Hey There!

[beavotron]

Figured I'd dump a bit of art as an introduction.
I'm currently working as a freelance illustrator and as a full time graphic artist for an educational software company
I'm self taught, though I'm planning on returning to school in the fall for basic fine arts to get a bit more of a traditional background since I've so far learned primarily in digital.

I am really interested in learning more about character design and storyboarding. I spent a year doing character design work for a local video game developer and I really loved it, though I feel I'd be good at storyboarding.

Enough of that, here's some work, I always appreciate crits

Illustration from a book I'm working on called "a-zombie":

http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/a-zombie_f3.jpg

A couple of simple character concepts:
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/redpanda_concepts3.jpg

illustrations from another book i'm working on:
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/elephants.jpg

http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/alligator2.jpg


more of my stuff is at http://www.beavotron.com
or http://beavotron.deviantart.com

and again, I always appreciate crits, or advice towards concept art and storyboarding career paths

thanks for looking!

[beavotron]

oh and here's some looser stuff from today
just some observational drawings from the park

http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/parksketches1_may16.jpg
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/parksketches2_may16.jpg
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/parksketches3_may16.jpg

Also some pencil studies from the book "anatomy for the artist"
http://frank05.critter.net/images/lifedrawing/march0309.jpg

[zanekohler]

Very cool stuff!! Love the colored characters. Also the sketches are great, very solid. Hope you share more soon!

[IzzyS]

it's so neat seeing you here, love your stuff a lot.

[zanekohler]

If you don't mind me asking, what program did you use for the color ones? Painter? I really like the brush look style.

[beavotron]

thank you so much for the warm welcome guys :)
zanekholer: everything I do other than pencil work is in photoshop
I made a small tutorial on my process which you can watch here:

part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8wOuC0PiMI
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWpxo9dBIQU

[johncbeggs]

great stuff! :D

well I just seen your video :) great stuff and I really need to try it out

[lavallelee]

oh and here's some looser stuff from today
just some observational drawings from the park


lol, i wish i could make your looser stuff

its great!!

[Regan]

I'm self taught, though I'm planning on returning to school in the fall for basic fine arts to get a bit more of a traditional background since I've so far learned primarily in digital.


I don't think you need any basic fine arts training...your artwork is great. If anything I'd just take a figure drawing class. Save your money!!!!

[beavotron]

hehe i think what really makes the digital work look a bit more natural is the use of a texture overlay and color adjustment layers.

i find that a lot of times, digital work has a really "unnatural" look to it because the colors don't seem to mesh naturally.
which is a product of having so many colors of varying saturations, values and hues to easily choose from in a digital program.
when you use a texture, it adds... well...texture, which sort of eliminates some of the very digital feel, but also, when the texture is set to a soft light or overlay layer, it unifies all of the colors in the layers underneath by giving it a sort of ambient color effect
which is helped even more by adding a color adjust layer, or by adding a colored layer set to 'color' with the opacity lowered to under 20%

I use color overlays, color adjustments and textures in almost everything I do.

here is an example of an image of mine with none of the above:
http://frank05.critter.net/images/rough/deforestation_notextures.jpg
now here's the same picture with all of the above added in:
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/deforestation.jpg

even just adding the texture has a major effect.
this image has no texture applied:
http://frank05.critter.net/images/rough/kittyscarf_notextures.jpg
and this one has just a simple texture in the top layer set to "soft light" with the opacity slightly lowered:
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/kittyscarf.jpg

it's amazing what adding just a couple simple layers can do for an illustration!

[zanekohler]

thank you so much for the warm welcome guys :)
zanekholer: everything I do other than pencil work is in photoshop
I made a small tutorial on my process which you can watch here:

part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8wOuC0PiMI
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWpxo9dBIQU

OOH you are my new hero! Great tutorial! I use the pen tool all the time but never used it for complete coloring. Guess I am going to be doing in the next hour ;).

Thanks again.

[johncbeggs]

Thanlyou those pictures and examples are wonderful, have you ever don backgrounds because I think you could create some great ones if you tried :D

[beavotron]

Thanlyou those pictures and examples are wonderful, have you ever don backgrounds because I think you could create some great ones if you tried :D

thank you!
i've done a few, but nothing major, it's something I have to try more for sure, a definite weakness of mine

really the only one i can think of that has a background for the characters is really simple:
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/foxrabbit2.png
certainly something I should work on more, giving my characters an environment to live in

thanks again everyone for your really kind welcome :)

[johncbeggs]

:D I am amazed how you have used photoshop

I can see how it would really help when making childrens books.

