Weep

New Illustration, keep your eyes posted to this blog for a demonstration tutorial where I cover the whole process from expanding the initial thumbnail, rough sketch, color planning to final painting. My aim with the demonstration is to help others as much as I can. Its a love gift to anyone who wants to learn more from the universe through me... so I hope it does help. I'm editing and 'voice overing' so I'm hoping to get it up here within the next week. I'm doing it in between writing my next book (due early next year) and illustrating my first comic book (also due very early next year preview of page 23 ). If you like contemporary fantasy please consider buying my debut novel: The Snickitysnatcher HERE

ciro correia

Quick photo study - 1 hour

Working with my timer on again, aiming at skill building. Changes are subtle, in my head... to do with my approach and focus. Aiming at the most direct method and brushstroke, honesty, letting go of particulars and details until the end, compositional principles, form, value and color. Its not about reproduction, likeness happens anyway; AND ABOVE ALL SUBJECT MATTERS LITTLE.

Older Illustrations - The Juniper Tree

These are from 'The Juniper Tree' by Brothers Grimm (My illustrated version). It is one of my absolute favorite Grimm fairy tales, I remember finding an old dusty copy of Grimms at my local library when I was about eleven. Reading it late into the night. Probably post more of these sometime. My personal favorite out of these three is blood in the snow.

Concept Sketch for new book and other projects

I'm currently working on two, exciting large scale projects amongst my smaller scale projects. Firstly, I'm working on my first 'comic book' slash graphic novel, written - illustrated etc on my own. It is going to be interesting, currently looking at my options on publishing. Storyboards are pretty much done and preliminary sketching is under way. The deadline has not been set in stone as yet but I'm hoping to get it all done before December. The second project is well on its way and getting me excited. Here is a concept sketch done for my new novel set for release and to be published near the end of this year. The sketch is of 'the imperial road' which runs through a huge empire. Some of the main characters travel along the road at one time in the novel, armies march off towards rebel provinces and ultimately some battles are fought on it. This is just the preliminary concept sketch of the road and terrain. Will post some from sketches and completed art from this project from time to time for those who want a sneak peek. Sketched out in Photoshop with brushes.

The Dark

With this illustration I'd like to quote Ed Young, illustrator of one of my all time favorite children's books:

“To all the wolves of the world for lending their good name as a tangible symbol for our darkness.” 

― Ed Young, Lon Po Po

Wolves are amongst one of the most noble and beautiful creatures on our world.

'The Dark' - WIP 2

Had some time to post this up. It is the second work in progress post for 'The Dark'. I'm working on compositional elements and maintaining the value range I set for the image. Working on anatomy and such as I go, the basics are okay so fixes are pretty easy.

WIP2

WIP1

Screen capture of some of the workflow below:

Speedpaint - alien environment

Experimenting and playing around with different techniques and approaches:

Quick photo study - landscape

Here is another quick photo study. I used to have dreams as a child with these kinds of landscapes, in the dreams gravity was somehow different. I could leap across the terrain easily. Immediately attracted to this photo, so I did a study of it. Growing skills.

Photo studies and exploring new approaches

These are two photo studies I did recently. The aims I set for these studies were very specific. I didn't want to just create copies, as valuable an exercise that might be at times. I recently got Donald W. Graham's book 'Composing Pictures' (birthday present) and I have been undergoing paradigm shifts at the presuppositional level. Earthquakes. The changes in viewpoint are subtle but things I have been searching for for a long time. They eluded me for a while but I have finally been able to make progress on this level. I remember reading something that Sparth said and thinking how that was something I was trying to get a grip on. He said that going digital gave him a sense of the canvas, that he had discovered it in a sense (paraphrasing, from what I remember). Well, this is what I'm discovering: a sense of the dimensionality of the canvas - the picture surface. My views are shifting radically and I have discovered something I've been looking for for a while. I think for an artist sometimes the Gnostic idea of hidden truths is really applicable. You study, you paint and experiment, you know something but one day suddenly those things you know transform and you relearn them from a deeper point of view. It's time to level up babe and I'm going to ride this monster wave right in to the shore this time.

These were speed painted studies:

The figure study: I chose a photograph with nice light and my purpose was to be super aware of the surface whilst painting, being aware of the symbols, lines, shapes and areas I was creating. Further I have come up with a concept of hidden light and color that has surprised me because I think I might be right. I held these ideas in my head with the aim of creating representational art but not thinking of the subject matter as representational. Strange? I am pleased with the end result of the study because I captured an essence beyond that of the photo and all along I was in this abstract mode of creation.

The landscape: I want to do more of these. Again, the same as above. I struggled a little at times but managed to pull myself away from mere reproduction most of the time. It has been an interesting experience. These images are obviously not completed but they contain more than enough information to convey a meaningful message. 

'The New World' environment

Involuntary settlers on a New World, like their forbearers arriving on the shores of the continent of North America. These new settlers carve the mark of the familiar and comforting on a cliff face near the crash site. I wanted the light and colors to be super vivid like the light on a planet that had two suns and some different conditions to the ones on earth.

Work In Progress for 'The New World'

Involuntary settlers in the New World. This post has a selection of images from my work in progress for this environment concept. This is the image before final color and other adjustments - an alternate version.

