Image – Page 3 – Josh Hancock

Concept Art

I’ve been trying to challenge myself to create some wholly original work and find my voice as an artist, and this is what I found today.

I was inspired by watching a twitch stream of johnlestudio to just begin a drawing and figure out the story as I went. As John was drawing he would “feel” a shape or a line that looked/felt good to him and then he would figure out how to create it within the developing world of his piece.

Of course, if I’m attempting any kind of concept art, I should also mention the artists Sparth and Scott Robertson whose tutorials, both online and in book form, have been helpful to me along my journey.

Nathan Fowkes Charcoal Portrait Study

I’ve been following the work of Nathan Fowkes on his blog for awhile. He’s amazing and his work is amazing. A couple days ago he posted this great image showing his charcoal portraiture process since he just released a book on the topic.

So I decided to give it a try. In looking for an image to study I came across this iconic photograph of Marlene Dietrich from the film “Shanghai Express.”

I followed the same process as Fowkes and really enjoyed the journey.

Make art!

#inktober2016

I participated in inktober again this year, but this year (in contrast to last year) I was committed to see it through. I really appreciated the discipline it required of me. As you can see in these sketches, I went through a portraiture phase that I really enjoyed. It was reassuring to feel like I was seeing some growth in my observational drawing skills. None of these sketches had a pencil under drawing–I just went in directly with the pen and tried to cover over any “sins” with Copic marker value:)

The last sketch in this post was done with brush and ink washes from reference.

Golden Fields

I need to get back to doing some work and sketching is always the best way to ease back into the saddle.

I used this photo by Petritap as a reference.

Southern Bastards Panel Study

I’m still playing around with Manga Studio 5 as a digital coloring tool. I did this study of a few panels from Jason Latour’s art in the comic “Southern Bastards.” The comic is great by the way and you should read it if you’re in the mood for some good pulp eighties action movie style fiction. Below you can see a picture of my study on the monitor next to the actual comic page in digital form on an iPad.

Manga Studio Guillaume Singelin Study

I’ve finally started learning how to use Manga Studio 5 which I invested in to see how it would do as a Photoshop alternative. It was very intuitive and has everything a comic artist needs for coloring which is all I’ve attempted at this point.

The above images are studies of a Guillaume Singelin illustration from his “Southern Tales” series which I found in his excellent book of sketches Junky. Below is a poorly filtered image I took from the book itself. This was a lot of fun to do and it was a good way to start learning a new program.

Guillaume Singelin Lovin’

I fell in love with Guillaume Singelin last year when I came across some of his space drawings and I immediately began following his tumblr. I’ve experimented with his coloring style (not very successfully), and I just purchased my first of his books–“Junky.” It’s an amazing sketch journal packed with a lot of good insights into Singelin’s process. I would highly recommend it if you’re in the market for some stylized visual inspiration.

As I’ve been reading “Junky” I’ve been soaking in Singelin’s style with my own sketches of his work:

Silhouette Layered Forest

I wanted to play with using some simple layers to create some depth, so I did this study of a panel drawn by Jillian Tamaki in the graphic novel Skim.

Video Killed the Digital Painting “Star”

Ok, you may be wondering when I will start creating original work, but this is kind of the way I approach life in general. I research a lot before I write the paper. I shop around a lot before I purchase a product. In the case of my art, I like the idea of the Atelier model–a student should copy Master works, and hone their skills through repetition. That’s kind of where I’m at right now. On the other hand, this painting is the last one I plan to do with the aid of a video tutorial. My next works will be studies of paintings themselves. Can I take what I’ve learned and use it to recreate paintings in my own? We’ll see.

I enjoyed painting along with John Crump in this video today. We’ll see what happens next.

Rural Indiana

Today’s digital painting done while watching this video by the artist Kasey Sealy was a lot of fun. I know I keep on using that “fun” word to describe what it’s like painting on the iPad with Procreate, but it simply is. It’s fun because there is no pressure. It’s digital. It’s quick. You can keep on working the painting until you get it right. It’s satisfying, and to top it all off, I think I’m actually learning a thing or two about traditional painting.

I also enjoyed this scene because it reminds me of my Grandpa and Grandma Hancock’s farm. I love Indiana. I know it’s not for everyone, but to me it’s beautiful. My wife and I lived in Kansas City and nine years and we really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t home. So, this little piece is home to me:)