Imagine Learning Art Challenge

A real hero...

2007-07-03T07:51:00.000-06:00

A REAL hero runs around in tights and a cape and seeks to avenge his parent's death by fighting crime in the shadows of the night...

Bobbleheads

2007-05-18T22:53:00.000-06:00

New Topic: The Office

2007-05-03T10:07:00.000-06:00

as in the smash NBC hit. Do a portrait of your favorite character(s) from the show.

Let's try a 3 week deadline and see if we have better luck finishing something.

Deadline: Monday May 21

New Topic: Pilot

2007-04-16T11:17:00.000-06:00

Due April 30

Hobo #161: David No-Ears

2007-04-13T13:27:00.000-06:00

Lines done in Flash, playing with textures in Photoshop. So there he is.

What?

#500 The Rambling, Rambling Boris Wander

2007-04-12T12:37:00.000-06:00

Here he is yakking the night away. I couldn't resist putting some cute things in there.

Mo' Hobo

2007-04-09T09:42:00.000-06:00

Extending the hobo challenge another week. Jim wants a chance to finish his (and I..uh.. haven't finished mine yet either...) Nate - maybe you can do a He-Hobo!

#53 from the 700 Hobos...

2007-04-06T16:18:00.000-06:00

I present for your viewing pleasure... Mr. JR Lintstockings!
Have a great easter weekend guys n' gals!
Maybe there's a little bit of the Easter bunny in his socks n' hat?

New Topic: Hobo

2007-03-26T10:22:00.000-06:00

Pick a Hobo from The 700 Hoboes Project - then illustrate and post said Hobo by April 9

Thumb Lady in the Thumb Lake...

2007-03-26T10:12:00.000-06:00

I think I had enough time to sneeze on a file and get a rough idea...
Sorry, but there wasn't much going for me at playtime, but I had a blast looking at a lot of NC Wyeth's stuff!

arthur and merlin

2007-03-26T10:08:00.000-06:00

Still during the sketch stage.

Arthur wants Merlin to do some magic tricks for his son's birthday party...merlin declines.

Arthur's Downfall

2007-03-26T00:03:00.000-06:00

Arthur, King of the Britons

2007-03-23T16:58:00.000-06:00

So... I thought I was going to try using the Artist Oils in Painter. And I couldn't figure them out, and then I didn't care that I couldn't figure them out and just kept going. Maybe we can think of it as a color comp. lol

Btw... that's a Lesser Striped Swallow... native to Africa.

ban.shee

2007-03-14T17:29:00.000-06:00

A wee bit late. . .but here 'tis. Definitely a bad omen if you cross paths with the herald of death. I was trying out a few different photoshop brushes over a pencil sketch, and imported some paper texture.

New Topic: King Arthur

2007-03-12T10:51:00.000-06:00

Due March 26... post WIPs if ya like.

Nate gets the gold star for finishing Banshee. Go Supahstar Nate!

Glowing Banshee goodness...

2007-03-12T08:23:00.000-06:00

Any excuse to use the glow brush is a good excuse no?
Pretty straight forward... Mosty done with the flat oils again in Painter... they've quickly become my favorite brushes, though there's still a bit to master with them. Then there was some refinement in levels, texture and glow touch up in Photoshop.

setback at rushmore

2007-02-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

New Topic: Banshee

2007-02-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

Due Monday March 12

From Irelandseye.com: The Banshee

George (is getting upset)

2007-02-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

Don't tread on me.

Abe-a-licious

2007-02-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

I actually finished one! This was some more experimenting in Painter. I wanted to try figuring out how to do skin tones from a black and white photo. I used the Artist Chalk brush, and a little bit of airbrushing at the end for some extra gritty texture. Anyway. There 'tis.

Good ol' Abe... AND Washington...

2007-02-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I actually finished something! And we still have a week before this challenge is up! So maybe next Friday I'll try this again with a George Washington portrait? We'll see. At any rate, this was done in painter, using pretty much the flat oils exclusively. Any comments welcome!

New Topic: Washington and/or Lincoln

2007-02-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

Due Monday February 26

Try to keep it fast and simple (unless you are Jim.)

Inky Oz

2007-02-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

This is no where near done... I hope I can find time to finsih this.
-Nate.

wings for chistery

2007-02-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

My idea was inspired by the book "Wicked". In the book the witch sews wings on her monkey and then spells them to fly.
the painting was done in photoshop.

Oz Force

2007-02-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

What if Dorothy hadn't returned to Kansas, and joined with her friends to form a band of intergalactic space heroes....

Below is the WIP. I've at least got the color palette worked out, I think, just need to finish cleaning up the lines, etc. And Don has already pointed out that I obviously don't often draw guns. :-) Lines done with a real pencil! Color in Photoshop.

New Topic: The Wizard of Oz

2007-01-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

Knock yourself out!
We'll review two weeks from now: Monday Feb 12

It's a guy thing.

