One thing I love about Concept Art is I like doing research. Also it gives me an excuse to look at pictures of random stuff and feed my imagination. My interest in history and art helps with the story telling process. 

Right now these past few weeks I've been doing  Viking themes, drawings and research. 

Along with my theme - Treasure room - Tomb - are the keywords to the story I want to convey.

Vikings historically would steal stuff and weren't really self sufficient.   

Their boats were light enough that some parts could be taken off and the boats were also light enough to carried by the vikings. They reaped havoc in early Britain by traveling and raiding riverside villages. Their raids were not predictable, they would pop up out of no where and leave quickly. 

These are just bare bones thumbnails but they already read composition-wise. 

Each one of these has the potential to become a full concept or illustration. 

I am practicing quick but solid sketching. 

The more work you do in the beginning stages it sets the stage and structure of the illustration.  

Strengthening one thing then you realize you need to work on improving something else. Man everything is a balance. Now I need to work on my rendering skills. 

Random songs I've been listening to. 

Unless one is supernatural and in-human or straight up lying at some point in an 

Artist's journey they have encountered an art block. 

Everyone has a different way of getting out of Art blocks and or burnout.

I like to try to combat burn out is I dabble and am interested in other forms of art besides drawing and painting. Learning new things keeps things fresh. Downside to this is sometimes you need to 

laser focus on one thing to get things done or master. 

Tuxedo, my friend's 14 year old boarder collie that passed this last year.

He liked to grin randomly to make her laugh. 

Haven't decided to finish the master with oil paint or markers.

Everyone has a different way of getting out of Art blocks. 

I found these tips by Marc Brunet helpful, whether you are in one or not.

Another tip I want to add is taking care of your mental health. That is truly important. Anything unresolved in life can affect your artwork. 

There was a point in my life before I didn't realize all my repressed childhood traumas came in fruition and being gaslight by someone made it impossible to create at a time I should've been thriving.  

Didn't realize and identify they were problems until I sought help. 

There is a stigma with mental health, but nothing wrong with seeking help and speaking your mind. 

 

Vector drawing of a previous ink drawing of Assassin Creed's Altair.

Vector drawing relies on shapes and points to draw instead of pixels. 

WIP personal sketch

Stay Safe, Stay Well! Keep creating peeps.

Much Love.

Coffee break time!

Its an understatement to say I like coffee and espresso.... I am a low-key coffee snob.

For several months I have started to use a coffee subscription program called Trade Coffee.
It is pretty cool when you start you take a coffee personality/ preference quiz. I am grouped into the category of “The Classics.” With a hint of something different from time to time but nothing too out there.  The coffee is roasted to order from different locations across the country.

Trade Coffee

If I drink too much of the same brand and flavor of coffee or espresso usually I'll gain an immunity over it. When the caffeine level won’t faze me. So I like to change it up before this happens.

These are good local espressos, too bad I got used to it them.  

Currently this is my favorite along with Ohori's

Usually I’ll drink 4 shots of espresso, but with Cuvee I can only drink 3 shots. This one is pretty strong but flavorful. I like my coffee stupid strong. One time a co-worker sipped my coffee and was like wow this is strong and definitely not my coffee. it When I am out of town, I like to visit the local coffee shop along with the art store. Its nice I can try different coffees without investing too much or really going out of my way to get something different. In time I want to upgrade my esspresso machine and invest in other coffee making methods.

Sometimes it is an experiment to see which bean is better as a coffee or espresso.
These ones in my opinion are not as good as espresso but good as coffee. The only one here I did not like is the Irving Farm one.






Every place I have worked at I have started some sort of coffee club.

One of my former co-workers and I joked that if we opened a coffee shop (lemonade stand style). We’d only have 4 things. 1 shot, 2 shot, 3 and 4 shots of espresso. No milk or sugar sorry yo. Just straight espresso and nothing else, no stirers either.

I considered being a barista before but I can’t stand picky difficult non-coffee drinkers with their demands: skinny soy latte with 5 shots of strawberry, 12 creams 12 sugars. I kicked someone out of the coffee club once when this chick flipped out on me when I brought back her coffee. That I brought back vanilla instead of  “French Vanilla.” Honestly I didn’t know the difference back then but that shouldn’t of matter.

