Entries by Warren Martineck (143)

Thursday
Apr142011

Digital Painting #1

I've been trying to get to something like this for awhile now and I finally had the chance last week to sit down and do my first all digital painting from start to finish. On and off I've spent the past few months researching and reading up on it, watching tutorials, downloading brushes, all in preparation to teach myself how to do this. 

Although I know my way around Photoshop pretty well and that helped out immensely, it was still a slow process as with anything your just starting out with or unfamiliar with. Many times I caught myself worrying more about how I'm painting as opposed to what I was painting. I'm guessing that problem should work itself out in time as I get more familiar with the process and the tools. 

As far as the subject matter goes, yes, I took the easy way out. I painted something fictional and that took out the additional factor of worrying about getting whatever it was I painted to look like what it was supposed to. I thought I'd save that for next time, after I was a bit more comfortable with it.

In addition to all that, this was the first time I really put my tablet through a good work out and found that my 8+ year old tablet is showing it's age and miles. I discovered many dead spots that kept distorting my strokes and made it much harder than it needed to be. So I've tacked a "New Tablet" to my "Need to Buy" list. (I may be opening up for commissions sooner than I thought)

So here it is, my first digital painting. I call it a "Puzard". I guess it's not bad for a first go around but you've got to start somewhere.

 

Later

WM

 

 

 

 

 

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Warren Martineck 

Friday
Apr082011

Casual Friday #27

Morning all and come on in Friday!

 It's been a long week but I'm getting things done. And as you can see I even got around to drawing a Casual Friday. It helps when you wake up at 3 am, wide awake with nothing to do.

I've been working on designs and practicing drawing Vampirella to nail down the look I want to go with before I start the actual cards. (Which I'll probably start around Mondayish) So I thought I'd kill 2 birds with one drawing and also give a little Vampi preview at the same time.

Later.  

WM

Thursday
Mar312011

Inkwell Awards Wolverine Sketch Card Available

Just wanted to let everyone know that this years Inkwell Awards Sketch Card is now available in a Comicartfans Auction. I only donate 1 of these a year so this is your only 2011 shot at it. It's a full color Wolverine and all proceeds go towards a scholarship for a student at The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art Inc.

Check out the Auction here! 

 

Thanks

WM

 

 

Monday
Mar212011

Vampirella Card Set Sketch Cards 

I have signed on to do a limited number of Vampirella Sketch cards for Breygent that I believe will be Case Incentives. (at least they will be at the time of this posting) I'm pretty excited about jumping into these as I've been a Vampi fan for a long time. How could I not read a magazine that had "Warren" in the corner of every issue?

  I'll be starting them this week and after Woman of Marvel and Dangerous Divas, I hope I"m practiced up enough to do Vampirella the justice she deserves. 

 

I'll keep this updated and post scans when I can.

 

Later

WM

 

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Warren Martineck

Thursday
Mar172011

How-To #8, Sketch Cards

Probably the most frequent question I get is "How do you do them?" or "What do you use on your Sketch Cards?"  Although I have done one of these "How to's" a few years ago, I thought it was about time I did another one and this latest set, Marvel Dangerous Divas, seemed perfect for it. As posted earlier, all the cards in this set will be 2 card puzzles. I had also planned one 4-card puzzle as something a little extra special and will be using that one for this demo.

 Onward.

Yes, I do put a lot of thought into each card. I like to know what I'm drawing before I start. I'll even go as far as to set up a list of the entire set before I even start the first card. Especially on sets like the Marvel 70th or the DIvas set where I knew I was doing puzzles and wanted them themed in some way and the characters being paired up should be related in some fashion. So I'll do a lot of research before hand.

  For this puzzle, I wanted to get the Lady Liberators all together and after researching their history, I figured the newer incarnation battling Red Hulk would be the coolest. I tried laying it out with all 10 characters on 2 cards but quickly came to the conclusion that 4 cards would be even cooler. (and much easier to layout)

 

I decided to do the roughs on a separate paper as the card stock was some of the worst to work on. It bled and sucked up color like a sponge and I was worried that, knowing there would be a lot of erasing, I would f-up the paper even more. Sometimes you have to just shut up and deal with what you get and make it work. 

So for this puzzle I scanned my roughs, opened them up in Photoshop, rearranged, adjusted, resized, and put together the final rough on the computer and saved myself a shitload of time.

 

Focusing back on the card stock, I needed to prep them for the puzzle. I cut them down to size, connected, and taped them up. Through trial and error, I learned these cards needed a good spraying before hand to slow down the "sucking" process. I used a coat of Matte Finish and a coat of Acrylic Coating from cans I had lying around and this worked great when it came time to color.

 

 

 

Once the cards were dry, I fed it through my printer and printed out the rough in a light non-photo blue right on the board. From there I went right in with pencil to flesh out and rework bits here and there. I usually go right to inks after I tighten up things like faces and hands.

 

I like inking mostly with a brush and India ink as it goes quicker and you get a more permanent and interesting line than with a marker. I also tend to put in more blacks this way which always makes it look better. I save details like faces, hands, and little stuff for Microns.

 

I have an array of Watercolor and Ink pencils I use for the base colors and will get most of it down before I hit it with any water. I'll go in afterward with some Dyes to really punch up the color, darken areas that need it and make the contrast stronger.

 

Now that it's almost done, I'll go in with White Out, Graphic White, or a thick White Gouache to add in highlights or emphasize certain areas.

 

Once I'm happy with the finished piece (or at least when I think I've officially spent too much time on one piece) I'll sign it up, cut it down and make a good scan for my records.

 

 So there it is.

I do believe this will be the last one I do like this as it took some time with the pictures, scans, typing, and posting. I do believe I will be looking into setting up for Live streams and video as it looks so much easier getting it out there and I like the idea of fan interaction. (Warning: I'm a hummer when I get lost in a drawing - I'll work on it)

 

Thanks for following along.

 

Later

WM

 

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Warren Martineck