Hey everybody! Quick question for you dudes! I know a lot of you are European and whatnot so when I start my streams I'd rather not exclude you... So I was hoping I could get the best general time outta this poll. Please vote and let me know which time suits you best(you're gonna have to figure the time difference though :)).
Also, big plug for my girlfriend Chelsea Bloxsom's awesome toys! Shes a great designer and hopefully I can help her reach new people :D! So if you haven't checked it out click the image below!
If you don't already know, Bobby Chiu of Imaginism Studios hosts a weekly Live Streaming series called the Chiu Stream! He just finished up his interview with Comic Legend Mike Mignola creator of Hellboy :D(which you can rewatch on the stream)! Every week(or I think its still weekly) he hosts a contest with a subject from the artist hes interviewing and everybody has to draw their interpretation to get voted on... The winner of this gets a free sketch from whoever hes interviewing! Its a really great thing to be apart of and really fun. So if youre an artist you should give it a shot when he announces his next interview :).
So, this week my Frankenstein image was chosen as the winner by Mike Mignola! I'm super pumped to get my original sketchhh, gonna get a nice frame mmmm. So yea, its totally worth it to participate! Although I do think I'll be bowing out of the whole thing for awhile do to a massive workload looming on the horizon D:.
But yea, thanks again to Bobby Chiu and everyone at Imaginism for this awesome opportunity! And again, if you can you gotta participate! Just follow his twitter and he'll probably announce the next one soon.
I should have a lot of stuff to post up soon! Good stuff I hope D:.
I'll also be hosting my live stream on Mondays from now on(unless Bobby's Streams are monday, in which case I'll change it because I wanna watch em hahah)!
Hey everybody! Just wanted to let you all know that I'll be doing a LiveStream tonight 9pm EDT! I still have a 50 person limit because they denied my verification... So if you want me to get verified I guess you could write them an angry email :D haha. Nah I don't know what to do really, just gonna do a couple more LiveStreams and resubmit my application.
Ohhhhh GOD. Its that time of year :(. Up here in New Hampshire winter comes into my life packin tons of terrible snow. Usually lasts for like 5 months and I'm totally not looking forward to it! Hopefully I can go on vacation or something soon... Can't handle another winter of straight work and cabin fever ahaha.
I talked to a bunch of dudes and am looking to get started on my new set of videos! Really looking forward to talking to some artists I know/people who want advice :D. Should be a lot of fun and maybe I can help some people out... Maybe not with all the beautifulness of painting, but definitely about industry freelance danger D:. At the moment I'm just finishing up my deadlines for the end of the month though. Should be up annd rollin afterwards though! Things are really looking up over here and I'm pretttyy happy about it! So look forward to some goodness :D!
Did up my Frankenstein entry for Bobby Chiu's Mike Mignola interview! Every week for a few weeks hes been interviewing some pretty great artists and every week theres a new contest in which you win a free sketch! Really looking forward to this one though, big fan of Mike's work.
Hellooo, I plan on updating soon with a video, just trying to find a good Skype recorder(know any?). I have a lot of ideas now and am pretty sure how i want to approach those videos :D. Should be good!
In the meantime though heres the gif process of my Wizard's piece! Figured I'd try and update! Hope you guys can get something outta it!
Hey everybody! I got a few things to talk about today :). First off, things are finally flowin pretty good. The hard times I was talking about are pretty much over with! I'll be starting on my first set of Magic Cards at the end of the month and I'm really looking forward to it! Ever since I was 9 years old I've wanted to work on Magic so its been really awesome to finally have that dream realized. Not that its the ultimate goal for me but it was certainly on my list! I'm gonna put my everything into em and hopefully you'll see a lot more from me in the future :D.
Other than that I did up a new video on creating the custom sketchin brush I use in photoshop. This brush helped me a lot with my edges and whatnot so I hope you guys like it! Its a pretty standard custom brush that is simple and effective. My friend Devin Platts showed me how to make it a little while ago and I've been using it since.
Before you watch the video though I'd like some input... I was watching the Chiu stream(Bobby Chiu's live streaming thing) and he mentioned having people make Skype calls to ask questions to the people he was interviewing. So I was thinking that maybe I could get some of you guys to call me(or I could call other concept artists/illustrators as well) and we could either discuss certain aspects of art/freelance/the industry in general... Or I could go over your own work and screen capture critiques? You'd just need a mic and a skype account! Let me know what you guys think of that and I'll start brainstorming some ideas :).
