C.A.T.M.16

Ok, so I know what you're probably thinking – "Sam! Where have you been?!". I'm sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while, but I have a reasonable excuse: I could not afford to miss a single episode from the final season of House MD.
Again, I know what you're thinking – "Sam? Wasn't the final episode so heart warmingly AWESOME!!". YES I agree! I've loved that show for 8 solid seasons, and I'm actually pleased with the way it ended. Bravo House, I'll miss you very much *single tear*.
Ahem...
Let's get to some art shall we!

Rough sketch. All good ideas gotta start somewhere.

So this project is currently occupying my desk. It's a personal piece so I'm taking my time with it. I knew from the beginning I wanted a huge poster (about 24"x18"), so that means I need lots, and lots, and LOTS of fish to blanket enough of the composition.

Look at all the fishies!

At first it was great! I was like "Wow! Just look at all those fish! This is gonna be soo EPIC!" But as the hours turned into days, my need for absolute perfection soon became poison in my veins, and my attitude started to changed... (wow, I should write poetry!)

Sigh, just look at all those fishies...  -_-'

And then, there it was, the light at the end of the tunnel!

THE FISH ARE DONE! And I could finally move on to the main attraction :)

All jokes aside, I could not be happier with the way the fish turned out, and I'm glad I took the time to perfect them. Scanning was another issue, but I won't get into that. My domestic disputes with my scanner should not be publicized ;)

Onto the main course: The Black Keys! Yes I'm nothing more than a fan girl, looking for an excuse to draw her favorite band, but who cares! Besides, I've been wanting to redo my first Black Keys fan art.

Here's a quick look at the final line work for the boys.

It's been a while since I've used pencil as the final medium for my line work. Feels refreshing no? Once I've finished this piece I'm hoping to run a few limited edition prints and put them up for sale on my print shop, but we'll see if my laptop survives the process :)

Sketchbook time! At the end of my last post I mentioned a side project I'm working on over the summer of portraits of black women. Here are a few I've started (don't worry, there will be more colour happening your way soon!).

I'm excited to get these coloured too! I might even paint a few of them with ACTUAL PAINT (no digital), but we'll see how long I last without the undo button, haha! 

Well that's a wrap for this week. It's all up to me and my little MacBook now to get through all these projects! Pray for us :)

Cheers!

C.A.T.M.15 | Process Edition

Hey everyone, and welcome to a special edition of Case A The Mondays!

As a slight change of pace I would like to share a more in depth look at my work process. I'm often asked what my process is like, so I thought now would be a good opportunity to share my not-so-secret-secrets with you. If you are unfamiliar with my blog or you're a new fan of my work, then you might think my work is 100% rendered digitally. If this is the case then I have successfully fooled you! To be honest, I'm a traditionalist at heart. Before I even consider launching Photoshop and/or Illustrator I'm getting down and dirty with my inks and brushes. Although I consider myself a "digital illustrator" because my finish medium is digital, I choose to beginning every piece with traditional media because I'm in love with the idea of blurring the lines between digital and analogue techniques. There are certain techniques and characteristics that are difficult (but not impossible) to mimic digitally, and vice versa. In this post I'll be discussing a few of my rituals using my latest piece CatTube as my example. Let's begin!

Step 1: inky inks! How do you like the GIF slideshow?

There is a certain quality about Indian ink I love in my own work, and as you'll see a little later, the thickness of the ink really allows me to distort/destroy those perfect edges. Also while I paint I try to think ahead to how many different layers I'll need to assemble in Photoshop, so I paint on several sheets of paper to save time on separating the layers later (which can be a real life saver if your teeny-tiny MacBook is on the brink of combustion when just checking your email, hahaha, sigh).

Next is my favorite chapter in my process: distressing my ink drawings. This is where I get to have some real messy fun, and create those typical Sam Singh splatters and scratched, or "happy accidents" as I like to call them.

Step 2: FUN TIME!

Everything from scratches, drips, creases, and textures are created by hand then scanned and touched up as I work in Photoshop. I also download free high quality brushes and plugins from the internet. To be honest, I sometimes stay away from downloadable brushes because it's so easy to get caught up with the pretty, glowing, swirly, cheesy, lens flaring, three dimensional plugins. Don't get me wrong, those plugins and brushes have their place (just not in my work, hahaha). Here are 3 really great links I usually turn to first for free downloads:

CG Textures

This is an amazing website with thousands of downloadable high res textures. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent just browsing through all that good stuff in each gallery. You can make really great custom brushes from textures too :)

Brush King

Lots of great quality brushes can be found here. I'm a little more attracted to the grungy stuff, but there's a little something for every taste here!

BittBox

Love this blog! BittBox offers a wide selection of textures and brushes, and most of it is FREE! Definitely worth checking out.

Finally we've arrived at the final phase. Here's where it all comes together. Although I stress how vital it is for me to begin each piece traditionally, I spend just as much time in Photoshop as I do painting, sometimes more. 

Step 3: put it all together. Look at that colour fly!

Most of my efforts are spent messing around with colour and tone. Sometimes if I'm really struggling with colour combinations, I make a black and white copy of my file then push and pull the tones until there's enough variation. The biggest luxury to working digitally is the freedom to experiment with colour and composition so rapidly.

