I've Just Added A New Link In Links Area

Benerator Art Machine is a great blog to visit. Not saying you shouldn't stay here and look at my art but, this guy is a very good artist as well. The blog says his name is Ben Nunez and he's a fellow Colors! DS user who enjoys painting robots. I haven't posted anything there in a long while because I can't figure out what to paint. When I do I'll post something nice.

On another note, I'm about to study Lou Romano's artwork among several others. He worked on Disney/Pixar's "Up." For examples of his work check out his Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/lar72 and his blogspot address is listed there as well. He's a pre-vis artist and very good at establishing atmosphere in his paintings.

Nostalgia of Cartoons from the Past.

Nostalgia of cartoons from the past. This past Christmas I had the pleasure of receiving a DVD collection of a cartoon series I've not seen since my teen years. And, I've been more than a little nostalgic for sometime now. So, as an homage to my teenie bopper years I've decided to create some art based on some of my favorite cartoon characters starting with "Lum" from Urusei Yatsura. That's "Those Obnoxious Aliens" for those of you who don't know. Without further adieu here's some sketches I've done in Flash 8 Pro. Enjoy! :)

For some unknown reason I can't upload any image files to this blog right now. Maybe later I'll have the ability to do so. I had to use a work around.

I'll post more art of this character later.

An Old Sketch But I Wanted To Post Something Today

A friend of mine wants me to create a painting of Dora the Explorer for her daughter. Here's an initial sketch I did from a coloring book. I've been looking for concept art and character turn a rounds of Diego, Dora and, her pet monkey but, only found character art and a coloring book I bought for this project. Fortunately, the final product will be all analog and not digital; using color pencils and acrylics. It's been way too long since I've used them. So, in the near future I plan to start back painting with them and watercolors. My interest in using non digital painting methods have been peeked again because of some the beautiful watercolor and gauche paintings I've seen exhibited on other blogs. Sometime this year, I'd like to spend maybe a week to paint on location somewhere I've never been before. That would be a very welcome vacation away from my everyday life. :)

I may ink this image in Flash. Nichelodeon owns the copyright to these characters. If not, I'll do the research and post the correct copyright.

Moonshine : Artists after dark from alexis wanneroy on Vimeo.

Sometimes, I would like to get away from the computer and be creative and get dirty with it in a clean way.

Comics Coming Soon...

Soon, I will post some screen grabs of my work flow with Manga Studio EX 4 which I received as a Christmas present from a relative. Yes, true believers. I will start posting several web comics next year. This is a much needed software to speed up production of my graphic stories. Previously, I would have used Flash to ink my comic art but, now Manga Studio EX 4 will be my app of choice to bring to graphical life my imaginings of comic proportions. EXCELSIOR! (Any Stan "The Man" Lee fans oughta know what I'm talkin' 'bout.)

Where or when I'll post these comics I'm not sure. Unfortunately, most of them are only in idea form and not fully fleshed out. Although, there is a comic I'd like to work on sooner than most of the others but, I haven't nailed down a style for the characters or the full story. One thing is for certain, I don't want to use an "anime" or, "manga" style of cartooning for it. Rather, I'd like to give it a nineties indie film aesthetic with some cool cinematography. I plan on this being a multi volume story that takes place during the span of several years in the lives of the main characters. If you know me you'd know that I'm mostly a sci-fi freak who's into anime, bande designee, and manga. (I asked my best friend to buy Scott Pilgrim the first volume for me as a Christmas present. I read the first chapter of it online and it seems pretty good so, I'm looking forward to reading it. On another note, I still haven't read 'Koko Be Good' by Jen Wang nor, 'Bone' by Jeff Smith. "If you don't know what bande disignee is... oh well.") You konw I will still use Flash to create some illos of somethings like photo-realistic images and some inked art to paint within Photoshop 7. Also, there's a blog with print ready color pallets you can use within Flash. In addition to this functionality, there's also a NTSC safe version as well. I'll post the links later. I'll check for a PAL version for those of you who may need it.
Until later, ciao. :)

Colossal: An Art and Design Blog

My sister just turned me onto a new design blog which she found a link to on Adobe.com's website. I've only seen the first page and it's absolutely stunning. Check it out for yourself. Here's the link. http://www.thisiscolossal.com/ The post that instantly caught eye is about Mattias Adolfsson. http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2011/12/inside-the-sketchbooks-of-mattias-adolfsson/ If I'm not mistaken he worked as a concept artist on an unproduced version of Superman that never made it theaters. I'll have to check on that and get back with you on it in a new post or an edit of this one.

