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.

Just in those first few pieces, you can see where I’m starting get comfortable with it. Of those, everything was under 5 minutes. After that, I opted to work strictly in grayscale, rather than with color, to push the starkness more…

Obviously, I’m working with a lot of mirror mode here. Be forewarned– mirror mode isn’t exact, in that it will often do a stark color on one side, but a somewhat translucent reflection of it. At least, that’s been my experience with much of it. Then again, it forces some uniqueness to each side, which isn’t a bad thing.

If you haven’t figured out yet, I’m more comfortable with working entities than I am objects or scenery. I think that, when you’re learning something, sometimes the quickest way to get a starting grasp of it is to attempt to do the things you’re most comfortable with first.

At this point, I got comfortable enough to start working with asymmetry, and as such, I dropped the mirror. The following 3 pieces are more open-flow, with the intention of being quick thumbnailing:

None of these were drawn with starting intention. I didn’t go in saying, “hey, I’m going to draw this robot/person/whatever”. Rather, much like some of my speedpainting in ArtRage, I just let the shapes define themselves, and build upon what starts to form in my mind’s eye, so to speak.

For who are now curious to use it, you can find it here, and it’s FREE. This means you have no excuse not to at least download it and attempt to try it out.

Finally, watch the videos on the site. They’re a really good live demonstration of how to use the program, and also illustrate that the program is intended to foster creativity, starting drawings/ideas that can then be imported to other programs, not to create finished drawings.

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.

All ArtRage 3. 20 minutes.

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.

I imagine it would go something like this…

Day 1: Take job. Tell people how awesome FOX News is.

Day 2: Anecdote about hunting bear. Talk up husband. More bear. Husband “likes beartrapping”. Talk about new glasses– they’re fancy, after all.

Day 3: Tell people how the how being a commentator is like being a point guard.

Day 4: “Jokingly” tell people that Rupert Murdoch hasn’t reimbursed you for your new wardrobe, with a wink.

Day 5: Call in, but tell them that they can come to you for commentary while you’re out fishing with the family.

(Week 2)

Day 6: “Am I allowed to say that Oprah was mean to me yet…?”

Day 7: Take stance to alienate even more of the mainstream Republican Party.

Day 8: Imply that there was an offer to move you so that you could be on The Real Housewives of Orange County, but that you turned it down.

Day 9: Find out that Bravo is affiliated with NBC, disavow personal implication from the day before.

Day 10: “Jokingly” tell Bill O that he’s to refer to you as Governor Palin. Sans wink.

(Week 3)

Day 11: Harry Potter books are a demon possessing the nation.

Day 12: “Why won’t he defer to me as Governor?!?” email to Rupert leaks.

Day 13: Call in, something about contractual obligations to book tour. Fox News employees are frisked and asked to be patient while standing in line… for book signing in cafeteria.

Day 14: Claim “Governor’s Pick” rule applies to the fresh donuts. Bill O demands to know who took his f**king donut. He demands it live.

Day 15: “Alaska is bigger than Canadia. You know, have I ever told you about the Great Moose Hunt of 2008…?”

Disclaimer: No, I’m not “anti-Republican”, per se (I don’t blindly ascribe to any given political party)– I just don’t care for Sarah Palin. At all. I also know the difference between a democracy and a theocracy– we in the United States live in the former, not in the latter.