Digital Painting Archives - Page 27 of 35

Posted on April 21, 2013April 21, 2013 by Patrick LaMontagne

Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo 2013

Only a few days left before I haul this banner and everything else into Calgary to set up my booth. Having been to the Calgary Expo as a ticket-buying attendee a couple of times, including during last year’s ‘if something could go wrong, it did,” event, this will be my first year as an exhibitor. With a mixture of paranoia and excitement, I’ve spent the last four or five months obsessing about every last detail, trying to anticipate anything and everything that could go wrong and preparing for it. As the scorpion said to the frog, “It’s simply my nature.”

You could pretty much divide my career into two professions. I’m a cartoonist, editorial and otherwise, but I’m also a digital painter. While they both rely on the same artistic skills and the styles do intermingle, they’re actually quite distinctive in their differences. As a cartoonist, I create and sell daily editorial cartoons and do custom cartoon style illustrations for clients. As a painter, I create my Totem artwork, those whimsical funny looking animals that are printed and sold online, in galleries, retail outlets and licensed on T-shirts through The Mountain. I also regularly paint commissions of pets for people. They’re almost two different businesses. And while the learned experts would say that an artist or business should focus on one thing and be good at that, they’re both large parts of how I make my living. I enjoy them both equally, and at the risk of sounding arrogant, I’m good at both and would have a hard time letting one of them go.

For the Expo, however, the two styles don’t belong together in the same booth. So for this event, I am a digital painter first and foremost and this is the work I’ll be selling. If the animals I painted were in the realistic style of Robert Bateman, this venue might not be the right choice to sell my work, but because of the nature of my Totems, their caricature look that borders on the fringes of other artistic styles, I think this will be a good fit. There are a lot of people looking to buy art at this event and I’m optimistic that mine will generate some interest with this crowd. The fact that my Eagle Totem made it into the Calgary Expo Art Book this year would seem to support that theory.

A survey this year of those folks who follow me on my Facebook page revealed my Top Ten Totems and I’ve been busy ordering, signing, assembling, and pricing the three types of prints I’ll be offering when the Expo kicks off on Friday. There are 11″X14″ Poster prints, the quality you would expect to find in a book or on a poster (funny how that works). I’m also offering 11″X14″ matted giclée prints. These are exceptional quality, printed on high end paper with archival ink and materials. These are the prints I regularly sell in galleries, the ones in the above image. And finally, 12″X16″ giclée stretched limited edition canvas prints, complete with certificates of authenticity, gallery quality as well. A couple of 18″X24″ framed canvas prints will be also be available.

When planning this booth, I went back and forth on which items to offer, how much of each image to print, how much stock to bring, what prices to assign to each, and what retail hardware and support equipment to buy as well. I could end up bringing home a lot of prints, or selling out too early and have nothing to offer on the last day. Both would be undesirable, although to be honest, selling out wouldn’t be so bad. There are so many variables to consider the first year and I’ve come to the conclusion that ‘best guess’ is the final say on almost every decision made. I’ve had friends give me advice based on their experience, I’ve read articles online, in books, and magazines, but in the end, it will come down to not how somebody else has done at this sort of event, but whether or not my images will sell at this venue. The only way to know that is to put my best foot forward, then wait and see. Of course, having a very supportive wife who is taking a couple of days off to work the booth with me does make it a lot easier. Fail or succeed, at least I’m not doing this alone. She’s even going to wear an Ostrich Totem shirt.

I’ve always done well in my career by taking risks, especially ones that make me nervous and require me to stick my neck out. The financial investment for this venture has been significant because I can’t bring myself to do anything half-assed. If I’m going to take a shot, I need to be proud of the effort, win or lose. I’ve spent the money, I’ve got more inventory in my possession right now than I’ve ever had, and now I just have to show up and put on a smile.

The Expo sold out of tickets a couple of weeks ago, and 60,000 people are expected to show up between Friday and Sunday. It’s going to be a zoo, but also a lot of fun. Some of the most interesting people you could ever want to meet will be invading the BMO Centre in Calgary this weekend, a number of them in costume. This time next week, I’ll be exhausted, but it’ll be worth it.

If you’ve got tickets, you can find me in the Small Press section, Booth R 08. See you there!