To any of my DA friends who've followed the white rabbit and have seen how far the rabbit whole goes then you've now come to this destination and soon you will experience some pretty cool graphics from your's truly. :) Those of you I owe artwork should have it shortly after I finish it. For now, I'll get back to one of my favorite past-times, surfing the web.

Happy Holidays. :D

Preparations for Inking in Flash MX

This is something I've learned a short while ago and would like to share with anyone who reads this blog. If you've been following my work here you already know I use Flash MX & Flash 8 Pro to ink my art. What you didn't know are my Flash settings for creating the comic book pages I use. Here they are for both versions of this software.
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

Go to File > Export Image. Name the image file with whatever your desired naming convention is. For example, "whatever_Name.png." After pressing Enter the Export Png dialogue box opens and gives you several options. (It is important to save your digital inks as .png files. The choice will become very clear once you take the inked lines into Adobe Photoshop. There's no white background. It's just black lines or whatever color you've inked your art with. That's the reason for the 24 bit alpha channel.)

Width: 3300, Height: 5100 pixels Resolution: 300 dpi (Do NOT Match Screen!)
Include: Full Document Size Colors: 24 Bit with Alpha Channel
Filter: None Interlaced:Unchecked Smooth: Checked
Dither Solid Colors: Unchecked

Lastly, Save as a Template.
Name ----- Comicbook Page 300 dpi
Category--- COMICS
Discription-- 3300 x 5100 pix, PRINT READY Rez
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

Unfortunately, Flash will not save a file at 600 dpi. I've tried. And, Flash 8 Pro can not save a 3300 x 5100 pixels at 300 dpi file. Therefore you have to use a work around. And, here it is:

In Flash 8 Pro you will need to create a file with the following dimensions.

Width: 2643 Height: 4080 This approximates the ratio of an 11x17 in. comic book page.
Resolution: 300 dpi (Do NOT Match Screen!)
Include: Full Document Size Quality: 100
Options: Progressive Display > Unchecked
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

Perils in Nude Modeling is a GREAT Short Film

If you're a visual artist and haven't seen "Perils in Nude Modeling" go watch it now. Even if you're a storyboard artist, cinematographer or, film art director this movie is for you. Each scene cuts on action. The lighting is moody. Yeah, I'm geeking out. I don't care. :) This is one of my favorite short films. This is right up there with Bladerunner. It's that good. To view the film check out this link: http://vimeo.com/7032260 And, IndiPix Films has an exclusive interview with Scott Rice, the writer and director of "Perils in Nude Modeling. You can listen to him talk shop and read more about him at the following link. http://www.indiepixfilms.com/promo/interview/scottrice.html

Perils in Nude Modeling from Scott Rice on Vimeo.

The Anime I Couldn't Think Of Yesterday Is...

Mind Game directed by Masaaki Yasa. Check out this link and read about him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaaki_Yuasa

And, here's the link for you to read about the film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Game_%28film%29

You may want to check Youtube to view some clips of this anime.

WARNING: It's not for kids.

More Art I've Been Working On Recently

Black Friday was an eventful day indeed. I bought a white DS Lite to augment the black one given to me for Christmas in 2007. Anyhoo, in a previous post I showed a screen shot of a picture I worked on Macromedia Flash MX. Since then, I've given Flash 8 Pro a try and I've learned that even though I can't export an 11x17 in image from this version of Flash I can use it to export a smaller image in the same ratio. That's what I've done. In a later post I'll explain my work flow. For now, I'll show you a little of what I'm doing with this. Oh yeah, I'm using the object drawing mode. :)

