Stuff I Drood

some raw sketchbook pages

2012-01-27T11:35:00.000-08:00

so freeing to just to just let it flow !

Some pages from my new sketch pad which is already in rough shape.it is glued at the top and as i flip the pages they crease and become unglued as i go so i started taping then I'm as i worked .about 5 pages in the top starts to get all weird so that's not working .Some one in our sketch group (Jordan) suggested using one of those metal clip thing's and I'm not sure if he meant it the way I'm using it now but its working .the cover is ripped off and held on by the clip as are the loose pages and when i work i just clip the cover to the back and go to it .Savage:)

a ship i pulled out of my doodles that im in the process of painting up

SMG Concept

2012-01-21T18:54:00.000-08:00

So i was updating my site and realized i had basically 1 concept ! And that's what i really want to be doing! Idiot.So this is an attempt to boost my concept count. what do you think? how does it read ?is the back ground weird?Any feed back ,tips or notes from my concept peeps or anyone would be super appreciated!

Jan 5th zbrush muck

2012-01-05T11:44:00.000-08:00

today i used Z spheres and made a horribly proportioned dinosaur:P At the tail end i tried out poly paint a little bit.rrrrraaarrrrrr......

Jan 4th lunch speed zbrush head

2012-01-04T11:46:00.001-08:00

Papercraft

2012-01-04T05:47:00.000-08:00

I made these years ago and never posted them .There pretty low res but they make for interesting work desk clutter .I still haven't printed out any for myself to put together ! Sorry if they suck :P ! If you print these out and assemble them please email me photos! Dan@danbeaulieu.com

2012 New year sketch book!

2012-01-04T05:42:00.000-08:00

going to try to have a single place to just crap out ideas good or bad with out the pressure to make them awesome or finished etc .i want to loosen up and try and refrain from inking everything .I may try and take more raw pencil pieces into Photoshop to go strait to some quick paint-ups.stay tuned!

Nasicaa fan art

2012-01-04T05:39:00.000-08:00

some one lent me the Nasicaa books and i was very inspired so i busted this out as a thank you.

Ink an watercolor

jan3rd Zskull

2012-01-03T11:42:00.000-08:00

z-brush muckl'n

2011-12-29T17:23:00.000-08:00

a much needed upgrade to my skill set moving into the future of games and art and all that. Trying to do 30 minutes a day with no goal in mind other than to learn tools,menus brushes.I was shown a skull as a tutorial last month at work it does seem to be a nice sampler of problems/solutions etc plus even abstracted its familiar to everyone .

Nerf mod/repaint- Recon CS-6 and Spectre Rev-5

2011-12-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

painting materials:

Krylon fusion for plastics spray paint black
Krylon fusion for plastics spray paint cappuccino
cheap Hair spray
Ceramcoat -Burnt Umber 2025
Ceramcoat -Trail Tan 2435
Testors matte spray paint of your choice for the main color .i used a matte sand fpt the guns and medium green for the clips.
sand paper
big cheap brushes
water cup
big sheet of card board or some place safe to paint
old never to be used again towel

some basic steps:

buy Nerf guns
buy some Plastic airsoft scopes or gun bits off the internet.
apply black spray paint to everything .keep all parts and accessories apart. let dry
mask off areas of choice .
Spray masked areas with cappuccino paint
spray heavely with hairspray to easy paint removal.
spray with your color of choice .Tan in my example .let dry
remove masking material
wet sand paper and gentally scour the newly painted surface (the non black area) .it will fall apart and turn to pulp in your hand but it should add cool nicks and scratches .Its really easy to go over board here .wipe off extra grim after this is done .
Apply a liberal coating of thinned down brown paint to the newly painted and weathered areas .Let dry and then wipe of raised areas with a damp towel leaving the recesses brown and worn looking.
Apply a liberal coating of thinned down tan paint to the black areas.Let dry and then wipe of raised areas with a damp towel.
assemble.
destroy your enemies.

Personal Comic Book Project officially begins today

2011-12-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

I think It's time to focus my often divided attention on a single project .The people who know me know i have been chewing on a graphic novel idea for years now and the fact that i still think about it means its probably worth doing and so ......

