I've been trying to post one-a-week tips & tricks for the past few months. So far, so good. Next week I'll be traveling with sporadic internet, so I thought I'd post 2 this week. This is a watercolour Xmas card I did to experiment with lighting and mood.

I use various textures a lot in backgrounds to add a little flair. In this case it seemed especially appropriate to convey "art."

I find adding textures to my art makes it richer and better. I use layers and custom brushes a lot to accomplish this. The key is to use filters to make the textures look more painted, erase or mask so they aren't applied too evenly, and paint some extra scratches & dents by hand.

Making animals look human can be as simple as adding eyebrows. Here I take it a bit further with aging applying similar "rules" that I use for humans.

Eyes are the first thing we notice on a face. For that reason, I always give special attention to how I paint them. I want my people, animals, and creatures to look like they're alive! Unless, of course... they're dead.

Something a little different today: reworking my paintings. In this case it was moving from traditional watercolour to digital as well. And merging illustrations as the story was edited.

Painting skin has always been one of the most challenging things. I'm still not quite happy, but slowly improving as I do more work. This is a Henry Ford book cover I'm working on this week...

Taking time to include extra details makes art look finished and seem more convincing. I try to include reflections when it makes sense.

People think I paint EVERY detail. While this is kinda true, I've found some techniques that make it SEEM that way, but are hugely efficient (since I usually work on a deadline).

While I find many (most?) things can be painted with standard Photoshop brushes, I do have a bunch of custom brushes that speed up specific textures. I haven't made them available for download - most can be made in about 5 minutes.

An artist is their own worst critic. Always. No matter how good it looks to others, every illustrator I know sees the flaws a day later (or a month later, if you're lucky). I try to see this as a positive: compelling us to be better, but there are plenty of times I want to kill that bitchy inner critic...

Tip-a-week: painting shiny white stuff. In college I did a series of paintings
using white objects to better understand light & colour. 
What I learned: there's a LOT of colour in white.

Another "tip-a-week" - painting marble made easy, for this recent job. Maybe next time I'll deal with royal jewels!

Painting clouds comes up a lot in my work. The first thing I consider: what time of day and weather will add to the concept. I don't always like or want blue skies! It's more interesting and challenging to see how I can add to the mood.

This was an experimental piece I did, trying a couple new techniques before I inflicted them on students

A twist on a classic tale: this is how I think the story would play out today...

This book cover seems appropriate when so many are thinking about him... (I don't do only big "bobble-heads," it just happens that this client uses them as a signature look for the "Who Was..." series of books).

   

Here's how I did it...

I get asked how to paint shiny stuff all the time. So here's how I do it...

Painting fire in Photoshop - best (and easiest) way I've found...