Suckerpunch

I watched Zach Snyder's Suckerpunch last night. Absolutely loved the movie. Here is a little movie inspired piece of Vanessa Hudgens as Blondie.

detail:

Thanks for viewing guys,

-Tin

PS: Big updates on my website! :)

Lolita & Wolfa

Hey guys!
So I'm not sure if this is successful or not. I tried playing with bolder strokes, but I'm not sure if it made certain areas too sloppy. Personally I am happy with the colors, but the composition needs a bit of work. :) Ohwell, just playing around. Let's see where I can take the style next.

And here is a piece inspired by Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.

Black Swan

Hi Guys!
This image was inspired by Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. I tried to show the white swan being consumed by black feathers mirroring the dancer's delusions.  Two versions: One with text and adjusted colors and the original.

And here is a portrait of my mom. :)

Thanks for stopping by guys, 

-Tin

Meganckster

Portrait of my mentor and hero Robert Meganck. :)

Thanks for viewing guys,

-Tin

Experimental

Hi guys, just want to share a few experimental pieces I worked on between the commercial projects. Some big updates are coming up soon, so keep an eye out! :)

Thanks for viewing guys,

-Tin

ILLUSTRATION REVIVAL 101 - PART 02

Hi guys!

Here is PART 02 of ILLUSTRATION SURVIVAL. This time we will discuss some basics so that we can define the most important elements before you start working on your website.  As a reminder, the things described are reflections of my personal experience. The images of some of the artists are only random examples I used to make a point.

Please remember that the best method is still the one that works for you, so don't ever feel that there is only one way! And most importantly: Enjoy yourself as you enter the industry. It's not the big, dark, depressing world so many make it out to be.

Thanks for reading guys!

Tin

ILLUSTRATION SURVIVAL 101 - PART 01

Hi guys!
I've decided to start a series of tips on marketing strategies and suggestions for rising illustrators and those looking to take their illustration career to the next level. These observations and suggestions are all based on personal experiences and studies, so please keep that in mind as you read through. You are free to share this post as it is my goal to help rising artists and reach out to established illustrators across the world to make this industry as accessible and enjoyable to the newcomers as it is to the ones who made it their life and career.  Click on image below to view full size.

ILLUSTRATION UPDATES!

Hi guys, here is a redrawn version of Sarajevo, page 1 of The Spark Graphic Novel. I've also redrawn the third page to match the new direction, so this will be one of the last images I will share before the comic is completed.

Below is an illustration for Crain Communications-Workforce Management. It's for an article titled The Thought Police and talks about technology that will allow employers to spy on what employees do on work computers, especially monitoring social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks for stopping by everyone,

-Tin

NEW ILLUSTRATION UPDATE AND THE SPARK IS BACK IN ACTION!!!!

This is the new full page illustration for RIDES Magazine. This time the focus was on Tupac Shakur (as the Toyota MR-2) and R-Kelly (as the Nissan GT-R). This one was my personal favorite from the series and it was a blast to draw Tupac for two jobs in a row.

In other news, The Spark graphic novel is back in development.  The project was on hold for quite some time now. Between being super busy with the freelancing and not too satisfied with my first few pages of the comic, I decided to research old European and American comics a bit more, looking at my favorites Will Eisner, Georges Rem (Herge),Max Bunker and many others.

What you see below is the new, slightly different direction I am taking and the revision of the original page 2. The lines are a bit bolder and looser. Hopefully, I can have more updates soon, but let me know what you guys think of it so far.

Thanks for reading guys, 

and HAPPY VALENTINE'S!!

-Tin

RESIDENT EVIL COMIC PAGE + ILLUSTRATION UPDATE

I finally got some time in between projects to enjoy some PS3 gaming. Resident Evil 5 was my most recent adventure and I absolutely love that game. I decided to do a 3-4 page comic based on the gameplay and the image above is the first of the set. 

I also recently acquired the Wacom Intuos 4 tablet.  While it took me half a day to get used to the new, more textured and natural feeling of the surface, it's a huge improvement despite the quick tip wear. The drawing feels so much more natural and the texture truly feels like paper at times, especially after using the slicker surface of older models for so many years. 

Below is a panel showing the inks using my new favorite custom chisel brush. It really feels like drawing with a marker. :) I highly recommend the new tablet if you do most of your work digitally.

I have also been illustrating these half page, three-panel comics for Boy's Life Magazine each month and here is an example of this long running series that will be out in the next issue.

Thanks for reading guys, 

-Tin

WILLIS, HANKS, AND A GUY WITH A MUSTACHE

Here is a quick warmup drawing of the day: Bruce Willis.

And a quick sketch from the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks.

Here is a quick study of a WWII Pilot ( referenced from an old photo) for the MOAA Illustration below.

The image below was an illustration for the upcoming Military Officer Magazine. It accompanied a story about a WWII pilot's wife who accidentally served her husband food with hairs. Not wanting to upset him before he goes on his mission, she decided to keep the little secret to herself.

Thanks for reading guys, 

Tin

NEW RIDES MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION: CHARLIZE THERON AND TIA CARRERE

New Illustration for RIDES Magazine. This issue showcases the Bugatti personified as Charlize Theron and the Porsche as Tia Carrere.

The first sketch I submitted focused on the movie Aeon Flux for the upper section of the drawing. I originally wanted to portray contrast between the city scape and island, but the movie was not as popular as the Oscar winning Monster. So instead of focusing on the movie references, I went with the heritage of the two ladies: South Africa for Charlize and Hawaii for Tia. I also added Wayne from Wayne's World in the lower section since Tia is known for her appearance in the movie. 

