Chapter 160 . Project & New Illustration

I have been busy...
An unexpected project came up, with a very tight deadline, and so, I put my head down and did it.
Ther is very little I can say about it, nor can I really show anything, as, it is for a competition and the deadline is not over yet.
But anyhow, in short, a friend of mine, Erika, contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in doing a series of illustration for a video about Asthma and Allergies.
I jumped on the occasion, she provided all the narrative, and I drew the illustrations.
Then, I put them together in a video, with original music, and Erika's voice, et voila!
This was a fair amount of drawings, and hope to be able to see them, as well as the video soon!
I'll keep you updated...

Meanwhile, during the project, I was drawing a good 6 to 8 hours per day, which, is exhausting.
I needed something else to balance.
So, as soon as the project was close to be completed, I starting a drawing of my sweet heart I had in mind for a while now.

So, here it is, the portrait and the poster I did with it, and, this one is not for sale.
- smile -

Stephanie . The Youth

And:

Stephanie Poster

Voila folks, that's all for now.
Have a good sunny and rainy day.

Cheers

Serge
31st March 2015

Chapter 159 . New Illustration . The Winter Soldier

The challenge of making movie posters is to be able to, first summarize what the movie is saying, but I believe, most importantly to give the feeling of the movie.
That, is a challenge and a pleasure.
Because, it allows one to go deeper than what the movie gives, in an "artistically" kind of way.

This said, here is a new illustration: The Winter Soldier, the second release of the Captain America franchise, or series if you will:

Poster - The Winter Soldier

Print Available - The Winter Soldier

18x24 - $46 CA + Shipping

12x18 - $30 CA + Shipping

To Order Your Print: Simply email sergefoglio@gmail.com

with the name of your print and the size

This said, and among other projects, I am going to pursue in this direction for a little while, those recent drawings have been extremely enjoyable, and, I like to enjoy my work!

Have a good day folks!

Sincerely,

Serge
23rd march 2015

Chapter 158 . New Illustration . Galactus . The process

Recently, I have been inspired to draw Marvel characters.
I can't really explain it, but can one really explain inspiration?

So I read some old comics, illustrated by John Byrne and the artist of this generation, glorious to admire the amount of details put in those comics.
I wanted to understand the way those brilliant folks dealt with shades and lights.

And then, I started drawing.
Captain America, The Falcon and The Daredevil so far...
But after few drawing, one has to start drawing a villain....
Well, frankly, if I am going to draw a villain, for the first one, might as well go straight to the top!
So, of course, I could have chosen Thanos, but Thanos is going to be everywhere with all the Marvel movies, and, isn't he already everywhere?
From the Avengers to The Guardians of the Galaxy, we have had the privilege to see his ugly face more than once!
And what's probably coming, is nothing else that scary!!!!

Thanos

Ok, so it wasn't going to be Thanos, at least, not for now.
So, who comes after?
After, really?
I am not sure of that!
I choose the devourer of worlds, the entity who needs to feed on the life of an entire planet to have a "meal" and therefore, survive.
I choose Galactus!
I am not going to go in details of who he is and what's not.
For further informations, please consult that thing we call "The Internet".
And so, I did some researches, decided what the composition would be, and started drawing.
I first drew the shades, the dark parts.
To make it as easy as possible, I drew it in a kind of a reddish pink, because, this actually helps me to visualize what I am doing better than in back...
Go figure...

Galactus . Stage 1

I then finished all the shades, turned them from red to black, and started adding some colours.
In fact, while i was thinking that the colouring part would be the easiest, it ended up being the most challenging.
Galactus has a complex costume, and the many shades of pink had to be worked and reworked many times.

Galactus . Stage 2

While working on the colouring, I also started working on the background.
I knew what I wanted to do, but didn't know if it was going to work.
I also, from the stat, wanted to give the illustration the feel of an old poster, so, I started working my textures as well.
Oh, on a side note, this is entire made in Adobe Illustrator, no Photoshop here.

Galactus . Stage 3

The illustration was starting to get together!
Still lots of twitching, but, I was going in the right direction.
I particularly liked the different tones of colours I was staring to obtain, especially noticeable around the sun, and in the sky.
Next, time to finish the colouring of Galactus, and complete the background.
I also modified the texture.

