It's raining Cats and Dogs

... in my sketchbook! Some sketches and studies of various big cats and small dogs. I need to delve deeper into animal anatomy. It's about time.

Improving Silhouettes

Hello again, blog, I know I constantly neglect this place so let's liven it up a little.
I just painted this character yesterday after finally being happy with the design. (I have been revisiting this character and story for quite a while and maybe I finally have the courage to pursue this creative endeavor). I wanted to go through my process because I think it's both easier and harder than it looks. The one thing I can say I'm happy to have learned during my time working as a UI Artist is the pen tool. I had no idea how it worked before and now I use it all the time.

So here is the sketch I was happy with. I used the pen tool to create a shape layer. (I use shapes rather than paths because they're easy for me to reselect when I need to.)

After creating a mask from my shape. I go through a couple of comps for the base colors of the design.

Then I create two more layers one for the shadows (blending mode:multiply) and one for the rim light (blending mode: normal). I rough in the shadows depending on where I've placed the light source. It's all really rough and quick. I then sometimes will use the Hue/Saturation to adjust the color of the shadows. The multiply layer allows you to do this pretty easily because you've only been using the one color.

From there I create layers and begin to really render things out. I'm constantly using the mask to keep everything really clean. At this stage I spend a lot of time polishing the face. The rest of the body is almost done with the first few stages. At the end I slightly adjusted some small things that irked me about my mask. After merging all my layers it's easy to come in and erase those small bits.

2014

I'm starting over on this blog. There wasn't much on here and I felt like none of it had any follow through. So I want to start anew and have this by my main blog. So here is my first illustration of 2014. It is the title page of my new personal project. I've set some very specific goals for this project and I've shared them on my tumblr and wordpress and now here too.

• Solidify a style 
• Produce illustrations efficiently and effectively 
•  Finish something worthwhile 
•  Play with scale 
• Work everyday to achieve a long term goal 
•  Build Momentum 

I hope these goals will keep me focused till the end so I can move on to another exciting adventure.