Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Searching for a Certain Starfleet Vulcan

Jan 1, 2014

Happy New Year everyone! Just finished my "Search for Comrade Spock" illustration. Enjoy!


Dec 31, 2013

Hi-O! Sorry I haven't been keeping busy with art lately (I feel so ashamed). Nonetheless, here's an update on a project I'm working on. Star Trek III: Search for Spock. I'm doing this in a propaganda style poster. I'd say I'm half way through with the image; just need to focus on the starships and we are ready to go were no poster has gone before (or something like that).


Thursday, November 28, 2013

The Christmas Card That Never Was

11/28/2013

A year ago I started a Christmas Card for Kiki's Delivery Service. Finally, it's done! You can see it's early development from a posting in Dec 2012. Here's the link to it: http://davesongillustration.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=7

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Saturday, November 16, 2013

The Legend that never was; Zelda and the Age of Steam

12/3/2013

Finally done! Whoo-hoo! Special thanks to my friend Sam "The Man" Kirk with writing up the title and narrative for the illustration. If you want to read the narrative, visit my website at: www.behance.net/dsong


12/1/2013

Got most of Midna and Zelda done. Next the airship and maybe some Octorocks and some final refinements.


11/28/2013

Changed the background color to blue and rendered both Navi and Ganon. Next will be Midna and Zelda.


11/27/2013

Work in progress. Blocking in main shapes.


11/16/2013

Hi guys. Been super busy with side projects and life in general. Finally started my newest project; The Legend of Zelda in the Steampunk universe. Been meaning to do the LOZ for some time now. You'll see below a thumbnail of the composition I'll be going for. Plan to add more things, like an airship and perhaps other characters.

Let the fun begin!


Monday, October 14, 2013

NY Comic Con 2013

10/14/2013

NYCC was amazing! Cars, games, comics, anime, and cosplay! What more could you want! NYCC was definitely a great experience and I can't wait for next year!

Here's some pictures I took: NYCC 2013

Met a lot of great guys, and I can't tell you the details, but I might get my stuff shown to a major comic publisher. Let's keep our fingers cross.




Saturday, October 5, 2013

Knight of Thrills

10/11/2013

Done and done! Really like how the piece turned out! Added some textures using the layer options and "BAM!" we got ourselves and finished piece. Now to print this out and get ready for tomorrow; NY Comic Con here I come!

10/10/2013

2-days and a wake-up; crunch time just got real!


10/7/2013

Coming along nicely. One major change was rearranging Batgirl's position.

10/5/2013

My next project. Going to try to get this done before New York Comic Con. Time to burn the midnight oil (oh, baby!) This time it's Batgirl's time to shine, or stay in the shadow... or something.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Captain Mega-merica!

9/30/2013

Whoo-hoo! Final done! Here's the final version of my Mega Man Captain America parody illustration. Brought the final image from illustrator to photoshop and used a two different aged papers I got from Mayang's Free Texture Library and Free High Resolution Textures (http://lostandtaken.com/gallery/tag/paper?currentPage=21  and  http://mayang.com/textures/).


In Photoshop I have three separate layers (paper textures on top two, illustration at the bottom). I merge both my textured paper layer and place the layer option on Multiply with and opacity of 60%.

Once satisfied with the paper layer, I switch to illustration layer and create a copy as a backup. At this point I start to erase bits of the illustration using erase tool and used various grudge brushes and a crumpled brush which I found at: http://www.smashingapps.com/2011/11/09/50-useful-paper-photoshop-brushes-for-creative-designs.html

And that's pretty much it. 

Special thanks to Sam "The Man" Kirk for writing up the dialog.

Oh, almost forgot. A good place for fonts is www.dafont.com. It's free so go wild!

9/27/2013

Almost done! a few more details and this piece is G2G!


9/24/2013

Hi guys! Figured I'd show you where I am at with the rendering process of the "Blue Bomber." Working on Wily right now, but as you can see it's coming along nicely. Trying to finish the good doctor today and may be start Sonic.



