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The upside of 2011

Bighorn Sheep TotemAll things considered, 2011 was a great year.  While every year will have it’s challenges, I’ve been fortunate that I’m honestly able to see each year of the past decade as having continual forward momentum.  The work I’m doing is far beyond what I had hoped for when I first started in this profession and I’m very grateful for it.

I became nationally syndicated in September of 2001, sending cartoons out across Canada each week, and got very few bites.  For two years, I had no more than three newspapers, paying the bare minimum rate, and I will admit to almost giving up on it more than a few times.  With a full-time job to pay the bills, I had to get up at 5:00am each morning to get a cartoon out before I went to work.  When I came home, I had to sketch in the evening and work on the weekends in order to manage it all.  Finally I started making progress, got a few more papers, took advantage of other opportunities, and about six years ago, I was able to leave my job and play this game full-time.

Through it all was my ever supportive wife, Shonna, and I’m incredibly grateful that she never told me not to do any of this.  The only caveat given when I went full-time was that if I couldn’t pay my half of the mortgage and bills, I had to go back to work.  Canmore is an expensive place to live and we couldn’t do it on one income.  Fortunately, it never came to that, and each year has been better than the one before.  At the time, it was an incredible struggle, but in retrospect, I’m glad I had to go through it because it makes the present all that much sweeter.

If my 2001 self could see the work I’m doing now, he’d be pleasantly surprised, and I try to think about that when I’m having a bad day or feeling sorry for myself because of a heavy workload or when money is tight.  So far, I’ve not only gotten what I wanted, I’ve gotten much more.  Best of all, I discovered that I loved getting up at 5:00am to work, I still sketch in the evenings, and being self-employed means you often work weekends anyway, so I was already used to the routine.  Now, I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Here’s a recap of my professional highlights of this past year, some of which I’d forgotten about until I went back through the blog entries month by month.

iPad Painting: Started playing around with this in January, and damn if it hasn’t been a lot of fun figuring it all out.  Ended up trying four different styli and half a dozen apps.  It would seem that I’ve finally settled on the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, the Nomad minibrush, and the procreate app.  The combination of those three gives me the best results, and while I don’t consider anything I paint on the iPad to be finished work, I would go so far as to call it advanced sketching, and I plan to keep doing it.

PhotoshopCAFE DVDs:  In March, I finished my first DVD, called Cartoon Illustration Techniques in Photoshop.  Easily one of the most difficult projects I’ve ever worked on.  Having only done a little bit of sound and video editing for a failed Flash animation project a few years back, it was a struggle.  But I finished it, it went into production, and is selling well.  I’ve heard from many who bought the DVD that have learned a lot from it and complimented me on my instruction, so I’m guessing I didn’t do so bad a job.

The second DVD, Animal Painting in Adobe Photoshop, was a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable as I wasn’t teaching raw Photoshop beginners.  It was more about the painting than the software and while it was a challenge, the difficulty I went through with the first DVD paid off while recording the second as there were few problems I hadn’t already solved.  Recording one DVD this year would have been enough of a milestone, but I never expected to record two, and to be very pleased with both of them.

Cartoon Ink: While my old website was ‘fine,’ it had become difficult to use and it was no longer the image I wanted to project.  While I had always done my own website in the past, this time I realized one of the most important business practices that so many have learned before me.  Hire professionals to do their job, so you can focus on doing yours.  With that in mind, I hired Erik Bernskiold of XLD Studios in Sweden to create a new website for me.  I knew Erik’s work and know him personally, so I was confident he would deliver much more than I could create myself.  With the help of Elizabeth Gast at Design by Firgs, another colleague and good friend who consulted on the site, and created an improved evolution of my logo, I was very pleased with the final logo and website and would highly recommend both of their work.  The time I saved was well worth the money spent and reduced stress.

Wacom: I began to form a relationship with the great folks at Wacom at Photoshop World in 2010 after I won the Guru Awards for two of my Totem paintings and I couldn’t be happier about it.  Having used their tablets since the late 90’s, you won’t find a bigger fan, so I’m very pleased to be working with them from time to time.

