On the move

Finally took the plunge and got my own hosting.  I've decided to work up a new site using WordPress and my own domain, www.colwellillustration.com.  So, if you like what you've seen here and want to continue following my artistic endeavors mosey on over.  It's rougher at the moment, but with some digital elbow grease I think I can make a quality home there.


See you around!

Mischief Maker pt1

This is for this week's COW (Creature of the Week) over at ConceptArt.org.

Quoted from the assignment:

Round #199 Mischief Maker

Have you ever noticed that our dear Mascot COW actually breaks a few of the fundamental rules of COW? (lark and I did, and as a result we're going to have a new mascot after round 200. But let us celebrate our old mascot this round with a bit of a precursor and a chance to relax on those rules, the same way our mascot does now...

This round is about the troublemakers of the creature kingdom. Creatures that get off on annoying others and breaking the rules. In fact, this is a creature so intent on making mischief and mayhem, that it even breaks the rules of COW. This round, we will allow entries that break one (and only ONE!) of the following rules:
1a. No humanlike creatures
1b. No plants
1d. No accessories or clothing
or
1e. No blob-like masses with no shape

This round will be a 2-weeker as preparation for our month-long upcoming round. Make sure to really make your creature look actively mischievous, whether that is conveyed simply through the creature's visible personality or through illustrating it in the act of causing trouble is up to you. Bear in mind that Mischief Makers caught breaking more than one rule will be caught and dealt with appropriately (a swift kick in the poll), but have fun, let loose and break that one rule of COW you've always wanted to.
Deadline:
Wednesday December 29th, 2010. 9:00 PST (-8 GMT )

So here is my starting concept rough.  Going with a spidery critter as a nod to West African Anansi lore.  It's creeping around the city late on a snowy night stealing street signs and traffic cones, knocking over snowmen, and just causing as much mischief as it can.

Weekly Speed Paints 2

Based of reference pics posted here in this Ten Ton Forum thread.  Done in about 7-10 minutes each I think.  Didn't really time these to well though.  Next week I'm setting a timer for 5 (maybe 10) minutes and going pens down when it's done, regardless of how it looks at the moment.

Photoshop CS5 with Wacom Intuos2 tablet.

Even More Disgusting

I think this is the final version.

Concept: Rev.Exp.4
This revolting little critter wanders the paths between stony cliff side caves. Inside his exposed ribcage lies a orb that emits renewable high power energy. Sadly, this power source also causes his vision to fail, skin to flake, and fibrous sensors in its mouth and feet to bleed continuously.

The Penguin

Ten Ton sketch challenge prompt again.  I've never drawn the Penguin, but thought he was creepy enough to try.  I started with a base of reference using nature photos and some images from comic books.  I tried to make him more penguin and less like a man dressed as a penguin.  1 hour painting session compressed into an 11 minute video.  One of these days I'll record audio commentary over one so I can explain a bit better why I did something or how something is not working for me.  For now, you get the silent treatment. :)

More Disgusting

I just wasn't happy with the way this was sitting in its world.  The textures were fighting for dominance and the area felt "blah".  So, I reworked the background to open the space, make it feel more of a bizarre local.  I also adjusted the colors and texture on the ugly critter, too.

Concept Art: Disgustingly Valuable

Over at ConceptArt.org they have a Creature of the Week (COW) contest. I've never participated, but thought I should give it a shot. The prompt was to design a creature that is disgusting to look at or be around, but has something very valuable about it. In my case, it's the glowing orb tucked in around the exposed rib-like bones of it's back.

Woman in Chair speed painting

Another speed painting based off of photo ref from Ten Ton. Not sure if speed is the right term since I did put about 40 minutes into this one, but it was done with the mentality of working fast and not using tons of layers and blending modes like I would in a finished piece.

Speed painting

Ballpoint, over on the Ten Ton Studio board started a speed sketch thread with some reference pics and instructions.  (Check it here.)  I thought it was a good idea.  Here is my first attempt.  I got camera shy and made some odd mistakes that I wouldn't do if I wasn't recording and focusing on speed.  Still, it ended up about 20 minutes long.... way over the 10-15 recommended, but I'll get faster.  I sped up the video 500% so it only takes 4 minutes to watch.  Lucky you. :)

Cintiq fun

I've been trying to spend more time with the greatly creative folks at the Periscope Studio in nearby downtown Portland, OR.  I go on most Thursdays now and have spent my time sketching at a small central table soaking in the creativity and camaraderie of  the crew there.  Today was a little different.  There were some Wacom employees there talking product, taking pictures, and just interacting with their customer base.  Most of the artist at Periscope Studio have a Wacom product of some sort, mainly Cintiq 12WX's and a few 21UX's.  They also have a computer room that houses a few Macs attached to more 21UX's. Yes, it is a truly awesome sight.  Which brings me to today's art post.  Since I'm not a member of the Studio I thought I'd bow out of the interviewing area and went to play on one of the open 21UX's.  A few minutes of getting used to the glass thickness of the monitor and quite a few more minutes getting used to a Mac (I use a PC at my studio) and I was up and drawing.  I've never felt anything like it.  The sensation of working on screen was so natural I'm not sure how I'll go back to my old model Intuos 2.  In about 2.5 hours this is what I came up with.  Not the greatest drawing, and evidence that I really should thumbnail first, but it was so much fun working on the Cintiq that I wanted to post it.

Done in Photoshop CS3 with Cintiq 21UX.