9/21/2013

Hi guys! Here's the latest project I'm working on. It's a parody of Captain America No. 1 for Megaman! I'm trying to do a promo to capture Archie Comic's attention. Well, here we go! Below is the thumbnail and outline sketch for the project. If some of you are wondering what the parody is here's a copy of the very first issue of Captain America.




Saturday, September 14, 2013

IAVA 2014 T-Shirt Competition

Hi everyone! Been really busy this month working at my part-time job at Lumiere Media, Inc. Having a great time working with them on a WWII project, but it's definitely time consuming working as production assistant.

Anyhow, here's the last work I've completed. IAVA (Iraqi and Afghanistan Veterans of America) is an organization I'm part of. For some of you who don't know, I'm a U.S. veteran and served in two tours in Afghanistan.

IAVA is a non-profit organization founded by a veteran for veterans. This was for a t-shirt competition for their 2014. The thought was showing two soldiers helping each other out; perfect to represent of IAVA stands for.

We'll gonna keep my fingers cross and see if I get lucky.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Amazing Black Cat

8/21/2013
It's finally done! Whoo-hoo! I've put more detail with Cat's hair and dropped the hard outline on both figures. I've soften the dialog balloons with an orange outline and finally added a texture overlay of old paper and used a grudge brush to give a worn look. Special thanks to my friend Sam Kirk who wrote the dialog for this piece. Excessior!


8/18/2013

Well, I'd say one more day should take care of this and my Black Cat cover art will be done. Just need to work on Cat's hair and some details on Spidey and we're done!


8/14/2013

Hi everyone. Well, here's another update on the BC project.

I've blocked in most of the composition and rendered bout 70% what I want Cat to look like. Now to finish Spidey, the buildings, and Cat's hair and I'm calling it done!

8/11/2013

Hi everyone, just updating my progress on the Black Cat project. Below is my "tight sketch" of my thumbnail. I typically print a larger version of my thumbnail and take vellum paper and trace my and refine my thumbnail. I find it (for me) easier to capture the original feeling of my thumbnail, but tracing it than trying re-create it on regular paper. I use vellum as it doesn't wrinkle as much as regular tracing paper.

Bellow is a snapshot of my work in progress.

Open a new document. Make sure you know what size you want to work. In this case I am working with the standard comic book dimensions of 6 ⅝" × 10 ¼", plus 1/2" bleed all around. I change the document from CYMK to RGB, which can be done in Adobe Illustrator in File/Document Color Mode and check RGB. I like to work in RGB because it's easier to adjust colors and when I convert from an Illustrator file to Photoshop; a CYMK files for some reason opens up in Photoshop with the wrong colors.

OK, so before I start laying out colors, I have to tone my background. Toning my background will provide a contrast when you lay your colors of your figures. I keep this layer separate and call it "BG" for background.



Next,  I create a new layer and drop in a copy of my tight sketch. It comes in Illustrator as an object. Select your sketch and go to the Transparency panel (if not shown go to Windows/Transparency) and bump down your opacity. I typically have my sketches at 10-20% depending on the darkness of your lines. Name this layer as "Outline" and have it on the top of layer order. Lock it down by clicking next the empty box next to the visibility (eyeball) icon. Now you can see sketch lines when you place in you your shapes.

I often have reference materials on my screen to ensure I capture the essence of the characters, also it's easier for me to sample colors instead of coming up with them myself.  Keep in mind, you still have to adjust the colors to fit the image you are creating. It doesn't help to select Spider-Man's red suited for daytime, if you are planning a night shot. The sampling gets you in the general ballpark, but you still need to make the appropriate adjustment.

Some artists prefer to work on the background first before the figures; I'm the oppose and I usually start with the figures and work towards the background. I try to block in as much as possible, but I like to invest a lot of time on the face first; once the face is establish, I get the feeling if this piece is gonna work or not. 

OK guys. That's it for now. See you next time!


