Just 1 1/2 pages left....

I'm tired and happy.... just one and a half illustrations left of the huge mountain I did in the last couple of weeks (over 85 illustrations alltogether in the last months...). What you see is a little details of one page. Signature clouds. No book without curly fluff on the heaven. :D It looks better when you have the complete page though...
I'm so looking forward to finish the last bunch and cross the last batch from my to-do list. The last X is always the most satisfying one.

I still have two interesting projects in December but one is more or less huge fun (Wendy... if you read this... yes, it's your stuff)  and the rest of the free time will spend with the things I love most: my hubby, family, lotsa reading, cooking galore for friends and sports (which I actually miss like hell... ). Oh December, I so am looking forward to seeing you on the calendar. :D

My Favourite Photoshop Pencil Brush

One of the brushes I use most for concepts and sketches is the Pencil Brush made by Koifishsushi on Deviantart. You can find and download the little awesome sucker HERE.

Above is the sketch and final painting I did for Schmidt for "Fühlzwerge". And even right now I use it for new sketches almost on a daily base. I like the smooth but traditional feeling of the brush a lot and the sketch tends to look more alive.
The only other -but real- pencil that gives me the same feeling is the Blackwing but being a leftie I tend to smudge it horribly and that's one of the reasons I use it only when I really think it's worth the hassle.
Nevertheless if you are into traditional sketches you might want to check out the Blackwing anyway. I have all three versions and can highly recommend these. If anybody is interested in sample pics let me know. :)
AND if you buy these anyway because they really *are* that awesome: Get yourself a long point pencil sharper as well. You will regret not having one at hand if you need one.

Owlish

 *click for full view... it's huge*

It's just a detail of an illustration I did for Saskia as a gift. She had an odd doodle version in her sketch book and I wanted to do something full color when I had some more time.

I worked with those pastel like brushes on my last board game project as well and it was fun to try out something different. Though you won't be able to see the many details in the final format (worked on poster size for promotional material right up from the beginning) it was nice and fun and I think it underlines the age group it's made for and the actual concept. I hope people will like it and I hope nobody will complain about flying eggs (which are supposed to be owls actually).

The brushes were from Deviantart- I tried to remember which set it was but since my library grew over the last couple of years (at least for faking natural media) I honestly gave up. So before anybody ask: No effin idea and I can't provide a link. Sorry.

I want to try doing a live wallpaper in that style and hope it works. It would be cool to have something more... natural looking for the android.

Cute galore!

*click for bigger image*
Next to finishing pages, 2 board games and keeping up with social life (I am still surpirse I keep that one steady... wow) AND normal work I prepared some things for the Animaco in Berlin.
I got my proof prints yesterday and realized these went horribly wrong with a flipped backside. Lew said she wouldn't mind but I mind a lot and less than perfect is not on my Wanted list.

Everything's already in pre-sale since I have no problem with first come, first serve. If I end up having three mugs and only buttons left... oh well, it will be fun anyway.

If you are still looking for cute christmas gifts read the journal entry HERE.

Whipped Cream

the wallpaper can be downloaded >>HERE<<

have fun!

Sometimes...

... my own idealism is totally not cooperating with healthy common sense.

.... painting size... and final size (actually you see a bit more but ... you get the point). I know it's an idiotic obsession with details but.. but... but. It's DETAILS!

Some thoughts on details: I have to admit I hated painting details. I can't kid myself when I say I loved painting those 2 years ago. I hated it from the bottom of my heart.

It changed a lot and in two years I realized that it's a good practice like yoga. The longer you meditate over something and keep your inner demons at bay when all you want to do is scream and yank the computer off the table and throw it out the bloody window... the calmer you can get.
A lot of things stress me still now (like setting up the working color scheme and god, sometimes it's really hard- especially if the colors are not in my usual comfort zone) but details don't stress me anymore.

It's something I learned to love and I'm quite grateful for every job I got with tons of details because it meant I had to face my inner demons. A lot of artists neglect it and stick to their comfort zones, colors they love, lack of details blabla endless list. I understand sometimes it can be called "style" but normally I see it as a bad habit and no craving to take your art to another level if you keep doing only things your 100%ly sure you actually CAN do.

I am not fond of radical changes but whenever I can stuff something into my style and it's a good add-on and no distraction or harsh change my votes are totally up for searching and sticking to them... and searching for the next one.

What's your thoughts on the topic? Are you more of the "I against I" or "no need to change" type?

Color and Fails...

