400 Facebook Likes Giveaway Winner Announced!

 

Update One Week Later: This winner did not communicate back or claim their prize in one week so a redraw has been held and a new winner announced!

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What The Flip - An Emote Interlude

Warmup sketch this morning, about 15-30 minutes somewhere in there I didnt really keep track. More emote than usual. But thats good to do sometimes.


I refer to a good philosphical quote that I've always liked but find it hard to put into practice sometimes:

'Grant me the serenity to accept what I can not change;
The courage to change what I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference!'

Words to live by.

Also 'if you promise somebody something by a certain time, or that you'll do something - the right thing to do is do it/ get it to them by that time, otherwise you need to stop promising stuff.'

'You also should not promise something for a long time and have their hearts set on it and then take it away for selfish petty reasons. That is just WRONG.'

Alright, emote session over for now. At least now I get a break from life's drama for a few hours each day while concentrating on my business.

Onto today's work!

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Spiderman Warmup

 

#spidey #spiderman #warmup #sketch 

15 minute warmup sketch of Spiderman this morning to get the ol' hand loosened up for mega drawz today. EWG is finaly up and running at a diff location for a day or two full steam. Moved all my equipment instead of just using the backup laptop. Can work much more normal now. Got AC, power, interwebs and a quiet house to work out of. And two dogs to dog sit during the day. 

I traded our dog Wally the supervisor for two new ones?! What was I thinking? A mostly blind mostly def short stack old bity who can't make decisions and a hyperactive young upstart bent on lots of headscratches. Productivity will be at an all time high! Or not. 

Oh to be back with Wally cracking the whip! (referencing my comic strip 'Run Of The Mill')

Spidey here was drawn in inkscape with nib pen on 45 for the lines and white touches on the gray area which was filled in with pen tool. Then the background was done on a masked off layer with the splotch tool!

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Bill Swerski's Sports Talk Chicago Logo

The finished logo I did for BillSwerski's Sports Talk Chicago is up on the podcast's site! Go check out the site if you like any aspect of Chicago Sports - a direct nod to the famous SNL character.

Was a fun one, fare less conservative than most of my logos but I think that was what made it fun. The farther I took it the more I added the more the client loved it. Well me too!

Visit the podcast at their site:

 http://www.swerskisports.com/

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/SwerskiSports

And on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bill-swerskis-sports-talk/id874769365

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Throwback: Invisible Woman 2009 v 2013

My throwback posts generally try to look back at my work from years past, seeing where I was at that time in my creative career and compare it to my current work and studying how much its changed. In this case we see a depiction of Susan Storm, Marvel's Invisible Woman. Here are two fanart commissions depicting her, one from when I drew pencil illustrations the very first year EWG began and then the other is inked version in the same process I use today. Costume differences aside, I'm looking at overall form, design style and approach to the form and aesthetics.

My main observations are that anatomy got better, including facial structures and the biggest difference would probably be the jump from traditional pencil on bristol and the current one is all digitaly penciled in photoshop and inked in inkscape. Hence tools to make the circles near flawless on the newer piece as opposed to the older piece looks like I just freehanded it.

My approach and style to the black shades still looks very similar, I like the big bold black areas to define light and dark, always have.

What else do you see between these two?

Hope you enjoyed this comparison from 2009 and 2013!

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June Sketch Night and General Notes

Well here getting toward the end of the week time for a bit of an all around update entry in the notebook section! Mainly want to cover the state o' the EWG union, events and general updates!

Grab A Seat Early!

First off, don't miss out on tonight's June edition of Live Sketch Night - as its an opportunity to get some awesome full figure black and white art for $5-$10 dollars off (depending on what your normal options require). So come on out for that. Event starts at 8pmEST(EDT) and will go till midnight, will stop taking orders at 1130pm! Always a lot of fun, just free styling start to finish pieces. Goal is 30 minutes a piece but they take no longer than an hour each. Orders only accepted during event, its requested that you have your one pic of reference and $25.00 paypal ready to go! Take advantage of the savings and order more than one tonight during the event. One per customer will be done during event the extra orders will be taken care of over the weekend! No additional fees added. So see everyone out for that tonight! The last two were a blast. Search 'sketch night' on this site and check out recaps of the last two events. So far EWG has held one a month. Full body depictions will be the format, normal and chibi styles accepted!

