Holiday Wishes - e-Christmas Cards

Hi Everyone,

Happy Holidays, whatever Holidays you celebrate.  Personally, I celebrate Christmas.  It's been a busy fall and start to Winter.  School's keeping me very busy, and the holidays are always a busy time around here too.

Today I thought I'd highlight some of my Christmas Cards that I've created in the past.  I've made many over the years, but I've got three here today.

2011 Holiday Card - digital art

The artwork above is the card I sent out this year even though it was really a last minute "throw together."  I came up with an idea, scanned in a pencil sketch and went to work.  I decided to have some fun with it...after all, it is Christmas.  I love using the program Painter, with my Wacom Tablet and Mac computer.  Most of the picture was "painted" with the chalk tool in Painter.  I wanted to have fun with a loose, fun, chalk or crayon type illustration.  When finished, I posted to Facebook and sent out to friends and family attached to an email as well.  I just don't send cards in the mail any more (judge me if you will, but that's a tradition I don't do).

2010 Card - digital art

The 2010 card was a little bit generic, but it also reflected our location and also the Christmas star, that led the Wise Men to Bethlehem.  We had moved to the desert last year from the East Coast of the US.  I love Christmas in the desert, reflected in the mountains and cactus with lights.  This one was more of a simple and clean design, produced on computer using Photoshop and sent out via email and social networking.

2009 Christmas Card - digital art

Finally, the 2009 Christmas Card.  This one started with a little more developed pencil sketch, painted with Wacom Tablet and Photoshop.  We were still in Washington DC, so I've got Santa on the White House roof top with monuments in the background, and the Star guiding to Baby Jesus in the manger.

This was fun and I put a little more detail into it than some of my cards.  I also created individualized cards with this theme for some colleagues at work and a few others.  I also sent it out in a wider distribution via electronic media.

I hope all of you are having a very happy and peace filled Holiday Season, whatever holidays you celebrate.  Merry Christmas and have a Joy filled 2012.

Peace,

Tom Kreienbrink

Pen and Ink Cartooning

Hi All,

Well, I've been cleaning up a couple old cartoon scans and decided that this weeks blog should highlight some of my pen and ink cartoon illustrations.

Day Tripper

The first - a guy I've been drawing since I was a young kid.  I call him the Day Tripper.  I've drawn him on a unicycle, in stocks, hitchhiking and doing all kinds of stuff.  Although I grew up in the 70s, it's clear I was influenced by the hippies of the 60s.  Yes - I think it's true that this is some kind of alter ego character.  I've often thought of developing a comic or cartoon strip around the character, but never did.

Cartoon Self Portraits

Above: self portrait cartoons.  The one on the left is circa 1995 and the one on the right is recent.  In the 90s I was a medical illustrator in training hospitals.  I used to fool around with cartoons of me and the photographers, using them for funny signs and not so serious self promotional items.

Promotion Item Artwork for a couple of events at
Offutt AFB, Neb.  Circa 1995-96

A couple of cartoon style illustrations from the 90s.  The one on the left used to promote the EMT Rodeo and the one on the right was used for the Offutt AFB Runway Run Tee Shirts and posters.

Jerry and Ron - Medical Photographers
Circa 1993-96

Above are toons of two of the medical photographers I worked with at Offutt AFB, Neb;  Jerry King and Ron Kikel.  These guys were amazingly talented.   The work they did was vital to the training programs in a facility. They were also my friends...we had more fun than people should be allowed to have at work.  We worked hard and played hard too.

Cartoon greeting card for my parents
(caption in word bubble changed for blog)

Lastly is a card I gave to my parents.  It was set in our apartment on Capitol Hill in Washington DC.  It was a great little apartment....good times.  It had a different caption in the word bubble, but I changed it for the blog.

I hope all is going well for everyone reading the blog.  I hope you enjoy it and that you are enjoying life.
Bless you all.....

Aloha,

Tom

In Honor of Fall and Our Nations Capital....

Hi All,

Well, it's fall again.  In a lot of places the leaves are turning orange, red and yellow and are starting to drop.  It's finally cooling off a little here in Arizona too.  And, football season is well under way here in North America.  So I decided to break out a picture I did a while ago for some friends.

