Little Princess

I'm working in Corel Painter but I'm still trying to get a more of a traditional look and feel.  By using one of their stock 2B pencil I'm getting a little bit closer to the look I want.  With 2B pencil you can see a grainy texture (I was using a stock airbrush before).   I'm also trying to tighten up my style which is one of my hardest skills to achieve.  I love the loose strokes of painting but I having been able to master.  I get better results when I get it as clear as I can.  I'm also focusing on resembling  the people I'm drawing, so keeping close attention to shape is a must.

Thank you to Nikki for letting me draw her little princess.  She was the winner of my "Like and Share" competition on Facebook. 

Enjoy!

The Apprentice

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It all started because I needed to find a subject to draw.  Sometimes that is the longest process for me, finding something that will look good in this my particular style and that I won't mind staring at for a few solid hours.  I decided to ask my friends on Facebook if they had any suggestions.  I figured that I'd just draw the first person that sends me a picture, and then I got a little more creative that would involve more of my community on Facebook.  I asked them to like and share my most recent drawing.  To be honest I really just thought I would get around 5 shares!  Within minutes I had my set goal!  A lot of the credit goes to my amazing friends who were will to help me out and share my work with their friends.  plus most were so generous as to put in a good word for me.

I was overwhelmed with the response I got.  My goal was 5 share I got 56 share by the end of the third day!  That means I reached over 14,000 people that were able to view my work! (My math skills are very poor but I did use a calculator)  I'm learning a lot in becoming an illustrator.  One thing I learned form this experiment is I have a lot of people who have my back. 

This week for my friends on Facebook I did a free giveaway!

Free Giveaway! Nows your chance to win a custom illustration of your choice! This means you can have one of your favorite people illustrated! The look will be in the style of "The Whistler" All you have to do is:

Friend me on Face book!

Like my drawing of "The Whistler" before August 20, '13
And
Share my drawing of "The Whistler" before August 20, '13

This is a $50 value on my Etsy site! http://www.etsy.com/shop/illustrationbrooke
One winner will be picked at random and will be announced August 21st!

Good Luck!

Just a Tip.

A few weeks ago I had a one on one with Artis Jake Parker.  He is an extremely wise and talented individual.  He gave me lots of good advice.  He explained to me that I had been shading my work all wrong.  I had been using grey and black tones to describe my shadows.  This was making my work look dirty.  Instead I need to be using blues and purples, that ways shadows will look just alive and bright.  (Tip use multiply if working in Painter or Photo Shop). 

With this drawing I use a lot of a traditional drawing technique.

Enjoy.

Astrid

This painting of my was inspired by Dream works movie "How to Train Your Dragon 2"  Which is coming out next year and I can't wait. 

I don't have a whole lot to say about this painting except for it was one of those I just had to push though to complete. 

Enjoy

Prince John

 Once in a while I like to take existing characters and render them in my own style.  Using the same design as Disney's Prince John I creating this drawing.  

I followed the original drawing as best I could.  But there was one important element Disney left out.  HIS EAR!  I noticed something was wrong by it was Disney's design that I was using as a reference, they had to be right.  It wasn't until I got help from a friend of mine that corrected disney's mistake.  Below is my fist draft and Mallory's critique.

Mallory Carlson

Hey Brooke, I have one problem with this image that is not your fault, lol. Actually, you can blame it all on Disney! I believe that Disney made the mistake (it feels blasphemous to say that, but I it's true! haha). Something about this image was bothering me a little so I went and looked up images of King Richard. Disney animators drew him with some inconsistencies. I think that they could get away with it because each drawing of him lasted less than a second onscreen, but in an illustration I think those same inconsistencies become more obvious (because we look at the same image for a much longer time). I found the image that I think you were referencing and I also found another image of his head with no crown. I drew over them so you could see what I mean...The head seems a little cut off to me. Specifically his right ear (our left). For that ear to be exactly hiding behind the crown seems very odd to me. I think the ear would show above or below the crown lip (and in most images of him, his ears are below the crown). I noticed on the image (the one I think you used as reference) that his ears don't show at all, just like your image. So, it really isn't your fault, because it looks a lot like the reference, and the reference does it as well! It's similar to what Will told us in one of the classes about the image of his dog. In the photo she looked like she only had 3 legs, but we know she has four. It works for a photo, but that wouldn't be a good illustration. You would need to change it a little to make it work. Like I said before, each drawing in an animated movie was onscreen for such a short period of time that those little things didn't matter as much (and I looked it up, Robin Hood came out a little bit before VCRs were popular in homes...so they didn't worry about someone pausing one image in the movie. And there was no internet for people to share that image on either, lol. So times have changed a lot). Pretty much, I think you should add an ear. I probably could have just said that and skipped the rest, haha. So, that is my super long winded advice. I have to say, your coloring is really wonderful and I think that as a whole, I really enjoy your work a lot! 

You should definitely take the time to check out Mallory Carlson she is A mazing!

Thanks again Mallory!

My first completed drawing in Corel Painter!

As of now you have only seen images that I have created using the iPad on an app called Procreate.  This picture was used using Corel painter 11.  At the time I got the program it was the newest model, they now have painter 12.   

For me drawing on the computer was frustrated and overwhelmed.  There was so much to it and I have never prided myself on my computer skills.  

I felt the program Procreate were good training wheels for painter I started understanding concepts of drawing non traditionally. Plus it was so easy to pick up and draw everyday!  But I still wasn't getting the look I wanted.  Last week one of my friends posted this link.  For someone that had just dablled in the program I felt it was night and day to the way I approach digital drawing.   I'm excited about this painting I feel it's coming alive.

This excites me, enjoy.