Storticartoons Blog

Snow Scene Part 2

2012-03-05T06:00:00.000+11:00

Welcome to Part 2 of the creation of the Snow Scene.

Once I had finalized the penguin figures and created the Killer Whale, I decided to create a Polar bear. I had just started to really use gradients in Adobe Illustrator CS5 when I created the polar bear below. Now I had Penguins, Killer whales and Polar bears...all I needed now was a scene to set them all up in.

This clip below shows how I went about creating the snow scene

Below is the final product. Hope you enjoy it.

See you next week

Snow Scene Part 1

2012-02-27T06:00:00.002+11:00

Below is one of my first illustrations I created with Adobe Illustrator. Up until then I had no idea of how Illustrator worked. I finally got off my butt and did a day course at CAE (Centre for Adult Education) to learn the basics of illustrator. Prior to the course I did all my work using a pen and paper then scanning it in Photoshop, where I added the color and tidied the drawing up.

The Illustrator course taught me the basics such as creating shapes and using the pen tool. Prior to leaving we each had to do an illustration demonstrating the techniques we had covered in each of the topics for the day.

I created the 'Snow Scene' illustration below.

One night I found the 'Snow Scene' illustration and decided to re do it to compare what I did on a course 5 years ago to my current abilities on Adobe Illustrator. I had already updated the penguins (see post 21/11/11). I also decided to add a couple of extra features such as a killer whale.

The clip below is how I went about creating the Killer whale on Adobe Illustrator.

This is the finished illustration. Once I had created the Killer Whale I set about updating the polar bears.

Next week I'll show you how I created the polar bears and the rest of the new snow scene. See you then.

Dinosaurs

2012-02-20T06:00:00.000+11:00

I'm a bit of a dinosaur nut...to say the least. I have a huge collection of favorite dinosaur statues, some I brought in Japan and others I brought online. They are detailed, high quality, dinosaur statues, which are hard to find. I'm slowly making my way to collecting all 17 statues from the desktop series. I've got 4 to go...

I'm also a supporter of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs which is a not-for-profit organization that organizes the collection and display of Australian fossils.

I'm currently working on a Dinosaur poster, this is one of the Pteranodons, I'm working on. I'll put up the other dinosaurs as I finish them.

Another Retro Comic Design

2012-02-13T06:00:00.000+11:00

Here's another retro comic cover featuring Batman I designed to experiment with illustrator and photoshop together...overall I'm really happy with this design.

Donkey

2012-02-06T08:00:00.000+11:00

The donkey is a a demonstration of how a illustration can keep evolving. About every 3-6 months I go back and look at an Illustration I've created and see if I can make it look better. Sometimes it works some times it doesn't. The first donkey is how this illustration looked after it was first created.

After a while I went back and re-looked at the Donkey. I wasn't happy with his hair so I updated it. Below is the result of the changes.

Recently I re-visited the Donkey and decided it no longer required lines around it. I had also played around with gradients and decided to include them especially in the face.

Early Days using Illustrator

2012-01-30T06:00:00.000+11:00

When I first started making the move away from drawing on paper to drawing on my computer I mainly used Adobe Photoshop. I found Photoshop was easy to use but most of the other cartoonist and illustrators I had spoken to or met were using a confusing little program called Adobe illustrator.

No matter how many hours I sat at my computer experimenting with Illustrator all it did was leave me angry and frustrated. So I decided to go and do a course through CAE (Centre for Adult Education), on the basics of Adobe Illustrator.

Below are two of the first Illustrations I created on that course. The course was all about creating shapes, using gradients and the pen tool (along with other topics).

The course was great, it gave me a lot of confidence in using the basics in Illustrator and from there I began experimenting, which allowed to create the work I do today.

Welcome back - Australia Day 2012

2012-01-23T08:59:00.000+11:00

Welcome back to my blog for 2012!

I hope you're as rested and looking forward to a busy 2012 like I am.

As most of you would be aware Australia Day is on the 26th of January 2012.

Not only is this a great day to celebrate because it's a public holiday...it's also a great day to celebrate our unique country! Which leads me nicely into today blog artwork...

Above is a postcard I created at the end of last year that I will be using as part of my promotional postcards that I send to potential clients overseas. After much tinkering I'm finally happy with the end piece...Happy Australia Day and I'll blog you next week.

End of the year!

2011-12-19T08:00:00.000+11:00

It's hard to believe another year is almost over!

This is the last blog for 2011, I'll be having a well earned break however I'll be back with my first blog of 2012 on the 23rd of January.

Over the break I'll be starting the update of the website for my cartoon panel series Not Quite Right.

Here's a little Christmas cartoon to leave you with...have a happy Christmas and I will blog you again next year in 2012!!!!

"OUCH! How many times do I have to tell you, don't use nails to put your christmas stocking up in your room!"

Retro Comic Designs

2011-12-14T19:22:00.001+11:00

I've started playing around different ways of doing things by moving my illustrations between Illustrator and Photoshop. This allows me to utilize different effects and textures. This Godzilla book was my first experiment.

It ended up better than I hoped.

