look at some art work to get some ideas. Been building up ideas of my own for my New Genesis universe and thought, if I was to make a series full of aliens I need planets and maps where they are. So I decided to use what I learned from CCAD and put it to some use to make planet realistic as they can be then what I previously created in my Deviantart account.

The planet I created is called Votao Shen, fourth planet in the Finbiri system, Perseus Arm. Gave it an earth like atmopshere and slightly heavier gravity. Wanting to make the continents have rough edges even from an orbital view like Earth's continents.

Been drawing a few maps of the planets to get the idea, all I did was look at a few maps, either real or fictional to know what continents should have when making my own. I scanned the map and made a new line over the original, that way when I add the texture it would make things easier on the next step. Made some arrangements on the countries until I find the right places for them. Made a few small islands as it they can't all be large.

What I did next was to find a few textures, small, big or large but needed to cut some out and put each piece of texture until I'm satisfied. Once this was done I turned the colour using greyscale and then clone stamped the edges to blend the texture in together using whatever texture I thought would be useful but not too much otherwise there would be repeated patterns. Used some texturse for the ice caps but needed them to be snow.

Finally, I have my own planet with an ocean, green forests and deserts. Although not all perfect but wasn't expecting it to be. Had to do some final adjustment by making some of the countries a little bigger and make some shallow seas by the edges. Wanting to leave some textures about to give some mountainous feature but maybe do more here. So I hope you all like it and more to come!

Kevin Walker's Fantasy Beasts

Kevin Walker is a fantasy artist that made many designs of creatures of mythology and fantasy. This book contains many of his artwork of creatures and explain how he illustrated his designs by studying other animals, environments and the biology to create new creatures of different worlds and imagination. I like how he thought of them and drawn 

This page shows how he would start out with his studies of animals before getting the idea first. Photos most likely taken from him with the lightening and a bat, including skeletons to know how they would look.

Some of his artwork are in many things such as Magic: The Gathering, 2000 AD, Rogue Trooper, ABC Warriors and Warhammer

Creature design: Shark Manta Ray

Another creature design for the booklet, I thought about making a creature that would be aquatic and resemble some sort of fish but more like it was flying with wing-like fins. I've looked into a few species of fish to make it into the creature I want it, took thought abut the sharks and Manta Ray as they are one of the biggest fishes in the sea. Searched for a few photos of Manta Rays and Sharks to... 'mix them up'! So this is how I done it from a few steps to know how I did it.

1. Decided to make two of these for the booklet but different by view to see more of their appearances, draw the fins into more like wings as they spread out, like it was either swimming or flying. Gave it a tail so it would have speed and look more serpentine-shaped but with fins added so it would not stand out, the tip of it was made into a tail fine with roughed edges as some fish have split fins but not too much, only near the edges and same to the wing/fins.

2. After scanning the sketch to the
computer to begin the next step using digital developments. Cleaning up the mess on the page such as any rubbed off drawings, spots, the rest of the page except for the fish. Brighting it a little and checking for anything I left untouched when cleaning it up. Decided to ink line the whole thing in the next layer so it be easier to to colour it without needing to select a few parts or going over the lines.





3. For the third step, colour as it is important than having it all blank. Wanting a greyish colour for the skin as it's usually common for large fish species but with an add of blue to blend in with it, lowering the opacity of 30% as I did for the tail fin.

4. Adding another layer over the colour to add lighter colours. Again, I lowered the opacity and tolerance low enough to create some sort of lighter skin around the wings, tail and underbelly but also around the back so it would not have a simple plain grey colour, make so where the light would probably be seen. Now for shading, the mouth first as it would be slightly dark but not too much so the inside of it's jaw. Adding a few minor touches before I go on to the next and possibly final step of the design.


5.  On to the final stage is the background and wanting it to be a blueish and watery theme for the large swimmer. Giving it a greenish blue colour with the centre being darker then the outer edges as thought it was all misty and cloudy. Creating a trail of watery debris from the wings and tail as it moves it's body.

Another of the Shark Manta Ray in a different pose as the back is clearly seen, showing it's back with gill-like features along with two sets of eyes.

Creature Design: alien

One of the basic designs for the Booklet, I decided to create an a original and bizarre looking creature than the others I've designed for the project. It is going to be a alien-looking being with features of some insects, scary and frightening like in most movies. I have looked at a few samples of aliens from games, comics, movies and illustrations to get a clear idea how it should look before I get a clear idea of it.

1.  I've started it out as a simple sketch, rubbed off a few places to make the head good without any ruough edges and scanned it in the computer for the next step. Made it a triangular shaped head and make it a quarter view rather than the side so people could see one of it's left eyes and now narrow it's face is. MAde the carapace all curved and rounded near the edges and some lined features on the neck as though they were muscles or something.

2. Made a few layers to plan out the creature, this one is for drawing a line over it. Needed to zoom in to make sure the lines are not rugged or a mess, also to add some details, made sure the brush was down to a 1 or two so they would not look too thick.

