Does my Art look big in this?

[Dark Jimbo]

I love that Hellboy so very much. What's it painted with, MenshcMachine?

[MenschMaschine]

Cheers, guys... Jon is a master of mood, gorgeous!
DarkJImbo, this one is painted with acrylics and pastel on bristol board. Not my favourite surface to paint on though. I normally use canvas paper or illustration board but so many professionals  do use bristol board that I thought I should give it a shot. It makes a whole difference in the way how you use the brushes to achieve certain textures.

http://brunostahl.deviantart.com/

[Darren Stephens]

Some great work posted here recently. Well played, guys n girls, well played.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Bloody hell, that Jon is a bit good.

Love that stylised Hellboy too.

[Jon]

ok juuuuuuuust going to reply here cuz no one said how awesome Jon's last piece was.  Cuz....it's pretty freaking awesome.  Someone ought to acknowledge it.

MenschMaschine: your hellboy is pretty freaking rad, too.

I just saw this. Thank you. Thank you so much, that's really lovely of you.

It's okay though, I just put things up for fun, and cos 2000 AD's where it all started for me. So long as no-one's actually offended.

On review  I realise I did manage to hog the thread a bit recently. Sorry everyone.

Sorry.   

Thank you Mr B. Christ as well. It's all very flattering.

[Woolly]

On review  I realise I did manage to hog the thread a bit recently. Sorry everyone.

No need to apologise when your works this good!
Keep it up, sir 

[Hoagy]

Thought it'd be nice to see this half imagined as a cover anyway. Jon! Always a pleasure.

[Darren Stephens]

Cool pic, Tony. Proper disturbing! Also, Jon, no need to apologise for awesomeness!

[pictsy]

Couple of League of Legends pieces I did as presents for my significant other.

[Hoagy]

Great gaming images! Funny lil guitarist.




After Hewlitt et al

[Jon]

That's right put me in the mood for some Tank Girl.

Today's thing;

[amines2058]

Jon, Hoagy, some cracking pictures there. Hoagy I really like your character design and can definitely see the Hewlitt influence. Jon same as usual..amazing! I would love to be able to know your workflow in creating something like this. I am relatively new to creating digital art and am struggling to use colours effectively in this sort of application.

[amines2058]

Sorry Pictsy forgot to mention yours as well! 
Also stunning and the same comments applies to yours as it does to Jon above. 

[Jon]

Jon, Hoagy, some cracking pictures there. Hoagy I really like your character design and can definitely see the Hewlitt influence. Jon same as usual..amazing! I would love to be able to know your workflow in creating something like this. I am relatively new to creating digital art and am struggling to use colours effectively in this sort of application.

Thanks very much. And sure! It varies from piece to piece, to be honest, but in this case...

I started with a sketch for layout - nice and loose, nothing too detailed;




Sticking that on the top layer as a multiply blend, I create another layer underneath and start a tonal sketch. It makes sense in this case as the scene is to be dominated by the light sources. In a more white-lit scene, I'd probably start by blocking in the colour.




When I'm happy there's enough there to steer I can just turn off the top sketch layer;




A new layer over the top, in this case blended to overlay (as the tonal study is quite dark. I generally prefer multiply, but depends on the piece). I very roughly blocked in some colour, just as a steer;




I also adjust the image with feedback from the client that he's given me the wrong dimensions.
Naturally, its all pretty horrible so far. I flatten everything, and scribble in some further colour detail and depth. All the art college stuff about warm/ cold and colour wheel theory is your friend here.




And then, just iterate. It's all about the iteration really. Keep going until the deadline hits, then stop*.

I think really the biggest trick I've learned with painting is that there is no trick. Get down your intention as quickly as possible (it may take some exploration to discover what your intention is). It doesn't matter how loose everything is, you just need enough that you can see where it's going. And then refine. Piece of piss.

There's loads of stuff out there that can help. Feng Zhu is particularly good in terms of tutorials, though there are bloody loads. If you're impatient like me then it's really just down to playing around and lots of practice. **


*You could keep going until you're happy, but I've never heard of that working for anybody.

** Apologies for anything that doesn't make sense. Up all night with a screaming baby.

[amines2058]

Jon many thanks for the detailed description and information on your workflow and how you create an image. That is really really useful to me.
I think my problem is I can do the basics quite successfully using traditional media but when transferring to digital, even though I understand and use layers in their simplest sense, it is the blending, multiply, and overlay of layers which confuses me as knowing when to use which option for what effect / benefit. Plus also as stupid as it is, knowing the best type of brush and the relative settings of that brush e.g. opacity etc to create the painted effect I want!

By the way best of luck with the baby. I can only sympathise as my wife is due to give birth to our third tomorrow!!  So I am currently sat in work a little distracted awaiting a phone call at any time!