Over the course of the year, I’ve been featured in the Wacom eNews, have represented the company and demonstrated their products at one of Scott Kelby’s seminars in Calgary, and have been a featured guest on two of their one-hour Wacom webinars.  The people I’ve worked with at Wacom have been incredibly supportive and are absolute pros at what they do and I look forward to a continuing relationship with them.

The photo shown here is Joe Sliger demonstrating the new Wacom Inkling for me at Photoshop World this year.  He is also one of the moderators of the webinars.

Island Art Publishers: In July of this year, I began a licensing deal for some of my Totem paintings to be produced on art cards.  These are distributed throughout Western Canada and the northwestern U.S. and time will tell whether this arrangement bears any fruit.  An artist friend once told me that art cards are often your best advertising, because not only does the person buying it see your work, but so does the person receiving it.  You may not make much money early on, but it’s enough to get your work out there to a market that otherwise might not see it.  And the cards look really good.

Photoshop World: While it’s true that I didn’t learn much about technique or improving my work at this year’s Photoshop World in Las Vegas, I still think it was worth attending because of the networking opportunities.  Having recorded two DVDs for PhotoshopCAFE, it was great to finally meet the owner of the company in person, and see their operation on the Expo Floor.  I was able to meet a few more of the Wacom folks in person, and talk with other industry professionals I otherwise might not have had the opportunity to talk to.  Online interaction is fine, but it doesn’t compare with face-to-face conversations.  So while I won’t be going back as an attendee, I still think this year’s trip was well worth it.

knmadventuresAt the time, I was doing some illustration work for wildlife photographer and instructor, Moose Peterson as well, and being able to go over sketches with him in person was a real treat, as most of the time this would have all been done online.  The other benefit of the Photoshop World conference is that I get to meet with so many talented photographers, many of whom I consider close friends.  For somebody who relies on great photo reference for my painted work, their skills and talent are often one of my most valuable resources, not to mention their generosity with their work, and the support they offer for mine.

Paintings: Saved the best for last.  I am so very pleased with the progress I’ve made on my painted work this year.  The first half of the year, I was so busy with the DVDs and other work that I only painted one animal in my Totem series, the Great Horned Owl.  When I realized this in the latter half of the summer, I was ticked off.  The work I love to do most, I had placed in last priority.  In retrospect, however, I’m glad it happened because when I realized it, I vowed it would never happen again and it stoked the fire.  The end result is that from September to December, I’ve painted a number of new images and I feel they are my best work to date.

I had been becoming bored with painted caricatures of people in the past couple of years, but recently, I’ve realized that it wasn’t people I was bored with painting, just caricatures of them.  Beginning with a couple of iPad paintings, I’ve discovered how very much I enjoy painting portraits, and I’ve done a couple of pieces recently that I’ve really enjoyed.  Inspired by the work of Drew Struzan and others, I think I’ll be painting a lot more portraits of people, if nothing more than for the sheer enjoyment of it.  While style is always evolving, I think my paintings now have a definitive look that is mine, whether it’s people or animals, and it’s one I want to continue to develop and refine.

I’m now getting commissions to paint pet portraits and caricature this year, and it’s really enjoyable work.  The painting of Don Diego that I did for my DVD, the memorial to Titus the cat, and to being able to finally create a real painting for my folks of their dog, Bailey, it’s looking like this could be a big part of my work in the coming years.  Working on another commission at the moment, and having fun with it.

My real passion, however, is still the Animal Totems.  Nothing I’ve ever done in my career has filled me with as much joy as that I get from painting these whimsical caricatures of wildlife.  Not only are they fun to work on, but they sell well in the galleries which means others like them, too.  I’ve been fortunate that a number of wildlife photographers I know have been willing to sell me the license rights to use their photos as reference, or have enjoyed my work enough to want to trade me the use of their images for canvas prints of the painting when it’s done, both of which I’m more than willing to do.

Humpback Whale TotemEach of them is my favorite for different reasons, but the one I was most happy with this year was the Humpback Whale Totem.  I don’t know if it’s because I’ve wanted to paint it for so long or that it was such a challenge to paint an animal with no fur or hair, and the end result lived up to my expectations.  Either way, these paintings are the only work I’ve ever done that I still enjoy months and even a year after I’ve painted one.  That alone tells me this is the work I’m meant to do, at least for now.