Thanks for reading guys, 

-Tin

XXL MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION: ILLUMINATI IN HIP HOP

This was a full page illustration for XXL Magazine.  It was for an article that talked about the history of the Illuminati in American culture and Hip-Hop.  Where it originates from?  How does it allegedly play a role in American society?  When did it become a factor in hip hop.  In 1996, Tupac released his album Killuminati dispelling the many rumors of the Illuminati that existed in Hip Hop.

This illustration went through quite a few revisions.  Below are the first three sketches I submitted.

Kanye West is known for gesturing the Illuminati symbol with his hands so I wanted to show him spying on Tupac. 

I was shooting for a comic book cover look in my second sketch. The white owl is usually associated with the Illuminati cult and the Cyclops is representing the seeing eye generally found on the pyramid.

The third sketch was supposed to be an alternate cover of Tupac's Killuminati album.

The first sketch was the direction the editors wanted to go but I was asked to do further tweaking based on that approach.

I tried to toss out a few ideas I had floating in my head, but the fourth idea was definitely my favorite. I really wanted to do a more painterly approach for this illustration and a completely different composition. 

I also did a value study of the last sketch to push this idea. Luckily the art director felt the same about this drawing and I was asked to do more tweaking of the image. The editors felt I should make the main figure Tupac since there's mention of him in the article, especially the release of Killuminati.

I initially added some plants around the figure to suggest fear and isolation but was asked to change it to flames as they appear in most illuminati images above and around the pyramid. 

Thanks again to Paul for this great assignment and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

Thanks for reading guys, 

-Tin

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Happy Holidays from Tin & Ameenah!

TAX ATTACKS

Hello Everyone,

The past few weeks have been extremely busy. A new wave of projects poured in after Thanksgiving and I wasn't quite able to keep up with the daily drawings. I just finished my first assignment which was a full page illustration for Military Officer Magazine. It's a continuation of the Super Hero series which has been on halt for a while. This time it was for an article that talked about the many new changes to our tax programs in 2011. 

This piece was extremely fun to ink. I was going with a more traditional comic book style and tried hard to give the lines a more natural look while still using the Wacom tablet.

The selected concept was in reference to H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds. The inked image below was another concept I might finish for myself another time as I'm somewhat happy with the overall composition and perspective. With this alternate concept , I wanted to give the hero an actual nemesis that could portray the taxes rather than having him always battling papers and numbers. Since this might essentially take away from the reading too much, we decided to go with the idea above.

The last idea was referencing Atlas from Greek Mythology. At first, I thought this was a good way to show tension and struggle with the weight, but it simply didn't work well for this article and was compositionally very weak.

Lastly, I wanted to create a Super Hero character that would be used for all future articles since this is an ongoing series. Giving the publication its own character would create more consistency since the images are usually linked to tax related articles. I have not received any feedback about the reuse of this particular design, but maybe it is too boring showing the same figure flying around every time. Either way, I want to thank Jill for keeping this series going and allowing me to be experimental with my work.

Thanks for stopping by guys, 

-Tin

SAMUS ARAN

The first time I played Super Metroid on the Super Nintendo I was determined to become a concept artist for a video game company. I was in love with the design of the character, the many different creatures and the game's environments. Visually, it was pushing all boundaries of what I previously experienced in a video game. This particular shot was inspired by the last level of Super Metroid, which I recall being a pain in the butt to beat.

While I don't remember every detail of the level, I remember running against the clock after defeating the last boss and trying to find my way back to Samus' space ship. 

Today, I work as an illustrator and am still pursuing that childhood dream of working on a video game as a concept artist.  While there were many jobs in the past that required me to illustrate video game characters,  I am still deeply inspired my Mike Sneath and his designs and would love to open a new career path towards the gaming industry. 

Stylistically, I've been recently very inspired by Marcos Mateu-Mestre.

I love the energy in his drawings and his wild and instinctively controlled line work. I had a lot of fun with distorting the perspective and playing with custom brushes that looked like chisel tip markers.

Thanks for viewing guys and Happy Thanksgiving!

-Tin

WARMUP OF THE DAY #3: STREET FIGHTER (CAMMY VS BALROG)

The next daily warmup drawing brings back the good old days of 2-d fighters. When Super Nintendo ruled the console wars, Street Fighter won the hearts of fighting game fans.  

I went a bit beyond the intended sketchy approach to these exercise drawings and dedicated the entire morning to finishing this image. I noticed that my recent illustrations lacked energy and appeared static, so  I challenged myself to create  a lot of movement and action when composing the piece.

I didn't know which characters to choose, so decided to use the ones that would provide me with a nice color palette based on their outfits.  Adding a few 8-bit goodies here and there, I wanted to make the image resemble a screenshot from the actual video game.

Thanks for viewing guys, 

-Tin

WARMUP OF THE DAY #2: HE-MAN

It's time for the warmup of the day!

I was obsessed with He-Man as a kid. With only three or four channels on a black and white television, the cartoon's fantasy world filled my imagination with its colorful cast of characters and ridiculously scripted dialogue. Kids in my neighborhood would reenact each episode, swinging their wooden sticks and calling to the power of greyskull. The show was to my generation what Bonanza was to my parent's, a huge part of a child's upbringing.

He man broke the pattern of my daily doodling. No longer was I drawing doughnut shaped cars from the side view, I was inspired to explore the anatomy of miss-proportioned 80's cartoon characters.

I realized I haven't drawn my child hood hero since I came to the states and started studying art. With each daily warmup drawing I hope to recall the little things that made me interested in art in the first place.

thanks for reading guys!

-Tin