Line Art - St. Bernard

Hi again :)

To complete the current dog art series, I decided to draw a St. Bernard. This majestic dog was always starring as a rescue dog on TV shows, films or cartoons. To be honest, until 3 years ago I have never seen this kind of breed in person. Luckily I was travelling in snowy Bariloche, Argentina and came across several fancy St. Bernards. They had the traditional outfit (wine keg) and were ready to be photographed by tourists.
Here is one of them :

He was big and looked tired, but his presence was indeed very royal!

These great dogs deserve a line art portrait, so I created one. 

Take a look : 

A little gloomy and tired, no? That was my intention, to capture various emotions in those portraits.

Here are my recent dog art creations on shirts : 

St. Bernard Shirt

Happy Black & White Dog

Smiling Boxer Shirt

Cool, isn't it? :)

Thank you for visiting, see you next time!

Want to see more of my art? You are welcome to visit my Online Store or my Facebook page.

 

Line Art - Happy Dog Portrait

Hi there,

Last post I showed you a Line Art of a Boxer dog. I like to capture dogs' expressions and poses, so I decided to draw some more.
This time I've created a portrait of a mixed breed dog, a happy and energetic creature. I wanted to do this sketch with the good old Photoshop CS2, to do something simple and basic.
Take a look :

To be honest I like to created Line Art images using photoshop. I tend to think that the images are warmer, and look more "human". The fact that I use only lines as a first sketch, and have to paint between the lines, makes the difference. I try to do very clean work, but every now and then, I can miss a pixel, you can't really see it immediately, but you can feel it - and that makes it (in my opinion) more special and warm. This kind of images are never perfect, and I like them more this way. I prefer hand painting the image, than using an immediate color fill (like in illustrator). 

Here is an example of how I fill the colors :

A little primitive, and analog... I know :) In illustrator the process is quicker and easier, I can switch colors immediately and change the lines in seconds... Using photoshop well... it's not :) And If I find an error I have to repaint the whole part, or to rebuild the area. Sometimes it takes a while, sometimes it's frustrating, but as I said before... I think that "feel" is much much better!

Next post we'll see another dog art using photoshop.

Thank you for visiting!

If you'd like to see more of my art, please check out my Online Store or my Facebook page

Line Art - Boxer Dog Portrait

Hi there!

Few months ago I posted some dog portraits, mainly my Pit Bull, created using line art.
Lately I had the urge to start drawing other breeds of dog using line art again. Dogs are perfect models, like to pose, and almost always look great in photos.
For me its a real pleasure to create dog art, I like to capture their mood and their character in the picture.
I decided to draw a Boxer (a friend of my dog). The Boxer is really impressive and athletic breed and its face is very special (some love it, some hate it).

Take a look at this smiling face :

This picture was created using adobe illustrator, next dog art will be created using adobe photoshop, and I'll will talk about the difference (at least for me) between the two programs. 

Thank you for visiting !

Have a lovely day :)

Want to see more of my art? Visit my Online Store, or my Facebook page.

Chocolate Banana-Punch Pattern

Hi there,

I am on the roll with the vintage patterns :)
Today I decided to mix a nostalgic combination of colors - pink, brown, yellow and light blue. Why nostalgic? In the late 70's early 80's, when I was a child, there was a very popular ice cream flavor - chocolate, banana punch. It wasn't my favorite flavor, but now I think of it very fondly, good times.
It's a simple but very lovely and optimistic vintage pattern, take a look:

I could imagine this pattern on a pillow or on a bag - it looks great!

That's it for today, thank you for visiting :)

If you want to see more of my art please check out my Online Shop or my Facebook fan page.

My Retro Style Pattern Won the "Today's Best Award" on Zazzle

Hi there!

Today I was really glad to start the day with this mail :

To be hand picked out of thousands designs is really exciting, it is a nice reward for the hard work I've put on my online store. This award also gives my products more exposure on Zazzle's front page :)

Take a look at my original pattern:

Retro style orange dots pattern, with a colorful frame. I really like the vintage touch of the scratched surface!

Take a look at the award winning product:

Award winning retro style messenger bag

If you'd like to see more of my designs, check out my Online Store or my Facebook fan page.

Thank you for visiting :)

Have a wonderful day!

Digital Art - Black Cat

Hi there!

