Arizona Artist Jephyr (aka Jeff Curtis): January 2020

Monday, January 27, 2020

Still MORE Digial Paintings From the Archive

As I've shared in my last two posts (1-15-20 and 1-22-20), I've gone through a decade of old files while cleaning up my trusty old PC — and have been sharing some of my old digital paintings that I found.

Some have never been shared publicly anywhere before — others were posted and removed for one reason or another.

Anywho — here's another group in no particular order:

^ ^ ^ This digital painting is from the "works in progress" file — and I was using an awesome photo of an old guy as a reference,

As said in other posts — if you know the photographer for this one or any others used as a reference — please let me know in the comments or drop me an email — and I can add a credit or link to their site if they'd like.

jrcurt77@msn.com

^ ^ ^ This cartoon birdy is also from my digital paintings "works in progress" file.

If you've looked through my artwork before you know I love to draw / paint all kinds of critters — but for some reason I end up doing a lot of birds.

Also, somewhere in my soul, I have a "cartoon" gene that keeps appearing in my original art.

I moved on from finalizing this one a few years ago — but kinda like the shy expression on this cartoony boid.

^ ^ ^ Pretty sure I shared this digital painting photo study of a horse here before — but later removed it — so I'll dust it off and share it again.

☺

^ ^ ^ I remember knocking this digital painting / photo study very quickly — and shared it here around that time, but later removed it.

Usually I have to sweat a bit more to finish a piece — wish they were all more like this one!

☺

^ ^ ^ This will be the last one for today — a digital painting / photo study of a li'l gator.

Again, shared here around the time I painted it, but later removed it.

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Thanks for stopping by.

Look for more work from the archives soon.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

More Digital Paintings From The Archive

In my last post I shared a number of my old digital paintings that I'd found while going through a decades worth of old files on my trusty computer.

Today I'll share a few more — some that were finalized and others that were (still are?) "works in progress."

It's been interesting to look back through my own work — hope you enjoy the trip too!

Anywho — here are a few oldies in no partic'lar order:

^ ^ ^ I found a GREAT macro-photograph of a wasp and set about digitally painting it. The wasp's head was in sharp focus in the original photo — but the photographer had artfully used bokeh or depth of field — "the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens" on the wasp's body.

At first I was tempted to paint the image as it was in the photo and then the idea of adding some other kind of body came to my mind.

I tried a few different options but when I began painting the tux (using a photo reference) it just felt right.

^ ^ ^ Someone posted a GREAT portrait of a hairless cat I used as a ref to paint this study.

Thank you photographer-person! It's an EXCELLENT image.

BTW — as I wrote in my last post — if you know the photographer for any of the references I used for any of these images — please let me know in the comments or by email — and I can add a credit and link to them if they'd like.

jrcurt77@msn.com

^ ^ ^ I created and digitally painted the dragon above first and slowly expanded out from that as you can see in the next image/view of it below.

One day while working it — I was zoomed in a bit and kinda liked the close-up view you see above as well.

BTW — I added the yellow/orange moon long before the we saw the series of Blood Moons a few years back — but I liked the effect it had on the painting and later it took on a more symbolic meaning as well.

https://www.thetrumpet.com/11780-blood-moons-do-they-fulfill-bible-prophecy

Joel 2:31: “The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes”

^ ^ ^ Though this Dragon painting still remains in the "works in progress" file — I like the idea enough "some day" I might get back to it and finish it off.

^ ^ ^ Had a client a few years ago who I did a book illustration for — an ant character — and did this digital painting study in preparation for that using an incredible macro-photo as a reference.

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Thanks for stopping by.

See ya again soon..........

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

A Few Digital Paintings From The Archive

Howdy,

I've been cleaning up my trusty old 'puter because I need to transition to a newer OS — and have gone through a decades worth of old files - deleting a ton and backing up MANY others.

It's been a time-consuming pain - made worse by the fact that I still LOVE my current PC and wouldn't even consider a transition if it wasn't going to be supported anymore.

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The upside has been a nostalgic journey through ten years worth of old letters, images, and files, etc.

In that process I came across tons of old artwork — some that were finished and other "works in progress" that I ran out of steam on for one reason or another.

So today I'll share a few of those in no particular order.

^ ^ ^ Ages ago I found a photo portrait of an older woman and loved her sweet looking expression and decided to paint this digital portrait of her.

I got this far before moving on — but really enjoyed the process on this one.

^ ^ ^ Was watching the movie Flatliners and captured an image of Kiefer Sutherland during a scene and digitally painted this using it as a reference.

As I recall that original reference was monochromatic — but I was also kinda in that artistic "phase" at that time as well.

^ ^ ^ Found an awesome photo of a snail in a natural environment and really loved the lighting on it and tried my hand at capturing it in this digital painting.

^ ^ ^ A photo study / digital painting of an image of a statue of Christ I found online.

In the original photo, the statue was either stone or concrete in natural light — but as noted above, I was in a "monochromatic phase" around that time and went with this greenish color scheme.

^ ^ ^ This 2011 digital painting, I used as a reference just the "portrait" section of an amazing photo called "Strength."

BTW — I'd love to give credit to whoever took the original photo of the old man.

So if you know the photographer for this one or any of the other references I used (unless otherwise noted), please let me know who they are and I'd be happy to add a credit for them and link to their web-site(s) or social media etc.

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That'll do it for today — although I may share more older images that I found in the archives down the road.

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Thanks for stopping by.

See you again soon.......

Monday, January 6, 2020

WOW Animation! Steve Cutts - The Turning Point

Happy 2020!

Hope you have a great year!

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While I don't personally agree with a lot of his politics — there is no question that Steve Cutts is doing some amazing artwork and animation.

Below you'll find his newest video — uploaded to YouTube on New Years Day 2020 — called The Turning Point.

Screen Capture From The Turning Point by Steve Cutts - Found Below

The video's description on YouTube states:

"The Turning Point' explores the destruction of the environment, climate change and species extinction from different perspective. Music by Wantaways.

Created in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Clip Studio Pro and Cinema 4D.

Written, directed and animated by Steve Cutts."

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From an artistic stand-point, Cutts' character designs and backgrounds have a unique, unmistakable style — while he takes viewers through dense and complicated scenes that could otherwise easily become confusing and muddled if not for his amazing ability to flow seamlessly through them.

His use of "cute" animal characters often contrasts with the animations stark message — while conversely humans are shown suffering from the adverse conditions they find themselves in.

Cutts leans towards the use of monochromatic colors and then splashes some scenes with reds and yellows, etc, to create a very appealing and dynamic look and feel.

Various Scenes From The Turning Point by Steve Cutts

Over-all this animation is extremely well done — and again — though I don't agree with everything Cutts espouses — and his work tends to be very "dark" — there is no denying his talent and skill.

If you take a look — please keep in mind this video shows scenes with some cartoon violence and is not presented for anyone under 18 years of age.

Thanks for stopping by.

See you again soon......

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