The Comic Creators For Freedom are working together to end modern-day slavery.

Every person who donates will receive an awesome desktop wallpaper featuring a character drawn by every creator in the CCF! This year’s theme is ‘Epic Snowball Fight’!

As you can see in the image above, Harriet The Parasaurolophus is representing my comic, Greg The Megabeaver’s Prehistoric Sideshow.

Our third drive ends tomorrow night at midnight! As of right now, the total is $6,350!

Click here to learn more and make a donation. Seriously, any amount helps. 100% of the funds will directly benefit children in dire situations all over the world.

I choose to be really accessible for a lot of reasons. One result of that accessibility is the inundation of critique requests.

Unfortunately, there’s just no way I can critique the portfolios or websites of everyone who asks.

The best advice I can give for getting professional and/ or experienced eyes on your work is to build relationship and add value.

Join Twitter, the blogs and the other communities where these professionals hover. Respond and comment. Be helpful and answer questions, provide recommendations, encouragement and never pester them. That’s how you get on the radar.

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Subscribe to the ChrisOatley.com Digital Painting Tips Newsletter and get access to LOTS of FREE PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES designed by Chris Oatley.

You can download the brushes by subscribing to my Digital Painting Tips Newsletter via the Green Box at the top of the right sidebar on this site.

These brushes are spontaneous and stylized and sure to help you generate new and unexpected visual ideas as you paint.

(This set was previously available exclusively to people who left voicemail on my ArtCast Listener Line.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

IN THIS EPISODE ::

Lora Innes, creator of The Dreamer and I are starting a NEW PODCAST for visual storytellers called The Paper Wings Podcast! It will feature two shows per month, one focused on art and the other on story.

With passionate and efficient communication, a consistent, dependable release schedule, and a mission to advance the state of the art of visual storytelling, The Paper Wings Podcast, supported by The Paper Wings Talent Exchange Program (created to bring back the lost art of apprenticeship) is sure to fill our creative tanks (yours and mine) with high-octane inspiration.

AND:: Steve Umbleby’s career in character design takes another leap forward and the modern anthropology of a children’s story anthology reveals how any project can find it’s finish if it can find enough artists.

UPDATE: Lora has written about the new Podcast on her blog.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

IN THIS EPISODE ::

I share some listener feedback and discuss how artists can develop consistency and professionalism through fundamentals and a refusal to settle for less.  I also briefly address the ongoing debate about digital comics and I talk about a new sit/ stand ergonomic solution for my workstation.

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This is an experiment. I’m writing this post in the hope that we can generate some lively discussion. It’s time for some controversy.

MY QUESTION :: There are a lot of beautifully-designed movies with bad stories out there. In your opinion, why?

I don’t think that the highly-trained, highly-skilled visual artists outnumber the highly-skilled, highly-trained writers. If so, what do we do about that?

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

IN THIS EPISODE ::

I speak with Jerzy Drozd (creator of The Front) and Thomas James (creator of Escape From Illustration Island) about a recent discussion that has been taking place here on ChrisOatley.com regarding personal projects and how to actually finish them.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

IN THIS EPISODE ::

The following character designs were generated by members of the art community at ChrisOatley.com

The challenge was to take a character from a classic horror film and one from classic literature and blend them into a single character.

Thanks to all of the artists that participated for being so bold. You inspire me.

I am hopeful that this ArtCast Special is the first of many explorations in pursuit of artistic community.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

IN THIS EPISODE ::

Community has been building around the ArtCast for over a year now. I think we are ready to take it to the next level by engaging in community art assignments and critiques.

First, a character design assignment… …a Classic Literature/ Classic Horror Mash-Up. Listen to the audio for details and submission guidelines.

DUE: JANUARY 2, 2010

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

IN THIS EPISODE ::

Its a hodgepodge of ideas rambled off in response to Voicemail left by Podcast Personalities Jim Lujan and Jerzy Drozd.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

IN THIS EPISODE ::

I spent most of the last episode answering some of the great questions that I have received from you, my dear listeners.  And I thank you again for sending them in.

Something that has become apparent in my conversations with you is that almost everyone feels like they are in a period of transition, artistically.  But some of you feel stuck. Some of you feel locked-up.

Whether that feeling is there because of economic reasons, because of an inner-frustration with your perceived level of skill or because you hate your day job, you maintain that characteristically creative drive to move forward.

I called together a few friends and we met for an online conference call to plan an escape from art jail.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

IN THIS EPISODE ::

I answer listener questions about how I broke in to the entertainment industry, about being a well-rounded artist and I share some encouragement for those who may have found themselves in a transitional phase of life.

Read the rest of this entry »

Subscribe to the ChrisOatley.com Digital Painting Tips Newsletter and get access to LOTS of FREE PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES designed by Chris Oatley.

You can download the brushes by subscribing to my Digital Painting Tips Newsletter via the Green Box at the top of the right sidebar on this site.

I’ve decided to make my ‘Oatley Essentials’ set available for download. This set consists of 32 brushes – mostly ones that I made.  There are a few that came from other places (friends, free PS resource sites etc…).

BEFORE DOWNLOADING :: VERY IMPORTANT ::

I use tool presets to manage my brushes instead of the brush palette so make sure you place the file (OatleyEssentialBrushes_ToolPresets_Fall2008.tpl) in the ‘Tools’ folder inside of the ‘Presets’ folder inside of your ‘Photoshop’ folder.

Here is a brief overview of the collection:

The first brush in the list is my new favorite brush “Daisuke_Brush_Wild_83.”  This one is named after one of my favorite artists Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi.  You can check his work out here to 1.) be incredibly inspired and 2.) realize why my brush was named after him.

