Fantasy Castle - New Matte Painting

'Wandering Dystopia' New Matte Painting

Playing with Long Pham's shapes

A 15 minute warm up sketch I did this AM with Long Pham's shape set.  Too much fun! Go get em! Check out his art while you're at it! Much Love! -West

http://www.longpham.net/p/blog-page.html

Coral Beach Sunset

New digital fine Art painting done entirely with a custom knife brush, in photoshop..Hope you dig it! D

Crater Lake Mecha Foundry Concept

Heres a new one. Enjoy! D

Digital and traditional painting need not be separate. Sometimes it's best to shut of the computer and grab a brush

I think a lot of folks out there that work digitally these days start that way and never even pick up traditional painting at all. Some of them are quite exceptional and use photoshop or painter to great effect within their work. They are the exception, though and not the rule. For most of us a strong foundation in traditional painting and drawing is essential to creating compelling artwork that is full of life and energy. Sadly without the fundamentals traditional painting forces you to learn, digital work is mostly lackluster and often times simply mediocre simply by the artist missing something very basic within the painting. As time goes on, especially lately I've really bee putting down the mouse and stylus and picking up my painting knives(yes I paint with knives exclusively)The way you structure a painting traditionally is so much different that using the computer that it forces you to build your image through a set of(sometimes) logical steps. Making big decisions is also a must, for all of your Bob Ross fans out there you have heard it before. When you start to get comfortable and playful with traditional mediums your paintings start to liven up and get more engaging due to the simple energy and looseness of your stroke. There is also a benefit to painting traditionally that most folks never get which is the paint itself. That viscous goo whether it be oil or acrylic does magical things when handled correctly. Gorgeous blends, textures, light, etc are all easier to do on a canvas if you learn how. The paint has magic within, it just demands a bit of practice and it becomes second nature to an experienced painter. You will honestly be surprised by the way things work when you know how to work the paint on the canvas. Sometimes a crazy accident will lead to a style altering discovery as well. Photoshop and painter are great but they will never have what real paint has at best they are only an approximation of how paint works. By actually painting analog you will find that the ideas can really flow out more directly as well due to the fact that you are eliminating the tablet or mouse which are simply further approximations of your actual technique. Brain to hand/brush is simply better(in terms f directness) than brain to hand to stylus to tablet to driver to software. I think that if you really sit down and learn to paint that it will not only give you other avenues of expression within your work, but will make you a much better painter both traditionally and digitally. Eventually when you really study the craft of painting and apply good solid principles and fundamentals to you work it will cease to matter whether you paint digitally or traditionally, you will find that you are faster and more professional in your work and see a lot more demand for your work. Hope this is helpful for anyone out there in a digital rut. Keep checking back in the next few weeks we'll have some great new knife paintings from our Havana series that we'll be sharing. Best Wishes and a wonderful happy new year to all. D

New fast and furious concept environment. Urban Plateau

No not from those silly movies, although Vin Diesel is always awesome. I've been seeing some artist that I love do this so I wanted to give it a try and see why because frankly I've been getting really turned on by the hard edged and hard lit look of these paintings. For this environment concept I only used the custom shape tool and the line tool. No brushes at all. It took me about a hour to get to this point. Very pleased and had a lot of fun doing it. IF you dig that hard edged, kind of graphic look, you might want to give this a whirl.

Enjoy! D