On the EWG business front as a whole, I've whittled away at orders and hopefuly theres a whole lot of super happy clients out there enjoying their new art. Accepting new orders daily as I book them a week ahead or two and always open to give quotes for your creative needs. Right now focusing on Character Design, Character Art, Tshirt Graphics and Logos. Taking a break from taking on more comic work right now, so I can concentrate all my comic efforts on UTMNT webcomic and TnC webcomicstrip as it heads into its 1st year anniversary! So happy to say I'm all caught up on orders and churning them out at a regular pace and look forward to the new orders folks will be sending my way. Keep them coming and thank you thank you for the business!

General updates regard just general FYI issues around the EWG interwebs. The pricelist is the main item in question as I've gotten a couple messages asking about it being down. Every quarter I look at my time sheets and re-evaluate my rates to make sure they're not overcharging for the time it takes me to complete things and also so that I'm not eating time and undercharging myself. So every quarter I try to do a rate adjustement, and usualy nothing changes I'm pretty much on the mark anymore. But this is currently being done at the same time as redesigning the look of the pricelist page so that its got specific examples of each item, clear descriptions of what customers get and make it as clear and easy to understand the price options as possible. Should have that squared away by the end of June.

Thanks so much to everyone planning to come out tonight, can't wait to see what requests you toss my way. Sketch night is always so laid back and fun. When waiting for new orders I doodle whatever comes to mind myself so its fun to come out and see whimsicle sketching too if you dont want to order I invite you to still hangout observe. Always some peppy tunes and silliness afoot. Final files can be received 8.5x13 or 11x17 and make great gifts or printouts to hang on your wall.

EWG is up to speed and runnin steady and having a great summer business season so far. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to that, and look forward to seeing what comes next!

See you tonight, and heres lookin to the weekend!

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Tutorial: Killer Chainsaw Rabbit Sketch to Finish in Illustrator

The art below was not drawn by Eryck Webb or associated with EWG but while searching for tutorials and reference for brainfood I found this wicked looking character and process for illustrating him in Illustrator, and thought I'd share! Enjoy!
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This tutorial by Sean Kelly was first published on January 5th 2009.
This tutorial shows you how I build a character and add a dynamic background effect. This process can be applied to any sketch you are vectorising. It takes some knowledge and skill with the Pen tool, but gives you ultimate control over your line work. In this tutorial, I will constantly refer to a tools' quick key, learn your quick keys people, it makes things so much easier!

Final Image Preview

Below is the final design we will be working towards.

Step 1

I can't stress the importance of sketching your character first, use whatever method you are most comfortable with. Vectors are a great finishing tool, but are not good for the sketch stage in my opinion. Get your idea down, tweak the proportions and overall look, then save the sketch as a jpg.
Make a new document in Illustrator (A4 is fine). Go to File > Place and navigate to and select the jpg of your character. With the placed sketch selected go to the Transparency Palette and turn down the transparency to about 30%. In the Layers Palette double click the layer and name it "Sketch," and lock it.

Step 2

Make a new layer named "Back" and drag it under the "Sketch," layer. In the Color Palette set the Stroke to none and the Fill color to a rich black (C=60, M=60, Y=30, and K=100). In the Swatches Palette make a new Swatch Group, click and drag the black swatch from the Color Picker into the new Color Group folder. Each time you make a new color make sure you add a corresponding swatch to the color group, this allows for ease of color change and selection.
Grab the Direct Selection Tool (A) and then the Pen Tool (P), doing this will allow you to jump back to the Direct Selection tool while using the Pen by holding down Command which is very useful while drawing.

