Photorealism Volume 2 - Available in OCTOBER!

After a lot of delays, indecisiveness and technical issues, I am now in the final stages of my new DVD, Photorealism Volume 2 and have set a release date for October 2011!

Be sure to check my website for more details in the coming weeks.

Commission Stages

Here are some stages from a recent commision piece I painted. Uses the same techniques demonstrated in my DVD Photorealism volume 1.

Get Motivated and Take Control

I’ve been thinking what kind of posts I should be making in this thread and I came to the conclusion that instead of limiting this blog to site updates and working stages, I should start sharing more of my life lessons and motivational texts. This one in particular is based on an article I wrote for fellow students back when I was at university and comprises a series of techniques that helped me to stop procrastinating and get down to work.

 

Get Motivated and Take Control

Discipline is what separates a great person from an average person and a successful person from a failure. In short, anyone who is willing to put their mind to something and push themselves to achieve it, will excel above the rest.

Bill Gates, Bruce Lee, Stephen Hawking, Sylvester Stallone…none of these modern day successes were born any better than the average person. In fact, some of them had/have handicaps that many of us don’t, from dysfunctional families to speech impediments to being paralysed by Motor Neurone Disease. They weren’t born with exceptional genetics; they weren’t blessed with good luck or the miracles of God. Their great achievements have all been the result of their own hard work and their phenomenal discipline.

This is a capability we all have within us. The only thing stopping you from being successful and achieving your goals is yourself!

Unfortunately many men and women would much prefer to seek short-term fun and comfort than long term achievement. Instead of living to their potential, they do the opposite and allow themselves to deteriorate. Slobs, nerds and geeks, wimps, layabouts, failures and losers, fat people, drug addicts, smokers, heavy drinkers, even many depressives…they can all transform themselves and realise their potential simply by breaking their poor habits and exercising some discipline. It begins by taking control.

Excuses

"I'll do it tomorrow"
"I'm too tired/too cold/too hot/too scared…"
"I’m too old/young/tall/short…"
“I’m not cut out for this.”
“Other people make it difficult for me.”
"Just a few beers/cigarettes/spliffs/cakes won't hurt."
"I've had a tough week, I'll just relax today and start that task tomorrow."

These are all phrases that precede procrastination and idleness. Next time you find yourself wanting to be lazy, pay attention to what you tell yourself. Or, alternatively, pay attention to other people’s excuses and see how they attempt to justify it. Laziness doesn't come naturally and people feel they must talk themselves into it and make excuses to overcome feelings of guilt and uneasiness.

However, that guilt and uneasiness is there for a reason. The human mind and body are there to be used, and every able-bodied, able-minded man and woman not even trying to reach their potential should feel ashamed…especially when there are people with severe disabilities and afflictions living full and happy lives and achieving so many great things.

Next time you catch yourself looking for excuses, blaming other people or external conditions, stop and think about what you are saying and why. What you are really saying is “I’m too lazy”.


Laziness is a habit!

Humans are very adaptable to environments and lifestyles. If your mind and your body get accustomed to relaxing, they become less equipped to deal with tasks. When you don't use your brain, your braincells die. When you don't use your muscles, they become flaccid and weak. The more you stagnate, the more you deteriorate. Some studies have even shown that the human body can literally close down certain faculties and organs if they stop being used for long periods.

However, just as some people can't move from the sofa, there are some people who can’t sit down and take a break. These people are in the habit of working hard, pushing themselves and keeping active. Being lazy defies their nature. They don’t collapse from exhaustion or moan about aches and fatigue, because their mind and body has adapted to their active lifestyles. In fact, they usually sleep better at night and wake more refreshed than lazy people.

Laziness is a learned state. It can be unlearned, and I’m going to explain some ways you can do just that.



Breaking lazy habits

Discipline is not something you are born with; it comes with practice. The more you practice an artform, the better you get. The more you exercise, the fitter you get. The more you study, the smarter you get.

The key to overcoming laziness is to take action. No one is asking you to go parachuting, run a marathon and write a novel by the end of the week, but maybe you could start by tidying your room, taking a short walk or making a start on a project you’ve been putting off. It won’t yield any staggering results, but it’s the first step in breaking old habits and forming new ones. You just need a little jump start.

Once you finish a small task (i.e. tidying up), pay close attention to that feeling you get afterwards. Unlike that guilty, dejected and lethargic feeling you get after playing computer games or watching TV all day, you should feel a slight sense of achievement and self-control. You may even feel more alert and active than usual. It’s a good feeling that just gets better the more you do.