Posted on April 1, 2013April 1, 2013 by Patrick LaMontagne

Remembering Ralph

This week will see a lot of tributes to former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, who passed away on Friday, March 29th. He’d been a television reporter and radio personality for a good chunk of his career, the Mayor of Calgary from 1980-89, and in provincial politics from 1989-2006, the large majority of that time as the Premier. Many Albertans just called him Ralph, a testament to his ‘man of the people’ persona. He was loved and despised, depending on who you were talking to.

As an editorial cartoonist, I liked Ralph a lot. He was fun to draw, was never boring, and I knew I’d miss him when he retired in 2006. One thing about Ralph, you always knew where he stood. Unlike so many politicians who will waffle on their ideals depending on the latest public opinion polls, you knew what you were getting with Ralph, even if you didn’t always like it. He was human and he made unpopular decisions sometimes. He also screwed up. But the difference with Ralph was that when you called him on it, he’d either argue his point, tell you to get over it, or in some cases, even apologize. There wasn’t a lot of bullshit with Ralph.

Like many Albertans, I have fond memories of Ralph Klein. He did a lot for this province. If you want specifics, just do a Google search. You’ll find no shortage of anecdotes and stories about King Ralph this week. One of my favorite personal stories took place right around his retirement. Knowing his resignation was coming and having already thought about the cartoon I’d do, this is what I came up with.

Under the guise of the ‘official portrait’ I tried to include as many of the controversies and noteworthy events from Ralph’s career as I could. There were his days socializing at the St. Louis Hotel in Calgary (written on the glass in his hand), the famous “shoot, shovel and shut-up” comment as well as the one about eastern “bums and creeps” straining Calgary resources. In his pocket, the $400 Prosperity Bonus cheques he gave to every Albertan after the provincial debt had been paid off.

The cartoon appeared in the Calgary Herald and a number of other newspapers. Shortly after, I received an email from someone who wanted a framed print of it, minus the ‘official portrait’ post-it note. I had removed that feature from the image when I’d added it to my portfolio. Two more print orders followed. Sometime the next month, Klein was honored at Mount Royal College in Calgary and a day later, I opened the Calgary Herald to see the photo below. Much to my surprise, one of the framed prints had been a retirement gift for Ralph. I ordered a copy of the photo for my office. Forgive me that I no longer remember the name of the Herald photographer who captured the scanned image below.

I look at the caricature now and I see all of the flaws. As I am a better artist today than I was then, there are a lot of things I would have changed and done better with this image, but every artist looking back on anything they’ve done could say the same thing of prior work. So, I try to look past that. It’s a good memory of moments in my career, both the time spent painting the caricature and knowing that Ralph was given a copy while he was still in good health. This is how I’d like to remember him and I’m glad I ordered the photo.

Posted on March 16, 2013March 16, 2013 by Patrick LaMontagne

So you’re thinking about commissioning a pet portrait…

Don Diego

Last May, I posted a blog entry which outlined all of the details of commissioning a portrait of a pet. I’ve found that so many people are reluctant to ask about pricing for fear that it will be too high and they’ll be embarrassed about having to say, “I can’t afford that right now.” On the other side of that coin, so many artists are afraid of revealing their prices because they fear that it will turn people off or that other artists will adopt their rates and practices. That’s a lot of fear going around for no reason.

To address the first part, I’d love to have an office full of Drew Struzan originals, but I can’t afford the $100,000+ that each one of those costs. There’s no shame in that. Many years ago, Drew himself had little money, but now, people are willing to pay that amount for his work. And there’s only one original. To address the second part, I decided to post my rates for commissions because time is money. I don’t want to waste my time playing negotiating games only to find out the client isn’t willing to go ahead just yet. I also don’t want to make it awkward for potential clients or waste their time, either. As for copying rates, I can freely admit that this came about because I recently saw another artist’s pet portrait commission work and was asked for advice by a friend of hers about pricing. Her work was stunning and I thought, “yes, she deserves to charge that fee.” Then again, so do I and I never want to be seen as the cheaper alternative. I ended up learning more from her. And because our styles and mediums are very different, I wouldn’t consider her competition.

Also, I’ve become very busy lately. I’m currently working on three different commissions, with one pending. In addition to my editorial cartoon and illustration work, I’ve kind of swamped. In the art world, that often signals that it’s time to raise the rates, so I’m doing that. With my upcoming booth at the Calgary Expo, I expect even more pet portrait commission inquiries and I want to be prepared in advance of that. In the interest of pulling back the curtain, I posted some standard commission information in May and it has worked very well. Having something to link to for client inquiries saves everybody a lot of time.

