your magic is working. keep up the good work.

Thank you! I hope to make the magic much, much better.

Can't wait to see more

I'll do me best! :D

Heyas, Berb - glad to hear that yer doing okay after the fires. I sentcha an e-mail but never heard back so I was a bit worried. Can you e-mail me when you get the chance with what's been up? =)

Will do! I swear, Google doesn't want us to talk. :P Yours isn't the only email to go astray, but our correspondence seems to go astray WAY too damn often.

I also agree you work magic.

Bah! Shucks. *blushgrins* Danke, o mighty man of pixels. Learning how to say a lot using very little in the way of marks is one of those arenas where you're the master and I'm the student.

You're posting again. Yay!

Nice space here!
I like the textures made by those tiny black marks you left unerased. Complements the mood very well, imo.
Love your color choises.

I'm eager for more.

It's inbetween all sorts of craziness here. And more than a tad of procrastination. :./

The recipe:

Colored the background layer a kind of neutralized lime green,
Did the foreground building with the Thick Pen tool (it just became a building, I didn't have any intentions when I started)
Tweaked the background layer with some additional color
Used the Hard Eraser tool to hatch out some of the negative space on the building
Then I did the character.

Took about an hour. If you take out the fiddling and futzing, it probably took ten minutes. That's what indecision will get you.

Thank you all 'round! I'm going to try and do more stuff like this. Makes me think of the great illustrators of the 70s (Bernie Fuchs, et al). I will do my damdest to make the next one better!

For some reason I thought you did the black structure on a separate white layer set to multiply. I thought: "hell... can't be erased in the stirct sense... he uses Painter, and Painter people are alergic to layers not filled with 100% opague color."

Art would be damn boring without fiddling, futzing and moments of indecision. :]
I waste 2 out of 3 hours on that.

"I will do my damdest to make the next one better!"

You'll succeed.
Wish you luck anyways!

Bah! Layers are for stacking! It's easier than using Painter's Masking functions, that's for damn sure.

I read a great quote recently: "First you're fast and terrible, then you're slow and good, and finally your fast and good."

Words to live by.

*hugs*

smells like smoke

let's play inside for a while, it's quiet here

Better keep our wits about us, though! The last time somebody came through that door, only ghosts came back out....

great to see your work here
I really like the texture and use of negative space here.

I look forward to seeing more from you

Thank you for all you've said! I will try to keep up at least a trickle. ;)

This makes me wonder who WE are. The figure outside seems a blank, in a way, and the set up gives me the impression of some kind of hidden life looking out. Very neat composition! Nice to read in the comments about your approach to the technical side of making this as well. Always looking for tips. Thanks, dood! *hug*

True, true! I hadn't thought of it in that way until you pointed it out. The figure's anonymous; 'cept for the tail it might not even be furry. Wonder what that says about my state of mind when I made it. Hmm.

*hugsback*

Text on the screen can't properly express the honest enjoyment that I have for your work. There's just something really *cool* and imaginative about it. Plus, I have a weakness for interesting light and high contrast. Hah!

Rock on!

Well, "thank you" doesn't really do justice to the compliment but I can't think of anything else. Thank you.

Funny how remarks like these, unsolicited, out of the blue, seem to come right when you need 'em. I'm fighting with my skill set at the moment. Words like these make me willing to keep up the fight.

In here, or out there?

That's always the question! :D

Indeeeed...

YO! thank you for sharing again.

It's gorgeous!

*hugs* You are way too kind, sir. What's your December like? I want to come up there and visit you! I have heard bundles about this fabulous studio and I want to see it with mine own eyes. And, of course, meet you at last!! What say thee?

Well... turns out my studio (a.k.a. extension of my house in which the parents reside) isn't such a good place to meet up. It's much moreso my brother's workspace for college anyhow. Sorry to let ya down, but my bro's gotta work :[

Soooo yeh, most favorable option is for me to swing by your place. It'd have to be sometime after yule festivities. LOTS of family to handle. I'll notify when things are in tha clear :]

Ach I see! No to worry, man. I'm not about to intrude on someone else's studio space.

This means we just need to link up with His Alexness and make that happen! Could you PM me his work number? I've successfully lost it. :./

We can do affa holidays, that's be jes' fine. There's a possibility I may end up much closer to thee anyway...

This send delightful shivers down my spine.

Yay! *grins* That's a great reaction! And high praise to boot!

Ja! I absolutely adore bleak things such as this, I really do -- they get all the gears in my head turning and whatnot. :)

very cool!

Danke!

This brings back memories of the bundle of really awesome delapitaded buildings I got to snoop around in at Death Valley. There was this one hidden place across the street from this sorta famous Opera House where someone had spray painted "I met a ferret princess on eagle mountain" on one of the walls. I ought to post the photo of that, it was delightfully random.

I keep thinking of being inside this thing & hearing footprints crunching on gravel and dirt cakes, along with the faint sound of distant aircraft.
Immersive!

Pictures pictures, my man! :D

I want to some day do pics like this which perfectly evoke 60s samurai movies. Will keep going. You feel like giving me a crit, man, please do so.

Oh wow, the ambiance in this piece is super intriguing and appealing. :3

Thank you for saying so! Doing these pieces is great fun. I'll get around to making more, I promise! :D