Featured Illustration: Thoughts Of Spring II

I started this painting while giving an ArtRage demo at a gallery show Downtown. I figured I would finish it and add something to my Spring series. I started using reference but worked from memory to finish it. This piece is definitely more abstract than the last and I think I like it that way.


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Featured Illustration: Thoughts Of Spring

I started this illustration when I was stuck on Sade. Winter was quickly approaching and I was already thinking of Spring. Then I just got to a point when I was uninterested in finishing it. Other projects and inspirations came. My Butterfly sat in my Sketchbook Pro portfolio. As Spring got closer and the weather got warmer I got inspired to finally go in on this one. Thankfully I did the groundwork months ago. Finishing it wasn't too bad. I can't wait until Spring.


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Featured Illustration: Chris Rock in The Blame Game

Chris Rock is definitely one of my favorite comedians. He's very intelligent but at the same time raunchy, relevant and outspoken. He's just hysterical. His guest feature on Kanye West's Blame Game was no exception. After listening to his skit at the end a few times I thought that I could turn it into a nice gag illustration.

I took some risks on this one with the oils in ArtRage. It's actually similar to my Young Jeezy painting from Sketchbook. Though this one looks more like what I envisioned. I don't think I was quite satisfied with it until the last few strokes. I just didn't think I captured him until I stepped back and really looked. ArtRage is quickly becoming my go to portrait painting app. Photogene came in handy for the dialog balloons too. I love the juxtaposition of the fine arts and the cartooning.


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Speed Painting: New York State Of Mind

I just got back from my trip to New York City. I went to see Talib Kweli at The New Era Flagship store. He was signing posters to promote his new album, Gutter Rainbows. Before he arrived I started this painting and then finished it when I got back. I gave Talib a portrait I did of him in Brushes too. That will be posting tomorrow with a YouTube video also.


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The King of Pop

This is my last official Christmas illustration. It just got posted late. I painted this for the teacher I work with. She's a huge Michael fan and I love backing myself in a corner with my art. I really should've started something like this sooner but I had something else in mind. I was up until one in the morning but somehow I managed to paint this in one sitting. It was very surprising to say the least. At least I'm getting faster. This project was also important because I hadn't done any realistic looking portraits in Brushes.

This is my first attempt at that but I also have the experience I gained from Sketchbook Pro and ArtRage. It wasn't an easy painting but I did enjoy testing my limits. I mean I grew up on Mike too.


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Christmas Illustrations for all!

I wanted to give illustrations to my girlfriend and my family for Christmas this year. It was a real challenge getting everything done but nothing beats that Christmas morning astonishment.


For the most part these were made in Brushes for iPad. My Dad's was made in ArtRage to have a painterly effect. I had a blast doing these pieces. It was definitely a learning experience.


It's amazing what you can accomplish when you're under pressure to meet deadlines. Look for videos on these pieces later.


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Christmas Illustration: The Grinch

I lost some digital art today. A slideshow was running on my iPad for some of the kids. Unfortunately one of them got up and felt a little curious. When I realized what happened I had two pieces missing. So I guess to cheer myself up I painted The Grinch. I think it's appropriate considering what happened. Live and learn I guess.


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Speed Painting: Fire

This is my third element speed painting. This painting was done in Brushes. I completed the whole thing on the bus going to the gym. That's another convenient feature of the iPad. I paint practically anywhere. I left my stylus at home so this was tackled with my index finger. It's much easier to finish a painting quickly if you're not using a stylus. I didn't have to worry about accuracy so why not?


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Speed Painting: Water

Element speed painting number two. I felt like rendering this one in ArtRage. I was going to use watercolor but it just renders too slow for my taste in the app.


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Speed Painting: Ice

I put this one together quickly on my break. Definitely inspired by the cold New England weather. It proved to be a nice experiment in layering. Put together in Sketchbook Pro for iPad.


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Featured Illustration: Kid Charlie

After finishing Waka Flocka Fozzie, Lola Minaj and Bugs-B I wanted to come up with another mash up. Kid Cudi's album cover for Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr. Rager came to mind. While I don't adore his music I did like the symbolism in the album cover. I liked how he portrayed himself as a tragic figure, alone in a dark room and sitting in front of a window to the stars. I wanted to put in place a tortured cartoon character that would mesh with this image.

After a lot of thought I came up with Charlie Brown from Charles Shultz's Peanuts. He definitely fit the bill. Charlie Brown is always getting kicked around by everyone from Lucy to his sister. I knew he would work for this. ArtRage was used to paint him and the background. Sketchbook Pro was used to put in the starry background.


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Apps I Use Daily: Brushes for iPad

Brushes is an app I have heard a lot about since I got my iPad. I ended up buying Sketchbook Pro first because that's what I was exposed to. Later I took an interest in ArtRage and added that to my list of art apps too. Recently I got Brushes for iPad. I wanted to post videos of my digital art on YouTube and Brushes is the app that will let you do that.

Once you start working on a piece there is an option that allows you to play back all of your brush strokes. It's similar to an animated video. Once the piece is complete you can export the actions and upload to YouTube. It's a wonderful art app but in all honesty that feature is what led me to buy it. Speaking of features though I feel like Brushes is a nice mix of options from Sketchbook and ArtRage. You can put reference on top of the canvas, the color and brush options are robust as well.

Tutorials would've been appreciated but after using Sketchbook this wasn't difficult to pick up. Brushes lacks shortcuts as far as I know but that's not really a big deal. I'm still scratching the surface and I'll figure out what works best for me.


