News

No art posting today. The Conan painting from the last post is going to be scrapped and started anew. I'll finish this one more for practice to get skin tones and fire and background, etc. After the fantabulous criticisms of Donato Giancola and Todd Lockwood, two phenomenal illustrators of the fantasy/sci-fi genre, I've decided to start the subject from scratch and make it 100 times better than this current incarnation. So stay tuned for surprises. Also, this month is dedicated to my relearning of anatomy and to better grasp certain areas that give me a hard time to render (namely hands and feet) and also to strengthen my visual memory so when I embellish my photo reference, it doesn't look forced or lame. Another bit of news... I want to create a portfolio of portraits so I can begin advertising myself as a portrait artist as well as an illustrator. So thats all for now. I don't know how much I'll be posting this month except for a few portraits and a finished painting that hasn't seen the light of day for a loooong time.

Conan progress

Here is Conan in its current, about 65% done phase. I just need to finish his arms, his head, the severed head and some armor detail that'll be added in, as well as the middle ground. I need to figure out that middle ground. His head and helmet won't take very long since its already blocked in pretty nicely. I'm adding a gauntlet to his arms because it looks better than a plain arm. His scars haven't been painted in yet, nor has his necklace, so all in due time. The middleground is what bugs me... rabble rabble rabble

Criticism

I'm open to criticism from anyone even if you hate my work, I honestly don't care what you say as long as there is merit and knowledge behind your dislike. Just don't be an ignorant idiot like this anonymous moron named "The Hand of God" and leave me comments as unenlightening as this critique:

"WOW THIS SHIT BLOWZ ASSSSS, like holy damn son.



...damn this shit sux.


p.s. holy shit this painting blows major aSS"

I wanna insult him/her, but its not worth it :) So bash me all you want so long as you know what you're talking about, otherwise comments like this will just be deleted

teaser

The good part of a painting I'm doing for Primordial Traditions :)

Anatomy for Artists

Anthony Apesos was my painting teacher in my last semester in art school. I fine tuned almost everything I know about oil painting in his class and learned so much more as well. Maybe its because he was my teacher that I held off in buying his book on artistic anatomy titled "Anatomy for Artists: a new approach to discovering, learning, and remembering the body." I've read or skimmed about 20 some odd books on human anatomy. Some blow me away (as do their price tag, yikes) and some i quickly put down. Tony's is a book I always pick up with the intent to buy, but never get to it. So finally after several months of being out and getting great reviews on Amazon and other book markets, I decided to get it. And effing A Cotton, it was worth every penny. I know a good amount of anatomy, names, functions etc etc etc but Tony's book is an incredibly practical and really unique approach to learning human anatomy. Simply put, he asks us, the reader, to point out bones and muscles on our own body and explore their functions so as to fully appreciate their complexity and abilities. As artists this is a gem, an invaluable piece of artistic knowledge that no matter what level of anatomical understanding one has it will open your eyes. So, to everyone who reads this I highly suggest it. Its a great read. And besides, he gives a mean recipe on how to cook a leg of lamb in the first chapter ;)

Conan

So i'm in a Conan binge, reading the original stories that Howard wrote. Conan of Cimmeria is an interesting guy I tell you what. So I decided, as a fantasy artist, to do my first Conan piece. Now bear with me here. This is a very simple, portrait-esque image of him. My goal for painting is to shoot for a Rembrandt warmth and glow, using very earthy colors and impasto strokes and glazing and all that crazy shit (at least for the times) that Mr. Ran Rijn achieved. I think it works well with Conan too. So here is the finished drawing (might add some more details and minutiae in the paint stage). The photo reference was from the stock art of http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/ whose stock is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately right now I do not have the money to hire my own models nor do I know anyone who has the stature and build of Conan. So for the photos used, all credit goes to one Marcus J. Ranum whose site I linked. Without further ado, here's the drawing. A note however, the reddish pink tinge is a byproduct of the scanning process. I have no idea why it does it, but I really don't mind it in this case. That is the first finish, Jamierose however pointed out that his eyes look wonky and I agreed with her (after disagreeing with a million other things :p ) SO I redid his face, rescanned it, and the b/w one i the official finish. I made his scares more prominent and overall I think it just looks better.

Tony DiTerlizzi

For anyone in the NY/NJ are, tomorrow the monstrously talented Tony DiTerlizzi will be present with co-creator and author of the Spiderwick Chronicles Holly Black at Book World in West Caldwell, NJ. They have a new Spiderwick coming out, which should be exciting, and Tony recently came out with another children's book written and illustrated by himself called Kenny and the Dragon which is probably crazy fun to read. Anywho, if anyone in there area cares to go meet them and have them sign your books I think this would be a great chance to do so. I'll probably go there with my kid brother. Just wanted to share the news with fellow budding illustrators and fans of the books.

Smaller Jpeg

Of the lady in the water with magical lines drawing. Also thought I should mention I have made a plan to create 4 new pieces of art by November, in time for Illuxcon.

New Drawing

New drawing. Feels like its missing something. She needs tattoos or jewelry or something. Any ideas?

