Prehistoric ocean wip

Some days ago Ptr asked me some pieces of information about the working process of 'Prehistoric ocean', so I thought it could be nice to share with you all the principal step I took to have this final effect.

So here we go:

1) Layout and pencil drawing:

This is the most important part of my work: the part where I take my pencil, a piece of paper and sketch the idea first, and then I go on refining it till I have a result I am satisfied with:

2) Flat colours:

After I have scanned my illustration I start digital thinking: the first step is to clean up the image, erasing the excess of pencil's scratchs and to define the different areas I'll paint using flat colours:

(I'm sorry for the low quality image, but I just took a screenshot while I was working and don't have better resolution image of this step)

3) Changing outlines' colour and adding volume:

After I decide the colours of the different areas of the illustration I change the colour of the pencil outline into something more similar to the principal colour of every area. Then I use a colour at halfway between the outline new colour and the principal colour and a soft brush to levelout the colours and define the volumes:

 

4) Light and shadows:
Now I have my volumes setted, it's time to put some shadows and light on every element. I usually prefer to define the shadow with a colour (this time blue) using the same for every object in the picture. I draw the light then, it's a bit complicate because you have to use different methods for every different kind of surface: e.g. a stone does not reflect light as a fish's skin does.

5) Textures:
since the setting is ocean dept I tried to obtain a sort of 'sea wave effect', adding a texture:

Happy holidays!

Prehistoric ocean

Some months ago I was asked to provide some sketches to use as backclothes for the University Museum of my hometown. As always happens in this kind of job, some sketches of mine have been used and some others have been rejected.
The next one was one of the rejected ones. The original version consisted only in seaweeds, ammonites and the pliosaurus because the costumer was pretty specific about that, but, once I had my sketch rejected, I felt free to add some turtles and elasmosaurus (even if I'm not so sure elasmosaurus used to pack swim).

Today (well yesterday since it's 1 a.m. now) I was in need of something to digital paint just to keep on training and I decided to paint that old sketch.
Here there is the result:

 

Secret passage

And here there is the painted version, I hope you enjoy :)

Secret passage WIP

A little sketch made in some spare time moments; coming soon in painted version:

Dossier's cover and title

Some translation's revisal still to do, but our dossier is ready to go now. So it's time to unveil the title of our project. You can see it on the cover I and Sara made together.
The idea was to give te cover a look like some ancient papier with a touch of modern, we wanted to show all the main characters and the centre of our story that is the watch in the picture.
I hope you enjoy :)

By the way, there sill be another page sooner or later, so stay tuned ;)

Cretaceous landscape

While working at our dossier, I had some other jobs to take care of. 

Here there is a sample of what Fed has been doing during last months: that's a back-cloth for a life-size statue of a dinosaur and its nest that is exposed in the University Museum in my home town.
The task was pretty hard because I had to work on a file that would be printed on a 6X5 m canvas.

The picture portrays a landscape from Cretaceous with plants and trees, so I had to study a bit of paleonthology to be sure I portrait things that really existed in that period; it was hard but definitely interesting.
The whole illustration have been draw in pencil then digitalized and painted using adobe photoshop, now I'm looking forward to see it printed but I have to wait till December 10th: the roll-out day.

K-17

No more pages, but we still go on with the preparatory works for our project. Here there is the steampunk wreck vehicle I told you about.
This is the 'car' designed and created by our Mr K. who, in the meanwhile, has gained a proper name and is, in fact, mr Keppeln now (if you don't know who mr K is, please check the last character of the page here).

So, ladies and gentlemen, behold the magnificence of Keppeln-17 aka K-17 (I guess that the 16 prototipes before that had simply exploded).

The K-17 is a glorious two seats vehicle composed of pieces of this or that device: the driver's seat is an old armchair, the passenger's one is a wicker chair with a nailed belt and a tin-plated footstool. The front wheel is a bike wheel while the rear ones are presumably taken by a wagon. The shafts are pipes. The bodywork is composed of pieces of several devices like boilers' doors and tin-plates. The motor is composed of two big boilers and a complicate system of pipes. The handlebars ends with a control knob at one side and with a tap at the other. The headlight is a gas-lamp and last but not the least, the K-17 has a gorgeous polyphonic horn composed of three small trumpets.

