Metabrush

I've had an airbrush for at least a year now and yet my total hours spent on it would be about 20. After the first few incredibly disappointing attempts (which I now know were mostly paint issues and technique), I decided to rage quit. I picked it up a few months later, only to be repeatedly frustrated again by lack of technique and paint flow issues.

Fast forward to a few days ago, thanks to tips from Ashley Brayson and Jay Ferguson, I modified my airbrush to loosen the trigger tension, bought a smaller needle, sealed my threads and dialled my psi way up to 50! Then, armed with a new medium (Acrylic ink this time!) and a few helpful youtube vids, I tried again. Success! I got some half decent gradients and lines down and felt generally more confident with the airbrush. I even managed to airbrush a half decent skull, which you can find here:

Airbrush Skull

I've got my enthusiasm for airbrushing back, and I'm keen to start trying out more techniques. Maybe when I've gotten the hang of it, I'll upgrade my fairly cheap tools to some professional quality ones!

Air on!

For so long now I've kept an incredibly large (and ridiculously slow loading) brush library in Photoshop. I soaked up every awesome brush pack or set I could get my hands on, and was always looking for that next brush that would complete my repertoire and get me closer to painting like my idols.
Yesterday I finally realised that I only use about 9 brushes in total, and really only 2 brushes for most things, with the others for touch ups on a piece to piece basis. So I went ahead and deleted almost every other brush I own (more like moving them out of the brushes folder), to streamline my drawing process and force me into actually drawing items as opposed to using an image brush e.g. drawing individual chain links instead of using a chain brush. The ones I have kept are a mix of Daarken's and DanLuvisi's brushes, and are enough to create almost anything, talent permitting.
I think I'm becoming more comfortable with these brushes and the more I practice, the more they help me achieve the goals I set for myself.

I hope you've found the brushes that get your creativity on!

Hello world!

I finally made my private art/concepts and my paid work very separate from each other. As much as i'd like people to see all of my work, regardless of how crap or silly, most of my clients wouldn't go for the zombie/undead/gross stuff, and might even be turned off from working with me. They would see two very different styles/genres of art, and if people google my work, i don't want a zombie popping up when they're looking for a children's book illustrator! That is why i upgraded and changed my username. This way i can continue to make the weird and macabre stuff, without turning prospective clients off. Plus i really like the new name, it's a handle that i could get used to...the only problem now is the back linking for anything that did have my old name attached. Here's hoping i create enough work to put any of that old stuff on the furthest pages of google images...

Wow, I just noticed that my deviant page has reached 1000 views! I didn't think I'd get to 100, so this is very humbling. Just want to say thanks to anyone and everyone who has clicked on any of my deviations and a big thanks to everyone who has added any of my art to their favourites!
Cheers!
Chad

Just posted some random bird things. I seem to be able to draw these better than what i really want to draw, or what i'm into, but maybe i'll find more people with these types of digital paintings than with my other crap