Posts Tagged ‘digital painting’

Gorilla Hot Tub

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013

Here’s my latest digital painting, created for my wife’s birthday. I admit I did not finish in time, but that’s because of the ellipses…

GorillaHotTub500

Prior to actually beginning this piece I spent hours and hours watching tutorials on Lynda.com in attempt to learn how to draw in perspective using Photoshop. I am a slow learner, and in the end, I am not positive I actually got those ellipses drawn accurately. There’s lots of measuring and tiny lines and dots that are hard to keep track of. Sometimes you have to zoom out to 10% of your image size because the vanishing points are so far apart. From that distance, all the tiny dots and lines blend together and you can’t really see anything. Anyway, I did my best, and have come terms with the fact that, while “close enough” could lead to crooked houses and law suits if I were an architect, it’s just fine for an illustrator.

As always, drawing the gorilla was the easiest and most satisfying part. Drawing all those bananas, on the other hand, was quite mind-numbing. My wife counted about 75 bananas in the foreground alone, and each was individually drawn. I suppose I should watch some more digital painting tutorials to see how other illustrators do things like that, as I have a feeling my methods aren’t the most efficient. Anyway, here’s a detail:

gorillahottubdetail500

A Day in the Park

Friday, May 4th, 2012

It’s been a long time since I posted, and that’s because I’ve been busy trying to finish this:

I am not exactly sure why I did this, but I think it sums me up as a person. It is not all that polished of a digital painting, but it is as tight as I’m ever going to get. The subject matter is typical American life in the 2010’s from the prospective of innocence. I don’t really know what that last sentence means. Anyway, there are details in this painting that I’m hoping people find and appreciate. Here’s a partial list:

  • The child seems indifferent to what he’s doing, even though he’s clearly doing it on purpose- Why is he staring off into space? Doesn’t he like ice cream? Why does he look somewhat sad?
  • The Goat-man seems repulsed by the family- Even before he ended up with ice cream on his lap, you get the sense he had pushed himself as far towards the end of the bench as possible in order to create space between himself and the child. He probably wishes he had chosen to stand.
  • The Goat-man is naked except for the bright red sneakers- Also, the laces seem to disappear. Maybe they’re tucked into the sneakers. All I know is that I didn’t feel like drawing the knot.
  • The child is not wearing shoes- This is because, after doing 2 pairs, I got tired of drawing shoes. And only one of them has laces. Laces are a pain in the ass to draw, and not very satisfying.
  • Neither the child nor the mother are concerned that a scary-looking beast is sharing a park bench with them- Also, the nudity doesn’t seem to be a problem for them.

Let me know if you see any other details you like. I believe this is my most important work so far.  I’m hoping this painting can change the world at least a little bit.

Interplanetary Adoption

Sunday, October 16th, 2011

Years ago, I did a pencil sketch of a gorilla holding a baby alien for a birthday card to my wife. She loves primates. As I recently have been teaching myself digital painting in Photoshop, I decide to revisit this idea for a new birthday card to my wife. I am pretty happy with the results. Not only is it by far my best digital painting so far, it may be one of the best pieces of art I’ve ever made.