Tag Archive for art

Cross-Draw Kid Digital Art Commentary

November 6, 2011 Art Stuff, Blog

I’m currently working on a new series of digital art pieces focusing on a golden age comic called “Western Adventures”, specifically featuring the character Cross-Draw Kid. I thought it would be cool to give some thoughts about my process. I wish I had stage-by-stage saved files to better demonstrate the process, but perhaps that’ll be something I do for a future blog! For now, I’ll keep it simple and treat it more like plain-ol’ commentary.

 
I wanted to show a before and after shot of the page I used for the first piece. I started with a full-page opposed to only one panel which is usually the case. The particular challenge to using a full-page “base” for the digital manipulations is finding a way to modify what’s already there in order to add design elements that are unique to me. When starting with a panel, for example, there’s more opportunity to personalize it because it tends to leave a lot of negative space to play with.

Showing the side-by-side images below you can see that I zoomed in to crop out the title and covered most of the bottom scroll-text with two panels from later in the story. The reasons I do things are both intuitive and intentional.

The intuitive  part of the process exists at the start when I start layering things, cropping things, adding filters, using the airbrush tool, masking things, adding text, etc. For the most part during this stage, I trust gut feelings to stumble upon “happy accidents” that guide me to a path I want to take.

The intentional part is when I start applying basic elements and principles of art to re-affirm the aspects of the piece I want to highlight. I use colour to unify the piece and guide the eye around. I use patterns to both flatten layered elements on the same plane (the grunge artifacts) as well as add texture (the comic dots and shirt). I added two simple things to this piece to help frame the Cross-Draw Kid better (the dead tree and birds). I cropped and repeated the title “Cross-Draw Justice” and placed it on a highlight coming from the sun in order to re-enforce the vertical framing created with the lower scroll and panels and the original “Cross-Draw Kid” title bar.

The best thing about making these is discovering things as I go. Layers are my friend. Textures are my friend. Filters are my friend. Moving layers around, or changing filters, or duplicating elements after I get something I like sometimes create whole new opportunities for the piece. Some examples are below.

 
If there are those out there who’ve always wanted to create digital art, I say go for it! There’s no better way to get better than to just create, create, create. Get comfortable with the tools and software you want to use slowly, then add new things to the process, experiment with it, and then create some more. The advice I’ll always stand by is: Don’t give up, don’t feel defeated, don’t stop creating. Enjoy!

“Lorelei of Loon Lake” Series Complete

September 26, 2011 Art Stuff

I was able to get the last three pieces of this series done. The series can be found on the art collection page for the “Lorelei of Loon Lake” series.

This series was fun to work with although it does ends with a pretty morbid conclusion, but alas, that is the story of Lorelei of Lone Lake! It comes from a golden age comic called “Web of Mystery #2″ published in 1951 by Ace Books. It was a series that collected short pulpy strange tales of suspense and mystery.

A man, named Roy, hears an urban legend about the hauntings from Loon Lake. Fearless of such rumors he goes for a night swim (stupid Roy). During a dive he knocks himself unconscious and meets Lola. They talk and she shows Roy her home in a submerged cave. Lola pleads for his help so that she can rest because she is so very tired. Roy gains consciousness and submerges, but becomes restless himself. The next day he sets out with diving gear to search the lake, determined to find the submerged cave home of Lola. He discovers only bones with an ankle trapped under a root… and flowing, flowing red hair.

This series will very soon be printed on canvas and I can’t wait to see what it all looks like! Pics to come!

“She Came From the Lake”, XEI, September 2011

“Beautiful Stranger”, XEI, September 2011

“Quiet and Peaceful”, XEI, September 2011

“Drowning Dream Fantasy”, XEI, September 2011


“Deep Breathe”, XEI, September 2011

“Twisted Roots”, XEI, September 2011

Boston Crab by Inkling

June 5, 2011 Comic Stuff, League of Aquatic Heroes

Here’s an awesome commission done by Deviant artist Inkling. This is a fun redesign of Boston Crab from the League of Aquatic Heroes. He’s shown here making some modest choices to pants-up! This is a wonderful re-design and I hope Inkling will do other LOAH redesigns in the future!

