Lee's blog of Digital Art

Mental ink

2011-05-07T05:22:00.000-07:00

Hey! Now, I haven't updated in a long time because I've been rather busy, but I just finished my latest piece. I originally had no real inspiration for this. It started off as a profile face sketch, but then I kept building on it, altering, rearranging and recomposing beyond recognition, until it became some sort of fantasy piece. Have a look!

There are several elements in this painting which don't have any significant experience in painting; the ocean (water at all), the snow, the sky and the dog/wolf-thing. I think the snow turned out quite nice, I already had a notion of how I would paint it before I started off, especially down by the footsteps. I wasn't going for anything completely realistic, and tried to focus on the feel of things, rather than the look of them. Furthermore, I tend to overwork parts of my paintings, so I had to force myself to stop working on some things, for example; the rock platforms that hold the snow. They look really good just being almost nothing but splattered paint, but I still wanted to keep working until they would look photorealistic. I recommend trying to keep things as simple as possible. It gives room for the viewer play the painting in her mind, and that makes it more attractive.

I've put together a series of images from the process, just to show you how much the final product differs from the original sketch.

Insanely long project, but fun nonetheless! I learned quite a lot, but I still need to work on my water and skies. And also the look of things in a far distance need to be improved. I also managed to delete my entire brushset without saving it, so now I have to rebuild it, but it's a nice opportunity to experiment with making custom brushes. It's good to know how to tweak every brush for specific use, and it makes everything much easier!

One more thing! My project "You stand on my old friend", from the previous entry was classed as a Daily Deviation at deviantArt, a few months back. A nice surprise to wake up to :)

The finest digital art in the known universe!

2011-02-28T06:25:00.000-08:00

Exposé is an annually published artbook full of the most amazing digital pieces of artwork of the corresponding year. To be featured in there would mean job opportunities and fame all around the digital art world. And I've made an entry. Though chances are slim to nothing I will be featured, but nonetheless, it was a fun project and I've developed quite far as an artist. My work from now on will be more refined and artistic. Here's my entry!

The purpose of it is to tell you a story straight out of context. I've always been fascinated by pictures such as Bluefley's piece "Impossible LOV3 ver.3", where two completely different individuals interact somehow. I suppose that is the original source of inspiration for this concept. I wanted to work a lot with light, too, and how different objects and materials respond to various kinds of light and colors. Daniel Lieske's work inspired me to try this approach. He always pulls of light and color perfectly, but simple.

One more thing. I came across this 25th anniversary Zelda art tribute on YouTube. It is one of the most elaborate and fantastic pieces of art I've ever seen. Watch it! Reminiscense, nostalgia and pure magic. Too bad the clip isn't available in HD. Still jawdropping!

Art is simple!

2011-01-09T07:21:00.000-08:00

Hey!

Sorry I haven't posted in a really long time, I've been busy with work and whatnot, but now I have some time. I'll share some of my recent art and thoughts this time!

I seldom paint women, and it seems to be all the rage lately. I see many artists dedicating their entire gallery to painting a variety of girls, often with very little to wear. "What was the charm in it?", I asked myself and picked up my pen and gave it a shot. Eyes. Hair. Skin. Beauty. Simplicity!

This is piece is bare, but not dirty in any way. I found that, in comparison to painting men, this had so much freedom. The pose could be any way I liked it. The size of the eyes, the lips, the shape of the nose. Playing with the hair. Painting skin. No muscular or complex build, just flowing shade and light. May sound like a hassle, but it's really simple, and simplicity is what art is all about, at least for me! To sum it up with one word, it would be silk, and that's why there's silk at the bottom xD Try some women, they be amazing!

This next one is a piece of fan art. I was watching the latest trailer for Killzone®3, which is my favorite fps, and the music and composition (and the revealing of a new enemy!) put my art gears in motion.

This is my favorite piece in a pretty long time. I love working with colored light and reflection, in this case; the red eyes and how the surrounding areas recieve it. Keywords for this picture would be depth and impact. The setup is more simple than it appears to be. The entire process consists only of simple brushwork, gradients and blur. No tricky, special-mode layers or tweaks.

I tried implementing some of Dan Luvisi's insanely detailed style into it. He's one of my absolute favorite artists and role model. Don't forget to watch the timelapse painting video here!

I'd like to talk a bit about something I often hear other artists say, which is that they feel inferior when they see an amazing piece of art. There are two kinds of people; those who run and those who see the future. Now, as cliché as that may sound, it is the truth. Those great artists that you see, doing promotional works for blockbuster movies or games, they all saw the future, and aimed. Of course, you won't get there immediately. It's a long journey, and you can't leap across the gap in skill, it's too far. You have to build a bridge over it, piece by piece.

What I like to do once or twice a year is to clean out my gallery, because when I feel I can discard my old work without a hint of sentimentality, that means I've moved higher. If you can discern the past from the present, that means you're in the future.

