katoo

Spectre

Finished painting commission for Micah, made in CSP! It's really fun painting in this watercolour style and I'd like to take on more work like this. 

Members of Ace tier can see the behind the scenes of this one here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/spectre-pencils-99690976 

Spectre - Pencils, thumbs etc

Pencils for a new painting commission with a supernatural neo-noir vibe. As you can possibly tell I've been watching a lot of horror films lately so I was very keen to flex my horror muscles. 

I saw Hereditary for the first time which unsurprisingly blew my mind. I was extremely interested in the colour palette and shot design (https://film-grab.com/2019/03/20/hereditary/) which consists mostly of greyish teal-green with red-orange focal points. Which happens to be the colour palette I use nearly constantly! I also tend towards a very dark range of values so the challenge here was finding a balance between deep shadow and definition of the character, which you can see in the thumbnails below:

I also used CSP's 3D mannequin to assist with the anatomy and lighting. I'll get a rough sketch of the pose down, position the model to match it, then make a tight sketch. After that I'll adjust the sketch more off my own judgement than copying the model directly bc it's always going to look a bit stiff and awkward.

You can see the completed painting here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/spectre-99693310 

Thanks for looking!

Adrift

Completed painting commission for Cam! Ace tier patrons can see the thumbnails and greyscale underpainting for this. I took a (really) long time experimenting with new techniques here and despite my frustrations with figuring it out I'm very happy with the result. 

I wanted a gouache/watercolour look after the style of 80s scifi illustration but also with heavy lens effects painted in. I think I ended up with something like mixed media + coloured pencil but also a much better idea of how to approach this method in the future.  Not to mention I've never painted a full interior before, but that's why I like doing comms since they're good ways to be forced outside your comfort zone.

Lens flares are cliche in scifi/fantasy by now but i've always been really interested in the spots of colour they naturally create in a composition.

I recently saw Mandy by Panos Cosmatos which was strong inspiration to keep exploring this motif and using trippy lighting. And all that monochrome red.....

Thanks for looking!

Space Royalty

Hi Patreon, I'm catching up with some crossposting. First up is this portrait painting commission for Kye where we decided to go with a baroque style for a scifi monarchy. The patterns on the tapestry are Truchet tiles made with this generator! For the cloak I had my partner's help as a live model and Durer's studies of drapery and cloth for inspiration.

Thanks for commissioning another painting!

Mutagenesis - CRT "screenshots"

Feeling the inevitable "this sucks wtf am i doing" emotional stage of this project but pushing through it bc thats all you can do! Currently trying to knock out as much remaining art as possible and that involves making a bunch of fake CRT monitor screenshots of the game. 

When I started this project I spent a lot of time experimenting with this CRT look and now I feel like I've got a pretty solid process, so I'll make a tutorial once I'm finished :) generally I start by drawing a larger scale image, resizing it to the correct resolution (256x224px or 640x400px) using nearest neighbour interpolation, and then assembling the CRT filter over the top. You can see the original scale drawings for these in the last pic above. This also saves me a lot of time bc I hate doing pixel perfect artwork and these images will appear small on paper. 

I wonder about what the final photocopied result will look like considering the image quality will be crunched several times by then... I'm hoping for at least "decipherable" lol

Thanks for looking <3

Deserted shuttle - underpainting and thumbnails

Happy new year! I'm back at work! This is the greyscale layer for another commissioned painting. I'm really fond of how this looks as is, maybe I should consider doing more painting in monochrome. I've also attached two preliminary thumbails and the final colour study.

Quick note: I'm changing my URLs across social media to Lead__castle ("lead" pronounced "led", "Lead castle" as in the fortress of lead bricks used to shield radioactive sources or detectors)
I'll miss cckatoo but I figured it was time for a a change!

Mutagenesis - Cover + Thoughts

And this is finally done! I had loads of fun with this and I'm very satisfied with the result. All done digitally in CSP. Now onwards to finishing the zine...

So a lot happened this year but I still made frustratingly little in terms of comics. As usual this is because capitalism is a nightmare and ends need to be met. Hopefully things start looking up soon (for me and the rest of the world).

