New Website

It has been awhile since I've posted to this blog. I have a new website where I have been posting my artwork since I've started doing a lot more freelance work. It is located here:

http://visualaperture.com

You can contact me through that site  listed in the "Contact" page.

I will not be posting on this blog anymore.
-T.J. Grant

Paul - Marks of Christ

A painting I did of Paul based on Galatians 6:17 "From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus."

My Son - Aedan

I painted this for my wife for her birthday. This is a painting of my son. 

This is also a little self promotion here as I am now accepting work to paint people's portraits. Basically its a digital painting that I can get printed out on on a canvas up to 16x20. Plus if you desire just the digital copy to print out on your own photo paper at home or even a photo center that can be arranged as well. So if you want a hand painted version of your favorite person/people in life, contact me via email listed on the top of my blog. 

 

Galatians Intro

I decided to post something a little different. Its actually not a painting this time but an animation I did for Crossing Church for their new sermon series starting this week on Galatians.  Just click the link below to see it!

http://www.vimeo.com/13564155

Mural Painting!!!

 

Ahh, the fresh smell of paint and the mess of it all!!! It has been awhile since I have ventured from the digital realm of painting. I had forgotten how much fun and challenging painting with traditional media can be. This is a mural that I painted for Crossing Church, were my wife and I are members of here in Louisville KY. This was by far the biggest mural I've had to paint yet. The dimensions of the wall were 10'x25'. I had a blast though getting my hands messy again, mixing colors and having the feel of the brush gliding across the wall.

Though I do a whole lot of digital artwork, there really is something special about being able to physically touch and see the texture of paint and traditional media in general. That, I will say, is the downfall of digital work. Sure you can print out stuff on a canvas, but you don't get the thickness, the texture, or even the smell like you would with a real painting. 

But I still enjoy creating both traditional and digital artwork and was very thankful for the opportunity to flex that traditional muscle again!

Jason Coobs Photo Painting and Tutorial

I took a few days from doing daily paintings and worked on this painting. This is from a photo that my good friend Jason Coobs took. He is an awesome wedding photographer and he graciously let me paint this photo. You can visit his site here:  www.jasoncoobs.com/blog


Here is the reference photo:

I also spent some time making a tutorial of this painting. I've been asked several times how do I do these paintings on the computer so I decided to put together a little tutorial showing the technique and steps that it takes to get one of these done.

For reference I use a Wacom Intuos Tablet for painting. The programs I use are Photoshop and Painter. Photoshop has a wonder brush engine, and can be used for more than photo editing/manipulation.

Step 1: In the beginning I keep everything very loose, making very broad strokes to get the overall feel and composition of the painting. The time I take here to get everything laid out will save me from having to repaint any major errors later.

Step 2: I liken this step to the great big scribble. I start to block in most of the shapes being careful to watch my values. Since this is a black and white photo I don't want to go to extreme in either the white or black just yet. I want to give myself some wiggle room to add in highlights and deep shadows later on. Plus at this stage, how is the picture reading, do I have the basic perspective correct, how are figures looking, etc? This is still the beginning so any changes needed can be quick and easy to fix.

Step 3: The figures are reading well, the composition is nice. Time to get rid of that "contrasty" look. I start to add values in, adding more white, getting a few deeper shades in there. Here is a great tip. If you want to know how well your values are registering all you have to do is squint. Yep thats right squint. Squinting helps to remove the mid range tones and allows you to focus on the highlights and darks. If you can "read" the image just by squinting you are making good progress.

Step 4: Time to take a breather, the hard part has past. I've got the figures, composition and my values are in good order. I can start to let go of the scribble and start to refine, refine and refine some more. At this stage I have a choice, do I stop and keep the image sketchy, or do I go on. I'll go on for this tutorial.

Step 5: Time to get some pure black in certain areas to bring out the figures some more. I also added in more detail to the wood and refined the figures some more.

Step 6: I noticed a few issues with the figures, also added in more detail under the bench and added more shadow and depth.

Step 7: Texture. Lots and lots of texture. There were big areas of flat tone that needed to be broken up. Unfortunately while adding in texture I lost some of the detail of the wood planks, so I'll have to go and repaint a bit of those.

Step 8: After another hour of refining it is finally finished. Time to sign it, watermark and post it!

If you have any questions feel free to email me. My email is located in my profile or in the watermark of my paintings.

Daily Sketch - 5.25.2010

Today's daily sketch. I used a reference from Flickr.