Speed Painting 61.1: Game of Thrones Season 7 - Heroes

A new season of Game of Thrones and a speed painting to follow. Been doing this on an annual basis now since it's one of my favorite shows of all time. Love too much about it.

I saw a wonderful piece by Even Ventrue that was done on this tone of some samurai character. Inspired me to try the same style on this one. I will be doing a Villains variation next to finish it in the next 10 days and upload it, similar tone and feel.

I did have the right and left with backgrounds, however I ran out of time to create them on the same level as these 5 characters so I removed them (for now). I will work on them and upload them on artstation/dev art and link it at the bottom for all to see. I think once I finish that aspect, the series will look even better. :)

The hype is real for season 7, and my body is not ready. Also, I have not seen any of the main trailers so I go in with fresh eyes. I'm so fucking excited.

Speed Painting 60.2: NBA Finals 2017 Part 2/3

New Guardians movie, so I thought I'd go about it and create a poster type of speed painting for it. Hope yall like it. Star Lord's silhouette making the difference between the galaxy and the rest of the squad. Simple enough concept this time around, hope the execution was good though. Enjoy. Prost.

Speed Painting 59: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

New Guardians movie, so I thought I'd go about it and create a poster type of speed painting for it. Hope yall like it. Star Lord's silhouette making the difference between the galaxy and the rest of the squad. Simple enough concept this time around, hope the execution was good though. Enjoy. Prost.

Speed Painting 58: The Get Down

One of my favorite new shows last season was a new show on Netflix called the Get Down. I believe it had 6 episodes in total for season 1 and by the last 5 minutes of episode 1, I was in. Story revolves around a group of kids that are going to make it in the music industries from the 70s, but the characters are what sell the tv show.

Anyways, I focused on the main two characters as the focus, my man Shaolin Fantastic & Ezekiel. Added some supporting characters through some creative means, although I wanted to add a few more.. especially the other guys that are part of the crew! Alas, no time and since no one is paying for this, I added as many as I could without the design itself getting clunky nor obnoxious. I hope you enjoy the video and I would highly suggest checking out the show. S2 comes out in April, and see if you're into it by the end of episode 1.  

Speed Painting 57: Horizon Zero Dawn

Hot new game coming out, which I'm playing after my birthday (because I gotta finish this speed painting first smh).  The concept idea about the game is actually really unique and allows for tons of fun actually drawing it.  They have a ton of unique characters (enemies) on top of a stunningly well thought out looking world. 

I used a similar that I've seen around from Edge's Horizon cover and just made it my own style.  Added one of the bird enemies in the middle of two separate background illustrations.  Also the outline of the entire illustration is of one of the monsters the main character has to take down.  Anyways, this was fun as hell to draw and I hope yall enjoy the video I've created.  

Speed Painting 40: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is coming out soon for season 6, so I decided to make this month's illustration about it.  I'm hoping the hype is real and comic book readers have been hyping up some of the bigger villains that are coming soon.  Hopefully that means we get to see them and it doesn't get padded with filler.

This is a simple illustration of Rick and Daryl chilling with a zombie.  All of them getting along for once instead of trying to kill each other.  Rick's beard continues to grow (that season 5 episode does not exist).  Hope you all enjoy it! 

Speed Painting 38: True Detective

Last year, I was introduced to one of the best shows on TV in 2014, with Rust being one of the most interesting characters.  Season 2 brought an entire new cast, story and setting.  Very excited, and I decided to make a speed painting about it.

I focused mostly on Ray and Ani, my two favorite characters from season 2.  Even though I'm not quite good at it, I chose to use the same style that both s1 and s2 intros use for the character.  Weird abstract figures showing characters which I love.  I don't want to spoil the black background encompassing Ray, but you will know what it's about if you're far enough into the story.  Ani appears in the smoke and the town of Vinci is shown through her outline.  Enjoy. :)

Also, thanks HBO (or music corp) for taking down the intro songs of True Detective s1/2 openings from the original video, despite me never monetizing a single video.

I normally use real life pictures for nearly every speed painting but in this case, I used an illustration of an artist for ani's face only.  This is the reference due in a reddit link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueDetective/comments/3dhqka/fan_art_i_warm_up_for_work_days_by_digital/

Speed Painting 37: Final Fantasy VII & XV

If you are a gamer and haven't been living under a rock far, far beneath the Earth, you know about Sony's E3 conference.  They announced that Square Enix is remaking the most popular jRPG of all time, Final Fantasy VII.  This time around, Shinji Hashimoto is not trolling us with a PC port as was shown half a year ago, but the real remake.