 

As you can see, I went through a few variations before I redrew the hands seen in the final. Side note: I really like drawing hands! I also left out the construction of the laptop because I built it in Illustrator a while back for another project, but changed the perspective for CatTube. Recycling feels good :D

Well I guess that covers everything. Thanks for making it to the end! I hope you found this post useful, or at least enjoyed the GIFs :) I really enjoy sharing stuff like this, and hopefully for my next post I'll have some new stuff to show. My current project is still under works so I can't reveal much to you, but it's a series of portraits of famous Black women. Why am I doing this you might ask? No particular reason. Just for fun is a good enough reason right? I'm hoping to add a new portrait section to my website once the series is over, so we'll see how that goes :) 

Cheers,

Sam

CatTube

Here she is, her royal holiness, CatTube.

http://www.samsinghillustration.com/

We wrapped up our Menagerie show last Friday, so I thought it's about time to post my work. The show was received very well, and I'm glad everyone enjoyed the work and showed some love to local Toronto artists. If you would like to see some of the process work, you can check it out here or visit my Facebook page, and check out my last post for a couple shots from opening night. Thanks again to Steam Whistle for being an awesome host. Same time same place next year right?

Cheers.

Menagerie Opening Night

Opening night for our Menagerie show at Steam Whistle was a big hit! Check out the super sweet posters for the show. Chelsea Canlas and Kate Thorney you rock my socks :)

The show was received very well, and the gallery was packed. Here are a few photos from opening night:

Aww there's me in front of my piece! We kinda match in colours don't you think :)

And there she is, her royal holiness, CatTube! I'll post the original soon :)

Yay friends!

What a super night that was, and everyone seemed to really enjoy the work. The show is up until February 28th, so take a trip down to Steam Whistle Brewery, grab a beer, and support your local Toronto artists! 

Finally I would like to say a big thank you to Steam Whistle for including us in their 2012 program. It was a real honor and privilege to showcase our work in your beautiful space (and to sample your beer, hahaha!) Thanks again. Cheers :)  

C.A.T.M.14 Happy 2012!!

Welcome to the first Case A The Mondays post of 2012!!

2011 was a pretty awesome year: I had my first two interviews, blog features, art shows, and I did some pretty good art work too (if I don't say so myself, hehe). So lets keep the good luck going by introducing my first new art piece of 2012:

Rough sketch. I wonder what my foul mind is up to now...

This is a concept sketch for an art show I will be apart of in February (deets later). The show's title is Menagerie: A Series of Anthropomorphic Illustrations. As you can guess from the title, there will be a heavy emphasis on animals in this show. I am very much looking forward to seeing where my mind can take me because I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I don't draw a lot of animals. Which is a good thing because I do love a good challenge :D So far what I've come up with here is an illustration on viral cat videos on the internet (you know which ones I'm talking about)! If you pay attention to each video and how many views each video has accumulated, you'll understand why thousands of people worshiping a cat on a computer screen is appropriate here. And I will admit I do love me a few funny cat videos once in a while :P

To clearly get the message across, I'm gonna need a lot of kneeling people. Here's a few I've already started:

I'm already very excited about this piece, and I can't wait to share the rest of it with you! Wish me luck :)

Well you know the routine by now, so let's get to some sketchbook goodies!

Commuters, my favorite :)

There are two major things that kept me occupied last year: Young Justice (I heart Robin!) and Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (I heart Link!).

I posted this on my Facebook Page last night. I never knew how much fun drawing a face in the crease of your sketchbook could be :) 

And that's it for now folks! I'll post more information about the show as soon as it becomes available to me. In the meantime you may Like my Facebook Page to stay up to date on any Sam Singh news. Happy New Year!

C.A.T.M.13

Summer 2011 is over and Fall is upon us! And that means it's time to update the blog (yipee!!). Believe it or not, I have been keeping myself creative over the summer while having fun in the sun :)

I started a new portrait today!

Production seems to be going well. Lots of heads so far and still LOTS more work to do :)

This will soon be a portrait of a Brit band I've come to like called The Cribs. I had this concept sitting in my sketchbook for a very long time and I could never find the right opportunity to bring it to life. Now that summer is out of the way, I guess now is good time to get started! I'm really excited about this project because I hope to include it in a series of portraits for my next promotion (deets later).

Next are two projects I started during the summer:

I choose you PIKACHU? I mean PACMAN?!

This is a really fun project I can't wait to finish! I've been meaning to give my online shop a major facelift for a while now, so I've got a line up of fun new prints to be made available soon, so stay tuned!

The Black Mamba not looking so hot eh?

In case you haven't figured it out by now, this is Kobe Bryant (haha, I still can't look at this without laughing). You've probably forgotten about this news, but during the last NBA playoffs Mr. Bryant was put on the spot for his "potty mouth". It's a little unclear from the sketch, but the big empty space in his face is reserved for a bar of soap. I've had this sketch sitting on my desk, ready to be inked, for a while and I promise to get this finished in time for my promotion ;)

By now you're probably thinking, "gosh Sam, you've been slacking all summer". Hopefully these selected pages from my summer sketchbook will change your mind :)

Gotta squeeze in a few commuters on my way to work!

During my adventures this summer I did have to make a quick stop to the doctors office (good thing I had my sketchbook with me, hehe). It's all fun and games until you get attacked by Hay Fever... 

Hi new sketchbook! 

Fun with ink blots <3

That about wraps up this weeks Case A The Mondays. Next time I'll have some finished work for you (pinky swear) Toodles!