Walking Robot

I've been noodling this one for awhile - I finally managed to pull it across the finish line. I started out with blobs of value and refined it from there (very different from my normal process). I had fun adding all of the greebles and wires at the end. Need more robots in your life? Check out Simon Stålenhag and Calum Alexander Watt for some inspirational sci-fi paintings.

Sunset

This piece started as a quick thumbnail (2-3 hours) that I decided to develop into a finished illustration. The ship in the initial thumbnail was more a stand-in than anything else, so I sketched a few different ship designs side-by-side and picked one that I liked (I ended up using the top-left one as a starting point).

Mr. Tony Soprano

I really tried to get this one to work as a painting instead of a colorized drawing. In the end, I like the final painting more than the initial drawing - which is probably a good sign.

 Breakdown

Another Female Head Study

I've been working on this one for a while, and I'm glad to finally post it! It turned out to be quite a challenge because of the relatively low contrast and the angle of the model's face.

Breakdown

Based on photo reference from CharacterDesigns.com

Mickey Goldmill

You probably know Burgess Meredith by his role in the Rocky films, but did you know that his other roles included the Penguin in the 60s Batman series and the ill-fated Henry Bemis in the classic Twilight Zone episode 'Time Enough at Last'? Simply stated, he was awesome.

I started this one with pencil and used that as a basis for the final digital painting. In pieces like this, I always struggle with resolving the initial line-drawing with the final painting - here I decided to let it show through because I felt like it added a lot of energy to the finished image.

Female Head Study

Here's another study based on a photo taken by Hong Ly (characterdesigns.com). This one took a bit longer than expected because of the hair, woven head-band and unique lighting setup - I was able to paint the face itself relatively quickly. I've heard that you have to struggle with a painting or drawing to learn something new - so this piece certainly taught me a thing or two...

Step-by-step breakdown

Don Draper