8/5/2013

Hi true believes, it's your friendly online illustrator Dave bringing an another exciting illustration of his childhood heroes. This time, I'm doing an image of one of the hottest femme fatale in the Marvel universe, the Black Cat. This is the thumbnail sketch of what I plan to draw. This is a parody of the cover used in the very first Spider-Man comic.


Sunday, July 21, 2013

Here comes the Rocketeer!

7/27/2013

It's done! I've finally finished my Rocketeer illustration! I've made two cover variant; one color and one "black and white".



7/26/2013

Hey guys! Almost done! Just a few more tweeks and our Rocketeer image will be done! I've flushed out the figures a little more and added third search light. Some changes to Bettie's necklace and I've flushed out her dress. For the Rocketeer I've rendered his helmet more, his jet pack, and arms (oops, need to change his right hands glove a bit).

Think  one more day will do it!


7/22/2013

Well, it's been awhile since my last blog, but I've finally manage to upload my newest work; the Rocketeer! Always wanted to do my rendition of this classic and so far I'm pretty happy how it is coming along. It's not done yet; I need to work on the figures just a little more and I'm done!


Below are my thumbnail and "tight sketch:


















With my tight sketches, I'm roughly about 85-90% of what I want my illustration should look like. When I start rendering it in illustrator, I intuitively make changes based on composition, color, and feel of the image.

Need a little more work on the figures and I'll says this piece is done!

Monday, June 24, 2013

Go Science Ninja Team Gatchaman!

7/1/13

Done with the final version. I've change Jinpei's design and and some final textures and some line variation. 

Took longer to make these changes, but now it's done!

6/25/13

Added a few more characters and background addition. Add some textures, but still need to tweek the image just little more. One more day should do it!





 6/24/13

 This is a work in progress. Anybody remembers Battle of the Planets? How bout G-Force? Or (apparently) Eagle Riders? These are niffty titles, but doesn't quite stand out as the original name for this series; Gatchaman!

Got most of the figures placed on the image below; just need to add the fifth member of the team and this piece will be very near to completion.


Like any good image, it starts with a thumbnail. Your final pieces, IMO, never quite get the same energy you get from your thumbnail.


Below is a "tight" sketch of the image. I try to get as close to what I want the final image to look like, but of course changes occur during the rendering process.


Go! Sweet Racer!

 This piece was for the Philadelphia Comic Con at the end of May. I've always wanted to do a Speed Racer piece, but wasn't sure how I wanted to illustrate it. Then I came up with a sick idea, what if Mojo Jojo was dressed as Chim Chim? That alone made me wanted to do a Speed Racer/Power Puff parody. The design was to mimic a well known Speed Racer poster so coming up with the composition wasn't too hard. After that it was just about drawing the characters which you can see below.
The toughest character to draw was Ms Bellum as for much of the tv series, no one has ever known what she looked like, except for one episode specialty (apparently).  Completed this piece within 24-hours before the Comic Con. With 2 hours of sleep, an Egg-McMuffin in one hand, and my portfolio in other, I went to artist ally with positive reception with this piece at the booth. Whoo-hoo!

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Gran Tiramisu!

Wreck-It Ralph is one of my favorite animation films. Wanted to do a fan artwork for some time now.

Below you can see my process work:

1.) Start with at quick thumbnail

 
 

2.) Then I work up a quick rough outline






3.) Take my outline scan it and create at jpeg. Open Adobe Illustrator and have this as my template. I set my template at a transparency of about 20% then I work under it.

4.) Work from back to front, starting with background first then foreground.






Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Threadless Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Challenge

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I've been really busy with work at Little Airplane Productions as an intern designer. I just finished a piece for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT). I had a lot of fun as it was one of my favorite shows back in the 90's. Check it out at Threadless: http://www.threadless.com/TMNT/turtle-boys-dont-cut-em-no-slack/

Vote for it so it can get printed so viewers like you can get yourself this "totally radical" t-shirt!

Thanks in advance.