Some Art I've Been Working On Recently

Here's the sketch I drew a few days ago and inks & colors added in Flash MX. Why use such an old version of Flash? Well, the most recent one I have on my computer is Flash 8 Pro. For some reason, that one does not publish images at 11 inches by 17 inches. Flash MX does. I'll upload a couple screen shots of the color version. Although, I'm not happy with the inked lines; it's digital and I will change them as needed. What's more I'm sure the colors are out of gamut so, I'll have to take it into PS to make them printable. Using the brush tool in Flash MX to ink this is an experience in itself. The tool is very responsive and I have to be very careful not to make mistakes which I do quite often. I'm using a Wacom Graphite CTE 430. And, anyone who has used one of these will know it's like drawing on a piece of slick plastic using a plastic tipped pen. I got a Bamboo tablet for Christmas last year that I haven't hooked up, yet. I plan to use that with my laptop after I get new software. Before attempting to ink with Flash, I looked for online tutorials about inking this way and I didn't find much on the subject. Although, I did come across some really great artists using other Flash tools to create really amazing graphics.

Here's a Little Sketch I've Been Working On

Erica, this is a painting I've been working on for an online friend of mine. The theme she gave me was 'kittens.' My computer crashed sometime ago and I lost the custom brush I used to paint this. As a result, I haven't started back on this for a while. This is not one of the concept pieces I'll give her. Instead, the painting will favor the kittens and not the secondary characters as in this painting. Later, I'll finish this.

Erica, I Plan To Post Art By This Thursday

Recently, I've been checking out The Chiu Stream on Youtube hosted by Bobby Chiu. He talks about drawing with enthusiasm, getting intense and, "getting crazy with it." I haven't done that in a long while. Although, I hope to get back into the groove now that I have some time to be creative this week. Here's the link if you're interested. http://www.youtube.com/user/digitalbobert I use Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom tablet to digitally paint onto my computer. When I'm not using that I like to use a program written for the Nintendo DS Lite called Colors DS.

Also, I plan to continue learning Inkscape. It's a vector graphics software I downloaded from Inkscape.org. It's a European software and it's not set up like any of Adobe's software at all. So there's a bit of a learning curve I've got to deal with. I intend to use it to design logos and images. I may sketch something and post it this Wednesday. Then, on Thursday start the actual painting of the pencil sketch. If so, I'll post the stages of the development of the image here. Send me an email. Let me know what you think. :)

Cool Art Will Be Posted Soon.

I'll post some art by this Wednesday. :)

Just Purchased A Couple of Graphic Novels

I bought "Koko Be Good" by Jen Wang and, "Bone" by Jeff Smith recently. And, I must admit I'm in the mood to create a graphic novel of my own. If you don't know who Jen Wang is just check out this little interview on MTV's website. http://www.mtv.com/videos/interview/576693/jen-wang-studio-tour.jhtml She's my new hero. I like comics and graphic novels so I'm really excited about reading these little gems. Koko clocks in at mild 300 pages while Bone is a staggering 1332 pages. Yes, that's one thousand three hundred and thirty two pages. Bone won 10 Eisner awards and 11 Harvey awards. I've got the complete cartoon epic in one volume. Hopefully, this the original and not the one marketed to kids. Now, I can read my old favorites like "The Whisperer Mystery" by Daniel Torres right along with these two graphic novels. After I finish reading them I'll post my recommendations. :)

Aimee Major: An Animator I'd Like to Meet

I recently Googled an animator named Aimee Major. Last night, I re-read some .pdfs I created from a few articles she posted several years ago. And, since I've started creating animation in Flash that looks like it was created in Flash I'd like to create animations that look more hand drawn and much less like it was done on a computer. Even when I was a kid, I wanted to create some really kick butt art and animation. Although, when I was growing up we didn't have anything like Flash. With Flash one person can animate a feature length film. It takes a while but, it can be done. And, [has] been done by two artists that I know of. Nina Paley creator of "Sita Sings the Blues" and, Tyler Gibb creator of "Minushi." I've only seen some clips of both of these films. Unfortunately, I didn't attend the Harvard of Art schools; California Institute of the Arts. CAL Arts for short. Fortunately, for me there are a lot of animation resources online for the aspiring animator. After looking at some of the resources created by artists who either attended or, taught at CAL Arts, and, taught or worked for Disney animation studios I've realized I didn't know as much as I thought I did about animation. Since animation has been created on computers for some time now, Flash has brought a childhood dream into being a reality. I can now make short films for film festivals and my movies can be seen all over the world. Back to Aimee Major. I've been looking for her insight on animation because she attended CAL Arts and is a great animator herself. (I'll edit this later to add more to it.)