Rantification #1

Its an interesting debate when someone criticizes another artist's work with zero merit to his claims, and contradicts himself trying to explain his own art. He says Dan has no creativity or imagination since he works solely for commercial purposes, ignorantly say the artist just painted a photograph without even so much as researching the artist in question. This coming from a "professional" who certainly has many year of experience in the illustration world! He even goes so far as to mention several other artists who have revolutionized the visual world with their art and desecrates their names. Anyone can have an opinion, there's no doubt about that. I have many opinions of my own. But when you rant incessantly about a painting, offering no real criticism whatsoever, then i feel that opinion loses all merit. There's an irony in all this as well. The enlightened artist whose critique style i am discussing, has no personal style of his own. Anyone who knows Frank Frazetta knows that his art spawned a whole slew of artists who are merely his clones. Frazetta did something revolutionary in sci-fi and fantasy art and he is on my top three list of favorite artists in any field. Its really easy to copy that style and profit off of it as well as the man's philosophy on art making. So you paint from your head, good for you. Now why don't you paint from your head and not make it look exactly like someone else's work. Take freedoms, just like he says he has. But is copying another's style really freedom?

I may be ranting here myself. But it appalls me that some people, even a self-proclaimed professional artist who has "invented" many more styles of his own, *coughs* have the gall to completely attack someone they don't even know at all, basically calling that artist's work garbage. You can have one style or many styles, but they're only as good as you make them. If its just an imitation then where is your own voice? I've seen his work, most of it thanks to his website and the world wide web. I implore my friends and anyone who happens upon my blog to take a look at:
http://hoffmanmuse.blogspot.com/

Maybe I'm over thinking or over sensitive because I happen to respect Dan, but reading his other entries completely justified everything I just said.

More to the whop

Here is a painting I have been working on for the past week or so. I've trashed my old approach to painting as I've learned from looking at some of my favorite painters that over blending flattens things. So she has 0 blending. The tree is in its final rendered form after two previous renderings that I didn't feel captured the tree I wanted to paint. So...feedback is welcome.

Whopper

So its been a few weeks since i posted anything on here. Don't know who has been keeping up, but doubtless you have been upset by the lack of work posted. If you read in the last post, I said I have begun drawing in a new technique, I guess you can call it. I don't know why this particular approach has drawn me but it allows me to stay realistic but not be so confined by the minutiae and the details that I normally work with. I thank an artist I happened upon while blog searching, Rich Pellegrino, for the spark of inspiration that led me to this and encourage anyone to look him up. All told, these drawings didn't take me more than an hour and a half to complete depending on the level of finish. Some only took me 10 minutes and they look better than a 10 minute drawing I used to do only a month ago. So enjoy. I'll post some drawings for a clearer before and after effect. The first three drawings probably took me like 20 minutes to do and I didn't get very far. They're nice. I don't like bashing my drawings since I love my drawings. But I just think the next few are more exciting to look at, and for those who know me its a far cry more interesting and less technical. I took the advice that a teacher gave me...well not advice. He just told me I use too many lines when I draw. So I "capitalized" on that, as Scott Fischer would say and this happened. Its also mixed with elements of my normal sketching style, when I don't use any reference at all. All of these were done with either a live model or photographs. I'll go in the order in which they were completed...

No art today...

But i've been drawing like a madman these past three days. I got bored of the way i draw. To those of you, if anyone other than my friends even read this, who don't know my style I tend to be very technical. And I've found that it just hasn't been fun to draw that way anymore. Its tedious and boring and monotonous and yea I do it very well, but I kind of want to get away from it. So I started scribbling. Quite literally as well. I still keep to realism, but drawing this loose and haphazardly really makes drawing exciting again. Its the boost I needed to get out of my art funk. When I figure things out with my scanner I'll make a massive post of all my drawings. I've been doing 2-3 a day. Can't wait to show it off.

MOM

2 hour portrait study of my mom last night. If you saw the previous posting of this it was blurry...this one is not. enjoy, leave comments.

2 hours last night and finished portrait

I painted some more heads last night. I started and finished one of my friend Sara Tobias in an hour and a half and the next head of my buddy Jordan Maltais I worked on for half hour. Also heres the finished portrait of Jamierose. Enjoy

2 1/2 hour painting continues...5 hours extra

2 1/2 hour painting

Haven't posted in a while. In lieu of the recent Illustration Master Class I partook, the biggest crit I received was that I need to practice painting heads. Boris stressed this above all. So...to listen to the man responsible for making me change majors to just illustration, I started a painting of my lovely girlfriend Jamierose. In 2 1/2 hours I got here, to this point. Those of you who know me...2 1/2 hours and this much done is kind of unheard of. I know you'll be proud. I want to finish it tomorrow as well as start a new one, and try to keep this trend at one of these a day. So give me any feedback you have. Cheers!

