Tommy B's Blog

The Keymaster

2012-01-24T20:57:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest painting. This is a tribal Centaur that is finding his way through a bit of a maze.

Christmas Card 2

2011-12-22T20:42:00.000-08:00

I am a little late on this one. I was hoping to have this out mid November! Meh, better late then never, and still in time for Christmas.

Bill Murray!

2011-12-14T09:53:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest caricature, as requested by my good buddy Jamie Riehl. More to come!

Duel!

2011-12-11T20:48:00.000-08:00

Here's my latest Painting. It's a bit of an unfair situation.

Conan!

2011-11-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest work. I think I am going to do a few more caricatures . Any ideas?

.

2011-11-14T19:19:00.001-08:00

Here is my latest painting. I have been It has been a while since I have been able to have the time to do my own work. Felt good and I have missed it! Hope to keep it flowin!

Grand Theatre Work

2011-08-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

This is the latest freelance gig that I worked on this year and by far my biggest yet. I had the pleasure of doing the posters for The Grand Theatre for their 2010-2011 season. I Worked with a company in London called Red Rhino, and had a great experience. I hope to have the opportunity again. The Illustration are done by me and the final graphical work was done by Red Rhino.

Some Character design work

2010-03-29T20:51:00.001-07:00

Presently looking for more work and keeping busy sprucing up the old portfolio.

"Mogie" the Monkey

2010-03-09T22:14:00.000-08:00

Close up for details.

I recently had some bad luck and was in the hospital for an unexpected three week stay. During this time I needed something to work on that would raise my spirits. From the turmoil came "Mogie" the monkey. Possibly the cheeriest painting I have ever done. This one is for the kids. :)

Preservation Hall, New Orleans, Louisiana

2010-01-27T10:29:00.000-08:00

This is my latest commission and definitely my most ambitious so far. I ended up taking this job over the holidays and slowly painted every chance that I got. It is on a pretty large 21/2 ft by 31/2 ft canvas and painted in acrylics. The client, had recently been to New Orleans and visited a pretty cool and authentic jazz hall called Preservation Hall. I was asked to paint the interior of the hall in a little bit of a warped style, similar to my city paintings. This was like a dream job to me (being a fan of jazz and inspired by the New Orleans culture from a previous visit of my own). I had a lot of fun with it.

Sorry for the bad photo. I will be replacing this one with a new one soon and add some close up shots.

True Love Painting

2010-01-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

Happy new year!! Hope everyone had a great Holiday. Here is my latest painting done just before Christmas. It was a commission for a wedding gift and was done with acrylics on 20x28 canvas. Please excuse the crappy photo of the painting. Next time I will use a tripod. Lots more canvas work to come!

Christmas card 1

2009-12-01T07:40:00.001-08:00

This is the Christmas card I made for an art show in London Ontario on the 19th of December. Haven't done a Christmas themed painting since I was a child. It brought back some great memories. I love Christmas and all the magic it holds. I tried to capture that in this painting. These are three elves bringing a choice tree back to Santa's village. They happen to be passing through snowman valley at this point. I chose the tree to have Christmas lights, even though there is no power to the tree. I felt it added more magic to the scene. And in my North pole....... That is how tree's grow. I added some close ups for the details.

2009-11-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

Here is the fifth in my series of warped city paintings. I stuck to the the the same method as the last. Pencil and Photoshop. I needed something to distract me from the cold months to come. I added a close shot for the details.

Canvas2

2009-11-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

This is the second of my recent traditional paintings. Acrylic on canvas 16x20. I'm not sure I like this one as much as the first, but thought it was worth posting.

Street Magic

2009-11-03T21:18:00.000-08:00

I guess I'm still kind of caught up in the dark Halloween colours. Had fun with this character. He is a street magician who has control over the 4 elements. Wish I knew a busker who had those abilities. I added a close shot to show the details.

Crazy City 4

2009-11-02T12:00:00.001-08:00

Here is the fourth in my series of warped City paintings. I handled this one a little differently than last three. No vector , Just Painter and Photoshop.

Portrait Process

2009-11-02T10:41:00.000-08:00

I was recently asked by a few of my friends to show the process I follow for my portraits. I handle my portraits all the same way and that all starts with a line drawing. This is one of the most crucial parts.
In this step, I measure all of the features (ie. six of Morgan's left eye make up the width of the head etc.) drop lines to make sure things line up the way that they should. I also take this time to try to add in any other information that I might need for the painting process. ie cranial structure, the muscles in the face and the most important wrinkles. Keep in mind, I keep this step of the process very analytical, making sure the proportions and features are right. I am not focusing on getting a highly rendered drawing at this point, just a road map for the painting.

The next step, I block in the base colours. I keep the line work on multiply at a very low opacity.

Next, I try to get the proper skin tones and lighting. This usually takes a little time. I follow my "Road map" and start to shape out the wrinkles and muscles in the face as well as the wrinkles and folds in the clothes. I usually try to work the whole painting at once as to not get caught up in one little area. I also kill the line work around now. There is enough information in the painting for me to work with at this point.
This is when I start to add the final details. Getting most of my darkest darks and highlights. I also add a quick block in of the background elements. This is usually done earlier but since this is a pretty simple background, I held off a little longer on this one.
At this point I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's usually little things to do, like blurring out the background and giving Morgan a much more realistic hair line. Touching up on those fine little details.

