I'm gonna start things off in this post with a photo, this was one of the first I took with my new camera.

There's nothing like a sunset in my backyard, the sky in Florida at dusk is beautiful. I just love all of the different types of clouds in this shot. It's also kinda neat because the power-lines kinda pull your eye toward the center of the image and down to the sky that's being reflected in the water.

Next we've got this digital landscape painting I did a few months back. I was really inspired by a setting you might find somewhere in the UK, it just looks like a really pretty bay you'd find in a rural area in England. I think painting the foreground was my favorite part, I liked mixing all the different shades of greens, browns, and yellows to give it some texture.

Finally we come to this pen sketch I did in a notebook I have. I was imagining what it might look like exploring a jungle on another planet and this is what came to be. This is something I scanned with the intention of completing in Photoshop, and that's just what I'm going to do. I've decided I won't be updating my blog on Saturday this week to fulfill my self-imposed three post a week rule. Instead I'm going to work on this for the next few days and post the finished result on Monday February third. I have my sights set on this being a piece that will make it into my portfolio, so I'm gonna try to really knock it out of the park on this one. I'll be posting the finished result on Monday!  

Looks like it's time for another blog update! I decided on my day off to go out on a little photo expedition, it was a lot of fun and I got some pretty cool pictures. I'll be updating my Flickr tomorrow with more shots from my outing but I wanted to share this photo here first.

I was out on the Jensen Beach Causeway when this Pelican flew right overhead. Luckily my camera was in hand and I was able to snap this shot. It's kind of funny to see this thing that looks very hefty soar above you with little effort, but I suppose that's all the more reason to be impressed with its ability to fly.

Here's a close up of this guy in flight. It looks ready to scoop a fish right out of the water.

On a similar note, here's a digital painting I did a little while back as a gift to my mom for her birthday.

Kinda felt appropriate to post considering the subject matter of those photos above. Originally I had kept the background of this image blue, without the greenish-yellow color but I really think it adds some nice depth to the image. Makes it a little more realistic. I framed this and gave it to her after she got home from work, she's displaying it proudly on her desk at her job so I'm pretty sure she liked it.

Finally we come to a drawing from my toned gray sketchbook.

I really had a good time working on this piece. It allowed me to use some techniques I had really never tried before. The fins that extend from her forearms are translucent, so I got to draw what was behind them and the shadows and highlights on them. It was kinda hard but the end result was totally worth the effort. I really wanted it to seem as if she was underwater, so that's why there's a lot of movement in her fins and hair. I feel like her expression was a stroke of luck, I almost never finish anything to the point of detailing a face (I'm a serial sketcher). She looks a bit frightened and thoughtful, maybe a little sad too. My other triumph with this image was that I managed to fill up the page, I'm always drawing in the corners of things, making stuff super small, so this was a welcome change.

Well that's all I've got to share tonight. I'm gonna try to update at least three times a week because it seems to keep me working on stuff, not to mention I've gotten some great feedback from people who have been viewing this blog, so thanks for that everybody! I really appreciate it, till next time!

Time for my third blog post, hooray for consistency! I wanted to share with you all a couple of photos I took, and then a digital painting that was inspired by them. High resolution photographs can be found on my Flickr.

This first picture is a gorgeous monarch butterfly that was fluttering from flower to flower drinking nectar. I was really struck by its coloration, I never noticed that their bodies were polka-dotted. The other strange thing about it was how fluffy it looks. Its whole body is covered in this black with white spotted fuzz.

The second picture is another butterfly I found in the lot next to my house, I haven't been able to identify it yet though. The undersides of its wings have three distinct eye-spots on them. When I got close it closed its wings to display them at me, probably as a warning. I tried to keep a respectful distance and managed to get a really great photo. The detail in its wings was spectacular, they almost have a kind of beaded look to them. It was super cool to see.

So after viewing these two awesome insects I came up with this concept that I sketched out on my iPad, then exported to Photoshop, here's the result!

She ended up coming out pretty nifty looking I think. Her "cloak" was very much inspired by the wings of the second butterfly with the coloration of the Monarch. Note the little eye-spots on the front. I wanted her to have a bit of a mysterious sort of expression and I think that shows through. This one didn't take too much time to complete, I was working with some pretty inspiring material after all.

As you may have noticed at the start of this post I provided a link to my Flickr account. I'll be updating that with any high resolution versions of the photos I post on here, and maybe some ones that will be exclusive to that account as well, so check it frequently for new stuff! Thanks for reading, I'll be posting again soon.

Hey everyone! So I was planning to post a few things tomorrow but I figured I might as well share some stuff tonight.

This guy was drawn in this really great Strathmore sketchbook I got. It's the first one I've ever had with toned gray paper. It was nice to draw with the mid-tones already taken care of, that really allowed me to control the highlights as well as the shadows. I'm pretty happy with this sketch, it didn't end up being any larger than the corner of the page, but it's a neat concept I'd definitely like to revisit later.

Now it's time for some digital art. This was painted in Photoshop over the course of a couple of days. I used a photo I took of a local landscape to create the color pallet for this image. I'm always drawing creatures and things like that, so it was kinda nice to test my skills with something like a traditional landscape painting. I wanted the style to be a bit loose, this wasn't something I took too much time planning, but I think the end result's pretty pleasing.

Finally we come to this really cool photo I was able to get of this locust. I was out in the yard just taking some pictures of flowers and as I was walking toward the porch to go back inside I saw this huge thing fly right by me. I turned my camera back on and found it sitting just like this on the fence. Luckily it was nice enough to let me snag this shot before it crept away. I really like how it's sitting between this narrow beam of light coming through the slats of the fence.

I hope you guys liked those, I think they're a nice way to start of this blog. Each a little bit of what I love doing, drawing, digital painting, and taking pictures. I'm sorry for the small quality of the images. I plan on starting a deviantart account along with a flickr so that I'll have a place to display everything at full resolution. That's all for tonight! Thanks for checking these out, there's much more to come!

Hi, my name's Francesco. I'm an artist and amateur photographer. This blog was something I decided to start to help keep myself motivated. I've never really shown my art to anyone but my close friends and it can be difficult to keep working when you're not working towards something. I figure this blog will be exactly that. My goal here is to post art and photos as frequently as I can and to discuss my process in creating those things.

I also want to say a quick thanks to my friends that made this possible, thank you to Kayla for helping me with this post (you're some kinda blog angel). Thanks to Justo for encouraging me to share my art online (go creative people!). Finally, thank you to Lee for being the most supportive guy in the whole world! You're the best and you know it!