WIPS

STAR WARS!

ink in the front, watercolor in the middle and acrylics in the back.
Proper scans will come when i'm done.

Nosferatu

Hey there, Here's a better scan of the Nosferatu image I did a few weeks back. (camera phone last time)
And while i had it on my screen, I did some touchups in photoshop. Mostly the jaw and the nose. I didn't want to do too much because I really liked the texture of the canvas. Sure i could fake the texture in photoshop, but it's too perfect like that. There's something very appealing to the imperfect mess that is real paint.

oldie

This is how these acrylic paintings start. with a quick blocking in. i do the drawings on a small scale and then blow them up in the copier and use matte medium to stick it to illustration board or masonite and then just block the major shapes in. after I've figured out the shapes and tones and shadows, i'll start painting.

Rejected.

This image was rejected for a magazine. But I did enjoyed creating it. One of the things about being a freelance illustrator is getting use to rejection, it's never fun (I'm still bummed that it didn't get picked) but at least it still means you still care about your work? It just makes me try harder next time.
This is part acrylic, part digital and even a little gouache if I remember correctly.

Process.

Ok, get ready to read, no seriously.
Two years ago I did a little comic called Team Kat-O. It was a fun little learning experience. Here is how I usually approach drawing characters for a book. First I try to do as many sketches as I can in pencil (some of these drawings are on newspapers, tracing paper backs of pizza boxes). Mixing and matching which features look best for the characters. Depending on how much time I have, I would then sculpt the character. If I had a lot of time I would use clay, either Super Sculpy or Paper clay ( I like paper clay because I don't have to bake it, I hate baking when i can't eat it at the end)

These are typical paper clay sculpts, not much detail, but enough for reference. The middle one is just acrylic gesso with a grey tone, the one on the left is partially colored and the monarch is fully colored.

Now if I don't have much time to work on a project, I would skip the clay all together. This is the main villian, 100 percent zbrush. I love using zbrush for these quick character sketches, where as clay can take 3 or 4 hours for something usable, this zbrush model probably took me about 30 minutes. The cat model took about 1 hour tops, maybe less.
Using these models I would refer back to the sketches and pose them accordingly. Photograph the clay, screen cap the zbrush model. And that's pretty much all I need to maintain the continuity of a character.

Noodles!

hallowen 2011!

here's my mask, taken with the cell phone because my computer is broken.
it's from the "eye of the beholder" episode of twilight zone.




cool?

Keith Olbermann

A new Portrait. He's a fellow yankees fan.

caricature portfolio

Caricature Portfolio from jrtistic dot com on Vimeo.

where the wild things are mask

Hi friends,
It's Halloween and I've got a new mask process post!
I did a "Where the wild things ar"e monster. Here are the steps. First I looked for ready available supplies. Then I had to determine how much time I was going to spend on it. I have lots of paints around and some junk air dry clay from my cousin. The junk clay is Crayola model magic. I've used it once and I know I won't be able to get good textures on it, so I'd have to fake it with paint and acrylic modeling paste.


1. The base modeling, took about 30 minutes. It's almost impossible for this clay to blend together, so I didn't fuss too much with it. I knew I could fill in those folds with modeling paste. The horns will be worn over my hoodie so I didn't want to attach it to the mask.
2. I used a cheap paint brush to load up on the modeling paste and fill in the folds and use it to fake fur. Did I mention I didn't have any fur to work with?


3. After the modeling paste, I mix a base color with the acrylic gesso and prime the mask for painting!


4. Next I mix up some paints, 4 colors because that's all i need for this and lay it down on the mask. Mostly watered down acrylic paint to get into the crevices.

5. I start off with a large brush and work down to a small one for the details like hairs. About an hour later I'm done.



Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2009!

One of the cooler things about living in NY is the Halloween parade.
Anyone with a costume is allowed to be a part of it. Here are some
of the more memorable scenes from this years parade.

The expression on this guy's face was priceless.



The skeleton puppets are always a crowd favorite.

The one night stand guy. There's booze, drugs, and condoms on the table.

The old man dressed as a vagina. Very proud of his contribution to the parade.

And of course, Jessica posing with our costume. BEHOLD!

Halloween costume! process

Click to enlarge




enjoy!

Glenn Beck of Fox news.

A new portrait of Glenn Beck.

the Weather in NY has been really nice lately, I'll try to do some out door paintings and sketches.

Finished Michael Bloomberg

Here's the final michael bloomberg portrait.

new works in progress

Here are two new images i'm working on, one is a portrait of Michael Bloomberg and the other is a creepy thing. acrylic plus photoshop for Bloomberg and photoshop for the creepy thing.

Conan and process

Conan's dance. And the process.

finished caricature of republican messengers!

Hey there, If you reconize these folks, thumbs up for you!
I can't call this digital, but it's not completely acrylics either, it's mixed media.
I sketched it with pencils, scanned it and did some cleanups in photoshop, then I printed it out and painted over that. After that I scanned the painting and finished it off in photoshop. How much is digital and how much is paint? I'm not sure!

new republican caricature

Here's a wip Rush, Michael, Bobby, Mitch, Michelle and John. The final image should be posted shortly. Pencil + acrylics + digital
More caricatures are in http://lolz.jrtistic.com

new drawings

Three new drawings, acrlyics + photoshop = magic!

and another munny?

My cousin's daughter turned 2 today, so I made a munny portrait for her, She's the one in the back. I'm HOOKED on these munnys

i'll take some better pictures later today.

here's a video, sorry for the sound I was listening to the radio.

THE FAUN FINISHED

The Pan's Labyrinth faun!
Here it is folks, all done with progress shots and notes. I hope you enjoy it.