Behind the Scenes: Ghostbusters!

BEHIND THE SCENES is where we take a look at the early steps taken to create the finished artwork featured on PixelReason. I will always try to include some insights as to why I made certain creative decisions during the process leading to completion and also share some of the techniques I used to create the piece featured.

Materials/Process : 
This piece was originally created with a traditional drawing pencil (hb grade lead) on a 9x12 sheet of sketch paper. Then I used a Pilot Precise v7 (fine tip) Rolling Ball pen to ink the Ghostbusters logo (you'll notice the grey lines are all still pencil. Only the logo was inked). This was to help the logo stand out if I needed additional ways to make it "pop" later on.

Layout:
Since this request was going to be used for a cellphone wall paper (portrait wallpaper) and a laptop wallpaper (laptop wallpaper), it had to be laid out to look good on both types of layouts. A cellphone has a very small screen so keeping it simple and "readable" is always the first rule. So the Ghostbusters logo was clearly going to be the main focus for that wallpaper. So for the laptop wallpaper version, I simply extended the left side and added more to the "story." I chose to extend the left side because most people view images from left to right. Meaning that whatever is on the right tends to be what the viewer's eyes ultimately settle on. So the logo was positioned to be what gives the piece its weight.

Girl playing bass guitar - Pencil Sketch

(Click on image for larger view)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, PixelReason readers! Today, Santa has brought PixelReason reader, Jakhicks, his request for a pencil sketch of a girl playing a bass guitar on a white background.

Droid does Graffiti : Concrete Variant

This piece got a huge amount of positive feedback from you guys, so here's a new version of "Droid does Graffiti" with a concrete background treatment. This version is available in the same requested sizes as the original (960x800). It's compatible with the Samsung Galaxy S cellphones. If you would like other sizes to fit your laptops, desktops, or cellphone wallpapers, let me know and it will be done!

*Update: By request: new size has been added for a tablet wallpaper!

PixelReason Banner

 

By request, the first PixelReason.com banner! If you would like to promote this blog, you can use this banner on your websites or signature lines (on message boards). As always, thanks for everyone's efforts!

Ghostbusters!

PixelReason reader John requested the Ghostbusters. With this piece, I wanted to give the Ghostbusters a more "realistic" and slightly darker feel. I guess you could call it more modern. But at the sametime, stay absolutely true to the characters.  I have to admit that this piece brought back alot of great memories. So I tried to include all the memorable things from the Ghostbusters (go Ecto-1!).

Wallpapers are up!
If you want to request a certain size to fit your specific cellphone/computer/portable llama, put it in the comments below and I'll resize the wallpaper to fit your needs!

UPDATE: Behind the Scenes is up!
Behind the Scenes : Ghostbusters!

Art Giveaway: Green Lantern brings the Android Invasion

The time is here! I'm giving away some original art!

Here's how it works:
The original PixelReason reader who requested the idea gets the first chance at claiming dibs on the original artwork. If he/she claims it within the alloted time, they get it!

Within a very few amount of days, if I haven't heard back, it will be first come first get! (The first person to comment on this post will get the original art)



*Update: Well that was fast. Just as fast as this post went up, PixelReason reader BlazingWolf managed to claim the piece! So there you have it. The first reader inspired art has been given away! Congratulations BlazingWolf! The next steps to having this piece will be sent to you very soon!

Droid does Graffiti

PixelReason reader Alex requested the Android logo in graffiti style for his cellphone wallpaper. He requested it in 960x800 dimensions so I made two versions for you guys. One version has the graffiti taking up a very large portion of the screen while the other leaves more room around the logo. This was in case you liked having some blank space to place your shortcuts/widgets/apps/etc on your cellphone "desktop" while still being able to look at the open-source street-art. If you guys would like this wallpaper in other sizes to fit your cellphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop monitor, please put it in the comments below and I'll be happy to oblidge!

*Announcement!*
The previous original "Green Lantern brings the Android Invasion" illustration will be given away within the next day or two. Once the announcement is made, if the original requester of the idea doesn't take his first rights to get the piece, then the first to respond to me will be the lucky recipient of the piece. Stay tuned and be sure to keep an eye on this blog over the next couple days!
(All I'll require is a minimum donation of $20 to cover the postage of mailing the item and the supplies it took for me to create it. If you live outside the U.S., then I might require more. Additionally if you really like what I'm doing on this blog and would like to donate more, then it's always greatly appreciated).

Behind the Scenes: Green Lantern brings the Android Invasion!

BEHIND THE SCENES is where we take a look at the early steps taken to create the finished artwork featured on PixelReason. I will always try to include some insights as to why I made certain creative decisions during the process leading to completion and also share some of the techniques I used to create the piece featured. 

(Click images for larger view)

 

Tools: Once again, I used my basic set of "on the go" tools. 9x12 sketch paper with a Pilot Precise v7 (fine tip) Rolling Ball pen (aka my high school pen) and a black sharpie. For PixelReason, I'm trying to keep things relatively fast and simple (...sort of simple).

Point of interest: In comic books, you'll usually create stars by inking an area solid black, then spattering opaque white ink/paint onto the black to make the stars. But I didn't want to do that because I had two things in mind that this unconventional approach would make it easier for me accomplish:
1.) To blend in some great blue gradients into the space sky to give it more depth (instead of just a flat black).
and more importantly:
2.) To use the lines that were used to draw the flying "droids" as green glowing outlines when I colored the piece. If you were to fill in the sky with black, you would lose the "outlines" and I would have nothing to make solid glowing outer lines around the droids. Less work? Yes please and thank you.

Wolverine vs Sentinels

(Click on picture for a larger view)

Wolverine is always fun to draw. Here he is with some Sentinels. Looks like they had an argument. Wolverine won.

Done on 9x12 sketch paper with a Pilot Precise v7 (fine tip) Rolling Ball pen and a black sharpie.

I used to draw with this pen way back in high school. It's a simple pen but it gives you the ability to do thick and thin lines and it can be bought at just about any office supply store or supermarket stationary aisle. It's always been one of my favorite simple drawing tools.

*A friend of mine noted to me that I should point out that this drawing was done completely free-handed. I did not use any rulers, straight-edges, stencils, etc. So every line was drawn with only my hand. Including those  bazillion straight parallel rendering lines.

Graphic Girl

If left with no time constraints, I'll usually render the heck out of my drawings. So I really like playing with trying to keep things simple from time to time for a fresh take on my style.