Next step in the process

I continued working on this image during down times in class while my students were working. In this step, I lowered the opacity of the sketch layer and began painting on a layer on top of it. For the green values, I picked from the darker steps after PMS 580. Working this way is useful in that it gives me a range of values in the same hue to work from. The warmer areas were painted with 7620. Even though I'm starting with simple PMS colors, as I vary the pressure, they mix with underlying colors and create new colors. The painting becomes my palette. I continued to vary my brush choices, sometimes adding Scatter to add randomness. To refine the edges, I used a smaller brush and painted more carefully. Pretty quickly, it's starting to come together. At this point, the values should tell the story, even if they aren't to the extremes of dark and light yet.

First artwork of the year

It's quite a surprise, but did my first digital painting of 2025. I hadn't actually planned on this, but sometimes things just happen. The origin of this odd piece is  is as follows. In one of my classes this semester, I was asking for suggestions of an image to search for. I heard 'frog' and did an image search. An unexpected image was among the results. I liked this little guy just sitting on the edge of a rock, dangling his feet in the water. It just called out to me to paint it, but I felt it needed something. Frogs aren't known for wearing clothes, but I felt that this guy needed some swim trunks, especially given his pose. I couldn't stop there and thought he might need some water wings, if only to boost his confidence. I started with this simple sketch, done freehand while looking at the reference image. You may notice that I used a toned background; that's almost always a better idea than starting out against while. 

For the brush, I decided to step out of my usual comfort zone and started with a different brush from Photoshop's Natural Brushes group, now assigned to Legacy status. I didn't use either of the two brushes I use for just about all my work. I made some modifications to the brushes I chose this time, but was always mixing up the brushes used for this piece. I was trying to see if the working process or the end result would be noticeably different from what I usually do. In this next step, I painted on a layer underneath the sketch layer. For the green areas, I used a Pantone 580. For the pinker skin areas, I used light Warm Greys. This is a common practice for me that I kept up with here: I start out with a range of PMS colors to start out. Painting lightly and loosely, I allowed some of the background color to show through.

My work from last year

Time to pull it all together again and see what I accomplished last year. I usually wish it were more, but that's how it is. It was a busy year at the university; there were a lot of projects I was involved in. 

This first image is actually a still from an animation I worked on. I 3D tracked the video in After Effects and exported the data to Cinema 4D. There I built simple geometry to match architectural drawings of this luxury hotel that will be built in Florida. I had to find most of the source material myself. The geometry was rendered out simply, like a blueprint. The source video was from a drone shot. I animated the building being constructed, rising from the ground. Some rotoscoping was necessary to bring it all together and put the CG elements behind the trees.

This one isn't that exciting. It's some construction components called a slide bearing that had been simply rendered for a previous illustration. I needed to jazz it up a bit and change the main plates to look like they were painted green to match the latest version of this product. It was hard to make it look good, but I did my best. I didn't have much in the way of source material, but I did have some closeup photos to show me the color of the paint. I did the best I could on it. It's not great, but it does the job it needs to. I don't think I could have done any better.

Time for some more life drawings. That's the summer class I've taught since I started at UNG. This one is just a simple, quick sketch, probably not taking much more than 30 minutes. It's of one of my favorite models to work with. I've drawn him a lot and for some reason, it's pretty easy for me to catch his likeness. This one is quite simple, done with NuPastel and white. Not much going on here, but it came out strong.

Another sketch from my summer class. This is a newer model I've been working with and she is lots of fun. We were concentrating on standing poses, so that's what we have here. It's also interesting to add some drapery and other elements to the scene. This would have been from the last pose of the class session, lasting one and a half hours. This drawing is just charcoal and white. They don't always turn out well, but I think this one did.

Another final long drawing from the summer class. For this one, we were working on reclining poses. I also try for dramatic lighting to make things interesting. I've done a lot on this little couch, so I keep trying to find ways to change things up. For something like this, I concentrate on the figure while the model is in the class. After the drawing session is over, before cleaning up, I work on finishing up the couch, since it's not going anywhere. I used NuPastel for this one as well; the blue color gives a nice look.

This is not a final image, but a still from a video sequence. I built, textured, and animated this model in Cinema 4D. Luckily, I found a tutorial online to help me with the animation of the teeth going around, which was based on animating a bike chain. This image isn't great, but I was pleased with the model. It was a bit complex for me, but the worst part was that I had to pretty much make it up myself, using random photos of the machine I was supposed to be creating. I had to fudge some parts, but this would be used in an animation where the process was more important than the hardware used. I finished that animation, but honestly, this still here is a better representation of my work. The motion blur visible here was added in After Effects.