This short post is a segue to that post, one that outlines what I need in order to allow me to deliver the best possible portrait I can, and the prices have been updated. All rates currently quoted to existing clients or ones who’ve already made recent inquiries still stand. Here’s the link to the NEW pet portrait commission post.

Posted on March 2, 2013March 2, 2013 by Patrick LaMontagne

Chris Hadfield Portrait – “Here Comes Home.”

If you don’t know who Chris Hadfield is by now, especially if you’re Canadian, then you’ve probably been studying in a monastery somewhere, cut off from the rest of the world. Currently aboard the International Space Station on his third mission in space, Hadfield has become the face and voice of the Canadian Space Program. With his multiple daily tweets and photos from orbit, his now frequent Q&A communications to schools and media, and his high profile life high above the Earth, Hadfield has Canadians and people around the world excited about space travel again. I’m 42 and often kind of cynical about our species, largely due to the editorial cartoon portion of my career, but when I see the images and video being sent back from the I.S.S. each day, I feel like a 10 year old kid again, excited about the possibilities, if we can only keep moving forward.

Hadfield seems to have that charismatic personality that so few possess, able to speak to world leaders and grade school children in a way that puts both at ease and allows them to understand what he’s saying, while still being the same guy with both audiences. Because of his obvious passion for his work, his willingness to share so much of his rare experience with the world, and his ability to be a scientist, engineer, artist and humanist all at the same time, I couldn’t help but be inspired to paint his portrait, especially after seeing the video of the musical event featuring Hadfield, Barenaked Ladies, and the Wexford Gleeks. The reference and title for this painting came from that video and song.

There is no better legacy than to inspire those around you and the next generation to believe in the possibilities before them. I can’t imagine how many children are now considering futures in the space program because of Hadfield’s example. Whether they’ll remain on the ground as part of the team that sends us further into space or actually get to be one of the few who go, will be up to them.

If all goes to plan, Chris Hadfield will take command of the International Space Station on March 13th, the first Canadian to do so. Just recently, the Canadian Space Agency posted a video where Hadfield demonstrated how he controlled the Canadarm2 from the cupola. In it he said, “Canada built the Canadarm2. And Canadarm2 built this space station. Everybody should be proud of that.”

We are, indeed.

For the artists who are always interested in the tech specs. This was painted in Photoshop CS6 Extended with a Wacom Cintiq 24HD. Final file dimensions are 32″X24″ at 300ppi. It’s a big file! Reference was a screen capture from the YouTube video mentioned above, which meant the quality wasn’t great, but I muddled through. Photos are never used as part of the painting, all was painted from scratch. I wanted desperately to put stars in those windows, but they just wouldn’t be visible in real life, so I kept that urge in check.

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Patrick LaMontagne

Working for Free and Clearing the Air

This topic seems to be floating around a fair bit lately and that’s a great thing. Too many artists are doing work for free because many companies expect them to. While I could write a long post about this, and I have in the past, Stephen Silver says it best in this video below. If you are a freelance artist and aren’t yet aware of Stephen’s work, I would suggest you follow him. He is respected for good reason. He has great advice, is very inspirational and has been working in the animation and design business for a long time. I’ve even taken an online character design course from him years ago and learned a lot. While I don’t consider myself as accomplished a cartoonist or character designer as he is, my work is definitely better from having learned from him. Now this video below is an angry rant, and this is out of character for Stephen, but he’s passionate about protecting artists from being taken advantage of, and you can see that in the video. If you’re easily offended…well you wouldn’t be here, so never mind.

Before I get to the video, however, I’d like to address something I’ve been taking a bit of flack for the past couple of months, something that has direct bearing on this topic, and that’s the fact that I gave Emilio Estevez the painting of his father for free. While I could easily dismiss the criticism as ‘some people are just angry at everything,’ I feel it’s important to address this because it’s not just me being slighted in the criticism, it’s Estevez as well. While I’m sure he has thick skin and is used to being criticized for anything and everything in his profession, it bothers me that some think he got the painting for free because he expected it for free, simply because he’s a celebrity. That’s not the case.