Writer Process Graph by Ed Yong

March 31, 2011 Blog, Writing Stuff

Science blogger, Ed Yong, has graphed out the emotional journey of the writer’s process. It’s frighteningly familiar to me and Raven Nevermore in particular. The rises of euphoria upon discovery and realization are balanced with the dreadful dips of uncertainty, continuity fears, clarity… distraction by researching more about things that starts the process all over again.

I hope my graph actually does have an end point greater than any I’ve experienced throughout the journey so far. Having a printed product, is as done/finished as it can possibly get. Fear of losing money doesn’t exist in my expectations. I accepted that upon starting such a big project… and anybody wanting to venture into comics SHOULD DO, for their own sanity, confidence and general happiness.

I imagine this line graph represents arts in general. I recall days doing art that the rises and dips existed as well. With art for me, “finding when to stop”… man, no worst critic than yourself. Learning how to say “done” is a big step that needs to be learned. over-working something just mangles it in the long run.

Ha! The concern for mangling Raven Nevermore! That’s on the line graph for me :) . It’s something I strive to be aware of and part of the major concern for me and why I’ve opted to expand the project instead of congest the content.

It’s great being a creative person, isn’t it?

Collie-Cyborg Art Series by Dmitry Izotov

March 4, 2011 Blog

The very first Beholder strip for Blueprint Magazine centered around the theme of “Death”. I chose to take an approach that asked the question: “Why do humans value death?”

My answer was to use a mad scientist transplanting the head of his beloved canine best friend onto a new human body so that it could live on with continued, unhindered, blissful happiness.

A series of images started cropping up in my Google Reader and I (unexplainably) scrolled past them to check out later. I assumed they were science journal designs to compliment the experiments of Vladimir Demihov in the 1950s, concerning his experiments with dog head transplants. Dr. Robert White would later conduct similar experiments with the monkey heads. Christiaan Barnard, who considered Demihov his teacher, would be the first to successfully transplant a heart from one person to another in 1967. And so, these historical facts were the basis of the concept behind my Beholder #1.

Artist Dmitry Izotov manufactured a series of images that pushed the history of “transplantology” forward in a “What if…” scenario. The images are quite fascinating and realistic. He starts the series off with the following blurb:

The end of the 1950s and the beginning of 1960s was a time of significant achievements in the sphere of scientific experiments worldwide and in the USSR. During those years, Soviet scientist started bold experiments on animals. A whole series of pioneering experiments was carried out at the University of Moscow and the Academy of Science. And as early as 1950 a Russian scientist Vladimir Demihov surprised the whole world when he transplanted the head of one dog onto another one. The two headed dog lived for a whole month.

At the beginning of the Cold War, all efforts of Soviet science were concentrated on creating a perfect weapon. A secret Soviet project to create a robot-cyborg was started in 1958. The scientific consultant was a Nobel Prize laureate V.Manuilov. As well as designers, medics and engineers also took part in the construction of the robot. Mice, rats and dogs were used in experiments to test if it was safe for humans. The use of monkeys was also considered, but dogs were chosen as they were easier to train and were calmer than monkeys. Consequently this project got the name “The Kollie” and existed for almost 10 years. Under orders from the Central Committee on 4th January 1969 project “The Kollie” was closed down, and all the information became classified.

In 1991 all information about project “The Kollie” became unclassified.

This places it into an area of historical relevance, expanding on the lifespan of “Kollie” to 10 years, whereas, Demihov’s two-headed dog lasted one month in a state deemed “alive” by science. I like how the statement claims that a dog was used instead of a monkey because dogs would be easier to train and were calmer. Here are the staged/manipulated images Dmitry Izotov then offers to support the well-constructed illusion:

Remarkable! What an elaborate piece of work! All this based on a wire model and great graphic design skills. The rest creates a wonderful, believable illusion of possibilities that are equally discomforting and fascinating!

The most rewarding part of all this is when you keep scrolling down his gallery of photos until you get to the placement of the Collie-Cyborg amongst people in real life. This has comic-making possibilities written all over it and it’s the type of thing you’d expect to one day see in a Mike Mignola “Hellboy” or “B.P.R.D.” book!

PORTFOLIO: Behance Network, Dmitry Izotov, “The Kollie”
LIVEJOURNAL: Dmitry Izotov

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