Tony Hough's Photoshop Sketchy Stuff

[tonyhough]

OK, now I'm more of a traditional materials guy normally, but a lot of my scanned images have at some point been messed around with on photoshop and I'm learning new stuff all the time. Now I've taken to "doodling" on photoshop with little or no scanned/photo additions and some are coming out quite good. At the mo they're all done using a mouse, which is like painting with your elbow. Anyone recommend a good, cheap graphics tablet?
Anyhow, let's try uploading a picture....
O hey! That works! Anyway I call this one The Inspection Thing. All totally photoshop, one of a dozen variants using this, or a version of this background.

[tonyhough]

Here we have a crazy variant of the basic landscape using the liquify filter, which gave me an eerie gaping mouth feature, The basic landscape itself, which was a textural tiled surface layed down using the perspective option under "transform",
and the same basic landscape with a blobby shape from another doodle grafted into it.
Playing with all these variations on a theme is really intriguing.

[tonyhough]

Here we have another freehand photoshop picture using the filter-generated textures and various cut and reoriented shapes I'm enjoying at the moment.
The other on was a page of my sketchbook in biro, gell pens and pencils, scanned in and heavily reworked in photoshop: Total colour change, layered blurring, distortion and resizing. looks good now.

[tonyhough]

Another batch developed mostly from those posted previously.
The first a variation of the flat landscape that's almost too nice to put something into.
In the second the squares on the ground have been heaped up and redoubled a few times. I might stick faces and limbs on these sometime!
The third is an extended version of the mouthlike structure on a cliff edge. A squashed, liquified version of the basic landscape has been smoothed out and added to the front.
The last is a bit more worked: The squashed and liquified landscape has had it's foreground enlarged. I then painted in rusty rails embedded in it, the whole now suggesting an underwater enviroment.
I must get around to actually using some of these in actual finished pieces sometime.

[tonyhough]

Just some biro sketches with additional pencil and gel-pen

[AztcFireFlower]

Hi Tony,
Actually found your sketchbook looking through the jobs page. I sometimes randomly click to see what level of skill is applying and............wow, am I glad I did. Welcome aboard! So glad you started a SB.
You have a most admirable skill in traditional media. What really grabbed me are your ink illustrations on your website. Especially the coin monster and the chameleon. Yes, can see the detail and patience of a Dore' influence. Lovely work.
I'm quite intrigued by your Photoshop experiments and have subscribed to your sketchbook to follow your projects. Hope you don't mind, but may I inquire as to your working method as I am seeking to understand as many approaches to the digital as well as traditional from all folks. Your brain I would definately like to pick
Post some of your ink work so others may enjoy. As this thread grows, I predict this will be one of the top SB's on CA.org

[tonyhough]

From my sketchbook, in biro, gel pens and acrylics. Cleaned up a little in photoshop.

[tonyhough]

A few more biro and acrylic and gel-pen sketches cooked up a little on photoshop.

[tonyhough]

Here's some of the preliminary sketches for my Bloodbones Illo of Quezkari the demon and a sketch of a wee girl.
And a couple of shapey squiggles

[tonyhough]

I've been mucking around on photoshop with some forms and textures. I started with a tiled square of repeating patterns and horribly mutated it with the liquify tool and various filters and shading. Looks nice maybe as a background for something , or to let the eye wander over.

[tonyhough]

The underdrawing for the Quezkari demon, and a sequence of snapshots of the giant mantis.

[tonyhough]

Here's some more photoshop doodles. I'm just experimenting with forms and textures and colours, but what i learn will be used more figuratively later.

[tonyhough]

He's another batch. I'm getting some lovely colours and textures here: I'll turn these into real pictures in future or incorporate bits into other works.

[tonyhough]

I like to start with a textured, coloured blob and then to poke it and shade it and stretch it around in photoshop and see in how many directions I can take it and what I can learn about photoshop. Lump has mutated again from the last post....

[designboot]

Nice graphics

[tonyhough]

I've stretched, mixed and shaded some more on that awful red lump....

[tonyhough]

Lump keeps mutating.... I stretched out the fingerlike bits and bent the rest. Now it looks like some kind of wierd mollusc...

[tonyhough]

Still messing around with Lump: Stuck some features on and squidged it around again. looks spooky. I can see a finished piece from this somewhere in the distance....

[tonyhough]

Still twisting the old lump:
Here's a dun coloured variation, another lump-based critter and Lump and I take a holiday in hell courtesy of photoshop.
Don't worry, I'll find a use for all this later......

[tonyhough]

That is me, BTW, visiting Lump in Hell. Nice weather. Lousey toilets, though....

[AmontilladoAg]

You got some crazy stuff here... makes for an interesting sketchbook perusal

Cheers