Throughout our correspondence, he was always offering to buy the painting. He never expected me to give it to him. When I explained that I couldn’t sell it because of why I painted it (you can read about that here), he then offered me other incentives from which I could make money from the print and I still declined. My decision to give the painting was always mine. I make a good living as a commercial artist, I do not do commission work for free, and nobody is taking advantage of me. I wasn’t asked to do the painting. That would have been something entirely different and I would have charged appropriately for my time and effort, just as I would have if the painting was going to be used commercially.

Let’s say that I had been in the same head space I was in when I painted that image of Martin Sheen, but had instead been inspired to paint somebody on the street in Calgary. Let’s say I took a photo, and painted that person for my own enjoyment. Let’s also say that person’s son or daughter saw the image and wanted to give that image to their father, the subject of the painting. I can honestly say that I would have done the same thing, charged them only the printing and shipping and given them the painting, the same arrangement I made with Estevez. The decision was not about celebrity. It was about me, where I was at a couple of months ago, and what my instinct told me at the time. The difference was that the inspiration came from a film, so the painting ended up being a character played by a well known actor.

Estevez was nothing but gracious and genuine throughout the experience and in addition to the signed prints I requested, and paying for the shipping and printing, he even gave me a copy of the memoir written by him and his father, signed personally to me by both. Some have suggested I should have gone for the big money grab because he was a celebrity. That’s just not me. While the story did get a fair bit of press in Canada and a little bit in the U.S., the experience doesn’t mean anything in the long run to anybody but me and the recipients of the painting. It’s already long over, as most stories of this nature so quickly are. To do it all again, I would change nothing. While I have some very nice souvenirs of the experience, I’m back to doing what I do best, drawing cartoons, illustrations, and painting funny looking animals for a living. Throw in the odd portrait for fun and inspiration and that’s where I want to be.

Hopefully that clears a few things up for a few angry people out there. If not, feel free to continue to wallow in it. It’s your problem. For the rest of you, take a look at this video by Stephen Silver. If you’re an artist, it might inspire you to believe in your own worth. If you’re not an artist, but someone who might hire one, perhaps this will enlighten you as to the struggles being faced in the industry. We’re all building our own individual careers, but we also need to look out for one another as well.

Posted on February 22, 2013February 22, 2013 by Patrick LaMontagne

Painting Choices and Challenges

I’m currently working on a portrait of Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield. The reference that I’m using is from a Youtube video, so even in web HD, the quality isn’t great. I’m used to working with poor quality reference from time to time, and it’s actually a good thing when it comes to portraits, as long as the quality isn’t too bad. If the quality were perfect, I might rely too much on the photo and there wouldn’t be enough art in it, just replication.

A common practice in painting from photos is using the grid method. The short explanation is that you divide your reference photo into grids, then you divide your canvas into equally proportioned grids. This helps a person establish where the major landmarks fall on the reference photo and suggests that those same landmarks should fall in the same place on the canvas grid. Here’s a very basic explanation of The Gridding Method if mine doesn’t do a decent job of it.

Norman Rockwell, Leonardo da Vinci and many other artists of note would use the grid method in their work. Some artists consider it cheating, but then again, I’ve met artists who say I’m not a real artist because I sell my work commercially. Art for a living is not a profession for anybody with thin skin and there is often no harsher critic than another artist. I don’t have the rare skill to paint a person’s likeness from memory, so I need photo reference, as do most portrait artists. My take on the grid method is that it is a tool that has its place, but I wouldn’t rely on it completely. Photoshop has the ability to apply grids in any configuration over your image. It’s under Preferences > Guides, Grids, and Slices. When I do use it, I choose percentages, but you can choose more precise methods of measurement as well. 7 percent is pretty small, but you’ll see why I chose that at the end of the post.

I never use the grid at all when I’m painting my Totem paintings because they’re not supposed to look like the reference photos. Nor would I use grids when doing caricature work, because exact proportions would defeat the whole purpose.

Just to prove that I can paint without the grid method, this is a portrait of James Whitmore that I did on the iPad, where grids weren’t possible. I had a photo, the iPad, and nothing but time. It did take quite awhile, and a big challenge was the low resolution possible with the first gen iPad, but I’m pleased with the likeness I was able to achieve.

