First, I start of with something abstract, running a bit with the method/technique that I’ve used in the recent, mostly abstract pieces I’ve posted.

13 minutes.

I actually like where this is going (the dragon shape is damn near what you see here, less than a minute a couple dozen strokes into it), so it gets fleshed out a bit.

Next, I pop on some crude arms (didn’t like them for the above piece), and then place a lower-opacity copy of the whole image on top of itself, scaling it up and rotating it a bit. Once I hit the right opacity, I dropped it down into one layer, and started working with duplicate layers in varied opacities, blend modes, selective palette knife use, and selective erasing.

10 minutes (from the previous piece into this).

I like this. I know I’m not where I want to be with it yet, but it’s worth saving both as a step and as a potential rough for a more complete piece.

Now, In order to give it more perceived depth and detail, I create a separate piece.

7 minutes.

It’s fairly abstract, but has an industrial tech flair of sorts, and is dynamic enough that I think it will make for an interesting overlay with the previous piece. More layer duplication/manipulation occurs, and then I do exactly that. Finally, I have this:

4 minutes.

I have a pretty good idea of where I’m going with this, but I’m waiting to get my current batch of contract work done before tackling a finished piece out of it. Total process time from start until the end of the 4th piece? 34 minutes. Which brings us to the separate point to be made here– if you’re familiar enough and comfortable enough with the medium(s) you use, you can do exercises of a faster nature like this as well. The above shows that you can take something seemingly quick, abstract, and/or simple, and turn it into a building block for a larger, more complex piece.

All strictly ArtRage 3. Roller, palette knife, and eraser tools. Layer play.

15min.

10min.

17min.

15min.

13min. There always seems to be a least favorite for me in these batches. This happens to be the one for this batch.

45min.

1hr.

30min.

40min.

30ish min. No clue what the fuck this is. Don’t like it, but as stated previously, it’s good to show work we don’t like on occasion as well.

I’m having a not-so-stellar morning, so I’m keeping my words brief (you may all breathe a sigh of relief now).

8 minutes.

15-17 minutes.

50 minutes.

20 minutes. Don’t really care for this one, but I think it’s as important to share the pieces that we don’t care for as it is to do so with the ones we do, on occasion.

25 minutes.

I’ll leave the commentary to you guys– having just aborted a piece of bad RAM from my system after troubleshooting why my computer was insta-crashing, my brain is fried. Trade off? Functional system, but I’ve gone from 2.5Gig to 1.5Gig of RAM. At least RAM is cheap… well, for a 5+yo motherboard, that is… LOL.

Speaking of ArtRage, here’s a thread I just found discussing how to use ArtRage 3 Studio Pro to recreate Photoshop Brushes to some extent, for those who might find that of interest.

Playing around with some new techniques in ArtRage 3. Roughly 2hrs. 5-6 minutes of touch ups in Photoshop CS4 afterwards (minor layer filtering, a bit of brush use for air contours and ambient cloud lighting).

What is it? I don’t know. Something mechanical, flying through the air. The rest is up to your imagination.

Just fucking around with a wood/shrub sort of being, with a hint of fungi. A little over 2 hours, most of which was playing with layers to push-pull for popping depth and shadow.

The one thing I can think of off the top of my head that I wish AR3 had? Somewhat more advanced transformation options, rather than just the basic rotate/scale/skinny/squat/move.

Now I get to return to working on less ‘cute’/more serious apocalyptic cyberpunkian vampire stuff that’s on my freelance pile.

1hr. Mostly ArtRage, with the linework, lettering, and shadowing.

Now, who says I don’t love you?

Moving along…

I dove back into dailies yesterday. No progression with this one, I’ve got a different lengthy post I’m working on for later today. Without further ado, here’s yesterday’s daily:

Just under 3hrs. Initial background and creature painted loosely in ArtRage, without any base linework used. Then ‘ported it to Photoshop, working around a dozen or so layers of varied filter, opacity, and selective erasing on the creature. Brought in foreground and background cloudiness. Rendered in the wreckage in the background with a couple of my custom brushes. Gave the eyes a touch of bioluminescence. Signed the bugger and called it done.

X-Posted to my LiveJournal

ArtRage, then only slightly filtered in Photoshop, mostly for light and shadow.

Oh. Wait. I almost forgot. 15 minutes, total.

So begins Dark December…