The Continuing Adventures of Seantaclaus

Done.

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:32:42 GMT

While a week later than intended, the purge is done. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, see the previous post.

The only things I have left here are groups and such that I'll be looking to RSS in some capacity via Google Reader.

I won't be purging the LJ account itself as there are a lot of things here that I'd like to keep. At the same point, it also provides an echo point, and a way for those of you that I'm not connected to anywhere else to contact me via private message. Eventually, I'll sift back through the public entries and shift anything not relevant to private.

Before anyone asks why I'm doing it-- I'm simply done with this venue. If you want to find me, I've provided the means to do so with the previous post. This particular 10yr chapter of online activity for me is closed.

Status

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:49:45 GMT

I'll be gutting the rest of my f-list in it's entirety here after GenCon (I started a partial culling a few weeks ago). The account will remain, and the posts will remain, but I think I'm pretty much done with this chapter of my online life. This doesn't mean that I don't like you anymore, don't take it personally. Nor does it mean that it won't continue to be an echo point for my art, and my site blog-- a more active one, at that-- or that I won't still occasionally peruse/comment, but I don't spend much time here anymore these days.

So, if you want me to know something, you can opt to keep me and keep me filtered to whatever it is (which I may or may not catch), or you can actually send it to me directly. If you prefer to opt to remove me, no offense will be taken by any means. If you want to keep up with me, you can follow me via:

Twitter
Google+
Artimancer.com (my personal website)

Or, if we actually know each other in some capacity, Facebook (though I'm using that less these days as well).

That's pretty much the extent of it.

Still Alive

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:00:25 GMT

Just thought I'd let people know who don't glance at my Twitter or Facebook.

I also take a glance at my f-list here in a one or two page snapshot every couple days or so when bored, so I'm not completely oblivious.

However, I don't live here, and spend less and less time vacationing here anymore. If you've not specifically directed me to it, assume I've not seen it.

Bot-A-Day

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 22:39:37 GMT

This is the first of a new daily(ish) exercise I'm doing, tentatively called 'Bot-A-Day'. I say "ish" because there may be days when I don't post any, and there may be others where I post several (as I don't spend as much time on LJ, posts here may be a bit more erratic). Style, type of 'bot, and time spent will all vary, but overall the purpose of this is to make myself actually do at least one thing that's an art exercise each day.

(Click for full size in my flickr stream.)

Lines, colors, light, and shadows in Artrage 3 Studio Pro. Textures (via custom brushes & a bit of filtering) and finishes in Photoshop CS4.

Yeah, I know, the image itself is listed as #2, but #1 is half-finished somewhere from when I initially planned on starting it a few weeks ago. Hopefully I'll rseume and finish that this coming week.

X-Posted from Artimancer.com

Waiting For Marley's Ghost...

Sat, 25 Dec 2010 08:10:32 GMT

It's December 25th, 1:45am.

I've been sick for 2 and 1/2 weeks, courtesy of round 2 of The Flupocalypse. To say that it's draining, and causes complete lack of motivation, is putting it mildly. The upshot is that, aside from trying to empty my lung (it's got this lovely little tickle, with a cyclical cough/agitation/cough/agitation mix), I'm mostly on the mend. Still, out of not being certain if I was still contagious or not, I opted to stay sequestered, rather than risk exposing my grandfather and the wee ones to the potential bug.

Instead, I'm spending the holiday watching downloaded TV shows, interspersed with a bit of computer gaming, and maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll be productive with some art. Mostly just me, and the 2 cats who reside here.

Hopefully, I'll be well before NYE.

By the way, having just finished Caprica, while I'm not pleased with The Mansquito Channel for cancelling it, I can at least say that they did attempt answer a number of questions in a brief forward-history montage at the end of the last episode. More than has been allowed for most cancelled shows. The DVDs are out now, but if you want to wait, SyFy will air the back 5 in 2011. Either way, they're solid episodes.

Perhaps, tomorrow/today, I'll get the drive to finish the initial brush tutorial post. I'm only 2 and 1/2 weeks overdue. ;)

-S

X-posted from Artimancer.com

Process: Photoshop Brush Creation Pt. 1

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 19:43:11 GMT

(This is intended to be an ongoing series of posts.)

Apparently it's been a bit longer since I've posted than I thought. Time to remedy that, with something substantial.

Rather than posting a finished creation, I'm going to share some insight to my process this time around.

