A Few Favorites of 2010

Hello There,
You know, 2010 was a very interesting year for music, movies & comics, wasn't it? I bought a lot of CDs this year (I know that sounds old school) that were new releases. It was one of those rare years in music, especially, when an old band (U2 or Green Day) didn't dominate the airwaves. This allowed for some fresh faces to emerge, some of which who've been around for a few years, like The National & Band of Horses. So, in light of this realization, I've put together a little list of my favorites of 2010.

In no particular order of importance:

My Favorite Albums of 2010 (the ones that I listened to the most while at work)

Neil Young, Le Noise

Old Neil really got my attention with this album. I haven't listened to any of his offerings from the past decade but something about this cover intrigued me to finally try out his new stuff. It's raw and honest. He shows that age can really be an asset when it comes to writing lyrics. You try listening to "Hitchhiker" without getting a little worked up. I dare you!

The XX (actual release, 2009)

My hipster days are sorta behind me so I have no shame in saying that I caught wind of 

these guys on 101.7 WFNX over this past summer. By that time they were already nominated for a Mercury Prize and on their way to conquering the entire western world. I was lucky enough to see them at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston back in November. With talk of them throwing in the towel after this brief stint of success, I guess this is an album that will resonate for a long time. I certainly won't forget it anytime soon.

Band of Horses, Infinite Arms

From the very start of this album (Factory) I got swept off of my feet. It's really a proud moment for this band, who've come a very long way. They're probably one of the hardest working bands in the industry and they hit it big when they opened for Pearl Jam last year. The lead single "Laredo" just grabs you and doesn't let go until it's over. As any typical BOH album these songs deal with loneliness, reflection and moving on. Congrats to them for making a folk/ rock masterpiece.

Kings of Leon, Come Around Sundown

As the Rolling Stone article from a few months back said, "It's good to be Kings!". These guys coasted into this fifth album like pros. "Radioactive" was an arena rock smash and the followup "Goin' Back Down South" harkened back to their Tennessee roots. They proved that they could stay on top and still make meaningful music. These guys are gonna be around for a long time.

Arcade Fire, The Suburbs

My pick for best album of the year, the Arcade Fire rose from their indie roots to arena-rock-gods status with this extremely conceptual album (wait, all of their albums are concepts, right?). I'd say that they owe a lot to great marketing for pushing this album as a must listen. There are so many songs on here that have become part of my life that I can't name them all. Not only did Arcade Fire get me to buy the album, they actually made me want to open the liner notes and read along with the music. A definite keeper in the album collection! 

Autolux, Transit Transit

Autolux oh Autolux, why do I love you so much? Is it because you are from the west coast? Is it because you make the most abhorrent noises into melodies? Is it because Carla is the coolest drummer on the planet? Is it because I will jump at the chance to see you live any time (seen em twice)? Maybe it's because after a six year hiatus, due to the now defunct DMZ record label, you managed to put out an alternative music master piece that almost makes me forget the brilliance of Future Perfect from 2004? Who know? Just keep the mysterious yet hopeful music coming. 

The National, High Violet

If there's one thing that I regret about 2010 it's not going to see these guys for a 2 night residency at the HOB! How did I let that happen? "Bloodbuzz Ohio" comes at you like a ball off of the bat of the Bambino himself (these guys live in NY, okay bad simile)! If this album wasn't meant to scream "We're here! We've been here! Why don't you listen to us?" then I don't know what it was for. The National have been around for a decade and they have a special place in the back of my head,  the part that's "afraid I'd eat your brains! 'Cuz I'm evil!" (reference song "Conversation 16") Just listen to this album already! I can't stop listening to it!

Brian Eno, Small Craft on a Milk Sea

I can't say that I've listened to this one on a daily basis. It's just Brian being Brian. He hasn't stop experimenting since like 1972 or whenever Here Come the Warm Jets came out. Great music from a maestro of ambient electronica.

Janelle Monae, The Archandroid

Back in 2008 I caught wind of Janelle Monae and snatched up her EP, The Chase Suite. I loved her since that moment and nothing has changed. She's just so aware of herself and what she wants to accomplish, as an artist. Can anyone, even super galactic police, that she sings about in her songs, get in her way? She must be an android after all!

Ray LaMontagne, God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise

Here's the most talented voice in music today in his moment of triumph. I've virtually ignored his career until this point (I'm a snob, what?) for no good reason at all. I finally will give it to him, this is a once in a lifetime album from one of music's most reclusive heroes. "Beg, Steal, or Borrow" made me feel like the song was about my life, while I listened to it at a red light, in my car, while, "For the Summer" made me almost think that I was returning from a long trek back home to meet my love, after a year of traveling. Ray, I hope that you win every grammy that you're nominated for.

