Josh Ellingson Illustrator

Entries in joshuaellingson (10)

Thursday

08Jan2009

Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 10:15AM

Recommended Reading

I love good books about art, creativity, and anything else that gets the fire going. One of my favorite bookstores in San Francisco, Stacey's Books, is having a hard time competing with the big chains and websites. You can help keep independent bookstores alive by ordering one of these from their site. Below are some books that I think you'll really like. But don't take my word for it!

The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators(Applied Arts)(Paperback)
by Williams, Richard - Get it here!
True Norwegian Black Metal: We Turn in the Night Consumed by Fire(Hardcover)
by Kugelberg, Johan - Get it here!
Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia, Volume I, II, and III(Hardcover)
by Baldaev, Danzig - Get it here!
Stacked Decks: The Art and History of Erotic Playing Cards(Hardcover) - Get it here!

Okay, so the website is a little slow. Maybe put on some downtempo, make some tea. Lean into it. It's all for a good cause. Better still, maybe make a trip to downtown San Francisco (map) and stop into Stacey's Books in person. They have a great magazine selection.

Inspiring Rant from Ralph Bakshi at SDCC 08

Here's a great excerpt from an ASIFA archive video of animation pioneer Ralph Bakshi at Comic Con Int'l 2008. When asked how he weathered the economic turmoil in the animation industry when he was starting, Bakshi launches into a rant about determination, technology, and the lack of inspiration that keeps creative people from knuckling down and making great works.

Ellingson Nikes!

Make your own Nikes with artwork from the 1800 Tequila "Essential Artists" campaign at Gourmetkickz.com. Here's a pair featuring my art designed by the Chef himself.

2 Comments

Tuesday

16Dec2008

Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 7:15PM

The King of Kings

The King of Kings, originally uploaded by joshuaellingson.

"The King of Kings"
2008

When I was a kid, sometimes I'd sneak into my grandparents' room and snoop around. Their house was full of unusual antiques, figurines, books, and other treasures. On one of my explorations I found a pack of nudie cards in my grandpa's dresser. Years later I told my mother about finding the pack of cards and it turns out that she used to sneak in there and look at them too. Now I own Grandpa's "Good Luck" card set and it always reminds me of home.

Merry Christmas everybody.

1 Comment

Thursday

27Nov2008

Thursday, November 27, 2008 at 4:26PM

Process - Twintail

twintail progress 1 - lines, originally uploaded by joshuaellingson.

Here's a little walkthrough of my general process in making artwork. This piece in particular was for a Japanese toy monster art show. This character is called Twin Tail. Here's what I did to make my drawing of Twin Tail:
1)So, I generally start with a sketch on paper. For this one I used some Col-Erase Pencils. I like them because each color has it's own hardness of lead. Also, if I start with one color, I can tighten up a drawing with another color and see where I've been.
2)I scan the sketch or take a photo of it and put it into Adobe Illustrator on it's own layer. In the layers properties, I choose "Dim Images to 50%" for the layer with the sketch. I usually lock this layer, create a new layer on top, and start tracing with the pen tool.
3)Once all the important lines are dropped in, I scale and manipulate the image as needed. Then, I select all the lines and turn them into outlines (Object>Path>Outline Stroke). I then manually nudge all the lines to achieve the thin to thick look that I want. This takes a while to get fast at ;)

4) Behind the line art, on it's own layer, I create areas of flat color. I also knew that for this one I didn't want many black lines, so I made all the lines a color with the intention of changing them later.
5 and 6) At this point it's really about "painting" in the details and highlights on various layers, It's important to keep your layers organized. Merge and label. Oh, and save often.