As you can see, I’ve had a very good year, and I’m grateful for it.  For all of you that follow my work, your messages of support here on the blog, through social media, and email are all appreciated.  It’s a solitary existence, this freelance lifestyle, and it’s nice to know that others are getting enjoyment out of the work I do.  And if you’re struggling with your own creative endeavors, whether you’ve just begun or are just trying to keep going, I would urge you not to give up.  It may not seem like it in the moment, but I assure you, if it’s something you love to do, it’s worth the effort.

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The downside of 2011.

I decided to break up my ‘year end’ blog entry into three separate posts.  This is the first one, and the one I didn’t want to write.

Part of the job of a freelancer is to promote yourself like crazy.  Websites, blogs, social media sites, forums, it’s practically a part-time job just getting all of your work out there so it can be seen.  One of the other things you’re supposed to do is put on an optimistic, confident and successful face so that people will think you’ve got everything together.  You have to be your own PR guy, trying to make sure people see all of your latest work, without coming across as a narcissist, something I have no idea if I’m doing well or not.

You’re not supposed to talk about the bad things because you don’t want a reputation as a complainer.  Unfortunately, it can also make people think that nothing ever goes wrong.  I may get to do what I love for a living, but it’s far from perfect.  I’m an artist, so naturally that means I’m neurotic and more than a little obsessive-compulsive.  Working alone at home all the time, you live inside your head a lot, and that’s not always a nice place to be when things aren’t going right.

Social media is a necessary evil, but there are days I’d rather not deal with it.  I’ve come close to deleting my Facebook account more than once this year because being self-employed, you have to be on it a lot, even when you don’t want to be.

Being an editorial and political cartoonist, some days it feels like you wake up in the morning, have a shower, and then wade into mud and shit.  There are many days I hate drawing cartoons about politics and politicians, because you see the same patterns of waste and corruption being repeated year after year, regardless of which party is in power.  But it’s a job, like any other.  You do it, because that’s what pays the mortgage.

Looking back on the blog entry earlier this year that talked about my big plans for 2011 made me laugh out loud.  Apparently, I was determined to learn to sculpt, to get familiar with Adobe Illustrator (again) and to learn a lot more 3D in Photoshop.  I have all of the materials, software, books and resources to work on all three of those, and yet, I never made them a priority.  Put those in the FAIL column.

In that same entry, however, I vowed to paint every chance I got, to work less and play more, and to be less cynical, each of which is still a work in progress.  My wife and I did manage to go on a small vacation to Vancouver Island in June and it was wonderful, one of our best to date, so I count that as a victory on the ‘play more’ side of things, but I didn’t camp at all this year, and that’s something I regret.  Camping is something I love to do, and I didn’t make time for it even once, nobody’s fault but my own.  I didn’t really work less, in fact, I worked very hard all year, but I did manage to say ‘No’ more often when it came to work I didn’t want to do.

As for being less cynical, let’s just say I’m making progress.  I’ve seen some of the best sides of people this year, and I want to focus more on that, but I’m still too judgmental for my own good about people’s seemingly endless need to keep digging deeper holes for themselves while blaming it on somebody else, hence the reason I’m such a Scrooge this time of year.  I’m not a violent person by any means, but I do have my angry and depressed periods on a regular basis, and I take many things way too personally.  But I’m able to let it go a lot easier these days, and I’ll attribute that to getting older and not wanting to waste my time on things I can’t change.  Nobody’s perfect, especially me, and life’s too short.  So I’m still going to work on being less cynical, but I’m going to try to refrain from beating myself up about it.