There were many other great albums that came out in 2010, some of which just didn't stick on me like these gems. I'm not saying that these 10 were the best of 2010, they're just the ones that I incorporated into my everyday life. Isn't that what music is for, after all?

Comic of the year:

I read many oneshots and assorted stories over 2010, but the one series that deserves all of the credit is Daytripper, by Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon. Everything about this comic is right. The art is raw (gotta love the brushy style that Fabio & Gabriel implement). It's honestly a comic that the industry was waiting for. I was waiting for something like this for a long time. And in case you're wondering what that is I'm talking about it's this: HARD-HITTING DRAMA! The comic industry is in dire need of more of this stuff. It's not wimpy, it's not over-dramatized, it's just natural. Somehow these guys just get it, they understand people and the real life struggles that come with living one's life. This comic deals with love, loss, and triumph. The best part is that every issue was worth it. There wasn't some ploy to get you to buy the whole 10 issues, only to realize that 50% of it was filler/ garbage. This was well thought out and masterfully executed by two of the industry's best artists. Let's hope that Paul Pope learned something from them and he comes out with something equally amazing. We can't let comics like Daytripper become rare moments. We need more stuff like this!

My favorite concert of 2010:

MUSE

One fateful day, back in March, I was driving to work when I heard that WFNX was having a poster contest for Muse to promote their forthcoming disc, The Resistance. Now, I'm not a fan of Muse, really, but a chance to win a poster contest wasn't going to pass me by. So, one day, I was home sick from work, and I finally got the chance to draw up something. That poster ended up getting me in as one of the final 5

 

 posters and an opportunity to meet the band. I remember how excited I was when Jake and I got the news that we'd be going to the backstage of the TD BankNorth Garden. It was probably the coolest night of my life, honestly. I came in second place and took a photo with two members of the band.

So, that's it for my list. I'd like to know what your thoughts are/ were about 2010. Was it a great year, or am I just delusional? Okay, so the Sox didn't make the playoffs & the Celtics and Bruins were a bust. There were plenty of other things to focus on. Right?  I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support of this blog. I've got nearly 600 views since October! Let's hope that 2011 is even better! 

-Josh

In the Works!

Hi All!
         I've been keeping busy since my last post with work and personal projects. I'm trying to keep my skills as an illustrator sharp while pursuing digital techniques. As a result, I've got some pencil illustrations to show you. The first one is a take on a photo that I came across while at work. The original photo shows a couple embracing in a moment of happiness. I thought, "Hmmmm....that looks pleasant. What happens when I put a mask on the guy? Does that change the composition? You be the judge." I'm pleased with the drawing- definitely my smoothest pencils to date. I used Canson Illustration paper (11"x17") and an F lead pencil.

The second illustration is something that I started last night, after work, and I stayed up until 1am working on it. It's a pin-up for the comic Skullkickers by writer Jim Zubkavich artist Edwin Huang. They're going to be in Woburn for a comic show and I want to stop by their booth and show them some love. Apparently, Skullkickers is the biggest thing in comics. It's sold out everywhere, and I haven't even gotten a chance to read it, aside from this preview! Check it out- I think that you'll enjoy it.

That's it for me. I'm looking forward to finishing up these illustrations. I'm just having a hell of a time getting them up on screen since I don't have a large format scanner. :(

It's All in the Face- Digital Painting Session: 2

Hi All,
    This week is my second experiment in the realm of digital painting. It's been exciting to really dive into different methods of painting in Photoshop. It's so easy to let the computer restrict you because it's not as intuitive as holding a brush. Because of this I always felt that there was a wall separating me from getting at what I was really trying to do. A few tutorials later and the wall is beginning to crumble, and I'm finding my own process starting to emerge. It's really about being comfortable.
    For this recent painting I felt that it was time to try my best to mimic oils. I've always been more of a portrait artist so naturally I wanted my first subject to be a portrait. The human face is a familiar subject, yet it is one of the greatest challenges for an artist. One has to worry about being accurate and to create a relaxed, natural composition at the same time. For this challenge I chose Howling Bells front-woman, Juanita Stein, as my subject. I love the Howling Bells and the way in which Juanita embodies the soul of the band. Plus, she's Australian, and she's...well....cute!

Here's the entire process, documented one snapshot at a time.

photo: http://www.last.fm/music/Howling+Bells/+images/31297023

Starting out with barebones lines on a white background.

See that I've now gone under Image/Adjustments/Levels

and bumped up the gray. It's still an RGB file- I just prefer to work in

grayscale since I trained myself to work this way from a young age.

A little bit of dodging and burning and we start to see the

beginnings of a face take shape. Still a long way to go...

I've sorta come as close as I can at this point with a light gray. 

Time to bump up the darks a bit more.

Remember to make copies of layers and to save different versions of the file.

I ended up with 4-5 versions of this file at different stages of the process.

Bumped up the black a bit more. This helps to carve out the light more.

