Tuna Dreams painting

This is one of my latest paintings in progress. Each stage has it's own fun and life cycle. The drawing started as a fun idea as I watched my cats do what they love to do most which is sleep. The idea of learning how to rest. After I finished the pencil drawing then I created value thumbnails and color studies in preparation for the final painting. Next I did a sepia underpainting over the painting to establish base lighting or breakdown of light and shadow. This last image is the painting in progress in oils.
I'll post more stages as I work.
Jeff

Tuna on a silver platter

This is a new painting I'm working on. I start with a rough thumbnail sketch for the idea. Then do a quick series of value studies for tone and lighting. Then I work on the drawing. Sometimes I take photos or gather photos for reference. Most of the time I prefer to draw directly from my imagination. In this case I just wanted to get an idea of the perspective of the cat faces.

Painting workshop and demonstation

I will be doing the first in a series of art workshops at the Artist's Edge in Poulsbo, WA.  If you are in the Seattle area or will be in the Seattle area in February, come see me!  

Concept art for MCF Escape from Ravenhearst

Each game project that I work on has a lot of visual development to help guide the art direction and overall look and feel of the project. At the beginning stages, I produce a lot of rough sketches to explore the game screens, camera shots and overall lighting. These are just a few of the rough concepts for Mystery Case Files : Escape from Ravenhearst which was released last November.
The main goal of concept sketches is to capture the feel and not produce all the details. The MCF team artist are all master craftsmen who start with these ideas but turn the final art into magic. I call concept sketches "little visions" just a glimpse into the look of a painting. The reason that a lot of these are in black and white, is because the heart and soul of a great composition and painting is in the values more than the color. Color is important but value is supreme.
Lots of art love,

Jeff