Step 3

First, I begin by blocking in the basic shapes. The fewer points the better, look at where the shape changes or for the center of a curve.
One click with the Pen tool will start the shape. Move to an apex point on the shape, click and drag (do not let go after the click). When you drag out you create handles that influence the line, I like to think of the handles as magnets distorting a thin metal line. Let the handles go when you are happy with the curve.

Step 4

Finish the shape by clicking back on the first point. Don't worry if its not exactly right, as it is very easy to go back and adjust. Mousing over a point and holding down Command and dragging allows you to move the point or the handles. At this stage a points' handles are linked and move together.

Step 5

When making a shape such as this, place a point at the corner, drag out the handles to follow the curve going back, release, then click the point again. This will delete the handle going forward.

Step 6

Here you can see that I have de-linked the handles of this point. To do this, hold down Alt-click and drag one of the handles, it now moves independently from the other. If you hold Alt and click on the point both the handles will be deleted, you can remake them by holding Alt and dragging them out again.

Step 7

Follow the same techniques to create the other simple shapes that make up the character, remember that the more basic parts it has the easier it is to move them around to adjust the look. Also, having overlaying elements will make it easier in later steps.
When making an area such as the spikes: draw a single triangle then get the Selection tool (V), hold Alt and drag the shape to make a copy. To repeat the copy multiple times hit Command + D.

Step 8

Below is the finished "Back" layer, as you can see the character remains in simple shapes. Now we can split parts up into separate layers.

Step 9

With the Selection tool (v), select the legs (holding Shift allows you to add to the selection, holding Alt will deselect objects). Cut (Command + X) the legs, make a new layer "Legs," select the Legs layer and Paste in Front (Command + F). Select the head objects, make a layer called "Head," cut the head objects and paste them in front on the "Head" layer. Select the front arm, make a layer called "arm," cut the arm shape and paste them in front on the that layer.

Step 10

Use the Color Palette to choose a fill color for the body. I have used C=0, M=19, Y=0, and K=0. Exact color is not important right now though, as long as you keep it standard for the different parts of the character, its very easy to change when you are done drawing. Make a color swatch with your new color.
Below you can see I have made the body and the back arm shapes on the "Back" layer, move up the layer stack adding details to the various body parts.

Step 11

As you are drawing the various parts of the same color, make sure that you are working within the correct layer.

Step 12

When you are finished with the body color areas move on to the mask and chainsaw. I am using C=41, M=7, Y=5, and K=24. Make a color swatch with your new color. Unlock the "head" and lock the rest of the layers. For the first color pass I draw in the colors in reverse as you can see in the illustration.

Step 13

Once you are done with the mask relock the "Head" layer, move down to the "Back" layer and draw the blade and spike fills. Remember you can drag-copy the spike fills by Alt-dragging the shape. Once you have placed all the spike fills, select the black round saw shape with the Selection Tool (V), Copy (Command + C), Paste in Front (Command + F) and move it to the front of the layer stack (Command + Shift + Right Bracket key). Use the Direct Selection Tool (a) to select and edit points on the black shape in front showing more of the spikes on the left side of the chainsaw than the right.
In the illustration below I have made the front shape transparent and selected the spikes to show where the shapes crossover, which gives the desired effect.

Step 14

Select the grey from your Color Group, draw the central shape of the saw blade. Using the Selection Tool (V), select the handle shapes (circled below) and move them to the front (Command + Shift + Right Bracket key).

Step 15

Select a fill color for the handle and add it to the swatch group. I used C=2, M=35, Y=70, and K=0. Make the handle shape. Select black from the swatch group, use the Ellipse tool (L) to make approximate detail circles, use the Selection tool (V) to distort and move them into place.

Step 16

Select one of the circles with the Selection tool (V), Copy (Command + C) and Paste in Front (Command + F). Select the yellow brown swatch and distort the circle as shown. Pushing in the sides and corners as needed (holding Alt will constrain the movement to the center of the object). Repeat the process on the other button.

