Pirate Cat

Just having some fun :)

The paint splatters and scribble inspiration comes from Skottie Young's awesome Cable/Deadpool comic book covers. Here's the reference.

Zombie Girl Sketchcard

It feels so good to do art for myself. To be honest, the day this card was made, I stayed home sick from work. I couldn't help it; even with a running nose, that "itch" to create was still there.

This is an original Artist Trading Card sized at 2.5" x 3.5" The medium used was marker, color pencil, ink and acrylic paint for the background.

Zombie Girl is for sale; taylorsmith03@hotmail.com



***SIDE NOTE***

I'm really enjoying Bobby Chiu's new book, "The Perfect Bait." The information and wisdom shared has been amazing so far. HIGHLY recommend to the artist or designer looking to advance in their career (goals, dreams, skills, etc.) Right now, until the end of March, the audio version of the book is on sale for a generously low price at Schoolism.

http://schoolism.com/quickies.php

Thank you, Bobby Chiu:)

Tattoo Inspired Animal Designs

Some more art from work. The original concept for these started out a year ago with a peacock design I did and the style sort of evolved to an "inky" tattoo look. These were are a lot of fun to design. Because their simplicity, my favorite part of creating these was the decision making process; what to include and what not to, and making the image read as a particular animal. They are a bit abstract and hopeful they read well. For each animal, there are three designs to the series; a corner, a border and a feature (used for machine embroidery.)

Hope it's a great week for you and thanks for stopping by.

Life Size Batman

I'm really happy to share this with everyone. This was a personal project done for a couple friends at church who have two boys that love the Batman. I thought it'd be cool to create the Dark Knight and give to them as a gift (something to hang up at home). To be honest, this project was more for me... I had a BLAST creating this start to finish. In my spare time, I like to draw comic and cartoon characters for fun... the difference with this project was that it was going to be for someone, and that made it all the more fun and close to my heart. Also, my girlfriend Heidi was away on a mission trip for three weeks, so this was a nice way to keep busy :)

The first step was drawing little thumbnails. Then, when I found a pose I liked, Heidi took some reference photos of me modeling in the front of the mirror. It was pretty funny and I realized how cool she is and lucky I'm with her :) Even though the photo shoot might have been unnecessary, I really wanted to "kill it" on this project, so I did my homework and gathered as much reference before starting the project (anatomy books, photos, etc.)

Next, I drew out Batman with pencil and inks on bristol board and scanned him into the computer for digital coloring. Since the final piece was going to be around five feet tall, I scanned the artwork in at 1200 DPI! The final digital file was under 300 megabytes, but my PC is sort of dated so every time I opened it or saved it in Photoshop, it took about 3-4 minutes to finish. After the coloring was finished, and I showed the art to a few friends for critique, I made several more adjustments and brought him to the printer. At work we have a plotter printer that I used. I think it's inkjet instead of laserjet so the colors where a little "less true" to what was seen on the computer.

The file took 30 minutes to be read by the printer and printed! The funny thing was that it didn't print the whole image and cut off a little bit of his foot! I tried it a second time with different adjustments in white space around Batman and the same thing happened. It wasn't a big deal though; I just printed off the part of his foot that was missing on the laserjet printer and pasted it on top of the big version.

The color difference of the laserjet and the inkjet is a little obvious but not a big deal. Prior to the printing, I found a big piece of cardboard at the recycling center and used it as a backing to the print out. The print out was spray mounted on top of the cardboard and then using scissor and box cutter, I cut out a silhouette of Batman from the cardboard leaving a white boarder around the figure.

And here's the final digital artwork.

My favorite part of this project was coloring Batman on the computer. The coolest part though is that I got to do something I love and then share it with others. With the second print out that cut off at the foot, I gave to my coworker who also has kids who love Batman and it was hung up above one of their beds. He sent me a picture and his kid's bed has Batman bed sheets so it looks rad hanging above it!

Our pastor at church said something really cool that stuck with me. He encouraged us to use our passions and find a way to fill a "need" in the world. I can remember experiencing this amazing feeling of joy when I was drawing caricatures at theme parks. There's something about doing a piece of art for someone who really loves and appreciates it that is so rewarding. When you can give someone something that you loved creating... it's pretty awesome.

:)

John Singer Sargent Quote

"Cultivate an ever continuous power of observation. Wherever you are, be always ready to make slight notes of postures, groups and incidents. Store up in the mind... a continuous stream of observations from which to make selections later. Above all things get abroad, see the sunlight and everything that is to be seen."

I love this quote. It reminds me of the importance of practicing mindfulness, being in the present (rather than you mind wandering in thoughts) and getting out to see the world.



On a side note, I've been drawing up the Dark Knight for fun in the evenings. The plan is to print it out to be five feet tall, mount it on cardboard/foam core and hang it up on a wall. The file is HUGE! Put it this way, it takes about three minutes to save and open the file in Photoshop :) More to come soon. For now, here are a couple screen shots of the work in progress. (The Magneto image is from the Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 game art and is being used for reference).

Love Your Work

"Do what you love to do, and do it so well that those who come to see you do it will bring others to watch you do it again and again and again."

- Mark Victor Hansen

TMNT Artist Trading Cards

I love drawing these sketch cards. I used to collect TMNT cards when I was a kid and trade with friends. My dad, brother and I would go to "card shows" and buy/trade baseball cards when we were growing up. At those shows there were people selling comic books, too. I remember being so jazzed after buying X-Men #1 drawn by Jim Lee and being hooked on comics since. There's a bit of nostalgia in these artist trading cards which makes them a lot of fun to create.

The original 4 cards are for sale (as a set.) Send an e-mail to taylorsmith03@hotmail.com and we'll work out a price. Also, if there's enough interest, I am willing to make prints for sale as well.

Thanks for stopping by and best wishes to everyone in 2012!