Finally I add a texture to give the clothes on Morgan's back a little life. And that is it! The process that I follow for my recent portraits. It may not be perfect but I am happy with the results.

Serenity

2009-10-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Finally! My hands have touched sweet canvas again. This is my first acrylic painting on canvas in over a year, and it had been way too long. Don't get me wrong, I love digital. The endless options, cntl-z and all that. There's just something about working with real paint. Mixing the colours, Correcting the mistakes. I will definitely be doing more paintings on canvas over the next little while. Sorry for the shitty pic. I need to figure out how to properly scan the 16x20 canvas so you see the colours a little better. They are a little wahed out right now.

Portrait Of A Son

2009-10-26T21:18:00.001-07:00

This is an early Birthday present for my close friend Chris. We are both huge fans of a little show called "Son's of Anarchy". It reminds me of "The Soprono's" , except the main characters are members of a biker gang instead of the Mafia. More portraits to come.

Baraka 1

2009-10-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

On my recent vacation home to London Ontario, my close friends Chris and Jen, myself and my lady watched an amazing movie called Baraka. If you haven't seen it, you should. This is a Baraka inspired painting.

Morgan Freeman

2009-10-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

"We sat and drank with the sun on our shoulders and felt like free men."

Shawshank Redemption (just like most people) is one of my favorite movies. I re watched it the other day and remembered how much I love the scene where Andy and the fellas are drinking suds on the roof.

Terrence Howard

2009-10-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of Terrence Howard. Loved "Hustle and Flow","Crash", and "Dead Presidents". Overall I am happy with this one and eager to do more portraits. Any suggestions?
More Halloween paintings on the way.

Jr. Cowboy

2009-10-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

After doing a whole bunch of monster paintings, I felt it was time to do something a little more light hearted.

Halloween pt 5

2009-10-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

This is a little scarier than the last. I figured that the blog needed a balance of good and evil. It kind of looks like a Zombie Ape Man, fresh from hell.

Halloween pt 4

2009-10-09T18:07:00.000-07:00

Here is the second painting with my blue cyclops. I also liked the little guys on their own. Not near as much detail, but I liked their attitudes. More to come.

Halloween pt 3

2009-10-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

Here is the third monster in my latest series of Halloween inspired paintings. I like this guy and think I might do a few with him discovering different worlds and species.

Halloween pt 2

2009-10-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

Here is another crazy monster in the spirit of Halloween. I experimented with a lot of different textures for this one. If anyone has any name ideas, I would love to hear them. More to come.

Halloween pt 1

2009-09-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Being that Halloween is just around the corner, I have found myself drawing a lot of monsters. This is some sort of sloth monkey-rat. If anyone has a name for this crazy cross breed, feel free to post it.

2009-09-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

This is a concept for a location that I have been working on. I am planning on doing a few like this on canvas. It's kind of a monastery of sorts. This is just a colour study. The one on canvas will have much more detail.

Mission America

2009-08-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

These are some of the backgrounds that I painted for a video game called "Mission America". It was all about the American revolution. I was taught a little history as I worked on this one. Also had the pleasure of working with Brad Cayford on this project. An amazing artist who was working for Copernicus at the time.

2009-08-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

This is a series of BG's that I have been working on. These are the first three with a few more on the go.

2009-08-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

These are some of the side gigs that I have done in between projects. They are personalized illustrations that people have commissioned me to do. Each one has been done to suit whatever the client wants.

2009-08-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

I decided to paint a few portraits with my recent time off. This is the first, so be kind. Better ones to come.

2009-08-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

One of the more recent paintings that I've done. It kind of ties in with the warped city BG's.

2009-08-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

A few random things that I did a little while back.

2009-08-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

This was a logo idea for a local female roller derby team.

2009-08-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

All images property of PBS

These are some of the BG's that I did for the Emmy nominated kids show "Artopia". Check it out at http://www.thirteen.org/artopia/watch.html

2009-08-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

Some of my latest concept work.

2009-08-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

These are a few things that I did in school. They are pretty old but show some of the training I was given at Max the Mutt

Finally ! My blog is born!

2009-08-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

Hi there, to any one who is visiting,

This is my very first blog and I am not sure what I am supposed to write in this column besides blah blah blah, hello my name is Thomas and I like to do drawings. Well, I guess I will just say a few things about my self and why I have chosen to start a blog.
I am a 26 year old background artist/post production/concept artist/animator presently located in beautiful downtown Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada. I have been employed with Copernicus Studios for the past 3 years and am classically trained by Max the Mutt Animation school located in Toronto, ON.
In the past 3 years I have had the pleasure of having many job titles and trained in several parts of the industry. From animation to post production, background design, and I am currently working as the background supervisor for Copernicus Studios latest project.
I have been beating around the bush to start a blog ever since I entered the industry but never seemed to have the time to get one started. I know that is a horrible excuse and I realize that now, so this is me rectifying my procrastination and finally putting myself out there!
Most of the work that I am presently doing is digital painting but my medium changes with my mood, so you may see a lot of different stuff on my blog. I hope you enjoy what you see and if you are someone looking to have a personal painting done, feel free to contact me by e-mail. I am always looking for new work to do and new ideas to work with.

Thanks,

Tom Bradnam