Category: Publicity

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Another Wacom Webinar: Cartooning Techniques!

Since the last one was so well received, the good folks at Wacom have invited me back for another webinar on November 22nd.  While the previous one touched on both cartooning and painting, turns out that some folks felt there was not enough on each, so this one will focus on some more techniques and methods I use in my everyday editorial and illustration cartooning.  A number of these techniques are included on my DVD from PhotoshopCAFE, but I’ve also added a few other things to this webinar that aren’t on the DVD.

I really enjoyed the last one and heard from a lot of people that did as well, so I’m looking forward to another opportunity to share a little of what I know about cartooning in Photoshop.  Hope you can join me in November.

Click HERE to register for the upcoming webinar (or on the image.)  If you’d like to take a look at the last one, here’s the link to Wacom’s YouTube channel.

 

 

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Bighorn Sheep Totem

Another painting done!  I’ve been working on this one for many months, off and on.  When I was doing painting demos at the galleries in Banff and Canmore at the beginning of this year, this is one of the paintings I was working on.  For some reason, I kept putting it aside in favour of other projects or paintings.  With the Fall season upon us, and my commitment to paint a lot more in the next few months, I figured it was a great time to finish it, and once I got going, I couldn’t put it away.

My father is not a professional photographer, but he and my Mom had been camping in British Columbia last Fall, and he took some great photos for me of a bighorn ram.  I had a number of them to work from and they really worked well.  Thanks, Dad!

This was easily one of my most challenging paintings.  Because of the publicity for my Totem paintings over the past year, and my recent painting DVD, I’ve been feeling the need to stretch my skills and try to put even more detail into these.  I tried some new brush techniques for this one, and even created an entirely new brush for the detail on the horns, something I haven’t done in awhile.  I couldn’t even guess how many hours I put into this, but it’s a lot, probably double what I’ve spent on any painting before this.  As always, I could have kept going, but you just have to call it at some point.  Finishing this up on a Friday morning just felt right.

I’ve got five paintings planned for the next few months, and have already sourced and acquired the usage permissions for the reference photos.  Two of those paintings will kick off completely new series, so I’m pretty excited about that.  I still get a big thrill out of finishing one of these, and I’m ready to start another one.  I’ve got some commission work to get to in the next week, so I’ll use that time as a buffer between this and the next painting.

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Painting, Projects, and Promotion

As I’m not a fan of the holiday season, I’ll tend to keep to myself over the next couple of months.  With that in mind, I plan to keep busy with paintings and other projects and I’ve made sure that I’ve got plenty on the go, including a number of paintings.

One project I’ve planned is creating a short promotional video of my painted work.  Not sure how I’ll use it, but I still think it’ll be a fun challenge.  Basically, it’ll be a video commercial for one of my animal paintings, which translates to all of my paintings.

I recently acquired the license for four reference images for wildlife paintings and while I’m looking forward to working on all of them, there is one in particular that has me excited.  The image is very clear in my mind, and the photo I have to work from is incredible in its detail.  With that in mind, I’m going to create a 2.5 minute video of the whole painting process, from start to finish.  Most of the painting will be sped up quite a bit, but there will be sections from the entire process included in the video, sketches to finished work.

This video you see here is a test, using the bighorn sheep painting that I’m currently working on.  You have to look closely to see some of the brushwork that I’m doing in the video, something I’ll do better in the future piece.  This is about 20 minutes of painting, sped up to be around 2 minutes in the video.  I bought the royalty-free piece of music yesterday, and while the license cost more than three CDs, you have to pay for quality and it’s not like I’ll be doing this on a regular basis.

I’m a big fan of movie-making and movies in general, and there’s a lot added by an appropriate piece of music.  This one is fine for the bighorn sheep painting, but it’s a perfect fit for the actual painting and animal I’m planning to use it for.  In this video, you don’t get to see the whole painting, and that’s intentional, because it’ll be done this week and I don’t want to show it too early.  The real detail has yet to be painted.

This was a learning process, but not as difficult as I thought it would be.  Some of the things I’ve got planned for the next one will be complicated with the software I have, but figuring that out will be part of the fun.

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DVD sneak peek

Having recently returned from Photoshop World, it was a big thrill to see my painting DVD’s on sale at the PhotoshopCAFE booth on the Expo Floor.  I had brought a print for them to display at the booth and apparently it contributed to good sales over the three days.