James Whitmore - iPad painting

I try to only use the grid method when I’m stuck on something in a realistic portrait of a person or know that something is wrong and just can’t quite see it. For example, when I’m working on a likeness of a person, I may know that there’s something wrong with the eyes, but can’t figure it out. I’ll flip the canvas horizontally, vertically, try all of my tricks and still be stuck. By using the grids, I’ll see that it could be something as simple as the corner of the eye is in the wrong place or the iris doesn’t have the correct curve. I only use the grids when a painting is in the middle stages. Once the likeness is there, I don’t use them anymore, because I find that relying on it too much makes the subject of a portrait look wooden. I pride myself in the personality and life in my images and that doesn’t come from accurate placement of features, but from artistic impression of the subject. This is also the reason I paint people that inspire me or characters I feel a connection with, because that helps me with the feeling of the work. Having the tools is easy, knowing when to use them comes from experience.

Here’s a challenge I faced this morning on the current painting of Chris Hadfield. In the reference image I’m using, his mission patch is clearly visible on his shirt. Because I’m trying to capture a moment, I want to include that in the painting. I went back and forth on how to do it. That mission patch is readily available online in pristine condition, just as the designer would have finished it. One way to do it was just paste the perfect image in position, use the distort and warp tools, maybe rough it up a bit with a texture brush, add a little blur and it’s done, quick and easy. Another way I could do it, was do a vector trace of the graphic, basically just using the pen tool, trace over the coloured elements, convert them to paths, fill with colour, distort, warp, place, texture, blur, done.

So why didn’t I do either of those? With a logo in an editorial cartoon, I do that all the time, and I’m fine with it. Usually on a tight deadline, it’s a satirical commentary, and an accurate logo that I’ve recreated with the pen tool by tracing over it is something I’m comfortable doing because of the context. It’s part of the job and spending 20 hours on each editorial cartoon would be career suicide. With the painting, however, it felt like cheating. To somebody else, it might not have, and that’s OK. Everybody needs to make their own choices. I just know that had I done either of those, I’d finish the painting, would probably like the end result, but every time I look at that patch, it’s going to bother me.

So I decided that for the patch, I would use the grid method to help with the accuracy of the pieces in the patch, but paint it as I see it in the reference image. It’s going to take me quite awhile longer to paint the patch, but I’ll be happier with it in the end. As you can see from the above reference image on the left and painting on the right, I’ve got a long way to go to get it right, but it’s not like it’s wasted time because I’m still learning from every painting I do. In the end, I’ll be happier with the painting, so it’s time well spent.

Posted on January 31, 2013August 28, 2013 by Patrick LaMontagne — 10 Comments

Martin, Emilio, and Tom’s Road.

Sometime around the middle of December, I finished painting a portrait of Martin Sheen. More accurately, the portrait was of his character, Tom, from the movie The Way, written for the screen and directed by his son, Emilio Estevez. While the painting was done purely for my own enjoyment, sometimes a seemingly innocent pursuit will take on a life of its own. Since the movie inspired me to paint the portrait, as did their father/son memoir ‘Along the Way,’ I wrote about that when I posted the painting. Click here, if you’d like to read it.

As is my practice, I posted the link on social media and also tagged Estevez’s account on Twitter, especially since he has used that vehicle to promote the film. I thought that if he saw it, he might like what I wrote and painted, but didn’t actually expect anything to come of it. Twitter is a busy place and it’s impossible to keep up, so a lot more gets missed than noticed.

Imagine my surprise when just a couple of hours later on that same Saturday, an email arrived from Estevez via my website. He thanked me for my support of the film and then asked about buying a print, with the intent of giving it to his father for Christmas. With just five business days remaining, I had to tell him that even a rush job would have been impossible by the 25th, especially considering that I’d want to be meticulous about the proofing, given the recipient. I told him I’d be happy to set things in motion in January, if he was willing to wait. He was very gracious, completely understood, and we began talking about it again after the holidays.

In the meantime, his mother had seen the painting and wanted him to inquire about buying the original. Here’s the technology hiccup when you start talking originals and digital painting. A digital painting exists only on a hard drive and screen until it’s printed, so there really is no original in the traditional sense. One solution is to supply documentation that certifies a specific print to be the original. Mine are always printed on canvas and I gave Emilio the option of choosing the size. After a month of proofing, printing, signing, and packaging, the original 18″X24″ stretched canvas shipped last Friday. I also certified the canvas itself by writing the title of the piece and an additional signature on the back. Incidentally, until all of this occurred, I hadn’t titled this painting, but decided it needed one before it shipped. Yesterday, “Tom’s Road” arrived at Martin’s home.