I don't think that most people truly take advantage of (let alone explore) the powerful tool that is custom brush creation in Photoshop. Actually creating your own, from scratch, rather than scavenging online, hoping to run across a hidden gem in a brush pack uploaded to the internet. If you've used custom brushes to any extent at all, don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about-- we all go through that phase at some point. Like Alchemy, Harmony, and such, brushes are another tool to be used in the creation process. A good brush set can not only enable you to create detailed speedpaintings, but can set a solid starting foundation for full blown finished pieces.

These 2 are quick sketch images (maybe 30 seconds each) that I rendered up in Harmony, which I thought would make for interesting core components to pull Photoshop brushes from:

The following are brush tests, mostly utilizing a dual-brush technique. All images are substantially larger if you click on them.

None of these took more than a handful of seconds. No erasing/tweaking/etc. Just a brush stroke or 3 per piece, give or take. Don't let that make you think that the images are taking the piss-- while these starter images can be rendered out quickly, the brush creation for a good brush in itself can take the better part of an hour, with the more complex brushes being the results of tens of hours of work. For each of these, there were probably a dozen or more that I didn't care for-- while that may sound like a lot, keep in mind that's probably still no more than a minute or two of time invested in each image. These aren't intended to be finished images. Rather, as stated above, they're intended as starter images. How I make use of them entirely depends on what I see in them, what I might need them for, etc.

Some people ask whether I share my brushes... that's a complicated question. Generally, if I do, it's only with a small handful of people. I'm that there are some people who know how to pull the base brushes out of the core images at the top, and am aware of that before posting this-- just keep in mind, most of the dual-brushes are combined with other brushes which are not imaged at the top. However, I'm going to do a tutorial on making brushes from scratch on Tuesday... and I'm going to make whatever brushes I make for that available to the public (don't ask me what they'll be, I won't know that until Tuesday rolls around *grin*).

Hope you enjoy, and that you've found the post worthwhile in some capacity.

X-Posted from Artimancer.com

Shanghai Vampocalypse Interior Art

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 02:23:11 GMT

Interior art that I did for Savage Mojo's apocalyptic "Shanghai Vampocalpse" RPG setting. No clue if it was used, but I was pretty happy with it at the time. It's a hybrid mix of illustration, photo-compositing, texturing, and custom brush usage. I've been sitting on this one since April.

(Click for full larger size)

ArtRage 3 Studio Pro, Photoshop CS4, and Manga Studio 4 EX.

I hope you enjoy it.

X-Posted from Artimancer.com, you can reply here or there.

Long time, no post. Here, have some art.

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 08:41:32 GMT

Yeah, I've been off the radar for a bit. Thought I should actually post something, as I'm getting poked a bit for not doing so *grin*.

Click for full size.

Just a touch over 2 hrs. ArtRage and Photoshop, with initial pencils for character done in Sketchbook. Background is all personal custom PS brushes, touched up slightly with light/shadow.

I'm testing out some new technique theories, as well as the concept of a "microscene" for a type of art commission. So, while I could have put more time in it, I really didn't want to invest more than a couple hours, as a high detail piece wasn't the intention.

Not in a horribly textual mood at the moment, so I'll leave it brief rather than letting your eyes bleed from the ramble. ;)

X-posted from Artimancer.com. You can reply here, or there.

RIP Michael Fobbs

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 23:11:29 GMT

I received word of his passing just a little bit ago. All I know is that he passed in his sleep around 4pm. I'm sorry that I don't have more info for those of you that knew him.

Good night, Michael. I would like to think that your brother Tommy was waiting for you, ready to say something funny with his contagious belly laugh. You will be missed. Godspeed.

St. Chuck-Chuck-A-Buck-Buck

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 20:25:12 GMT

Off to St. Chuck, for the wedding of a couple friends at Pirate Fest. I leave you this parting gift, requested by my friend Neil Ford (you should totally check out his art):

If the embed isn't showing up for you, here's the direct link.

A Few Quick Notes:

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:05:01 GMT

I'll be dropping the ParrackStudios.com legacy domain tomorrow. Any emails associated with that domain will no longer exist. I no longer use that as my core domain, and it's pretty much become all but a spam catcher.

Other domain renewals will occur tonight. Once those are taken care of, I'll post the details for the $15 No Frills Art Deal (probably over the weekend).

I'll be at GenCon next week, from Tuesday evening until the end of the con. If you'd like to try to meet up, contact me privately via (this username) (at) gmail (dot) com, and we'll see what we can arrange.

Coming Later Today: The $15 No-Frills Art Commission Project.