Now I have been waiting for Final Fantasy XV (known as Versus previously) since 2006, when initially revealed.  It's looking like a 2016 release, and there a chance the FFVII Remake might be a 2017 release coinciding with their 20th year anniversary.  FFVII ironically enough, is the only mainline Final Fantasy that I have not played (other than XI and XIV, but those are MMOs).  Somehow, this game has always alluded me.  I've always wanted this game to be remade rather than my favorite FF which is IX for this reason.  I also created both games in this illustration because I will very likely make them as their speed painting on their months of release.  

Speed Painting 36: Batman Arkham Knight

So something-something related to Batman is coming out, and yes it is another excuse for me to once again to do a Batman-related youtube speed painting.  The final game of the Batman trilogy from Rocksteady Studios will release on June, and that is my next topic.

This illustration is heavily inspired by the wonderful Witcher 3: Wild Hunt concept designs of their artists.  Well done to them.  I used the Batman logo as the background while illustrating the two major villains of the game, Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight.  I also used one the Dark Knight songs from Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, and the second song from the Arkham City game.  This way, I pay tribute to both the best comic book superhero movie and one of the developer's own games.

I hope you guys (whichever person accidentally stumbles here) enjoy this one, because I believe this to be my best one in exactly three years of (creating) speed paintings.  Can't believe it's been three whole years so far!

Speed Painting 35: Avengers 2, Age of Ultron

With the new Avengers moving coming out in May 1st, I thought it'd be a good choice to pick A2 as my next speed painting. I wanted to practice illustrating metallic substances, so Ultron was a perfect reference. I chose to go with Ultron looking as intimidating as possible while in the process of ripping Captain's shield in half, and Ironman and Thor trying to get involved behind him. Enjoy.

Speed Painting 34: Game of Thrones Season 5

Here's my new speed painting for the month.  Came out a day late.  I'm going to find out the programmers who work for Google/Youtube and fight them.  Ok, I need to calm down a little bit pretending to be an internet tough guy.  I won't talk about the description or my process too much as it runs into 'have you seen season 4 of Game of Thrones' territory.

Speed Painting 33: Bloodborne

I played Demons Souls on the PS3, and its spiritual successor has finally come out on the PS4.  These games are hard as hell, and you basically get your ass kicked on a regular basis.  However saying that, the gameplay is fantastic and it's incredibly addictive.  The atmosphere and music just adds more to each of these (similar) series.

I used one of the settings from the game and added (one of) the main characters along with one of the enemies you have to fight.  The tone is pretty mellow.

Speed Painting 32: The Order 1886

The Order 1886 seems to be the first really big game coming out on consoles this year.  I love story driven games like Uncharted and The Last of Us, and this game really piqued my interest.  Knights of the Round Table who never age and have been living for centuries to fight Lycans, aka werewolves.

The entire premise for the first game is set in England.  From what I've seen, the story seems incredibly interesting.  The game has the typical 3rd person shooting and what looks to be some exploration/creepy sections in the game, which is what I focused on during the illustration.  I created a scenario where the main character Gallahad is searching in a room and the blood leads the viewers eyes to one of the Lycans.  There's a few little tid bits here and there but I'm not going to tell you.  Where's the fun in that?

Speed Painting 31: Arrow

So Mid-season Finale of Arrow season 3 was pretty crazy, and I felt like this had to be topic for January when the second half of the season begins.  Unfortunately, I cannot go into huge detail on my process thinking into this one unlike previous illustration videos since this video contains spoilers only for the ones that are caught up.

I purposely illustrated this piece this way for the simple fact that some people may get interested in the show or simply not caught up.  This illustration is set up for both people that are caught up and those interested.  Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy and don't mind how vague or how little information is being conveyed in the description unlike other instances.  Cheers! :)

Youtube Copyright Changes - You done good Google

You done good Google, you done good. I have been complaining to my friends, making facebook statuses about it as if anyone cares, and to random strangers on the street that Youtube's copyright policy is pretty terrible. How dare Google have their own way of doing things for a free service that they provide to me?

I hope that "2" icon isn't a copyright flag, as it 

still states good standing on my account....

