EF Tutorial -- Panoramas For Everybody: How to Create Panoramic Shots Without Fancy Equipment.

Panoramic shots create dramatic photos.

Sunset in Baguio City.

This tutorial will teach you how to create your own panoramic shots without fancy cameras or expensive software.  All you really need is a camera and a way to crop pictures.  For the purposes of this tutorial, I'll use a basic (and free) program called IrfanView to show how simple the process is.

Photo manipulation

I've never really dabbled in photomanipulation until now. Here's a couple things that I've come up with recently for a Mario Kart Racing League that we have here in the dorms.

Also, regarding the lack of art updates for the past few months, I've been doing a lot of studies and practice that are just now finally getting positive results. These poster type things are the firstfruits of that labor and hopefully, I'll be churning out some much improved art soon.

The Eyeless Feesh is stirring back to life!

--RWHC

Daily Sketch -- Prinny, d00d!

Seems like I've been using conte, artist oils, and palette knives almost exclusively lately so I thought it would be a good time to remember how to use airbrushes with this li'l chap.

--RWHC

Daily Sketch -- Mercedes WIP

Ok. So I know Daily Sketches aren't supposed to be finished works, but I really liked the way my sketch came out so I just kept on coloring it. Still not finished but here's the sketch:

And here's what I have so far:

Hope to get this done within a day or two!

--RWHC

Quick Hits -- Photoshop Disasters + Understanding Layers

First off, Photoshop Disasters is a fun little website that points out errors in commercial works. My favorite from the site is the one shown above wherein Batman is staring at a window frame. I've actually seen this poster advertising the Dark Knight on Yahoo!, too, so this one's real.

Secondly, Azureon's comment on Cave Bird reminded me of a very comprehensive tutorial at CG Textures on Layers, their properties, and how they affect the base layers underneath.

Enjoy and hope these prove useful!

--RWHC

Texture Library -- Sheets

Azureon was showing me a few custom textures she made earlier and when she expressed a desire to share them with as many artists as we can, I thought that this would be a good platform to do so. Of course, I won't be sharing the ones she gave me as I want her to take the credit for those, but here are a few things I've taken from different sheets around the house that might be useful for overlays, patterns, papers, or whatever might be useful for photomanips.

--RWHC

Daily Sketch -- Cave Bird

Playing around with different layer properties in this one, mainly lineart on Multiply, with a soft light and Overlay layer on top of that. Not exactly the effect that I was looking for (needed it darker) but very useful experiment, nonetheless.

--RWHC

hating on sketchbooks - and yet still trying

*
**
***
****




* eh doodles.
** A bored attempt to draw Mario in Yoji Shinkawa-esque Metal Gear Cover-esque style.
*** kois.
**** lastly and not leastly, Batman. One of the hardest characters to draw, but one I would like to draw again and again (along with him, The Endless in Sandman, Wolverine and Solid Snake ... never drew the latter two, but for whatever reason I'm itching to draw them, despite never having read Xmen or played any of the MGS games).

After the slew of digital I found myself missing the pencil and paint greatly... so henceforth, I will be working with those as I try to spit my muse back out into this plane of existence. After all, whatever skills I obtain with these traditional tools, will carry over to my digital tools.

And this is where I hope that somehow I can get over my sketchbook hate, the way I got over my watercolor hate... not to mention actually make something that I enjoy without killing myself. And that all this effort (and cash) I'm pouring into art will not come back fruitless.





Kids, knowledge kills. So be careful what you let into your head, as once it enters, it sears you for life.


-- Azureon

Catching up with Daily Sketches -- Nausicaa Edition

I had finals last week and I also moved apartments so updating here has been scarce. However, I haven't stopped sketching and here are the sketches inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind". I have other sketches that should soon see the light of day once I touch down in Korea and have time to color them. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!

--RWHC

Daily Sketch -- Hunter Metroid

Well, when the well of ideas is running dry, Metroids never fail. This here's a hunter metroid from Metroid Prime. Experimented with layering different textures and papers, as well as revisiting an airbrush technique that I haven't used in a while.