On a positive note I feel like I've really matured as a painter and illustrator, which can probably be attributed to a few things. Upgrading to a professional tablet is obviously a big one, but taking commission work has always pushed me with every pic I finish. It gives me a chance to iteratively refine my skills, experiment and draw things I might never have drawn otherwise so I'm very thankful to everyone that has ever commissioned me!! Taking painting comms this year was also a big step because it was the first time I felt confident enough in my abilities to offer them, so special thanks to those commissioners :) <3

The other thing is that I feel like I finally know what art I want to make and how. Knowing specifically what I find most interesting to draw/paint makes planning and executing art a lot more straightforward and I've been gradually finding consistency in my work. For a really long time I struggled to define my artistic intent both conceptually and in practice, but now I feel like it's clicked into place. So if this is something you're struggling with, it will 100% come with time, practice and also attentiveness. Pay attention to the art that gets you fired up, and think about why it does.

Thanks for looking, as always

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free 🇵🇸

Mutagenesis - Cover pencils

The raw lines and shading for this cover painting, done in CSP. I really enjoyed experimenting with this new process and it was enormously beneficial to lay down the details and values before applying colour. it's also just really nice to be drawing like I'm using graphite again :) I will definitely be using this approach again, especially as I've been looking for more ways to combine both my illustration and painting skillsets.

Mutagenesis - Title

More fun stuff - designing the title. My type skills are a bit rudimentary with what I can do in CSP but I got to try another thing I've wanted to do for ages and make a hand-painted title :) I also drew up some sans serif and calligraphy versions in the fictional script I made for this project.

Going kinda slow atm since I caught a cold for my birthday on the weekend lol... but hoping to crack on with remaining commission work soon.

Mutagenesis - Cover thumbnails

With upcoming cons I'm really starting to think about finishing this project ASAP - and to encourage myself I'm doing the most fun thing first :) I've also been hankering to do a piece like this for a long time so I'm pretty excited about it. Inspiration is being drawn from my favs John Berkey and Cliff Spohn, and quite strongly from the beautiful cover of Aleste 2 for the MSX2:

Thanks for looking <3

Skate

Completed painting commission for Magnumb! Thanks again for letting me have so much artistic freedom on this - it's probably one of my favourite paintings to date now.

Made in CSP and Rebelle 5

Skate - WIP

My next painting commission is for Mag! I took a slightly different approach than normal by painting in the values of the figure first. This is a well known technique that I used when I was first teaching myself digital painting, but I was never rly happy with how it would look. Now I have a better understanding of how to paint values it felt like the completely natural way to start this painting, and I've saved a lot of time on lighting and detail work. This is one of reasons I enjoy commission work so much, it's constantly pushing me to learn and improve 🔥

Click through for captions, thanks for looking <3

Sunset Over Orkney

Completed painting commission for Jordan! (@degrinner) Thanks again for this amazing opportunity <3

Created in CSP and Rebelle 5

Sunset - WIP and process

Many thanks to those of you commissioning paintings from me! Work is slow but steady atm so I appreciate your patience. I'm really grateful for the the opportunity to do paintings for others as I've been building up my confidence to this point for a long time. 

This one is for Jordan! I started in CSP and then tried importing it into Rebelle and painting over the top and I'm extremely happy with the result. I feel confident this is how I'm going to be doing all my paintings from now on. All I've really wanted is to be able to drag a palette knife around a big canvas...

Back for more (Wyvern redesign WIP)

The more I was sitting with the Wyvern's design the more dissatisfied I could feel myself getting... typical!! I needed something light and organic that has a more prototypical, bestial feeling. I don't like overhauling designs this late in the game but I knew it was necessary lol

I wanted to have more exposed artificial muscle and skin visible under the armour plating so I used some studies of big cat anatomy as a reference and I'm wayyy more pleased with the outcome. The head has also been updated with the re-addition of the two downwards sensors that originally I had cut since I figured they wld be too hard to draw consistently. The lower jaw has a bit too much of an Eva feel and the tail still needs work and I still need to draw other angles etc etc but it's coming together nicely :)

Thanks for looking!!

Commission Form OPEN

Now taking responses! Please fill out a form if you'd like a slot :) I'll be leaving responses open until 30/08/23 5:00pm AEST

Opening for commissions today

Hey guys, I’ll be taking on a new round of B&W fullbody commissions over the next couple days. I’m making some adjustments to my workflow and pricing to reflect the amount of time spent on these, my upgraded equipment, and my generally improved skills. (For those that don’t know I recently upgraded my tablet to a Huion Kamvas Pro 24, highly recommend it!)

