Sloppin’ the Paint Around Again – Mouthy Tree
Over the last few weeks I wanted to get back into stepping away from the computer and decided it was time to get all artsy up in hurrr. The Mouthy Tree is my follow up to my first acrylic painting The Little Pink Owl.
It’s not like I never unchain myself from the computer but I don’t do it enough. Sketching is one thing I usually do multiple times a day and I frigging love it but I wanted something that didn’t need to be printed out. Funny thing is, now I am thinking I want to get some prints of this done up.
Let me know what you think and if you wanna see more I suggest following me on twitter: @blakestevenson or instagram: jetpacksandrollerskates
I will usually post up my current progress and the other many jobs I have going on at any one time.
Will Pwn 4 Food and DodgeBots
Will Pwn 4 Food (my day job) has just released their first game DodgeBots. I wanted to showcase it here.
DodgeBots is a fast-action 3d game that you play in your browser for money. Up to 15 players operating DodgeBots enter in an arena. Through ressurections and power ups you dodge to survive, Thunderdome style! The top players will be rewarded.
How hard is it to sign up? Not at all:
- Sign up and log in with a verified PayPal email account
- Pick a game (free 2 play, pay 2 play, daily freeroll)
- Kick some Bot!
- BOOOOM!! You’re making money for playing video games.
Check out the DodgeBots trailer:
I urge you to check out Will Pwn 4 Food’s DodgeBots. It’s truly every kids dream! Making money playing games. The team and I have been working hard to bring you DodgeBots and will continue to build upon it.
Little Pink Owl Action!
Very happy with the way this turned out. A few issues with prepping the board but I have a good idea how to figure that out. I will have to say the best addition I have made to my creative arsenal is the Montana Black Acrylic Paint Marker. Allows for the precision and clean lines I have never felt I could get from a brush… I am not saying you can’t achieve precise and clean lines, just not the kind I am personally looking for.
Why a Little Pink Owl you ask? I urge you not to ask why but “whooo whooo” is the Little Pink Owl instead.
Hope you guys enjoy my work. Hit me up on Twitter or Instagram to see more of my work and progress!
Decked Out: My Gnarly Cat Skateboard Painting Project.
In the past, slapping some paint on old skateboards has been something I’ve wanted to do forever. Whether through lack of resources, time or motivation (probably all of the above) it has fallen by the way side… until now.
*This is not so much a how to paint a skateboard project but more of a how I painted a skateboard project. I am sure I will get messages and comments telling me of better ways to go about this and I too discovered MUCH better ways as I worked my way through.
Here we go. My step by step gnarly cat deck:
Rough sketching over white acrylic gesso.
Adding first color.
Applying second color and defining white outlines with Sharpie poster paint marker.
Now very minor shadow work with an alcohol based grey marker then the defining outlines with one of my all time favorites Montana acrylic paint marker.
And here you go! A look at what I finished with.
I hope you guys liked my post. If you want to see more of my work follow me on twitter @blakestevenson or instagram @jetpacksandrollerskates if you wanna see me post pictures of the work while it’s going on.
A Cristmas Carol for Comic Nerds Everywhere. Motion Comic Done Right!
If you haven’t stumbled upon it yet here is Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol in the key of Eric Powell’s the GOON (originally released on the Felicia Day’s YouTube Channel geekandsundry.com). I wouldn’t regularly regurgitate others web content like this but after watching this I needed to share it with my fellow nerds and artists. This is how motion comic should be done, a great look at how you can really amp up static, pencil drawings i might add, into stylized animation. Well, Merry Christmas and see you in the New Year!
Oh! and if you don’t know The GOON figure your shit out and educate yourself son!
A Walk About: Graffiti in Toronto (College and Spadina)
Toronto has always been a great source for the creative arts, a concrete jungle ripe with potential around ever corner. For years now, a hole in the wall parking lot located next to a Buddhist temple at the intersection of College and Spadina has caught my attention. Not only because of its reasonably Toronto parking and proximity to to my favorite hot spots in Toronto but because of the canvas it’s walls have become to graffiti artists. One day I will inquire further about the art but for now just check it out.
For anyone is looking for materials located at 289 College st. is a great paint shop called Joe Huffers but your gonna have to get there before Dec 1. cause it will be moving to 327 Spadina st. but awesome still.
How to refine handmade typography.
Recently I have been completely obsessed with script styled hand type. Anything with that analog flow only a hand can create. It’s only after you have touched pencil to paper can you the use a digital platform to refine your creation. Now, for anyone that is completely obsessive compulsive with creative projects they take on type like this is perfect for you but can also be your worst nightmare. You’ll always want to nudge and pull at it. To this day I see flaws in it but had to convince myself it was done or I would have gone completely mad.
Begin with pencil to paper. Then I scan my design and print it out in light blue color so you can refine further, changing line weights and improving on the flow of each of the letters. So much can be done with every character. An unlimited amount of nooks and crannies you can neatly fit the into itself.
Now take it to the digital stage. Using a program like Adobe Illustrator use the pen tool to smooth things out. If you are anything like me you get all excited and probably take your type to digital to fast. That’s not a bad thing though because you can now get a much better idea of the positive and negative space. This can also help you test it’s legibility (depending on how legible you want it to be). As you can see above I my type may not have been tidy as i wanted it to be so I began purging what I felt I didn’t need.
*TIP: The less pen tool nodes you use in your final illustration will keep your lines smooth as possible.
Finally, after trimming the fat and getting rid of any unwanted or not needed extras you can continue to refine until you are happy. Hope this helped a bit. I realize this isn’t a tutorial but you can’t really show someone how to do this kind of stuff you just keep trying it out. Enjoy!
*TIP: Try reversing the negative and positive space (like you see above). I find it helps in finding some flaws that you may not have cause before and you can see how it might reproduce on darker surfaces.
15 Artists on Dribbble from Toronto You Should Know About (via piccsy.com)
The fine folks at piccsy decided to say that Jetpacks and Rollerskates is one of the 15 dibbblers in Toronto that you should know about. So awesome! Thank you. Read the top 15 Piccsy article here.
Pretty pixel art and Candy for your Ears.
As a child born in the 80′s I was witness to many of things that now seem to mold todays pop culture. One of which continues blow, melt and expand my mind to seemly endless lengths is the video gaming industry. This could be why I chose a career in it.
Beginning with Shark! Shark! and Tron: Deadly Disc on the Intellevision console (image show above, witness its retro glory, we have come a long way!). Then moving to the more consumer driven Nintendo platform with hits like Mario Brothers and Zelda. All the way to the ever expanding gamut of titles that are released on my Playstation 3 and desktop computer everyday.
Now more recently video games, becoming modern trend setters, have learned to look at what brought you and I to the medium in the first place. They have managed to mimic the feeling games gave you through the sound and design, not in a carbon copy manner but in ways that truly allow the art form to grow in awesome ways.
I wanted to share with you three games that have been released in the last few years that just changed the way I looked at video games. The badass sound design matched with pixel based graphics that would put the triple “A” titles to shame. Check it:
Sword and Sorcery – Capy Games
Scott pilgrim vs. the world: The Game – UBISOFT Montreal
Bit Trip beat – Aksys Games
To learn more about the passion that goes into indie games check out the somewhat recently released, indie game the movie documentary.
It’s Cat Fun Time!
We have two cats. They are damn insane, like miniature furry devils. As joke, when people come over I explain to them that they are nuts but fabricate the stories suggesting they steal neighborhood kids bikes, or shank local convenience store owners… This is for my own amusement and to amplify the insanity. I like to tell stories.
These sketches are inspired by my cats. I hope you enjoy.