346 Newton ST

2011-12-09T06:31:00.001-08:00

Snow expadition

2011-12-09T06:30:00.003-08:00

Christmas Candy Man

2011-12-09T06:30:00.001-08:00

3 ink wash updates

2011-12-04T18:00:00.001-08:00

Christmas Spaced out Deer Alien

2011-12-04T17:26:00.001-08:00

Silly portraits meets Christmas! im sure more to come:)

ChristmasTusktard

2011-12-04T17:25:00.001-08:00

Kandorian Jungle Vulture

2011-12-04T17:22:00.001-08:00

Needle Horned Tusk face

2011-12-04T17:20:00.001-08:00

Zandangian Face Peeler

2011-12-04T17:17:00.001-08:00

With top mounted Helmet link for easy targeting:)

Blood Angel Space Marine

2011-12-04T17:15:00.001-08:00

just Cuz

Austin Con post#2 Some Con Photos Via Virginia

2011-11-16T14:42:00.001-08:00

Virginia was nice enough to share her photos and i was rude enough to steal them !check it yo's! this picture almost leads you to believe that I know what I'm doing .haha

some quick sketch trades i did for Chad Townsend .

fiveyes

2011-11-16T06:21:00.001-08:00

himalayan goat dog

2011-11-16T06:20:00.001-08:00

Botler

2011-11-15T08:28:00.001-08:00

Hitlers Brain is back as a robot and its Pissed !!!

TMNT!

2011-11-15T08:26:00.001-08:00

...them turtle boys don't cut em no slack! did this at Austin Comic Con

A bat man !

2011-11-15T08:24:00.001-08:00

not "THE " bat man.Did this at the Austin con .

Austin Comic Con

2011-11-15T08:02:00.001-08:00

I did the Austin con this year and it was a good first experience! didn't sell hardly anything but did some great trades and got some great art from some notable piers:

chad townsend
http://virginiacritchfield.blogspot.com/
http://applecrow.carbonmade.com/
http://gofortea.blogspot.com/
http://averycolemanart.blogspot.com/

mental note: - vertical representation .I think a tall banner and some art displayed upright would have gone a very long way .

didn't get hardly an pictures except for 2 .this sort of sums it up though :P

yes those are paint swatches.

Gimpy Jim

2011-10-28T05:29:00.000-07:00

hmnmmnflunmpmn!!!

Comps!

2011-10-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

playing with water colors at sketch night

comp#4/100

Comp#5/100

Comp#6/100

Comp#7/100

Comp#8/100

Comp#9/100

Comp#10-13 /100

Kahtman

2011-10-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

Ogre Bunny

2011-10-22T05:58:00.004-07:00

HammerHead Guy

2011-10-22T05:58:00.002-07:00

Alien Dame

2011-10-22T05:58:00.000-07:00

Jelly Head

2011-10-22T05:57:00.002-07:00

Tony Tenticle

2011-10-22T05:57:00.000-07:00

kachina

2011-10-22T05:56:00.003-07:00

gimp

2011-10-22T05:56:00.001-07:00

Hooligan portrait

2011-10-17T04:53:00.000-07:00

Steamarine

2011-10-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

Fauna

2011-10-08T07:02:00.001-07:00

spacesage

2011-10-08T07:00:00.001-07:00

Alien Pilot

2011-10-06T04:50:00.001-07:00

Kahtmahn

2011-10-06T04:49:00.001-07:00

hooligahn

2011-10-06T04:37:00.001-07:00

laser ranger Rick

2011-10-04T05:38:00.000-07:00

inked with a brush

Coup D' Draw

2011-10-04T05:37:00.001-07:00

Vigil Nights was Bitchin

2011-09-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

Thank you thank you thank you.

Thank you everyone for showing up and checking things out and making it all so worth while! A special thanks to the small group of people that worked there butts of planning it all! Thank you to everyone who put art in the show and made it so deversed and a lot of fun to wander through.

The Reason i make art is because an itch in the back of my head tells me to do so .Showing it in public is Rarely something i consider so it was an interesting experience.

