Few new sketches

These sketches were inspired by angry business men in Range Rovers on the motorway....

Abstract minimalism

I'm working on a sketchbook, something I will add a mixture of photo, illustration and design content too and deliver as a sort of Flash interactive booklet in a post that can be clicked through and explored.

While I find time to build this I have dropped a few pages into a Photobucket account, I'm usually all about Flickr but sometime's you just need somewhere to stick stuff, no frills just an easy access image gallery.

Although my work is usually pretty intricate I actually quite enjoy minimalism, I'm putting a series of minimalist landscapes together to complement a photography project (Link) and these sketches help me get my brain in the right mood for it.

Retouch

As retouching photographs is relevant to both my illustration AND my photography I have decided to post it on both blogs..

Retouching photographs... a constant source of frustration for the less IT inclined members of the photographic community. There is always a DVD or a seminar on at every photography show I speak at about the subject, how to do it quickly "one click retouching!" or easily (plugins for Photoshop etc..)

I think the truth is retouching photographs can be a rather laborious process, involving a mixture of Actions in Photoshop combined with more complicated layer-based editing and I don't really think there is any quick or easy way to achieve the things you see in magazines. If you want quality results, you really have to throw yourself into learning the tools, Photoshop and correct RAW processing being the primary ones. I treat retouch as a creative exercise, combining traditional retouch activities (skin smoothing, shaping and light adjustments) with my illustration.

These are a couple of images I use as retouch samples, a Product image and a bit of Wedding:































These were created with RAW editing in Aperture 2 to correct exposure, highlights and shadow and correct White Balance, followed by Photoshop for cloning, patching and softening work on multiple layers. In the case of the product photo I used the table as a guide for lighting but dropped the camera onto a white backdrop to really isolate it. A reflection was painted in on a transparent layer beneath. The dress on the wedding piece was balanced using a soft light layer, soft light allows you to pull up the brightness in shadows and even out harsh lighting - If you fill the layer with neutral grey (50%) when you create it you can just gently paint in the lightening using a 10% white paintbrush. I use a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet for all my illustration work, the ergonomics of using a pen make it an unbeatable experience and I highly recommend it to anyone looking at retouch or digital illustration, I'll try and put up a post about how I use a tablet in the near future.

Womens Athletics

I am getting back into doing more and more illustration, in order to court a few healthy/lifestyle magazines I have been doing an illustration's on athletics:











Another sketch/idea for this follows:

More..

So the project continues to develop... this is another concept piece for the performance I am working on - I send my ideas on to the choreographers who work out the actual movement, they then present a piece to myself and the other camera operators and we work out how to shoot it.

I want to overexpose the whole shoot to give it a "bathed in light" type look

Flat Art

I was recently reminded that I haven't posted any Illustration in a while... In fact the suggestion was that I had abandoned illustration in exchange for my photography! @ www.antonphotographer.blogspot.com

This is not the case :P I am still drawing and painting when I can.. unfortunately I now deal with video evangelism in my job now and have very little time to do anything!!

Here are a few illustrations I reworked for my new flat: