I've been mucking around with different ways to draw faces - I still need to work on accuracy and placement of features, but I don't want to become rigid and characterless in my work so am trying to exaggerate and interpret in order to add some feeling... these were 2 minute scribbles from some life drawing references.

I saw this photo somewhere and really liked the lighting - something about those glowy edges you get from things in sunlight combined with cool midtones...

A few more colour studies

Colour and value and stuff!

Moar coloar!

A few colour/light studies from a Doctor Who episode...

Colour studies

It seems that colour studies are a thing that people do - basically little speedpaints focusing on colour (and by extension, light) and working on establishing a scene or atmosphere quickly.
These ones were probably 15 mins each, I used a few scenes from the movie The Fall.

It's been my experience that my paintings don't really "emerge" until quite late in the process, and I often abort before that point because I'm mostly just doing sketches or practices from references... it's quite unsatisfying to do that but so be it! I guess all the practicing should mean that I get through those early stages quicker and with better foundations, at least.

Painty McPaint Paint

Just another speed paint. I think I established my values a bit more quickly and more effectively than often, so that's good. Doesn't look at all like Scott Pilgrim (the movie from which I referenced the picture) but that wasn't the point :)

Would be fun to play with the fire (both in accuracy and stylistically) but again, just a sketch...

What's that? Why yes, it's yet another generic portrait painting.

Saw this great image on the internet - really soft lighting and porcelain skin tones... Ignoring her wonky face, I kind of got there in the end, next time I'd like to keep it a bit fresher or looser.

Speed lifedrawings

Decided to try some digital life drawings - I've been doing a lot of gesture drawing in a sketchbook but have seen some people do quick but effective sketches on the computer. Mine weren't quite so elegant... you really need to think about how to use shading to emphasise the forms rather than just slapping in patches kind of where they go in the photo (like i did).

Speedpaint

Been a while since i did any speedpainting, but really want to get back into it. Good way to spend an afternoon...

Gig poster

I illustrated a poster for a friend's band... decided it would be fun to play with the idea of a Trojan Canary, and it was!

In Which The Easter Bunny Discovers That Eggs Are Not Always The Bringer Of New Life.

A friend and I have a tradition of making little stories for Easter each year... this year we decided to step it up a notch both in writing and illustration, and so we created a multi-part noir graphic novel. Here's page one.

The Book Thief

Another piece in my sporadic book illustration series... this time, The Book Thief.

Hard to use such a dark tonal scheme without it becoming uneven/jagged - according to my monitor it looks ok but I'm sure that with some settings there'll be weird jumps to chunks of black where it should be smoother.

Generic Woman #28

Another digipaint of a fashion photo... just playing with accurate values and accurate photo-referencing.

High Fidelity

Another illustration for my chronologically long and voluminously stunted series of book illustrations. This time, High Fidelity. The movie isn't amazing, but I really enjoyed the book. I think I've probably been a bit generous by giving the record shop a nice big window and spacious interior, but I wanted to emphasise how empty and cavernous it seemed to me.

Valentine's Day

I originally planned to do a sickeningly sugary illustration for Valentine's Day as well as this more sombre one, but didn't get round to that one... so you'll just have to imagine two teddies holding hands or something.

Value study

Part of my ongoing journey to study values/brightness and get better at accurately capturing them. This one's from a B&W photo, which I find much easier than using a colour reference.

Outlaw

Quick illustrative doodle, not much to say really, just mucking around.

Backyard cinema

A little illustrated invite I did for an outdoor movie night at my house.