Han Solo Illustration

Hi Everyone,

I hope you're all doing well.  Things are good here in Phoenix.  As you may know - I am a professional massage and holistic therapist and also an illustrator and designer.  Recently my son Andy and I formed a partnership - Kbrink Design.  Feeling inspired, I started a Han Solo picture.  I also was inspired by the new Star Wars movie.  So today I thought I'd highlight the mature Han Solo artwork that I recently completed.

I started with pencil and paper.  Started drawing...

Original Pencil sketch

I like combining the traditional artwork tools like pencil and pen techniques, with computer painting in Photoshop and/or Painter.  So I brought the pencil sketch into my Apple computer and using Photoshop I started tinting and painting the illustration.  I use a Wacom tablet with cordless pen to do the painting on the computer.  The original sketch had some proportion issues so I made those adjustments as well.

In progress....

Finally, I continued to work the colors a little more.  Adding some warmth in the highlights and cooler colors in the shadow areas....giving him some life.  By the time I'm getting toward the finished product, I'm using the airbrush tool with about 23% opacity...just adding very soft layering, nothing harsh.  I also made the border a little more solid and with a little richer color. 

And there he is...a little older but still cool and looking good -- Han Solo. 

Have a great week everyone...hope things are going well.

Peace,

Tom

You can check out my on-line portfolio at www.behance.net/tk-art

also -- "like" my Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/Tom-Kreienbrink-Art-and-Design

Qui Gon Jinn Illustration

Hi All,

I've got a few projects on the boards that I'm finishing up, but I wanted to pull out a classic piece today.  A Star Wars inspired portrait of the Jedi Knight, Qui Gon Jinn.  He was played by Liam Neeson and portrayed a Jedi Master in the Star Wars prequels that came out about 10 - 12 years ago.

There was a time not so long ago, when I did a lot of airbrush work.  This was a personal piece, done for my own pleasure.  The artwork is on cold press illustration board and I used transparent acrylic airbrush paints (Comart or Golden are my personal favorite).

I started by drawing the layout on the board and then laying in color with the airbrush with no masking or frisket.  I wanted to keep the mood with a warm pallet of browns and yellows.  By not masking I got a  little soft overspray of colors that served to enhance that mood in certain areas of the piece.  The other tools on hand were an electric eraser and X-acto knife.  As I painted in more and more detail I would need to remove some of the color to define detailed areas, uncover highlights, and remove some unwanted overspray.  I would simply use the knife and electric eraser to scrape or erase the paint from the board.

The beauty of using transparent colors is they blend well.  They also allow you to work dark to light on a project like this without a lot of tedious masking.  If I got a little yellow overspray on the dark areas it wouldn't show.  The knife is a great tool for this because it let's you really show the fine texture and detail of hair and beard.  The brushes I use for this work are made by Iwata; HP-C, HP-B, and Custom Micron.  The C has good coverage and the B and Micron are great for fine detail.  Freehand airbrushing isn't the recommended approach by illustration masters, but I think with some practice you can get some pretty good results.

Until next time....Have a great week.

Aloha,

Tom