Some Books On Story Development

I've met a young novice film maker who's looking for some books on film making and my list of books may help her in her quest to becoming the next Spielberg, Tarantino, Rodriquez, or one of my personal favorites Leone... Sergio Leone. I was utterly blown away by his use of sound in "Once Upon A Time In The West." But, that's another post entirely. I'll get back to that later. The following list of books are all personal favorites of mine and well worth studying.

She wants to use Adobe Flash to create a short film. Which is a very nice program to use for this purpose. Although, what I've read about Toon Boom Animate is it's a much better program for animation. It was built from the ground up to be an animation software for animators to create feature length films and commercials. The price tag keeps it out of the hands of most animators who aren't affluent enough to purchase the $2000.00+ software. On the other hand, Adobe Flash will only set you back several hundred dollars and is bundled with the Adobe Creative Suite. Which in my opinion is a much better option if you can't afford the much more robust Toon Boom Animate.

Here's my list of books to study. Starting from what you really need to create a live action movie to a fully animated film. These are all in my personal library. So, I can vouch for each one of them.

Film Directing Shot by Shot
Visualizing from Concept to Screen
Author:
Steven D. Katz
(This is the one I was thinking about last week but, couldn't recall the title of the book or the author's name.)

The 5 Cs of Cinematography
Motion Picture Filming Techniques
Author: Joseph V. Mascelli
ISBN:

The Illusion of Life
Disney Animation
Author: Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston
ISBN:

The Animator's Survival Kit
Author: Richard Williams
ISBN:

Don Bluth's The Art of Storyboad

FLCL Storyboard Book
Gainax Animation Studios
(Not Sure.)

Hollywood 2D Digital Animation
The New Flash Production Revolution

How To Write For Animation
Author: Jeffery Scott
ISBN:

From Word To Image
Author: Marcie Begleiter
ISBN:

Karen J. Loyd's Storyboard Blog
Visual Storytelling Advice for Anyone Who's Interested
http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/

To The Girl I Met Yesturday Who's Going To Japan...

Hi. Please, start your blog and link it to this one. I'll post some art here soon. Currently, I'm working on an animation project I conceptualized for an online friend to help with her school project. So, I may upload concept art, storyboards and, the animation here after I copyright them. Please, don't forget to leave me a link to your blog as well. :)

I Haven't Posted Anything In A While

I've been busy in RL with day to day things. I'll post something soon. :)

I Had Intended to Post More Art This Year... Oh Well

I've been busy creating art to be posted elsewhere and haven't made time to create some art for my personal enjoyment. For sometime now, I've been seriously thinking about creating a graphic novel about my personal experiences from several years ago. It would be great to read a slice of my life story in black and white. Anyhoo, that's the plan. And, I'm stickin' to it. lol. :D

No Real Post This Time

I haven't posted anything in a while and, I wanted to post something today. No art or prose to post just felt like typing on the ol' keypad. Ciao. :)

I've Updated the Green Spikey Haired Girl Painting

I hope you like this painting . I've been working on it in my spare time. It's only an update with more WIPs to follow until it's completion.

SDCC - San Diego Comic Con International

It's THE four day media event of the year. There's an annual comic book convention in San Diego called Comicon. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go because of prior commitments. Check out the link to find out more about it. http://www.comic-con.org/ If you missed it you can get the recap on the following link. http://g4tv.com/

I'm Working on More Sketches

I may post more art created with my DS sometime next week on this blog. Until then here's a sketch I'm working on. There's some things that need tightening up and a few that need to be changed but, all in all it' s a nice painting. I'll post the link to the video after I post it on Youtube.

A Couple of New Sketches

These are a couple of sketches created on my DS Lite. The top one was done in a coffee shop from life. And, the second one is a work in progress inspired by Hajime Sorayama's fembots.

