Galactic Heroes X-Wing 04.1

Still workin' on this guy...

Han and Leia 05

Here's the pencil colors for this one...back on the shelf while I put the pencils to the X-wing, then I'll bust out the airbrush again, and do touch-ups and highlights before calling it done.

Galactic Heroes X-Wing 03

And here's the paints for this little guy...I didn't really plan a palette for this one, knowing the classic colors already, but now that I look at it, it seems a little flat, but when the splashes of reds, yellows, and blues start showing up, I think it will kick a lot more life into it.

Galactic Heroes X-Wing 02

Again, the fun part, splashing around the paint and doing to water reduction sprays - good times.

Now that I look at it, I should have blacked in the details around R2's dome, that might come back to bite me when I try to put in some blues. But otherwise, on to the colors.

Galactic Heroes X-Wing 01

Longtime readers might remember this image getting abandoned, when I was first starting out with the airbrush. I just wasn't ready to handle the details, the process wasn't quite right, so I set it aside.

Anyways, I dug it out and transferred the original drawing to a primed board - used from the leftover orange acrylic and gesso I had mixed for the Han and Leia board - I wanted to add a little warmth to the tone, the plan is to have an orange X-Wing, and purple/blue background for the underpainting. But first, the blacks...

Han and Leia 04

I had to take a photo - that pesky scanner was way overblowing the purple I put into the faces, and even this digital photo is seeing a bit more than the naked eye - because I was actually pretty pleased with the subtlety I managed to get, and for the first time felt a real command of the airbrush.

OK, this one goes on the shelf until the weekend, when I'll have more time to pick the pencil colors...

Han and Leia 03

Here is the painted and textured canvas, just done with black acrylic. I love doing this part of it, it's pretty messy with paint being splattered and sprayed around - it's pretty fun. Now on to mixing colors...

Han and Leia 02

And here is the transfer drawing, onto the primed illustration board. I think I captured Carrie Fisher/Princess Leia pretty well at the this stage, but I think I lost Harrison Ford a bit - it's clearly Han Solo, but I need to do a little massaging around the mouth and far cheekbone to get the likeness a little closer.

It's not a likeness exercise per se, but it should still be a secondary mission in this test, I think.

Han and Leia 01

So this is really a face test for me, I need to figure this out, at a bigger scale, and without hat and masks like the Cap face test a few weeks back. I just picked some more Star Wars subjects, because I want to.

It's always a good idea to do some practice sketches to get some of the details figured out. These are simply lightbox* tracings over a quick composition I slammed together. I still need to do a few more before I get the transfer set up for the painting.

*I think this is a great example of the bias of lightbox/projection work, you can see how easily you can go off the tracks, as I did with the first Leia. Yes, I had the photo (lowres, but still) underneath, it only takes a few errant lines to destroy the likeness. So I did a second one to lock it down more, but it still needs some more practices, along with one or two more with the Han.

When your subjects are as recognizable as these, you really need to make choices outside of what you're seeing in the photo, to make it work better in the image, and maintain the likeness. This is where it's not simply 'tracing'; the artist needs to bring all of his training into it, still life and figure drawing, sketching skills, and freehand/thought sketching, along with the planning of the future steps in how the pencil work will function underneath the paint and color pencils...

COCOshopped 2 - COCOptimus Prime

The other entry into the contest. Beware Lenotron. Not too much to say about it, but eagle-eyed readers will recognize a compositional similarity to the Transformers:Continuum cover from last fall.

What can I say, I needed a profile shot to work in that giant chin?

COCOshopped 2 - LENO

I'm participating in the COCOshopped 2 contest on the I'M WITH COCO facebook page, I just have time for a couple of entries...the first being a takeoff on the Jaws poster. Fairly quick and easy, mostly photoshop manipulation and the mushing around of things - a lot more work in the fonts/text than is was to add the chin to the shark, and put Conan O'Brien's face on the swimmer.

Tomorrow is the more robust and serious entry, COCOptimus Prime.

Cap/Wolvie Final!

Done! Wow...I have not had a piece in progress for this long since college. So I sat down to go over the first pass of pencils, and really let loose - I thought it was looking too tight and losing a lot of energy, so I held the pencils in different ways, and used the side of the lead, scribbled, etc. When I felt I got some life back into it, I sprayed highlights, and deepened the blacks, and then went crazy with the spatter.

And then called it done. I'm happy with this one in technical terms, the red white and blue of Cap doesn't overpower the mono-green of Wolverine - I'm pretty pleased with that aspect. I'm finding that I really over render faces at this size, so I think I'm just going to do some additional testing, rather than do another full piece next.

Except for one I have on deck, a hard surface test...

Devil Cat 02

No torture for a Sunday morning...he went straight to the sunshine spot in front of the window. On my desk of course, nothing so pedestrian as the floor for Devil Cat.

Cap/Wolvie 06

Here's some more progress on this piece...I have the first pass of pencils done, I still need to go over it again too tighten and blend in some places. Then on to a quick pass with the airbrush, then done...good...I'm sick of looking at it.

Devil Cat

This yowling monster head butts me, body slams into my chest, and claws at my neck, all while purring on '11' - he is a devil, and when he's done, he finds a spot of sun to curl up in.

Cap/Wolvie 05

Here's a minor update...not much after hours time this week...I have most of the pencil colors picked out, and now I'm starting to get to work on it in earnest.

Cap/Wolvie 04

Back to WWII! Here's the airbrush work for the piece. Despite yet another horrible scan, which picked up all the wrong things, I am extremely happy with how everything turned out. Anyways, my control is getting much better with the airbrush, and the blending and overspray* came out the way I wanted it to, to set up all the pencil work that's coming up.

*Except for that white color shield overspray that crept into Cap's glove, but that should be pretty easy to fix.

Disneyland Sketches

I was going to have some alone time in Disneyland yesterday, so before I left I grabbed my little 5x7' sketchbook, and a mechanical pencil. I strolled around the park, and just sketched out stuff that grabbed me as I was walking by...














Some good, some bad, but it really made me look at the park in a different way, after having been there a million times.

Boba Fett Final!

And that's it for Mr. Fett. I'm pretty happy with this one. The main goal was to reconcile hard surface vs. fabric, showing that they're different, but live in the same place...if you know what I mean. I think it was successful on that level, for example, the undershirt that holds the chest armor looks like fabric, but the armor looks like metal, even though the technique and underpainting, drawing, etc. are all the same process up until that last bit of pencil and finish.

Boba Fett 06

All right, Fett has been enscrapened, got his armor all dirty and nicked up. I added in some more small details, and deepened the blacks.

Now what's left to do, is to remask the background, and blend that overspray in - I still want it to show through, but just a little bit. Add some minor highlighting, and paint out the frame in white. That should make everything pop out a lot more...

Boba Fett 05

Well, I got to work on Mr. Fett a little bit this past weekend, got all the pencils done. The next step; I need to bust out the white and black paints and add in all the little scrapes and dings in his armor, and fill in the blacks that got too oversprayed, around his legs and inside the shadows of the cape.