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Featured Illustration: Lola Minaj

Wow, didn't I just post Sonic yesterday? Well I'm back with another one. This time the subject is Looney Tunes' Lola Bunny. Originally from Space Jam and later put into the cartoon too. Lola is Bugs' counterpart and love interest. I decided to match her up with Young Money's Nicki Minaj. Overall this piece was finished very quickly. I started it at eleven and just put the finishing touches on it now. You could say it's the follow up to my Waka Fozzie Flame. For my next one I think I'll portray Bugs Bunny as Jay-Z. That'll be fun.


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Featured Illustration: Sonic The Hedgehog

The illustration was pure nostalgia for me. Sonic The Hedgehog is by far my favorite video game character. Despite have a string of terrible games being released after the Adventure series I stuck with him. Thankfully Sonic 4 is a return to true form. Sonic The Hedgehog by Archie Comics also happens to be one of the first comics I've ever read. I've been a loyal fan since I was a kid. This character actually got me into writing and drawing my own comic books. I go way back with Sonic.

I figured I had to pay homage to my childhood hero on the iPad. This time I wanted to use Sketchbook and ArtRage in conjunction. I illustrated Sonic in Sketchbook and the background in ArtRage. The reference I used was from an issue of Sonic and a screenshot from Sonic 4. Pat Spaziante was was the illustrator of the cover. He was always my favorite cover artist for Sonic. All in all I had a great time putting this together.


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Featured Illustration: Waka Flocka Fozzie Bear

I usually like to give my featured illustrations room to breathe but I just had to post this one. The idea came to me to paint something whimsical. I wanted to get back to doing some satire illustrations. ArtRage seemed to be the app of choice for this one. What I'm trying to do now is create a series of projects for both Sketchbook Pro and ArtRage. This way I'll stay into what I'm doing and have options.

After seeing The Baraka Flocka Flame parody video on Youtube I started thinking about what to do. I came up with Fozzie Bear from the Muppets dressed as Waka Flocka Flame. It was a nice juxtaposition to the Sade I posted yesterday. Thankfully ArtRage updated so I could paint without it crashing as often. I was going for a bold cartoony look with broad brush strokes. Actually I had the New Yorker in mind when I was painting.


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Featured Illustration: Sade

I am becoming a big fan of Sade's music. My Mom of all people put me on her Soldier Of Love album.(her latest album.) I fell for it from the jump. It's just one album I listen to however I'm feeling. That's saying a lot because I am very moody when it comes to my music. Anyway this painting was a challenge for me on many different levels. The proportions were a nightmare. I spent hours making sure things look just right.

In my earlier paintings I made the mistake of not triple checking and had to fix various proportions mid painting. My logic is that if the checks are done during the sketch I will have less difficulty later. I basically took the rendering techniques I learned from illustrating my girlfriend, Rose and combined them with the texturing techniques I learned from painting her cat, Reina. I blocked out all of the various colors on her face and blended them later. Now I just need to take a minute and take in everything I just did. Still can't believe it's done.


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Featured Illustration: Planter's Cashews

ArtRage definitely became literal for me when I was working on this piece. There are so many good qualities about the app but the lagging and crashing made this painting arduous. I still managed to finish this though and learn more about myself in the process. I can be cool headed about a lot of things but when my art gets lost or corrupted it's over. I'm through with that though.

The actual composition of the painting was cool. ArtRage does a great job of simulating brush strokes. I wanted to give the can a slight abstract feel. It wasn't meant to have a perfect copy of the fonts or Mr. Peanut himself. I really just wanted to make this piece my own. I have the damn things everyday so why not?


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Featured Illustration: Human Torch from The Invaders

This is my first real ArtRage painting. I went with The Human Torch from The Marvels series by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. Doing this helped me warm up (no pun intended.) to how the app works. I just love that I can keep my reference in the corner. Blending all the reds and yellows wasn't as difficult. I've always loved painting with oils so that's what I used to tackle this one. Alex Ross has always been an inspiration to me. Perhaps I'll do a series to pay homage to his work.


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Apps I use daily: ArtRage for iPad

I've been using Sketchbook Pro to produce all of my art but I felt like getting another art application to experiment with. I almost went with Brushes. That is until I found out about ArtRage for iPad. I checked out some of the Flickr work for that particular app and I was impressed. It allows you to create art that feels like a natural painting. The digital paint even behaves how you'd expect. Wet paint can be spread and blended with a palette knife. You can even use paint rollers, pencils, pens oil, and watercolor paint.

This app captures everything I love about painting without the hassle. It's also possible to select different canvases to paint on. I absolutely love the attention to detail. Unfortunately the app does have it's faults. For one it's not quite as fluid as Sketchbook. The program will lag on frequently and won't always register with my finger or stylus. This can be frustrated when I'm really into what I'm doing. That said it is a spectacular app. I can't wait to learn it inside and out like I did with Sketchbook.


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Mini Mom & The Hot Tamales

When Rose, my Mom, and I went to get pizza last month she saw the Kitchen Dolls series Rose has been working on. She loved it and joked that she wanted to be a character. Rose came up with the brilliant idea to collab with me and do just that. I would do the background and Rose would illustrate my Mom. I managed to find some photo reference of a plate of tamales and salsa. It got knocked out on my break. Rose finished the kitchen doll of my Mom just after her birthday. We both got sick so it couldn't be helped. (I'm actually still sick as I type this on my iPad.)

My Mom was very pleased with the illustration. It was funny when she asked if I painting the tamales on iPad. I believe her exact words were "It looks so professional!" That's great to here considering it took her a minute to warm up to me making art on my iPad. I guess she thought it wouldn't be the same initially. Rose and I had been talking about working together on a project for a while. I'm sure this won't be the last time since the results are like this.


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