All that I learn from these videos is well balanced by the devastating feelings of inadequacy that they leave me with. I've seen the goldfish picture elsewhere (Spectrum?) and it such a brilliant mix of revulsion, humour and sheer beauty.

This is fascinating to watch, but I'm ignorant about the technique: how much of this is freehand (presumably using a tablet and light-pen) and how much uses masking (if that's the right term), for instance? The process looks a bit like building up a painting in layers, using a spraygun and stensils (the way photorealist painters used to, I think).

@orchard --- don't be devastated...be inspired!

@ Sam C not saying this is how this particular piece is done for sure but it looks to me as if it was a hand drawn pic scanned in, given a base color background and each color was done with a brush in Normal mode at 100 opacity (no special blending), so effectively just like a painter, except digitally . There were additional layers added for hair, top and blocking in the background --- I didn't see any use of the dodge or burn tool.

A lot of digital artists use either a Tablet PC or a Wacom Tablet (wacom will change you Photoshop Skillz for life yo).

Really, a great example of a traditional painting style using non-traditional medium.

(wacom will change you Photoshop Skillz for life yo)
These are words of wisdom. The Wacom Intuos changed my life!

This is a wonderful demo. It's great to see such a simple methodology used to such great effect. Just goes to show that it's not the tools, it's the artist that makes all the difference. It reminds me of a Frazier Irving demo I saw at New York Comic Con, where he explained that he uses just five Photoshop layers: the base drawing, three value layers of light gray, a mid gray, and a dark gray, and a layer for color overlays set to multiply. The separation of values into layers affords him some serious control over the composition of each page, and the end result is quite beautiful.

That demo is amazing. I wish I had the skills and the patience to do something like that. I don't, but watching someone else do that kind of work is almost as good.

@ Pablo...well, if you can't afford a 2-700.00 USD Wacom Intuos the Wacom Bamboo Fun Pads start at about 69.00 @ Newegg.com --- a reasonable substitute for the young, starving, and unemployed artist.

I use one of the larger Wacom Graphires and it's suited me fine for years.


What I really like about that demo (in addition to what I've stated above) is the work station command. There's not a lot of hunt'n search in the pointer motions. It's very deliberate and direct. That's what I like to see if I'm peering over someone's shoulder: command of their workstation environment.

Thanks for the info, neutronjockey...

@orchard
you are mistaken about seeing the goldfish piece in spectrum, Jeremy just did that piece maybe 4 weeks ago