Becoming Better at the Digital Arts.

Become enamored with digital art: photos made clean and crisp through manipulation and correction; painting made clean and easy, with no brushes to wash or tarps to lay down. All of it is just a blast to do. I love the feeling of using Photoshop compared to most any other programs, and I rarely like to pick up a pencil or brush and use them for fear of mistakes and wasted materials. Like many others, I got started with the program on my own, just exploring it and learning things by myself. Every once in a while, though, I’d see a cool effect and wish I knew how to make, so I’d cruise the Internet for a tutorial to show me how. Sites like psdtuts+, a great resource for those who wish to build their skills in digital art.

The March Madness got me, but I’m back. By “march madness” I mean games, movies, and conventions. Speaking of games, this month I’m gonna give you a taste of one hell of an artist that’s also a gamer — the artist simply known as ‘Ionen’.

Don’t mess with Ionen

So our artist this time around is from the great ol’ state of Texas. Though I doubt anyone could apply any type of regional stereotype to this artist as they seem to be a fan of Final Fantasy and other games of the like. Also looks like if you want a nice commissioned piece, this one’s your gal. I’ve been looking her commissions over and they seem to never disappoint. There looks to be a hint of Asian influence to her style, which makes sense since she’s a fan of such fellow artists as Shunya Yamashita. If that’s not an Eastern name I don’t know what it is. Anyways, I’m always a big fan of pirates and dark elves, and if I’m lucky, both in one. Ionen seems to do both, so it is win-win for myself. So if you’re looking for an artist to do some kicking fantasy character portraits, look up Ionen on Devian Art. Instead of sitting here raving about her and her work, I’ll just show off some more examples.

So this is Ionen’s work. If you like it, let her know here.

I was in the middle of doing the DAA for April and had to start over, just couldn’t bring myself to do it on that artist. Then someone recomended Aphex Twin and I went bat-shit crazy and hit myself for not doing them sooner. So here’s a video by Aphex Twin: Come to Daddy, and a little link to their site.

For the month of love we visit a place I love, Germany, and also a genre that I love, fantasy. So this month we have both in one with an illustrator I ran across one day: Florian Stitz. I’m gonna keep it short and sweet about this guy as I don’t know too much myself.

The artmachine across the pond.

So yes, this guy is all the way over in Germany. I found him in my usual browsing on Deviant Art and I came across this awesome picture of some nasty Warmachine he had drawn up. Warmachines is a table top game like Dungeons & Dragons or Warhammer, made by Privateer Press Inc. A similar game they put out which is also cool looking is Hordes. I don’t know much more about either of them except that they seem to produce some pretty kick ass figurines that draw people like Mr. Stitz and myself in. From the green glow this guy emits, to the horns and skulls all about — how can you not love this big green killing machine?

Privateer Publishing Plunders

It seems Florian draws a lot of Warmachines and Horde illustrations, and for good reason; they publish his work. As I mentioned, I’m a big fan of the Fantasy category too — all the paladins, wizards, rogues, and crazy-ass monsters in these completely fictional and made-up worlds. But this lucky guy gets companies like Privateer Press to publish his little goodies. I’d like to resist making any privateer or pirate jokes at this time. These guys make some great figurines, and I’m always tempted to purchase some every time I walk into my local game store with some cash in my pocket. It’s hard to resist when there is a big statue holding a big sword covered in spikes and looking all awesome. Anyway, back to the artist at hand, he’s currently working on his own site for showing off his other pieces of work. It can be found at florianstitz.de, for those who want to take a look. Like I said, it isn’t finished, but I’m betting it is gonna be sweet. I said I’d keep this short, so here’s to you Florian Stitz, keep giving us awesome art to drool over.

So yeah, its busy as hell around the holiday seasons for me, but I just wanted to pull up a digital music artist for the month of December, but someone spiked the egg nog. 7 Days later I wake up in Death Valley with this song being played in my head like angels. Not gonna sit here and talk on and on about this. From the dark corners and generally shadowed areas. I give you, from their latest album FH3, TZDV by Faderhead…