Step 17

Using the same process as the buttons, copy up, change the color, shrink, and distort the circle on the blade. When you are happy with the first level of circle select them both, copy, and paste in front. Shrink the new copy and position as shown below.

Step 18

Select the black swatch for the fill, use the Direct Selection tool (A), then the Pen tool (P) to draw in the handle details as shown. I like to have control of the line, so I tend not to use the Stroke very much if at all.

Step 19

Staying on the "Back" layer, move down to the belly and use the same technique to make the seam and the stitching.

Step 20

Select all the stitching (hold Shift and click on each stitch), Copy (Command + C) and Paste in Front (Command + F). Select the yellow brown swatch to change the color. Click away to deselect, then use the Selection tool to individually distort the fills to fit the outline.

Step 21

Lock the "body" layer and move on to the "Legs" layer. Select the black swatch, then use the Direct Selection tool (A) and then the Pen tool (P) to draw in the details as shown below. Follow the same method as above to create the stitch fills.

Step 22

Select the black shapes of the toe claws and move them to the top of the layer (Command + Shift + Right Bracket key). Select white as a fill color and make a swatch in the color group, draw in the claw details. Select the back toe and move the outline and fill to the bottom of the layer stack (Command + Shift + Left Bracket key).

Step 23

Lock the "Leg" layer and move to the "Head" layer. Keep white as the fill color and draw in the eyes. Select the black swatch and draw the mask lines in.

Step 24

Select the yellow brown swatch and draw out the teeth, as you can see I outline them all. I find this gives a better finish.

Step 25

Select the pink swatch and draw elongated fills for the ears. Use the Selection tool (V) to select the fill and outline, then move them to the bottom of the layer stack (Command + Shift + Left Bracket key). The ears will be filled with a gradient to give a better speed effect at a later step.

Step 26

Lock the "Head" layer and unlock the "Arm" layer. Select white as the fill color and draw in his claws.

Step 27

Turn the visibility of the "Sketch" layer off and zoom out to take a look at the figure. Adjust any points as necessary, if you wish you can go with completely different colors. Simply select a shape with the color you want to change, go to Select > Same > Fill color, then adjust the color using the color palette.

Step 28

Lock all the layers and make a new layer "Background." Drag it to the bottom of the layer stack. Select the Rectangle tool (M), then in the Gradient Palette select a gradient type of Linear. Click on the gradients' left color swatch and in the Color Palette change the color to CMYK: C=18, M=100, Y=60, and K=8. Next, add the color to the color swatch group. Select the black swatch and drag it over to the right swatch in the Gradient Palette.
Select the Gradient tool (G) and run the gradient from the lower left corner to the upper right corner, the gradient begins where you first click and ends where you release.

Step 29

Select the Pen tool, keeping the same gradient fill, and staying on the same layer draw elongated spikes following the same angle as the background gradient. You can select the spikes individually and adjust the gradient using the Gradient tool (G) if necessary.

Step 30

Deselect any objects by clicking away from the drawing. Click and drag the pink swatch from the Swatch Group to the left swatch within the Gradient Palette. Draw a trail shape coming from under and out behind the character as shown below.
In the Transparency Palette set the shapes' Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity to 75%. Go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and set the Radius to 9 pixels.

Step 31

Lock the "Background" layer and make a new layer on top of the character layers. Name it Highlights. Use a white fill and draw in the highlights as shown.

Step 32

Emanating from the highlights are white streaks fading out. To make these select a linear gradient, drag the rich black swatch from the Swatch Group to the gradients right swatch, move the Location point to about 20%. Draw a thin triangle coming from each highlight point and also from each chainsaw blade. You can see below that I have curved the blade highlights to make it a bit more dynamic. Select all the streak objects then go to Select > Same > Fill color, and set the Transparency to Screen.

Step 33

Unlock the "Head" layer and select the ear fill objects. From the Gradient Palette select Linear, then drag the pink swatch from the Swatch group to the left swatch in the Gradient Palette. Next, change the Location to 60% and double-click the right swatch to edit. In the Color Palette select: C=0, M=100, Y=0, and K=64.

