jjpeabody

Over the years, I'm contacted by many musicians wanting to use my artwork in there music.  As long as it's free and open, I almost always accept.  I was recently contacted by a musician who wanted to use my artwork for their song.  I always listen to the artists music and I simply fell in love with the moody, cheerful, and dangerous medley of Riyujin's recent recent release, "From Dust You Are, To Dust You Shall Return"

It feels like my art has gone to the next level.  It feels really good now when I start sketching.  People and buildings are getting a little easier for me, landscapes still rock so I thought I'd just take a minute to highlight how I got to this point.

Practice, lots and lots of it. I know that sounds a little cliche and it probably is a bit, but honestly, that's all I've been doing is practicing.  I digital paint nearly every day.  Sometimes I just sketch black and whites all day long just pulling what I see out of the chaos.  Besides the practice, I would have to say that commissions also helped me get to this point.  Sometimes I get commissioned to do things that I'm not really comfortable with so it makes me buckle down and try harder.  While I hate doing things I'm not really not proficient at doing, it forces me to adapt and overcome.

So I guess the lesson is, practice doing things you love, but also go outside of your comfort zone and do art that you normally wouldn't do.  These two things will help your art improve and move it to the next level.

So go level up!

As I read all the comments that people leave on my images here in DA, I'm really amazed and humbled with what they're posting.  So many describe my images as what they've imagined in their dreams, while reading a book, or even reminded them of their home that is so many thousands of miles away.  I have inspired others to begin painting again, to attempt more landscapes, to study art more, and even inspired stories that were written by other DA members.  While I don't know many of you, my art has touched many in some way and you've left comments to let me know this.  You can't imagine how encouraging this is.  To me, this is very rewarding and motivates me to continue my art and is actually helping me through a tough time.

In one month I will lose 20% of my pay until September by furlough because of the US sequestration.  That ends up being about 10% for the year.  I'm sure that some will be laid off as the government adjusts to it's new budget.  Tough times are ahead, but I'm not worried.  I still have my friends, my fiance, my skills, my determination, my art, and even DA members comments to see me through these times.  This is why I'm writing.

The comments on DA have encouraged me to continue with my art.  They don't cost anything except for a little time and I find them to be very valuable.  As I realize just how valuable they have become to me, I feel a little ashamed that I haven't left as many comments on others art as I could have.  I'm really inspired by so many here.  There's so many beautiful works of art here.  Please leave a comment on art here in DA.  It just might help someone through a hard time in their life.  I'm guilty of not leaving as many comments as I should.  Encouragement is free and it's the one thing that's not taxed.... yet

Thank you to everyone who's supported the DA community in some way or another.  About supporting artists.  Instead of just downloading an image for your desktop, buy a print, a card, a calendar, or whatever.  The artist doesn't receive much money from it, but maybe it's just that little bit extra that they need to get by.  Yes, you can get the image for free simply by downloading it, but there's a real artist behind that image with a real life, and with real problems.  If you can't afford to buy something from them, please leave a comment.  It really has value as well.  To me, it's priceless.

Thanks to everyone for your support & have a great day!

Cheers,
Jereme

There's really no one way that I start a digital painting.  Many people have asked, so I did a short list of how I start my images.  I don't think it's all of them as no one method seems to work the best for me.  If I'm not getting anything with one method, I'll switch to another method and try that.

You can create a digital painting by starting it with a Base, apply Color, then apply Texture.  You use a variety of brushes the entire time no matter if you're on the base, the color, or the texture pass.

Start with a Base:
1. Paint in grey scale.  Use subtle variations in the value.  Make sure you use a wide range of value say from 2 to 8.  Also, vary the values during the transition.  For example, if you're painting 3, add value 2, and some value 4.
1.1 Grey Scales with an Image Overlay.  Slap down some gray values, overlay an image that's close to the colors you need.  Use regular layers to further define the image.  I find this method often leads to many surprises.  Just go with it.
1.2 Use an existing image gray scale.  CTRL-Shift-U to convert to black and white.  Mark the gray scale up more.  Keep marking it up until you see something.  Further render it out in grey scale.
1.3. Start with a random texture type brush.  Find something in the randomness.  Render it out into grey scale, apply color.
2. Start with an image.  Use lasso tool to randomly cut the image.  Rotate the selection.  Repeat until you "see" something.  Use layers to further define the image.  Switch to gray scale if it helps.  If you use this method, pick a light cyan blue and with a soft brush, push back the values.  This helps establish some initial distance in your image.
2.1 Start with an existing image.  Pick colors directly from the image to work them into a new image.  Keep marking it up until you see something.
2.2 Start with a collection of images, randomly arranged on your page.  Slap around the color randomly, use the selection tool, etc to pull out interesting shapes until you see something.
3. Undercoat.  This is like gray scale, but it's using a monotone color.  I find that colors are more harmonious using this method.  This is still just an experiment for me.

Apply colors:
1. Use color dynamics with hue jitter at about 10% for color variation.  Use regular layers to further define the image.
2. Paint directly on top of the base image.  I use this when most of the colors are already on the image.
3. Use soft light layer to slightly saturate and brighten the color
4. Use multiply with a gray value to take the existing color and basically add the gray value to it.  This works great for shadows.

Apply texture:
1. Use existing images for texture.  This takes a different type of skill.  Like setting the image to overlay, playing with the levels to achieve the value you need.  Then erase out what you don't need.  
2. Use Free Transform to reposition the image so it stays in perspective.
3. Use warp or liquify filter to bend the texture around the object you're texuring.