Fullbody B&W comms are now $200USD; background work, extra characters, design work, detailed props and costumes etc. are estimated at 1.5x-2x the base price.

Patrons get a 5% or 10% discount off the total depending on your tier! You also have priority on claiming a slot over non-patrons.

I will be taking applications through google forms and corresponding via email this time, so pls don’t DM me. I’ll post the form link shortly and leave it up for a couple days.

I am also open to EOI’s for digital oil painting commissions. Atm I’m interested in character/fursona portraits and things similar to my current body of work. Pricing starts at $500USD, patreon discount also applies. Shoot me an email at aschweinsberg.art@gmail.com if interested :)

Keep an eye out for the form which will be posted soon. Thanks guys 🧡

ToTK Fanart WIP2

Still wasn't happy with the colours and lighting but after some thinking and messing about i've finally been able to nail the look and commit to painting the bg. Very happy with how it's turning out now and extra glad i was able to dial in on the orange/teal/green palette with enough tonal complexity :] back to commission work in the mean time!

ToTK Fanart WIP

I finished playing tears of the kingdom recently and can easily call it my favourite game. i really don't play a lot of video games and least of all to completion so this is a big deal for me LOL  

so i've been chipping away at this between commission work. still scratching my head over the colours but i think i'm at a point where i'm pleased. i wanted to incorporate the orange/teal palette that appears a lot in the game bc it love it, also used the zorn palette for my starting point which worked great! the plan is to eventually ink this while keeping the colours painterly/textured bc i still want a strong graphic quality, so fingers crossed it works.

thanks for reading and a happy august to everyone x

Triangle Tangle Tango

after working with B&W for a while i always get the urge to refresh my palate with colour so i did this today for some painting practice :)

i recently discovered the Zorn palette and was shocked i hadn't heard about it before since i paint almost exclusively in those tones to begin with!! since then i've been thinking nonstop about using it and what to do for my next major painting. 

i'm not sure if this one is Zorn-compliant but already i feel a lot more confident about ditching blue. it's actually exciting to have an excuse to formally drop blue from my paintings as i always seem to give into the temptation of using it to bump contrast, and then wonder why the blue-less underpainting always looks much nicer to me lol... i love limited complementary palettes but i've finally found my higher calling 🙏

Leftover convention stock for sale

Hey everyone, apologies for being quiet lately :') the past 6 months have been a nonstop series of events but i'm finally finding the time to get back into art. 

Last month I had an amazing experience dealing for the first time at Aurawra and i definitely plan to do local cons on the regular now. I have a fair amount of leftover inventory so I'd like to try offering it to anyone who missed out. 

Prints are all on super matte 250gsm stock and turned out extremely well. Colours aren't precisely represented in these pics but they are really vibrant!

Waterproof vinyl stickers are $5 each and all around 3 inches. The helmet comes with a holo coating.

For more info and to place an order please use this form: https://forms.gle/KpUPDA7mwij9xm2f7 

Thank you!!

MUTAGENESIS poster - Take 3 (WIP)

This project is still on the backburner but not forgotten. after sitting with the second version of this poster for some time i realised i still wasn't hitting the desired mark and decided to give the painting another overhaul. 

i was eschewing the use of cinematic/photographic effects in painting for a while as i used to use a lot of it in my much earlier digital art and i'm also tired of the same old look in every new blockbuster movie poster. however i realised that if i want this to look like a full-page ad in an early 90's video game magazine then i was gonna have to lean into the high contrast filmic effect. i'm much happier with the look and it also brings some much needed realism to the background as well as framing the figures better.

Right: Original version, Left: second revision. i still enjoy the vibrancy of the blues but in the end it wasn't meant to be! new version still needs work but i'm confident i'm heading in the right direction.

If any new patrons are interested in the work for this secret-ish thing you can see everything in the project tag below :) thanks for reading!

Activation

Finished and unmangled version of the inks i posted earlier. i spent about as much effort on detailing the colour work as i did with the lines and had a nice time :) $3 tier patrons can check out the inks here.

