Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Fishman Revised

I was looking over that piece I did for the Darkstalkers Tribute Contest, and I couldn't shake the feeling that it could be better. I decided to go back into it to make it a bit more robust.



 As you can see, the biggest alteration I made was the contrast. It's a lot less faded now. I tried not to go too extreme with the values though. That would look just as bad. 



 Lighting is something I haven't really honed in on much, so I pushed that as well. Of course, I had to do more than just put in more highlights.  Pretty much all over the piece, dropped in various violets, magenta's, and carmine's to complement all the blues and greens. This helped to get that warm, vibrant feel to the sunlight. It also improved the foreground/background separation.

All and all, I'm actually pretty pleased with the end result.  I don't feel that way very often.  Coming back to something with a fresh pair of eyes is probably what helped the most. Experimentation is pretty key as well. 

In most situations, my preferred way of working is to just "play it by ear" without locking myself down to some rigid mindset of doing it the "proper" way.  By "proper" I'm referring to a very calculated, by-the-book approach. Like this is how I'm SUPPOSED to be doing this.  I'm certainly not trying to say that I don't put any thought into what I'm doing. I just try to keep my thinking flexible. It's like one of those science projects where you build a guided path (out of cardboard, or something) for a plant to grow. You know where the plant's going, but you don't know exactly how the vines are going to shape themselves to get there. Controlled chaos, if you will.

So with that said, I'm sure I may revisit some other old pieces in the future. However, I'd like to finish up that Aztec Comic and maybe that Sagat drawing.

If Nothing Happened Today

Breaking news!!!

Paperdoll's single - If Nothing Happened - was featured on the Today Show during a segment about Al Roker.  (1:56 into the clip) 

Just in case no one clicks the above hyperlinks....

Today Show Clip

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/35870556#35870556

Aaaand more links

Official Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyLjzv2wmdE

Unofficial Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6N1cjC6pvk&feature=related

Dayquil Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkHUjEgpaAo&feature=related

Monday, March 1, 2010

Captive Animals of Chattanooga

On Saturday, Anthem did a company trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee. We rented a van and drove up there to hit up the Chattanooga's zoo and aquarium. Given that it was only a day trip, we had to move fairly quickly, so I didn't have time to sketch.  I wound up just taking a bunch of pictures.

What you see here is only a fraction of them. I took about 440 pictures, so it was pretty tedious going through all of them. These were some of the cleareer ones (and the ones with the best compositions). I have more that were blurry, but still looked cool. I'll post those separately. 

I may even do another post with some of the not-so-great ones. I took so many pictures, I feel like I should do something with them.




This is an old chimp named Hank. He sells propane and propane accessories.


Ah, he reminds me of the iguana I used to have for a pet. He was about that size.



Exhibit was MIA.




Monkey:   Old man tortoise didn't skip town. Those hawk scumbags bumped him off. I'll take 'em down, even if it costs me my badge!


Monkey:   No one batted an eye when those two first came to town.  This city's always been full of low-life hoods lookin' to make a name for themselves, but these guys weren't your run-in the-mill meatheads. They were smart.



Monkey:  Before anyone know it, this whole city was on the business end of one hell of a sucker punch.  They had the whole criminal underworld in their pockets in a matter of weeks.



Monkey:  I first got wind of 'em when a pro wrestler was found dead in his dressing room. Called himself the "Tanzanian Tank." Some punk-for-hire snuffed him out after he refused to take a dive in the big title match.


 

Monkey:  A real freak, that guy. He was part of some small time gang called the "Avian Anarchists." Wouldn't talk 'til we threatened to cut his screwball hairdo. Then he sang like the dirty bird he was. Thing is, the info he gave was bogus.



Monkey:  He said he was working for "Butterball Red", one of the biggest crime bosses from way back when.  The glory days of mammalian kingpins.  Nowadays, that old codger's too senile to order take-out, let alone a hit. 



Monkey:  Butterball working with birds made even less sense. Birds had never been a dominant force in the crimeworld, but that began to change.  When birds began gaining a foothold, every mammalian gangster in the city was up in arms. All hell broke loose with us cops right there in the thick of it.


Monkey:  Most of the big bird bosses wound up dead, or in the clink.  None of them could've been responsible for the "Tanzanian Tank's" murder.  Someone new was on the scene.

 

Monkey: I made a deal with "Softshoe Sal", an old boss I pinched, for a reduced sentence in exchange for info about the city's new scourge.  It was then that I first heard of the "Hawkins Brothers."

.....to be continued.



 

Wow. I have no idea why I suddenly went on some weird noir tangent there.








I couldn't resist. hahaha

 


  


  


  

I got a few lol's from this.

  


  

It's funny, the zoo is as old as I am.  At least as old as I will be by the end of this month.

 

 And now for the turtles!!!










I think this is my favorite picture.