I am assuming that you, like most people, have a bedtime routine in which you wash your face, brush your teeth and change into your bed clothes. Not many people see it as a duty or feel that it infringes on their time. That’s because it is a learned habit. With practice, you can feel the same way about completing important tasks, self-improvement and working towards your goals.

The Checklist

Now it’s time to be more specific with your activities. If you use a computer regularly, you can do this in a text file or Word document. If not, then buy yourself a small notebook or diary. This is going to be your “to do list” and is going to be one of the most useful things you can do to overcome laziness and get yourself motivated.

Every night, before going to bed, write a list of tasks you aim to complete the following day and label them in order of importance. You can start adding bigger and more tasks once you feel you can handle them, but for now, just stick to a handful of small tasks.

An example list would look something like this:

Tuesday

1. Pay credit card bill
2. Work out at the gym – shoulders and back
3. Grocery shopping
4. Read Chapter 1 and 2 of “bookofchoice”
5. Get hair cut


The following day you must attempt to complete all of these tasks, giving priority to those at the top. If you find that you cannot complete task 4 & 5, for example, you can carry those over to Wednesday, but you must try your hardest to complete your top 3 at the very least. Sometimes you can combine two or more tasks at once. For instance, on the way to the bank to pay your credit card you could get your hair cut and then stop off at the supermarket and do your grocery shopping on the way home.

Every time you complete a task, cross it out or place a tick next to it in your log book.

There is nothing to stop you relaxing and watching TV or whatever, but limit yourself to an hour between tasks or wait until all tasks are complete. This acts as an incentive to complete tasks, and instead of putting off important duties, you are fitting your relaxation time around your duties and thus forming positive and productive habits. Furthemore, once these tasks are complete you can enjoy your leisure time stress free. You will also find that by actively completing tasks on a daily basis you will gain momentum, so they get quicker and easier to deal with.


Monthly Goals

Aside from your daily tasks, write down a list of tasks you aim to complete before the end of the month. As a student, I usually put tasks such as essays and a book list in this category. This helps to keep me within a time frame and makes sure the following month is free for any additional tasks.

This list is also very handy as a reminder for birthdays, paying bills, attending interviews and so on, that must be done within that month.

Once you get into the hang of this, you may find that you complete all your monthly tasks early. This would be a good opportunity to add some educational reading, creativity, writing, DIY or something generally productive to your list.

Resident Tasks

Resident tasks are those tasks you do every week or month, and become permanent entries on your lists. On my monthly list, I have “tidy, polish and vacuum” and “pay bills”. This serves as a reminder and helps integrate certain trivial tasks into your routine. I know some people who haven’t vacuumed their house for a year, or changed their bedding for 6 months. I know other people who keep forgetting to pay their bills and get fined for late payments, all because they get sidetracked by other things. Keeping these tasks written down in your journal, waiting to be crossed off, will stop them from being neglected.



Stress Relief

Many people suffer from stress on a daily basis and worry about looming problems, tasks they need to complete, deadlines they must meet etc. As a result, the stress weighs heavily upon them, distracts from everything good in their life, makes them irritable and drives loved ones away, and even damages their health. These people pay extortionate prices for stress relief programs, drugs, hypnotherapy, herbs and new age gimmickry.

Completing tasks and facing up to your problems as suggested previously is possibly the best form of stress relief available as it removes the root causes. Afterall, if you complete an important task today, you don’t have to worry about it next week or the week after, and have just saved yourself a week, month or more of stress. Meanwhile, you will be able to concentrate better, your health and mental state will improve, so will your mood and relationships with others, and of course, you will begin to appreciate your free time a lot more, without stress, distraction or guilt.

Long term Goals

It is essential that you establish what long term goals you are aiming to achieve in as much detail as possible by breaking them down into individual actions. Being disciplined and motivated isn’t going to help you if you don’t know where you are going or what you need to do. Work out what you want to achieve and write down what you would need to do in order to achieve this. It’s no use being vague and writing “I want to be rich” or “I want to be in shape”. You need to work out what actions you can take and break your goal down into smaller tasks.

