Illustration
Choosing The Right Eraser
A rather useful bit of information about erasers from Binders Art. Some of this I didn’t know.
Tips & Tricks #7: The Other Side Of The Pencil – Choosing The Right Eraser For The Job.
Backwoods Militiaman: The Finished Painting
I can’t believe I only just got around to finishing this 2 years later. I don’t know why I waited so long. Although I fought against the paper a bit, I really enjoyed painting it. I used Canson watercolor paper from a block and I was wishing the entire time I had used Arches instead, ANY Arches. The Canson is a decent paper but doesn’t stand up as well to the heavy wet washes and the lifting I ended up doing. But its done now and I hope you enjoy it. If you want to see my original post on this subject and the drawing look here.
Prints of this painting are now available at my Print Store
Tasty Title Sequences
I recently saw the movie Sherlock Holmes and an episode online of HBO’s The Pacific. The title sequences for both of these productions really got my attention. Both are rare treats for movie titles particularly if you are an illustrator like me! I love the loose, animated, illustrative feel of both and the way both bring images to life from those expressions, yet each achieves it in a very different style.
The Pacific title is reminiscent of a World War II combat artist working on a charcoal drawing. At points, as the charcoal flakes and crumbles you are transported to scenes of combat that mirror the effect. The drawings being created are overlaid and blended with photographic stills and live action. Just excellent!
The Pacific – title sequence
This sequence from Sherlock Holmes is a series of pen and ink style illustrations on a parchment-like background. As an animated effect of watercolor diffusion takes place the art is also blended with actual photographic stills and embellished by handwritten credits. Very cool, very 19th century.
Sherlock Holmes – End Title Sequence
I’ve watched both over and over savoring the effects. I’ve posted links below to both clips so take a look. My thanks to Art of the Title Sequence for great coverage on both titles. Their name kept coming up as I searched for material on these titles.
View The Pacific title clip here
View the Sherlock Holmes title clip here
Portrait Painting From Photos (watercolor)
In coming posts I will try to show more samples of portraits painted from photos to give a better idea what looks can be achieved. If you missed my post about this offered service check my previous post which gives the details for turning your photos into a painted portrait.
Below is an example of a digital watercolor painting recreation. Again this is hand painted using digital software and not a filter conversion of any kind. Watercolor is a bit more difficult to simulate digitally than oils but an artistic, loose, wash effect can still be achieved. A style such as this couples well with printing on watercolor paper.
So brush off those old photos and contact me for an estimate today.
Full Portrait – click to enlarge
Detail – click to enlarge
Portrait Painting From Your Photos
If you’re looking for a unique gift or a special way to preserve a favorite photo, try a painted portrait from your photo. This is a new service I’m now providing using painting techniques I’ve developed over the years as a professional illustrator. I digitally recreate your favorite photos of family or friends in a painted, simulated media style. This is not a Photoshop filter or software trick like some that claim to instantly convert photos to look like paintings, most of which don’t look like a painting at all. Instead I take your photo (or if you prefer we can arrange a photo shoot if you are local to me) and I prepare and enhance the photo for painting, then using digital painting software I hand paint the entire portrait to simulate a real painting, no automatic software conversions or filter effects.
A painted portrait from Steve Mitchell comes with these features:
- A hand-painted, digital portrait by a professional illustrator with over 25 years experience
- Generally created at a much larger size and at a higher resolution than the original photo making it a great way to preserve and enhance treasured photos
- Choice of various media simulations such as oils or watercolors
- Choose your preferred degree of loose impressionism or tight realism.
- Choose to get just the digital file and make your own prints or order a print of your painting from me printed on a variety of media such as watercolor paper or canvas.
- Choose to customize your photo before its painted with enhancements such as removing unwanted elements, combining people from separate photos, changing colors of particular elements or even have your subject placed over a completely different background.
- Reasonable, competitive pricing usually much lower than a photo studio can provide. Pricing from $120 and up depending on factors such as size, number of subjects, background elements, retouching and prep, etc.
Get in touch today for a free consultation and quote.
Note: Most portrait prints taken by a professional studio cannot be submitted for reproduction due to copyright laws. You must only submit photos that you have complete reproduction rights to.
Full Portrait – click to enlarge
Detail 1 – click to enlarge
Detail 2 – click to enlarge
Full Portrait – click to enlarge
Detail – click to enlarge
Peter de Sève is Blogging
Sweet! I’ve always loved the art of Peter de Sève and was tickled to find out he has a blog now. Check it out.
Digital Facial Study
I’ve been playing around with Corel Painter 11 to gain more familiarity. What a yummy program! The ability to combine digital mediums that would be incompatible in the real world is pretty cool, marker and chalk over oils for example. I plan to put it through its “real world” paces not just as a finished art platform but for doing quick impromptu sketches and studies. On this facial study I used marker, oils, pencil, chalk, blending stump and eraser. Painter works better as a digital sketching platform than I imagined. I know this is not new. There are tons of great illustrators working in Painter but I need to find for myself the most comfortable approach. More experiments to come.
Jimmy Doolittle
Had fun doing this sketch of famous WWII aviator Jimmy Doolittle while playing around with some loose pencil styles one night. I posted more details about him here on my old blog.
Free Photoshop Brushes
I honestly don’t know why anyone would need to buy commercial Photoshop brush packages these days. I needed some cloud brushes and didn’t want to take the time to make them. A simple Google search turned up not only several free cloud brush sets, but tons of free brush sites. And I often find digital artists and illustrators offering their brushes as free downloads. Below are some sites that’ll get you started if you’re looking to beef up your Photoshop brush collection.
Falln-Stock – a really interesting deviantART gallery of object oriented PS brush sets
The Art of Daarken – a fantasy/scifi artist gallery site with a nice set of custom paint brushes (click on tutorials >> custom brushes
