Mushroom Man

This blog certainly has me working hard drawing everyday just for you, I just hope the pressure increases as more and more people discover my "Opposite Machine".
Tell your friends that there is a rad drawing of a mushroom man today! I saw a mushroom man photo somewhere and before trashing it relegated it to my sketchbook for all of eternity.

It was sketched quickly to get the major shapes in HB and bravely drawn with my Faber-Castell pens. Once again I have foregone coloring with Prismacolor  markers for the time being. Just in case anybody is interested in purchasing the work on spec and dictating the colors they want. Anybody interested in a mushroom man shirt or CD design for their band?

Bird Brained (part 2)

I spent a little time working on this one, when I had a few free moments. Locked my door to avoid roomie interruptions (though he did need advice on whether or not he cleaned a borrowed paint brush enough).

I began using my Faber-Castell pens and I began to notice was that they were not as fine tipped as I had once thought. I began dreaming of the Copic fine point set I saw for 100 bucks at Inglewood Art Supply. Fully replaceable parts and refillable inks;)
Why is it that $100 for pens all of a sudden sounds like a great investment?
Because it is............. pens are part of my tool kit.

Here is the bird drawing. I wont say it's finished because I'm thinking about adding color, but am not yet brave enough to commit it to paper.

All images on the Opposite Machine Blog © Brian Batista

Bird Brained

It's late. I have people over, I'm still drawing........

Jim challenged me later that night (somewhere around 4 am) to continue drawing into the wee hours.
I was tired and wanted to go to bed because I had to work in the morning.  
However, I am not one to pass up a challenge!!!
He handed me a photocopy with a bird on it as source inspiration. I came up with this, though I need to put a little more cross hatching time into it. You can tell it has some Alice in Wonderland influence in it, must have been the late night movie.

done with my favorite Faber-Castell pens. I am still undecided about a long tale, barely visible in HB pencil below the body. It has the feeling of a coat of arms and the shape on the head adds a regal element.

What pumps through my heart?

Here is a drawing I completed while standing in line waiting for the opening of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I added the drips of blood and the ROYGBIV, color after the screening when everybody came over in the weeeee hours and we had an impromptu drawing party. I used my trusty Faber- Castell's to ink the drawing and Prismacolor markers to color it in.

Art. Color. Blood, sweat and tears.

Please don't steal this image or any other on this site. 
© Brian Batista 2010

Contortionist - Visha loo

This sketch was done first in HB, inked over with Faber-Castell and filled in with a sharpie (the downside of sharpie =bleeds through). The legs intentionally go right off the right side of the page. I was planning on drawing the legs on the backside of the paper, but the inks bled through the paper.  I am excited about the new pen I bought yesterday: COPIC marker Black 100, made in japan, with two tips, chiseled and brush tip and it can be refilled!

TO SEE THE REAL DEAL GO TO:

vishaloo.com

The Big Race

So here is my preliminary inked drawing. I used my Faber-Castell 4 PITT pen set, primarily using the M (medium) sized pen for the thic outline of the characters and the S (small) size for the background elements.

It has been scanned into Adobe Photoshop on an Epson scanner @ 300dpi (as have all drawings that have gone before in this blog). In this case, I increased the brightness and contrast to get rid of the majority of the eraser marks and paper texture.  I had to fill in various lines and erase all the small speckles left from the scanning process with the eraser tool zoomed in.

The image above gives you an idea what I'm left with. It took about an hour to erase all the little details and use the magic wand to delete the whites. The checker represents the background layer, which is void. The next step is to create some font on the sign on another layer and to give this piece some digital colour.

I separate the layers in order to have more control later, in case I had to change up some of the design or colours. I also wanted to isolate the characters in the event that I wanted to move them around. All I did was use the magic wand and paint bucket. I blasted through the inking in no time.

Here is the finished coloured version. There is an added shadow layer at 60% opacity with a gaussian blur. The great thing is I have all these files and layers I can alter with a click of my mouse.

Anyone want a 1920's style Disney colouring book?