Does my Art look big in this?

[Emperor]

That's cracking, we need to see more of your sequential work.

[flip-r mk2]

Over on the Weekly TAB we had a Mystery Art Swap, here's my drawing of Slaine for Chaingunchimp.

Sharpie fine liner on A4 bristol board.

filip

[Nightbook]

Started this in Hot Dang Doodle, thought I'd finish* it here;

*Insofar as anything's ever finished. Wanted to see how far I could get before going to bed. I'm going to bed.

Haha, this is something I struggle with - knowing when to step away from a painting isn't easy. I'm always tempted to add a bit more polish, to tidy up the rough edges, but it's often counter-productive and if I overdo it the end result feels too clean and sterile. Sometimes I feel as if I've painted the life out of the picture - which is kinda the case with that second Armitage pic (I really love the first pic but the second one... not so much).

The pictures that are a bit rougher often feel as if they have more energy to them, but I find it immensely difficult to get the balance right.

[Jon]

Haha, this is something I struggle with - knowing when to step away from a painting isn't easy.

Heh, that's easy - that's what deadlines are for.

I'm always tempted to add a bit more polish, to tidy up the rough edges, but it's often counter-productive and if I overdo it the end result feels too clean and sterile. Sometimes I feel as if I've painted the life out of the picture - which is kinda the case with that second Armitage pic (I really love the first pic but the second one... not so much).

The pictures that are a bit rougher often feel as if they have more energy to them, but I find it immensely difficult to get the balance right.

Yeah. I think art's about looooong a series of epiphanies really. From my experience I'd say just push it as far as possible. The beauty of working digitally, of course, is you can make as many iterative backups as you like (I tend to work in Dropbox these days as it does it for me) so there's really nothing to lose. At some stage you have to risk making a mess and ruining what you thought you had 'cos, unfortunately, all the really good stuff's usually on the other side of that.

I find it can help to stay looser too - start with a few strokes, a patch of colour, be fairly chaotic; it'll help add and elements that you can work into. Then you're more free to adapt and  make changes as you go. You've really gotta make sure the basics are right before you start polishing or it's just a huge waste of effort, but it should ultimately help deliver that energy you're looking for.

Largely though it depends what you're actually aiming for. The above piece I put up was a way of keeping my hand in at producing a "speed-paint"* that conveyed what I needed it to in 3 or 4 hours (in my job I only get to produce concept work some of the time, the rest of it being taken up with the tedious bullshit that is actually computer games art**. But I might get someone needing something by the afternoon, and I've fallen foul of allowing myself to get rusty in the past). If, however, I was planning on using it for a print cover, for example, then I'd consider it to still be largely at the under-painting stage, and be probably looking at another couple of days to get it up to standard. And I'd add some sort of background or context.

Alex Ronald's blog title sums it up beautifully; "Never finished only abandoned".

*For the record, I hate the term "speed-paint". There's no such bloody thing, okay? It's just PAINTING at different levels of finish. It's just some wanky, hipster term someone made up to add unnecessary mystique to what they do.

**Yeah, yeah, I know, and my solid gold shoes are too tight. But it's BORING, okay?

[NeilFord]

Some panel detail from a page I'm working on...

[Van Dom]

Holy fuck that's good!

[mrstu]

i second that, it looks awesome

[Bhuna]

What they said. Brill that Neil

[staticgirl]

gorgeous!

[NeilFord]

Wow, you are all very kind, thanks!

[Frank]

Wow, you are all very kind, thanks!

I checked out your website, and the concept of Jenny Everywhere (the idea of an open source character is fascinating) seems perfectly realised in your gorgeous interpretation. I'm seeing Tintin and le tigre and Japonism- which is no mean feat.

Tharg needs you, Son.

[Emperor]

Lovely stuff Neil, I really like that. Be sure to let us know when it sees print.

[kylestrahm]

A couple of Batman pages!

[Pauul]

A couple of Batman pages!

Wow, these are beautifully drawn pages.

Really awesome work.

[kylestrahm]

Hey, thanks for the kind words.