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Step 34

That's about it, the final step is to crop the area to the page. In the color Palette select no fill and no stroke, select the Rectangle tool (M) and draw a rectangle the size of the page area (it doesn't matter what layer you are on). With the rectangle selected go to Object > Crop Area > Make. Crop marks appear at the corners.

Conclusion

Now you can save the illustration as a JPG, GIF (Save For Web), PDF, EPS, etc (Save As) and the illustration will be nicely cropped. For more of Sean Kelly's crazed characters check out Bucket 'o' Thought.

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Originaly Posted at http://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-create-a-killer-chainsaw-bunny-character--vector-1021

I use inkscape even though the "industry standard" is adobe illustrator. I just refuse to pay 500 bucks for a program thats going to get a new version come the following year. I know I know, adobe cloud solves that problem. Well, when that day comes I will have to raise my prices for the new overhead, but till then I will save clients cost by using open source software like Inkscape. No matter what you use, this tutorial applies to all pen-tool based vector drawings! And I believe the simplicity of this tutorial is a great place for any aspiring graphic artist to practice with!
Hope somebody learned something with this! :)
-Eryck

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Anarchy In The UK - Character Art Commission

Commission of client's Champions Online character 'Cinderflame Punk' firing things up on abbey road! Anarchy anarchy rabble rabble - fun piece, between the fire effects and lighting and so forth. Good stuff.

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Fathers Day Mega-Puppy-Deth

Well my dad got his father's day card and art so I can post this up without ruining the surprise. 5x7 lineless index card sketch of Vic Rattlehead the Megadeth mascot, done with the tools shown. Not shown is the medium sharpie used for the smaller lines. Then bolder lines with the copic brush tip and filled in large areas with the chisel tip. Gray copic for shades/ finishes. Hes a big Megadeth fan and on the back wrote him a note about I appreciate being raised with such inspiring music as 80s metal and the like. Not a lot of parents would have done that/ were into that... and I'm glad I grew up with it. Music is such a big inspiration/ motivation and soul fuel for me today. Not just metal, all kinds... but it all started with 6am Megadeth wake-up-calls from downstairs when it was time to get up and head to school! Not all the time. But happened enough lol. And was always megadeth/ ozzy/ judas priest or the like when ridin with daddio somewhere. Mom was into it too though I credit her for getting me into more abstract stuff like Pink Floyd and Alan Parsons which I still enjoy to this day. But we're focusing on fathers day :) I think the vic art card goes well with the puppy greeting card what do you think? Sent it with the puppy on the outside then when you open it theres vic! Lol.
Anywho, I enjoy drawin on those blank index cards might have to make more of a habit doing it.

Wanted to share! Happy Fathers day sir. I always had the potential talent but couldn't have gotten where I am without you supplying the means! Thank you thank you.

Rock on.

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3 Ways To Stay Motivated In Freelance

Good morning! I liked these 3 motivational tips for freelancers - one-man-show businesses and recommend them for anybody else doing the same thing too!

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As freelance designers, self-discipline is one essential characteristic to cultivate. Granted that you have the benefits of a flexible timetable, it is highly critical for you to be firm in your daily dealings to keep your business going well. Maintaining high motivation for your work is hence a topmost priority.

But hey, who doesn’t have the downtime? Sometimes it’s easy to lose heart when you’re not getting by with freelancing, or when it didn’t meet your expectation of flexibility. That is why it is crucial for you to know what serves as motivation for freelancers like yourself.

As a part-time freelance blogger myself, I could relate to a few common issues regarding the lack of motivation. Fortunately, I have found for myself a few solutions that I could apply when I feel I’m running low on battery, and I’m willing to share to you my remedies in this post, full sharing after jump!

1. Remember Why You Took Up Freelancing

When you remind yourself what was it that drew you into the circle of freelancers, you would be grateful that you got into where you are now even if things are going really tight. Typically, freelancers got here because they want more control over their schedule and more freedom over their choice of projects or tasks.

