those eyes

I did this in the morning at work during our speed session. This one's from a mirror and I love it! Working from life creates such unique results. This isn't a perfect representation of me, but you can see the likeness for sure, and that is what makes working from life so awesome. No two drawings are the same! There is always a new interpretation! Yea!

abandoned circus

This was a three hour speed painting I did as a part of a work training session. It was a blast!

I started painting some rough thumbnails to zero in on my composition. I also created some custom brushes within photoshop to speed up the process. This was very exciting for me because I do not paint landscapes often. I may post some tutorials on how I created the photoshop brushes if there is some interest.

wonderful forms

So along with the human body, I absolutely love all the different creatures and animals that fill this earth. I find them to be another source of endless inspiration for the imagination! Just look at the Ninja Turtles. What an amazing concept. Add some ooze to any animal and you got a brand new character! Endless possibilities I tell you, endless!!!

These animals were just painted from some photos I googled. I found the shark to be a very fun challenge to recreate. The horse is pulsing with strength and the rhino is so heavy his shadow is slouching!

the barton!

This is a co-worker of mine. Haha! Bless him!

wrinkle flow

We went through four sessions of cloth training at my work a couple months ago. This sketch was from the first session where we studied how wrinkles work in cloth on a live model! This was a lot of fun.

foot study

This is a study for a foot I painted in 2 hours as a part of a training session at my work. Wonderful colors to work with!

the general

This is yet another character from the workings of my story. This guy is a mighty hero! I'll probably talk more about him on another occasion!

I can't go very long without doing a character design, what can I say?

tmnt

This painting was birthed out of a challenge given to me from my friend Nate! He's one of the coolest people I know by the way:) Check out his site! [http://www.studion8.com/]

We were talking one night and remembering those days as kids when we would go nuts drawing from the richness of our imaginations. (And also how awesome the Ninja Turtles were!) Then we were kicking ourselves, asking where our love for making art had gone. Then Nate challenged me to a drawing duel and called me out. We had a couple days to create a Ninja Turtle drawing that comes from the same creative source as our childhood, uncompromising and rich imagination!

handsome fellow

So these were some portrait studies I did of yours truly. They were created using a combination of Photoshop and Painter. I've found that each program offers unique strengths. You can tell these were created from photographs because I'm not actually looking at the camera.

My goal here wasn't to create some 'incredible' artwork, but to study color and value. I learned much about light and how it decays from the top of the forehead to the bottom of the chin, and also I got a neat glimpse at the different colors found within our skin!

ninja prophet

I'm a big fan of character designs. I use to draw characters all day growing up. Those were the days; the imagination was completely free and flowing with ideas! Take us back to those days!

So this guy was pretty fun to design. He's supposed to be some kind of prophet ninja...but really there is no reason to assume this character is anything but a ninja... if that even! Hah! He certainly doesn't resemble any prophet I've seen. ...and I've seen a few:)

robo dude

This guy is from a story I'm creating. I'd tell you about him, but then... you know. I hope to one day format the story as a graphic novel.

I find it easier to create organic shapes with paint, but hard and straight edged surfaces would drive me crazy. I would always seem to lose the gesture that's found in the original sketch. Because of this I would often avoid drawing things like this guys machine gun arm. I'm not even sure how this painting got finished...I mean...for sure I should of stopped at that gun and thrown my computer out of the window in frustration. Hah!

enjoying painter

In this scenario I scanned a drawing from my sketchbook which I thought had some potential. Ahh, I love potential! Once you see it you become gripped with vision which then carries you to the conclusion of your painting! Haha, I've tried so many times to work through those paintings that go bad from the beginning and they never get finished. ...unless of course, I see that potential along the way!

From the scanned image I brought it into Painter 8 and painted away. I remember learning a lot from this painting...but I can't quite remember what at the moment.

the figure

So what kind of art blog would this be if we didn't have figure drawings! Man, I can't get over how awesome the human body is.

There is such beautiful design, lovely symmetry, wonderful form and balance! Even the skin tone carries with it a multitude of colors, if you look closely, that make it one of the most extravagant things an artist can explore! There is so much diversity even within different types of lighting and poses that the human form creates what could be an endless source of inspiration for an artist:) Hah! Yea!

face study

These were some quick face studies I painted to test a certain color palette. I also learned a lot about the different blending options within Corel Painter 8 and began to challenge myself to paint less with lines and more with value! I remember experiencing some lovely freedom when I no longer felt bound to lines to define form:)

If you look closely, the color scheme in both paintings is exactly the same. The one on the top is simply inverted! I thought it looked cool:) Good times!

in the beginning...

Hello World!

I've been encouraged to create this blog as a type of journal to record this gift of creating art! There is just so much to discover, learn and enjoy through the venue of art that it felt foolish not to record it in some manner.

It's my hope that you find yourself encouraged from your visit! So please, grab a coffee, sit back and let’s find out where this thing goes!

Time to get started!

Be blessed!
Matt