May
02
>Morph Movie / My Caricature Process Peek
>
I’ve spent a lot of time making this new morph movie. The first one I did was pretty bad. Well, this time I’m learning the software and this one will have really clean transitions. It’s also being created at 1024×768 and all images were reworked to expand the backgrounds to the same aspect ratio. Below is a crude animation of one of the many transitions (its jumpy and poor image quality. I chopped it into 15 frames and made the gif.) Below that is an image showing the software interface and what that particular sequence looks like in progress and at exactly 50% on the transition. This project is taking me far longer that I thought it would but I keep going back and improving things as I learn new tricks. Hopefully it will be worth the time spent when it’s done. This is a very rough example but if you look at details like the eyes tracking, you can see that I’m being much more precise on this one.
Everyone keeps asking me to tell my secrets about my manipulated caricatures. Well, I really don’t have any secrets I’m hiding but I thought I would give you a small sampling of part of my caricature process and practice method. Below is a 2-3 minute very quick, what I call a manipulated caricature sketch. I do dozens of these in a day for practice at times and I almost always make a 2 minute liquify sketch prior to doing a caricature to try and capture the basic morph that I want, keeping it very loose. When working on a caricature in Photoshop, I always have on my canvas, a small sketch which hopefully captured the essence of the person, a small version of the original image and the image I’m working on, all together so I don’t lose track of the direction I’m going, likeness, proportions, etc. I am reducing my reliance on and use of liquify, but when I do use it, I bring all three images in together so I can see the whole picture.
Now, let me make a couple of things clear. I am not yet what I consider to be a caricature artist. I have no formal training. I don’t claim to be an expert or in any way qualified to teach caricature. These are my methods (if you want to call it that), not necessarily the correct ones. If you want to learn the art of caricature, take lessons from a Master. Jason seiler offers lessons online and as soon as I have the money, my wacom and my Mac, I’m taking lessons from him. Can’t wait!! Ok, that’s a little peek into how I do what I do. I will release more information on my personal techniques along the way. Don’t ask me when. Goodnight!
I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
Apr
28
>It’s been a good year ~ Thank you all
>
I wanted to take a few moments and thank all of the people who have supported me in the past year. On April 6th, 2010 I entered my first Photoshop contest at FreakingNews.com. I was immediately hooked and began doing photo-manipulations as fast as I could turn them out. I entered 215 contests, most in less than 6 months. On May 30th, 2010 I attempted my first caricature and entered it into a contest. From that day, I knew what I wanted to do and have been working towards it ever since. I have a long way to go and an enormous amount to learn, but I’m doing what I love. Yes, it’s been a good year. I am extremely fortunate to be where I am in such a short period of time. I’m not where I’m headed yet, but I’m on my way. On October 14th, 2010 I started my blog and a Facebook page about the same time. The image below is a jumbled up mess of screen captures with some pretty awesome statistics on my Blog, Facebook, Linkedin etc. and glimpses into a few places I can be found on the web. All achieved in 1 year with your support. Please click the image below to view full.
Here are a few interesting facts about what, with your support, you guys have helped me achieve in 1 year.
My Blog has 77,300+ hits and 450+ total followers from 152 Nations since October. WOW! I have 1,865+ Facebook Friends in the same period of time. I also just started a Facebook Fan Page in February and it already has 200+ Likes. I have 1,200+ direct business connections at Linkedin, which I just joined on October 31st 2010. I have 400+ DeviantArt.com Followers since August 2010. The support has been incredible. I have been commissioned by Bauer Media Group UK to do 10 Photo-Manipulated Caricature Illustrations for FHM Magazine and Tennis Magazine in the past 4 months. An absolutely unbelievable break for me and so soon. The following are links to some of my online portfolios I’ve built in the past year also with your support:
DeviantArt
Behance Network
TalentHouse
Wittygraphy The Caricature Community
ISCA
and about 40 other blogs / portfolios / listings which can be found on my .
I owe all of you, my friends a debt of gratitude. I have had tremendous support everywhere I’ve been and as you can see, accomplished a good bit in 1 year. Thanks so much to all of you who have given me the support and encouragement to push on. I thank you in advance for your continued support as I learn from the masters and grow as an artist. I have met far too many good friends to count along the way and I hope to make many more. Yes, it’s been a good year and I am the luckiest man in the world, but 2011 is going to be even better so don’t go anywhere.
BTW:
I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
Apr
26
>
Tonight I decided to go ahead a do Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg at the request of several friends over the past months. I’ve posted the original source image below as well as a short video interview of this very young, very rich man.
Source image:
I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
Apr
25
>FHM Magazine / Totti & Panucci ~ "Excuses"
>
Tonight I’m posting mildly manipulated caricatures of Francesco Totti and Christian Panucci of Italy’s team, which are part of a two-page spread illustration I did for FHM Magazine. Below is a rough layout of the illustration. They haven’t sent me a copy of the magazine yet, so I don’t know exactly how it came out. The theme was “The 25 Best Excuses Of All Time”. Tottie was quoted blaming his poor performance on his shoes hurting his feet and Panucci was quoted blaming his poor performance on the thread in his socks being too rough. This was the job OI was suppose to get free reins on…Not hardly. They provided the faces and the bodies. There was no freedom and as some of the other jobs, required very mild caricature.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed and have a great day!
Apr
21
>Artist Feature ~ BRAD KUNKLE ~ LIGHT & LEAF
>
B R A D K U N K L E ~ L I G H T & L E A F
“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.” ~ Pablo Picasso
“…the mission of the artist in an overtechnologized, overmasculanized society was to call the old magic back to life.” ~ Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All
Born in rural Pennsylvania, Brad Kunkle spent his younger years exploring and romanticizing the beauty of the sparse countryside and the deep forests around him. From an early age he was drawn to the worlds of Maxfield Parrish and the Pre-Raphaelites –worlds, he says, “where a subtle, supernatural beauty seems to be hiding under the breath of women –worlds where something beyond our natural perception is waiting to be found.”
He studied painting at Kutztown University mostly under George Sorrels, who was taught by a pupil of the 19th century Academic painter, William Adolphe Bougereau. His minimal palette is inspired by the grisailles of early European masters and the haunting quality of antique photographs and daguerreotypes.
As a decorative painter in his mid twenties, he leafed entire walls in copper. Beguiled by the shifting, life-like nature of the surfaces, Brad began to incorporate gilding in his work, which provided the unreal quality he had been looking for to convey his moody, romantic ideas of human nature and ritual.
Brad’s work has appeared on the covers of International Artist and American Art Collector magazine as well as in Fine Art Connoisseur, American Arts Quarterly and Kunst. His world premiere solo exhibition sold out opening night in April of 2010 at Arcadia Fine Arts in New York City.
LIGHT & LEAF ~ The surfaces of these oil paintings are embellished with genuine gold and silver leaf. These precious metals are used as symbolic elements as well as visual instruments to interact with the viewer’s movements and environment. The leafed areas will shift with the intensity of light in a space, or as one simply walks across the room.
NOTE: Please click images for full view
Click below to visit Brad’s Web Site:
A R C A D I A F I N E A R T S N e w Y o r k
email: telephone:
I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
