Sphinx

Sometimes, I do art just for myself.  Happy with this gal so far.  Digital paint, a lot of blending.  Mythology is always fun to come back to...

Anyway. Her head needs to be shrunk a bit, I think.  Need to figure out what to do for a background as well.

Winter Chase

Whew! Haven't posted in a bit, so here's something new.   Just working out my inking and photoshopping skills.  Might finagle this into a shirt.

I see a lot of semi-surreal and mythological art that I really like, so I'd be interested in doing more work like this... but this one has a few issues.    There's not quite enough to the composition, is't not really horizontal or digital, the pose could be more dynamic... and so on.

Day 20 - Serious Bear

Oh man, I got BUSY.  Bummed that I couldn't get a piece a day finished, but I did do work for my company, and I enjoyed the company of some good friends.  

Sometimes, I get the best commissions, too!  This one:

"A dark gray bear.  Make him really serious."

It was a productive day, but I think this was the best thing I produced. Digital painting.

Day 9, Stone Painting

So this is actually a digital piece. I use brushes in Photoshop and a digital table to paint in a computer document rather than on a canvas.  Just trying to replicate some difficult textures as an exercise.   I documented the process here as well, so enjoy!

I also have a larger painting that I've been working on for 3 days now that I HOPE to have for my day 10 piece.   I thought it would be done sooner, but that has been proven to be incorrect.

Horned

Sheep skull turning into pretty amethyst geodes.  Digital painting, about 4 hours.  Photoshop, about three brushes.  

Prints and such: http://society6.com/hootbark/horned-5vh_print

October Owl

Ohhh, autumn is upon us!  Have some lovely owl goodness. 

Digital owl layout... might make this a real painting, not sure.  And by real, I mean acrylic.  Maybe in time for Halloween.

Sketchy Sketch Sketch

Annnnd here is my new demo for sketches as opposed to the full renderings.  One of each.

Kitty Times

Here are some more cats!  More pet portraiture.

Want one of your very own?  

Go here! 

http://fiverr.com/merzart/create-a-small-digital-painting-of-your-pet

More Pet Portraits

Last batch before I change these around a bit, since I leveled up on Fiverr.  But I am very happy with them!

Happy Holidays!

And all that!  Have a nice post-Christmas nap. 

Batch of Dog Portraits

And some more last minute dog portraits.

Kittyfaces

Oops, forgot to post even MORE animal portraits. Kitties today! 

Last Batch of Pet Portraits

Last batch to mail out for Xmas.  Whee!  I am probably taking these off Fiverr over the holidays so that people don't expect new ones in time for the holidays.   They are currently $5 plus shipping, so $12, but Fiverr does take a chunk out of it.  It was a fun speedpainting and skill building exercise, but until I level up in the Fiverr program and can charge $20+ a piece for them, it's not really worth it.

Tiny Pet Portrait Prints

Here are a few of the finished prints from my happy little pet portraits.  All ready to be shipped out!

Fiverr Speedpaintings

Doing  a bunch of little skill builder paintings on Fiverr!  If you could like one, check me out:

http://fiverr.com/merzart

Prints? Prints!

In working on my yet-unnamed-animal-portrait project, I have been trying to research good ways to do prints. 

I recently stumbled upon Giclee Prints as a term.  I was in Chicago with my friend Dana Larson, (who is also an illustrator, www.zelaphas.com) and we found some absolutely gorgeous prints by Anastasia Mak.  The prints were very nicely color matched to the nearby paintings, and I noticed that they were giclee prints on canvas.

I started looking into the process, trying to figure out just what makes a giclee print, since I have a rather nice Canon Pixma Pro 9000 printer.  There were a lot of different definitions, but since Wikipedia seems to be the be all and end all of defining things, here's Wikipedia's definition of giclee prints:

"... the name originally applied to fine art prints created on IRIS printers in a process invented in the late 1980s but has since come to mean any inkjet print. It is often used by artists, galleries, and print shops to denote high quality printing but since it is an unregulated word it has no associated warranty of quality."

All right, so if that's it, the majestic Pixma Pro should do the trick.

I poked around the internet a bit more, and the points that stuck out were a little less open.
The majority or sources that I found agreed that the prints should be: made by a printer that has 8 or 12 colors, that the print is made from a high resolution scan or image, that it should be printed on a high quality paper or other substrate.  The one thing that waffled was if it MUST be a pigment ink or a dye-based ink. And this is where the Pixma sadly does not qualify.  But since the Chromalife 100 Dye inks that my printer uses are also rated for about the same as pigment ink... I'm happy to experiment with new paper types and see what happens.

SO!  In conclusion, get ready for prints!

In the meantime, my Society6 account handles my printing, so I wholeheartedly encourage you to buy them there!

Buy my prints at my Society6!  Hooray!

Tiger in Progress

The next animal portrait in my series of animal portraits!  I think I shall call is 50 Faces.  This will be number 6.

Here are a few progress stages. Sketch, color fill, line colors and overpainting, more detailing, more detailing...

Heron Painting

Another handsome birdy!  Heron on blue. 

If you would like a print of this fella, check out

Heron and Ripples Prints, Society 6 Shop

Finished albino hawk image.   About 3 hours in Photoshop, 3 brushes used.

Doe Painting Progress

Sort of working on this... I think I need to put some treasure in the dirt pile, or show different layers of dirt. Bones? Shiny rocks? What shall I put in...