Free Zbrush Brushes!

Donated by the talented Michael Dunnam, we have a large set of custom brushes for Zbrush.

DOWNLOAD BRUSHES HERE!!!

Valve's Film Editor!

Valve Software announced the beta of their new amazing film editor, the Source Filmmaker. Too many awesome things to put into words. Just watch the video!

Awesome Photoshop Brushes!

Over the years I've made hundreds of custom brushes and have collected thousands from others. Despite me defaulting to only a handful for every painting I work on, it's nice to have a variety to play with. A really great set was created from Yang Xueguo, called "Blur's Good Brush 4.0" set. They're all pretty amazing brushes and I thank Mr. Xueguo for taking the time to post and explain the use of his brushes.

CHECKOUT AND DOWNLOAD BLUR'S GOOD BRUSHES!!!

Kekai Kotaki Interview

The awesome Kekai Kotaki does an interview with the Crimson Dagger guys! Good listen, good questions, good content.


VISIT KEKAI'S SITE!
JOIN THE CRIMSON DAGGERS!

COLOR TEST!

Do you have perfect color vision?!

TRY THE TEST HERE! 

Spriter!

A cool little tool for big ideas. Spriter is an animation tool for 2D game characters and effects and visual editor. Watch the video for more information and check out the Kickstarter website to support them!

CHECK OUT SPRITER'S KICKSTARTER PAGE!

Beth Cavener Stichter

One of the coolest sculptors out there!

VISIT BETH CAVENER STICHTER'S SITE!

Deja View and Disney Galore!

Love Disney? Love old-school Disney? Well, you're gonna love this blog. Check out Andreas Deja's collection of Disney animation artwork. Tons of scanned in sketches and videos from Disney's alumni!

VISIT DEJA VIEW HERE!!!

RabbitHoles 3D Motion Holograms

This was a while back, but was always interesting to see. Holographic prints by 3D artists called RabbitHoles. Check out the video to see a gallery. I wonder if they've kept up with this tech. Hmmm...

Real-Time Light Simulator!

The WebGL Path Tracing site has this cool little gadget that simulates mental/v-ray lighting system from 3D programs into realtime! It's pretty awesome and can be very useful when illustrating. You can change or move the objects in the scene as well as change or move the lights. Check it out!

WebGL Path Tracing Site! Click Here!

L'Ecorché: Classical Anatomy for Artists

Extending from the earlier post about cool anatomy reference, everyone should check out the Kickstarter for this awesome little app in the works. I'm totally going to get it for my iPad when it releases. I recommend everyone checking it out, and for those who want to go the extra mile... donate! You eve get a copy of the app. :)

L'Ecorché: Classical Anatomy for Artists

Free Online Life Drawing!

Here are a couple of online programs that give you anatomy references that are timed. Yea, true.. if it's not irl, than how can it be "Life Drawing".. but, it's a pretty convenient way to practice and develope speed in life drawing. Both programs are free.

www.lovecastle.org/draw/

www.posemaniacs.com 

- The cool thing about posemaniacs is that you can see the muscles inside the human anatomy along with the ability to rotate around the model. Only downside is that they're all 3D and not real human references.

Also, this last one isn't free, but it's pretty awesome with a 360 view of real posed models.

http://onlinelifedrawing.com

DOTA 2 Art!

Pretty cool pdf of the character creating process for DOTA 2.

CLICK TO VIEW DOTA 2 CHARACTER ART GUIDE

Also, if you haven't already checked out the DOTA 2 comic "Tales from the Secret Shop: Are We Heroes Yet?" you should be all over that. Every panel is a grand piece of art!

CHECK OUT THE COMIC HERE!!!

Artist Forums

A lot of people ask on the Livestream "Where can I learn and grow with my art?" and I always mention an art forum/online gallery is a place to do it. People default to art schools, but that costs a pretty penny and will give you a lot of information you don't really need, with a less information that you're actually looking for. Art forums are teaming with both students and professionals, coming together to help one another out. You can get your questions answered, have people critique your work, and most importantly start a name for yourself.

Below is a list of places you can join. Feel free to leave a comment of other forums I may have missed.

