Thom Yorke ~ A Study in Grayscale

Tonight I'm posting the finished Thom Yorke I've been working on in grayscale, well not actually grayscale. It's RGB desaturated. I'm not sure about it. This one was tough. There a lot of extreme exaggerations in the body and that's hard to do and maintain / create detail. I don't know, it just looks stiff to me. I always had that problem when I painted. The sketch always captured the feeling I wanted and the final painting ended up stiff. I think when I start incorporating digital painting into my work it will get better. I really think I like the sketch better. Oh well, it is what it is and I'm done. On to the next project. I did learn a few things. That's the important part. I've posted the rest of the project below. I'm going back to concentrating on the face. Faces are what I do best and if I get that right the rest follows.

 

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Andy Rooney Remembered

Tonight I'm posting a manipulated caricature of Andy Rooney as a tribute to a true writer. He wrote until the very end. He will be remembered.

Andy Rooney - JANUARY 14, 1919 - NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Andrew Aitken "Andy" Rooney (January 14, 1919 – November 4, 2011) was an American radio and television writer. He was most notable for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011. His final regular appearance on 60 Minutesaired October 2, 2011. He died one month later, on November 4, 2011, at age 92.

Television network CBS announced this morning that 60 Minutes news commentator Andy Rooney died yesterday evening in a New York City hospital, after complications from a minor surgery. He was 92. 

Rooney became famous for his final commentary at the end of each 60 Minutes news program. A beloved curmudgeon, he often served as the voice of the contrarian in popular culture. After more than 30 years on the show, Rooney announced his departure as a regular contributor in October of this year. He insisted, however, that he would still be creating occasional pieces for the network as long as he was able. "Andy always said he wanted to work until the day he died, and he managed to do it, save the last few weeks in the hospital," his 60 Minutes colleague, correspondent Steve Kroft, told the AP. 

Here's a look at Rooney's final segment on 60 Minutes. Only Andy could find a way to say thanks, while still coming off just a little grumpy about it. You will be sorely missed, Mr. Rooney.

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Over 200,000 Blog Views Year One

Tonight I want to thank all of my followers and visitors as I hit yet another milestone in an extremely short period of time. I launched this blog in October of 2010. In June of this year I reached a milestone and announced reaching 100,000 blog pageviews since it was launched. It seems like that was just a couple of months ago and in fact it has been only a few months. In barely over a year and with the support of a thousands awesome people like yourselves, my blog rolled over 200,000 pageviews this morning. Thanks to all of you who follow my blog as a public follower, a NetworkedBlogs follower, as well as RSS subscribers, and thanks to those of you who may bookmark or simply drop by from time to time. It is much appreciated. At this rate, I look forward to the day when it hits seven digits, and it will. I didn't do a fancy graphic for this post because I'm busy working to get some great stuff posted. Thanks so much for your support once again. The future looks bright from here!

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Thom Yorke ~ A Grayscale Caricature Study (WIP)

Tonight I'm posting a work in progress of Thom Yorke. This is a very small, rough, quick study done mostly in liquify except for the head. It's what I call a "liquify sketch". I had this image of Thom Yorke which is very small, poor detail, grayscale and just not a good image... except for the pose, or at least it has potential. I love that pose and decided to do a little experimenting and see if I can bring this thing to life. When I saw this pose, I thought of Norman Rockwell and those awkward spindly bodies he painted, so that's kind of the feel I'm going for here. I'm starting with an all grayscale study to get the values right. I've caricatured the body to close to what I'm after and the face was an unfinished one I had laying around. Again, this is a very quick conceptual sketch that I will use for reference on the final image. I'm not positively sure I will use this head. It was just convenient at this stage to get an idea if this will even be worth my time. I will ultimately use some techniques I've been working on to increase the size of the body considerably while enhancing and adding detail, texture and in the end full color. This is going to be a real test of all the hard work I've put in this past year. It will definitely be my biggest challenge. The two source images are below as well as the head which is in a very unfinished state and only sort of blocked in as far as the shape of the head. Much will change before the final product. Well, there you go. That's what I'll be doing for the next two or three days around a commission I'm working on. Hopefully my next Thom Yorke post will be a cool one. Goodnight folks!

Thom Yorke posing for a magazine shoot:

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Loren Wiener ~ A Google+ Commission

Tonight my blog post is a Google+ commission for Loren Wiener, a Technology Evangelist from Australia. He is also on Google+ @ +Loren Wiener. I had a lot of fun with this manipulation. Loren pretty much gave me free reins which is always fun. I even played with some 3D text in Illustrator, that was a first for me. This caricature was challenging because the source image wasn't the best I've worked with so I had to pull some tricks out of my hat and fix it up a bit. I wasn't sure if Loren was going to like the background that I honestly got carried away with a bit here, so I provided another with a soft background. He went with both. I've also posted the source image below. One more down and ready to start another. Goodnight all!

Loren Wiener

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Business Updates And Recent Commissions

Tonight I'm posting a couple of updates on two projects I have put a good bit of work into lately. Above is the finalized cover for "The Browser Magazine". You can learn more about the magazine and the online version at this link. There's also more information about The browser Magazine on my previous post on the commission at this link. There is a page inside dedicated to my work as well. I will be doing work on a regular basis with this magazine and will be a permanent installment there.

I was also contacted by Catchphrase Entertainment and New Coast Productions about the movie poster I had been working on for California 90420 to be released very soon. They wanted me to go ahead and do the type setting, billing block etc. for the final poster which will be printed in three sizes as well as use as the DVD jewel case cover, so the final product is below. I also made a few changes from the previous design. Check me out! My first billing block menton. :) You can also learn more about the movie as well as watch a trailer on previous posts on this commission here and here. I am working on a portrait commission at the moment and will post it when it's complete. Sorry for the lack of posts. My business is picking up and I've been working on some things on the business side which aren't a lot of fun but need to be attended to. I will be hiring an assistant soon so I will have more time to do my work and as a result make more regular blog posts. Thanks for hanging in there with me guys!

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California 90420 Movie Trailer

Tonight I'm making a followup post to the last one on the Poster design for the latest movie by Catchphrase Entertainment. Below is the trailer to the movie as well as a little information on the makers. You can view the movie poster on the previous post. Click on the image above and support their new facebook page.

Directed by one of the guys that brought you the comedy hit, "Waiting...", comes the story of 4:20 Somethings; learning, leading, striving and thriving in California's semi-legalized marijuana culture.

California 90420 will be premiering on the east coast November 4th and 5th at the Asheville Cinema Festival in North Carolina.  (www.ashevillecinemafestival.com)

The west coast premiere will be in Los Angeles on November 19th.  If you are interested in attending this private screening, go to www.facebook.com/California90420.

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