I create illustrations that are recorded then uploaded in a sped up process into an average of just over 5 minutes of said illustration. I upload them on the first of every month.  I generally have to look everywhere to find a song that doesn't get copyrighted, or just use a Ramin Djawadi/Two Steps from Hell song since their music doesn't get flagged. I never monetize any of my videos. My idea is not to make money on this personal, monthly project of mine. It gives me deadlines to paint digitally every single month. I get to learn more about programs like Adobe Premiere, Audition, and AfterEffects. Of course if I am lucky, a video blowing up would give me the opportunity for a lot of potential clients in the future as well. The more people that would see the work, the more likely I have freelance, job opportunities.

 About time!

As you see above, it states that you can have music background as long as you don't monetize it. All I can say is thank you and about time, because I'm as entitled as the average person albeit quite self-aware of it, which I do not believe makes it any better.

Normally I would have to go back to AfterEffects, change the song, change the image icon of the song and re-upload everything again.  This might not include all songs but if it does, it's all I ever wanted Google.  Well.. it's one thing.  I am human, which means I'll always want something else the second that I get or attain something that of which I've longed for. 

Speed Painting 30: The Hobbit 3, The Battle of the Five Armies

With the final Hobbit movie coming out, I decided to make this the speed painting of illustration.  I hadn't painted a dragon in a long time, so I thought why the hell not?  I already created a speed painting on the first Hobbit movie, with a very light tone.  This one on the other hand, is much darker as you can tell by both the illustration and music choice between the two illustrations.

I chose a pretty good reference point of Smaug demolishing Lake Town and played around with a few things.  I decided to add someone in the middle of the lake pointing an arrow where Smaug's chipped armor is located.  I tried to use some of contrast of red, yellow, orange with blue.

Personal Projects - Pushing The Schedule, Taking Your Time

Note that this does not include work with a client. Once the date is set and the contract is signed, there is no turning back. If you need extra time, then you really have noone to blame but yourself. This is about personal projects. Artists generally have an issue of knowing when to let go of a project. People get better at this unsurprisingly enough the more they keep painting. This recent project I worked on was the opposite case. I had a plan of when the project would end. I finished the project. But, it didn't look all that good. It was "ok".

I create a youtube speed painting every month, and release it on the first of the month. If you look at the dates, most are released on the 1st of every month. The few that are not were videos that I had to re-upload due to song, copyright infringements despite not monetizing any of my videos. Now before I start on another rant on Youtube and their idiotic policies, I'll try push my ADD away and try to focus on the topic at hand. I decided for the first time to take an extra day and work on the final illustration and improve it to a level that I was satisfied with. This is my 29th speed painting, and it's a shame that my run of releasing my videos on the first of every month was finally broken. Lets hope my next run is more than 28 speed paintings!

Make sure you know when to let go of your illustrations and in some rare occurrences, going back and improving your work! 

Speed Painting 28: Supernatural

With season 10 of Supernatural coming out in October, my sister suggested I illustrate one of my favorite TV shows of all time.  Same & Dean have been through hell their entire lives, especially once the series picks up.  The episode where they go to jail was used as inspiration for my entire speed painting.

I decided to put them both next to one another making poses.  Dean is being silly, and I add a bit of intensity to Sam, especially with the whole Lucifer arc that revolved around him.  Dean is wearing black, and Sam is wearing white, though with those eyes looks can be deceiving.  None of my previous 27 speed paintings have a song that fits the illustration/topic lyrically as well as this one does, so make sure to pay attention to the lyrics.  Enjoy.

Speed Painting 27: Destiny

With the biggest game of the year coming out this month, I thought I'd illustrate Bungie's new franchise series Destiny. It's from the creators of Halo, who have always made games on Microsoft platforms. While I've played the previous games, I've never owned one so this is a big change for the company.

Speed Painting 26: Guardians of the Galaxy

August 1st. Guardians of the Galaxy the movie comes out. This movie was practically begging me to illustrate on my youtube channel where I create one youtube speed painting a month on the 1st of every month. I focused on Groot and Rocket for this illustration. One because I didn't want to illustrate all 5 of the main characters, and two because they seem to have a pretty good bond together.. based on 0 actual knowledge and only basing it off off the 3 trailers I've repeatedly watched over and over again. Played with light and colors a lot. Still a long, long way from where I need to be, but it was still a great exercise for me.

I have to go see the movie. You have to watch my video first. You read this far, might as well spend over 5 minutes watching a video that hopefully you like. I'm really exuding a lot of confidence in that last sentence...