I never even noticed Tom Hanks had such neck rolls until I started this portrait. I considered idealizing him for .2 seconds to make it a bit more flattering but a) he doesn’t look as much like him without them and b) they’re crazy fun to draw.

Revisiting a portrait I started a couple of months back:

Some earlier progress on a portrait I’ve been working on for the last few days.

Work in progress…

I wanted to try out using an iPad as the initial portion of my workflow for when I’m not in my studio and then use it as a jumping off point for when I was ready to flesh it out on the desktop. So, while out and about, I doodled this spacerhino/hyena-esque creature in the iPad app, “Paper” by FiftyThree Studios (which, as I mentioned last week, is the first iPad drawing app I enjoy).

The iPad’s hardware capabilities/accuracy are a limiting factor but they prove good enough for a concept sketch to get rough ideas out which I can take home and begin to bring to life. While I wouldn’t use an iPad to sketch things out when I have access to my studio, it provides me a great place to begin to form initial ideas on the go to revisit later.

I will be hugely impressed if anyone knows who this drawing is at this very early state. I have some anatomical revisions to do and her features are nuanced enough that they will be hard to pinpoint until fully rendered… but should anyone be able to actually guess the actress, I will serenade your inbox with kind words.

EDIT: It has been guessed and appropriately serenaded (with rhymes even) I have way too many in-progress paintings at various stages, but soon I’ll be able to start rolling them out as they each near completion.

“Terra” - in progress - by Sam Spratt

Moving forward with Terra (See early sketch here). I resolved a few anatomy issues and decided to go for more deer-like, large eyes. I took my sweet time on the eyes and lips as they will serve as focal points (along with the hands eventually), allowing me to use loose, spontaneous brushwork for some of the larger areas of skin and especially the cloth—letting the less important visual information be more suggested and less rendered for a painterly look.

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“Terra” - in progress - by Sam Spratt

What (in my head) will eventually be an incredibly classical painting, I am approaching the early stages in a traditional fashion. Here’s some very very early progress at the sketch stage.

“House MD (2010)” - Portrait Painting by Sam Spratt

This is a much older rough piece I realized I never shared on here so I thought I would drop it here for you all. I used to be much more into caricature and leaving my line work around.

Some very early progress on a future piece.

“Reddit Alien Process” - by Sam Spratt

This is the process for creating my version of Reddit’s alien logo which I view much more as a robot aesthetically. For the full piece of them on an assembly line to their downvoted doom, check it out HERE

The process is pretty straight forward. I started out with super basic vector shapes, added in harsh shadows, started painting in some base texture and color variation, laid down sub-surface reflective color, put surface level reflective color, surface level texture, then final details. 

If you like this illustration, do follow me on tumblr (I follow back almost every person that follows me), or for the latest, I run a mean facebook artist’s page and a musing-filled twitter. 

I’m in the process of revisiting an “old friend”. My Remember Reach piece was one of my early career favorites and helped me land the Game Informer covers gig. Looking back, it lacks depth, detail, polish, and all around sexiness. My inability to accept such shittiness in my portfolio drove me to begin the reconstruction process.

If unfamiliar with the original, see here: Kotaku

“Rage Guy (fffuuuu), Evolved” - Process By Sam Spratt

This is the progression for this: http://samspratt.tumblr.com/post/6458436333/rage-guy-fffuuuu-evolved-by-sam-spratt-i

I submitted to peer pressure and made the “real” fffuuu guy much like I did with my other rage meme face. 

If you like this illustration, do follow me on tumblr (I follow back almost every person that follows me for the sake of not missing out on potential inspiration), or for the latest, I run a mean facebook artist’s page and a musing-filled twitter.