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Hiatus, Updates and a Huge Apology

Hey there readers,

I apologize for not posting any content here recently! I've been working on setting up a new site to move my posts to, and also making a few changes to be more professional. I've also ended up in a roadblock where I find it hard to write any convincing content - but I'm making my way through that, and hopefully I could still help a bunch of aspiring individuals who wish to explore the world of art and design like I am doing right now. I hope we could still walk this journey together.

I'll post updates here and let you know about what's going on. Sorry to have left you all hanging.

Thanks!

-Tactician Jenro

Tutorials: Vector Portraits

It's been a long while since I made my last vector portrait. These are some recent tutorials I'd love to work on soon. All these artists just come up with awesome stuff, and they help out others by making these really cool tutorials. Here are some of them:

1.  Photoshop Tutorial: New Tricks for Vector Portraits

Artist Daniel Caballero shares the process in making this awesome vector portrait. 

He also talks about how to use the Pen tool, and also explains how to add and change details and elements to give the piece a hand drawn look.

2. Illustrator Tutorial: How To Create A Self-Portrait in Geometric Style

Here's a tutorial on making a vector portrait with just geometric shapes in Illustrator.

3. Photoshop: Texture Effects with Vector Graphics

Pure awesomeness. Definitely check this out. An artistic depiction a Twitter user made by Charles Williams. Will learn a lot from this when I try it out.

So...that's it. These are stuff you should definitely try out. 

Thanks for reading!

Drawing Pandas and Proportion Problems

I'm admittedly not the best guy out there when it comes to drawing. There's more to it that I'm still unfamiliar of. One of this is drawing with the right proportions.

There's a technique I've read about somewhere  You can tell that a drawing is effective when you flip the image horizontally and the character still looks okay.

Let's take an example.

This here's 'The Key', something I made a few months ago. I really like how it turned out. I made this by drawing the character on a sketch pad first but I really had no idea about the proportions. You can tell that his other eye seems a lot bigger, and his hair looks awfully odd. But the mistakes aren't that noticeable. 

Now let's try flipping the image in horizontal.

The character looks a bit odd and the mistakes are noticeable now. I'm honestly guilty of most of this, even for previous drawings. Hopefully I could do something to work this out and think about the proportions a bit more.

I'm taking this intro practice and seeing if using grids will help, instead of just randomly sketching body parts with estimates.

So I drew this little panda right here. His name is Julian.

Using precise shapes and following a grid, I colored him in but didn't exactly follow the drawing I made, instead just used it as a guide.

For the face, I created a circle and extended it a bit to make a face shape. Then made the mouth and nose, making sure those are at the exact center. The left eye and right eye are the same, just flipped horizontally (except for the white highlights).

The rest of the face is pretty much consisting of different shapes for the shadows, a lot of circles adjusted. I only did the LEFT part, and then flipped that towards the other side.

I also changed the mouth since I didn't like the first one I made.

Pretty much same goes for the lower half. This is going to take a while.

So...yeah! Just showing you this process and hoping I could do this, not just for basic poses but for a lot more. 

Here's the final photo of Julian.

So, that's it! Please subscribe to my blog if you like. Have a nice day!

"Thinking of You" by Matthew Parker

Art by Tactician Jenro

I'm always looking out for music I find interesting and just recently discovered Matthew Parker, a new Christian artist who's just about the same age as I am. 

One of my favorite songs he wrote is "Thinking of You" an Owl City-sound alike song. I decided to make this fanart out of it, based on the lyrics in the song. You can listen to it here. 

Definitely check out his music up on iTunes or listen on SoundCloud. He's a talented musician giving honor and glory to God through his skills. 

If you're into dance music, chillstep/dubstep, electronic/trance music, then you'll definitely like most of Matthew's songs.

Process - Relient K Chibi Magnets

It was around 2005 when our cousin introduced us to Relient K. He lent us a copy of their album MMHMM and I was around 12 years old then. Ever since, I've greatly related to most of their songs and we'd dream of them visiting here in the Philippines. I thought it would be awesome if we could see them live and tell them how awesome they are.

Years later, and behold, they were here and I had the privilege to meet them! Last September 28 and 29, I've been to their shows and also had the privilege to meet them and gave them these cute magnets.  It was an awesome time.

In this post, I'll talk about the process in making the gifts I gave the band - chibi magnets of Matt Hoopes and Matt Thiessen.

First off, I drew both of these awesome guys on a sketch paper,
doing my best to make them look similar to the two Matts.

Using the pen tool, let's trace the characters to form lineart.
You can check here for an awesome tutorial on how to use the pen tool.  

Lineart's a little close to being done. It still looks messy, so we'll adjust them in a bit.