 Then again it is my pet peeve when some one is unnecessarily a picky food orderer. If they are picky and non-negotiable it tells a lot of one’s personality. I used to work in the food industry and usually picky food orderers isn’t someone I want to be friends or work with.

One of my former clients was like that, always asking and assigning me rush jobs when it could of been avoided. With certain jobs no matter how much you pay me the amount will not sooth the annoyance level of dealing with you. There was always some sort of dramatic scene when we would go out and eat. Every time I was embarrassed that something stupid happened. It is fine if you are picky but if you can’t take the time to articulate what you want then there is a problem with your communication. And then showing up at my door unannounced on a Sunday, Sunday is the day of rest and sleep.

I got this one yesterday, so far I only tried it as coffee but not espresso.
I'll give it more time but so far I am not impressed.  

Just sayin’ *Ahem if you say I referred you, you get a coupon and I get a coupon.
Krisanahall@gmail.com Everyone wins!

The other week I finally got the XP Pen Artist 22 R Drawing tablet!! This product was released  December 2019 with a holiday discount but it sold out quickly! I was totally bummed then and it took until middle of April for these to be restocked partially because of the pandemic.

Glad I nabbed it when I did because once again the product is sold out, and you can't find it on ebay either. People like it! Man, I really like it too!



Find Xp Pen here https://www.xp-pen.com/product/541.html
and this is Wacom's equivalent https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wacom-cintiq-22-pen-display/6361711.p?skuId=6361711 and this one doesn't have express keys. If you want some you have to get the peripheral. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1303599-REG/wacom_ack411050_expresskey_remote.html The more top of the line models do not include a stand despite being thousands of dollars.

Wacom is the leading graphic tablet company. In recent years the Wacom knock offs are pretty good, the technology has gotten better and it is priced competitively.

Like Geico I saved $500 dollars or more on this tablet. On the tablet itself, stand and accessories.

This is my first drawing tablet monitor and I wanted something in the mid price point not cheap but then not something way outside my budget. Art school has taught me to draw with my entire arm and not just my wrist. With 22 inches of active screen area I can place my entire forearm and make nice sweeping strokes with my entire arm. Yay! For the last 10 years or so I like the larger tablets compared to the small and medium ones.

The Xp pen has 8042 pressure sensitivity. My large wacom tablet intuos 5 from 2013 still works and has 2042 pressure sensitivity. It still works well but the pens took the majority of the beating. I went through 2 pens and my 3rd pen only 1 button out of 2 functioning.  I getting used to that I can just look at the monitor and draw on it.

XP Pen 22R Pro comes with 20 programable express keys on the tablet and two scroll wheels. One wheel on each side. This device also comes stand included! 2 extra pens, a glove, and all the cables you need.

The screen has a nice matte finish, which was one of the perks that sold this product for me. Also from the reviews I've seen this tablet has the best pen tilt support. I am a pen tilter and tilt my pencil a lot to draw certain lines. I like how the pen build is light and thin, just wish the express keys on it was a tad bit higher.

When deciding which product was right for me, I watched many reviews on youtube like Brad Colbow and Lisa from Mobile Tech Review.

So far there are a few negatives, I haven't got the color correction spot on yet with this monitor. Thankfully I have my main screen where I can see what the true colors are. This monitor is supposed to have a wider color gamut for tablets near its size and price point.

With the reviews I was warned ahead of time that the drivers and getting started can be a pain. It took me awhile to set it up.

Pen doesn't have an eraser. So I use an express key to switch between brush and eraser mode.

On the pen itself I have been spoiled into using one of the short cut keys as the eyedropper tool. I noticed it wasn't being responsible on the pen, but works ok as an express key. I emailed XP Pen about this issue I encountered. I was pleasantly surprised they have been quick to respond to me and attentive to this issue. After a few bouts of dialog they asked me for video logs of this issue, which I provided. I hope they fix this issue quickly. It is nice with small companies sometimes you can ask for certain features and if they can they'll deliver and integrate it into the program.


It is awesome I can use my real tools into my workflow now.
This curved ruler is called a french curve.







For now I have the express key shortcuts the way I like it for the most part.

I hear you can set a specific different setup for each program. I haven't figured out how to do this yet.
Once I have the button customization set completely, I'll make my custom keys available
pc and mac os as a download.


Also some people have put labels on where their keys are to tell them what it is.
I determined where naturally I feel I would press a button. I think maybe since I play games and I can memorize button pattern presses pretty quickly. But if there is any doubt on the bottom of the screen will show in green what you pressed on the express key. If need be the keyboard is on the left to enter shortcuts.

Learned that hitting alt on mac os will mirror a monitor.
Mirroring has to be set for at least 1 screen for the tablet to work.

Drawing on the tablet feels nice and like real painting where you take a brief moment to dip your pen in the color wheel.

I got a drawing tablet so I can draw on the full screen!
I didn't like how my references were hogging half the screen.
I ended up moving my 2nd monitor to the right on a stand in front of the drawing tablet.

So now I have a dedicated monitor again for references and tv.
Also can run Adobe Bridge with no issues.  

I can say I am overall happy with this product.





Then I also got 4 8gb ram modules to get 32gb of ram, so there wouldn't be any more hiccup with workflow. I put off this upgrade for a few years, should've done it sooner was worth it.

Apparently whoever had this computer before me installed 3 different brands of ram in there! It is recommended one buys the same brand for all your rams. Fascinating now the computer doesn't make this computer nibbling noise when I run something intensive. I think with having 3 different rams made that noise!

Out of all the computers I had, this was the most difficult ram removal and insertion that I have ever done. It took me a few hours to get it right. It was like an annoying video game mini game where I had to guess which side (It was the opposite shown on screen to what was on the back of the computer) to install and getting the computer to see it!

I screwed that back panel off and on many times!
For safety waited an extra few minutes after the computer was off so I wouldn't shock myself!

After all that frustration and time it has been worth it!

About 4 years ago or so I made a pact to myself, (which I break sometimes) is not to buy any more sketchbooks. I have so many sketchbooks that it'll take years to fill them all. Also it is hard to keep up which drawings are in which books. Since I had extra time, I've been trying to organize my computer files and scan misc. sketches from different sketchbooks. Its a process and a pain, but it will be worth it.

One of the sketches I came across is something I drew a few months ago when I discovered the poke fusions site. I had tremendous fun drawing these.

Check out the PokeFusion | Here |

This fusion thing only has the original 150 pokemon.
I stoped playing after there was like 250 pokemon, I hear these days there are close to thousand pokemon.





Back then it was so hard to draw pokemon. And I was a little show off with being the best kid that drew pokemon from the magazines and imagination. With years of experience now they are so easy to draw.  When I was a kid I got these books from the scholastic catalog, they rocked my world. Besides drawing from these books I would pause the game and draw the characters and backgrounds.



I remember I had a special little pokemon folder that I made. I drew on the cover this giant pikachu and he had one disproportioned huge ass foot compared to the other. I hope I still have it, it'll be hilarious. But I'm not ready to clean my shed yet.

Here is my effed up #pokefusion



I didn't copy the fusion 100 percent. I took elements I wanted and removed some.
Version 1 is with green eyes. I wanted to make it "kinda" cute and relatable. The black eyes in Version 2 look like a creepy endless abyss. Either way I wouldn't want this pokemon in my party because I'm shallow and cosmetic with having to completely like what my pokemon look like.

With the pokefusion I clicked on the button 100 times to see what results I would get. At first I kept on getting extremely ugly ones and I wanted to at least draw something cute, cool, or have limited messed up ones. But if Hitmontuff jumped me in tall grass I'd be scared. I mean this thing doesn't have a mouth to eat. This is basically a blood thirsty punching jackie chan rip off rabbit thing. So not cute.


This was a quick and fun exercise, I rendered this yesterday and today and it didn't take that long. I'll definitely do more of these.   
















These are the ones I drew.






These are some examples of absurd fusions.

This one is the coolest one I got! This one will be a fun one to draw