The next brush in the list, “Hard_Mask_100,” is the brush that I use for creating crisp masks when I am doing VisDev work for an art director and I know that there will be a need to make changes quickly and a need to present many different versions of a design.

The next three “Tapr” brushes are the ones that I use for most of my painting.  They are simple and built for optimal speed.

Next are a couple of ‘Sketch Pens’ that I got from my friend, Ryan.  They are great for when you need to draw or sketch in Photoshop.

The ‘Square Angle Brush’ set is for use with the Wacom 6D Art Pen.  These sharp, rectangular brushes change direction as you rotate the stylus.  They are great for getting a cool, stylized look to your paintings.  They will work with a standard stylus, but you will have to change one thing.  If you do not have the 6D Art Pen, you can change the ‘Rotation’ setting to ‘Direction’ inside of the Brush Editor in Photoshop.  This will make the angle of the brush change in relation to the direction of your brush stroke as opposed to having the angle of the brush change in relation to the rotation of the stylus tip.

The ‘Airbrush’ set is self-explanatory.

‘AluKlecks’ is a cool texture brush that came from Goro Fujita.  I have mentioned him on this site a couple of times.  He’s awesome.  Check out his blog.

Octoprimus’ is one of the first brushes I ever made.  It is good for achieving a brushy look.  It is named after my character ‘Octoprimus’ because I built this brush while I was designing him.

Lastly, there are some more ‘Daisuke’ brushes that I made, five more texture brushes that I did not make (I can no longer remember who did) and one brush that is a customized version of one by the company WACOM Technologies.  (I believe that they are giving more of these brushes away for free on their website.)

…and thanks for reading, watching, listening, looking and for all of your comments and encouragement.

Go well.

Subscribe to the ChrisOatley.com Digital Painting Tips Newsletter and get access to LOTS of FREE PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES designed by Chris Oatley.

You can download the brushes by subscribing to my Digital Painting Tips Newsletter via the Green Box at the top of the right sidebar on this site.

As some of you know, I’ve been working on an illustration of Wolverine Vs. The Hulk.  I realized yesterday that it was time to make a set of ‘Splatter’ brushes for Photoshop.

Previously, I just painted splatters by hand or I used some of the other free splatter brushes that I found online.

However, I have not been able to find that ‘comic-book-blood-splatter-look’ for which there are many applications.

So subscribe to my newsletter now and get this set of 14 Splatter Brushes instantly for FREE!

Enter the poll to WIN an original Star Wars sketch by Chris!  [link]

I love the scene in Star Wars: Episode Four: A New Hope where Han-Solo suggests that there might be a less-cuddly side to Chewbacca.  Here it is, courtesy of IMDB.com:

[R2-D2 and Chewbacca are playing the holographic game aboard the Milennium Falcon]

Chewbacca:  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrgh

C-3PO: He made a fair move.  Screaming about it can’t help you.

Han Solo:  Let him have it.  Its not wise to upset a Wookie.

C-3PO:  But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid.

Han Solo:  That’s ‘cause droids don’t pull people’s arms out of their sockets when they lose.  Wookies are known to do that.

Chewbacca:  Grrrf.

C-3PO:  I see your point, sir.  I suggest a new strategy, R2: let the wookie win.

I think this scene is hilarious.  The actual performances make it even better.  And I love this idea that Chewbacca (my personal favorite SW character) has a ‘loose cannon’ aspect to his personality.  The only thing is, we never really get to see his ‘Wookie Rage’ come out.

I have had this idea for a Star Wars illustration since 2002.  I even started painting a version of it back in ’02 but it sucked egregiously so I abandoned the project.  But over the years I kept thinking…‘I want to see Chewie in all-out WOOKIE RAGE mode.’  Every time I heard Han Solo utter that line (which, as many of you know is very often) I was reminded of my abandoned ‘Wookie Rage’ piece.

I wanted to see Chewie doing what I would consider to be the defining ‘Wookie Rage’ action… …pulling someone’s arms off.  But who would be his victim?  I initially thought it would be a Stormtrooper, but the Stormtrooper’s lack of indentity compromised the intensity of the idea.

So then I thought that I would invent a Star Wars-like creature for Chewie to maul.  However, this made for even more disconnect.  It had to be personal.  The viewer had to feel the Wookie Rage.  Nobody cares if Chewie is pulling the arms off of some Chris Oatley character.

So it would have to be an established Star Wars character.  Who might Chewie have tangled with in the past?  Who might he tangle with in the future?  Of course.  Boba Fett (who happens to be my second-favorite character…)

Last October, I revived the idea.  I shot some new photo reference of friends and got to work making thumbnails and tiny color-comps.  I have been working on this thing intermittently in my free time for months and I finally have a drawing/ composition/ color palette that I am happy with.  Though there are a few things that need to be tweaked, I feel that this drawing will provide a strong foundation for the painting.

Something I haven’t really done yet here on my blog is share works-in-progress as they are actually in-progress.  So here goes.  This is where I am right now with the piece.

In addition to any feedback, encouragement or critique about the work-in-progress, I would love to hear your thoughts about why we witness a rageless version of Chewbacca The Wookie inStar Wars: A New Hope.

Be sure to enter the poll: “Let The Wookie Win” (in the right column of this page) and send me an email [coatley (at) mac.com] letting me know that you entered (honors system – play fair).

When the painting is finished, I will put all of the names in a ‘hat’ and draw out a winner.  The winner will be announced on a future episode of Chris Oatley’s ArtCast and that winner will receive one of the original sketches that I did (or will do) during the creation of this piece.  Fun, huh?

…and if you haven’t seen Star Wars, Now is the time.

I know its Monday and there is no podcast (this podcasting thing is hard).  Bear with me.  Its on its way.