One of the absolute worst days of my year was the deadline for finishing my first DVD from PhotoshopCAFE.  I had been dealing with almost constant back pain in early Spring for about 2 months, despite regular yoga, stretching, exercise and massage.  Sitting for longer than 20 minutes was excruciating.  Recording the DVD was an incredibly stressful exercise, and it seemed that everything I did while editing it went wrong.  Knowing I was about to turn 40 had sunk me into a deep depression, as my midlife crisis was peaking.  Worst of all, our cat Maya was in failing health and nothing could be done to help her.  So on the night of March 18th, I was up the entire night without any sleep at all in my office, editing the DVD for the next day’s deadline, watching our very sick and disoriented cat in the office with me,  knowing we were putting her to sleep the next day, and my back in excruciating pain.  I alternated between editing a section, getting up to stretch, trying to comfort Maya, and wiping away a lot of tears.  This went on the entire night, and even though I finished the DVD very early the next morning, I really didn’t give a damn, because that afternoon, we had to go put our cat down.  Needless to say, I didn’t celebrate my 40th birthday a week later.

And still, I consider 2011 a great year.  Stuff happens in everybody’s life, and given what some friends have dealt with this year, mine was relatively easy.  Incidentally, I’ve discovered that my recurring back pain was entirely stress related and I thankfully have had very few recurrences.

Freelancing is a tough gig, no doubt about it, and some people can’t handle it, because if you’re not always working, you’re thinking about work, even when you’re on vacation.  Balance is an illusion, at least as far as I’m concerned.  I know enough people in this ‘job’, that it’s a pretty universal trait.  But everybody has it tough, no matter what they do for a living.

So if you follow artists like me, you’ll read a lot of inspiring messages that tell you that you can do whatever you want if you work hard enough, and I firmly believe that’s true, but never believe it’ll be easy.  This is the hardest job I’ve ever had.  You rarely get time off, 12-14 hour days are the norm, you don’t get vacation pay, stat holidays or benefits, and your income is directly related to how hard you work and scramble.  So as much as it’s mostly good, sometimes even great, there’s a lot of crap, too, and you just have to live and work through it, and keep moving forward.  And still, I wouldn’t want to do anything else than what I’m doing now, even knowing I’ll probably have to live through bad and worse days ahead, too.

So there’s a little dose of reality.  As much as I’ll post that everything is great, and often it is, there’s a lot I don’t talk about, because at the end of the day, this is a business, and that would just be bad PR.

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Finishing Touches

This is a video I recorded while painting the portrait of Harry Morgan.  All of the brushwork has been sped up, and much of it is very subtle, but it gives you an idea of the detail involved with a painting like this.  I felt this video would be better with music, so I bought the license rights to this piece, appropriately entitled, ‘Fond Memories’ by Heather Fenoughty.

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Portrait of Harry Morgan

Harry Morgan passed away this month, peacefully in his sleep at the age of 96 years old.  While he had many movie and television credits in his career, he was most known for the character of Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M.A.S.H. , the role he won an Emmy for in 1980.  The impact of the series on our culture is well known and to this day, I still enjoy watching it in syndication, even though I’m sure I’ve seen every episode more than a few times.

The combination of writing and acting talent on that show was incredibly rare, and what I loved most about the character of Colonel Potter, was that while he was regular army, he had a great sense of humor, and a big heart.  When I heard that Morgan had passed away, I was saddened to hear it, but not too much.  Hard to feel bad for a man who lived a long life doing the work he loved.  Better to be inspired by his example, than mourn his loss.

I thoroughly enjoyed painting his portrait.

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Pomeranian – iPad Painting

This is an iPad painting for a piece I’ve been commissioned to do.  It will end up as a fully finished painting in the next few weeks.

When it comes to using the iPad for paintings and drawing, I’ve come to think of it as an advanced sketching device, which is why I’m not putting colour into very many of these.  Since this will be brought into Photoshop, pasted into a higher res image, and painted over, spending a lot of time on colour for a commission like this seemed like a waste of time.

One of the reasons I love painting and sketching on the iPad is that it forces me to tighten up an image as much as possible at very low resolution, with fewer tools than are available in Photoshop.  That way, when I do begin to paint over it, the likeness is pretty solid.

This really is a lot of fun, and after trying a number of styli and apps, I’ve now got my preferred iPad tools down.  For this painting, I used the procreate app, the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, and the Nomad Mini Brush.