I hope you like it just like Sara did, in fact her comment had been: "what a disgraceful banger!"

About me... well, I'm looking forward to draw our Mr. Keppeln running around the city with this miracle of steampunk engineering.

Page 34

Latest update about our dossier: this should be the last coloured page, we will draw another couple of them but they will stay in their pencil version.

This one had been very hard to me because of the copious light-spots in the same big panel in the centre, but I am quite satisfied this time and of course the gorgeous ink-work by Sara Cappoli made the whole page look a lot better than the pencil version as always.

Hope you enjoy, while I can finally come back to my preparatory works for a pure steampunk wreck vehicle to be seen soon (or so I hope) on these pages.

The other pages for the dossier are here, here and here

Happy Halloween

A day in advance, but I'm not totally sure I'll have time for the blog tomorrow a very quick sketch to wish you all a happy Halloween.

The latest characters

And we are almost at the end of the line: our dossier is almost ready now, we just need a couple of last things and a good review of the French version of our script and our plot and we'll be ready to run ;)

So, while we are working on the latest details, here there are the character design studies of the left characters. You've seen one of them in pages 1 and 2, the others will not appear in the dossier's finished pages, but they will be drawed in the pencil-version pages we will put in the dossier, so I don't know if we will share them in this blog. Anyway they are still to draw so it's an untimely question at the moment.

Now, here we go, Mesdames et Messieurs please welcome...

Herr Schmidt

You have maybe seen him in pages 1 and 2 even if that was a younger and two eyed version (the first pages of our work are a flash-back).

He is the kick-side of our evil, despicable Herr Moser. Schmidt is not a smart guy but he's totally dangerous all the same.

A little trivia: at first we wanted to make him look like a dear friend of us (as we did with Moser), but we did a couple of preparatory works and decided for something more Zorro's fatty Sergeant Garcia alike and we found a pretty good inspiration in Pollaponk's "No prejudice" music video.

Hinz

Andreas Hinz is the key of all our story: he is the old and slightly mad jail-cell mate of Julien. He is a good guy with a sad story (and a pure steampunk robotic arm) and he is the one whose secrets would put Julien in deep troubles.

Mr K.

No, ok, this is NOT the real name of this character, it's just the way Sara and I call him in our conversations since he his still a character with no name. That is because he was totally unforseen.

There is a funny story behind this character, but, to tell that short, we needed a character for a walk on role and we had a pretty exact idea of how he should look like. So I tryed to make a preparatory work but I wasn't in the mood for drawing feet (that's a part I always hate draw) so I decided to give him a robotic leg. At the end of the day this robotic-legged version looked so cool that our Mr K deserved to become one of our main characters. We worked again on our script and here there is, the only thing he needs now is a proper name. But, no need to tell, he is my favourite character so far ;)

Beautiful ink art is by Madame Sara Cappoli as always.

Page 2

And here there is the last page I and Sara worked on.

That should be page 2, so it comes close after this one.

Hope you enjoy :)

How did I spent last Monday?

That's the answer:

Updates part 2

And here there is another page. Well, actually it's the page number 1.

Hope you enjoy. As usual Sara has made a gorgeous ink work.

This is the third one we finished, maybe you missed the others, please check them here if you're interested.

Talk like a pirate Day

Howdy rabble!
Today is the Talk Like a Pirate Day! It's time to celebrate and get drunk! I had no time for a brand new illustration this year, so I have to repost an old one, hoping I'll do better the next time!

So happy talk like a pirate day everybody and remember: "To err is human, to arr is pirate!"

Sabaton model on modelstorming

Sometimes it happens: I have the possibility of reciprocate Luca's favours: he has always been my historic consultant and I would never anticipate I would do the same for him one day. Instead it happened and I am very proud of that.
I'm talking about his Sabaton model you can see today on his blog. I don't know why, but it seems he thinks I am more expert than him in Sabaton's matters, so I had my occasion to be useful. ;)
So, please, go and take a look to our job, weeeell more his than mine (let's say 90% Luca's and 10% mine but I am happy and proud all the same).