You might, for example, break “getting in shape” down to the following tasks or lifestyle changes in a pyramid form. The idea is to start at the bottom and work your way up the pyramid…

 Getting in shape 

/                       \
Avoid high calorie foods           Workout 3-4 days per week.
/                                                     \
Write a productive diet                         Join gym/buy equipment or workout video
/                                    \                              \
Research good/bad foods         Research supplements   Write a productive workout routine
                                                       \
                                                                               Research workout routine

All longterm goals should begin with research and a plan of action, so in this case you would begin by reading books, trusted websites, getting on forums and asking questions. Once you are educated and know how to continue, you need to write your plan and stick to it.

 
This same strategy can be used for financial success, education, career goals and basically anything. As long as you know where you are going and you are willing to strive towards it, there is little to stop you from achieving your goal. Most people start out full steam ahead, ready to take on the world, but then the motivation tapers off or they find it too difficult to handle in the long term. Remember, the purpose here is to create positive habits and the way to do that is to introduce changes at a comfortable pace.

If you find your task overwhelming, you should break it down even further until you are comfortable. For example, you might break your diet into sub-goals and work gradually upwards:

Avoid high calorie foods
/                 \
Give up fried food                Give up chocolate
/                                  \
               Give up chips                                Give up sugar in coffeee

Life without chips and chocolate is sure to be less of a shock than cutting out all high fat and high calorie foods and therefore a lot easier to achieve…and yet you are still moving forward, towards your goal. As I said previously, if you feel you need to take things slowly, do so. Just make sure you are taking action.

You can also break short term goals into a basic ladder and climb one step at a time. Let’s look at a summary of a painting…

Step 10: Finish latest masterpiece

Step 9: Make final refinements

Step 8: Add details

Step 7: Apply colour

Step 6: Start painting your values

Step 5: Block in the shapes

Step 4: Start sketching outline

Step 3: Take photos/Find appropriate stock photos

Step 2: Make thumbnail sketches

Step 1: Research ideas and inspiration

Incentives

You can help yourself achieve your goals by offering incentives and rewards along the way. Obviously, achieving your goal is going to be the big payoff, but it is motivating to have a few treats along the way.

As a university student, I like to reward myself after every essay with a new shirt or pair of jeans, for example. For some of the bigger tasks, such as projects, completing my semester or my dissertation, I will treat myself to an upgrade or peripheral for my PC, such as more memory or a new graphics card. When I finish my degree, I have promised myself a whole new upgraded PC.

You might treat yourself to a new game, DVD, clothing, a trip to a theme park or a weekend break or whatever you can afford. The important thing here is not to allow yourself this reward until after you have completed a specific task. Believe me, when you get it, you will appreciate it much more knowing that you earned it.

Overcoming phobias

The same systems mentioned above can also work towards overcoming phobias. Add a task that frightens you to your long term goals. Personally, I have a phobia of injections. I knew I must overcome it some day, but I kept putting it off and avoiding vaccinations that could benefit my health or even save my life.

I decided to add to my long term list of goals “get overdue tetanus vaccination”.

I had been considering buying a new winter coat, but the coat I had in mind was expensive. I wouldn’t have bought it ordinarily, but I decided to make it my incentive to get the injection. I added it to my monthly list of tasks and as the days of October elapsed, I ticked off all my monthly goals, until this was the only one left. I figured now was as good a time as any, it wouldn’t get any easier the longer I left it, so I did what I had to do.

It’s not easy facing a phobia and I did feel scared, but the idea of facing a challenge and buying the coat I wanted really helped to empower me and distract from any fear I felt. It turned out that the injection was nothing worth worrying about afterall. It didn’t hurt at all. So, not only did I get to buy the coat I wanted and tick off a long term goal, but I had managed to face upto one of my biggest phobias, which left me with a great sense of achievement.


Affirmations and positivity

When you attempt to complete a task, you will achieve it a lot quicker and easier if you can face it with a positive state of mind. It is important, therefore, to change your mental state from thinking of your tasks as chores or obligations. Instead, try to reframe them as challenges or steps towards a greater goal.

Use affirmations to inspire you. You might tell yourself “I enjoy the challenge of this task and will do it to my best ability”, “I look forward to getting started” or “this is easy!”

Another motivational technique you can use is to envision the completed task. Sit silently with your eyes closed and picture yourself sitting in a clean and tidy room. Picture your desk neatly organised and smell the scent of polish in the air. Think about the feeling of crossing that task off your to do list. Now keep that vision in your mind for a while longer and you’ll find yourself eager to get started. Hold back just a little longer until you really can’t wait to go and tidy your room.

