Joker Preview

 

Teaser for a painting I'm doing of my favorite comic book villain, the Joker.

Wonder Woman - Final

It's never easy to figure out if I'm truly done with a painting or not. I'm constantly tempted to go back in and tweak it here and there. But for now, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.

Wonder Woman - Work in Progress

 

Trying something a little different here. I'm using a new set of Photoshop brushes, as well as trying a few other new techniques. I still have quite a ways to go, but I'm liking my progress thus far.

Indiana Jones

I painted Indiana Jones, just for the fun of it. This is about five hours in Photoshop.

Harry Reid

There's a new tell-all book out called Game Change that spills all sorts of behind the scenes gossip surrounding the campaign trail for the 2008 election. One of the more controversial stories that came out of the book surrounded some racially insensitive comments Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reportedly said regarding then candidate Barack Obama. This is Photoshop, over a pencil sketch. I think it demonstrates the influence the great Mort Drucker has had on my work.

Robert B. Parker

Robert B. Parker has been one of my favorite writers ever since I was a kid. I've read nearly every book he's written (and that's a lot of books). For those who don't know, his most famous creation is the fictional detective Spenser, but throughout his life he wrote many, many other novels as well, mostly in the mystery genre, but also westerns, historical fiction, love stories and even kid lit. He died today.  He  reportedly died at his desk while he was working on his latest novel. In honor, here's a speed painting I did of the man. About 90 minutes in Photoshop.

Barack Revised

I made some subtle revisions to this image to correct the overall symmetry. In reality, faces are not symmetrical, but ever still, there were areas on this portrait that needed tweaking in order to improve the overall likeness. One thing you can, and should, do as a digital painter is to periodically flip your entire image horizontally every so often. This will invariably show you parts of your image that don't look right. I did so here, and realized I needed to move one of the ears up and nudge the mouth over a bit to bring it more in line with the horizontal and vertical axes. I also went in and smoothed out the suit texture and added a bit of subtle texture to the skin to give it a punch of reality.

Barack Obama

There comes a time in every caricaturist's life when they decide to paint the President in office. Here's Barack Obama in glorious black and white. This took about four hours in Photoshop. I'll probably go back some time soon and add color, which is considerably easier to do once I have the black and white tones established, as you can see here.

ImagineFX Entry

One of my favorite magazines, ImagineFX, is having a competition to get a shot at having an illustration appear on an upcoming cover. I thought I'd give it a shot. After a couple of false starts, I decided to go back to the classics and do a take on Little Red Riding Hood.  Wish me luck.

David Tennant

I'm a big fan of Doctor Who. I'm looking forward to watching the tenth Doctor David Tennant's last hurrah in the role tonight. In the meantime, here's a painting I did of him. About five hours in Photoshop.

Work in Progress - ImagineFX cover

The Fantasy and Sci-Fi digital painting magazine has a really awesome contest going on right now for a chance to create a cover for an upcoming issue. Here's a sneak peak at my entry-in-progress. Obviously, I've still got a ways to go. I started painting in black and white, because that makes it so much easier to establish the overall tones of the painting. I would argue that getting your tones right is the most essential part of any painting. Tone is what gives your image the look of being a real object in three dimensional space. Once I have this image fully rendered in black and white, I can go over it with pretty much any color scheme and it will still look good.

Glenn Beck

Here's my latest. Here's Fox News political pundit Glenn Beck. I'm going to try to stay off my political high horse expounding on which side of the political fence I'm on, but as for the illustration itself, I gotta say, I'm really proud of the hands on this one. Hands are always difficult for me to draw, which I suppose is weird because most people (myself include) have a perfectly good set to use as reference anytime I want.

Bond, James Bond

I've been a James Bond fan since I was a kid. As far as recent movies go, I loved Casino Royale and absolutely hated Quantum of Solace. Even still, I think Daniel Craig is a pretty darn good Bond. Here's my latest painting of him.

My First Interview

There's an interview and feature about yours truly in the latest issue of New Sugar Magazine. Check it out: http://is.gd/4UgzB

Audrey Hepburn

Here's my latest: the legendary Audrey Hepburn. I have a lot of books of old movie stills. Periodically, I like to crack one open and draw something out of it. This took about four hours in Photoshop.

Evangeline Lilly Revised

I took some welcome advice from a number of fellow caricature artists I respect and made some adjustments to Kate here. I reduced her cup size and overlarge forearm. I brought down her hairline and raised her chin. Then I totally repainted her mouth. I think this helps the likeness (I hope).

Evangeline Lilly Reference

Someone asked me to show the reference photo I used for my Evangeline Lilly painting. Several artists I respect made some very astute observations regarding my painting. I think I'll go in and tweak it a bit.

Evangeline Lilly

My favorite TV show currently on the air is Lost. A while ago I began sketching all the main cast members with the intention of painting them all. Then one thing led to another and I never got around to doing the actual paintings. I finally gave myself the kick in the pants I needed and finished my painting of the lovely Evangeline Lilly. I have to say, I'm really glad I did.

Javier Bardem

Digital painting of one of my favorite movie villains of recent years, Javier Bardem as Chigurh from No Country for Old Men. About three and a half hours in Photoshop.

Mayor Dave Bing

Here's a digital painting of the newly elected mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing. About four hours in Photoshop. Note to non-locals: he used to be a Detroit Piston a long time ago.