Megaman has always fought with Mario for position as my favorite character/childhood hero.  Many people can say they've played and beat the original Mario, but how many can say they beat the original Megaman for NES?  Not even I can, not at the moment at least.  I've been playing the original, and it is brutal.  In the mean time I've taken Megaman to my studio and worked up this preliminary painting.  This is an in progress sketch of sorts and I'll keep you posted on how this turns out.

Give-away winner for August!

I pulled a random number from random.org and that number was 4!

Congratulations Mary Mac, you had entries 3, 4, and 5 so you have been selected to win this original painting!  I will ship on Tuesday of next week through USPS.  Thank-you everyone for taking the time to become followers of Greentuxudio, the blog, and sharing through Facebook.  Look forward to a new giveaway in the near future!

Christopher

Value Contrast

     When art teachers talk about art they usually rely on the elements and principles of design.  These standards can be misleading and confusing for students so I usually focus on 3 main ideas for creating art.  The first idea I'd like to share with you is the concept of value contrast.  If we refer to this example, a painting I recently did, you'll see a strong presence of lights and darks.

     The elements and principles of design mentions value, and contrast, but doesn't combine them as they should be considered as value contrast.  In regards to the painting, if you combine dark values with light values as seen in the blue marble - you gain the illusion of shape and form.  Where they are placed and how quickly they fade from one to the other has implications that reveal whether a shape is concave or convex and to just what degree.  Focus first on establishing the relationship between light and dark values to convey what sort of shape you want.  Stay tuned for the next concept I teach to my students, color intensity.

Benefits of Mixing it Up

Creative block hits all of us at some point.  Having close friends and family who can give you positive criticism can be advantageous only if you are willing to accept at least some of their advice.  More often than not, I spend my time gathering inspiration from the internet, movies, outings to the mall, and things I read but end up doing similar work that seems to be fairly central to my canon of production.  I was recently told by a family member to maybe try something without an emphasis on gold/warm glowing-tones and rather, try to do something cold and stark.  I've been thinking for the past few days about what cold and stark meant for my paintings and am getting ready to attempt something inside that territory.  Maybe you can try to mix things up yourself and try a different medium or style altogether.  We don't have to be identified with how we do things over time, so why not try to create something completely different?

In your creative process, maybe try to place yourself in the shoes of someone you know a reasonable amount about while asking the question; How would (insert name) create?

Most certainly you'll end up learning something new about your capabilities and maybe even break through a creative plateau.

My Grandpa, Will Nelson

     I'd like to introduce you to a major source of my motivation to create art:

Beautiful work, and I have the pleasure of calling this artist my Grandpa

His illustrations are the most compelling art-works I've seen.

We've decided to start selling some of his work on my etsy page so go check it out!

Link to our work

SEO Intro

Maybe I'm a little slow to pick up on this or maybe its something that is just finally catching with the online crowd.  Lets bet on the later of the two.  I want to share with you a new technique I learned today to bring in a substantially larger number of people to my Etsy store.  How you use it can greatly affect the impact it will have on your Etsy store.

All the details can be found in Katers Acres Blog here:

Spruce up your SEO

My viewers are way up today because I optimized just four of my more popular listings.  Hope this works well for you too!

How I Work with Markers

     Crayola has been in the hands of just about everybody, whether it was a colored pencil, the famous box of crayons (the only company to famously call vermillion macaroni and cheese), and a wide assortment of water based markers.  I've played with markers off and on and continue to find new ways to use them.  The particular markers I use today are really just a grown-up versions of what my brother infamously scribbled with on the back of his closet door.

Tombo is a lesser known brand of water based markers but a good fit for those interested in trying water-based markers. 

      Tombos have both a brush side and a felt tip side that both have their uses.  They are water-based and will mix with any other water-based marker.  I'm using a white prismacolor blender with my Tombo's which is basically a felt pen loaded with a special water based liquid that does a great job, better than a brush with water, of mixing colors together.  

       What about Copics? I've used them, and they are certainly the best I know of but I'm not about to make my readers feel like they need to lay down 120 dollars to just get started on using markers.  Tombos are totally fine and walk a good line between the basic Crayola marker and the Copic marker costing about 25 dollars for a basic set.

My basic setup for working with markers and the first few stages I go through to start an illustration.

       I start by using a pencil on mixed media paper to outline what my work will be.  This allows me to make changes without too much of an artifact of where I was planning.  Fine pens from Micron for outlines work well, but ballpoints are also great tools that can look just as good as artists pens.  

Adding more color to my sketch

       One of the greatest assets of the water based marker is how blendable they are.  When I was in college I heard this and wondered just how people blend markers.  If you try to blend markers on paper you're gonna have a bad time.  Use a small piece of plastic to lay down pigment with your marker, or any surface that won't fully absorb the pigment and use a white blending marker to pick up mixed pigment - there's no actual white pigment inside them, just a special liquid that carries pigment better than pure water.  The white pigment marker will then work as a hybrid between the two or more colors you mixed.  A wetted basic brush will work too to pick up pigment but doesn't provide the same effect as seen in the pictures.  If you're worried your marker will get dirtied, no worries, just take the dirty marker and draw on a scrap piece of paper until the color coming out is the original color.  The tip may stay dirty but it will work correctly.

Adding more color, starting to blend some colors.

Starting to use my Micron fine pen to bring in some texture.

Beginning to add a different colored flower into the composition.

Detail of the finished work.

All done!  

Thanks for reading!  If you have any questions just send me a note!

Chris

greentuxudio [at] gmail.com