Here's Something I'm Working On At The Moment

This is inspired by Richard Linklater's "A Scanner Darkly." This is a cool film and the DVD extras are pretty cool. I wish there had been more concept art and illustration but, oh well. Here my vector art not necessarily in the same design as Mr. Linklater's but just as cool. Yeah, I know it's another unfinished piece but, it will finished in about a week or two. The cropped image you're seeing will be posted again.

INVASION! Act: Two - Scene: One

Here's two shots from an animation I've been working on recently. The working title pretty much sums up what this animation is all about. I decided to animate the second act first because the first act is mostly SFX whereas the second act is mostly character animation. the software used is Macromedia Flash MX. Yeah, I know I need to upgrade. All my screen ratios were created for Flash MX. If you ever want to create flash animation for digital video you may want to invest in a $30.00 piece of software called Quicktime Pro. That's what I used to save the animation as Quicktime file in .mov format. I'll upload more later. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb4OsFSmjIk&feature=channel_page

INVASION! - Conccept Art

I've decided to upload a bit of concept art created with Colors! DS. This is not the exact look of the alien octopus but, it is the inspiration for the updated character design I've created. Maybe later I may upload some layout and design from animation to this blog.

The NOT so Speed Painting

This is the painting I'm currently working on. It was influenced by another digital painting I found online by another artist. I hope you like it. Originally, this blog was gonna be a place I could show some sketches and unfinished art. A few months ago I decided to actually only use this for WIPs, finished art and things relating to pop-culture that I'd like to write about. Let me know what you think of my work. I've disabled the comments because someone posted links to websites with viruses. So, don't follow any links I didn't post.

This Is The Drawing I Sketched The on the Plane A Couple Weeks Ago

I finally got my scanner to working again. So, here's the sketch I was working on during my flight two weeks ago. I just got it working last night so, I don't have the painting ready. I'll upload it as soon as it gets done. In the meantime, please enjoy this sketch.

The Joy of Drawing

Finally... A New Post - Kinda.

The drawing I drew on the plane back from my Thanksgiving vacation will be posted tomorrow with the original sketch and the finished painting. At the moment, I'm working on a painting I started on Wednesday night. Actually, it's a sketch. As time permits it'll get done. It looks to be my best yet with no photo-reference. Although, I was looking at the Victoria's Secret fashion show that night as I was drawing it. If you scroll down to a previous post about my digital painting of Monica Bellucci you'll see that I draw and paint digitally using Adobe Photoshop. Ciao.

A tiny amendment to this post...

Due to my scanner going on the fritz. I couldn't scan the image I was gonna speed paint today. So, I'll redraw it digitally, paint it and post it asap. Tomorrow will be filled with errands and things so I may not get back to posting anything until the Thursday or next weekend. Stay tuned because you'll like what you'll see.

Thanksgiving 2008

Preparations have commenced. I have some new pics for your viewing pleasure. Actually, it's the full image of the earlier post still unfinished and some other images as well.

A Painting I'm Working On

There's a painting I'm working now that's been giving me some problems as far as how to exactly place the lights & shadows. Yeah, I know I mentioned not posting anymore unfinished art on this blog but, this way it helps me to actually finish it. Here's a screen cap of my painting mostly done without reference. This is actually pretty good since I haven't picked up a pencil or paint-brush to do some real serious art in a long time since recently. I'm using Adobe Photoshop 7 and a custom brush sampled from the texture of a picture I found online. There's some structural & lighting tweaking I must do to this in order to get it just right. Btw, this is 1280x1024 @ 72 dpi.

My Purpose For This Blog Has Changed

Originally, I wanted to use this blog as a place to post finished as well as some unfinished artwork. Now, I've changed my mind. I will post finished art and WIPs (works in progress) here. Also, I may post some tutorials from time to time. The content of this blog is a representation of my skills as an artist/animator and a forum to share my thoughts with the world about things I find interesting. So, if you're interested I'll post a my opinions of two movies that premiered in theaters this year in a later post.

