I went to Scotland... Or did I?

Last night and this morning I did a little world travelling.  On the internet that is.  There are a fascinating number of public webcams pointed at pretty places all around the world.  Paris, Alaska, New York Africa, Etc.  I thought that these cameras would make a fun way to watch light and color change in these distant lands.  Below are my first experimants of a town square in Scotland.  This is "The Cross" in Kilmarnok Scotland around 6 am (the cooler painting) and later around 5pm (the strongly light one). These took about 20-30 minutes each and are sketched in one brush with no pressure sensitivity in Photoshop. 
          

Portraits anyone?

I don't do many portraits, but I have done a few.  I think I have only done a limited number of them because I like to know something of the person before I feel comfortable doing one.  I think you need to know what the person is really like to know what to draw- otherwise what are you really doing?  you don't know!  You might accidentally get it right, but you might not.  

Here are a couple drawings, one of my friends Melissa and Peter De Seve.  Melissa is a very kind energetic and very smart girl with a bright outlook on life (this drawing is meant to be more realistic).  Peter has a big heart, has a fun and nutty side (just like his characters) and a very keen eye (Peter's drawing is meant to have a bit of caricature).  I hope all of these qualities come through in my portraits!  
 

Icon6: A Labor of Line

 

I will be having a couple paintings in the ICON 6 show at Gallery Nucleus this month. The opening reception is July 16th at 7pm.  Go to their website for a map and directions to the gallery.  if you have never been, it is a great gallery and bookstore/ art print store.  There really is nothing quite like it, and I think we need many more like it.  Maybe they should open more of them?  Hint, hint....

Bristle Brushes

I have been asked what kinds of brushes I use for oil painting from time to time, so I thought I'd help people understand a bit more about them.  Bristle brushes are what I use for most of the painting and for all the beginning stages of my oil paintings. 

Here is a scan 3 of my bristle (hog hair) brushes as a demonstration of their longevity and quality.  The left is a brand-new, top of the line Windsor and Newton bristle brush. In the middle is a 15 year old and VERY high quality bristle brush I have been using, and at the right is an unused low quality bristle brush.  

The Windsor and Newton and the older brush both should have a nearly endless life unless you are painting on sandpaper!   The cheaper brush MIGHT work for a single painting ok, but will never have the kind of control, flex and shape that a good bristle brush does.  

The key differences between these 2 qualities of brush are interlocking, and hair arrangement.  Interlocking is a term used to refer to the way the bristles are carefully arranged by the maker to have their natural bend curve toward the center of the brush.  This is most easily seen on the middle brush because the stains from the old paint, but it is there on the first brush too.  Manufacturers will try and trick buyers who do know that this is a mark of quality by one simple trick.  They put soap or some other washable stiffener in the hairs and shape them TEMPORARILY to point towards the center.  The best way to find out if this is the case is to carefully knead the stiffener out in the store and see if the hairs still do this. The other factor in quality is the way the hairs are arranged to form the shape of the brush.  Filbert and round brushes are the easiest brushes to look for this type of quality.  Good quality and good performing brushes have whole hairs carefully arranged to make the pointed shape, of say, a  round brush.  Individual hog bristle hairs all naturally come to a sharp taper and each have a very fine point.  When a brush is arranged well all the pointed ends of the hairs will be at the tip of the brush, none will stick out in a stray manner and none will have fuzzy or blunt ends.  Cheap hair arrangement (if you can call it that) will have a combination of fuzzy, blunt and sharp hairs.  These brushes are often just stuffed with hair, and then SANDED on a power sander to shape them. this creates a terrible brush with hairs that stick out everywhere, fall out on to your painting and have very little control.   

Drawing of the day for Stuart Ng...

Here is a nice little sketch I did for the supercool Stuart Ng a few months back. Stuart sells the most amazing collection of imported comics, art and illustration instruction books, and fine art books by all the best artists. 

They usually set up a little book store at both Comic-con and Wondercon here in California.  I'm not sure if he goes to other states but you can always browse his website for goodies. 

Stuart on the Left

Centrolinead update

Jim Gurney has posted my photos of the antique drawing tool I foud at an estate sale a few months ago.  Some folks on his blog requested a measured drawing, so I have scanned the parts and put measurements on them for those of you who want to make their own! 

Update on 2010-06-23 22:13 by Craig Elliott

Some people have asked about the hardware and the wood type used-

The wood appears to be cherry, a good fine grained hardwood, that is obviously tremendously stable, as it has not warped in 111 years!  