I actually didn't really have any time to blog and dang, I thought I'd still have more of the fails on my computer but no... deleted in shame ;)

Anyways, this was one of the comic color schemes I got mad over. I wanted to achieve a warm summer evening scheme with a darker setting but everything I tried just looked muddy or too dark.
The problem with sunsets is that of course gras doesn't really look green anymore and all colors fade over to the yellowish-brown-muddy-something range.
But the real problem is: It just looks shitty.
I have no idea how Kazuo Oga manages to get those moods done but I decided to go the unrealistic but more appealing way. Sometimes you have to tweak it and god knows I wouldn't have liked a mud page. :/
The whole problem took 3 months to solve. Sometimes it's really the best to put the page away and start mulling over the problem again if you feel you finally have the nerves to work on it again.
But so much for realistic nature... no idea if it would have done any good to test out another scheme.

I wanted to write something about another more delicate topic but still after some weeks I can't figure out how to wrap it up, so just enjoy the weather (hopefully awesome) and have a wonderful week.

Trees in Panels

... can be total sucker...

 The actual size of the panel.... because honestly.. every tried to add details to the a stamp size? O_o I failed which meant working with 600 dpi was a good decision.

 sketch and ... flats done by Lew... and a long road to go...

 Adding the leaves, erasing a lot and adding branches because it looked unbalanced. Adding things and erasing things happens all the time. I made the sketch (I think) 7 months ago??? Some months later you pretty much feel a lot wise ;)

 Depening the texture of the branch without going too much into hardcore realism because that's what I 100%ly don't want to achieve (and never will).

 Adding a bit of light....

... and correcting the contrast and bluring out the end of every branch because it looks too hard otherwise.

Still need to do the background, foreground, birds, details and the... whole rest of the page but that's pretty much it.
The leaves are 2 custom brushes and before you ask for those: Create some yourself, it's much better if you know how your tools react and why they actually react like that. I am still updating and cleaning my own set and it's worth the time you invest.

Zebra-Schwein

Again a board game! It's the last one I did last year and it's again totally different from "Mount Drago" and "Space Mission" but for me the most hilarious and funniest game.
Actually it's for kids but I think if you have a bunch of people who are willed to play a game that happens to include drawing (it doesn't really matter if you are GOOD... really) you might have many laughs, tears and odd doodles.

The game comes in five languages (German, French, Italian, English and Dutch I think) and costs around 22 Euro (regular price). Included is a very pink pig buzzer, 30 animal cards, a sketch book and all my love, sweat and hours I spend on it.
(You have no idea how often we changed the cover... ).

Available on (German) Amazon HERE

Lidl Puzzle

Now how cool is that?! One of the puzzle motives I did where released today.... in Lidl France. It's only the fairy which is a bit sad since the pink princess was my favourite of those two but alas... I can't have everything.
If you like faires and puzzles grab it as long as it's available. And no, I have no information if the puzzle(s) will be released in another country as well. Sadly.

The motives were requested like that so if anybody feels like vomitting rainbows- I'm sorry ;)

Christmas -whoot

Short gif animation of the last illustration for my calendar.
Not as fancy as I wanted it to be but I like it anyway and it looks nice in a quite bigger version. Funny (and really annoying) is that the colors are massively changed in the screenshot mode and the final image looks radioactive in the gif version. It's actually something inbetween both color saturations you see.

If anybody knows a solution for the screenshot problem let me know. >_<

1 Poster... in layers

Actually some layers seem to be missing in the screenshot... O_o *scratches head*
Anyways, that's a good way to show that Photoshop isn't always click and done and not everything can be fixed with one layer. Especially when it comes to 50% non-painted art, I found it very useful to carefully layer effects over each other instead of trying to stuff everything in one.
Since I've got the bad habit of NOT naming everything I can strongly advise to NOT follow my example. ;) It's pure madness but in the workflow I totally forget resulting in massive swearing afterwards.

If somebody wonders: I work with both the English (home studio) and German (studio) version. Results in pretty funny files.

New Homepage is UP, UP, UP!

www.trenchmaker.com

ist finally relaunched. It feel a bit weird to have the video online but I hope some people will find it usefull. We're fixing minor bugs and correct some things but basically it's done.

Regarding the video: I know the japanese one is out of space awesome but at some points me and my colleagues discussed if it's even possible. I think it is possible (to achieve those results with AA) but again, for me the DS is mostly a thing for total beginners, sketching on the road and color concepts (again it comes in handy to have something that's small and uncomplicated).

Therefore the tutorials will show only the basics and images you can do in half an hour. Not more. I spend around 1 1/2 on a paprika, which is fine and I like the result but it's not the main point using it as a pro- in my opinion.