More lineart. Looks really cute! 

Now we'll add the colors, using the pen tool and adding a clipping mask for the shadows.

Now we add more detail by using the brush tool to add some life to the colors,
again using a clipping mask.

Now that the kawaii chibis are done, let's make the magnets!

I visited an office supply store and purchased some magnetic paper. Then used that paper and printed the images.

Cut the magnets carefully with scissors and here they are! Ready to be given as gifts to the most awesome bromance ever, the two Matts of Relient K. 

Here are some photos I took from Relient K's show. 

Thank you so much guys for coming here to the Philippines!

P.S.: They love the magnets and posted a photo on their Instagram. It feels awesome!

Using Burn/Dodge Tool to make Digital Portraits

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates here at the blog. Hopefully here's something that would inspire you to keep making art that matters to you. :)

While vexel portraits are mainly used with the pen tool, it would be interesting to do experiments and try making portraits with different tools and methods. The burn and dodge tool, as well as the gaussian blur filter, was something I proved had its uses in making cool digital portraits, although they won't be called vector/vexel anymore. :)

One of my earlier works last year was "January", a portrait I made for a friend.

I didn't record what I exactly did, but first I start of with the pen tool to create the shapes for the hair, face and shirt. The hair strands, using the pen tool, and then I experimented with the burn and dodge tool to make the shadows. Check out the basic tutorial for using these tools here. 

Here's another example, this time using mixtures of the pen tool, gaussian blur, and the burn/dodge tool.

The burn/dodge tool is often used in making photo enhancements but works well with adding shadows to portraits like these too.

I'd like to improve and venture on with making art, so hopefully in the next days, I'd be sharing more stuff with you guys.

Thanks for reading!

-Tactician Jenro

Illustrator Tutorial - Watercolor and Marker Style Portrait

This tutorial from DesignInstruct.com shows us how to make a watercolor and marker style portrait in Illustrator. Try it out for yourself and create your own portraits! Following through this tutorial is so much fun.

Here are the portraits I created from following this tutorial:

8 of the Cutest Character Design Tutorials for Illustrator

Here are 10 awesome cute and simple vector character design tutorials for Photoshop and Illustrator.

1. Create a Cute Panda Bear Face Icon

2. How to Create a Cute Bunny Vector Character

Wallnuts Need Some Love - Plants Vs. Zombies

A few months ago, my Plants Vs. Zombies fanart was featured in the PvZ facebook page. Hooray! :)

You can check out the feature here.

The wallnut is, hands down, my favorite plant. I mean - look at it! He sacrifices himself to defend you from all those zombies. Poor thing. That's why I thought it really needs some love. 

Process: Vector Portrait (Time Lapse Video)

Check out this time lapse video on making a vector portrait with that elegant and rosy effect.

Feel free to also subscribe to my youtube channel and follow this blog for updates, resources and tutorials.

Thanks!

Process: Candy Crush Saga Fanart

Candy Crush is a popular game right now that appeals to both young and old. With it's simple yet addictive gameplay, it's a game you really would remember. 

My mom really loves this game. It's bright, happy and one day I just thought about a story for it - and so the fanart unfolds..  

Step 1: The Drawing

On a sketchpad, I drew this sketch of a girl giving this guy a lollipop. With a scanner, let's scan the sketch and open it on Photoshop.

Step 2: The Coloring

With the pen tool, I then proceeded to create shape layers to fill in a solid color to the young girl.

Create a Launcher Theme for Your Android Device

I just recently got a cheap-o Android tablet and ventured towards the colorful world of free apps at the Google Play store. Other than all this awesomeness at the palm of my hands, I couldn't help but wonder about the creation process behind it - the how - and thought if I could try out making a few things for the device on my own. With the tablet craze going around, it's surely a nice thing to learn about these things and the hype around the world to this new technology.

GO Launcher EX

One interesting app I've found is GO Launcher EX. One of the top apps for Android customization, you can fully turn your Android device's default launcher from looking like blah to awesome.

With more than 10,000 themes to choose from, fancy effects, gestures, it's the launcher app that's loved by many. The thing I love most about the app is how there are so many themes to choose from, and I felt excited when I found out that I could easily create my own too!

Creating Your Own Go Launcher Themes

Yeah! The developers of GO Launcher have a theme maker for their app. By registering to their website, you could create a launcher theme through their browser-based editor and be on your way to publishing your personal theme.

Here's a preview of the GO theme maker you can use by registering on their website.

The theme maker has two modes: Easy Mode and Advanced Mode. With Easy Mode, you can make simple changes to a pre-made theme. With Advanced Mode, you can take the level higher by customizing your own and changing all of its elements.

