'Lost', painted on an iPad mini retina with Procreate

Qvik sketch is an app that I am getting some decent mileage out of, as I tend to just experiment with about 8-10 quick thumbnails at a time, then take a look at them later when I have more time to spend on development. the reality is that most of them end up in my trash can on the iPad, but a few have been spun into some interesting drawings. The cyclops is a theme that I have been drawing since probably the early 1990s; one of these days I will track them all down in a series. 

 see video here

Chain of Command

Due to prep for the upcoming baby, my time allotted for painting has been fairly small. But the thought of the potential changes to the pecking order around the house gave way to a slightly darker tone on this quick procedural drawing. I have been focusing more on my color palette over the last few paintings, to really trim it down to just a few colors that will represent the mood. 

After I finished the piece, I remembered that Procreate has a built-in feature to allow you to export the video. I like this much better than the function of some other apps, like SketchbookPro and Sketchclub, where you actively need to 'turn on' the recording, but the quality of the capture is a little lacking...

Digging into Configurator for Photoshop

Coming back to retouching and image editing after a few years putting together components for mobile apps, I find that my approach is just not what it used to be. Though I still want to make the best possible edits, I am sort of obsessed with trying to streamline the process as much as I can- through droplets, actions, scripts, and the interface. I had admittedly forgotten about the handy little tool called Configurator, but am now having quite a bit of fun with it to try to make a more streamlined PS kit for retouching.

My custom icons are still a little rough around the edges here, but I want to take most of the pulldown menu items and put then in the main panel, though just a bit larger than the rest of the standard PS tools. While making icons for Augmented Reality mobile apps in past months, I seldom needed to make more than a few buttons, so this is a great exercise to push myself a little further. 

Update on Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 9:55PM by Matthew Seydel Connors

 

Good Things Come in Small Packages Nomad Contest

The team at Nomad Brush was kind enough to ask me to test-drive their new Mini 2 retractable brush, and make a piece of art for their new themed content. Though the competition is pretty stiff, I think I have a chance at this! If you like my illustration, 'Small Wonder', please vote for me here.

Update on Thursday, January 23, 2014 at 10:33PM by Matthew Seydel Connors

The team at Nomad came to me at the perfect time, when I just needed a kick in the behind to get me out of a rut- mainly due to all of the details involved in my recent move to Washington, D.C- and make some interesting art again. Making 'Small Wonder' was so much fun, that I thought it made sense to document it more fully...

Update on Thursday, March 6, 2014 at 10:23PM by Matthew Seydel Connors

Nomad contacted me a few weeks ago to let me know that I had won the contest, which is really awesome considering the other talented artist who participated. A bitg thank you to Nomad and all of the other artists!

Verge video about Squarespace

Since I am using Squarespace right now, I am biased, but I enjoyed this video interview with the service's founder. The discussion on team building, and knowing what to look for in leaders I found refreshing. We have this idea that successful companies do most things right; but that is usually because they have the ability to improve after they fail.