The Smoking Camera Blog

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000+11:00

I have another blog called the smoking camera which features my photography. About a year ago I started to become interested in photography and started taking photos, firstly with a small compact camera to the new Canon 5D Mk2 I recently brought. Go and have a look!

This is a photo I took about a week ago of my family's dogs while visiting on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Book Illustration

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000+11:00

On the 5th of November 2011, I wrote a blog about creating 'Buster' who is a dog in a children's book I illustrated called 'My Country'. This is another look at the behind the scenes of creating the illustrations for that book. I decided that I would create all the illustrations on my mac from start to finish-not using any paper or pens. I started by sketching my roughs on Sketchbook pro program using my Cintiq 12WX. Once I had completed the rough drafts and the editor had provided their comments and changes, I move to preparation for the final artwork stage...

I save the sketchbook pro sketch as a JPEG and then open it in Illustrator CS4 and start preparing the final art work...

Angry Penguin!

2011-11-21T08:00:00.000+11:00

This is one of my favorite sketches that I recently finished. The funny part about this penguin is I started him about 1 year ago but wasn't happy with how he was looking so I stopped him and put him on the back burner.

About 4 months ago I stated playing around with gradients and 1 hour later....

Mounted Cop

2011-11-14T08:00:00.000+11:00

I'm starting to experiment with moving images between Photoshop and illustrator. Illustrator is great for creating the images and Photoshop is creating for the textures and coloring. This is an old sketch I located in one of my many sketch books and I decided it might be a good sketch to start with. Here's what I've done so far however I'll be tinkering with it a bit more of the next couple of weeks.

Buster

2011-11-05T15:19:00.000+11:00

Last year I illustrated a kids book called 'My Country'. The story involves a young boy and his dog "Buster". In this blog I'll take you through the process to create "Buster"

I started with some concept sketches. I visioned "Buster" as a white dog with a black patch over his eye.

Once I have completed a few sketches and settled on "Buster", I draw a final sketch that I would use as my guide.

Once I had finished the final sketch I used it to create "Buster" in Adobe Illustrator CS4.

I'm Back!

2011-10-15T13:24:00.000+11:00

Well I'm back...in case you hadn't noticed I've been away for a while..I was on holidays in the USA for the past 6 weeks. Great time...unfortunately now it's back to reality. As of today I'll be back regularly to update my blog!

My work has just been featured on the 'what an art' website.

Click on the link and have a look.

Not Quite Right Website refresh....

2011-08-04T10:03:00.000+10:00

After finally finishing the www.storticartoons.com website, I have started work on my other websites...next to be updated is www.notquiteright.com.au, which is my cartoon series. I have started drafting up the site map and should start on this once I'm back from my USA trip!

NEW WEBSITE UPDATE

2011-07-18T22:16:00.000+10:00

Finally after 2 years of procrastination my new website is finally here!!!!

Visit it at www.storticartoons.com and have a look!

New WEBSITE!

2011-07-15T11:27:00.002+10:00

The bad news is I've been neglecting my blog...the good news is I've been working on the new storticartoons.com website...which is not far away! I was hopeful to have it complete this week but time got away from me...so hopefully next week the new website will appear...finally! Here's a sneak peak...

Birthday

2011-06-24T15:44:00.001+10:00

It's my birthday tomorrow..anyway here's an illustration about eating too much birthday cake!

Variety Club Bush Bash 2011 T-shirt

2011-06-15T14:58:00.000+10:00

Each year a mate of mine takes part in the Variety Club Bush Bash, this is a car event that raises money for he Variety Club, who help children growing up with disability, serious illness or disadvantage needs. Each participating car has to raise money to compete and every year I give a t-shirt design for his team to help promote his car.

This is last years design (2010).

As my mate loves the cartoon (and it always gets a great response at the Bash) I've used it on their T-shirts for the past couple of years, however I want to update it...

I decided to update the cartoon this year.

This is this years design (2011) I hope he likes it...

The Royal Wedding

2011-06-08T08:52:00.001+10:00

After all the publicity of the Royal Wedding I found the Royal guards (beefeaters) most amusing.

I did a couple of sketches and forgot about them. Yesterday I found them decided to finish them in Illustrator.

MYER Comp bag

2011-05-27T11:30:00.000+10:00

This is a design I did for MYER (which is a large department store in Australia) which ran a comp to find new designs for its bags.

Before and After

2011-05-18T10:32:00.000+10:00

I'll show you in this post the process from the start thru to the finished item for an illustration. This is a sketch I recently completed for a upcoming self promotional card. This is drawn on my 12" Wacom Cintiq using a program called SketchBook pro. Once I have completed my sketch, I save it and import it into Adobe Illustrator.

Once the sketch is opened, the process in Adobe Illustrator goes a little something like this...
(I used a program called iShowU to record this)

And when everything is completed this is the final illustration.

Once the final promotional card is completed I will upload that for you guys to have a look at.

Welcome to my Blog!

2011-05-16T12:21:00.001+10:00

Welcome to my Blog! I will regularly be updating this blog with my new cartoons, drawings and illustrations as well as the behind the scenes stuff such as sketches, before and after pictures and quick time movie clips about how I go about creating an illustration.