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Humpback Whale Totem

Humpback Whale Totem

The latest painting in my Totem series, and while Humpback Whales are found all over the world, I consider this the first image in my Pacific Coast series.

This painting was an incredible challenge, and while I had always intended the Humpback to be part of my Totem series, it was something I wanted to do to prove a little something to myself as well.  Comments on the other animal paintings often mention how much people like the way I paint fur.  While that’s appreciated, I wanted to paint an animal that had none at all, just to see if I could do it.

There were a number of challenges with this painting.  First, it’s underwater, so there were choices to make on that.  When dealing with cool colors on cool colors, the effort to make the whale stand out from the background was going to be in the light contrast and taking a lot of creative license in the color of the whale itself.  Another challenge was the texture.  For a few hours while painting this, she looked a little like stucco because I had far too much contrast in the details, so rather than a rubbery looking skin, it looked almost scaly.  While correcting that, I went a little too far and the skin look too airbrushed.  What you see here is the compromise.  Skin that is still textured and non-uniform, but still trying to achieve a smoother look than I’m used to. And finally, I wrestled with the water.  I didn’t want a smooth gradient look, but I also didn’t want to go with the cliché ‘god lights’ that so many artists use in underwater scenes, those rays of light beaming in from the surface to give the painting an ethereal look.  Just didn’t feel right.  The background in my paintings is supposed to be just that, so I broke it up with the suggestion of particulates and bubbles.

Initially, I had planned on the finished image being 30″x40″ at 300 ppi.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get there.  The full resolution file for this painting is 18″x24″ at 300 ppi, because at one point, the working file size was right around 800MB.  My computer’s good, but it gets sluggish when painting detail at that size.  I’ve no doubt that I could still print this file at 30″x40″ at 200ppi on canvas and it would still look good, though.

Had a bunch of highs and lows while painting this little lady (BIG lady) and I can’t even guess how many hours I put into it, but it was a lot, likely more than I’ve put into any other painting.  For a few hours on the weekend, I was very frustrated and was worried I wasn’t going to achieve the look I wanted.  When that was going on, I wasn’t having any fun, whatsoever.

As difficult as this painting was, I learned a lot.  Had to create a few new brushes, something I haven’t done in awhile, but they’re now in my library and will come in handy the next time I paint an animal with mottled textured skin.  I also learned a few new layering techniques to get the suggestion of detail, without making it too sharp.

While it took a lot out of me, I’m pleased with the finished painting, and I think I’ve grown a little more as an artist, which is always the intent.

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The Perfect Bait

This morning, I finished listening to Bobby Chiu’s new book, The Perfect Bait.  It far exceeded my expectations.

While I have met Bobby before at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo a few years back, and have taken a couple of courses from instructors at his Schoolism.com site, I don’t actually know him.  But I do know his fantastic work, and have followed his career.  Bobby is a successful artist, and while I know his work is ever evolving and he is nowhere near where he intends to be, his example is one that many artists can learn from.   One of his recent more famous projects is that he worked as a creature designer on Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland.’   Here’s a look at his creature design work on his CGSociety portfolio.

It should come as no surprise why I’m a fan, and not just because he’s a fellow Canadian.  But it’s not just his work that’s impressive, it’s his philosophy on the business of art.  One of the benefits of buying the book is that you get access to the audio version as well.  So while I haven’t yet received the book, I have listened to the entire thing already while working yesterday and this morning.  Many art books end up being simply motivational ‘you can do it!’ publications, but Bobby talks about real world examples of how specific things worked out for him and why others didn’t, and how failure is as much a recipe for success as any award or accolade.  And best of all, he puts more stock in hard work than talent, something I’ve believed in for years, as I’ve seen artists far more talented than I, fall into obscurity because they simply didn’t apply themselves.

The benefits to me personally were two-fold.  First, there was a fair bit of confirmation in the book that I’m doing a lot of things right.  Had I read the book five years ago, that would not have been the case, but I’ve made plenty of mistakes, learned from them, made course corrections and carried on.  The second benefit was being made aware of a number of things I’m fully capable of doing to better my career but either had not thought of them, or I didn’t think they were important enough to bother with.  I stand corrected and feel better equipped to continue my forward momentum.

Most importantly, Bobby emphasizes the importance of passion in your work.  I’ve heard many times over the years that the work an artist should be doing is the work they would still do even if nobody paid them.  I am incredibly fortunate that with my animal paintings over the past couple of years, I have discovered that work, and am grateful for it.  I was already passionate about painting, but this book stoked that furnace even more.  In a perfect world, everybody would realize their passion and find it within themselves to pursue it.

So if art is your passion, no matter what kind of art that is, I would like to help ONE of you take a step forward.  On Friday afternoon, I will draw a name on my business Facebook page, and then I’ll buy that person a copy of Bobby’s book.  All you have to do is leave a comment on the post that links to this blog entry.

If you would like to buy Bobby’s book, visit the webpage, www.ThePerfectBait.com and get yourself a copy.  You’ll be glad you did.

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Painting a Gentle Giant

Humpback whale and calf in The Broken Group Islands – Patrick LaMontagne

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been enamored with humpback whales, and I have no idea why this particular species of baleen whale holds my love and interest over any other marine mammal.  My wife and I saw these two (and a few more) on a tour of the Broken Group Islands out of Ucluelet on Vancouver Island this past summer, and although we only saw backs and tails, it was a thrilling experience.

A longtime dream I’ve had is to be in the water with one of these massive creatures.  Now before you think me a little nuts, I’m not oblivious to the danger.  I know that an animal can be as gentle as a kitten, but when it’s the size of a semi truck, you don’t want to be under it when it rolls over.  Despite that, the desire is very strong and I intend to make it happen.  I want to get my diving certification in the next year or two, and to swim with humpbacks in the next five.  It’s an expensive trip, but it’s one worth saving for.

From time to time over the years, I’ve had very vivid dreams featuring different animals.  One in particular, was the spark for my Animal Totem series.  Humpbacks have shown up a few times, most recently last week and it prompted me to start searching for reference.  When I found the right image (and there was no doubt, once I saw it), I started looking for the photographer who took it.

As I’ve mentioned before about photo reference, no photos are ever part of my paintings, but I still need to have great shots to work from in order to get the level of detail that I paint.  I can’t tell you from memory what the hair on a moose looks like as it transitions over the nose, or how a bighorn sheep’s horns curl around in relation to his other features.  So, I rely on the work of wildlife photographers to provide me with the reference I need.

Some photographer friends, of which I thankfully have many, have been very generous in allowing me the use of their work.  For others, I have traded my services as an illustrator for their own projects, or paid them outright for the license to use certain photos.   A few have asked for canvas prints of the finished painting in payment.  I’ve been agreeable to all of these terms, and grateful for their willingness to help me do what I love to do.

From time to time, a wildlife photographer will tell me they aren’t interested or their price will be too high for my budget.  In those cases, I’m usually disappointed, but I thank them for their time and look for other reference.  Even though my finished paintings look very little like the photos I use for reference, so many photographers have had their work stolen online and they’re extra cautious about allowing their work to be used.  It’s unfortunate, but a reality of the business, and as these photos are the product of their time and effort, they have every right to say No,  just as I’ve declined certain uses of my own work.  So I try to be hopeful but not too optimistic when I approach a photographer with whom I have no connection.

When I found the right humpback image, I was pleased.  All that was left was to get permission and the high resolution photo, and that’s how I found Scott Portelli.  Scott is a wildlife photographer out of Sydney,  Australia, and he specializes in taking photos of Humpback Whales.  Each year, for the past decade, he has taken small groups of people to Tonga to swim with these gentle giants.  From August to October, Humpbacks mate and give birth in these warm waters.  Scott is an active supporter of whale conservation and vocal opponent of the practice of whaling that sadly, still goes on today.

Having made ‘the ask,’  I set about to work on other things, as you never know how long the response will take.  Scott replied quickly, was very kind and we soon came to an agreement for the use of the photo.  Yesterday, I received the high-res image and I am very happy.  It’s a beautiful reference to work from, and I now have no doubt that I’ll be able to paint the image I’ve been imagining.  There are a few animals I’ve been waiting to paint until I had just the right reference, and this is one of them.  Thanks, Scott.

