An old painting from long ago

Years ago, I painted one of my favorite singers in the world - Kate Bush. This is a totally airbrushed piece on canvas using a Paasche Dual Action VL and waterproof paints for textures. It took me 14 hours to paint from start to finish and I finally had it photographed by my photographer Rick Rhodes. He did a great job! In case you are interested in using a reproduction photographer, you can find Rick at www.RickRhodesPhotography.com.

Concept art study....

Something to do on a Wednesday night. I'm continuously trying to hone my skills on the Cintiq tablet and Photoshop brushes along with "Concept-Speed Painting". Here is something I created for fun in about 40 minutes while studying another concept artist's piece. It's basically a study of their piece created by an artist that I know as "Concept_on_Mac".

Updated Castle of Radja

O.k. After several variations and some good suggestions from my friend Rolf, I think I finally have a piece that I'm proud of. If you look closely at the new piece, you will see that I have destroyed the direct access to the castle and made it more foreboding with ruins and only one "mysterious" light in the belfry. Meanwhile, you can now see the two figures standing ominously next to a dark statue and lighting a torch in response to the light in the castle. A story begins to unfold.

Updated Images

Here is an updated image based on your suggestions which were very helpful! Thank you everyone!

New Castle Painting - Varients

Good evening. I just finished working over the past couple of days to create this new image using Photoshop paint tools and a Wacom Cintiq. I meticulously painted the castle and surrounding using various brushes in Photoshop. This is what I've created so far and I'm having a hard time deciding which one I like better. It would either be the colorful one or the less saturated piece. Let me know what you think if you are reading this blog. I would appreciate it!

New Piece called Tesla's Gate 2011

I wanted to see how hard it was to recreate the "neon LED light look" in Tron Legacy. It so far has been a challenge creating the look in 3D Studio Max 2010 and using Mental Ray Radiosity Renderer. So far, I'm pleased but I will continue to push the envelope with newer textures, light controls etc. I have also built a large amount of city blocks and this one image is just one section so far. Inspired by the look of Syd Mead's designs and the look in Logan's Run which blew me away when I was 9 years old I am returning heavily into my childhood love of creating Sci Fy Cities. I used to draw them all the time when I was young. Hope you like the first one....

Tron in the Superbowl

Just finished watching the Superbowl halftime show and was amused by how much TRON has worked its way into our culture already. I figure within five years the average clothing will have some light strip or something like LED cloth fabric that will change patterns before your eyes. Would be interesting to see.

SteamPunk - Working Hard on 3D gears and animating them....

Now you get a chance to look into the creative 3d process of creating gears and a "workable" system that is really believable. (THAT'S HARD!) I need a Mechanical Engineer to help me figure this stuff out. Never was really great at physics! Just FYI - 3D Studio Max 2010

Work

In the preparation stage, however frustrating since I'm at work and can only think about what I'm going to create later tonight. Oh well, such is life as an artist in our current economy.

The Creative Process....

i) preparation (preparatory work on a problem that focuses the individual's mind on the problem and explores the problem's dimensions),

(ii) incubation (where the problem is internalized into the unconscious mind and nothing appears externally to be happening),

(iii) intimation (the creative person gets a "feeling" that a solution is on its way),

(iv) illumination or insight (where the creative idea bursts forth from its preconscious processing into conscious awareness); and

(v) verification (where the idea is consciously verified, elaborated, and then applied).

generation of creative ideas...the blank canvas...

Just got home from a long day of work in computer animation and am now ready to relax for a couple of hours to recharge and then back to working on my artwork. I'm currently working on new work that incorporates vintage design and machinery fused with science fiction in a style called Steam-punk. For those who have never heard of Steam-punk before, it is a multi-disciplined, broad spectrum genre fusing Science Fiction of what was and what could have been. Classic examples are described in the writings of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. In other words, what would have happened if the Victorian designs and cultural fashion never died and steam technology continued into modern day? We'd have brass iphones with ornate inlay, computers with delicate "mechanical" keys on the keyboard made of brass and chrome. At the same time, I'm trying to create a different look that what is currently prominent in the Steam-punk circles. This should be interesting. So far, it's frustrating. Hoping for a mental brainstorm! Here is one of my new designs under construction created in 3DS Max and Vray.

Gothic Horror - Ghost Castle

I'm a fan of the classic horror films like "Frankenstein" and "Dracula". I always loved the silver halide look of the films and the beautiful cinematography. Here is a digital painting that I created using Photoshop and the Wacom tablet. See anything interesting in the image?
Prints available in various sizes....

Gothic Art - An homage to the Nineteenth Century Realist Painters

"Another City In Ruins" - 48" x 36" Original Oil Painting - $3,200 (available in prints as well)

Here is one of my latest "Dark Ruins" paintings in oil. It is an homage to the great Nineteenth Century Realist Painters like Frederick Church and William Turner. They believed that in that time the world was coming to an end due to industrialization. They feared the loss of innocence and beauty in nature would be replaced with corruption and greed. They weren't far off from their predictions!

This painting that I created called "Another City in Ruins" reflects my feelings about where our society is heading with greed and corruption in our leaders. With bank bailouts and foreclosures run ramped, and the few fat cats up in Washington and in Dubai taking all of our money so that the 1% can control everything, I wonder how they can sleep at night while they sell their souls. However, like the 19th century realists I believe that we can warn our society before it's too late with our paintings, our words and our music. We don't want archeologists to be standing on the ruins of our civilization 1000 years from now wondering what went wrong. It's time to start creating a world of peace and prosperity for everyone and take back the power and money from the corrupt few. I hope one day that this painting may inspire someone to put down their greed and start learning to be generous before it's too late.

Some Digital Paintings I've created in 2009/2010

In case you were wondering what I mean by digital paintings, here are three examples of some previous works I created last year around this time using Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom Tablet. I've been going back to my childhood dreams of drawing Sci Fi cities and scenes and I'm working on more Science Fiction cities and I will upload those when I get some more time. They were really fun to create! They take a while, but they are worth it. I wish I had this technology when I was a child! I created the two cityscapes over a year ago and Lucy was created about 4 months ago. Yes, I know the cityscapes look like Tron. They were inspired by the original 1982 movie and the Miami Skyline. I used to live in Ft. Lauderdale. Needless to say, I was blown away by the new Legacy movie; in fact, humbled at the brilliance of the city designs. I can't believe the movie was not nominated for best Art Direction! Lucy is actually a digital painting of Lucy Westenra, from Brom Stoker's Dracula. The image is of a famous supermodel. Anyone know the name of the model? If you want, you can purchase the cityscapes by contacting me or by visiting this link....

http://jameshillgallery.deviantart.com/

Thank you for reading! God Bless!

My first blog

We'll, Here goes nothing. I spent tonight creating my blog profile sooooo, I hope it will go well. Anyway, I'll try to keep up the blogging and upload new and "exciting" aspects of what I'm creating, working on, experiencing, etc. Should be fun and a good journal exercise. At 44, I'm starting to forget the past a bit, so a blog journal will help to look back on my journey as an artist. To use an OVERUSED line, "what a long, strange trip it's been" - being an artist in the 20th and 21st century.