Studio 4°C: Global Astroliner & Kung Fu Love

Global Astroliner is about a futuristic policeman whose been assigned to go to earth which is now a prison planet filled with waring gangs. His orders are to find a girl named Lala who is a super pop idol. In reality, she is an artificial life form whose purpose is to keep stability in a chaotic world. During the briefing this lawman is told he's got to go down to earth to retrieve her. This is where the story begins. In my opinion, the graphical style of the characters are reminiscent of Jaime Hewlett's Tank Girl comics, and his more recent work on Gorillaz. The look of the layout and design is much like JGR - Jet Grind Radio and, JSRF - Jet Set Radio Future. (Side note: I'd really like to get the artbooks to both previously mentioned video games.) This anime is well worth finding. Unfortunetely, I didn't see it on the Studio 4°C website. If you'd like find out what they're up to here's the link to their site. http://www.studio4c.co.jp/english/ Studio 4°C was one of the Japanese studios responsible for animating the ANIMATRIX for the Wachowski Bros. I'm not sure which Japanese animation studio did the segment with the exploding ambassador robot but, at the time of animating that particular sequence on the very day that particular studio was animating that scene. There was talk of not having keeping it in the finished film but, the Wachowski Bros. said to keep it in there. I'm glad they did. I like action movies and action comics but, to see violence up close and personal is a much different story. No amount of movie violence can prepare anyone for the real thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk4o37A8_NM




Kung Fu Love is about a girl named Hanako Kichijoji who for a reason not mentioned in this video she is hated the entire world except for her boyfriend who agrees to alope with her. This is another film I would like buy sometime soon as the graphics and action are top notch. The singer singing the song in this video is from the pop group SPEED. I think it's Hiroko Shimabukuro. Hiro for short. My avatar is a picture of her. Anyway, there's not too much in the way of story that was shown to tell you about. You either like wacky storylines that eventually get to a more serious point or not. (Not wacky like Trigun.) Just give it a try you may like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yMrOcaDZJM

I Finally Updated "The Look" of My Blog.

I hope you like the new look. In case your wondering no, the color combination is not being used in anticipation of Halloween. This is how my blog will continue to look from here on out. If any of you are interested in checking out Colors! DS and you own or have access to a Nintendo DS Lite here's the updated info on it. The following link will redirect you to the new site. http://colors.brombra.net/moved.php Recently, the creators of Colors DS! have changed servers and their web address changed as a result. Here's the new address for those of you who don't want to wait for the new site to load. http://colors.collectingsmiles.com/ Also, if you own or have access to an iPhone or an iPod Touch you'll like reading about Colors DS! for these Apple products. Just go to the App Store on iTunes to purchase and download. Enjoy.

The green in this post is yellower than the green in past posts. I'll try to find a way to change the previous posts font color to be more consistent with the font color of this post.

Yet Another Unfinished Piece...

This is the most I've posted in a single month so far. I'm uploading an unfinished piece entitled 'Asian Girl Portrait: Digital Watercolor.' Seeing as how I'll soon make a living from my artwork I really do need to start finishing things up. Anyhoo, this art will probably stay unfinished because I was only trying out some new watercolor brushes I created from an online tutorial. Asian Girl Portrait: Digital Watercolor was painted about a year or two ago using Adobe Photoshop 7 and a Wacom tablet. If you're interested and would like to read about how to do some cool art like this as well open the following link.

http://danidraws.com/2006/12/27/create-a-watercolor-painting-in-photoshop/

A Few Sketches I've Been Working On

These are just a few sketches I've been working on. Some are more recent than others.
This painting is an interpretation of an image I found online. I might upload that image in a later post to show the differences of this image and the original. My intention is not to violate the copyright holder's ownership rights but, to compare my reinterpretation to the original picture in an artistic way.
I painted this as a result of wanting to attend the San Diego Comic Con but, didn't. It's my vision of a cool cosplayer who's been cosplaying for a long time. This is something I fully intend to participate in at an anime or comic book convention someday soon.
Just a sketch.
An image I found online.

This one is another painting of the Disgea character from a previous post.