This method can be used for a whole variety of tasks and works effectively because instead of thinking of the work involved, you’re focusing on the positive end result.


Diet and stimulants

Do you find yourself being hyperactive at one moment, then overcome with lethargy the next? Do you find it hard to concentrate? Do you have trouble sleeping?

A lot of these problems can be caused by your diet and/or use of stimulants. Coffee, nicotine, sugar and simple carbs give us a temporary boost of energy, but then cause us to sink into lethargy and low moods once the high wears off.

Stodgy foods such as white bread, pastry and pasta tend to cause a loss of concentration and clarity of mind. The reason is that they take the body a long time to digest and uses excess blood and oxygen to complete the process, thus depriving the brain and impeding clarity.

Generally, a lean and healthy diet comprising 5-6 small meals per day will improve your energy levels, motivation and ability to complete tasks.



One small step…

Think of procrastination as standing on a diving board. It looks a long way down to the pool, and it is natural to feel apprehensive. As you stand there, you begin to feel cold and uncomfortable. The more you think about jumping, the scarier it feels. Time is ticking away. You could be swimming, splashing around and having fun, but instead, you are standing on the edge of this diving board, worrying about jumping.

Alternatively, you could take that small step and jump. Just one small step is all it takes and you are on your way down to the pool below. When it’s over, you will feel a sense of accomplishment and pride, and you can now enjoy your time in the pool without a care in the world.

This goes for all your tasks and goals too. It takes a push, but once you take that first small step, you are on your way to completing your tasks. One jump will inspire another and then another as you gain momentum and change your habits.

So, set yourself a little task and go do it…NOW!

Interview with VisualArts 2011

Here's the original transcript of an interview I did earlier this year with Visual Arts Illustrated
 

-when did you first realize that art could be your life, or that it would become a big part of it?

My story is quite different to a lot of artists. Although I have always been a daydreamer, I am not a naturally gifted artist. In fact, growing up I was hyperactive and quite aggressive, always fighting, breaking things and getting into trouble. I always admired and envied my friends who had a talent for art and wished I had such an outlet, but I found it very difficult to focus on quiet activities like drawing or painting. Most of the sketching I did at school was in the margins of essays, on desks or the cover of my books, and usually involved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Any serious attempt I made at drawing turned out disproportionate and flat. It was so frustrating having a head full of incredible thoughts and ideas, but having no means to express them and never being taken seriously by people.

In 1990 my whole life changed, however, when my parents bought me my Amiga 500. Once the novelty of gaming wore thin, I found myself spending a lot of time in front of Deluxe Paint, which came bundled with the computer. It was very primitive compared to the painting applications of today (similar to MS Paint) and painting with a mouse was a real challenge, but there was no need to mix paint, stretch canvas or prepare a workspace before I could begin; I’d just push in a disk and I was ready to go. I started out making a lot of violent sketches and animations. They were all quite crude, but I found it really engaging and fun. What’s more, it was a way to release my pent up aggression and express it in a constructive way. I then moved on to copying characters from comics and fantasy book covers just for the challenge it posed. Before long I found myself paying attention in my art classes at school and talking to my teacher about various styles and painting techniques. She loaned me magazines and books from her collection and I studied many different artists from Leonardo Da Vinci to H.R Giger. I carefully examined their choice of colour and composition, their strokes and stippling styles and wondered how I could replicate them using pixels. I learned various tricks to help overcome my difficulties with proportion, including the use of grids and anatomical guides. I alternated between drawing on my computer and with a pencil and would practice by sketching celebrity portraits from magazines, each time trying to add more detail and more realism to my work. I started to get quite good and my grades were getting higher with each piece I submitted. I was also finding myself acting less aggressive and disruptive, and generally less frustrated with the world. 

A couple of years later, I discovered a community of computer enthusiasts known as “the demo scene” where some of the best computer artists in the world would show off their work in software presentations or take part in organised competitions. It was like a form of graffiti, but instead of tagging public walls for an unappreciative audience, you would copy your picture or logo to a disk and spread it to admiring onlookers around the globe. It was my chance to express myself and make my mark on the world. I had never felt so passionate about anything in my life and I realised then that I wanted to be a digital artist.  

-did you study art? or did you take courses?

After leaving school, I went on to take various art classes to try and further my formal education, but they never caught my interest. They comprised a lot of history and academic work, while the practical side of the classes usually involved painting bowls of fruit or making ugly collages from crisp packets, pipe cleaners and other junk. I wasn’t interested in that; I wanted to learn how to paint hot women, fantasy landscapes or scary monsters.