Now here's a big one. I did this for a large exhibit graphic. The client was pretty specific about this image: a large commercial plane with a sunset in the background. I did my best to make it look dramatic and pretty. The actual product I'm illustrating here are the little grey patches and expansion joints in the runway pavement. The final configuration of all this stuff changed quite a bit several times after the image was practically complete. It took a long time for this client to be happy. That happens sometimes. I have a few elements here in this image that were not in the final that I delivered. I like this one a bit better, but you have to give clients what they want. But whatever the version, I think this was a successful project.

 

Here's a tricky one. I did a lot of initial sketches to figure out how to fit all the elements in. This image was used for a number of purposes in a few configurations. I try to build images in a manner to fit all these needs. This company makes foundational construction components that are used in a lot of energy-generating projects. That's why all these elements are represented. My main concept was to use the blades of the wind turbine as a compositional device to separate the different scenes, while joining them into one. It's tough to fit all this disparate imagery together into one illustration and make it work. I think this one is pretty successful. Usually, that's best accomplished by keeping the client out of the creation process as much as possible. I mostly like this one.

The previous image, as many details as it contained, was not designed to be the final image. The idea was always to include inset images of the products this company makes and installs. The background illustration shows the products in application, in what are hopefully interesting scenes. But we needed to see what they actually do these inset images show the foundational pieces that keep these structures firmly rooted to the ground. For these more detailed images, I built them all as 3D models in Cinema 4D. This allowed me to make changes more easily, that that was a good thing here. I made so many versions of these things. For some reason, it was hard for the client to get me reliable source material. I just had to keep making final images to get their input.

I did my best to light and texture them to completion in Cinema 4D, but things usually look a bit better if they pass through Photoshop. I do multi-pass renders, so I have various layers to work with to get the best effect. I use a combination of photographic textures for the final result. This soil anchor image went through a number of revisions. I guess this one is the best. 

Another of the inset images. I did a total of four (one was double height), but they weren't all that interesting. I liked how this one turned out, but it wasn't the final version. That one was pulled back a bit more and showed a below ground cutaway of their structure. There's nothing too creative here, just a need to display the required items.

This was my last painting of the year. It was done as a Christmas gift for my daughter. I had made paintings for my other kids as gifts and needed to make sure that they all had one. This is a representation of our favorite vacation spots in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. I had been wanting to do something like this for a while. The truth is, I wish it had turned out better, but I guess it works.

My work selected for Exhibizone

I'm trying to get my work out there into exhibits and shows. That's part of what I need to do as part of my tenured position, but it's hard with digital work, especially of a more commercial nature. Exhibizone is an online gallery that I submit to occasionally. This year, they had Scenic 2024, and accepted a digital painting of mine into their show. I actually used one I had done previously, but it seemed to fit their theme.

Click here to see my image in Exhibizone's gallery.

Joint project with a student

An interesting opportunity came up this year. City Hall in Dahlonega contacted UNG's art department asking if a student could help out with a project they were working on. It seems there's a project to complete a walking path around the local reservoir and one of the first steps is to build a pedestrian bridge over a creek that leads into the reservoir so people don't have to walk in the road. For some reason, they wanted a good rendering of what the bridge would look like to get the project moving along. There was money available, so I hired a student and paid him. It would be some great professional work experience.

The project was simple enough, so I figured only one student was needed. I chose one that had the skills required. Vaughan Duncan was a senior and very capable artist. I had him build and render an accurate enough version of the bridge in Maya. I took the photo to use as a background plate. I acted as the liaison between the student and the rep from City Hall. We worked according to their specifications and ended up with a nice end result. Compositing the rendered passes of the bridge into the photo would be a bit complicated, so I took care of that part. The end result was pretty good and just what they wanted. This was a good example of what we are teaching in our Digital Arts program and I hope some good PR for the university. 

The final image turned out quite good, so I made a tutorial based on it, showing how to composite a CG rendered element into a photo and make the whole thing look realistic and seamless.

Click here to read about the project.

Click here to watch my tutorial on best practices to comp CG renders into a photographic plate.