• 3DTotal
• 3DVF - French
• ArtTalk - Russian
• CGArt - Persian
• CGHub
• CGSociety
• CGLand - Korean
• CGTantra
• ConceptArt
• Crimson Daggers
• DeviantArt
• DrawingBoard
• GameArtisans
• Game-Artist
• LeewiArt - Chinese
• Polycount
• Render - Russian
• UniversoCG - Portuguese
• Visualart - Romania

Intuos5 Review

The 10-year reign of my Wacom Intuos2 is now over. That purple tablet was definitely durable and is probably the most used and oldest of my digital arsenal. I recently got the Wacom Intuos5 Medium tablet. So far it's been pretty cool, but there are a few neat little features that have been added that I have to get accustom to. Pretty much like driving a new car.

Pros: 

• Touch screen! WHAT?! Use your hands to guesture pans, rotation and swipes. Techtonik your face off while painting.
• High sensitivity and tilt-enabled stylus pen. Also, rotating barrel sensitivity also works too! But con, you have to buy an "Art Pen" separately for about $100.
• Cool buttons and circular dial. Hotkeys galore! 
• Customizing is ridiculous. You can customize all the buttons and dials to what they cycle to. You can even custom the touch-gestures! I've customized my 5-fingered swipe down gesture, when in Photoshop.. to bring up the desktop! And if I'm on my desktop and I do the swipe movement again, it brings up Photoshop! Fancy-pants is fancy.
• Wireless capability. You have to buy a wireless kit separately, but if you ever do, you can attach it to your tablet!
• Toothy paper-like textured drawing surface. This depends on the person. I feel the texture does create a better sense of control in pen movement, but does cause some other problems addressed under Cons.

Cons:

• Getting back to the toothy texture of the drawing surface, it can cause problems with it creating friction from your hand. Worst of all though, it grinds down the stylus nib like crazy! I've never changed the nib of my old stylus from my old tablet of 10 years. I've had this tablet for a week now and the nib is very noticeably grinding down into a slant. Luckily, they give you several nib refills, but that's beside the point(pun not intended). 
• Active area is much smaller than tablet surface. If you notice the picture above, the area that is signified by the white corner brackets is the active area you can draw on... but... but.. what is all that extra black space for then??? :(
• Those awesome customization buttons.. are not that easy to push. In fact, you pretty much have to stab them with your finger to get them to click. At this point, I'd rather use my keyboard hotkeys because it just seems easier quicker, despite the reach.
• Tablet goes crazy when not using it. I have to keep my tablet far from my keyboard whenever I'm not using it, because the slight touch of my arm on it while typing activates the touch screen to do... well.. things I don't want it to do. 

Well, that's sums it up. You can get one between $300-350, depending on what size you want.

Visit the Wacom Site for Intuos5!!!

Sketch Club App

Buddy of mine, Jim "Blackpawn" Scott, created this amazing app for the iPad/iPhone called "Sketch Club." It's a powerful little app that is constantly being updated with new and awesome new features. It's almost like having a $3 travel-size version of Photoshop!

Not only does it sketch and paint, it video records your art in progress and uploads it to Youtube! Here's one I did a while back...



Coolest thing of all... what makes the "Club" part in "Sketch Club"? The people! Sketch Club holds a huge artistic community behind it. People uploading, commenting and sharing each other's galleries. People participating in friendly competitions and art challenges, some involving real prizes!

Visit SketchClub's Website HERE!

 Get it now for only $2.99. That's less than a Big Mac! Just say'n.

Buy SketchClub HERE!

SmudgeGuard

Out of recommendation from Lawvalamp, I just bought the smudge guard glove. It's a cool little glove that relinquishes friction issues with the use of art tablets, as well as keeping traditional drawing smudges to a minimum. From what I understand, the business is ran by a single individual, Jeannie Lit. So, support for making an awesome product!

www.SMUDGEGUARD.com

True Blood

True Blood Season 4 Spoiler by Pri

Tutorials

Catwoman

Catwoman Statue Study by Lawvalamp

Commanders

Commander Portraits by Pri

Bust Study

Bust Study by Sealegs

Study

Skull Study By Pri

Zelda

WindWaker Cover Re-Design by Lawvalamp

Voodoo

Voodoo Witch Doctor by Pri

Monster Hunter Challenge

Monster Hunter Challenge By Lawvalamp

Nude Study

Nude Study by Pri
Reference from here.

Brains

Hyewon the Zombie! by Magnesticles

Howl's Moving Castle

Howl's Moving Castle By Lawvalamp