I realized just today i took no photos in the gallery ! I'm hoping others did and i will post some up later .

this was my table of goods.

Second run of sketchbook vol2!!

2011-09-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

100 new copies! if you missed the first run grab one . each one is 10 bucks and it comes with a sketch .

http://danbeaulieu.bigcartel.com/product/dan-beaulieu-sketchbook-v-2

Vigil art show this Friday !(Sept 23rd 2011)

2011-09-20T04:57:00.001-07:00

One night only ! I will have 9 pieces up at the show for you to come down and check out . I will also be selling my inventory of drawings and small paintings out side the art show and if the printer comes through sketchbooks as well.

http://www.yelp.com/events/austin-vigil-nights

should be fun ! I've been really impressed by all the different art work going into the show .It is almost easy forget what can come from having a building full of artists .come down and support if you have the chance .

Some samples from my art heap.

If that's not enough our Infamous Tommy Spampinato (Stomps) will be playing with his band at club Deville after the show ! come get drunk and meet the artists.

http://www.myspace.com/hardproofafrobeat

Sword concept color

2011-09-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

here is the finished Colored concepts . I'm ready to start working on the base mesh for the raven blade and then get to Z brushing.

Sword concept WIP

2011-09-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

So I am going to start really tackling z brush and actually make something from Concept to completion. .After immediately getting way to ambitious I decided to pull it back a bit and do a single sword . I did 3 concepts very quickly in sketchbook pro which has been nice for doing quick tonal painting and has a nice mirror function which is ideal for swords . I'm going to add some color to all three next before i get started in zbrush .

So which one would you choose? A,B,C?

composition3/100

2011-09-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

first one is the sweet one the second the not so sweet one . that's for you john O ;)

composition #2/100

2011-09-09T12:01:00.001-07:00

later revision form some friend feed back

composition #1 /100

2011-09-08T16:50:00.000-07:00

I'm going to do a hundred speed compositions over the next while .I need to go into the dojo and punch some art till my hand bleeds.this is the first one . #1

Callisto WIP

2011-09-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

almost there .

Pirate run gun Final

2011-08-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

done in acrylic

2'x3'...i think

10000 views!

2011-08-10T16:27:00.000-07:00

another milestone in blogging for me ! 10000 visits to my blog . today i was playing with sketchbook pro's symmetry stuff. pretty freaking fun!

HAM WHALE!!!

2011-08-06T07:19:00.001-07:00

macgyver light

2011-07-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

at home depot you can buy all diffident kinds of pvc pipes and connectors .for about 12 bucks i was able to put together this simple frame work .I bough some cheep clamp lights and electrical taped them onto the frame so that they would stay put .So far I am really happy with it .I put a 75 watt daylight bulb at the top and 40 at the bottom so its not cooking me while i work next to it .the foot part is simple and flat so its not in the way at all .I didn't glue any of it so i can expand it or shrink it if i needed .I may at some point need to glue the T joint connecting the bottom to the top part just for stability.I used a foot pedal button extension cord to make it easy to turn on and off. Its not pretty but its cheap, simple to customize, lightweight and portable:)

Buffa Lo-Fi complete

2011-07-31T08:23:00.000-07:00

I had to get together a piece of art for an art show and what a great reason to pull up my socks light a fire under my ass and get this thing finished !

I finally got my studio set up in a way that i had good light and decent space to leave things where they need to be and with access to everything. I made a McGyver spot light as well to create decent mobile lighting so i could paint morning noon and night with out needing daylight. I will share the creation of that in another post .

I started this thing 2 years ago and then it collected dust for a very long time!I really didn't know how to tackle such a big piece of art (4'x3' ). It really gave me a headache just contemplating it but you know how you paint a big painting ? Big brushes! who knew? ha-ha!! the smallest brush i used was a 1/4 inch wedge brush 3/4 flat comb brush but the biggest and most used brush was 2 inch house painting brush .what a massive learning experience and confidence builder for painting larger pieces .

I got a lot of great mentoring through this project from my pal Joe ! thanks Joe !!Special thanks to Maisy doodle for keeping my studio free of squirrels !

speed painting- mist

2011-07-25T08:11:00.000-07:00

i think 2 hours? always at 20 minutes at a time so its hard to remember .