There were parts of the face that didn't look right to me, according to the photo (nose is too long, face too slender) so I moved things around a bit in the next step.

Here I am in the Liquify filter, moving around facial features without any problems (I love that about digital painting!). She's starting to look more like Juanita. 

So, as you can see, the form is really there and I've gone pretty far with the grayscale.

For my purposes this was enough, since I wasn't doing a grayscale piece. If I were then I would have had to get more finicky with the smudge tool. Let's make some selections and add some color!

Close up before color.

I used the QuickMask (command + Q) feature to make my selections. I lowered 

the red opacity so that I could see underneath what I was selecting. Make sure to use 

a hard edge brush with opacity set at 100% when you do this or you'll get weird gradients

in your selections that will show when you fill them with color. 

In QuickMask Mode- the red represents the selected area

Always save your selections. I've never found a reason not to hold 

onto even the smallest selection. Why do the work twice? Oh, and give them names that

 make sense- otherwise-you may not know what some of them are.

Got her face and neck selected- time to add some color by adjusting the Hue/Saturation.

I try not to screen or overlay colors- that just gets complicated. 

Trying to match her skin tone roughly. Not gonna get it quite right at this junction.

Best to just get the general color in there and adjust it later. The important thing is to

keep moving with the piece. Digital painting gives the artist the ability to work as much

as they want to without the fear of overworking the surface. You're basically 

encouraged to play as long as you'd like!

Sometimes you just have to add color in the background to get the piece

moving. I got to a point after smudging around tones for hours, where things just

plateaued. Don't forget about the background- it's integral to the composition. It

can make or break a piece. I started to make textures and dump them in there.

More experiments with the background- trying to overlay textures.

This background was really nice- but it didn't fit with the subject. Also,

I wanted to elevate it a bit by using the Art History brush.

And after some major tweaks this is the final piece. 

I really do hope that you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed making 

this portrait. If you think that this post was helpful, or that you'd want to talk

shop a bit- please do drop me a line. Farewell, for now, and listen to

the Howling Bells. THEY'RE REALLY REALLY GOOD.

Digital Painting- I told you that there'd be masks!

Hi All,
          First of all, I hope that you are doing well this week. Secondly, I would like to thank all of you for helping me to get this blog to almost 300 views in fewer than two months! I couldn't be more pleased with the positive energy that I'm getting. Keep it coming and I promise to update every week.
          Lately, I've been doing a lot of drawings and not taking them up to the next level. The following is a tutorial of how I took a drawing from Thanksgiving and brought it through to a finished digital painting over the past 2 days. This is just a taste of what I've got in store now that I've recovered from being sick and I've had time to watch Brian Harberlin's tutorials. I hope that you enjoy it!

Step 1

So, by now you know that I'm obsessed with Venetian masks at the moment. That's the main reason for why I chose this as my subject. The first stage is a simple pencil drawing done on Strathmore drawing paper. Here we see that I've added some background effects into the piece in photoshop.

This is a snapshot of another window that I had open where I experimented with making smoky effects by varying brush styles.

I recommend playing around with 'Scattering' & trying out 'Texture' to
 see what works for you.

Step 2

Okay, so at this point I'm trying to add in highlights and position everything for when I start to paint. I wanted this to have a cool glow effect as well, so I found out how to take a brush and convert it into glowing energy.

This is a weird shape that I made and later cut out and used for the glowing energy that you see below.

I took the shape and threw a Gaussian blur (Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur) on it and warped it under Edit/Transform/Warp. I then highlighted it with an airbrush and did Hue/Saturation adjustments to it. After that I flattened the image and started working on top of it.

Step 3

Next, it comes time to add colors. I didn't have a color scheme in mind so I started with any ol' colors really. The point here is to just carve out the clothes and face. The colors can change instantly. Keep in mind that I have a selection of the actual figure and I can make adjustments to the color by selecting it and using Hue/Saturation.

With the selection on. Darn marching ants! Quick tip: command + H will hide them.

Step 4

Here is what I came up with after adjusting the colors. I use pink and purple to often in my work so I wanted to break out of that. Yellow is also a challenging color to use because it is so harsh on the eyes if not used properly.

This is what it looks like with the line art layer turned off in PS. Kinda crappy, huh?

With some tweaking you can see that the figure is getting more volume with the addition of some backlight. This is really my first time successfully using backlighting- it can make or break a piece. In this case, I think that it works nicely.

Step 5


Here is the final product, after about an hour of smudging it up with the 'smudge tool'. I like to work with the strength at about 50-60, because 100 is just too strong.

I hope that you found this enjoyable. It really was a fun piece to work on. If you'd like to see more work like this in the future please leave a comment and let me know. Right now I'm working on an 11"x17" painting from last week's post. I'll have my progress from that up soon. Thanks for checking out my blog! Until next week....farewell!