Brought home my copies of the DVD, minus one that I gave to a friend and another that I gave to Bert Monroy, as I’ve learned a lot about illustration and digital painting from him over the years.  He’s a great guy and was most noticeable this year because he was booting around in a little scooter after recent knee surgery.

The PhotoshopCAFE booth was showing a DVD that included clips from a number of their titles.  Here’s the clip they were showing from my most recent DVD, PhotoshopCAFE Masterclass: Animal Painting in Adobe Photoshop.  For more information on the DVD, visit the PhotoshopCAFE site here.

 

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Painting DVD is now available!

It is my pleasure to announce that my latest DVD, “PhotoshopCAFE Masterclass | Animal Painting in Adobe Photoshop” is now available for purchase.  Painting is what I love to do most, so I’m very proud of this release.  The image that was created during this DVD is one of my favorite pieces and some of my best work to date.  It’s a real thrill for me that the whole thing is recorded from start to finish.  Here’s the text from the back cover…

In these highly informative sessions, Patrick will teach you how to paint a photorealistic animal from scratch. You will learn the entire process, from working with reference photos, setting up the digital canvas, blocking in shapes, adding detail and finishing the painting. Watch how an experienced painter approaches a piece and learn the tips and tools used. Pick up many closely guarded secrets that would otherwise take years to figure out on your own.

This video follows the entire painting from a blank canvas, all the way through to the completed masterpiece. Patrick clearly explains exactly what he is doing and why. Watch an original piece of art unfold before your eyes and learn the techniques so you can apply them to any painting that you desire to create yourself. This training is in-depth enough for a budding painter to start learning, or for a more experienced enthusiast to learn some new tricks from a master painter.

This fast loading DVD ROM contains 3 hours, 17 minutes of high quality video instruction! The advanced interface allows the user to instantly jump to any of the lessons with complete control over the playback.

If you have been looking for some excellent instruction from a real artist, look no further. Watch the entire workflow and become equipped to create your own paintings.

The DVD will be available at the PhotoshopCAFE booth on the Expo Floor at Photoshop World next week in Las Vegas.  If you happen to be attending, I will also be giving away one or two signed prints of the Don Diego image I created in this DVD, as well as some other prints throughout the week.

The giveaways will be announced each day on Twitter, so follow me @CartoonInk and if you’re in Vegas, you just might win a print!

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Catching my breath.

Looking back on my career so far, it would seem that I spend most of my time living through periods of deadline panic with large projects, followed by periods of lesser panic where I figure that NOW I can finally gain some control over my life and relax.  This delusion is then followed by the next period of deadline panic with a large project.  I’m a slow learner.

Last week, I finished another DVD for PhotoshopCAFE, which definitely falls under the ‘deadline panic with large project’ category.  While I know that it will be ready for Photoshop World in Las Vegas the first week of September, I would imagine it will be available sooner than that online.  This was a big one for me.  While my first DVD effort was on cartooning, I’m pretty comfortable with that process, so even though the actual recording was hell (why mince words?),  the subject matter was fairly routine, as I’ve been drawing cartoons in that fashion every day for a number of years.

This second DVD, the recording and painting were both challenging, but still very enjoyable.  The editing, however, was just challenging.  I enjoy painting more than any of the other creative work I do, so I wanted the painting in the DVD to be my best effort.  While I’m pleased to say that I think I achieved that, I’m relieved that it’s done.  I ended up taking an involuntary day off once all the files had been sent, because I was completely exhausted.

Finished a commission of a cat painting this week.  There’s a great back story to this one, but I can’t share it, or the full painting, until after the client gives it as a gift.  Keeping secrets is often part of the job.  But I’m happy with how it turned out.   Recording the painting DVD created a little pressure (self-induced, of course) to up my game, and I’m looking forward to my next wildlife painting.  I’ve been thinking about this one  for almost a year and I’m excited to get started on it.

This week, I intend to finish a painting of my parent’s dog, Bailey, a wonderful little shih tzu with a great personality.  Been wanting to paint her for awhile and pleased I finally get to give this gift to my Mom.

I’ve got one more large illustration gig to wrap up in August, but other than that, I’m almost caught up.  I still have my regular editorial cartoons to draw, and five or six extras to get done in advance for my week away at Photoshop World Las Vegas at the beginning of September.  But, all in all, I think I’m finally going to be able to find a few days of downtime soon, gain some control over my life and relax.