200th post!! / speed paint -caravan

2011-07-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

wow 200 posts.It kinda fun to look back through the art sediment layers and see the mini-eras even in the short span of a few years . here is to many more posts and a lot more learning ! thank you to all who have given me support and swung by to check out Stuff I Drood!

bazooka Joseph

2011-07-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

done over the course of a morning and 2 lunches.

learning about tones.

july 12th life drawing

2011-07-13T06:37:00.001-07:00

been a while

plein air painting for lunch today

2011-07-11T18:33:00.000-07:00

ahhhh this was a lot of fun and very relaxing . as usually scanning them makes them look like butt but here they are anyway :)

a quick learning paint over

Speed painting- chaos gate

2011-07-09T07:19:00.001-07:00

Trail.weekly speed painting

2011-07-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

a couple hours . did some quick thumb nailing on paper then scaled and squashed it into what i wanted .

Orbit 2

2011-07-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

about an hour . hes embarking on a salvage mission .what will he find ? treasure ? death ? super death treasure?

target lock

2011-07-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

bulls eye

2011-07-04T06:47:00.002-07:00

Spy plane

2011-07-04T06:47:00.000-07:00

Jet Pack

2011-07-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

Machinegun

2011-07-04T06:45:00.002-07:00

Spec-ops

2011-07-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

mobile Artillery

2011-07-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

AA

2011-07-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

Speed paint of the day .Orbit

2011-06-30T16:33:00.000-07:00

Speed painting."Marooned"

2011-06-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

hour and a half? we started doing themed speed paintings at work and its a total blast!its nice to pull the art cork out of my ass and just try and get an idea across.

this is another "speed painting " i did last week that was anything but .spent hours and hours and got totally bogged down in noodling.gah.Some little parts of it i am OK with and I did learn a few things and make some decent brushes but i think there's alot that got lost in this. oh well on to the next.

Easy paint tool Sai

2011-05-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/

I saw this a month ago when Nick Southam had discovered it and was messing with it.I played with it briefly today and i LOVED it . It has a lot of what i love about painter and Photoshop all squooshed into one .I'm sure its got its issues but I'm impressed with the realistic media brushes which are a breath of fresh air from the stampy crisp tools of Photoshop .
If its capably wasn't enough it takes up very little space AND uses very little memory AND costs 64.00! The low footprint makes if function well on a laptop to add to the goodness. This makes a very powerful painting tool available to the art masses which is huge when you think of the price barrier of getting started and getting your hands on legit software .Much like my art bag I'm really big on cheap cost , mobility and accessibly.

I think we will be friends.

PS- please don't let the crappinesss of the attached picture dampen your interest in checking the software out :)

there are many m 51 engineering bags but this one is mine.

2011-05-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

a little flare added :) more to come I'm sure.

have been busy art'n but unable to post . hopefully soonish.

Revenge of the titans Art Kudos

2011-04-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

i just finished Revenge of the titans yesterday at lunch and holy crap that was probably the toughest end boss/last level Ive ever faced !

Its really great to see the right art married to the right genre of game and i think this is a fantastic example .i was immediately immersed in the simple little story and the art was able to convey the same feel both during the game play and with the cut screens and UI .I would call this almost a high resolution pixel art .Beautiful.

nerdy game play note:

In the last level i finally figured out that linking up 4 radars to turrets dramatically extends their reach and ended up being key in taking out the final boss .If i would have known this early on it would have greatly changed my approach to the game i am sure.

playing with /making brushes

2011-04-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

some oddness .i made a weird bush that makes a sort of texture oil paint brush .not super controllable but seems nice for quick under paint stuff.

Vigils First life Drawing Jam!

2011-04-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

Our studio along with some in company volunteers put together a first ever life drawing session and it was a total blast! it was nice to get back into it because its a whole diffident art muscle set than drawing laser blasting pig monkeys . The only Life drawing i had attended prior was hour long posing sessions over 3 hours and this on the other hand was several 5 min ,10 min poses and then a 20 min then finally a 30 min .Both have there merits but the latter givers you more opportunity to try stuff out and grow. Thanks to everyone who put this together!!