Part of the brief was to create an image of a crash site where the survivors have taken salvage from the wreck and created makeshift dwellings in the surrounding cliffs and  in the hot and dry desert conditions. In the brainstorming and ideation phase I had the idea that some of the survivors, longing for Earth and their culture managed to carve a representation of the Statue of Liberty into one of the cliff faces. This was of course after they finally accepted that this was going to be their new home. This was not in my original thumb but I felt it carried the spirit of the brief into a higher level. The piece is finished but not finely worked off, as I tried to keep it in the conceptual art zone. I think I'll revisit this theme. I have a series of other images planned, 'in the great hall'... 'the view from the statue of liberty'. I was throwing ideas around about the city that had resulted from the crash site, what they might have called it perhaps 'New New York' but thought that that might have been to obvious. It might be more likely that they didn't give it a name at all, hoping for rescue someday.

thumb sketch:

before change in perspective:

The image shows the valley and scene of the crash a few decades on. The survivors have had children and some have moved out of the valley. A few remain 'in the valley of origin'. One of them stares up to what seems to be a craft or two of some sort breaking through the atmosphere. Rescue?

Below I've added a screen capture of some of the painting and sketching process:

Environment - Ship Down

Environment Concept Art. Ship goes down on strange and hostile planet.

The Magician's Daughter - Final

Please see previous post for details.

The Magician's Daughter - process

I've had the idea for this painting for a while now. During the planning stage I had a few thumbs that I really liked, so much so that I have decided to repaint the idea from the perspective of the other thumbs I haven't used. I'm going to use other brushes and methods and do this as an experiment, see what kind of outcomes I get. This version came about by combining 'The Magician's Daughter' idea with a desire to pay tribute to one of my favorite painters. There are Echoes of J.W. Waterhouse's painting 'Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses' I am busy doing a master copy study of it at present and thought it would be cool to apply what I am learning from the process into this painting. In NO WAY do I want to copy so I'm hoping that you see that it is a tribute and that it stands on its own. There are things that are very different in style, etc. So, this is not just 'fan art' but, I am hoping you agree, a painting to be taken seriously on its own.

Here are some of the 'WORK IN PROGRESS' shots. The first one is just the initial 20 min sketch. The ADHD part of me just wanted to start painting already but lately i've been working on discipline and adding value to my process so I continued the rough sketch into a clearer sketched out picture of what was in my head. Greater detail in the sketch phase makes sense, since clients and supervisors can't see what is in your head or make sense of extremely rough lines. This is a personal piece so If I were doing it for review or approval I would have taken it a lot further and refined more but by the time I got to this point I was just itching to get it done already! So I wanted composition clear, some sense of the values in the painting, approximately accurate sketch of the final.

The next image shows the image after blocking out color areas and having begun painting in areas after I decided on the color palette. I wanted the palette to be similar to Waterhouse's painting in my study.

The third image is just before I begin polishing some of the surfaces (mainly focal points) and adding in edges, etc.

I just recently received some good feedback from a fellow artist on WIPNation about composition and some individual elements, which I appreciate. I will probably tune the image at a later date after a short break. In the meanwhile here is an alternate cooler color version.

Ichabod D'Amarelo - Character Illustration (stylised and rough version)

The slightly insane and strategically brilliant Captain of 'The Frolicking Jade Empress' from 'Tales from the Sunless Sea'.  This is the rough sketch that I neatened up a bit, it actually goes with other sketches of the character. This one is the most stylized of the bunch. I'm working on putting a variation of styles into this blog and ultimately my portfolio. My preferred style of painting is representational and realism but as a professional I want my work to reflect the fact that I can do anything from ultra stylized work to ultra realism. Watch this space.  

(Sorry, if you're using an older browser this .png image might not display correctly, time to upgrade :))

Concept Art - The Crypt

Concept Art for game level. I created a few different versions of this during editing to try optimize the light.

Speed painting - Self Portrait of the Artist - 1 hour and a half...

I speed painted my self portrait in 1 and a half hours. I'm working on increasing my work speed, this took me an hour and a half which gives me a good measuring stick to how much progress I've made over the last year. Another goal I set here was to work tighter and to use color effectively. I used cool and warm colors to heighten the image. I'm happy with the outcome. The screen capture is 35 mins long, please skip through if you want but I think it's interesting to watch the the process and the decisions I made. I find these screen captures really great to learn from  what you're doing.

No Rapunzel...

Speed painted tonight on a whim.

more speed painting...

Here is another speed painting from the experiment I mentioned in my previous post. I decided to do this one in color for variation. I'm enjoying the quick and dirty instant gratification of speed painting. I wanted to add a few fish and spawn more jellies but its just a speed painting sketch so I didn't get round to it.

Speed painting - World Revisited

Speed painting, I only recently began to seriously look at speed painting as a means to sharpen skills and to create concepts faster. This is one of my first 'serious' attempts and I'm hooked. Still forming my visual language in this method but I know where I'm going with it. Feels good. I've been applying some of the amazing principles that Marcos Mateu-Mestre teaches in his mind-blowingly awesome book 'Framed Ink'. As a start I drew out a thumb of the composition with only the dark and lights as blocked out shapes with the focus (this is where I'm applying what I've learnt, I do thumbs normally but this adds edge) on conveying the emotion of the piece as the main overall message. I used this basic thumb to design other thumbnails, I think I did about 6 or 7 but changing the details and elements or subject matter. This was an experiment first of all to show that these emotional/basic compositional thumbs could be applied to anything. The second was to see how effective the target emotion could be conveyed. This was the idea and composition of one of the thumbs that I took and speed painted. I'll probably post up the other ones as well. I screen captured the speed painting process and hope to post that up later as well once I've complied it, etc.

I'm working on a color and finely rendered version of this.