I would say I’m entirely self-taught and have learned most effectively by studying the work of other artists and copying from photos. I have been criticised for doing this, but I believe it’s a great way to master painting techniques, the tools and the technical skills of art.

-has it always been digital art?

I have a deep admiration for traditional art, but it was digital art that truly roused my enthusiasm. I’ve always loved the idea of sharing my work with friends and belonging to a community of likeminded artists, which is something I never found with traditional work.

Another reason I favour digital art is that it generally has fewer pretentious critics, and there’s less of the intellectual elitism that’s so prevalent in the art world of today. A digital artist can paint a vampire, a car or a dragon just because they’re cool, and can be appreciated for it, without needing to justify its artistic significance. Although I do enjoy delving into a piece of art and interpreting its meaning, or creating my own work that tells a story, sometimes art should just be fun.

-what fascinates you about digital painting?

I feel that digital art opens a lot of possibilities that aren’t available to traditional artists. Tools and filters allow you to enhance your work, manipulate the shape and change the colour at any stage in the painting process. One of the biggest benefits, for me, is the ability to detail your work in greyscale and focus on the values, and then mix and apply the colour later.

More importantly, you can make mistakes, experiment more and take chances, because you have the ability to undo or even return to a previous save file. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about the cost of paint or canvas, so you can just keep painting for as long as you want. All these factors give digital painters a lot more freedom to play and discover new approaches and styles.

Another thing I’ve always liked about digital art are the communities and forums, and the ease at which you can get feedback or recognition for your work, whatever your level of expertise.

-you use Photoshop CS5. We just got it installed on our computer, so please tell us what you think about it. Where are the improvements,  which features do you like best, which one would you like to have changed.

I upgraded to Photoshop CS5 not long after it was released and it’s been the first version that has really impressed me since CS2. Although the Opengl features such as scrubby zoom and canvas rotate were available before now, they feel much smoother and faster in CS5. I also like the new context fill tool and the spot healing tool. They’re not perfect, but are very powerful features. The new mixer brushes are an impressive addition too, and I would like to attempt a painting with them some time soon. As minor as it may seem, the most useful tweak for me is the ability to turn pen pressure features on and off by simply clicking an icon at the top of your workspace, instead of going into the brush presets. This has saved me so much time and makes these options far more obvious to those who are new to Photoshop.

On the negative side, I find CS5 performs very slowly compared to CS2, and unless you have a really powerful computer, painting at high resolutions, with multiple layers or with large brushes can be very laggy. What’s more, I still prefer the general layout of CS2. CS5’s docking windows are a nice idea in theory, but many of the tabs take up too much space when they expand. More annoying is the fact that they don’t cascade and even when you minimize them, instead of dropping to the bottom of your desktop and out of sight, they turn into onscreen icons that you have to manually move out of your way. However, if you have a powerful system and a graphics card that can handle the Opengl features, I would say CS5 is a very worthwhile upgrade.

 

-what system are you working on?

I am using a Windows based PC with dual core CPU and a Nvidia Geforce 9800gtx graphics card. I’ve just recently upgraded to Windows 7 64bit from XP, but haven’t noticed any improvement over the 32bit version Photoshop running on XP. My painting tablet is an old and battered Graphire 4, about as low end as they come. It’s all I can afford right now, but it serves its purpose and has lasted well.

-do you think that at one point the traditional technique in commercial illustration will disappear?

I don’t think it will disappear completely as there will always be traditional artists who can offer something different or exceptional. However, I do believe that it will become very rare in the near future and will definitely fade out of mainstream production. 

I find this very sad as digital art is too often used in commercial production as a shortcut rather than an improvement. As a result, I see a lot of commercial illustration that looks cheap and lacks any character.

-we saw that you have some progress videos/ speedpaintings on youtube. What did you do them for? Is it a way to promote yourself?

I find a lot of interest in my work comes from my videos. In my early days I was often accused of painting over photos and cheating to win competitions. Even my progress stills weren’t enough to convince some people my work was all painted from scratch, but when they see a video of me painting the whole thing on a blank canvas, it leaves no room for doubt. Now that people know I’m legitimate, it seems to give them a new level of appreciation for my work. People also find it entertaining to watch the videos and see how the painting develops, so instead of them just looking at a picture for a few seconds and turning away, it’s a way of prolonging their interest for several minutes.