Updates

Still working working working... I came here just to let you know I am still ok, even if not very active on the internet. I will come back soon I hope, in the meanwhile let me share with you the results of those hard-working days.
Here there are page 32 and page 42 in their full colours. At the moment I am working on page 2 while Sara is inking page 1; we will finish them, then another couple of pages more and we will have all the samples we need; then it will be a matter of crossing fingers and hoping hard.
But, for the moment, enjoy our first two kids (as usual, ink art is by Sara Cappoli):

About to explode - finished

As I promised to Four Eyed Monster, here there is the painted version of the yesterday's sketch.



Reference: http://news.distractify.com/people/powerful-photos-of-women/?v=1 photo number 51

About to explode - WIP

A quick sketch just to keep on training, here there is Marie intervening against an abrupt pressure increasing in a steam-machine. I strongly hope she will succeed and survive since we need her for our project.

Sooner or later I will paint this sketch too, even if I am aware I am amassing a huge pile of to-be-painted sketches.

Reference: http://news.distractify.com/people/powerful-photos-of-women/?v=1 photo number 51

Skin tone exercise 2

In Italy it's very hot in this week, so I decided to take a day off from the project, but, since there is no rest for the wicked, I did some graphic art all the same.
Here there is another skin tone exercise.
This time I focused on a different skin tone in the moonlight.

Project samples

Working, working, working... at the moment I am drawing the third page (that is, in fact, page number 1, we are working very randomly). Yesterday I painted the first page I drawed (that was page number 32) and now Sara is inking the second page I drawed (that is page number 42 and, at the moment, I think it is my best).

Just to let you know what we are doing (hoping you'll enjoy), here there is some samples from our current pages:

Here there is something from page 32 (the only finished one):

Here there is something from page 42 (Sara is currently working on the ink, so all you can have in this very moment is pencil drawing):

And finally here there is part (almost half indeed) of page 1

And that's all folks, at least that'all so far.
Waiting for your feedback anyway.

The price of a mile

Today it's 100 years since the World War I beginned.
It has been one of the more devasting historical events in Europe and millions and millions of young men was sent to the front and never came back, between them there was my grandpa's elder broder, Gabriele.

Saddly this seems not to have teached anything to our governments, since wars happen every day all around the world.

The illustration is done in pen and digital colour.

The title of this post it's from the Sabaton's song The Price of a Mile, about the WWI.

Skin tone exercise

Lately I am not posting very often, I am sorry, but I have a lot of pages to draw and not time enought to make some complete illustration for the blog.

But today I was very tired of grey scale drawing and I took a day off to do some exercise with colours.
In the last few days I had the fortune to have some pieces of advices by Sara Spano, who is, in my humble opinion, one of the best Italian illustrators (take a look to her portfolio, you will not regret), so I spent my day studing and doing exercises.

This is the result: the exercise was about the light effect on the skin, so all the rest it's a bit rough but I hope you will enjoy all the same. And, to keep an eye always on my project, the character I choose to draw is Marie.

And, for whom is wondering about this, yes I suppose I will be computer screen tanned at the end of summer!

Villain time: Herr Moser WIP

As I promised some posts ago, it's time to introduce some villains in our story, so, here there is for you Herr Moser: the main villain in our project. His face, I am afraid, has been stolen from the face of a friend of mine and Sara, a  very big friend and very good comic artist too: Fabrizio 'Pluc' Di Nicola. It's his fault if we had found the strength and the fortitude to start working on this project, so we must reward him with an important role in our story (not to mention the fact he has the perfect Herr Moser look).

So, stop chatting. Here there is Herr Moser drawed and coloured by me and inked by Sara.

Now there is just a couple of character missing.

Pierre's shop WIP

Here there is another study for our project, this time it's up to the toys shop owned by Pierre and his "little" brother Zacharie. I'm not totally sure the illustration is plain, but you can see two rooms: the real shop and the laboratory where Zacharie, Pierre and Marie make their experiments with mechanical engineering.

This one too (as Marie's room) will be digital rough coloured but I don't know when.

Now it's time to come back to my pages. Next time it will be villain's time :)

Marie's room wip

Here I am, back from Graspop Metal Meeting. I am very happy about those last days for a bounch of reasons: I had good time with old friends, met new friends, listened too good music and had the chance to meet some of my favourite musiciants, so I can say I am quite satisfied.

But it's time to come back to work now, I spent the whole moring working on some sketches to train my hands and study some set for my project.