While I won’t post the image I’m using, please do look at Scott’s wonderful photos of these and other beautiful animals.  You can find his website and links to his Flickr account at www.scottportelli.com.

What I find especially thrilling is that this search led me not only to the photo, but to the means to fulfill my dream.  When I am ready to swim with Humpback Whales, I will know who to contact.  If you’d like to find out more about Scott’s excursions and tours to the beautiful waters around Tonga, you can find that information at www.swimmingwithgentlegiants.com

Somebody recently made a comment online that my specialty was obviously painting fur.  While it’s great to have that skill recognized, as it took me a long time to develop the techniques, I have no desire to be a one-trick-pony and only be able to paint furry animals, despite how much I enjoy it.  This whale will be a personal challenge as there’s not one hair to be painted in the whole image, but I think I’m up to it.  And I’m excited to get started.

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Portrait of Rocky Balboa

This painting, like many that I do these days, was an absolute pleasure to work on.  For the past couple of years, I’ve been focused on my Animal Totems, and although they are still where I plan to continue investing my creative energy, I realized that I hadn’t done a full painting of a person in quite awhile.  Yes, I’ve done a few on the iPad, but not a fully finished painting.  I think the last one I did was a caricature of Bert Monroy, and that was in June of 2010.  I figured it was time to do another one, and rather than a caricature, I wanted to paint a portrait.

Regular readers will know how much I love movies.  One of my favorites is Rocky Balboa, the sixth movie in the series.  I think the reason I like it is because it’s not so much about Rocky’s battle with an opponent, it’s his struggle with getting older, but still feeling he has left something undone.  Some critics panned it for being overly romanticized and unrealistic, but I disagree.  Very much like the tone and writing of the first Rocky movie, the movie that won and was nominated for a slew of Oscars in 1976.   Rocky Balboa inspired me, much like Sylvester Stallone’s own personal story does.  If you aren’t familiar with it, you might want to take the time to listen to how Tony Robbins tells it.

Rather than paint him as the fighter in the ring, I wanted to paint the real character.   His wife has passed on, his son is now a young man living on his own, and Rocky spends his evenings at his restaurant telling people old ‘war stories’ from his glory days.  But there’s still that hunger.  The movie reminds me that one of my own biggest fears is becoming an old man and regretting the things left undone.

This was started as a painting on the iPad, shown here.  I used the procreate app, the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, and the Nomad mini brush.  As much as I enjoy painting on the iPad, and a number of my recent portrait paintings have stopped there, I brought this one into Photoshop and painted over it to get the look and texture I wanted.  While my animal paintings are very detailed, this one is intentionally rougher.  The tone of the piece, and the age of the subject called for a little less polish.  The finished painting was done in Photoshop with a Wacom Intuos4 medium tablet, and the image size is 16″X20″ at 300ppi.

Even though I’ve never had any of my own work printed for myself, I think I will get this one printed on canvas and framed for my office.  Never hurts to be reminded that our time here is short.

Incidentally, one of my favorite onscreen speeches is from this movie, this one from Rocky to his son.

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Rocky Balboa – iPad Painting

This is my latest iPad painting, Sylvester Stallone as Rocky in the sixth and final movie of the series, Rocky Balboa.  Some critics scorned it as having too many clichés and being unbelievable, but it’s my favorite of the series.

This is as far as I could take the painting on the iPad, and I’ll be using this as a rough for a finished painting in Photoshop.  The finished painting will not be in black and white, but I find accurate colour to be incredibly difficult and a useless effort on the iPad, so I’ll do that in Photoshop.

I painted this with the procreate app, still the one I prefer to work with most.  Most of the work here was done using the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, but I also used the Nomad Mini brush for some of the nitpicky texture work.

This is by no means finished, and I can already see many things  I want to change and improve on, both in the painted details and the likeness.  But it’s a good start.  With each iPad painting I do, I’m getting more comfortable with it, and figuring out just what’s possible.  Still enjoying working with the device, tools, and apps and I plan to continue improving my skills.