Mat Kaminski Sketchybewk

[matkaminski]

Digital Painting: Speed Paintings

Title: Digital Painting: Speed Painting
Date: August 29, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CC
Scale: Each 'piece' varies.

Notes: I've never really done applied speed painting before, and I can say that this exercise was REALLY fun to do, albeit extremely difficult.
First, let me preface with saying that each one was timed, in a reverse progression. We started with the thirty-minute painting and worked our way down to five minutes. The bottom-most piece (Donatello) was the first, and then they go in reverse order from there, scaling down by five minutes each. I think it was only natural that the objects become more simple as the time was reduced, but some people really gave it a try even at the five-minute mark.
Either way, we all powered our paintings down and there wasn't much fuss. It was really fun to do, and I actually want to try and do these more often. I think setting a time limit really helps!

"Ascendancy Soundtrack"

I posted recently about some goals... A bit of this will be reiterating that.
I am still planning on pursuing these, but let me preface these by saying that I am going to be pushing harder than ever this semester! I have very clear objectives for this class that I hope to achieve.

Firstly, let me start with where I am planning on going this semester. I think that should start with some serious thought into where I get my inspirations from, specifically for my portraiture.

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All artwork below this line is NOT MY WORK!
Each artist is listed with their respective work.
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Alex Negrea

I choose this one because of the subject matter.
I think it's interesting to vary your character designs. Alex Negrea seems to be a bit versatile from hyper realistic, to space-faring aliens. Because of this, I want to try and push towards the realistic rendering style combined with this subject matter.

John Larriva

Ultimately, I can't get away from this painterly style.
I think that my style actually lends itself towards this type of rendering. I love it so much, and it just so happens to be a good push towards an 'old-world' type of rendering. If you notice throughout some of my work, this happens to be what type of art I paint like.

Vinicius Menezes

I pursue this one because of the process. And also the texture.
I want to learn how to have a ton more edge control like here.

Min Yum

Texture, texture, texture!
I tend to fail in putting anything that visually breaks up the canvas, and somehow Bumskee manages to use this to great effect. I want to learn to start messing around with this.

Rahul Philip

Not only do I like how these are done, but I also love the color approach.
I want to try and push into this as well! As I implement color, I want to start approaching it with a more academic approach in terms of what color combinations to use and things.

When I first started doing art, I initially wanted to do environment art for no other reason than the fact that I didn't want to animate. As I continue on, I realize that I actually prefer to just design characters. For some reason I had it stuck in my head that environments would be simpler. The reasons are insignificant, because it's much more important to A) have a clear goal up front, and B) to never compromise because "It's easier." As the saying goes, nothing good comes easy. And I whole-heartedly agree, because if it were easy, everyone would be doing it and it wouldn't be worth the time. Like I said, pay attention to yourself early on. I was interested in the character designs from the get-go, and I didn't listen to myself. Fast forward a tiny bit (not much) and you get closer to what I really wanted to do: character art. Baldur's Gate was probably my first real experience into what makes good character art - specifically for the portraiture.

I think from the moment I saw these until now, I just want to do portraits all day long. Character art was really pushed to the fore-front of my mind then and there. I guess that's why if you look through my blog, I've been constantly going back to the portraiture and characters. I have gotten into portraiture probably mostly in the past few months and I think this is an after-effect of my childhood gaming habits. I think I secretly always wanted to do this, I was just worried that I would never be good enough to get to this level.

My goal, overall, this semester is take portraits of people that I know, and use them as a basis for the final result of high-fantasy portraits. It's basically a combination of using very direct reference (since I have this crazy habit of using that), but using imagination to push them into interesting places from the character design aspect. If you look back the past few weeks, I've been starting to rethink my process and really get into a more painterly, but realistic approach to my painting style. If I can master this, I think it could potentially be a gateway into character illustration. Throughout this semester I think I will be heavily diving into the deep end of character-driven illustration. Be ready!

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All artwork above this line is NOT MY WORK!
Each artist is listed with their respective work.
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And on a side note... BOXES!

Cardboard is the Best Board

Title: Cardboard is the Best Board
Date: August 28, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is 2048px x 1612px

Notes: Continuing on with what we were doing last class, I thought it would be good to paint a bunch of cubes all together. What better thing than a bunch of cardboard boxes! Anyway... just a fun painting to mess around with.

Sketchy Elf (Cont.)

Title: Sketchy Elf (Cont.)
Date: August 23 & 26, 2014
Medium: Photoshop CC & CS6
Scale: Original is 3066px x 4582px

Notes: Decided to keep running with this one. I'm trying to learn to use more texture in my pieces as well as use reference effectively. I still need to get used to shooting my own reference more often so that it can be sold later hahaha! Anyway, just thought I would post the small bit of update on this character sketch. GOTTA RUN TO CLASS!