Here there is the first study of Marie's bedroom.

I will not ask Sara to ink it because it's just a study, but, as Sara suggested, I will give it a rough (digital) painting just to have an idea of what palette I will use on the final illustrations.

Anyway, here there is the pencil sketch of Marie's bedroom:

Gabrielle wip

Going on with the project, here there is Gabrielle. I am afraid someone will suffer from her striped stockings, but what can I say, Four Eyed Monster, it's a hard life, man!

Anyway don't let her cheat you with her marshmallow candy looks: she is a very tough gal.

As usual ink art is by Sara who did, as usual, a very good job.

This will be my only post for this week, 'cause it's time for Fedzeppelin's annual leave: I'm going to Graspop Metal Meeting, so for new stuff you've to wait for the next week.

Saleria

Sometimes inspiration jup out from old memories, and that happened this time. I was just random drawing when someone came out and demanded to be drawned, and who knows her has not to be too much surprised.
Here there is Saleria who is a character by my friend Carmelo (yes the same of the boardgame). It's very difficult to describe this chacarter, let just say she is a woman as hot as totally psychopath in a fantasy world.

Julien WIP

And here there is our main character: Julien.
Please note that this time Sara had to work even harder this time: she had to draw the legs I didn't draw too. As always a very very good job of my collegue :)

Sloth and snake

Just a quick test-sketch required by a potential contractor.

Fingers crossed ;)

Zacharie WIP

Here there is another character from the project I am working on.

This is Zacharie, Pierre's brother.

As usual, the ink-art is by Sara.

Two bears

Some day ago che local section of WWF asked me for donate them a little illustration they could print on some gadget for self-financing.

Of course I've been glad to do something like that.

Here there is my illustration in two version: the black and white one and the coloured one.

Some explanation for who is not from Abruzzo: the bear on the left is a Marsican brown bear that is a bear who lives in Abruzzo's mountains. The one on the right is of course a Panda bear.

Marie WIP

We are going on with the project, so here I am showing a little bit more.

Let me introduce you Marie, the girl-friend of Pierre you met some days ago.

This time is my honour to show you the whole process of creating Marie, in this way you can see how hard is the ink work Sara have done.

On the left side of the two pictures you can see the original Marie: the ones I drawed with pencil. Then in the center, you can see how she can look more beautiful after Sara's ink work. On the right side there is the finished work: Marie digital coloured by me.

Trivia: Marie looks like our friend and collegue Marika who is a pretty good illustrator (you can see her deviantart here) and the perfect muse for the character.

Steampunk arm

Just a sketch of a steampunk arm drawed with pencil:

Pierre

Here I go again, we were speaking about characters and here we are, let me introduce you one of the main characters of the project I'm working on at the moment. It's still at the first step, so let me keep a bit of mistery about it.
Anyway I promised to keep you informed and there we are.
This is Pierre: a clumsy inventor in a steampunk world.

Important thing: this is a team work: I made the drawing and the colour art and my collegue Sara (who is working on the script) made the ink work.

Please let me know your feedback.

Lady in green and red

During last weeks I have done some studies on characters for one project I am working on, I was not very satisfied on this one that didn't fit very much with the idea I had, so I rejected it from the project but I coloured it all the same and here there is:

The witch's house completed - colours

I am back again, after a long long time. I am sorry, but I working on some projects (and hoping they will be realized) so I have not much free time.
Anyway, finally, here there is the final step of the wich's house.
I decided to use bright colours that could give a sort of autumn look to the pricture and pastel colours for the house.
Hope you enjoy:

The witch's house WIP 2 - Ink

And here there is the second step: I re-drawed the illustration with black ink using a bic pen and trying to obtain thicker lines on the objects in the foreground and thinner ones in the backgroud so that the illustration has more depht.

Next step the final one: colour!

The witch's house WIP 1 - Pencil

Since I am folling in love with the work in progress posts on the blogs of my mignature-paniter friends, I decided to do the same with an illustration I am working on.

This time it's up to the house of the witch from Hansel and Gretel's fairy tale.
She used to live in the wood in a house made of cakes, sweets, and so on; in this way she lured kids who she used to feed on.

So, here there is my cake-house in the wood; first step: pencil.