New Sketchbook!

New Sketchbook!

Sharpie pens & liquid whiteout on paper

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Was looking for a new sketchbook to do a lot of inking on. Mainly Sharpie pens and liquid white out. Hard to find a good quality sketchbook that doesn't bleed through, especially a small format book with lots of pages. Was told of the Moleskine sketchbook, known for it's smooth, yellow tinted paper which surprisingly holds ink very well. The sketch of Totoro (shown up above) gave it the biggest test so far. The paper did bleed a bit, but not much. So far, so good.

Kaiju Korner

Kaiju Korner

NAno. by Itokin Park on iPhone 3GS
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Spring Colour Lucha Bear by Itokin Park on iPhone 3GS
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Spring Colour Lucha Bear by Itokin Park on iPhone 3GS
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Not much to add but a few photos I took with my iPhone. Just wanted to share with you these beautifully designed kaiju toys by Itokin Park (aka Kazuhiko Ito).

Once More With Feeling

Once More With Feeling

Hellboy: Museum Style Sculpture by Mike Mignola & Randy Bowen on iPhone 3GS
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Brutal Legend: Eddie Riggs by Mark Newman on iPhone 3GS
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Billy 2.0 by Blamo Toys: Spencer Hansen - Dr. Destruction by Muttpop - Tic Toc Apocalypse by Amanda Visell on iPhone 3GS
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Koibito by Yoskay Yamamoto on iPhone 3GS
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Koibito by Yoskay Yamamoto on iPhone 3GS
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Wanted to play around with the vinyls again with the iPhone. I found the last set of photos seemed like product beauty shots. This time around I wanted to try to play more with lighting and dramatic angles to get a better sense of mood. I was very happy with the Hellboy shot. I used natural lighting with a half closed curtain to get the matted reflection off of my flat screen television as a backdrop. Hoping that I will be able to recreate this shot with my SLR camera so that I may be able to make a large print of it. The difficulty in that task is that I used natural light, the SLR is less forgiving and I do not have a macro lens. Will keep you posted...

PhotoForge: Curves

PhotoForge: Curves

PhotoForge App on the iPhone 3GS OS 4.0
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Many people have asked me for tips & tricks regarding photo retouching. Color adjustments, light balancing, masking, cropping for composition. There's no real fixed formula you can use for every photograph because each shot has their own nuances, mainly due to lighting. Techniques such as masking may seem easy at first but difficult to do seemlessly. Retouching requires a good eye and patience. Most of it is tedious when you get the hang of it. For this blog posting I'll share a tip for highlight balancing using a basic tool such as the PhotoForge App on the iPhone. I mainly use Photoshop on my PC for retouching photos,. The reason why I'm using the iPhone this time around, is to demonstrate how easily it can be done with such a simple tool. I prefer the PhotoForge app over the Photoshop app on the iPhone, because I find the Photoshop app on the iPhone is limited in functions.

(before & after)
Koibito by Yoskay Yamamoto on iPhone 3GS

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As you can see in the Before & After shot the highlights are washed out and the subject loses a lot of the tonal gradations. Notice the whites on the head, as well as the hilights on the body and right arm. When the hilights are blasted like that the colors also tend to become over saturated. Although saturation in color may be desired at times, it loses softness in an organic shape as well as a natural realistic look if that is to be intended.

Filter/Curves
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Reverse S Curve
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Open the PhotoForge app. Open the image you want to adjust. Click on the "Filter" tab (looks like a funnel, middle icon at the bottom). Click on "Curves". (For Photoshop on the PC: navigate to Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Curves...). This is your "Curves" graph, which you can adjust the image as whole, or if you want indivual colors as well. For this demo we'll be adjusting the image as a whole, so keep your default settings on "RGB" and "All". Click and drag to add or move a bezier point on the graph. Multiple points can be applied to the same graph. Shown above is the general reverse S Curve I would usually apply when adjusting for highlight balancing, with tweaks depending on the lighting in the shot. I find it works really well for organic smooth surfaces and portraits.

Vinyls

Vinyls

Afro Samurai: Kuma PVC by Organic on iPhone 3GS
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El Panda Original by Muttpop on iPhone 3GS
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Gloomy Bear Muzzle Harness Edition by Mori Chack on iPhone 3GS
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Pecan Pals: Pecan by Noferin on iPhone 3GS
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Animated Hellboy by Tony Cipriano on iPhone 3GS
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The Dragon Scout/ Tic Toc Apocalypse by Amanda Visell on iPhone 3GS
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Been on a vinyl toy/sculpture craze recently. The obsession resurfaced after a co-worker helped me pick up a Brutal Legend: Eddie Riggs sculpture by Mark Newman from the EA San Fran office. I get my local fix from Camion de Pompier - http://www.camiondepompier.com located here in Montreal. All photographs were taken with the iPhone 3GS.

Final Illustration

Final Illustration

digital media: Photoshop
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This is the final for the illustration portion of the poster. I've added a few small details, as well as some volume using shadow. I wanted the character to be a bear, but also to look like someone who was wearing a bear suit. The flap in the front and the tip at the back of his head was to simulate a hooded sweatshirt with ears. Also, thanks to my colleague Patrick (concept artist) for suggesting to add the layered semi-transparent snowflakes at the base of the gradating background. It helped break up the monotony of a basic gradation, and gave it some interest.

For more information on the "mini Mardi Gras" charity event please visit:
www.minimardigras.ca

Colour Me Purple

Colour Me Purple

digital media: Photoshop
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digital media: Photoshop
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I wanted the poster to be vibrant without it having to be too colourful, so to not distract from the intended purpose which is the information. Orson is a bear. The name "Orson" is a play on the French word for bear, "ourson". It was between that or "René", which at the time sounded like it would fit well for a traditional New Orleans Mardi Gras. Ok back to the bear. I went in colouring having a classic brown bear in mind. But after the first colouring pass I felt it was a bit too...normal. I thought of other colours and settled on a desaturated violet. I thought that other, more vibrant colours would make him look too much like one of the "Care Bears". I felt the violet version had more character and presence, but had a bit of doubt on whether or not he would read as a bear. Asking for advice from a colleague (concept artist), I was reassured that violet was the direction to go. Thanks Carolyn!

For more information on the "mini Mardi Gras" charity event please visit:
www.minimardigras.ca

Pencil Pushers Unite

Pencil Pushers Unite

digital media: Photoshop
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Based on the original thumbnail sketch I would usually redraw the illustration (cleaner and more detailed) traditionally using graphite on paper. Scan it. Retouch the lines in photoshop. And start colouring. For this piece I wanted something very clean, without having to use vectors. Personally I find vectors too clean, and my vision was for a traditional 2D cell shaded look. So I decided to go digital for the redraw. Not to say that you can't get a clean look from traditional methods, such as inking. But truthfully, my inking skills are not good enough to allow me to work as fast as my deadline permitted. The snowflakes are in fact vector illustrations, which I have previously created for a past project. Helped shave a lot of valuable time off my schedule.

For more information on the "mini Mardi Gras" charity event please visit:
www.minimardigras.ca

First Draft

First Draft

graphite on paper/digital media
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*Disclaimer: Logos were not designed by myself (mini Mardi Gras, Hagen, Telus or Transhing).

This was the first draft submission for the "mini Mardi Gras" poster composition and text layout. The poster met with a few challenges to overcome. 12"X18" final size, but mainly having to work on a bilingual (French & English) poster. Having both languages takes up more real estate, especially with a poster which isn't that big. I decided to split the text down the middle and to keep it at the bottom. Depending on the height that the poster is posted on a wall, I placed the text at the bottom to insure legibility.

For more information on the "mini Mardi Gras" charity event please visit:
www.minimardigras.ca

The Life of Orson

The Life of Orson

graphite on paper
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graphite on paper
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The next few posts will be dedicated to the poster I'm currently working on for a non profit charity fundraiser, in support of "The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation. It's a worthy cause which will help out many of the kids who are in need, especially at a scary time in their young lives. Hopefully the work that the fund raising organization is doing will help ease their time spent in the hospital, as well as their recovery outside of it.

The images I've posted are the character design sketches for a mascot, created for the organization's upcoming event. I pretty much had free reign for this project concerning the subject matter. The briefing I was given was that the event will be themed as a "mini Mardi Gras" for children...in February. My first question was "Isn't Mardi Gras a mature theme?". Apparently it dates back to Ancient Rome as "Lupercalia", which I won't be getting into. So with the knowledge that Mardi Gras was not all dirty, I was ready to work on the poster. Inspired by the upcoming 2010 Olympics mascots as well as my nephew, I made my first sketches while on break in a "Texture & Shading course" at work. Yes, they made us do algebra...

My goal was to keep the shapes simple, playful and cartoony to appeal to children and their moms. I didn't want to play too much on the Mardi Gras aspect, because of the discordant color schemes related to the traditional costumes worn during the festival. I felt that it wouldn't appeal to the toddler age group, and wanted to keep a bright cartoon look. I wanted to avoid puting a mask on the character, because I wanted children and parents to relate to Orson (that's his name). I felt that since it would be a character that they've never seen before, it would be harder to get that connection if the face was obstructed. What I finally decided to do was to play up the fact that the event would take place in February. Thought of a few poses which would show character and playfulness, I came up with the idea of having Orson trying to catch snowflakes with his tongue. And it went from there.

For more information on the "mini Mardi Gras" charity event please visit:
www.minimardigras.ca