[beavotron]

again, thanks so much.

Here's a few more pages of sketches from tonight

for this page I used some photo refs (except for the bunny, he was sort of semi-reffed, just for his face really)
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/animals1_may17.jpg

and for this i just used some imagination hehe
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/animals2_may17.jpg

[johncbeggs]

really cool :D

[BrioCyrain]

Love the dog on the bottom since it seems to be a Welsh Corgi inspired.

[Mithmeoi]

I love your sketches! Yay for crosshatching! That octopus is just awesome.

[beavotron]

yay thanks!

my boyfriend has one of those mad catz arcade sticks for his street fighter IV game. He wanted to customize the faceplate so I made him this drawing of his favorite character to use.

we sort of want to change it to say "It's super dynamic cookie time" but ehhhh
maybe.

http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/streetfighter_overlay.jpg

[Hana]

I absolutely ADORE your artwork especially those kid's book illustrations. They're so bright and fun. Your sketch studies are gorgeous as well.

[Eilian]

Just watched your tutorials, I was always aware of the pen tool, but never thought to use it in that way to be honest. I use a similar technique in flash where i scribble in random brush strokes and hold control to manipulate the lines to create the shape i want. Great tutorials though, really insightful! :D

[Moneyguns]

yay thanks!

my boyfriend has one of those mad catz arcade sticks for his street fighter IV game. He wanted to customize the faceplate so I made him this drawing of his favorite character to use.

we sort of want to change it to say "It's super dynamic cookie time" but ehhhh
maybe.



That's Awsome!:laughing:

[jeremyhopkins]

Lovely work especially with the fox and rabbit. Very cute! Best of luck with your work. I know the industry hasn't been kind to the maritimes, at least for tv animation, but hopefully we'll see a turn around soon!

[beavotron]

thanks jeremy!
you're right, the maritimes has sort of been taking a hit in the animation side of things.

here's two things from yesterday:

an image for a friend of mine. he's opening is own bakery. Yeah i know it says cake "lady" and he's a guy, but he didn't like the sound of cake "queen" so lady it is haha.
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/cakelady1.jpg

and my favorite character from the old tmnt:

http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/krang.jpg

also, I have a question, how do you accept friend requests?
I click accept on it and it doesn't seem to go through, it may just be my browser.

[Hana]

Hahaha somehow the cake lady being a guy is kinda cute. Will he dress like that? Haha.

Oh my gosh I remember that TMNT bad guy! Your picture is awesome. He always creeped me out as a kid.

Also this caught me out before. Make your you tick the check box next to their name while accepting.

[beavotron]

Hahaha somehow the cake lady being a guy is kinda cute. Will he dress like that? Haha.

Oh my gosh I remember that TMNT bad guy! Your picture is awesome. He always creeped me out as a kid.

Also this caught me out before. Make your you tick the check box next to their name while accepting.

i hope he dresses like that haha! i loved the way krang said "shredder"
it was like this whiny "shreddaaaaar"
so awesome.

and thanks for the help with the friend accept thing!

[feliceworkshop]

...I've been away from this forum only for a couple of days now and....BAM! what a refreshing surprise to see this much great and professional looking work in display!
I really love your stuff!.....and also thanks for the great tutorial!

[lavallelee]

and my favorite character from the old tmnt:

http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/krang.jpg



Krang!!! lol, i loved how he always put shredder in his place, calling him names

[Moneyguns]

TMNT Episode:
Krang, "I want that robot!" Sredder, "Now Krang you cant have every thing you see on T.V." :laughing:
That show was better than the new one for sure! I love ninja turtles!

[GdeSouza]

It's probably trite and redundant by now but your art is really wonderful. Thank you for sharing and the tutes.

[beavotron]

thanks so much for the comments everyone!
i really appreciate it

here's stuff i've been doing recently:

just a little boy wearing goat feet pants haha.
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/goatkid.jpg

my submission for sean "cheeks" galloway's kuta fan art contest:
http://frank05.critter.net/images/Artwork/kutabybeavotron.jpg

and a huge image with sketches from my day at the zoo yesterday:
http://frank05.critter.net/images/rough/zoosketches.jpg

[Hana]

Those zoo sketches are gorgeous. My favourite would have to be the big llama face on the top right.