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!

Ellie's Rescue painted on an iPad using Procreate

Glaze is allowing me to experiment directly with extruded paint effects, though the effect 

is a bit on the heavy side

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mseydelconnors/9471199155/

'Pitstop' made with Sketch Time App on an iPad

While doing a search for Sketch apps the other day, I stumbled onto this app called Sketch Time, http://sketchtimeapp.com/ which turns out to be fairly brilliant in how much it's boiled down sketching to a small but powerful toolset. The app is very fast using your finger (I have not tried with a stylus or brush yet) and the UI allows for fast navigation through various pen or marker sizes...though in my opinion, it favors those who have used real-world markers for a long time, or been trained to use thes in art or design school. There are no controls for the opacity on the markers, but the bleed on the markers is fairly realistic.  The app also allows playback, though I cannot see how to export these files. I made my own cheat with AirServer and a screen recording app on my PowerBook.

The Jester made with 123dCreature on an iPad

Hats off to Autodesk for a really amazing piece of software, 123dCreature, which is a 3d sculpting and painting tool that runs on the iPad. While the way it handles 'bones' takes a little getting used to, for the pricetag of $8 they'll get no complaints from me. It runs very smoothly on my iPad3, though I have noticed that it causes the device to run a bit hot, and drains the battery quickly. 

The 3d viewer on the 123d site is a nice touch as well, allowing you to show off a 3d model on your own site or elsewhere. The image at the bottom is a composite of the render, and some additional painting done in Procreate, as I wanted to keep it on the iPad. I wasn't 100% happy with the hands on the creature, and adding wings made it look a bit topheavy...all in all, I enjoyed making the model this way, and I am pleased with the end result. 

http://www.123dapp.com/creature

Sunder painted with Sketchbook Pro on an iPad

Been a while since I painted on my iPad with Sketchbook Pro, as I have been using a few other Apps like SketchClub and Procreate. As much as I like these other Apps, SBPro is the one that I have the most comfort and confidence in, and the similarity to the Mac DT version keeps my workflow in line.