I've Not Posted In A While...I'll Post Art Soon

Sorry for not posting in July and August. As the title suggests I'll have something for my adoring fans soon. I've been busy surfing the world wide web for little tidbits and what-nots. Anyhoo, there will be more Colors! DS paintings and some cool analog art done totally low tech with a pencil and paper. And, I've recently downloaded some very interesting information from a couple of websites that I'll talk about in an upcoming post later this month. Who knew that you could learn how to compose your images online? (It's actually a hint to myself so I'll remember to write about the right things.)

Cute Disgea Charater Painted on DS Lite Using Colors! DS.

I painted this image last Friday after seeing it in a Playstation Portable magazine. I didn't know you could use it as phone as well as a video player. Maybe, I'll post something about that later. I guess I may create something in Photoshop and showcase my real talents. I don't know. I might upload some life drawings. If you'd like to find out more about Disgea feel free to research it. There's another painting of this same character I'm working on and I'll upload it after I finish it.

There Are a Couple of Projects I'm Working On

Currently, I'm working on a website in Macromedia Flash 8 Pro and a portfolio to place on it. For the past few days I've been sketching on my Nintendo DS Lite. I'll post images and videos later. Recently, I started working on a new painting of the pop star Pink. I'll post that maybe next week. Hope you like it. Also, I'll post some actual pencil and paper art sometime. Since, I use a WACOM tablet I don't draw on paper often. Instead, I draw directly in Photoshop and Flash.

Here's a painting I'm working on using the Nintendo DS Lite. This is the second stage of my painting. Let me know what you think.

Digital Painting Done on the Nintendo DS

The original .avi file was a little over a gigabyte at 30 fps. Anyway here's three of my paintings. I'll upload more later. To anyone interested in transferring your .drw files to .mov you may need to buy a Quicktime Pro. The applet exports the .drw file as a .avi file which can get very large very quickly. You may want to import the .avi file then export as an image sequence. After that is done go to the folder you saved the images in and click on the first image in the sequence to bring all the images into Quicktime. Make sure you save as 20fps. The file will be much less than an .avi file. Of course, I'm paraphrasing but you get the idea.

Cowboy


A Pretty Girl (Gray)


A Pretty Girl


I also painted the gray one using Colors! DS. How this brown-ish gray color happened I don't know. It occurred while I was creating the Quicktime file.
If you're interested in using Colors! DS for the Nintendo DS Lite here are the links to learn more.


The Main Page:
http://www.collectingsmiles.com/colors/

Feedback is appreciated here:
http://www.collectingsmiles.com/news/...

Techinical discussion found here:
http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php...

FAQ can be found here:
http://colors.brombra.net/faq.php

And, visit the Colors! gallery here:
http://colors.brombra.net/

A Very Strange Toy To Give a Child

During my travels on the world wide web I've come across a very strange set of plush toys on the Gizimodo.com website. They're cute and cuddly and if you didn't know English you'd buy this adorable set of toys. Designer Emma Megitt is responsible for their creation. When I first saw the images of them I thought, "Wow, these are so cute." Then I read the title. Ewww!!! Somebody actually designed and marketed this set of plush toys. And, as the article states, these toys have completely sold out in the original market of Sweden. I gotta give props where props are due. Emma Meggitt has come up with a very, very memorable plush toy line. I'm not sure if it will catch on here the US though. LOL. If it does I may buy them as a gag gift for someone special. Hahaha!!! :D

The image and information are from the following site. And, all rights reserved by the respective copyright and trademark holders. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/may-be-best-to-keep
-these-in-the-toilet-but-your-call-137634.php

Colors DS Digital Painting App for Nintendo DS Lite

In my last post I presented you with a digital painting program called Colors DS. I've had about two months of fun with this little program and here's a painting I've done with it. For some reason the .png and .drw files didn't upload. I'll repost them. Unfortunately, the .drw file will not post. Instead, I'll save it as an .avi file and post it here later. I finally uploaded the .png file and here it is.