The reason for this piece in the first place was to take a small break from the commercial work, as every image I’ve created lately has been a product. The whole point was to get away from everything being about money and marketing, if only for a moment. I wanted to paint my best portrait work, for no other reason than that. I am a commercial artist, no doubt about it, and I make a good living at it. This is my business, my livelihood, and my career. But this piece was special, inspired by a movie I loved, which was, in a way, a light at the end of a tunnel. My gut instinct told me that to try and make money from this would have tainted the whole experience, something that was worth much more to me than a paycheque. So, when Emilio asked to buy the original, I chose not to put a price on the work, but still offered the painting, charging only my printing and shipping costs.

Sometime in the near future, I’ll be receiving a paper print that I’ve asked them to sign. I’ll have it framed for my office, a souvenir of the experience, and a constant reminder that I must make time for personal work. I’ve also asked Emilio to have Martin sign one more print, something I can reserve for a charity auction sometime in the future. He was happy to oblige, and you can bet that I’m going to be very picky about which cause benefits from this unique item.

There is no doubt in my mind that had I attempted to orchestrate any of this, had I painted the portrait with the intention of bringing about these events, none of it would have happened. I created this portrait for me, to remind myself why I paint, and since I truly enjoyed working on it, that was enough. But to have it appreciated by his family, was a wonderful and unexpected bonus, not to mention a validation of my recent choices.

If all that weren’t enough, the greatest compliment I received was something offered by Estevez in one of his e-mails this past month. He said, “…the image is gorgeous and you have captured my father in a way that few have.”

It just doesn’t get much better than that.

Posted on January 13, 2013February 3, 2013 by Patrick LaMontagne

Another iPad Painting

My buddy, Jeff Tamagini, is a photographer and architect who lives in Boston. While we keep in touch online during the year, we only see each other in Vegas at Photoshop World. This past September, he and I were having lunch at The House of Blues in Mandalay Bay. The place has kind of low lighting, like a lot of bars, so when Jeff was checking something on his iPad, the screen lit up his face from underneath and I thought it looked pretty cool. So I asked him to hold the pose, and I took a few shots with my phone. As the only real light was the iPad and I couldn’t use a flash, the photo didn’t end up being all that sharp for detail, but I thought it would make a good practice piece for an iPad painting.

For the tech details, I was using a Wacom Bamboo Stylus, alternating between the regular version and the newer Pocket Bamboo Stylus. I wanted to use the very expensive Jaja stylus I just bought for close to $100 with shipping, but turns out the damn thing is a huge disappointment. It’s supposed to be pressure sensitive by way of a triple A battery and an ultrasonic speaker that communicates with the iPad microphone. You can adjust the volume of the pen to better communicate with the iPad, but I when I turned the volume up (because it wasn’t working right), I could actually hear it, which was annoying, and the battery life is ridiculously short. The manufacturers recommend you don’t use rechargeable batteries. Not exactly the most environmentally friendly device. It was pressure sensitive, sure, but the lines weren’t smooth, the performance was twitchy, basically I used it for a half hour and then went back to the Bamboo. You shouldn’t have to think about your hardware while painting. The Wacom Bamboo Stylus is still the best one I’ve used.

I’m still using the first generation iPad, bought it a few months after the initial release. While I’ve got a lot of use out of it, and my money’s worth, it’s starting to show it’s age and it’s beginning to have performance issues. Apps crash often enough to be annoying, despite my turning off location services, running only one or two apps at the same time, and doing everything else that’s been suggested to streamline operations. The fact is, every time Apple releases a new iOS. it has a harder time running on the old hardware. Pretty smart…force your consumers to buy the new tech by rendering the old tech useless. My next tablet might not be an iPad as I’ve become aware of better options out there for a more reasonable price. For example, the new Wacom Bamboo Stylus feel technology exists in some newer tablets, rendering them truly pressure sensitive out of the box. The usability will depend on what apps I can get for painting on another device.

The app I use to paint on the iPad is procreate. I’ve tried a number of them and that’s been my favorite for awhile. It just has a great interface. To get around the lack of pressure sensitivity, I just manually adjust the opacity of the brush with my thumb via a convenient slider on the left of the screen, and I’ll also adjust the opacity of different layers. Anybody who is expecting their tablet to perform like a Cintiq is kidding themselves, so you make do with what you have. Limiting your options can actually make you a better artist. The work I’ve seen done with this app on the newer iPads that have better resolution is very impressive.

