Happy New Year's Eve!

Artwork © 2010 Gene Gonzales

I hope everyone has a safe and fun celebration tonight. Thanks for hanging with me here for the last three years. More fun and art coming in 2011, I hope you continue to hang around. :)

This is Post #1182

Red Dress - Pixel Art 2

Artwork © 2010 Gene Gonzales

Just a quick piece I threw together while I sat at Barnes and Noble tonight. I was still working when Dakota wanted to go so I grabbed my sketchbook and did this in the cafe area. I slapped some color on it when we got back and here it is. Now I need to get back to work. :)

This is Post #1181

Red Dress - Pixel Art

Artwork © 2010 Gene Gonzales

I drew this in my sketchbook with a #2 pencil then colored it in Photoshop CS5. This is a style I would like to develop and refine. I like the pencil lines showing through and the roughness that this approach brings. Yesterday's post, done in Adobe Illustrator CS5,  was slick and graphic. This is messy and has energy. In PS CS5, I used brushes to create the textures I wanted. Changing the opacity and flow of a brush can create different textures and blends of colors. Something you can't do in AI without a lot of tweaking. I can create the nice graphic lines of AI in PS using the pen tool. But then I would be back to a flat line weight or a preset line weight effect.

I've never been a one or the other kind of artist in that I like both programs for what they do best. I would rather use PS to get the light/color effects than try to mimic it in AI. For something bold and graphic, I will go right to AI. And for really cool stuff, mix them in a shaker and pour over four olives in a chilled martini glass. Oops, that's not a program, that's a drink waiting for me right now.

This is Post #1180

Red Dress - Vector Art

Artwork © 2010 Gene Gonzales

Just a little something I whipped up today in Adobe Illustrator CS5. I wanted to try out a tool that is new to this version of AI. Before the pen tool only gave you a single line weight, no thick or thin variations. But now there is a width expanding tool. After putting down the initial line, I can click on it and adjust the thickness of the line anywhere I want. I can adjust both sides of the line, or just one side. If you look at the right leg of the girl above, you can really see the variation of line thickness. This could be a very important tool for me.

After I finished adjusting the line weight, I colored the piece in AI using Live Paint, then exported into Photoshop CS5 to make a jpg of it for the blog.

This is Post #1179

Sketchbook Monday - Batman

Batman © DC Comics

I have been worked in Adobe Illustrator from 7am until 8:30pm with only a 30 minute break for some dinner and a Starbucks run a little earlier. So when I finished with what I planned on doing today, and finished with all that vector work, I felt like slapping some paint around. I took this picture with my iPhone because the paint was still wet and I was too lazy to look for our Canon G9 camera. This really isn't a very good piece but it helped me loosen up. And that was it's purpose. Never let it be said that I am afraid to show the bad stuff here  :)

This is Post #1178

Rainbow Seahorses FTW!

 Artwork © 2010 Gene Gonzales

I showed bits of this above artwork when it was in progress. This was commissioned by my friends Tom & Anne Marie for their daughter Katie. The image incorporates a very long and fun series of nicknames they have for Katie. This was a lot of fun to do and I really feel honored they asked me to do this. Thanks Tom and Anne! (This was done in color pencil and fluid acrylic.)

And for fun, here is a piece they commissioned for their other daughter Shelby. This was done way back in 2002. After all these years it was very cool to see the painting hanging in Shelby's room when I visited them last year. Yup, very cool indeed. :) (This one was done in gouache.)

Lilo and Stitch © Disney

This is Post #1177

Merry Christmas!

Artwork © 2010 Gene Gonzales

I had hoped to finish this piece for Christmas, but it just didn't happen. I hope everyone had a great day!

This is Post #1176