Activation (Inks)

Getting back into the feel for things by being self indulgent. this began as my tight sketch layer but i decided not to ink it bc i liked the lines as is. 

i've been watching scale modelling videos lately and it really put me in the mood for some gritty detail drawing. if you're ever stuck on building up mechanical detail and greebles i would highly suggest returning to the source and studying modified builds of scale model kits. especially since resin 3D printing has entered the hobby people have been able to cram soo many extra tiny details into simplified designs. scale modelling is also a useful reference on how to introduce more realism into mechanical objects through weathering etc. i would recommend this channel which is also highly informative for anyone into modelling.

now i really want to get back to all the unfinished gunpla kits i have sitting around LOL

and here's the bonus colour roughs

thanks for reading!

Sticker designs preview

This June i'll be having the pleasure of tabling at Aurawra in Sydney, which is going to be the first time i've ever had a dealer's table at a con @_@ so i'm starting off with making sticker designs from some existing artwork and trying to come up with some new designs. 

so far i've been really enjoying myself so i hope these sell lol... i don't have the executive function to run a shop and international postage is stupid expensive so this is a pretty rare opportunity for me to sell things. i'll also be offering prints, originals and hopefully some limited run riso posters if i can design a new illustration in time. maybe i'll see you there :3

Wyvern - Cover design finalised

Sneaking in at the last minute with the finalised thumbnail for Wyvern's first volume cover. i had to wrack my brain on this for ages but i had a lot of helpful feedback from friends and now i'm very happy with the result. it also helped to revise the gravitational lensing effect once again and now i'm REASONABLY certain i have it drawn correctly LOL

you can see the first series of thumbs i did here. 

in other news i have moved house but my new workspace is fully set up and i'm getting back on that "grind". my priority now is to prepare stock for my first time ever tabling at a local convention so you'll be seeing some of that. exciting!

hope everyone is doing well, thanks for sticking around while things have been quiet <3

Chapter 1 roughs - pg 12-14

Back to work on Wyvern chapter 1! always a challenge to make back and forth conversation look interesting on the page but i'm getting the hang of it. doesn't look much like a friendly work chat...

Sirius Alpha mech design (WIP)

Wow thanks everyone for being patient since my last update!! since recovering from surgery i've been playing catchup with life admin and we're also going to be moving in a few weeks so things are pretty busy atm. i desperately want to get more art out in the mean time though.

this is a rough second pass at a few of the mechs featured in Wyvern, since i figured i may as well nail down the designs before i need to draw them again in the comic. 

i also tried a quick colour scheme on Alecs's Hoatzin but had a hard time deciding how i want to balance realistic military drab with unrealistic flashy livery. this mech is more of a stealth model anyway so i might try colouring the others first.

i hope everyone has been well, and thanks as always and forever for sticking around :)

Chapter 1 rough sketches (pg 5-9) + notes

With dialogue! Sonny goes about his very normal day. some pages i think look a bit nicer than the rest of the vague scribbles i've done so far. 

a few designs crop up in the chapter such as the ISA/Gemini R&D building on pg.6 which i am basing almost 1:1 off the Surry Hills cop shop, a suitably oppressive brutalist building that i often see from the bus:

i also realised i needed to solidify the design for the Wyvern's control sticks. the ultimate fidget toy:

for the test cockpit + gear i wanted it to look more suited for use in gravity and also have the vibe of something cobbled together out of surplus. i'm also doubling down on making all of my cockpit interiors look way more cramped. i've spent some time looking at tank cockpits for reference, which are all pretty hardcore since you're usually sitting next to live munitions and massive chunks of moving machinery. other real world references include rally cars, which is especially apparent in the "roll cage" design, and jet fighters. 

thanks for looking, more art is on the way :)

Cover design sketches

happy new year! aside from sketching more comic pages my first art of the year is a revisit of the design for Wyvern's first cover. i am currently tossing up between thumbnail 2 and 2a, what do you think?

i have stuck with the black hole image and really tried to push the concept to be as in your face as possible. i think it was something Tim Sale said in his artbook about cover design that stuck in my head, at the end of the day the best kind of cover is one that is able to stand out on a shelf surrounded with other books.

its also fun to revisit the gravitational lensing effect and seeing where i can take it. the figure i used as reference comes from this paper (http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/32/6/065001) which i am not smart enough to read but it was still helpful