Who doesn't love black cats? They are adorable, aren't they? hahaha A lot of people are still afraid of those animals, believing they will bring them bad luck. Well... I must confess, those creatures look majestic (or diabolic to some people), with their dark fur and their hypnotizing green eyes.
Few years ago while I was eating breakfast outdoors, I've noticed a huge black cat fighting and punishing other cats, who have tried to reach for the leftovers. After a while he was walking towards me without a fear, with an arrogant expression on his face. Luckily I had my camera, take a look at this tough bully.

Scared? :)
His eyes were huge and so green, and the pupils... well... he truly looked like the devil :)

I was so impressed with his image, so a few years after I've decided to create a line art or a colorful sketch that will deliver the same facial expression. I wanted to be able to recreate the same hypnotizing eyes effect.
I was using illustrator, to build the basic sketch, and I put an extra effort on the eyes.
Take a look:

It is really a simple image, but it has so much character, and I just love the contrast and the vibrant colors. 

Hope you enjoyed this post, thank you for visiting!

For more art and photography, you are welcome to visit my Online shop and my Facebook fan page :)

Digital Art - Silhouette Fun

Hi there!

I just love to create silhouettes using vector art, it's fun, easy, relatively fast and it makes me go wild with the background.
Imagine that, a plain object, which easily can be ignored without the background, suddenly looks glamorous and appealing. That's my fun, to think about the background, to make the silhouette pop out in an interesting and beautiful way, to create the right atmosphere.

Here are 3 examples of silhouettes I've created, notice the big difference between the plain silhouette and the complete image with the background.


The Jazz Player
 

When we think about a jazz/saxophone player, we think about a smoky dark club, smooth atmosphere, the 40s-50s. I tried to recreate this atmosphere with a simple background, smooth, blue and sexy. The background really supports the silhouette and gives us the essence of the jazzy old-fashioned ambiance. 

Take a look : 

Karate Fight

Karate or other martial arts like kong fu, always remind me the 70s, the glorious days of Bruce Lee or the classic karate kid movies.  It always look majestic, royal and sometimes exaggerated. I wanted to bring a WOW effect in the background. Something that will make the silhouettes more impressive and will give them a cinematic flare. I've decided to use a dark cherry - crimson color, that brings a very dramatic atmosphere, the silhouettes looks absolutely glorious in that background. To complete the scene, I wrote the word karate in Japanese using some filters.  

Take a look:

After that, I had an idea, to use the red color as the sun in the Japanese flag, and the result was very cool...

Elephant Family

The other day I saw a show on the National Geographic channel. A beautiful and heartwarming scene was shown - an elephant family walking together, holding each other tails. I was so excited - it gave me an idea for a picture. I've created the elephants silhouettes holding each other tails, and was thinking to myself what would be the perfect background. African sun in the background, desert haze and unbearable heat would be the natural environment for this family. 

Take a look: 

You can really feel the difference, can't you? :) A proper background, even simple one, can add the perfect atmosphere, and can give new life to a plain silhouette. 

Hope you enjoyed this post, thank you for visiting!

If you like to see more of my art please visit my Online Store or my Facebook page. 

Graffiti Exposition / Making a Digital Graffiti

Hi there!

Two weeks ago I was attending an international graffiti exposition at old Jaffa port. Many international graffiti artists spread around the dock, and were busy painting on the old walls, trying to make them look prettier and colorful. I was walking around, capturing them working on the graffiti, each one with his own technique and style.

Take a look at some of the gems I've found there, and see some artists in action :

This exposition inspired me to create some digital graffiti patterns, Here is one of them :

I like to create geometrical abstract patterns, and to play a little bit with some filters, in order to make them look more special (I've found that photo filter apps. can be very useful on digital art images).

Take a look at the following steps, and learn how to make simple but cool digital graffiti images.

Draw some geometrical shapes (doesn't have to be super sophisticated) 

Paint between the shapes (try to find matching and attractive colors)

Add a little depth between the shapes

Use photo filter app (instagram, pixlr-o-matic etc.) and choose a "grungy" texture
in order to make the pattern more urban

That's it!  Pretty simple, but very cool.

Thank you for visiting :)

You are welcome to take a look at my Online Store and enjoy (or even purchase :)) my art.