Flying Together

I tried a lot of new things with this latest piece. I think it might be the first time I've created a picture with the video in mind. Check it out:

The goal of the picture and video was to capture some of the joy that comes from playing with my son and getting to facilitate his imagination. I hope some of that came through.

I tried to mix up my style a bit by using a brush with a fixed width when doing the lines. I feel like that gives the picture an animation-like look, as if you paused a movie at this frame. I think I might toy around with the style some more in other pictures. This one was a lot of fun to work on. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

Happy Holidays from the Lights!

Happy holidays! Due to a printer break down at Wal-Mart, my Christmas cards weren't ready in time to be mailed out. So if you aren't here in Charlotte, that's why you didn't get a physical copy. Feel free to print this one out and stick it on your fridge, or wherever you put these things. This is the third year in a row I've illustrated the cards. Here's the card from 2010, and the one from 2011. Happy holidays! 

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Christmas Animal Sketches!

It’s Wednesday, and according to my rarely followed posting schedule, it’s an art post day. Life was a little hectic in November, so I didn’t get much done. I had a couple of commissions to blast through, plus this year’s Christmas card (which is awesome). I don’t want to share the card yet because I’m mailing it out. But I will share the sketches of the pics I’m working on for my office Christmas presents. Animals!

I bought little 2.5” x2.5” canvases and tiny easels to put them on. My plan is to paint these sketches and give away the mini paintings. I don’t work with traditional paint often, and I’ve never painted on something so small, so it should be super fun! I’ll post pictures when I get a few done and delivered. 

First post on Lifehacker

The other day I drew some Lifehacker banners as part of an "audition" to be a contributing designer at Lifehacker. Not sure if I'll be doing more just yet, but one of my audition pieces went up yesterday.

I did two like that in an hour or so. It was a ton of fun to do. You get an article title and a super short summary and you have to turn something around fast. After writing all day at my job, having to flex a different creative muscle like that is refreshing, challenging and fun. I'm challenging myself in these to be quick, stick to a consistent style, and to limit the color palette. Here's hoping you'll see more. 

Posebook by Silver, you should get it

A few months ago Stephen Silver released an app called Posebook. I wanted it badly, but it was only available for iDevices. That changed this past week. You can now pick up Posebook for your Android device through the Amazon App Store. If you’re interested in improving your art, I highly recommend it.

Posebook is exactly what it sounds like, an electronic book full of poses. You get several costumed characters in a crazy amount of poses, plus silhouettes, hands and faces. Each pose has multiple angles and you can zoom in and flip every image. The app also comes with some short tutorial videos from Stephen and a gallery of images created by talented artists who used Posebook for their drawings. The videos are excellent and I wish there were more of them. They’re really just there to drive you to Stephen’s Schoolism class, which I’m sure is fantastic (side note: if you’re interested in taking a Schoolism class--and you should be because they're awesome--use the link on my website for a discount).

The only downside to the app is that it can be a bit too sensitive when navigating the menus. The UI and overall design feels just like an iPhone app, meaning it was quickly converted and thrown on the Android market. Other than that tiny nuisance, it’s a wonderful app. It looks great on my Droid Razr’s big screen, and until the BlueStacks beta starts, I can use the HDMI out on my phone to see the pictures bigger on my computer monitor.

Here are a couple sketches I did other night.

There are so many poses to choose from. I’m seeking out the ones that I don’t normally draw, stuff at weird angles. Posebook is split into two apps, one has males the other has females. Each app is $10. I’m going to get the female version after my $10 Amazon credit comes in from pre-ordering Mass Effect 3. Even at $20 it’s a great value. The absurd number of poses, the tutorials, and the ability to flip and zoom images elevates Posebook above its traditional paper-bound counterparts. If you have a compatible device and you want to improve your figure drawing skills, get this app.