Beware the SCOPE CREEP!!
Scope creep can be the bane of the freelancer’s (any freelancer’s) existance.
What is it?
[Read more →]
March 25, 2010 2 Comments
How a web design goes straight to hell
A link worth checking out.
How a web design goes straight to hell
I can related both as a web designer and as an illustrator.
March 24, 2010 Comments Off
And now – Painting In Real Time!
It seems I’m going nuts with the video software I downloaded.
This is my first go at uploading a video of me painting in real time, and talking as I go.
Don’t get to excited – the conversational content is pretty bad.
But!
It does give fantastic insight into how boring painting all day can be.
I had to upload it in two parts, as apparently time got away from me once I started.
Part 1
Part 2
If people actually find these interesting or useful, I’ll make sure to do more. The software I’ve gotten makes this ridiculously easy, and I’m never short on stupid tedious shit to say!
And hopefully the quality will improve as I go too. The audio quality leaves a LOT to be desired, but to be fair, I was using a roll of toilet paper as a mic stand…so….that.
March 17, 2010 2 Comments
Exposing yourself! (no, not like THAT…)
Something I haven’t yet shared my (unsolicited) advice on is getting exposure for your art in the real world.
Online exposure is all well and good, but by being only online and not paying attention to the world around you, you miss a major chance to get your art ‘out there’.
The key to this aspect of marketing your art, in my experience?
Creativity and persistence.
Maybe good walking shoes…and possibly also coffee (or substance of addiction of your choice), but I think we’ll skip that part. [Read more →]
January 19, 2010 Comments Off
Haiti. And original artwork.
As I’m sure most of you know, Haiti has been struck by an earthquake. The worst earthquake it’s seen in 200 years. So…not so good. Reports are that there are more than one hundred thousand people dead.
Stop for a second and think about that. That’s more than everybody I know. Dead in one go.
Nothing is going to help those already gone, but the people left behind are doing it pretty tough.
If you feel so inclined, you can make a donation to help the survivors through a whole bunch of charities and methods.
And, if you’re in the mood for buying some art, you can do both at the same time.
I’m selling this original artwork, called ‘The Pointless Nowhere Tree’ and, if purchased, will donate 50% of the purchase price to the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Click picture for a bigger view of the artwork
The Pointless Nowhere Tree, signed original
Pen and Ink
Approx 21 x 30cm (roughly 8.5 x 11), but photo shows size pretty clearly.
Comes unframed, and obviously the ‘toeknuckles.com’ watermark does NOT appear on the original
Postage and handling included in purchase price.
I’m asking $135 (US), which is a significant discount from my normal pricing, and includes shipping.
50% will be donated straight to the Haiti fund.
If you’re interested in purchasing, please just let me know!
January 15, 2010 Comments Off
The secrets of painting skin in photoshop
Firstly, the title to this post is deceptive. There ARE no secrets. It’s just boring and straightforward, no hidden tricks, no secret societies, no special handshakes.
But it did sound good didn’t it?
My skin tones and textures are something people compliment me on a bit, and I often get asked what I did to get those results. So, to finally answer that question (and in a manner better than ‘Uh…paint it that way?’) I present:
My list of things that I do when I’m trying to paint the skin to be the good skin, you know, and not the bad skin, when I am painting, like I often do, because it’s my job.
Told you the original title sounded better! [Read more →]
January 3, 2010 1 Comment
Talking about photo paintovers
Being a digital artist striving for a certain level of realism in my work, I’m constantly accused of ‘photo paintovers’.
Those other digital artists out there know exactly what this is, but for those not familiar with the term, allow me to explain: a digital painter (like me) paints, but some digital artists pull apart photos, insert them into their painting and paint over the top of them.
Some artists do this to great effect, and some people ruin artworks this way.
Either way, to be accused of a paintover when you claim you have painted it yourself is quite an enormous insult, as a) it’s suggested that you are not telling the truth about your process and b) people are suggesting you don’t have the skill to paint it yourself.
To show I DO have the skill, I created a walk through of my process and uploaded it to my website some time ago.
Now I’m going to show you something else.
The Opposite of a Paintover!
If it is assumed that you do a paintover to cut corners with reaching realism is characters and objects (I know artists who make lovely multimedia work and DON’T use it for this reason, but we’ll ignore this in this instance and discuss just the digital painter who is trying to take shortcuts), then what is it when you put a bit of painting IN to a photo, having not painted over any photo as a base?
That’s exactly what I did for a competition entry for a design school. We were supposed to express, in 25 words or less, why we wanted to win, and I decided to opt for a visual approach.
The design school assumed it was photography. But it wasn’t.
It’s part photography, part paint.
So this image, here, is part photography, part painting. See if you can pick what I photographed and what I painted:
I’d like to think it isn’t too obvious.
So before I show you the original photo sans painting, I’m going to explain why this is different to a normal paintover – I painted the extras INTO the photo without the aide of a photo to paint over.
November 12, 2009 Comments Off