Did I mention that I’m a slow learner?

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Art Cards with Island Art Publishers

As of yesterday, I have entered into a licensing agreement for my Totem paintings with Island Art Publishers for art cards!

Island Art was my first choice as I’m a fan of a number of their artists and I’m pleased that they’ll be representing my work.  Island Art primarily supplies a large number of retailers and museums throughout Western Canada, and also distributes through Eastern Canada, Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

I believe this region is the best possible market for my current Totem series, as it features animals found in the Rocky Mountains and Western Canada.  When I begin my West Coast wildlife series in the Fall, I’m confident that the images will find their way into the right stores and museums along the coast, thanks to this arrangement.

The first images to be put into production will be the mammals in my Totem series; the Wolf, Grizzly, Moose, Elk and Ground Squirrel.  I’ve seen the layout proofs and they look great!  The cards go into production next week and should be available to retailers a week or two after that.

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Photoshop Creative Magazine


The latest issue of Photoshop Creative magazine goes on sale today and if you turn to Page 9, you’ll see a little image of my Ground Squirrel Totem painting at the top of the page. “3 of the Best…” is a regular feature in this magazine.  Last month it was landscape painters, this month it’s animal portrait painters, and I’m very honored that they selected my work to be included in the list.

Anyone who visits regularly knows how much I love painting these Totems.  It’s strange that painting animals was never part of the plan, but then again, neither was being a cartoonist.  Funny how life turns out.

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Monty’s Month of May Giveaway – FINAL WEEK!

For the final week of my giveaway, I am giving away a copy of my training DVD, Cartoon Illustration Techniques in Photoshop! This is the first DVD that I’ve done for PhotoshopCAFE, and a $49.99 value!

Now, I realize that not everybody who follows my work uses Photoshop or has any interest in being an artist, so while this is a prize some people will want, it’s not one that everybody will want.  With that in mind, I’m offering a choice!

If you have no need of the DVD, I am repeating LAST week’s prize as the alternate, a 16″X20″ matted paper print of your choice from the ones I have available in my online store. That’s the BIG print!  You can choose the Moose, Wolf, Ground Squirrel or Grizzly Totem.

All you have to do is go to my Cartoon Ink Facebook page, click on Like (if you aren’t already following that page), find the FINAL WEEK post (look for the image of my DVD)  that asks you to comment, follow the instructions, and you are entered!

You have until Thursday, May 26th at midnight MST (that’s MOUNTAIN time), and I will announce a winner on Friday!  I’ll find an impartial person to pick a random number that will correspond to the list of entries.  GOOD LUCK!

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About Canada Gallery and Gifts

For just over a year now, my limited edition giclée canvas prints in my Totem series have been available at Editions Gallery in Banff.  I’ve recently realized that the relationship wasn’t a good fit, so we’ve gone our separate ways.  Fortunately, I found another venue in Banff that I feel will better represent my work.  About Canada Gallery and Gifts is located on the 100 block of Banff Avenue, a prime location for tourist traffic.  The owners were very receptive and I appreciate their taking a chance on my paintings and prints.  I’m optimistic that this could be a great summer for my work.  As in everything in the world of art (and tourism), time will tell.

I’m very pleased that my prints continue to be available in Canmore through Two Wolves Trading Company.  That’s a great venue and location, and hopefully I’ll have a long relationship with the owners and staff.  While it may not seem important to some, I place a high value on the people I work with.  If I like them and trust them, everything else can be worked out, and I’m happy to say that the folks at Two Wolves fit both of those criteria.  I just enjoy walking in there, because I’m always greeted with a smile and it’s a fun place.  I like that these people are representing my work, and am grateful they felt it worthy of taking up valuable retail space on their walls.

That trust goes both ways as well.  If somebody in Canmore wants to buy my prints, they have to go through Two Wolves.  The same goes for Banff and About Canada Gallery and Gifts.  I will often get people that try to get a deal by contacting me directly, figuring it will be cheaper.  If you’re an artist selling prints through a gallery or retail outlet, you will do a lot of damage to your reputation and your overall career by ‘back of the truck’ sales.  What goes around will definitely come back around.  Put your reputation first, and the rest of your career will be built on that foundation.

So if you happen to be in Banff and would like to see my work up close and personal, please stop into About Canada Gallery and Gifts! And if you’re in Canmore, please visit the good folks at Two Wolves Trading Company.  There’s always a chance you might even run into me there.