Nintendo DS Lite - Portable Digital Sketchbook

On the Lines and Colors website there's a post by Charley Parker entitled: Colors! and Inchworm: Digital Applications for the Nintendo DS. This was posted on that site on: Monday, November 26, 2007. During one my late night travels on the information super highway I found article about a gaming system someone has been so kind to design a Homebrew program for. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to create art. And one of my art teachers showed us this huge machine that created artwork digitally. He said, "Someday, we'll be using computers to do this stuff for us." He was speaking of art. Now, many years later and I'm using a personal computer to paint digitally. And, soon I'll start using a hand-held gaming system as my digital canvas. This is so freakin' cool. If only this thing was water resistant. In this post I will not upload any images as I would definitely have to use copyrighted pictures so I'll wait to post photos of my own Nintendo DS Lite after I purchase it. Now, on to the meat and potatoes of this post. Before reading the article on the Lines and Colors website I was perplexed as to what buy myself for Christmas. While reading it I knew. And, a few days later called my best friend about it. See for yourself. It's not as good as the Wacom 12WX but, what it lacks in the full robustness of programs like Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter it fully makes up for in portability and ease of use. The quick concept sketches of Simon Rodgers are exquisite. http://www.sim-r.com/blog/index.php?itemid=14 Follow the aforementioned link to view his work created on the Nintendo DS Lite using the Colors! painting program. Also, there are videos on Youtube.com that I think you'll like to see. These are demos of Colors! & Inchworm in action.





The first video stops in mid play. Move your cursor a little ahead of the progress indicator and click once. That will solve the problem. Unfortunately, you will not hear the sound anymore. Don't worry about that as it's all self explanitory.

As of the moment of typing this post there is another program like Colors! under the working title of Inchworm. It's being created by Bob Sabiston the creator of the software called Rotoscope used in A Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. Follow the link to see what is possible with Inchworm. http://www.flatblackfilms.com/ds_new/showimages.php
This is Inchworm in action.

You can buy the Datel Games 'n Music from Wal-mart to install the Colors! software onto you Nintendo DS Lite. It's about $20.00 US. This is the link if you're interested. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5716126
Here's how to set up the Nintendo DS Lite if you don't want to go for the under two hundred dollar route. http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=109672 Oh btw, Colors! a free application from: http://colors.brombra.net/about.php The download page is: http://colors.brombra.net/downloads.php Using the ColorsDraw! applet created by Ben Jaques images can be resized from 256 x 192 to 2084×1536 pixels. The brush strokes are saved as vectors and reinterpreted as pixels somehow. And, the .DRW file format saves and stores a record of the brush strokes. The cool thing about this is with the Java applet you can create a .WMV or .AVI file to upload to Youtube so you can show other viewers your painting process. The Nintendo DS Lite has a built in microphone so you can record audio onto it. I'll post about again after I get the program onto my DS Lite in a few days. I may wait until Christmas to do so as it is a Christmas present to myself. Anywho, I'll get back with you later to explain in more detail. Everything you need to know is on the link I provided for the Lines and Colors website.

This Is An Anime Image I Created Last November

I've been spending way too much time in an online artist community. And this is the result. This piece was drawn digitally using a Wacom tablet & a custom brush created in Adobe Photoshop 7. In all, I think it took about an hour or so to draw. The pixel dimensions are: 1280 x 1024.

This is a Painting Out of Gamut.

I've been spending too much time at an online artist community that's why I haven't updated as often as I'd like. Here's the detail of the face. Let me know what you think. For some strange reason I tend to draw and paint the eyes last. I've got to stop doing that.
Here's an unfinished painting I'm working on. It's not supposed to look demonic. I did something in Photoshop to it and, it looked good. So, I decided to keep it the way it is.

I'm In The Process Of Painting...

This is a random painting I wanted to paint of one of the world's most gorgeous women. Monica Bellucci. As I was surfing the net a while ago I found a website that has a lot of images of female movie stars. And, I had to start this painting. Although, I wish I had chosen another pic that shows her more of her face. Well, by the time I post the finished version it may look totally different than what you see here. As you can see I'm about half way done. Give me some c&c. I'll post again when I'm done. Ciao.

I've Got Some Updates.

I'm working on other projects right now. That's why this is taking so long. This is a totally digital illustration. And, should be finished soon. Maybe in the next week or two. If not, next month just before I start on my new flash animation. I'm not sure if I said where I got the photo reference from in my earlier post but, it's of the pop star Pink. (The reverse side of her CD entitled "I'm Not Dead")

Just a Couple of Sketches...