Riggo - Pen and Ink with digital color

I lived in the Washington DC area for about 8 years and created this piece for some friends who are huge Washington Redskins fans.  The artwork commemorates the former Redskin great, John Riggins (or Riggo for short).  I know not all of you are fans, but  Riggo is a revered sports hero in the DC area.  He's a big ol farm boy from Nebraska who was a powerful running back in college and in the NFL.  He played for many years as a Redskin and on more than one championship winning team in Washington.

The technique I used is one I enjoy quite a bit.  I start out with reference material and sketch out my design.  On this one I liked the idea of incorporating a scene from one of the Super Bowls he starred in, his number, name and the team mascot in the background.

Riggo - Pen and Ink version

Next I render a nice tight pen and ink drawing.  Personally, I really enjoy pen and ink.  I used it a lot when I was starting out because we did a lot of one color printing.  I use bristol board and Koh-i-noor technical pens.  The thing I like about it as well, is that the pen and ink is a stand alone piece of artwork (I like it better than the color piece myself).  And after I add the color it can be used as a dual purpose piece.

After completing the inked artwork I scan it in to my Mac.  Then I use Photoshop and my Wacom tablet to paint in the color.  A couple things I like to do are first; touch up the pen and ink in Photoshop.  I want the black image on a layer by itself in Photoshop and I want it to be tight.  So, it takes a little touch up work and time.  Then, I can paint in the color on a layer beneath.  This keeps the black image crisp with the color popping in thru the area that they should.  I normally have several layers of color while working on it.

So, here's to all you Redskins fans and DC area residents; enjoy the beautiful Fall weather out there.  I know the Skins aren't having their best season, but hang in there.  The rest of you - enjoy yourself, wherever you are.

Have a great week all.

Aloha,

Tom

Go Brewers Go - Ryan Braun Illustration

Hi All,

Hope you're all having a good week.  As a native of the state of Wisconsin and a sports fan, I've got to say, it's been a lot of fun lately.  The Packers and UW are having great football seasons, UW and Marquette University basketball teams are consistent winners, and now the Milwaukee Brewers are in the playoffs for the first time in a long time.

I don't define myself by sports, but I've always enjoyed playing a variety of sports and watching my teams.  As an artist one of the subjects I enjoy working on are sports figures.  I was inspired to work on a fun illustration of my favorite Brewer, Ryan Braun.  This guy is the complete baseball player, reminiscent of guys like Paul Molitar and Robin Yount.  Anyhow, enough about me, here's the finished piece.

Braun - finished piece is high resolution, approximately 10" x 8"

Here's the technique I've developed that I like to use for some of my sports pictures (and it can be used for other art work as well).  It's easy and fun, but can be a little time consuming sometimes.  I start out with a pencil rendering of the subject.  Of course I work off of photo reference and use a variety of hard to soft pencils.

Initial pencil sketch after being scanned.

 
After scanning in to my iMac, I start working on the image; sharpening the images and the details.  I also try to bring out stronger values throughout - darker darks, crisp highlights and good contrast.  I normally use Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom tablet with a pen stylus.  I work it with greyscale values and also use varying opacity settings on the brush.

Pencil rendering after working lights and darks and
sharpening details.

Above is a little more fleshed out version of the pencil sketch.  You'll see I've added much more detail in the features throughout.  The darks are much more solid and even the lettering in the helmet logos and jerseys are tighter.  Sometimes I think I want to be a little too tight, but hey - that's how I roll.

In progress, after working in layers of color and texture.

Finally I start layering in various shades of blue.  I use a variety of blue hues.  I use a number of layers and differing levels of opacity on those layers.  It gives a nice layered and textured look.  I also use various brush shapes to really punch up the texture as well.  Finally, I add the name, rasterize the text and work the color on it.  Finishing touches also include a nice border to hold it all together.

The final piece.....Go Brewers!!

There you have it.  One of my favorite ball players, who is tearing up the playoffs.  Go Brewers!!  I hope you're enjoying your lives and your artwork wherever you are.  If you're not an artist, I hope you enjoy the blog and the artwork too.
Have a great week everyone.

Aloha,

Tom

Life So Magical

Hi Everybody,

I'm back!  So last week, I'm looking around on Facebook one afternoon and another student at my school posts that she needs a designer to help right away.  So I sent her a message and told her I could help and here's my nice little surprise job.

An electronic version of the original color ad to be
printed in a four color glossy magazine.
Size 4 x 5 inches.

Jenny, the proprietor of Life So Magical, needed a high resolution layout for a 4 color glossy magazine ad.  Unfortunately the only artwork she has is a website that has some low resolution imagery.  And - the deadline (we thought at the time) was 6 pm that evening.  So we got to work.  I pulled her imagery off her site and started working it into a new, high resolution background.