Agents of Atlas colors

Khoi Pham posted his penciled commission over on the Ten Ton boards.  I thought it was a great image and rendered in a way I'm not used to seeing, so I took a shot at coloring it today.  Lots of fun and educational, too!

Monster #2

Trying out some new techniques in Photoshop.  I love drawing monsters!

Monster of the day

I watched part of Steve Firchow's Gnomon coloring video last night.  While our styles couldn't be farther apart, I liked what I saw and still learned a lot of concept stuff more than technical stuff.  I pulled his pallet file and one of the texture files and tried them out today.

Quick sketch, more for experiment than results.

Ten Ton Power Girl

Inspired by the weekly Ten Ton Studios sketch challenge.  I don't draw women much or well, so this turned out better than I expected for me.  Still think I broke her spine by twisting her so much and the legs need a lot of work, but I'll let it go for now.

All digital in Photoshop with Wacom Intuos2 tablet.

Rough

Tightened up

Maybe final?

Ten Ton Avengers

Move Avengers goodness.  Inspired by the Ten Ton Sketch Challenge prompt.  I drew it digitally, so can't enter, but it was a fun piece.

Avengers quicky

My littlest one started drawing a bunch of Marvel heroes tonight.  Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Spider-Man.  He likes it when I draw stuff for him to color, too, so I whipped this out.  A little rusty, but it was fun and he loves it.

Congress of Night Peter head concept

Here is a new Peter character head concept from my project Congress of Night.  Enjoy.

No ECCC for me

Just wanted to let you know, I will not be at this weekend's Emerald City ComicCon.  Best of luck to all my buddies in the industry who will be there and hope all the fans have an excellent time.

Portland Comic Book Show 2009

I was checking out the site to see when the next Portland Comic Book Show is and found this picture of me and my son, Hunter.  Check it.

Luke Cage

Been playing a lot of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 with the family. Reminded me that I used to like drawing Luke Cage. So this was for the kid in me

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Silver Bullet #3 cover

I wrote about this a few posts back.  I talked to Brett Woods, the penciller/inker of the book, and got the go ahead to post the final colors up.  This was a fun piece.  A lot more graphic in design than issue 2 cover, but still fun for a painterly guy like me.

Issues 1 and 2 are available through IndyPlanet here.

Batman WIP

Not sure where I'm going with this piece.  Lost a lot of action when the rendering tightened up, but still like it overall.  I think the near wall/building in the background is a bit too small, too--making Batman look huge in comparison.  The joy of working digital allows me to adjust this pretty easily, but I'm not sure this one is worth the effort yet.  We'll see.

Hellboy Study

Did this based on Mike Mignola's cover to Hellboy: Darkness Calls #1.  I'm a big fan of his work and hope to find something in it I can incorporate into my style.  I'd love to be as design oriented as he is, but frankly I'm just not that good yet. :)

Scarlet Witch

Still trying to get some "sexy" in my female drawings. They usually look too man-ish for my taste. Figured I would try using some ref to get tips. One of my main problems was my chest to hip proportions. Using the ref helped me see those better, as well as body thrust and general sexy posture, imo.

















































Added some tone to practice form, too.

Kitty Pryde and Lockhead

The Ten Ton sketch challenge was Kitty Pryde this week. I didn't enter because mine is digital, but I still use the prompt to push me to do things I don't normally draw. In this case, girls. I don't draw girls well. Never have. This is probably my most successful female without using tons of ref. C&C always welcome.

Congress of Night: Gordon

One of the characters from my project, Congress of Night.  Gordon, the troll.

Experimenting with more PhotoShop techniques.  Trying to find my style.  I'm liking these strong contrast pieces though, so we'll see where it takes me.

Silver Bullet

Last October, Brett Wood asked me to color the cover to Silver Bullet #2.  It's a very fun character and Brett is a good guy from the Ten Ton and Digital Webbing message boards, so I said yes.  Oh yeah, he offered me pay, also. :)  About a week later the job is done, I'm happy, he's happy.  Good times.  You can even buy it here (even though I'm not credited in the book due to an editorial error).

Now I'm working on the cover for issue #3.  Another fun one.  I'll post it when I can.  But, to hold you over, here is the cover to issue #2.  Enjoy.

Sons of Anarchy

A recent commission for a guy's wife for Christmas.  I never watch the show, but she's a big fan.  Obviously, heavy photo ref on this one.

Congress of Night group shot

Did this today.  Started as a playtime sketch with my son, but I decided to scan it in and tighten it up digitally.  It's for my concept "Congress of Night" a GN/novel that may get done one of these days.

Death Dealer

Not for the sketch challenge because it is all digital and that is against the rules, but I still wanted to participate drawing the character.  I may do a traditional one to based on the wireframe of this one.  We'll see.

I'm not sold on this ink process yet.  The end result looks a bit complicated and hard to read to me.  Thoughts?

Digital Drawings and 2010

Didn't do much sharable work over the holidays.  But now it's January and like most people I feel compelled to make a better, more productive life out of the next 365 days.  Here are a few digital drawings I did based somewhat on the technique concepts presented by my previous collaborator and now DC exclusive artist, Freddie E. Williams, II in his book The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics. I see a bit of Frank Miller in the first one, but I did a lot more refined and tapered line in the second one, so a lot of that influence got hidden there. 

Done in Adobe Photoshop CS4 with a Wacom Inutos2 9x12 tablet.

Good luck in 2010.