Cirque and Politics

It's another double piece weekend! My summer, job wise, has taken a weird turn for the better, and because of all the time that I've got, there'll be plenty more double piece weekends to come, I'm sure.

CdS-Duet: Been doing a lot of thumbnailing for my "for fun" Cirque du Soleil page project. I made a couple of these two as Zaia (the young woman) performs an aerial strap solo. So I decided to turn those images and feelings into an illustration.

Justice and Sessions: I don't talk about it often, but ever since Trump got elected, I've been in and out of states of political angst. Rather than express these feelings with words, since people use words all the time, I'm instead turning to political art. This was in response to the Jeff Sessions testimony. He looked very nervous and couldn't stop squirming in his seat or sipping water. Perhaps it was because a certain someone was haunting his desk at the moment. (I played around with some embossing filters to get this strange, nightmarish effect)

Tools: Photoshop, thumbnails (for CdS-Duet).

CdS Page #1

Thought the animation was all there was today? You're in luck, 'cause I finished some more art!

CdS Page #1: The first of several pages I'll work in between original works. This project, which I got a rough start in two or three summers ago, is just something I work on for fun (haven't got a full story yet, but when I do, I'll have some animatics for later spreads-and even animations). It's inspired from Cirque du Soleil's Solstrom show many years ago. It's so much fun drawing these characters and bringing in others just for the fun of it.

Tools: Photoshop and many reference pictures.

(Belated) Wildcard Wednesday #47

This week, we can expect: an in-progress viewing of a Cirque du Soleil piece I'm working on! This is a project I've been doing just for myself over the years, but I'm giving the whole thing a new treatment and new life through Photoshop. I'll put up my progress on a small animation I'm working on this Saturday!
(Sorry for the delay-was having technical difficulties yesterday, ended up just saving my progress pics from Instagram, which will explain the filters)

CdS Page-Sketch: This is where the digital work originates from. It was just a random doodle I did during school earlier this year. Because I loved the composition so much, I decided to turn this into a piece of digital art.

CdS Page-WIP #1: I considered scanning in the sketch and working from there, but I wanted to make the image bigger in Photoshop. So I just decided to start over from scratch, glancing at my sketch to keep the same feel and composition.

CdS Page-WIP #2: Here is the finished line art. While I have gotten much more comfortable with the Intuos, I decided to keep my lines pretty loose so I wouldn't get hung up on perfectly drawn out lines. And I felt it added a bit of a playful feeling to the characters.

CdS Page-WIP #3: The first round of coloring on the first panel. I played with the hue and saturation/brightness levels on an image of Zaia (the girl hiding) to get the exact darker hues I needed. I ended up scrapping the dull gray shadows and the erroneously green underside of the sofa.

CdS Page-WIP #4: The first panel finished! Used the eye dropper tool to get the exact colors for the room (it's based on a location in an episode of Cirque du Soleil-Solstrom) and on the purple-legged character. This panel was a little labor intensive-and I still have no clue how to do real blending on Photoshop-but I'm pleased with the results.

CdS Page-WIP #5: My latest progress leaves off with the start of coloring on the second panel. While I love the Baron, there are several details about him that can make him frustrating to draw (I hate drawing stripes).