Workspace Update

Yo, blog world and followers!  It has, as of lately, again, been awhile...

I'm still on the look out for work.  That seems to be how freelancing will be, but as long as I'm illustrating something for someone I'm happy! :)  I was able to have one of my files recovered from the old dead harddrive of my Macbook pro.  It is a slow moving project with hundreds of delays and I have nick-named it the "cursed project."  But I still love working on it.  Whenever I have downtime I will pull up the file and tweak it here and there.  Here is a sneak peak of the progress for the Raijin cutaway (all Adobe Illustrator):

I've also been meaning to share some images of the new set-up I have.  I now have two computers (the 27" iMac as my main workhorse and the Macbook Pro as my back-up computer in the case I have another computer failure while working on a project for a client- you can always have back-up devices to save files and such, but a back-up computer can allow you to continue working while the other hopefully gets fixed).  Next to it on the right is my 21" Cintiq which allows me to draw on and illustrate all kinds of beautifully overly detailed complex goodness! :D   

Lastly is my updated work chair.  Granted I want to get a more comfortable chair in the future, but the nice new add-on is the Razer Nostromo.  It normally is sold as a gamepad, but works very effectively as a handy keypad for Illustrator and Photoshop so much so that I could easily illustrate without ever having to reach over and use my keyboard.  Plus, keyboard shortcuts which were once several different keys on the keyboard are now single keystrokes on the Nostromo!  

Anyway, thought I'd share that with you.  Once I finish the top portion of the cockpit on the Raijin cutaway I will post that up here.  I'll also try to post the other art stuff I'm doing when I can.

New Work-Technical Illustration

Check out my other blog for more views of work completed for the company I have been working for: Tungsten Advertising and their client Seatel: http://swhowardillustration.blogspot.com/

All work shown on this post and the post of the other site are property of Tungsten Advertising and Seatel 2011.

Sorry again for the delays in posting.  My last computer decided to crash the harddrive.  Recently I was blessed by a friend who was able to recover most of the disk and some of my previous work, like the Raijin cutaway, can be worked on once again.  That mistake will never happen again and I have and will keep expanding on my back up devices.  I currently now have my old macbook pro with a new drive and my new, main workhorse, a 27" iMac.  As always I will try and keep this site updated as often as I can.

Job!

Life has just gotten really crazy recently, but I am very thankful for it.  

I recently got a job as a contracted Technical Illustrator for an advertising company!!!  I am still working as a security guard as well, just to be able to pay the bills.

So needless to say, my cutaway of the Raijin is again... interupted, but thankfully so as I needed to get an art related career to get my foot into the professional artworld.  I will try my best to update this blog as often as I can.

Raijin Progress Update

As usual, my post is long over due. I'm still searching for an art job and am back to hitting the job boards once again. Thankfully, though it is a job as a security guard, I'm glad I have something to keep paying the bills while I look for a job in relation to what I studied so hard for. I've had a bit of a delay on all my work recently as I had surgery on my tail bone area and couldn't sit at my computer :( Even though I'm still healing I can finally get back to working on some self-promotional stuff and I even finally upgraded to Adobe CS5 :D I have a plan that hopefully will only be upset if I get an art related job, but, the image above will hopefully be part of a series of many cutaways to come involving some mecha from 80s anime and current anime, plus possibly a very iron hero of a man ;).

Anyway, here is an updated sketch of the Raijin suit (design by the amazing Emerson Tung!). This by far has been one of my most interrupted projects, but now that I've set a deadline you should see some updates on the project soon! Once I finish this base sketch it will be on to Adobe Illustrator to clean up the line work and then add color.

Christ Church Mural (finished!)

Needless to say, it has been quite some time since my last post. I have been very busy with many things... excuses, excuses, blah, blah, blah...

Nevertheless, here is a post I have been anxiously anticipating to make. I have not only finished my mural commissioned by my church, Christ Church at Park Presidio, but I have also just recently mounted the entire project!

The entire mural was produced in Adobe Illustrator

with vectors and high resolution photos of stained glass pieces which were then clipped digitally to fit into the drawings I had made. The project took over 280 hours. Each panel is 37.5 inches wide and 101 inches tall. There are 9 total panels- each removable. All of this started from a crude 30 second sketch one morning

at church.

From here I started working out various details to later work on.

Next I worked on the individual "medallions" that would help add extra story elements to each panel. Each panel had 2 "medallions" corresponding to the Biblical event depicted.

From there I finished the panels and they were sent off to a printer in Arizona that could print 4ft by endless.

The prints are giant stickers that we had to cut and peel. The process involved soaking the board surface and the sticker, then using a squeegee to take out the excess water and air to adhere the sticker to the surface.

Then we had to set the panels out to dry...

Then we put up all of the panels.

Come see the mural up close if you can at 856 Cabrillo St. San Francisco, CA 94121 10:30am on Sundays.

Special thanks to the printers in Arizona, Christ Church at Park Presidio and Sovereign Grace Ministries, and Toby Kurth, Jeff Locke, Gene Mercado, Scott Rim, Adam Lumb, and Ryan Edson for all the support and help to complete this project!

AX-1 Speed Form

Just one of those nights/mornings where I have a strong urge to illustrate something besides the current projects I'm working on. The sketch above is from last year and can be found earlier in the blog. I took it into Adobe Illustrator tonight and completed it in about two and a half hours. It's a good feeling (even if it keeps me up 'til 5am) to touch up a sketch like this. Hopefully I'll have time in the future to do more of these.

Christ Church Mural Sneak Peek #2

Still working on this thing! I have four more panels to go (two on the left and two on the right). Once that is finished the images will be sent out to a printing company and then printed and pasted on the movable panels at Christ Church at Park Presidio. It's been a fun experience thus far learning new tricks and size reducing methods in Adobe Illustrator. Here is a sneak peak at the middle five panels (top and bottom hidden). The full mural will be revealed on this blog once it is finished and printed and pasted on to the wall at the church. Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. It's been one of the most challenging and busy months I've had yet!