Galactus . Stage 4

Almost completed.
Now, I simply needed to implement the illustration within a poster, and find a title.
This would be called:
And so came Galactus - Galactus Poster Special Edition
And so, here is the final product:

And So Came Galactus . Galactus Poster Special Edition

Now, and this is new and coming, I am working towards a new part of the blog where it will be possible to buy prints of the different illustrations I have been doing, in different format, for different pricing, and, affordable if possible.
So, in the Galactus case:

Print Available - 18x24 - $46 CA + Shipping

To Order Your Print: Simply email sergefoglio@gmail.com

with the name of your print and the size

And, as I already said, more about that to come soon.

Voila, that's all row now folks,

Have a great Sunday!

Sincerely,

Serge

22nd march 2015

Chapter 157 . New Illustration . The Daredevil . The Man Without Fear

The man who had a yellow suit and traded it for a red one...

He lives without fear, because, he cannot see.
This implies that, without the certainty of the vision, the fear can be taken as an illusion...
Interesting.

As a kid, I use to read The Daredevil, not because I especially liked it, but because it came with the other Marvel Comics I loved reading.
So, in the end, I read a fair bit of the red devil, and somehow, got to like him...
I guess that's like when you start knowing someone, you start liking them...

The blind vigilante was, and still is a fascinating character.

I did an illustration of the red hero learning over the city years ago, but I felt inspired recently to portray him in action, jumping from the side of a building to a pole, like he did when I was a kid.

Also, completely different style than the previous one with Cap America, and still inspired by Mr. Byrne.

The First Snow . Daredevil . The Man Without Fear

On a totally different subject, I am getting quite fond of the Oak Bay area...
The Village seems lovely to me those days.
And if you go all the way down to the ocean, you arrive at Haynes Park.
Honey and I went there the other day. It was sunny and very springy...
She walks and stops at every single flower to look at the shape of the petals, and what happens inside the petals...
She makes me see the invisible.

The trees are blossoming with insane flowers, overwhelmingly perfect, the smells, the perfumes are like flavours, one cannot denied that this is an amazing place!

Let me show you what I mean:

Blossoming Tree . Victoria BC

The thing is that, those trees, they are exploding with flowers...

Blossom Explosion - Victoria BC

Flowers, Tree & Sky - Victoria BC

The Pink Tree - Victoria BC

Eventually, we reached the ocean...

From Haynes Park - Victoria BC

The details, I love the details...

The Greens - Victoria BC

The sun shone, but a cool breeze from the ocean played with our hair...
Hun' attempted to capture it...

Stephanie and the Bench

It was a wonderful afternoon, once again...

Haynes Park - Victoria BC

When we got back home, I worked those pictures, and some were turned into a kind of painting.
It is rare that those one are interesting, but I think those were.
You'd be the judge.

The Painted Tree - Victoria BC

Madness in Pink and Gold - Victoria BC

Painted Blossoms - Victoria BC

Voila...
Oh, one more thing, we watched Memento recently, so a picture from the beginning at the end:
The Sun is rising:

Sunrise - Victoria BC

This time, that's all folks.
Behave yourself.

Sincerely,

Serge
11th March 2015

Chapter 156 . New Illustration . Captain America

Good day Folks,
Just a short one to share that new illustration I did of the Cap', that I like a fair bit.
John Byrne style:

There is no Point

Voila,
That's all for today Peeps.

Sincerely,

Serge
6th March 2015

Chapter 155 . The Winter, The Spring and my Honey...

When I call her "Honey", I always think of PontyPool... One of the terrible word to not say, in an attempt to stop the spreading of the virus...
- smile -

And still, in so many different ways, she truly is my Honey.

Good morning Folks, is it Winter or Spring?
Seriously?!?
Oh, one is not complaining, but I must admit, we had quite a winter here on the West Coast of Canada, or have we had Winter?
Nevertheless, I must agree with the Folks here, we are, indeed, extremely lucky to live in this part of the world... Until we're not anymore... But that is another story.

So, a couple of days ago, "Honey" and I went in one of our adventure. The weather was gorgeous, to die for really.
The sun is so electric, so white, and then turns gold, just like that, that's something, let me tell ya!

But we like to share our beautiful BC, he he he, so here are some images.
First and foremost, we went there, to Ogden Point.
Wiki says:
Ogden Point is a deep water port facility located in the southwestern corner of the city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
It's here:

Ogden Point - Victoria BC

Or, if you were to look at what we were looking:

Ogden Point - Victoria BC

On the opposite side of the ocean, so to speak, we could see the mountains from the States, the sun, warm and getting ready to set:

View of the Georgia Straight from Ogden Point - Victoria BC

On the way back, we crossed Beacon Hill Park, and the light had turned into gold, overwhelmingly gold.
A tree in the light:

A Tree in Beacon Hill Park - Victoria BC

Last, we walked all the way back home, up the hill, and from there, the sunset was gorgeous!