There will be a little contest in some months- so if anyboy is keen on getting a DS and Art Academy for free keep an eye on the blog. :)

Regarding my gallery and the more than honest words on the homepage: It sucks a lot if people steal your art. Really. No matter how much I'd like to be cool and stay above... it doesn't work. I get angry every time somebody sells my artwork for 200 bucks upwards and I can't accept answers like "I found it on Google images, what's the problem?!"
The problem is that it's illegal and the bigger problem is that it's my stuff.

So until we find a solution I have to keep the homepage gallery like it is. I am totally sorry (I already had all images ready :/ ). IF anybody knows how to technically prevent those rips let me know. Maike and me are trying to find a solution and every help is totally appreciated.

If you have any questions- let me know. I'll try to repost the text in German language later.

Please keep in mind that you need to have an account to post something here- it's the only solution to prevent massive spam posts from companies offering stuff you don't want to buy.

Meadow-ing... takes ages

Still far far away from where I wanna go with it. I'm frustrated with game manual graphics. Perspective-photoshopping is one of the things I find really annoying and it doesn't do any good if you have a game with like 1 gazillion parts and all have to look "at least 90% correct".

Anyways, I hope I can finish my Hippo next week- somehow. Though I doubt it... but till now it looks like I'm gonna like it. I just have no idea why I decided for a medaow with a lot of flowers.

Bao Fireflies- Details

.. some details. Painting fur wasn't the problem. I lost patience doing the water =.=
Painting fur is fun. Most people do it wrong- smudging everything dead which ens up looking plainly ugly. Creating a proper dot brush AND adding like 1 million hairs by hand does the job a lot better.

Oh noes! So blue!

If you read via RSS you happen to miss all the fun. I'm still trying to find the best text format but otherwise you have to deal with cats now. ;)

I happen to sort through illustrations and finished comics right now and it looks like I didn't really do anything in the past year. Which is not true but ... didn't do a lot for Chubs. Hopefully that will change soon and a lot. I already feel like "whoa, crappy" seeing the old pages but it's a good sign. 

The bad thing about it is that I want to redo everything O_o

As always, Lew is my flat-cat. so if you want to know who's the best flat-cat on earth visit her blog and enjoy funny comics about my cats behaving stupid. >_<

Chubs For Droid :D

shameless advertising >_<
We finally started uploading the first Chubbanimal Live Wallpaper. Actually it won't be the last if people love those. Jason and I have been working quite a while on new ones but the more we do the longer it takes since the concepts get bigger and bigger and oh well... bigger.
Anyways, I'm happy with the outcome and I had Bao on my own droid for a while and it's so cute when he's following you touches.
The LWP can be downloaded for free here
and the Donation Version here

Still working on nerd-stuff at the moment for Schmidt Spiele. It's a challenge but I'm still excited about the whole thing. Maybe because it's so very not cute.

Flip it, Babe! -Photoshop and OpenGL

The Rotation tool of Photoshop CS5 is one of the best inventions ever. I supsected CS5 wouldn't offer (to me) anything I really love but ... gods, I love rotation when I need straight(er) lines and it comes in handy if you need to ink or work neat.

don't ask what the motive is.... anyways, big file is big. I guess you'll be able to see everything....

More information by Adobe can be found here:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404898.html
and here:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSA6DF9C40-CEA8-4cfd-9A8B-44108E2975DD.html


I know Painter had it for ages but as some people might have painfully experienced Painter seems to be unable to NOT crash. I mostly work with 600 dpi and I doubt Painter would have liked my game board with 2 m width and 600 dpi.

Hope somebody didn't know the Rotation tool and loves it as much as I do now :)

Sir Bogard- Soapboxed

 some details.... I still like to paint roughly with my normal brush and add some -even rougher- details with textured brushes here and there. Over the last months of comic painting I did so many new brushes (not always with the desired result) I 100%ly have to sort those soon =.=

And the final Bogard. Colorful illustration is colorful.

Speedracer

I hope I can finish this week. I tend to stick to the most hilarious colors when it comes to Bogard. It's like a craving for eye cancer.
Normally when it comes to chubs the work-flow is like that:
Step 1-2 me
Step 3: Lew
Step 4- xyendlessyelling me again

sometimes we switch 1 ;) Some people seem to have a problem with getting other people involved in their art but I think it was the best decision we ever made. I save up a lot of annoying hours. I actually don't mind paying for that help. It's kinda annoying if you meet somebody assisting artist XY and when the money question pops up you see only blank faces with question marks over their heads.

Money? For assistant jobs? Oh my gawd, ho could I actually believe somebody would like to get paid for it.
Maybe I'm too honest and like my good karma but yes, I actually believe in fair treatment.