My work accepted at NUDUS 2024

Since my work is primarily digital and for commercial purposes, it's hard to get into exhibits, but I do enter competitions when I can. This summer, I got a drawing accepted in a juried show. Gallerium.art has online opportunities to submit work. They accepted one of my charcoal/pastel drawings for their nude figure drawing exhibit, NUDUS 2024. It's always nice to get some recognition and it serves as my research requirement at the university.

You can check out my drawing at the online exhibit here.

Work from last year

Here it is. I've been wanting to get these up, but it's been a busy year. Not much of an excuse, I know, but I have two overload classes this semester and everything seems like it takes longer and my days go later and later. It looks like I didn't do much work last year and I guess it's less than the usual. I did do a lot of product design imagery and animation, but I can't really show that yet. I did some personal work that came out nicely, though.

This piece isn't really finished. At the moment, it's just a simple 3D model that I was working on for a larger project. It still needs to be textured and fit into the final setting. I'll do that someday, but the project stalled. That happens a lot, at least for the kinds of things I am on. It will probably start up and get done later this year. Hopefully, it will show up in my next end-of-year post.

Here's a drawing from my summer Life Drawing class. I try to have a long pose at the end of each drawing session. This is a great model I've been working with and we came up with a fun pose using some interesting props. The basket is hers. I was quite happy with it and the end result. Some drawings work out and some don't, particularly working from a live model. That's always a challenge, at least for me. As you might guess, it's easier to work from a photo for many reasons. I like the very classical look we got here. The basket was just a fun afterthought. I've been trying to come up with a clever name for this drawing, but I haven't thought of anything good yet.

Here's another drawing of that same model. This was during the same summer session and it's our long pose again. She always brings interesting props or clothing articles to use. Sometimes I like to work a little larger and do more of a portrait than the entire figure. I was pleased with this one as well and it's fun to throw in a bit of color with the charcoal. Some combinations of the pose with the lighting work out well.

A different model from the same summer session. This was the first time I had worked with this model and it was a good experience. I like to add as many models to my roster as I can and hope that they are all good and work out. For the most part, that has been pretty successful and I get models that I work with on a regular basis in my classes. I did this one with Nupastel, which is very similar to charcoal. It's fun to try and add some color in. She had some bright pink hair color that I tried to replicate, but I couldn't quite catch it. I emphasized the rimlighting on the left a bit more than was there, but I think it works. This image is a good example of how value can work no matter what the colors are.

Here's another commercial piece, but I don't think it was ever finished. It's really a weird idea; this company was doing something with a cornhole competition and wanted their own graphic for the cornhole board. That's what the dark circle in the middle is: the hole for the bag (?) to go in. I ended up doing several designs. I'm not sure which one is the best, but I kind of like this one. In the end, the company decided not to do this at all, after all the work I did. I suppose I just couldn't make a bad idea work well enough.

This is another personal drawing. I like to do these just to keep my drawing skills up. It's not from life, so I can take my time and get all the details I need to. I liked this image and felt it was a beautiful pose. There was also some interesting texture that I tried to capture. I made some changes to the flowers in her hair and felt it would be a nice place to add some color. It's not without its flaws, but overall, I do like this one.

Another of the same sort of thing. It's actually the same model. I liked this pose and enjoyed some of the challenges in the angles and cast shadows. As with a lot of these, I'm trying to add in some color in interesting ways. For this image, I chose the rustic wooden beam she's leaning on. The problem is that it's grey, so how do I make that stand out? I'm using grey Nupastel, but it has a lot of other colors in there as well. Nothing in life is purely without color. I'm pleased with this drawing. I spent a lot of time on it, but that's the luxury you have when you work with photos.

This is a personal piece. It's a digital painting. I had been working on it for a long time, mainly during my classes as a demonstration piece. I started on it long before last year, but it sat around on class computers without much progress happening. I finally finished it off to show my classes how I would paint a portrait digitally. In my Digital Illustration class, I have a portrait assignment that I give my students, so I like showing them one approach they can take. If this image looks familiar to anyone, I based it off of a couple of photos by the Bangladeshi photographer Mou Aysha, who has made some beautiful photos like this. I started with one that I found quite striking, but then added details from another. For me, painting children can be difficult, but I like how this one came out.

This was one I had in mind for a while. My plan was to do it as a Christmas present for my son. It's an F-35, his favorite plane, so I thought he would like it as a gift. The plane was not too hard, but painting the background took a while. I do like this one a lot. I had it printed out and mounted, but I had to do that a couple of times before they got it right. I've made some tutorials documenting the techniques I used to create this. You can start watching them here.