Jason Seiler

http://www.jasonseilerillustration.blogspot.co.uk/

http://jasonseiler.com/about/

http://jasonseiler.com/portfolio/character-design/warriorgnome/#main < Image reference.

Jason Seiler is an illustrator who lives in Toronto. He specialises in creating caricatures, portraits, and comedic illustration.
He also teaches in caricatures. He started out in an unusual way for an illustrator to be noticed, getting into trouble drawing his history teacher, as a caricature in high school. He first became noticed by his principal at the time, who hired him to draw caricatures of various faculty members. He went on to study fine art illustration at the American Academy of art in Chicago, after this.

http://jasonseiler.com/portfolio/caricatures/golfdigest_monroe_dimaggio_hemingway-2/#main < Image reference.

He has published two books on his artwork, featuring many humorous images from his illustrations. he has also published an instructional DVD, called sketching with Jason Seiler.

Some of his many clients, include TIME magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and MAD Magazine, New Line Cinema. He uses a lot of digital manipulation in his varied artwork, especially with his caricature work. (See images)

He is a member of the society of illustrators in New York City. He also has been an art instructor for a few years.

Interestingly, his digital artwork resembles that of caricature art. I have enjoyed researching this artist, but I do not wish to take influence from him, as I don't want to go down the route of this style. I will say though, that he is an incredibly talented artist, nonetheless. 

Thomas.

Ellie York Brooks

http://www.digitalartistdaily.com/user/t3kmorris

Ellie York Brooks is a fantastic digital manipulation artist, who creates traditional work, as well as some digital work, made in the style of traditional based materials, such as if she used pastels, and paints. I have noticed in some of her work, that she uses a lot of 'sketchy' lines, to create rough shapes. She also allows the background in her pieces to show through this. I love this art style, and I think I might take some inspiration from Ellie, and bring this into one of my final pieces.

http://www.digitalartistdaily.com/image/17857/discover < (image reference)

http://www.digitalartistdaily.com/image/17881/rock_bottom < image reference at this link.

http://www.digitalartistdaily.com/image/17869/looking_glass (image reference)

The three photos above, are digital manipulation pieces. The lower one being a manipulation of a photograph. I love the techniques that she uses. I like how the third image, has the illusion of the colours blending, and bleeding into each other.

I created this digital tester piece above, mimicking the rough, colourful style of Ellie York Brooks. It has very similar themes to the first image of Ellie's work, in terms of line use, background, and colour.






Thomas.

Final Image #4 Discarded (step by step)

Work on my 4th final digital image, is of a patch of daisies, that you can find in my reportage sketchbook. This one is more of a digital transformation, than a recreation. As I decided to manipulate the image, to be as accurate as possible. I tried to make this final piece, resemble a print, maybe like something you would find on a cushion, or on curtains.

I decided to discard this as one of my final pieces in this unit, because I felt that It was turning out to be an illustration that I would have disliked too much, also I felt that I traced too much over the flowers, for it to be a legitimate final piece.

I inserted the image of the patch of daisies on a new layer, that I sketched my initial reportage piece from.

I placed the file onto the layer.

I lowered the opacity of the photo.

I then transferred it, from photo, to digital image with precision accuracy, using a black brush.

Ditto.

As before, but at a slightly later stage.

Outline now complete.

I then increased the opacity of the background image.

I used the colour picker tool, to select the most accurate colour from the yellow in the daisies.

The image, after all the centres of the flowers had been filled in with the fill bucket tool.

I then used the same colour picker to take a sample of the green, from the flowers stem. I pasted this in after.

I added a light blue background, to make the piece more colourful.

I then began to add the white colour, to the petals.

Ditto, as complete.


I then removed the original base image file, from the final, and added a slight gradient, from left to right, going from a very light, to a slightly deeper blue tone.

Began to start adding some daisy stems.

Added some clouds to break up the image a bit, and began to add detail to the individual petals. I also finished the stems.

The image after all the petal detail was added.

I added some heavy detail in the flower centres, and I am starting to add some simple shading to the stems of the plants.

Final image #1 (Step by Step)

Work on my first final image, of my girlfriend's pet Gecko, called Kai. She is an animal that is full of colour, texture and tone, something I want to attempt for my first final piece.

The artist that I researched, and who I took some inspiration from with the development of this piece, is griffsnuff, and her art style. I took inspiration from her in multiple terms, for example line usage, and the way she uses strong, bright, and vibrant colours. Her style makes the image stand out, which is something I tried to reflect this onto my final piece.

http://griffsnuff.deviantart.com/art/Chibi-Tango-261712223 < image reference at this link.

I took inspiration from the dot like pattern, placed onto a simple coloured body.

http://griffsnuff.deviantart.com/art/Lots-of-designs-sOLD-part-3-288464364 < image reference at this link.

I also took inspiration from another of her images. In this image she sketched a gecko, and again, used basic line art and vivid colours. Also, note her use of a basic background, and how it doesn't distract the viewers eyes, away from the actual drawing. I wanted to create a digital illustration of a leopard gecko, that featured a realistic anatomy, so I did not take after her 'cartoon like' gecko design, in this case, however some cartoon elements remain.

In this frame, I sketched out the line art for my Gecko drawing.

In this frame, I lay down a simple base colour, to start adding the full colour to the graphic.

In the frame above, I tweaked the eye slightly, to make it look more accurate in terms of shape, and I also began adding in the gecko's patches, and patterns.

(More pattern being added)

(The addition of more detail, and colours being used, to make the image more lifelike. Techniques such as fading are being used).

(Smoothing out the patterns on the body)

(Creating a natural division, on the spine)

(Adding the Gecko's under patterns, on a separate layer)

(Added more of the Gecko's detail, and starting to sample shading styles, on a new layer.

Smoothing out the shading, and adding additional detail to the pattern.

The inclusion of extra fine details, such as the lines on her belly, and arms. The shading is now complete, only thing left to do now, is add a little more extra detail to the head, and finishing touches, which I will update the blog on, after completion.

The finishing of the tail, and the neatening up of the layers.

After some finishing touches, such as going over the line separating the head from the neck, the piece is now complete, and ready to be exported, and uploaded as a stand alone piece.

I then uploaded it into photoshop, and added a gradient background, using colours that i felt worked well. After this I exported it as a PDF.

Thomas.

Digital Tester #4

For my 4th digital image, I have used another print, to again test what one would look like side by side with a digital format. For this print, it is my blue print of a sponge, as my background image. I have decided to improve this piece a bit more.

I have taken some inspiration from Julia Kay. She is an artist that I researched in this blog. She uses very simple, yet bold lines to produce work.

http://studiojuliakay.com/juliaKayPhoto128.html

You can see how I have taken inspiration for Julia Kay, in terms of use on line art. She has used yellow on black, and I have used black on white. These are heavily contrasting colours, and both make lines stand out. However, I have added more detail on the inside of the image, so this is where the differences end. 

Also, as a debut, I have began working around the actual print from the start, as a plan. As you can see in the image below. The sponge gives off the effect of a rain cloud with rain. The wooden figure represents a human stand in, but I like the cartoon element to it.

In this frame, I have sketched out the line art for the figure, I took inspiration from Julia Kay's line art style, and positioned the printed background, behind this, as the background layer.

In this frame, I have added some colour tones, and have implemented simple lighting with use of my colour palette.

In this frame, I added more of a simple wood grain effect, by using wood tones lines, and curves, on the surface that is above the previous layer, with the simple lighting.

In this frame, I added more advanced lighting, to provide depth and layer. I think the lighting is accurate, and works well.

(Step by step of my progress through the buildup of the piece).

This is my favourite digital manipulation, tester that I have created so far, especially one with a traditional style print in it.

Thomas.

Digital Tester #3

For my 4th digital development piece, I tried using one of my prints as a background, that I worked into. I took inspiration from some work from my previous unit, which was animals. I used some drawings of a bearded dragon as reference.

(Bearded Dragon on print background)

I real love how this piece worked out so well, the background seems to work in harmony with the drawing, which is comprised of several individual layers on top.

I tried not to add too much colour in the Dragon, because I wanted the elements for the background layer, to show through brightly, and without intrusion. It really does show its texture, and colours well, and I'm really happy with that.

Thomas.