3. For the carapace I chosen a darker colour theme, started out with a medium colour to start with on the carapace and darkened the purple for the shadow where the light wouldn't cast over it's head.

4. The next part of colouring is the neck, the eyes and the parts between the armored carapace. Adding another shadow under it's chin and make sure it matches the shape of it's lower jaw. Gave the eyes a dark greenish colour and like the carapace they would start with a dark colour first. Made a few dark areas on the skin to give it a soft texture.

5. On the next layer, wanting the carapace to have a texture and not looking so flat, making a lighter purple over it and leaving the edges untouched so it blend in well. The same thing I did for the eyes so they wouldn't look too dark. Decided to make the antennas not too long or thick. The areas between the curved armor plates around it's neck would have a dark shadow but blend well with it.

6. Now the head was done I decide to give the background somewhat of a earthly color but more to a grey/brown, make some of the background darker while the some of it is medium and the rest are lighter. It usually depends how much I click on.

Book of creatures

While working on my book, I have focused designing creatures as my main theme for the art book. Looking at many animal species and take a few illustrations for research before designing actual creatures. Figured it would be more useful as a source for where I got ideas from and plan out what it is I'm about to create rather then jump right in it.

To make the book to bind well I had to find out what usable material I could use to keep the pages together, so I decided to use staplers so they would keep the pages together into a proper booklet,


Cover
This one I made for the cover, making it showing only a creature's eye to make people curious about it. Also added the shading with it. The difficult part was to make the fur texture as good as it can, just using the exact tool for this was very hard to find one. I wanted to make it look like an actual e.ye, adding lighter.

Large winged bird
Made a head design of a bird, wanting it's head to look majestic, exotic and graceful so I looked at several species of birds such as eagles, hawks, peacocks, parrots and other smaller birds. The feathers were the main importance for birds to have and need to fly, creating a texture of feathers that flare up like a crest going down from the back of it's head to the neck.

I have sketched the head of the bird, figured it would help knowing what sort of bird it would look like and took a close look at some birds to know what their feather covered bodies look up close.

Sketch:

The original concept design of the creature's body, wanting to give large wings that would be used in the same way as arms just as it has a finger as it's body is very long and flexible. Drawing the feathers on the wings and tail were more difficult than I first thought when wanting it to have proper feathered wings. Studied some examples of birds and their wings, drawn the shapes and lines for each row of feathers. The same for the scales on it's talons as I figured since they descended from reptiles.

Example:

This is one of the examples of inspiration to make the bird into what it is now and looked at the colours of their fathers, their wings spreading out as they fly and the tail feathers, going for brighter colours.

Multi-tailed, six-legged canine
I've looked into creatures of mythology and legends, and found an intersting idea of making a fox-like beast with multiple tails and given an extra pair of legs. Looked at a few canine species and wanting the tail to look less flat then muscle. Worked on the fur so it be more of a mane going down from the head to the back like a lion has so it would look tough despite having the thin appearance.

The multiple tails were tricky to do to make one big tail with lots of 'split ends' in the same way as hair. Made sure it was swaying so it would not look flat and too much like a feather tail. As for having six legs, I thought how it would look as a drawing, moved the middle legs forward near the chest with the front pair so it would have an advantage of speed. Drawn a few doodles for the paws as it was the first time, drawing a canine so I looked for a few tutorials and photos of paws from dogs and wolves so they would look perfect; not too small or too rounded.





Great White Manta fish
Making an aquatic creature, it would have to be something close to the species that exist on Earth, so I looked into a few basic fish and think of what sort of fish it would look like. One of the species I found interesting was the Manta Ray because of their shapes, the way they move their bodies in the oceans makes it look as though they were flying rather than swimming. Chose the manta ray as the inspiration of one of my creatures but wanting to make it more different so I gave it more fins, a longer tail with a spread out tail fin. The skin colour was meant to be a pale blue grey with darker grey around it.

 

Example:

I've taken a look at some photos of the manta ray to get a clear idea of the shape and how the wings/fins would move. It was one of the varied species of fish I looked at to make doodles for the shape of the body, tail and fins/wings to make what I've drawn above.

Alien insectoid

Wanting the latest creature to look terrifying and alien, I wanted it to be unique from some aliens so I looked into other sci fi creatures and what I could take note from to make mine different. Taken a few samples from insects to get some idea, wanting the carapace to look smooth and a little curved around the head. For the alien to have multiple eyes, I chose the number of four eyes and planned out how it look. 

Made some thought of having them around the front with one set above the other, making them at a reasonable size so they would not look too big.  The mandibles I set to look as though they were a single jaw but in fact a quadruple-hinged bottom jaw; whenever it would open them up, they woudl sometimes split from two to four depending on how loud it would. This was inspired by the Predator and Sangheili/Elite from Halo and used the idea for this but more armoured and curved with the teeth shown inside.

Example:

There are some insects with well designed carapace to protect their soft insides, It would also have to have mandibles so I took some study of the insects like beetles and other animals with protective bodies; armadillos, turtles, tortoises and terrapins to observe the difference of their armored shells and carapaces.