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:43:11 GMT

No. Really.

It might be late today, but details will appear.

FYI: DragonCon Hotel Room Alert

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:46:50 GMT

(The following just came to my attention. Thanks to vernard for the info.)

I am NOT an official representative of Dragon Con Inc. I'm just passing along the info that I know to be true.

If you made reservations at either the Baymont or Wyndham hotels, you need to be made aware that both of those hotels are closing permanently on August 15th.

THIS IS NOT DRAGON CON'S FAULT.

The company that owns both those hotels has sold them and is closing them down so that their new owners can use them. This is rumored to be Georgia State University who will convert them to dorms.

Again, this is NOT Dragon Con's fault. Each hotel is its own separate company and entity.

Currently the best way to handle this situation is to call the hotel and ask to verify your reservation and go from there.
There are still reservations available at some of the overflow hotels but most are not within 4 blocks of D*C proper. There are still plenty of rooms at the hotels at the airport. And there are free shuttles running between those hotels and D*C.

Also, hotels consistently make rooms available in the D*C block as time goes by so if you call every Monday at 8am to the main 4 hotels, there is a chance someone will have canceled.

Folks, I can't stress this enough, regardless of where you are staying,CALL AND VERIFY YOUR HOTEL RESERVATIONS NOW. Which this new demand for rooms, I suspect a lot of mistakes are going to be made and other reservations are going to be screwed up.

“Gastro-Cephalosapien”

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:22:06 GMT

(I may rename this, depending on whether I've got the hybrid naming off or not. That, and it's a bit of a mouthful... but then again, most clades(?) are, it seems.)

2.5ish hour speedpainting, a mix of ArtRage 3 and Photoshop CS4:

Working with the same methods that I used with the 2 previous pieces, trying to flesh them out a bit. While it took a bit more time than I initially planned on investing, I learned some new things, so it was worthwhile.

As with previous piece work, more details can be found in the related entry on my blog at Artimancer.com.

"ORK BOUNCER"

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:12:47 GMT

2hr speedpainting, mostly ArtRage 3 Studio Pro w/a little Photoshop CS4 for cleanup.

Took a bit longer than intended, but much of that was playing around with a more refined method of the process that I used for "Francesca Gorgonatrix". Working on getting a bit more comfortable with it.

More details, including technique, work process, etc., can be found in the related entry on my blog at Artimancer.com.

"FRANCESCA GORGONATRIX"

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 08:29:46 GMT

45 minute speedpainting, strictly ArtRage 3 Pro:

This started off as intent for something else, but this is what flowed out. So, rather than fight it, I went with it. Might even flesh it out more later, or consider doing a series of these.

X-posted from Artimancer.com & artimancer

Where The Wild Things Aren’t

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 04:07:37 GMT

Untitled.

20-25 minute speedpainting, strictly ArtRage 3 Pro:

This is a great example of where I'm experimenting, and where I don't like where the piece is. It's also a very good example of when one has decided that they're done fucking with something, and that they're walking away from it.

With this piece, I'm going to take a few moments to give you insight to my mindset on it.

Overall, I just don't care for the piece. I played with it a bit, messed around with some basic layer manipulation, a bit of distortion, etc. However, it just didn't get to a point where I started to like it. That alone can often end up being the death knell for working on something, especially when it's an artist working with their creativity. Some will overwork it and overwork it. Others will (often just half-heartedly) go through the motions, hoping that something will eventually come out of it. And then there are times like this one, where it's just done.

Don't get me wrong, the piece does have it's strong points. It's got a somewhat balanced aesthetic to it. The colors, in several spots, are very lush, and contrast with each other in a good way. There are some parts of the creature's face that I like, but some of that is also where visual matrixing is filling in the blanks in my mind's eye.

Am I completely done with it? Who knows. I might come back in a week, a month, a year, or whatnot, and decide to start noodling about with it again. Perhaps I'll use it as a template for a new piece, or perhaps I'll even integrate it into another piece via some form of blend layer. Only time will tell.

X-Posted from Artimancer.com & artimancer .

“REVENANT”

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 05:40:59 GMT

55 minute speedpainting, strictly ArtRage 3 Pro:

X-Posted from Artimancer.com/artimancer

“SEXY” (Or, “Wait, He’s Posting Art Again!”)

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:42:48 GMT

30 minute speedpainting, strictly ArtRage 3 Pro:

(Also using this as a test to see if it's worth posting art to Flickr or not.)

Art posting resumes with regularity now. Thanks for your patience. I promise it will have been worth your while.