Tyr

New drawing for Ancestral Folkways Magazine. This is the Norse god Tyr. Finished it today...waiting for the moneys. Woohooo

HUZZAH

I'm proud to announce that the first incarnation of tejeraillustration.com is now up and running and ready to be viewed by all. I'm going to be doing lots of editing to make it more exciting and a bit faster. So stay tuned everyone.

Finished Drawing

This is the finished Grandpa Wizard 2 drawing. I'm starting the painting process with an acrylic underpainting for fast drying action, then over laying oils for the finishing touch. Plus finished oils just look prettier :P

New stuff

Although none of this is really "new" per se, its new on blogger and my blogger audience. So I hope you all enjoy this. I'm including a better, color corrected version of my midnight ambush piece as well. So...enjoy everyone. Cheers!

Galaxy Dude has a name

This is in regards to the galaxy dude post where I had no idea what to name it. And after discussing with my buddy Joe Baron, decided on "And on the first day..." Huzzah!

The Bounty

Another portfolio piece, courtesy of yours truly. I had my good friend Sara pose for me and after many failed thumbnails, this one came to fruition. I think it paid off, no? The colors are much truer to how I painted it than what I showed in a previous post. God bless John Dolan and photoshop.

Galaxy dude...

I need a title for this work of art. I don't know what to call it right now. Theres so many possibilities. If anyone has any suggestions, or a starting point for me, that would be grand. In the mean time, here is the image. Enjoy :) Cheers!

OH!

And by the way...come next thursday, May 1st, to the senior fine arts BFA exhibit at the Porter Gallery in Cambridge. It'll have awesome work by three very talented artists, including my lovely girlfriend Jamierose. It should be a sweet show.

Sketchery

Howdy all. These are some creature sketches I've done at random points throughout the semester. The origins behind each is equally entertaining, but I need to get to work asap and finish up a painting. So their back stories will be minimal.




this is my first guy. He's based on an Axolotl which is a type of salamander in Mexico. Look it up.



A neat bug...nuff said.




And this last one is based on a painting by my girlfriend. The skull is actually an abstract shape she made and I pointed out that it looks like a skull. So I took the liberty of making a creature out of it. I'll put that painting in a post and a more finished sketch of the creature when she finishes it. Until then, enjoy and have a good evening. Cheers!

Teasers

This is it folks! These three paintings I'm about to show you are the last three big paintings I have to finish for my portfolio to graduate art school. Its scary. But this week is going to be spent entirely on completing these paintings so I can make pretty prints to put into my pretty portfolio. So without further wait, I present my final three biggies.

1. Grandpa Wizard


This painting is a result of being asked if I could do anything else. I've come to be known as the fantasy guy in my class I guess, and since we've had mostly assignments all throughout art school, and not a lot of freedom to do what we want, I finally do what it is I want to get out of me and its fantasy. But mostly half naked guys and women to show off that I can do good anatomy. However, after probably only 3 pieces done that way, it became unfavorable. So Grandpa Wizard came as a result of my love for fantasy and the need to prove people wrong :) Its a different type of fantasy, but retains the element of fancy which makes it such a fun genre. Everyone loves it. So in the end that little push paid off big. This painting is almost finished. Also, this painting is a culmination of a lot of the short cuts and techniques I discovered in the previous painting I posted on the mountainside. Woodgrain is incredibly easy to paint quickly, and with more refinement and practice I'm pretty sure I'll have it down to a science and make it more believable.

2. Untitled as of yet


This painting I started last night...well actually I drew it last year. But I know how to paint now, so its come out of the vault of crap art I made last year and I'm making it into a portfolio piece. This one should progress quickly. FYI...the image quality is not the greatest on these pictures, so bear with me until I get the heavy duty D40 from school. Also my portfolio is going to be fully realized by saturday so I'll definitely post some goodies here.

3. As above, untitled until further notice




Moreso than the other two, the color is completely off here. Its in a cool temperature, swamp setting, not that obscene color. This painting, more than the others again, made me realize that painting small sucks. Probably because I still haven't fully grasped painting and technique, but rendering a head thats no more than an inch tall really is a daunting task and I commend the modern masters who pull it off well. But all in all I love this painting down to the mini palettes I have on the taped border.

Hope you all enjoy this. My next entry I might introduce some of the quickie techniques I've developed to zoom through rendering. Maybe my wood grain or hair. Stay tuned. Cheers!

Battle scene painting

So this is my first good art entry in my new blog. This was my big breakthrough painting of this semester. This pretty much just shows my regular process of art making from sketch to finished drawing to final painting. The finished piece consists of an 18x24 inch copy of the original mounted on masonite and painted in oils. I tried, for the first time, to not render everything. So the dude in the back falling is blurry, showing motion and also that he isn't a major center of interest. I'll be posting more bits of randomness later on, if not, definitely tomorrow. Cheers!

Oy!

Hello all. I've been sucked into the internet vortex phenomena known as blogging. Right now I have no idea what I am doing, but to baptize the blog I'm writing this. Later on, as I figure out this stuff, I'll post art, photos, and other bits of random awesomeness that happens to be around me. Until then, cheers and all the best.

Julian "El Cubano" Tejera