I haven't tried making a complete theme yet, but I am on my way to implementing that idea I've got. There are so many professional-looking ones in the theme store, so if I were to make one, I'm gonna have to do my best! Let's see how that turns out.

If you're an artist and have an Android device, this is definitely an interesting route to venture. Your theme could possibly be installed by the millions of Android users out there who have the app.

Check out the GO Themes Factory website here and start making your themes, or if you don't want to, you can check out the awesome ones other artists have made and set it as your own device's theme. :)

And to the developers, thank you for making this awesome app!

Jetpack Joyride Fanart Feature

My Jetpack Joyride fanart! :)

This was featured in the Jetpack Joyride facebook page last April. Check out the feature here, with more than 3,000 likes and more than 200 comments.

I made this in Photoshop. I also just might show a bit of a tutorial on the process soon, since I have the raw file backed up still. Stay tuned to that! 

Really awesome to see that a lot of people loved it and saw the Nyan Cat parody. The rainbow jetpack is my favorite.

Color Schemes

It's really fun to think of your own color combinations. Colors are just...wow. It's awesome how we have thousands of colors around us, and mixing them together, it creates something truly different and amazing.

Here are some of the color combos I've thought of that I'd like to share:

 

This is the color scheme for this very site!

A bright, colorful scheme.

Sunset!

And here's the one from the Onceler artwork I made.

Some rainbow-like colors.

And here are colors from a series I called "We Grow".

You are free to use above color schemes, but please give me credit!

You can also find some inspiration with mixing colors through the site ColorCombos.com.
It's where I get some ideas and even get some of their own color combinations.

Tutorial: Turn Yourself into Onceler from The Lorax

In this video tutorial, I'll show you how I made this art of myself as Onceler from the movie The Lorax.

He's one of my favorite movie characters! Hopefully this tutorial serves as a guide on how you could create an art of yourself as your own favorite characters!

Here is the artwork done completely.

And here's the video explanation on how I created it. 

I didn't get into much detail with it, but I hope you got the idea of it and that this helps you to create your own artwork.

Thanks for watching!

Don't forget to follow the blog. :)

Process: An Apple To An Artwork

What can you do with an apple?

And nope, I'm not talking about the guys behind the iPad and Mac.

A few months ago, I joined a vexel art contest on deviantART where the mechanics were to make a vexel artwork out of this apple right here. But before we proceed, try asking the question:

"If you were to create something from an apple what would you make?"

Well, let's see what I've come up with! Not that I'm proud of it.

The Gory Insides

 

Hmm... apple. May not be an accurate way to tell what's inside but this was the concept I thought of.

Using the pen tool set to 'Path', I used those paths to make the lines, fill in the red part of the apple, the leaf and that little stem thing.

More details revealing what I have planned for our apple. You can see the core of the apple right there, looks kind of like a cave... and then at the surface, you see something like land and water. Using the same tool for this step.

And Then Suddenly...A Wild Rainbow Appears

 

Looks kind of weird right now. What's that rainbow have to do with the apple and that sun? or is that a moon Also using the same tool for this step.

On The Inside

I've added a man, and a few frames hanging around inside the apple.

 Finished Artwork

And here is the finished artwork for the contest. It shows the young man inside a fresh red apple.

I'll leave you guys to interpret what it means.

I won 2nd place for this contest so..it's a really great achievement.

Artist Stories: A Message for Beginners

art by tacticianjenro

This is a message for people who'd like to try and make art of their own.

First of all: Art is fun! The feeling of creating, for me is very rewarding and I hope that your interest to make any kind of art you prefer gives you that joy. I believe to create an image that was once only in our minds for others to see - it is both very powerful and amazing.

We all start somewhere. From a place of unknowing, and we further our skill and excel in that area of art. With learning new things, we confront the unfamiliar and step out to new places. If you are thinking of making art like I do, think of it as starting a great adventure.

It's an adventure where we are free to create what our hearts have been wanting to.

Back when I was a kid, I ventured into creativity with just a simple pencil and a notebook and drew my first ever character - Timmy. I had a passion for drawing and telling stories that were from within me at such a young age. And while I'm not the best out there, it's great to see that I have improved.

And to improve requires time and practice.

Choose one thing you want to be good at and do it. Learn from other people and observe what they do.
And there is no certain standard to meet for something to qualify as art.

And most of all, it is not about how much following you get. Don't worry about those just yet. Well, I know I'm not really that good yet so I am hoping to get better too.

This comic by Zen Pencils might also encourage you to go out there and do your best.

So, well, that's it. :) Thanks for visiting my blog! Don't forget to subscribe!