Finished up my first Wizards of the Coast job a couple weeks ago and had a lot of fun! I'm loving the freedom I get to illustrate the stuff. Jon Schindehette just released one of my images over on his blog. I'm really happy they like my work and am on to the next pieces they got for me. Heres hoping I have a good relationship with them in the future!
So anyways, heres the image he released!
(click to enlarge)
I'll be sure to start on my next video soon! Looking forward to making these tutorials weekly if I can handle it haha. So yea, keep a look out and leave me some good questions I can address!
Hello everybody! Just wanted to post this video up today. Its a really easy way to apply textures in photoshop while maintaining your values. Hopefully it can help some of you out! I'll try and make some more video tutorials soon, got a good idea of what to do next.
But as always if you have any questions or suggestions feel free to leave a comment below! I'll try and address them next time :).
Finished this one up last night, took around an hour and a half. Thought about making this video in parts and going through the whole process explaining everything... But theres not all too much good information I could give during this. Not a whole lot about anatomy/design or anything like that as these designs were already conceived by my girlfriend...
If you do want me to go through the whole thing just let me know and I'll do the best I can.
For more information on Love and a Sandwich's toys and how to purchase <3... Go ahead and check out her website!
BTW- If anybody is looking to have some work done I'm trying to get in some more commissions on the side! Gonna put whatever I get for work towards buying a new microphone so my videos don't sound so crappy! haha
Hello! I've been having a hard time lately with work and bills D:! Its a crazy thing when you spend the time to do all your work then miss a payment and have to work on top of work... and basically search for hidden hours in the day to finish it all haha. Sometimes freelance can be rough like that especially when you work strictly for publishers. Its really important to mix it up and take private commissions along the way or just take work that pays upfront to make sure you can get by.
The past 3 months have been just that for me haha. Moved into my new place with new more expensive bills and whatnot and have just been hit by constant problems since. But as I'm starting to see now... Its not so bad! Nothing is a better motivator than fear. To feel that pressure sure isn't good for a long period of time as it can be a real health killer... But when you're under the gun and workin your ass off you start to find new ways to get ahead. In the desperation your brain starts to move in directions maybe you thought you should've been goin in before... Just that you'd never been really screwed til then and maybe you were feeling pretty comfortable with how lifes goin.
Hitting that wall is rough! Afterwards though, after you start using your head and making better decisions... Everything seems to workout! I reached out to a few dudes I really admire and both of them really went out of their way to help me out. They've been there the whole time, I could've done this before but never had I been pushed to do so. And under this new pressure I've moved forward, closer to my goals. I don't know exactly how things will pan out as I'm still waiting on some stuff... but I can say that you must always follow your instincts. You have to make sure you're constantly reaching out and trying your best to improve. Most of the guys who already do what you're working towards will understand what you're going through and will help somehow.
Most of all though you have to realize that the crap will pass. Its all too easy to sit there and procrastinate, talk about bills and whine about your life... Problem is that if thats all you do then nothing will change, complaining about how terrible things are will get you nowhere. The only thing you can do is push through it, never let the world shit all over you. Just let everybody know you're working your hardest and be out there sending your work around, studying and contacting everyone who inspires you. Otherwise you'll never move forward and you'll always point a finger at the problems... You just gotta act, and constantly work towards a better life for yourself and those around you.
Also, on a side note... I keep talking about working hard, and trying to get through problems without talking about the love of art. I do love working on illustrations, its not all about money and getting better for the sake of better jobs. My goal isn't to be a super rich artist, would be nice, but I really just want to paint the way I like! Just didn't want to give the wrong idea here... Just because I'm stressed and working through jobs to pay the bills doesn't mean I don't try and have fun on each job :). Heres a qoute that sums up what I'm trying to say:
"There are two goddesses in your heart, the Goddess of Wisdom and the Goddess of Wealth. Everyone thinks they need to get wealth first, and wisdom will come. So they concern themselves with chasing money. But they have it backwards. You have to give your heart to the Goddess of Wisdom, give her all your love and attention, and the Goddess of Wealth will become jealous, and follow you." - Joe Vigil
Basically just work hard at what you love and everything comes to you. I'm swamped with work... But its work I do love doing :).
anyways, just wanted to get that outta my head D:, heres a commission I did! Not my usual stuff but was fun to work on!