--RWHC

Projects -- WIP

When I'm not working on daily sketches, I'm usually tied up with school or other projects that I'm currently working on. I mentioned that my Avian Guardian sketch was concept art for a friend of mine and that's what I'm currently tied up doing. The rest of the concept art for that project is probably going to make it up here but for a sneak preview, here are a few of the rough sketches we have so far:





--RWHC

Colors DS

Finally got Colors DS!!! Now I am invincible!!! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!




An apologetically small (thanks to lack of a secure wireless) and rather awkward copy of John White Alexander's Repose.
*

* They say its a good habit (and also a nice way to learn) by copying master paintings and whatnot.. but for whatever reason I've always been skeptical of that. I guess I'll try it at some point to see if I'm actually getting anything out of it.

-- Azureon

Daily Sketch -- Avian Guardian

This here's a bit of concept art for a friend of mine. This giant statue, erected by a tribe of Avians, stands at the desert's edge, watching vigilantly for trouble.

My buddy, Azureon, keeps telling me to stop making shadows using black or gray. So this is a study in colors and boy, was Azureon right! This way of doing it is so much better. No blacks in this one! Just a lot of dark reds, purples, and greens.

--RWHC

daily sketches

stuff i did at the internship, all of which took the entire time i was there thanks to my lack of leet speedpainting skills.
first day:

second day:


Done on Photoshop CS2, using custom brushes by
bluefley's imaginefx tutorial (because i'm too lazy to make my own).

--Azureon

Daily Sketch -- Hand of NOD

Here's another quick sketch experimenting with tools in Painter. This time, the scratchy palette knife. Click on the picture to view the full effect.

--RWHC

daily sketch

"wth is that?"
"MEEP."

Butbutbut ... what the hell is a MEEP?

From June and onwards, I have no excuse. Lestthemawsoflazinessconsumeme.

- Azureon

Uncomfortability.

My oh-so-awkward sketchbook pages. Not as pretty as James Jean's (the SVA Illustration posterboy) or one of the old painting masters, unfortunately. I'm trying to get back into the habit of drawing from life, drawing anything in that damned book, which I used to do alot last last year (and was a whole lot better at, I think).

Unfortunately, because I grew up drawing on stray floating bits of A4 paper (thanks to being underexposed to anything art), I don't sit well with these tightly bound books of doom. They tightly close around me, archiving my every move! (like the camera and the yearbook, other archival daemons I try to duck and hide away from as much as possible). The more enjoyable times I've had drawing were on A4 paper, like the pic below:



Eh, screw the sketchbook. Looks like I'm going to be ditching it altogether and just carry sheafs, no... loafs of A4 paper instead. Even at the cost of me looking like a total idiot. Perhaps someday I can get comfortable with it so that I can actually EFFECTIVELY USE those piles of sketchbooks lying around. Let's hope for that.

-Azureon

Daily Sketch -- Scribbly Spore

Aaaaah.. now that finals are over, I can get back to tending this li'l aquarium that we've built for ourselves in this corner of the intarwebs...

Over at dA, I found this tutorial by one of my favorite artists, Ursula Vernon. I wanted to try it out because the scribbly method looked really interesting and here's what I came up with:

One of the things I really like about these daily sketches is the fact that you can experiment with new techniques quickly and not worry about it being a finished product. I really like the raw energy that this style brings and I want to be able to refine this technique more so that it doesn't look quite as messy as this one ended up being.

--RWHC

daily sketches

Felt like painting koi, so koi you get. Or something akin to it.

*If there is at least ONE thing i must achieve this summer, it is color theory and color management. Damn JPEGS for their data loss.

--Azureon

daily sketches

for now, this is what i am able to spit out for the much delayed daily sketches.

i will try to make it daily.


not feeling very colorful at the moment, but next time, and hereafter, i will stop doing limited color/monochromatic scenes since i'm getting sick of them, not to mention that this became an experiment gone horribly out of proportion;it bleached out this past school year to a grayish darkish shade that is neither color nor uncolor but the gastric discharge of a stubbornly formless beast.

Now time to go sink into that pleasant unconsciousness called Sleep. For some reason, I seem to be getting very little of it, thanks to being nomadic for the last few weeks.

- Azureon