The hardware is all brass. small wood screws to attach the head to the main ruler and screws with square heads and a washer and wingnut on the top side.  

Hope that helps. 

-Craig

Update on 2010-06-24 17:50 by Craig Elliott

Another bit of helpful information was sent to me by a visitor, so I thought I would share it with the rest of you- There is a book online about mathematical drawing tools and it has a pretty good instruction guide on how to use the tool!  Go to page 169, here is the link:

http://www.archive.org/stream/descriptivetreat00stanrich#page/168/mode/2up

Little Wing

I just finished a new painting titled: Little Wing Says Goodbye. In this peice, A Native American girl who resues birds and restores them to full health is finally releasing one of her patients back to the wild.

Excuse the quality of this photo, the pros are taking a much better shot of it right now!

This is an oil painting on wood about 4 feet wide by 2.5 feet tall. 

Learning about color

I recently commented to a friend of mine that I had painted a particular building in Pasadena many times to practice color.  I was designing the Disney film Enchanted at the time and could see the top of this beautiful Old Town Pasadena building all day from my desk (the one that houses Louise's Trattoria for those of you  who live there) I thought I would post these sketches for you to see how simple this kind of sketch should be when you are only concerned with understanding and learning how color behaves. I am not concerened with accurate edges or details of any kind.  I just want to record the basic color and vlaue relationships that I am observing.  As I collect these kinds of sketches I file them by lighting situation and reopen them and sample the colors when I am painting a film design from my imagination!

In this sketch, the building clearly faces west on the light side as the sun is setting.  The warmth of the light is caused by the sunlight having to go through more atmsphere when it is setting and losing some of the cool end of the spectrum.  The cool side of the building and clouds is influenced by the sky mainly.  In the case of the building, other buildings (and the ground) are also adding reflected light that is hitting the subject building.

Here, the situation is clearly a night scene with light cloud cover in the sky.  The warm lights of the restaurants and shops lights the building from the bottom.  This light falls off quite quickly, as the man-made lights are not that powerful.  Towards the top of the building cooler moonlight mixes with the warm lights to make a sort of geenish grey light.  The moonlight also colors the shadow side of the of white building's walls.  One of my favorite features of the sky here is the lack of differention in the clouds in terms of value- the clouds are really just a different (greyer and greener) color than the sky.

The light side of the clouds and building in this sketch is a much more balanced and full spectrum light. You can see that the clouds are "actually" white and the building is "actaully" painted a slightly warm white.  The shadow sides are lit from the dome of the sky and thusly that light is the color I have painted the sky here.

Here is another end- of -day (or "golden hour") color sketch.  In this case, another building is casting a shadow on the lower half of main building, creating a nice mood.  The shadows are all much greyer in this case than they might normally becaue the sky had pretty heavy patches of grey clouds, greying out the blue light of the sky dome. 

New Character Designs in the portfolio area...

Here are a few new samples; not attached to any projects in particular.  Both started as doodles on paper and moved to the computer for final color.  Both were painted in Photoshop over a line drawing.  I want to do more work in fantasy art so I thought I'd get a little paractice in- Enjoy! 

New Greeting Card Store!

A new section of the online store has been added for my collection of greeting cards!  These 5" x 7" cards depict many of my most popular images in a smaller format.  The reproductions on these cards are equal in fidelity to the large prints so no detail is lost in the smaller scale. 

See the card collection...

World of Warcraft Bloody Grip card...

This is the final card from the "Scourge War"  set of cards.  Set among the frozen mountains in the world of Warcraft, a magical sword is found amongst a pile of bones.... Enjoy! 

OhNoDoom! Painted Ladies Show

OhNoDoom! gallery in Chicago will be having a group show on June 5th titled: Painted Ladies. ~And I have a piece included in the mix! 

If you live in the area or are in the area stop by and take in some great artwork! Keep an eye on their website for details: http://ohnodoom.com/

or the online store: www.enstore.com/ohnodoom

1800 N. Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60647 USA
hello@ohnodoom.com
773.698.8348

Goddess of Fall, new art print from Vehicle magazine!

Issue 3 ofthe great new comic and art magazine Vehicle was launched at Calgary Expo in Canada a few weeks ago and a pinup piece by me is announced on the cover.  