That said, it’s easy to fall into the trap of not following up with the client on time. It could be something to do with time management or simply just a lack of motivation. If it is the latter, then you have to acknowledge the fact that how much you earn is entirely determined by the amount of time and hard work you’re willing to put in. High productivity is what makes a freelancer success.

Not only does that affect your income, it also affects your reputation among the other freelancers. A good reputation of completing projects promptly with quality will translate into more offers from clients. What this means is that you’ll have more leeway in choosing those who you’d really like to work on!

As a freelancer, you will definitely have to start off from the bottom, which means that you may not get many project offers and thus unable to make a decent living at the initial stage. Well, one way to keep yourself motivated is to remind yourself that eventually, your hard work will pay off in terms of getting more and better offers. As the saying goes, "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going."

2. Fanning the Flame

It’s easy to lose your creative sense when you’re kept busy by deadlines. When you place your emphasis on completing the project within a short timeframe, you become more concerned about getting the job done rather than doing it creatively or aesthetically. This leaves little room for indulging in your passion for freelancing.

You need to feed your passion or it will die off gradually! Losing your motivation? This could be the reason. Spend some time looking up for designs pertaining to your area of interest. Visit art museums or galleries. Draw something for fun. As long as you’re doing your art not for work’s sake, but for fun’s sake, you will keep the fire in you burning. It’s easy to extinguish it when you work day-in and day-out on your projects because you’ll associate the stresses with it.

As you can see, work can create a love-hate relationship between you and your passion. You are passionate about your work, but at the same time, you loath how your livelihood is now dependent on your passion. It’s no longer fun when there’s a huge responsibility laid on what had always been your hobby or favorite pastime.

The bottom line is, don’t turn your passion into work alone. You will still need to allocate some time to feed your interest outside of work. Some people can enjoy their work no matter how taxing it may be, but for most, they still have to make some time outside work to be inspired. Work is work; the demands are there to take the fun out of the equation.

3. Using Flexibility to Your Advantage

The wonderful thing about being a freelancer is that it allows you to make your own call. You can go for meals, take breaks or even leave your workstation anytime you want. Not many other jobs offer that kind of freedom. On the down side, you might be tempted to procrastinate when no one but you yourself is monitoring your work.



To curb those temptations and stay motivated, what you can do is you can give yourself appropriate time to rest. Just as dieticians would advise people to take many small, light meals rather than the standard three full meals to curb their cravings for unhealthy snacks, you should give yourself many small breaks while you’re working on the project. That way, you won’t get too overwhelmed with handling all the work in one long stretch and end up taking the rest of the day off from your work.

Besides the advantage of keeping you motivated this way, taking frequent breaks would also start you off refreshed each time you return to your work. In fact, psychologists have found that you can absorb and remember the things you were working on the most when you just begun to work on it. They call it the primacy effect.

So, if you are taking several breaks, you will perform better each time you get back to work after your breaks. This translates to better work performance and mood for the entire project you are handling, which then serves as good motivation to keep up your good work.
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Reposted from: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/freelancers-motivation-tips/

Good advice to live and work by whether your a commission artist, graphic designer, businsess person or anybody else working for yourself!

Stay motivated! Stay hungry!
-Eryck

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June Live Sketch Night Event - This Thursday!

Come have a seat, starting at 8pmEST can send 25.00 paypal to the address specified during event and get a request of a one character no background black white digital ink sketch right before your eyes. Completed in order of received based on order of paypal payment received. Only between 8pmEST-11pmEST may orders be accepted. Any orders not completed that night will be completed by the following Monday! Order more than one to take advantage of the discount! This price is only available during this event. One order per person will be done during event. Other orders will be completed over the weekend! Have $25.00 ready to send and one good pic of reference ready before the event.

Thanks in advance! 

Only at: https://new.livestream.com/accounts/1065426/events/3104356

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