Ersatz Beauty

Here's a new painting that was for an up-coming issue of Computer Arts (issue 151 i think), its a little feature on my creative process and hopefully my gibbering words have been corrected into a cohesive article! What follows is probably very similar to the feature but as usual- you can see it here first! Here is the final dps image- the original is 300dpi at A3..



Next up is a shot of just how rough my thumbnails are for starting on a project like this..



Next up is a better sketch, again- pencil and paper, this was then photographed and transfered to the machine where i used it as a base in artrage to develop a working drawing. the characters where then sketched out with bigger brushes in photoshop.





This is a shot to show how i tend to build up the image, sections painted and developed then clipped out with vector paths and painted layer masks. Its a time consuming way to do it but it does allow me lots of flexibility in the long run. (most of the time!)



After blocking in the foliage background how i originally intended, it became clear it just wasnt going to work and a change of plan was needed.



An illustrator grab showing some of the bits used in the final image..



And thats basically it- remember to look out for the computer arts magazine for a more indepth explanation of this piece, im sure i will post a reminder when its out in the stands. I will leave you with a few closer shots of the final pic.

Finally- an update!

Sorry about the lack of recent updates, this is mainly down to lots of family fun, getting used to a baby can take awhile and certainly has its ups and downs, fortunately we seem to be over a tricky patch so hopefully things will run a little smoother. Ive also been working inhouse pimping my design services to various agencies, thats also been sucking up quite a bit of time- but im a bit more freed up now so with any luck i will be able to post some updates.

To kick things off, here's a recent illustration for Spirit and Destiny magazine, the article was entitled 'who do you think you are?' and was a quiz type thing to discover your personality type. The brief was quite specific and after worrying about some of the technicalities is was able to get it done within deadline.



Heres a couple of magazine shots to show the spread and what was done for the article: