bfowler.com

I love Orcs.  Even before Lord of the Rings (the movies) I thought Orcs were an awesome creature.  I already see quite a few things  on this one I’d like to fix but I don’t have any work that after being away from it for 24 hours I don’t want to tweak something.  I’ve heard stores of how even the great Frank Frazetta was banned from his own museum by his wife because he would go rework old paintings.  Hopefully, that’s a sign that I’m always getting better and not that I just don’t know how to finish a piece.

I should take more time to come up with catchy titles to my paintings.  As some may know I working on some stuff to send to Marvel and here is an additional piece to that end.  Cyclops has always been one of my favorite characters and the image of his optic blast is a striking visual.

I’ve begun putting together a portfolio to send to Marvel comics.  My goal is to get some card illustration is possible even some cover work.  With that in mind I got quite a few pieces planned out.  A few pinups like you might see in a Marvel Masterpieces card and then later some much more intricate pieces.

This first one is Kitty Pryde of the X-men.  She’s always been one of my favorite characters.  Excalibur was one of my first comics back when you could buy them from 7-11.  I’m working on much more of a painterly style.  To that end I’ve discovered Corel Painter (actually rediscovered).  I’ve been so used to Photoshop all these years and Painter is a bit of a different animal.  I love squishy paint.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

I just put the finishing touches on this last night.  It’s 100% oil paint.  I painted it to donate to the upcoming Heroes Comic book convention art auction.  The proceeds of which go to help Heroes comic book store owner Sheldon Drum put on the Heroes comic book convention every year.  It’s the best comic convention I’ve ever been too because the focus is almost exclusively on comics, the books, the writers and the artists.  It’s a great show and I’m very excited to be able to set up a table in artist alley there.  If you get a chance stop by and say hello and bid heavily on the painting at the auction Saturday night at the Westin Hotel in downtown Charlotte, NC.

I really happy with how Jean Grey, aka the Black Queen  came out but I hate to say that for better or worse the original looks so much better.  Most people don’t realize the short comings of photography and scanning.  They just don’t do the original justice.  I’m an amateur photographer but I often wonder what I might be missing that a professional photographer could do with my work.  Oh well, when my paintings  start making a lot more money I’ll pay for some lessons from a pro.  Until then you’re stuck with my Nikon D80.

I hope you like the painting and remember, I’m always open for commissions and job offers.

Ok, so a couple of posts back I showed a sketch that I was working on of Jean Grey, aka, Phoenix.  Well,  I played around with it some more and since I’m my own editor on this I told myself to have some more fun with it.  I said self, wouldn’t it be more fun (and hot) to paint good ol’ Jean from her Hellfire club days.  To try and capture that time when she and Scott were young and in love.  Before Jean had to exit stage left and Emma Frost stole her man.  Plus, the outfit was a lot hotter.  Sue me.

Here is the initial sketch of the revisited image.  I got some reference this time as it’s time for me to take myself seriously and not just let myself try to pull the artwork out of my butt fully formed.  I’ve fallen into that pit to many times in the past.  The image just comes out covered in..well, let’s just say the aroma is a tad more unpleasant than the cobalt dryer I use in my painting medium.  Then again I’m sure there are those that would disagree.  That cobalt stuff is deadly.

I just got the sign off on a few freelance assignment so it may be a week or so before I get back on this one.  I know you can’t hardly wait but I can only work on one project at the time.  Just check back every day and tell all your friends to come to.  The ego of a freelance artist can always use a boost.

Oh yeah, the website is going through some growing pains.  Overlook the mess.

I love the Wolverine character.  The overexposure in comics and film, not so much, although I am greatly looking forward to the movie.  To that end I did this Wolverine digital painting.  I’ve been facinated recently with such artist like Gregory Manchess and even more recently Veronique Meignaud and how they apply color and shapes to form their images.  To my eyes it looks like very little general blending is going on and as it’s taken me what seems like a million years to break the habit of trying to blend everything, this really appeals to me.  I love the graphic look it gives and the energy you can get from it while at the same time keeping a high level of realism which is what I’ve always strived for in my work.

I’ve also discoved a few tricks along the way on this one too that I’ll add to the top of my digital toobox list.  The best is using the smudge too at 100%, very selectively, to reproduce the look of blended oil paint.  Another thing that’s worked well for me is using color dynamics in the my brush settings to add more variety and randomness to my colors and strokes.  Makes the painting feel more tradiational, which I want, and less, well, digital.