Last Man Standing and a mug!


Hey guys and gals! So this illustration is for the "Last Man Standing" competition over at Conceptart.org. 360 artists from amateur to industry pros face off in brackets eventually facing off in a final round with 3 or so artists battling for ultimate artistic supremacy!! Previous winners are heavyweights Jason Chan and Shelly Wan (who are competing this year again). This round's theme was "Underneath it All." Here's some linkage:

Matches 1-24
Matches 25-48 (I'm in match #35, great piece Matt! best of luck)
Matches 49-72


So these are the final inks. Mostly ballpoint, and a little brush, on illustration board. I'd also like to mention that I have the original inks available for purchase. I've never did this before so I am trying to set up a system to put my originals up for purchase. I hope to have a store up in the future. Please email me if interested. Thanks!

This proved to be the hardest time I've ever had coloring a piece. I was all over, having most of the problems maintaining the narrative with so many characters. I was getting all design-ee with arrows and such but ended up ditching them in the end. This image is just a view midway of the image with some of the crazy options I was trying out...haha...it's wild to look at now right? Does everyone digg the final colors or should I have maintained some of the elements in this piece?

....a shot of some of the reference I used. I got my mom, dad, girlfriend (again), dog, and neighbor to pose for this piece. I thought what would Norman (Rockwell) do? And if you try taking pictures of dog have a good camera, not a Cybershot. Blurry pictures for everyone! I ended up having him sit next to me and holding his paws out for the pose...haha

This was the first time I used flatting for my colors. I had seen James Jean and Frank Stockton use it before, so I thought I'd give it a shot. DAAAANG!! is it helpful. Especially for flat graphic colored work, it helps in selection soooo much. No more erasing.

And here is a 3 hr figure painting. I think theres something here that I'd like to pursue in future paintings.
I still need to load up the Revelations photos...next post I promise!
take care,
-francis

16 comments:

Marcos Mateu said...

Very cool work as usual !
all the best in the competition

Tom Scholes said...

I very much hate you dude :)
Such a badass piece, thanks for the step by step.

Unknown said...

Francis.....man...that inked piece....FANTASTIC-licious...damn I love it. The composition..the sick-ass line qiality..the subtle colors....I'm drooling all over....has a bit of Frank Stockton feel to it which I really admire....and you're saying it's all ballpoint?....phew...badass. Very very impressive....your skill is sky rocketing with every post. (and I'm loving the new blog design-is that a blogger templette?)
keep crankin' man
-Tin

LuisNCT said...

waw, the line work is outstanding, and the final coloring looks great, with a bit noise and those vintage colors... the prove than less is more in coloring

Julien alday said...

No Cybershot for animals ! Never ! ;) I second that. But shoot animals is hell of a job.
Hi, Francis,
amazing post. It's always great to read what process is behind illustration. Your is truefully one I enjoyed the most of the entire dome !
Badass.
J.

Pollock said...

Incredible job, like usually ! :-)

Anonymous said...

Great illustration.
Although I prefer the colorful approach you had before. I think if you would have taken out the arrows and used different shades of that pink color(sparingly) it'd look great! I think the pink in the molding leads the eye beautifully. I also like the pink in the man's hair/clothes and the yellow cards.

Love the blog, and look forward to your next update. :)

-Oskar

Cederic Neven said...

That last man standing is just awesome. In general, I love your style, to me it kinda has this "more is less" effect.
Your ballpoint drawings are really a huge source of inspiration to me and my drawing. Don't stop posting!

Avner Geller said...

These are awesome Francis! really inspiring as usual. The limited color palette look really nice and the expression on that guy on the right makes the piece.I love the thumbnail page you attached with all the reference images, it's really interesting to see your process.
Good luck in the competition, and keep on the great job.

Shelly Wan said...

hey Francis~ that's one of my favs in this round!! i love it. :)

sw

Shawn Escott said...

You rock Francis! More goodies coming from you. The portrait is amazing as well!! WOW!

Unknown said...

ILL-SICK.

M said...

Great piece, the LMS contest looks very interesting.

Alina Urusov said...

wow i really admire your work!

Erik Jones said...

DUDE!!!!!!!!!! tromendously incredable

Keith Carter said...

Great stuff. I still don't completely understand how everyone is using "flatting" though. Is it just to contain the selection of each image so you can work within them and not go outside the lines? Anyways, inspiring as always.