Sunset on Fort Street - Victoria BC

Sunset on Fort Street - Victoria BC

It was, indeed, a very good day!

Meanwhile, I goofed around with some other images, playing with a painting effect, and here are some interesting images.
The "painted" version of that golden tree:

The Golden Tree

And of course, us:

S'n'S

And finally, my personal Hollywood Star:

Stephanie

Voila, that's all for now Peeps,
Have fun and all that jazz!

Sincerely,

Serge
5th March 2015

Chapter 154 . About a Map...

Maps are a complicated thing to attempt...
One can easily find himself in a dreadful situation trying to represent the geographical landscape of a particular place.

On top of that, one would have to choose what type of map he will use as a template, make sure the scale is what it is suppose to be, and, jungle with the fact that, after all, it has to be easy to read, efficient, and agreeable...
One might want to do something else.

Nevertheless, it is extremely satisfying to work on such projects.
The multitude of challenges arising are in fact a blessing, and one can also move along and enjoy the different parts as they are supposed to be enjoyed!
In short, it's like giving yourself the pleasure that the viewer will have.
A world backward, so to speak...

And now, we're getting to my point:
I had to do another map for The Night of the Sasquatch, this time, I had to display The Sooke Potholes area.
Such a wonderful place!
Material to work on is quite pathetic but enough to start something.

What type of map was I going to do?
Let's have a look at the  few basic options:
The trip starts with the classic maps, detailed, useful and complex.
Here is an example:

Classic Map

That was not what i was going to do. Not that I don't enjoy those type of maps, I love maps in general, they make me travel from my seat, but this was simply not appropriate for the Potholes.
So, I moved on.


Second, we have the same type of map, but made with colours, for the purpose of defining certain area of the map.
Here's what I am talking about:

Coloured Classic Map

Here, there is interest to me. The colours, somehow, add something I am very fond of. But still, that wasn't what I was looking for...


Third, we are reaching the realm of the 3D maps.
This is extremely attractive, but bloody challenging to do. By this I mean that, this type of map might very well take way longer than one could expect at first.
Here's a simple version of one of type of maps:

3D Map

This, clearly, was not at all the way I was going to go, but, I keep that in mind for future references as, this is pretty cool too!


Fourth, and we are starting to get into the "yummy" stuff now.
We have now the illustrated type of maps.
Those, go straight to my heart, I carefully love them, they are a trip within the trip, so much details and "things" to look at.
Those type, I was tremendously interested by, but, those always require an insane amount of work illustration wise, and well, when you want to do a little illustration, you might not want to spend a week working at it.
Nevertheless, here is a fantastic example:

Illustrated Map 1

Gorgeous.

Here is another one completely different, but still within the category of "illustrated maps":

Illustrated Map 2

Fantastic! it really is a trip within the trip.
One can spend a fair amount of time contemplating this map, truly traveling within the map!

I decided that I was going to take some attributes of this type of map, but avoid going into endless type of details.


Last, there is the Heroic Fantasy type of map, or what some call The Treasure Island kind of map.
Here are two examples:
The infamous famous perfect card of The Middle Earth:

Middle Earth Map from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

And some mysterious island:

Treasure Island Map

This style, again, goes straight to my heart. This most probably came from my love of Tolkien in my younger years, and what I felt following the characters throughout those maps.
I was with them...

It was decided that I will get inspired by the illustrations maps and the Heroic Fantasy ones.
To start, this is what I had, a map from GoogleMaps:

Sooke Potholes Google Map

From there, and after more work, I got there;

Sooke Potholes Map 1 - Illustration

This took a while to do...
And, it is as accurate as I could be.
Next step was to add texture and such for the final product.
Here it is:

Sooke Potholes Map 2 - Textured Map

Just so you know, the illustration was made with Adobe Illustrator, while the texturing was worked with Adobe Photoshop.

And last, here is the final product, placed within the pages of the book from The Night of the Sasquatch:

Sooke Potholes Map 3 - Final Product

And since, I kept on writing and I already started a new illustration.
Truth is, I haven't been that productive in about 1.5 year, and, it feels really really good to be creating again. Especially, that it flows!
Just like the love I have for my darling!

Have a great day Folks,
Behave and enjoy the gorgeous sun!

Sincerely,

Serge
3rd March 2015