The "Goddess of Fall" painting was done from a pencil sketch and painted in photoshop. She is meant to embody many of the aspects of fall found in nature. The piece is also available as a print:

Digital, 2010

Print Size: 11.5" x 17.5"

$45

CTN Animation Expo 10% discount w/ our code!

Sign up by May 31 to get 10% off of your passes to CTN-Expo 2010!  Last year was awesome and sold out fast!  Code: CETTX10

CTNX Sign Up Early and Save. 
The hottest ticket in town is at the Creative Talent Network Animation Expo (CTN-X).  Back by popular demand this  3-day animation talent tradeshow beginning, Friday November 19th – Sunday November 21st again promises to bring some of the best animation studios and top talent artists from around the world to the City of Burbank.  The 2009 event sold out and had a waiting list and they anticipate no less this year. So if you're thinking of going you should sign up now to attend the CTN animation eXpo and secure your ticket for the exact same rate as 2009. (Prices good until May 31, 2010)  

Register online before May 31st:
http://www.regonline.com/ctnx2010 and receive an extra 10% off any 1-day or 3-day pass using our special discount code of: CETTX10 

Or stay the weekend and rent two nights at the event hotel and get a 3-day pass free of charge.http://www.ctnanimationexpo.com/stores/housing_travel/

(limited availability)

CTN animation eXpo
November 19-21, 2010
Burbank Marriott Convention Center
2500 Hollywood Way
Burbank CA 91505

 www.ctnanimationexpo.com

New Orleans Burlesque Festival poster

Final Poster

New Orleans Burlesque Festival founder Rick Delaup commissioned me to create the official New Orleans Burlesque Festival 2010 poster. This beautiful limited-edition art poster depicts a striptease dancer performing to a live jazz band. To create the original painting, I used oil and pencil on Rives BFK cotton paper. The size of the original work is 20” x 32”.  

Visit Rick's blog or the festival website to read more! 

Update on 2010-05-14 07:15 by Craig Elliott

Some of you may have noticed there is a bit of a tribute to a fellow artist included in this painting.  Can any of you correctly identify the artist in question?  

Rest in Peace, Frank Frazetta.

I am saddened to hear of the passing of one our greatest american artists, Frank Frazetta.  I thankfully had a chance to spend a whole day with he and his wife Ellie a few years ago in their Pennsylvania home. I have learned so much from Frank, and was glad to have told him of my gratitude.  

Below is a Photo Ellie took of Frank and I in his studio in 2005.  

You will be missed Frank.
 

I'm writing an introduction to Xenozoic, by Mark Schultz!

Exciting News! I have been chosen to write an introduction for a new printing of Xenozoic Tales by the great Mark Schultz! 

This comic book series by Mark was one of my early inspirations when I first started art school. A standard to attempt to achieve.  Mark's imagination, drawing, composition and storytelling abilities absolutely amazed me, and still do.  

I am so honored that Mark and John Fleskes asked me to write this introduction, and I hope that my writing can help people appreciate this amazing work even more than they do now.  

Even though I have all the comics, I can't wait to get this! It will be bigger, not on yellowing paper, and include new work!  

Mark Schultz: Xenozoic
by Mark Schultz

introduction by Craig Elliott

352 pages, 8.5 x 11 in.
black and white

Softcover
ISBN: 978-1-933865-31-7

$39.95

Coming October 2010. Pre-orders accepted in August.

Craig Elliott at Calgary Expo!

If your a Canadian fan come visit me at Calgary Entertainment Expo this weekend April 24-25.  I'll have a selsction of new art ann will be premiering and new line of jewelry at the con!   The jewelry will be silk ribboned women's necklaces holding glass cameo pendants of 9 different works of art.   Come by while they last!

Con info:
http://www.calgaryexpo.com/ 
Calgary Expo 2010 

Craig Elliott at Wondercon April 2 - 4! Booth #1226

If your in the area come by and visit Craig at Wondercon in San Francisco this weekend!, Booth #1226- New prints books, comissions and more will be for sale. stop by the wondercon website for details:http://www.comic-con.org/wc/

Warcraft Card -Offering to the Nether

This card started as a shadow power card, and came out as you see it here.  The Orc was originally clad in less clothing, but I was asked  to add more and more clothes as I worked on it! I rather like the more atmospheric thumbnails that I did, but Blizzard wanted more detail. 
Thumbnail Sketch, 4" x 7" Graphite on paperFirst Illustration without armor
Final painting, DigitalFinal Card as Printed