2007-01-26T16:41:00.000-07:00

My addition to cowboy Friday. Done in Painter using some cool brushes. Trying to loosen up a bit and be quick in getting the image down.

When men were men!

2007-01-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

And if they didn't like ya, they SHOT ya!
Nowadays, we just dream and paint such things.
Geddiup!

New Challenge: COWBOY

2007-01-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

Alisa gets the Gold Star for being the only one to finish the Spectrum Entry. Superstar Alisa!

New topic, and a fast one - due next week.

COWBOY

due Monday Jan 29

happy little bird

2007-01-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

I thought I should toss this out there. Any suggestions?

Wip

2007-01-10T01:09:00.000-07:00

Alright, now you can leave me alone. I am actually doing something after all...... Here is a very small version of what I am working on. Everything is still very fluid and unsettled. Always did want to paint a ghost.

Tiny Robot Hummingbird Sketch

2007-01-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

Just a little pencil sketch. The idea is a hummingbird made out of different materials. Metal beak, cloth head and tail, etc. He has a clock on his stomach as a handy feature. I might add some subtle flowers in the background, and blur his wings a bit.

bumble betty beatles - wip

2007-01-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

um. i didn't get very far with mine. The idea is that the bad guy is made up of beatles, and Bumble Betty is squishing one before they realize what's going on. Two versions - bad guy in background, bad guy in foreground. Decided to go with the Bad Guy in the background.

Edit: Uh... not Beatles... BEETLEs. sheesh. can't spell. And a nefarious oozing force of pure evil made up of tiny Ringos, Pauls, Georges and Johns... huh. I'll have to think about that...

2007-01-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

Here's my work in progress.

A whole mess of anatomy things to figure out on that giant... let alone his little beast friend there. All in all it's great fun though!

mac in progress

2007-01-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

this is in progress of my Macquarium octo trying to sneak a gulp of my coffee....

Topic: More Spectrum

2007-01-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

The challenge is still to work on a piece for Spectrum (after this we'll do smaller challenges). Here's the schedule:

Mon Jan 8 - show what you have so far. Everyone should have *something* by this point, even if it's only the final sketch.

Jan 22 - Final due. This should give us time to review them and make any changes in time to send for the deadline Jan 26.

Good Luck!

New Topic: Entry for Spectrum

2006-12-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

From the Spectrum Entry Form:

All art works in all mediums embracing the themes of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the surreal are eligible for this show. Fantastic Art can be subtle or obvious, traditional or off-the-wall, painted, sculpted, or photographed: there is no unacceptable way to create art and there are no set rules that say one piece qualifies while another doesn't. Imagination and skill are what matters.

The challenge topic is to start a piece to submit to Spectrum 14. The deadline for entries is January 26, 2007. We'll be having the in-office critique for our WIP December 22 (the friday before Christmas break) - but it would be nice if y'all posted the WIP to the blog as well.

Paper Pixie

2006-12-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

I was experimenting with style on this one. I did the initial sketch on paper and used that as a template in Flash to create the shapes. I then imported each shape into Photoshop and applied the cast shadow effect, some noise for texture, and some finishing color details.
Warning: Paper pixies will break into your home at night and finish your scrapbooks.

Chupacabra

2006-12-08T16:39:00.000-07:00

Here is my entry. It is the goat blood drinkin vampire affectionately known as Chupacabra.....

Original is a bit bigger.... 2400 x 1200 pixels. It was done in Painter.

mythical creature/bigfoot

2006-12-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

Here is my entry for "mythical creature" challenge.

2006-12-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

I'm done... or moreso... I give up.

I don't know what else I can do to ruin this one!

More than anything it was just fun to paint something... else.

I approached this like I do most all my other stuff, and then got bored with that.

I really admire how Jim cranks out these fabuloso black n' white paintings, so I started to try and do that with this one... then copied the color layer below and set it to hard light and the result is a little grungy which I kinda like, you can see the color layer and the black and white layer and their differences as I started to render quite a bit into the b&w.

Bah! I'm ramblin too much now. Basically this was a lot of fun and I'm excited to start on the next one!

Like Maryn said above, likewise with this one... shoot me your crits!

Christmas Elf

2006-12-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

Here's my mythological creature. I was trying to think of ideas for a Christmas card, but ended up just doing some little elf doodles instead. I think I may do another one before this topic is over.

Nothing super fancy or experimental. I just scanned in the sketch and then cleaned it up in photoshop. I mostly used the default soft round brushes, and that blendy finger thing. Oh! And I put some subtle textures over the top when I was finished.

Critique away!

First Topic: Mythical Creatures

2006-11-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

Here's the first topic for the Official Imagine Learning Art Challenge: Mythical Creatures (thanks Alisa). The idea is for this to inspire us to use training time to better learn software or experiment with technique. It will also be a good place to get feedback from each other about what works and what doesn't.

The Mythical Creatures topic will run through Monday December 11. A new topic will be given on Mondays that are not the start of a new Age.

Send me (maryn) any ideas for future topics.
Let the posting begin!