I started by bringing the person, landscape, and cloud image into Photoshop.  I removed the background and manually did some "cleaning up," with the brush tool to sharpen the silhouetted image.  I also worked on blending the clouds a little and did a little airbrush in them as well.

I then started recreating the background with the lens flare, the title and subtitle.  By the time I had this done, Jenny sent the copy to me and I started playing with sizes, colors, space, etc.  I brought a nice photo of her in from her Facebook page and dropped it into a soft pink box with her contact info.  After going back and forth a few times (via email), with ideas and text changes, we had the finished ad.  Then we found out we had until the following evening to have it in to the publisher.  Oh well, it all worked out.

Email Banner for LifeSoMagical to use in business emails.

We discussed a working on a couple more pieces afterwards as well.  From the original material, I put an email banner together.  She'll be able to have it highlighting her emails.  I also put a 2 sided business card together for her.

2 Sided business card design.

Of course I saved a low resolution version in RGB for her to post on various internet sites or on her own site.  And the printer received high resolution CMYK artwork to print in the magazine.  I sent it to them in a Press Quality PDF which is an excellent format for most printers to work with.

Have a great week everyone.  Smile.

Aloha,

Tom

George Harrison Sketch

Hi All,

Well - it's been a while since I've updated the blog.  I've been pretty busy with school, but I also need to continue producing artwork...that's one of the things I do.  As a matter of fact I stumbled into a design project today - for a friend on Facebook.  That was a nice surprise.

So I saw this great old photo of George Harrison.  I've always loved the Beatles including George, the quiet one.  So I sat down with a selection of pencils and sketch book and thought I'd have a little fun.

The sketch after being photographed and
touched up in Photoshop.

Being relatively happy with it, I thought I'd post the sketch, but after downloading my terrible attempt at photographing the sketch I figured I'd clean it up in Photoshop a little.  So I added a little color around the edges and did a little dodge and burn to work on the tonal values.

Here's the scanned in touched up version
(first version).

Well, I couldn't really stop there.  So I started working a little darker color in around the edges with the airbrush tool.  I had to work on a couple touch ups and finish with a little bit of a sepia tone over all to give it a little bit of an "arty" touch.  Arty being a technical term - ha, ha.

Here's the sketch photo - took the photo of it taped
to my studio door with natural light.
(don't hire me to take photos)

I didn't spend a lot of time on it, but it was fun, and I probably spent more time on it than I planned, but thats just kind of the way I am.  Enjoy All and have a great week...I'll keep blogging (hopefully a little more regularly).

Aloha,

Tom

Fun With Anatomy

Hi All,

OK - I know what some of you are thinking - that's probably not what I had in mind when I titled this post, "Fun With Anatomy."  What I did mean is this.  Recently I've been playing around with colored pencils and anatomy pictures - having some fun with Anatomy.  Why?

I started taking classes at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA), about 6 weeks ago.  I'm working on an holistic health degree and one of my first classes is Anatomy.  Anatomy consists of learning about the inside of the body; bones, muscles, nerves, tendons, and all that other stuff too.

The text book and teacher both recommend coloring some of the anatomy pictures.  It's a technique to help learn.  Anatomy can be a little bit of a dry subject; learning and memorizing latin and greek names for all of the hundreds of body parts can get a little overwhelming.  So looking at the subject matter in a completely different way, can really help get the info into the brain.

Coloring the pictures in the workbook and handouts has been fun and helps break up some of the monotony of memorizing all of this stuff.  Of course, me being an artist, I started having some fun; mixing up colors and shading - maybe getting a little carried away.

I used to work with colored pencil a lot and like to work with medium to soft colored pencils best.  I've got a variety, but my favorite are Prismacolor.  They make a great colored pencil.  They blend well, have good coverage, and are easy to work with.

So far I'm doing well in my classes.  I don't know if it has anything to do with coloring anatomy pictures, but I'm having a good time with it.

As I'm working toward my degree, I'll still be working on artwork and design projects.  I'll still be working on the blog as well, and hope you enjoy it.

Have a great week everyone and remember, whatever you're doing, try to have some fun with it.  Find your purpose in life and incorporate that into your daily life; your work, relationships, etc.  Even when studying Anatomy, you can still have fun with it.

Aloha,

Tom