New Blog !

2011-04-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

Mine craft has been a fun little distraction as of late and i love that you can quickly re-skin your character when ever you like .I LOVE doing pixel art so this is a fun quick little exercise to put together a new texture and its fun to try and get across an idea with so few pixels .Fun!

http://torchandpick.blogspot.com/

Sketchbooks are in!!

2011-03-14T12:03:00.001-07:00

Just picked up my sketchbooks! I have to say I am pretty satisfied with the job they did and they are now officially for sale.

the books are 8.00 dollars (us) each and are 40 pages signed with a sketch.

you can pick one up here.

http://danbeaulieu.bigcartel.com/

Gradient Map Tutorial

2011-03-10T08:45:00.000-08:00

I discovered this about 2 years ago and its a nice Little thing to have in your Digital tool box .I often find my self trying to explain the process to people but i feel like words alone fall Short with out some example.This illustrates the steps involve but it definitely takes some individual experimentation to get it to work for you.

Lets Dig in!

this will be our test subject .hovering sphere .make a selection of the sphere

At the bottoms of the layers panel select the create new fill/ adjustment layer icon and select gradient map. It will look immediately odd because it uses the first preset by default.
In the presets select the 3rd preset in .this will make everything look normal again .This is because it is a gradient that goes from dark on the left to light on the right.this is important to remember in order to work with gradient maps.The color on the far left will be applied to the darkest value and the far right color will be applied to the lightest value.
You are ready to start messing with colors!
You can create or select the existing" tabs" along the gradient and adjust their color using the color swatch below the gradient.you will notice that each tab has adjustable points on ether side to clamp the color closer to the original point. You can also delete with the delete button or select one and repeat it elsewhere just by touching the gradient. A big part of using these effectively is sliding the tabs along the gradient so you get the right color matching the right value range . Try it out and see what you get.

So you can see at the bottom you can get some nice smooth color transitions really quickly and i think it ends up looking much better than a simple overlay.Using multiple selections you can quickly color an image even if its only to get some base colors in .

A nice use for these in games is also matching colors between several textures by just dragging and dropping gradient map layers into other image files and then tweaking.

I hope this is helpful ! If you catch any mistakes(which i am sure you will) or can see places to make this tutorial better please let me know and i will edit .thanks!

minotaur machinegutter

2011-03-09T08:31:00.000-08:00

last years lost art #5

2011-03-09T08:21:00.000-08:00

last years lost art #4

2011-03-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

last years lost art #3

2011-03-09T07:45:00.003-08:00

last years lost art #2

2011-03-09T07:45:00.001-08:00

last years lost art #1

2011-03-09T07:44:00.001-08:00

Big arm Whats it

2011-03-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

Picked up my sketch book Proof this morning

2011-03-03T12:21:00.000-08:00

sorting out some details then were printing ! more info to come when i have them in my clutches!

Why Crabs have one big arm

2011-02-23T20:08:00.003-08:00

The Wolf and the Shepherd

2011-02-23T20:06:00.000-08:00

Techno samurai with balloon

2011-02-23T20:04:00.001-08:00

Owlapillar!!

2011-02-23T20:03:00.001-08:00

StarJack Star-fighter Process Wip

2011-02-23T19:55:00.000-08:00

Heres the steps on the Starjack varients.

Do your initial Sketch
Scan in the drawing and remember the settings for some later steps.That or just don't change them;)
Impose some rough Geo using a 3d program.This was just ment to be a guide for me seeing as im still struggling with perspective.the nice part is theres nothing "true" about the Geo placement i just rotated the shapes until they looked right. I wouldn't necessarily do this step every time.
Now print out your images.The important step was to print the image on the page and let it do it at its native resolution which should be 1:1 with the original .
Draw all the crazy stuff you want to add!!Weeeeee!!!
Scan the new drawings in using the original scanner settings .because the image is 1:1 you can copy paste the new detail drawings over your original in Photoshop.Line them up .
erase the crappy parts of the new Drawing revealing the original underneath.
Done!