Liveblogging: Ichthyosaur Edition! (Part 5)

In an attempt to liven up the piece and give it some more movement, I've started to add a bunch of squid for my mixosaur to pester.  The squid are completely drawn, coloured and copy-pasted digitally.

I can't decide if I need way more squid to make the school effective or not.  Comments and suggestions are truly welcome!

Liveblogging: Ichthyosaur Edition! (Part 4)

...add some shading and skin texture, and the mixosaurus is starting to emerge from it's ugly faze.
Time to add more underwater detail...

Liveblogging: Ichthyosaur Edition! (Part 3)

Added a simple background...

Ask a Biologist is BACK!

Hi all!  Be sure to check out the NEW version of Ask a Biologist!  It's swanky and fresh and full of verve!  So, ask that biology question you always wanted answered!  Check out the new blog!  Meet the scientists!  All Around Yay!

Liveblogging: Ichthyosaur Edition! (Part 2)

This is Mixosaurus!  Say hi!  As you can see above, he's been given a basic blue colouring.  This is only the beginning...

Liveblogging: Ichthyosaur Edition! (Part 1)

Without a full day to dedicate to liveblogging (aka doing art for 15 hours consecutively in one sitting!), this edition of liveblogging will be an ongoing event where WIPs will be posted often.

For this edition, an ichthyosaur is the subject (to be included into May's ART Evolved Ichthyosaur Gallery!)  While teaching Math yesterday, I managed to throw down a quick sketch of an ichthyosaur I kinda liked.

I like how droopy his snout is - he looks very Muppet-like.  And, yes, his tail is completely wrong!  He was sketched in pencil, then the brightness was digitally lowered to give him an inked look.  From here, I plan to digitally colour him and place him in a created environment.

Any guesses as to his name?

Burgess Shale Birthday Comic: An Experiment...

I recently purchased plasq's Comic Life with the intention of starting some sort of comic strip.  The program allows me to layout images like a comic and easily add titles and dialogue bubbles.  It actually is really fun and easy to use!  As a test, I took my Anomalocaris Regret piece and created the above one page comic.

I am pleased with the result, but the premise of this future project is still unknown.  Suggestions?

Barosaurus Finished

Barosaurus and Allosaurus ©2009

Created during liveblogging for ART Evolved's Sauropod Gallery.  See it's creation here.

I returned to this piece after six months and decided to play with the contrast and lighting...  I think I'll say it's finished and be done with it.  For some reason, I love some aspects (puddles, rain wash) and hate others (rain effect, simple forest, colours).  A fun experiment!

New Portfolio and Updates!

Update: 
In keeping with the blog redesign and the online transition of Bond: Unprofessional Doodler (just fooling around) to Bond: Amateur Artist (on the track towards professionalism), I have created a new professional-looking portfolio!  Click here to check it out!

The portfolio is hosted (free!) through deviantArt, and I am quite pleased with the results.  Having had an account with dA for a few years, I found it very easy to organize and transfer images.  If anyone is interested, my deviantArt profile is here.

Art Update:
I am currently working on a few things:

• a coral reef painting - a large piece to hang above the fireplace, full of colourful coral, fish, and invertebrates!  I have had this image in my head since scuba diving in the Philippines, of slowly drifting towards the edge of a reef and peering down the wall into the dark depths...  The painting is still in the initial stages; the reef has been sketched and the background ocean blue has been painted.  Stay tuned for updates, as I am quite excited about this one...
• an ichthyosaur piece for ART Evolved - one month until the very exciting Ichthyosaur Gallery, and I haven't even started a piece yet.  My plan is to sketch simple outlines and then digitally colour it using the same photoshop technique I used on the spinosaur.  I just need to decide on a subject - which genera of ichthyosaur?!  Perhaps I will get inspired before the AE liveblogging session in a few days!  Remember, you too can join in the liveblogging!
• a playbill poster for Players 99 - Back in 1999, the acting group I belong to (SMP Dramatic Society) put on a cabaret show, and the SMP producers have asked me to create a poster for the archives.  I preformed Monty Python's Bookshop Sketch and sang a Cherry Poppin' Daddies swing dancing song, while a couple swang danced. Uh, swung danced?  Danced swingingly???

 Anyway, have a Happy Easter!  I hope you all had loads of chocolate.  Mmmmm, chocolate....

Redesigned Bond's Blog and a Spinosaurus

Spinosaurus strolling at Dusk

Welcome to the newly redesigned Bond's Blog!  As I dabble in tweaking the html, I'm sure the design will shift here and there.  But I am much happier with this new look.

To celebrate this fresh start, here is a new Spinosaur piece I created for the upcoming Prehistoric Times magazine.  It represents an artistic jump in my abilities as I began experimenting in digitally colouring!

The above piece was created using a mix of trad and digital techniques: it began as a pencil sketch, then scanned into the computer where I tweaked the contrast to change the pencil into strong "ink" lines.  Using layers in photoshop, I built up the colours and shades and details, until he ended up looking like the final product.  To finish him, I placed the coloured spinosaur into a photograph of a beautiful beach (that I took in the Philippines while traveling in late 2008.)

Zoom in to see the full effect of this digital colouring.  It's not perfect, as the black "ink" layer gets lost in places, and the general shading still needs work.  (Also, if you think about it, his left foot disappears conveniently behind his right! Yikes!)

Anyway, it's a new style for me that I'd like to continue and try to perfect.  How do you digitally colour your drawings?

In Transition

Upgrading to Bond's Blog 3.0...

Stay tuned for a more artistically focused site.
Hold my place in line,
I'll be right back!

My Vancouver Olympics Photos

Vancouver Olympics Rap-Up

Final Medal Results:  USA 37  -   Germany 30  -  Canada  26  -   Norway 23  -  Austria 16
(See the final results here)

What an amazing experience the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was!  The city had an amazing vibe with people partying in the streets and singing 'O Canada' on the seabus!  With Canada wining more Gold medals than any other country and winning the most Golds ever for Winter Olympics, I couldn't be happier!

One of the most amazing experiences was actually going and watching an event.  I was lucky enough to get tickets to the last night of Short Track Speed Skating and witness Canada winning two golds (Thanks Craig and Lady R!)   Another post will cover that soon.

But it's not the medals, not even the sport.  It' was the patriotism and the party.  It was something special...

If you haven't seen Stephen Brunt video essay on the Games, it sums up perfectly my feelings:




With the final Hockey Game won (most amazing game EVER!) and the Closing Ceremonies over, we turn our attention to the Paralympic Games!  Next Saturday, I'll be going to my first Sledge Hockey game.  I'll tell you all about it later...

Vancouver 2010 ... What fun!