I would love to record the process of all of my paintings to video, but it’s a lot more difficult than it first seems. Usually when I paint, I take my time, experiment with different ideas, correct mistakes or I go back and retouch areas I’m unhappy with. When your process is being recorded, however, you really need to know exactly where you’re going and how to get there.

-is this your proferssion, so do you work as an illustrator?

I have worked for various companies in the past, but I took a change of direction some years ago and went to university to study English. I barely painted anything for 5 years and by the time I came back to it a lot had changed. 99% of digital artists were painting with tablets, whereas I had never even used one. Most of my paintings had been done on a 640x480 pixel canvass or less, yet I could see many artists were working up to 5000x5000 and above. Add this to the fact that I’d been out of practice for 5 years and I felt like a humble beginner and a little out of my league. Unfortunately, I found it really difficult to get back in the industry from that point. Nonetheless, I set up my own website and started working for myself, painting commission pieces for people, freelancing for companies and selling training DVDs.

I’d really like to branch out into concept art, matte painting or texture painting for game and movie projects in the near future, but I need to gain more field experience first.

-who are your clients, what's your field of work?

I have worked for various clients on different projects. I worked on a few 2d game projects back in my Amiga days, designed logos, flyers and that sort of thing. I reviewed book proposals for Focal Press and did some work repainting and touching up Disney movie stills to be sold as official collectible prints. I also did some matte painting and compositing for a short movie last year, which I really enjoyed. These days my clients consist mostly of individuals who want portraits of themselves, their pets or their family members.

Otherwise, I just enjoy making tutorials and helping beginners learn the basics of Photoshop and digital painting. I don’t make money from them, but I have a couple of DVDs I sell and have more in production at this moment. 

-you sell tutorial DVD. Please tell us about this. –

I got the idea to produce my tutorial DVDs when I saw how popular my written tutorials and youtube videos were proving to be. I had been looking for ways to cover my hosting and internet costs, and so I decided to try my hand at making a couple of full DVDs. More importantly, it would allow me to go into much greater detail than I’d ever done before.

I spent a lot of time looking at existing digital art tutorials and DVDs for inspiration, and though many of them ended with impressive results, I found most were hard to follow and left a lot of questions unanswered. They seemed more focused on showing off the skills of the artist and baffling people with art-school theory, than actually teaching beginners how to paint and what tools to use. Many of them were very expensive too and well out of the price range of most casual painters.

I set out to make my DVDs more affordable and beginner-friendly than the ones I’d seen. I find it really fulfilling to hear from people who have learned new skills or found inspiration from my tutorials and that’s been a driving force behind these projects. I want people who follow them to understand that they don’t need years of formal education or a genetic gift to enjoy painting and to be good at it. I’m not competitive when it comes to digital art, so if my students can take my tutorials to the next level and go on to become better than me (and I would say some have) I get a kick from that.

I have more DVDs due throughout 2011 including one focused on male portraits, character design and perhaps an introduction to matte painting.

I couldn't really find a "line" in your artwork ... like PinUp, or technical, or fantasy. It seems you like to do a little bit of everything? Or is there a subject which interests you most?

I don’t think I have ever truly found my niche when it comes to painting. For many years I have tried a lot of different subjects, trying to find what I enjoy most and what I do best. Although I favour portraits above all else, I don’t want to limit myself. Sometimes I’ll see a landscape, get an idea or just feel a certain mood which I want to try and convey. I have also attempted fantasy and sci-fi paintings, but not with much success. I love looking at such work, but I don’t watch movies or read books of these genres so I really lack the inspiration and knowledge to draw from.

I think it’s important for an artist to truly know his/her subject and genre. I have always preferred thrillers and horror fiction over fantasy, so a lot of my work has a macabre element. In complete contrast, I love fashion and fitness and have a real weakness for beautiful ladies, so this is another common theme in my work. Ideally, I want to try and move more towards creepy character portraits and caricatures. After many years trying all things, I believe that’s where I will find my niche.

-we found some images that have been painted on an Amiga. So that must have been quite some time ago. If you compare those "old" times with today .. what has changed, where are the biggest differences .. and where do you think will we be in another 10 years?

I laid down my first pixels on my Amiga at the age of 14. Digital painting was a completely different artform at that time, and nothing like painting at all – more like building a giant mosaic. Artists (or pixellers as they were known) would use a mouse to construct pictures from pixels. It posed a lot of technical challenges, not least because of the limited colour palettes. It’s hard to imagine painting with just 16 or 32 colours now, with no blending or anti-aliasing, but this was all done manually and we would devise different dithering techniques to create the illusion of more colours and values. There were no tutorials back then either and most artists were very secretive about their techniques, so on the whole, digital art was much more difficult in those times. For those willing to put in the effort, however, there was a lot of satisfaction knowing you had a skill that only a limited number of people could master, and if you were good, getting noticed was easy and you could practically walk into a prosperous career in video games.

Nowadays, technology has made digital painting a lot easier and more “user friendly”, which is great for new artists or casual painters looking to express their creativity. Even those with little understanding of computers can pick up a stylus and start sketching, and there are countless tutorials out there to help. The negative side of this development is that digital art communities are getting oversaturated and it’s becoming more difficult to get noticed, and even harder to make a living from it.

As for the future, I predict that digital painting will get easier and will appeal to more people. With touch screen technology on the rise, it will be common practice to paint directly onto a screen and Wacom Cintiqs and such tablets will become affordable to more people. Now that Photoshop has 3d capabilities I also expect we will soon have integrated 3d guides and anatomical models, which can be placed into a scene and painted over. It’s possible we may even start to see applications or filters that can detect and rectify proportion faults and colour inconsistencies. As technology simplifies digital painting, it will become much harder to be recognised and artists will have to start relying more on originality and creativity in order to stand out.

Sunset Cowboy Stages and Commentary

I've decided I'm going to use this blog to post some of my working stages and thought I'd start out with this commission piece I did a while back.

I worked very loosely during the first stages, blocking in the basic shapes and shading, before smoothing out the brush strokes with soft brushes (and a paint daubs filter). This gave it a very smooth and plastic look, which I stippled over to give the painting some texture. The finer details, such as the eyes, hair and stubble were achieved with 1-3 pixel brushes and a lot of patience (call me sad, but this is my favourite part of the painting process).

Stippling (aka dithering) is a technique I learned during my pixel art days, but have always found it useful to apply to my digital paintings too as a way of giving them a unique style. It's also what gives it that photorealistic look. Some artists achieve this with custom brushes or by overlaying photo textures, but I much prefer to do this by hand to give it my personal touch.

Admittedly there were several moments when I nearly scrapped the picture altogether. In fact, I deleted the whole project to my recycle bin before changing my mind and trying again. Sometimes even the ugliest looking paintings can be salvaged or improved.

Most of the techniques used for this painting are covered in my previous tutorials but if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

Finished Image

Photorealism Volume 2

Just an update on Photorealism Volume 2. First of all I apologise for the delays in releasing this DVD. I originally intended it to be a spring 2011 release, but one of the tutorials I felt was just repeating the same techniques demonstrated in volume 1, so I decided to go back to the drawing board and create tutorial that shows lots of different techniques and approaches.

While the tutorials are all recorded and ready, I still have some editing to do and a LOT of commentary. If you think, I have 10+ hours of footage, so it's no easy task. That said, I feel very happy with the way this DVD is going and believe there is a lot to learn from it, especially for beginners.

Realistically speaking, I think it's going to be an Autumn release. But please keep checking back from time to time.

Thanks to everyone who has shown interest in this DVD and offered feedback on my last one.

New Website - FINALLY!

I have finally redesigned and rebranded my website and it is long overdue! Originally I just threw my site together without a clue, but as I've added more pages, it has got messier and much harder to navigate. Not to mention the inconsistency of the design.

Hopefully you can find your way around much easier now and will find the tutorials easier on the eyes. I have dropped some of the content, such as the Beginner's Guide to Mouse Painting and the abridged version the Matte Painting tutorial, but you can still find those videos on my Youtube channel if you're interested. 


It has been a very busy time, trying to complete my latest DVD, while keeping up with commission work, but I hope to add more content in the coming months, including more free tutorials. So please check back from time to time...


If you notice any broken links or glaring faults with my new website, please drop me a note via the contact link and I'll get it fixed.


http://www.devotion-graphics.com/

If anyone is interested in seeing my old site design, it's still online at:

http://www.wade.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Welcome to the new Devotion-Graphics blog

Hi and welcome to my new blog where I will be posting any relevant updates and information about my website: www.devotion-graphics.com.

Please bear with me as I've never written a blog before, but I will try to make it as legible and informative as possible.

Best regards,
 

Dan