Art is simple, not easy!

Killzone © Sony, Guerilla Games

Tablets and software

2010-10-09T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hi! :)

Recently painted a picture which I judge to be my "flagship", as of now. It's a "badass" take on the Shyguy's from Super Mario. I was requested by my friend Christopher Körner to do it, and I usually don't take requests, but this was close to two months after the request that I suddenly got a kick to do it, and I spontaneously painted for 10 hours straight xD

Watch the timelapse painting video here!

You may recognize the sword from Final Fantasy VII. My friend Simon Fransson talked me into painting it there, and I was doubtful at first (mostly due to laziness), but it turned out really cool! I was orinally planning to just paint a cool Shyguy on a white background, but I ended up painting a full scale 1080px wallpaper! o_O

Figured I'd speak a little of my tools of the trade! I've been using a Wacom® Bamboo tablet for about 14 months now. I got it for my birthday last year, and it's proven itself worthy! However, I need to buy new nibbles for the stylus (pen), because it's wearing out. As for quality, I haven't tried many tablets. As a matter of fact, I've only tried two! One was an old one from Trust, but it was inaccurate, and the pen was driven by a battery placed in the pen, so it was a bit top-heavy. Furthermore, the pen was really fragile, it gradually fell apart xD
Then I got this Wacom Bamboo last year, though, and it's fantastic. It's a neat and relatively cheap tablet, around $100 by the time I got it, and even cheaper now. Larger tablets usually hit and pass the $200 mark, but I see absolutely no reason to why I would need one of those after trying this. It's accurate, durable and good looking! The only negative part is that I got no extra nibbles with it, and I just can't find a place in Sweden where I can buy them separately. However, if you're a casual painter, my guess would be that you'll be fine up to 3 years! :) I paint an average of 5 hours per day, and have been doing so for the past 400 days, and it'll probably keep up til next summer xD

As for software, I use Adobe® Photoshop CS3. I might as well have used Photoshop 7.0, though, since I don't use a whole lot of functions. Before I started using a tablet, I painted with a mouse, and used the smudge tool for nearly everything, especially soft shading and hair. However, the tablet has pressure function which pretty much replaced my usage of the smudge tool. Now I can paint anything without relying on PS tools too much. However, there are some tools and functions that I frequent, and they are Burn- and Dodge tool, as well are Layer Modes! But I use them modestly, and only to create foundations on which I paint. It's very important when creating a three-dimensional look, like in this piece -

I used a tiny bit of this technique when painting the sword in the Shyguy painting. Full version of this one can be viewed here!

Introduction

2010-10-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

Hi! :)

My name is Lee, and I'm a self-proclaimed digital artist!
"How do you do that?", is the question and reason to why I made this blog, but it won't be dedicated to only tips and guidance. Recently, I started sketching on my own manga without any previous experience, so I thought I'd share what passes through my head in the process, from time to time. Luckily, I had my friend Simon board the project. He has an arsenal of valuable opinions regarding my ideas, so he's a great addition! This blog is mostly made for other aspiring digital artists, but even if you're not, feel free to read anyway :)

To answer SOME of the "How do you do that?"-questions, I've assembled a small briefing (not a tutorial!) of how I went about my latest piece - "Fay". She'll play an important role in my manga, and this is her third design.

When I paint in this style (semi-manga), I don't really follow a set path, but here are the major steps, explained one picture at a time.

1. I start off with a rough sketch in 90% of my work. It gives me (and everyone else) a good perspective of the finished pose and proportion! Helps A LOT!

2. This part might seem like I "cleaned up" the rough sketch, but actually I just lowered the opacity of the sketchlayer, making it transparent, and drew more accurate lines on top of it, in a new layer!

3. When I start off the coloring, I draw UNDER the lines. In other words, I create a layer under the lineart and kind of sketchcolor it, so I can decide on the overall palette! I also do some rough shading.

4. Now I refine color and shade by painting on top of everything, so it becomes more cohesive. Not much layerplay here. I tinted everything blue, though, by using the Color Adjustment option in Photoshop, and then also played around with a layer in Soft Light mode to better on the shading of the skin. I bet that's new to a lot of people, so try that! Create a layer on top, and set it to "Soft Light" (or any other mode if you like). This was actually the first time I tried it and it worked superb for me! :) Did some minor detailing like folds on clothes, buttons and deeper shading.

5. For the background, I used a single gradient as a base, and the rest is just a mishmash of scribbling and random painting. Besides what I just explained, a play around A LOT with the color- and contrast adjustments. It gives the whole picture a more cohesive feeling, and makes neighboring colors more relevant to one another! I used only the hard round brush for this character, and some custom brushes for the background.

For a closer look, watch the timelapse video here, or check out the full version of the picture here!

Follow my blog, and check back next update :)