Which brings me to WHY I paint on the iPad. The simple answer is that it’s a challenge. With only low-resolution options, especially with the first-gen iPad, I have to work with what sometimes feels like a blunt instrument to get the likeness down. There’s no way of painting in details later, because I’m stuck with one size. The best I can manage is to brush in some speckled texture to suggest detail. Also, the iPad is portable, just like a sketch book. This painting was done almost entirely while sitting on the couch watching TV. I started it in the Fall, but haven’t done anything on it in quite awhile. Finally picked it up again last week and finished it yesterday morning, working on it in my spare time. No deadline, no expectations, just practice. I’m reasonably happy with it, but I think I could have done better if I’d had a better reference photo.

Finally, because I don’t like working with the iPad at full brightness, I always seem to paint darker than I’d like the end result to be. My eyes get used to it, so I don’t see just how much brightness I’m missing. Once a painting is done, I bring it into the Snapseed app, make some very harsh brightness and contrast adjustments, then bring it back into procreate on a new layer. By adjusting the layer opacity, I get the right mix of what I like. My iPad paintings lack the finesse of the work I do in Photoshop, they’re rougher looking and lack detail, but I find they’re still worth doing. And it’s fun.

Posted on December 24, 2012February 3, 2013 by Patrick LaMontagne — 1 Comment

Miss Moneypenny

This was my last commission painting of this year, a little lady named Moneypenny. She’s a young pup with a great personality and I was given the option of painting her in a realistic portrait style or Totem style, artist’s choice. Believe it or not, there is no exaggeration in this portrait. She was really smiling like this in the reference photo, so I didn’t see the point of painting her in the Totem style.

Moneypenny’s portrait was finished earlier this month, but I wasn’t able to show it ’til now, just in case the recipient happened to see it online. Since I know both the client and the recipient, there was a chance somebody would let it slip, so it was best to hold off. It was printed and stretched on canvas at 12″ x 16″ and framed.

I found out last night that the gift has been given and while her owner loved it, Moneypenny herself was a little freaked out, thinking there was another dog in the house. Apparently she barked at it. Either that was a harsh critique or a wonderful compliment.

Here’s a closeup of the details.

Posted on December 22, 2012February 3, 2013 by Patrick LaMontagne — 2 Comments

Looking back on 2012

One of the great things about regularly keeping a blog is that it’s like keeping a journal. I find that each year, I’m actually surprised at how much went on while I was drawing, colouring, and trying to keep from losing my mind.

Here’s a quick recap of the ups, downs, and other stuff that happened in 2012.

This Business of Art.

At the beginning of the year, I canceled my booth at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo because I realized I wasn’t prepared for the April event. In retrospect, and after attending as one of the hoard, it was a good call because I would have done a number of things wrong. It wasn’t the best of times for that particular event this year as they did a number of things wrong as well, a casualty of their own growing popularity. But I’m booked and ready for 2013 and I’m really looking forward to it.

It’s no secret that I enjoy working with Wacom . I had the pleasure of demoing at their booth at Photoshop World in Vegas in September, was a guest on another of their webinars in November, and recorded a few videos for them throughout the year. They’re also sending me to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas the second week of January, so it’s clear that Wacom has become a significant part of my life this year.

I’m fortunate to have been invited to be one of the artists represented on Insivity.com, a new site designed to inspire and motivate artists. Still in its infancy and only officially launched this week, I look forward to writing and recording some exclusive material for it. I’ll also be looking to be inspired myself, as we can all use a regular dose of that to keep moving forward.

Hardware and Software

Another Wacom highlight this year was the introduction of the Intuos5 tablets and the new Cintiq displays. Every time I think they can’t make these products better, I’m happy to be proven wrong. Both the Intuos5 medium and the Cintiq 24HD display are now tools I use every day and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

After 6 years using a great computer, it was time to bite the bullet and have a new one built this year. While the last one worked great, it was Windows XP, only had 250GB of hard drive space, and was starting to have trouble running the big files. I more than got my money’s worth from it, so no regrets. Without boring you with the details, the new computer is top of the line and a real pleasure to use.

Photoshop CS6 was launched this year and while there were no particular ‘must-haves’ in the features for me, when you record training materials, you need to be using the latest software.

What with a complete upgrade of all of my software and hardware, anything I can’t accomplish in 2013 will be a failing in my skills, not my equipment.

Speaking and Training

I’ve been speaking to schools on digital art and editorial cartooning for a number of years, but with my ever increasing workload, I’ve had to be selective about how many of these I agree to. Locally, I consider it part of my obligation to contribute to the community I’ve lived in for almost 20 years. Outside of the Bow Valley, however, there is a fee for my time and travel expenses.

I enjoyed spending an afternoon with a group of art teachers in Red Deer a couple of months ago, introducing them to the entry level Wacom tablets and hopefully inspiring them to spend more time with the technology. I found out that more of their students are requesting training in digital art. A fledgling medium has now become main stream and I thought it great that traditionally trained art teachers were so willing to embrace it for the benefit of themselves and their students.

I had hoped to have recorded my next DVD for PhotoshopCAFE by now, Painting Portraits in Photoshop, but I had to keep putting it off in favour of more pressing obligations. One of the obstacles was the technology. I needed Photoshop CS6 and a new machine to run it. Now that I no longer have that excuse, recording the DVD has been bumped up the priority list and I look forward to having it done in the first quarter of 2013.

Prints and Products

In a sad turn of events this year, Two Wolves Trading Co. closed the doors in September. It was the exclusive venue for my limited edition Totem prints and matted paper prints in Canmore. The owners, Andrea and Michelle, did a lot for promoting my work. Between their fun personalities and kindness, including that of their staff, it was a pleasure to have had my work sold in their store.

While the closing of the store did have an impact on my business, it was more disappointing to see friends close up shop. A walk downtown always involved stopping in to Two Wolves to say Hi and kid around. I still miss that. Even though my work is available at About Canada in Banff, I’ll be looking for a new venue in Canmore in the new year, but it won’t be the same.

My prints were added to the inventory at the Calgary Zoo retail store this year. Just a few paintings to start, but I plan to add fuel to that fire in the coming year.

In the meantime, I continue to sell the prints online through my own store. I recently sent an email to my web designer, Erik Bernskiold, thanking him again for the great job he did on my site. Everything works flawlessly. A sale I had earlier this month was a lot of fun and worked very well. It’s something I plan to do again sometime in the future.

One of the highlights of this year for my work was licensing five of my Totem paintings to The Mountain Corporation out of Keene, New Hampshire. Their T-shirts are everywhere around the world, from retail outlets and zoos, to big box and online stores. I was very pleased to have my work added to their catalog and I’m optimistic that these five will just be the beginning. Having received my samples just this past week, I was very impressed with the quality of both the shirts themselves and the printing.

A lot of other little moments and events throughout the year, but through it all, there were well over 300 editorial cartoons, more than a dozen illustration gigs, and 15 paintings. While going through my work this year, it’s amazing how much of it I thought I’d done LAST year or even the year before.

With the exception of one commission piece I’m still waiting for permission to post, these are the paintings I completed in 2012. Clicking on any of the names or images will take you to the original blog post.

The Pets

In order, here are the commissions I enjoyed painting this year. We’ve got Gilly the Pomeranian, Chase, the German Shepherd with the titanium tooth, Mocha the horse, and a portrait of Brisby, Australian Shepherd/Red Heeler cross.

The People

Again, in order of completion, the first is Jim, one of my closest friends, and a portrait I did as a gift for his 50th birthday. Then there’s Russell Brown in his Abe Lincoln getup, Madeline Kahn as Elizabeth from the movie, Young Frankenstein, and Martin Sheen as Tom, from the movie The Way. I’ll have an update on the last painting sometime early in the new year.

The Totems

In order of when they were completed, here are the Cougar, the Rockhopper Penguin, the Bison, the Otter, and Bald Eagle Totems.

So, all in all, pretty pleased with my body of work this year. Most of what you see above wasn’t planned out at this time last year, so it’ll be interesting to see what I end up painting in 2013. Obviously more Pets, People and Totems (oh my!), but other than that, there are no resolutions for the next year. I’ve just decided to wing it and see what happens.

To you regular readers, those who follow my work on social media and are an endless source of encouragement throughout the year, you have my sincere thanks. The only way I know if my work is making people happy is because you tell me, and it is greatly appreciated. If you are an artist yourself, I hope you have found a little inspiration here, and believe in yourself enough to find your own style of art, something that speaks to you and makes you want to create even more.

Best to you and yours in the coming year!