Rock Concert Under a Stormy Sky

So it's finally here.

Some of us, when we see how dark our skies are getting, we seem to sulk indoors in gloom. Some of us fear the thunder and lightning more than we should.

Of course, a good reason to fear lightning is that, well... I think it can kill? But if you keep your wits about and are careful enough, it's radical to watch nature's spectacular lights display.

I used to fear lightning. And thunder. Until that time when I was small, and I saw it outside in the open sky. It looked magnificent. It illuminated the dull, grey sky into flashes of blue and white. The thunder just completes it. There's just something about bright flashes of light and a deep rumble working as a team within the clouds.

It reminded me so much of the rock concerts. I know it's impractical, but regardless, I always wanted to see Linkin Park in a huge stadium, under a rainy thunderous sky with lightning light shows. If it was safe, how awesome would that be?

I was inspired by a conversation between a friend and I. He was telling me about what he was going through at the time, and said his clouds were starting to look grey. I wanted to find something to say to show I care, and you know those moments when the words just come to you? I had one of those moments. Wanting to cheer him up a bit, I said what I said. It was originally longer, but I condensed it to the caption in my piece.

Here are some progression pictures. After 5 days of working on it, it's finally finished. I hope this entry inspires you somehow. Rock on.

This one is my hand-drawn version, my first and foremost concept for this piece. I did not take it too far though. I tried working on, but I needed more room for error at this stage, so I re-drew it, scanned it and painted it digitally.

Staring Woman

Just another concept practice.

You know when you travel in public and don't know where to stare? Well, here's one that I made where you know exactly where to stare without having to give away the whole picture. I did this by highlighting key features like the eyes.

I wanted to experiment on tone and a subtle textures on the face. I sketched a woman and got some basic shading and tone down after scanning it. I like capturing the eyes and mouth a lot. Something I must continuously improve.

After experimenting, I thought I'd give it a good use off white space to effectively make the woman the focal point of the picture. I was tempted to add patterns and other background images and colour. But here, simplicity is key.

Here is a couple of my progression pictures:

Graffiti-proof Wall?

This up here is my first ever tablet drawing.

My dad got me a Bamboo Pen last night so here is what I end up with the next day. There is no direct concept, just a random idea upon random idea. I did it straight on the laptop because I was very excited to try this technology out. I'm starting to develop more interest in digital art, looking forward to doing more.

Equipment Used:

• Bamboo Pen 
• Adobe Photoshop 7.0 (old school and can still kick ass)
• My own sketch of clouds on paper, scanned