Imagineering; Darkride - board 1

Last night, seemed to be the shortest night I've ever had. Having a lot of free time on my hands turns around my sleeping-rhythm! So, I started working trough the nights; no distractions and no other noises. Listening to my favourite music and making some magic!

This time, I tried to push myself trough a rare kind of limit. I've never had tremendous skills in digital landscape/interior painting. I was frustrated some other pieces didn't work out as I hoped. So I started to push myself "I won't go to bed before this piece is partly finished and amazing!" It took a lot of chocolate and patience to make it this far! It's not 100% entirely finished, but good enough for now.  I'm contented it worked out perfectly; now I know how to make a landscape/interior in perspective!

EDIT: Photoshop tutorial

I've been fighting my way through photoshop to create a semi-realistic artwork. I was used to work with Mr. pencil and Mrs. paper, they've always been my best friends since kindergarten. But I always wanted to find a way to make a digital painting just like the big boys! So I had to make this work. I struggled months to re-invent this kind of technique. And finally! I've found a way!

1. Pick a basic color, you can add more colors with more basic layers
2. Pick a dark overlay color, this layer will be used as the first shadow layer
3. Pick a second dark overlay color, this layer will be used as shadow-accent layer
4. Pick a light color, this layer will be used as the first shine-layer
5. Pick a second light color, this layer will be used as highlight layer

The more shadow/highlight layers you add, the more contract depth it will give to your photoshop painting! Have fun!

Disney Imagineering

Amazing & inspiring!

Printable decor

 A new intiative! I've opened my own Etsy-shop! 

I've been working on this project for months! Baking cakes/muffins is a great hobby of mine, it's nice to combinate your favourite hobby with business.

It's a new idea I want to bring on the market. It's a PDF printable cake decoration; you can print it at home, and brighten up any kind of cake!  I've seen a lot of printable decorations, but never very detailed or complicated. It's a mixture between a simple cake-banner and a complete theatre decor: a whimsical piece of art on a cake! 

To me, it seems like a good combination. I need to practise my digital painting skills, but I can also make other people very happy with my creations for a very modest price!

inspired to make this cake?

click here! 

UPDATE:
Spotted on Icanhascheeseburger!

Deviantart contest

Happy Valentinesday everybody!

Snuggledays are great! So why wouldn't you snuggle this attractive green fellow? "Mashter callz meh fluffeh!" I'm participating in an designbattle, just for the hack of it! It's been so much fun making this figure!

I've tried to record my moves with screenflow, but when I tried to save the file... my macbook crashed. All my files (my company in progress, my jobs, my clients, and inspirations) were suddenly GONE! I was heartbroken last night, but I'm picking up the pieces and I'm trying to rebuild my archive. I'm glad I've got a lot of backup-portfolio-material on my blog! A tiny piece of the screenflow-video has been rescued! So what did I learn today (...again)? Oh yeah... making some serious extern backups!

I've been trying some new things on the www! How to higher my standards and compeating with designers all over the world! It really gives you a boost of energy and motivation. I think every designer should need that experience, It's a big step towards a positive and serious reputation. You'll learn so much, in a very short time! This contest is a new step to the 'illustration and imagineering' world, telling stories with a single image!

Imagineering; Darkride logo Disney edition

I've been thinking about serveral concepts. As some might know, I'd like to variate my production in projects once in a while. 

I was thinking to design a complete darkride dedicated to Walt Disney. Since I was a little kid, me & my parents traveled around the world to see it all! I was 3 - 6 years old, and we went allmost every summer sightseeing the Disneyland themeparks! Growing up, I'd always pictured everything to be real; fairytales existed, Peter Pan was a true story, magic was real... everything in Disneyland was real to me. 

That's my vision when I create a themepark concept; how would I've seen this when I was a kid? It helps me "thinking out of the box" and brings me to places I'd never thought I would be. Being an seriously taken designer gives you limits, frustrations, boundries, and borders in creativity. But when I turn my head to imagineering, all of those narrow-minded people don't seem to influence my creativity anymore. I can go as far as I want to; and that's exacly what I stand for! 

Never stop learning. The background of this project runs on different principles. One of the most fun things to do in imagineering is designing the characters, designing a story & give it to right touch to make it magical. Well, what if... there's allready a story and everything you need? That's what I'm trying to experiment with this concept. Creating a ride of a story that's allready given the right shapes and colors.

This concept is one of the few that represents a piece of me & my childhood! I was always wondering when I was little; "Where's bambi? Mommy, do they have Bambi in Disneyland?" Well, let's change that shall we?

Golden ticket

Inspired by 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's golden ticket. I've always wanted to do this project, but I never had the time and energy to actually DO it! So here I am...photoshop'n the night away! (sorry for the gold contrasts on my blog lately, it's a temporary fase I'll promise!)

FOR SALE: right here!

EDIT: I've also made an improved version home-printable right here!