X-posted from Artimancer.com, and to artimancer

37.

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:14:48 GMT

New GORILLAZ

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:57:27 GMT

Listen to the new Gorillaz a week early (kids, this is the WHOLE ALBUM). Via NPR. Enjoy.

[Digital Art Related] ArtRage 3.x Update Goodness

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:29:53 GMT

New ArtRage 3.x update is out (3.0.6). New features/upgrades, for the curious:

Features & Upgrades:

Pod Hiding: Unwanted pods can now be hidden using the Pods menu in the View Menu. Tool, Menu and Colour pods can't be hidden but all others can.

Photoshop Brush Head Import: Using the menu on the Presets Panel when the Sticker Spray is selected you can now import brushes from most Photoshop '.abr' files. When you select the Import Photoshop Brush option you are given the option of selecting an '.abr' file to import from. When you have selected the file you are presented with a list of available brushes. Select brush heads from the list (Shift-click to multiselect blocks, Ctrl/Cmd click to select single additional items, Ctrl/Cmd-A to select all, Ctrl/Cmd-D to deselect all). When you click OK, a preset is generated for each brush head in the current category of sticker spray presets. You can the edit the variants as you need to create the desired effect.
Please note: Some abr files use procedural brush heads that we are currently unable to read.

Non-Paintable Warning: When you attempt to use a tool on a layer that cannot support (eg. knife tool on a text layer) a warning icon appears.

JPEG Export Quality: The export quality used by the app for JPEGs can now be set in the Export settings of the Preferences panel. Future implementations should allow it to be set on each export but this is a reasonable first step.

Right Clicking Pods: Right clicking a pod now triggers the same event as Click and Hold, which allows people who have Click and Hold -> Right Click helpers to use the pods properly.

Photoshop Filter Support: Thanks to assistance from users having problems with specific filter sets, and support from the authors of those filters, we have improved general support for Photoshop Filters and the application should now work with a wider range.

You'll have to follow the link, if you want to see the rest of the release info, and the bug fixes.

Now I must figure out said Photoshop brush & filter imports.

Changing Things Up...

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:40:36 GMT

...I've just unsubscribed to a large batch of people. There may well be another round coming. Nothing personal.

[Art] Dailies With Process (February 7th)

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:37:57 GMT

Initially I planned on sitting on these a bit longer, but I think it's going to be a bit before I do the final piece in the project. So, you're getting a mix of dailies, ~~fives~~ fours, and process out of me with this post. All ArtRage 3 Studio Pro. Strictly roller, palette knife, and eraser, supplemented by layer duplication/manipulation.

First, I start of with something abstract, running a bit with the method/technique that I've used in the recent, mostly abstract pieces I've posted.

13 minutes.

I actually like where this is going (the dragon shape is damn near what you see here, less than a minute a couple dozen strokes into it), so it gets fleshed out a bit.

Next, I pop on some crude arms (didn't like them for the above piece), and then place a lower-opacity copy of the whole image on top of itself, scaling it up and rotating it a bit. Once I hit the right opacity, I dropped it down into one layer, and started working with duplicate layers in varied opacities, blend modes, selective palette knife use, and selective erasing.

10 minutes (from the previous piece into this).

I like this. I know I'm not where I want to be with it yet, but it's worth saving both as a step and as a potential rough for a more complete piece.

Now, In order to give it more perceived depth and detail, I create a separate piece.

7 minutes.

It's fairly abstract, but has an industrial tech flair of sorts, and is dynamic enough that I think it will make for an interesting overlay with the previous piece. More layer duplication/manipulation occurs, and then I do exactly that. Finally, I have this:

4 minutes.

I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going with this, but I'm waiting to get my current batch of contract work done before tackling a finished piece out of it. Total process time from start until the end of the 4th piece? 34 minutes. Which brings us to the separate point to be made here-- if you're familiar enough and comfortable enough with the medium(s) you use, you can do exercises of a faster nature like this as well. The above shows that you can take something seemingly quick, abstract, and/or simple, and turn it into a building block for a larger, more complex piece.

X-posted from Artimancer.com

[Art] Daily-Fives From February 6

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:50:39 GMT

Yesterday's daily experiments. Headspace a bit fucked then, less so today.

All strictly ArtRage 3. Roller, palette knife, and eraser tools. Layer play.

15min.

10min.

17min.

15min.

13min. There always seems to be a least favorite for me in these batches. This happens to be the one for this batch.

X-posted to Artimancer.com