Serene Deletion

A project done for my 2D Design course. The assignment was to create an image with a competition between organic and geometric shapes. I wound up making it a personal piece dedicated to my late canary, Aurius. He was a good bird.

Serene Deletion - Chase Restrepo

Media: Photoshop basic and custom brushes
Time taken: 2-3 hours
Made in: September 2011

And I never want to know why

Something I drew for fun. I thought it looked like a poster for a screamo band by the time I was finished, I might print it out and hang it up.

Words are lyrics from a song by Disturbed.

Never Want to Know Why - Chase Restrepo

Media: Photoshop basic brushes

Time taken: 1-2 hours

Made in: December 2011

Equilibrium : 2D Design

Part of my 2D Design final last semester. The assignment was to make a movie poster based on what we learned in class. I used a complimentary colour scheme, graphic value, and implied symmetry. The movie was Equilibrium, my current favourite film.

Equilibrium Poster - Chase Restrepo

Media: Photoshop
Time taken: 3-4 hours
Made in: December 2011

Ritual

Something simple I drew recently to wind down from commission work. I've always loved small point light sources in dark spaces.

Ritual - Chase Restrepo

Media: Photoshop basic brushes

Time taken: approx. 90 minutes

Made in: January 2012

Not Headlights : Commission

Commission for an acquaintance on an art site I am on. Was done for Halloween.

Not Headlights [for Bil E Horse]

Media: Photoshop basic brushes

Time taken: approx. 1 hour

Made in: October 2011

Cool Butt : Story

It's time for a bit of a story, folks.

This past summer (July/August 2011), I took up a baby sitting job. I normally wouldn't, as I do not do very well with kids unless I am painting on their faces, but the kids I would be taking care of were the niece and nephew of a close friend. Plus I needed some money for the coming school year. I accepted, and woke up at 6 AM every morning to ride my bike there, and came back on it at 3:30 - 4 PM every weekday.
The bike ride wasn't very long, three minutes at most, I could have walked if I wanted. The mornings were crisp and pleasant, but the afternoon ride home varied with the weather. This was also the first summer EVER that I was finally graced with the privilege of having an air conditioner in my room.

It was the day after I got it, and it was sweltering. I put on the news and found myself watching about three cumulative hours of heat warnings, the symptoms of heat stroke, how to keep cool, and urging the public to stay hydrated. I nearly passed out myself, even though I applied every single staying cool trick that still allowed me to watch the little monsters buzzing around me. I was happy to go home and get to know my new AC, but there was one last hurdle I had to clear … the ride back home. I figure that walking would only prolong my exposure to the stifling heat despite the fact that the effort would have been less, so I chose the quicker path to cool air and mounted my bike.

I will not summarize the arduous trip in full, as I am sure every human being could predict my choice of words in such a situation. But when I got home, I blasted past everyone at home waiting for me and turned on my AC to maximum power, dropped my pants, found a stool to stand on, and placed my posterior right in front of the vent. My relief was glorious. Glorious enough, in fact, to be comical; and in turn, comical enough to warrant an illustration.

Cool Butt (Featuring Hazel)

Bali Starling

I admire this species of bird a great deal, so I decided to paint one.

Bali Starling - Chase Restrepo

Media: Photoshop basic brushes
Time taken: Approx. 30 minutes
Made in: October 2011

Obstinate : Robot Practice

A painting done to help me get over some artistic technical weaknesses. I do not do well with robot/artificial subjects and strong forms/planes. It's not without it's flaws, but it was still very fun and helpful.

Obstinate - Chase Restrepo

Media: Photoshop custom brushes
Time taken: 3-4 hours
Made in: August 2011

Yearning

Another piece from my AP Art portfolio from when I was a high school senior. This may be my best piece from that entire concentration.

Yearning - Chase Restrepo

Media: Photoshop basic brishes
Time taken: Approx 3 hours
Made in: April/May 2009 with edits made in 2011

Carved Stone : Study

A quick study made in Photoshop at my grandmother's house. Referenced from a photo I took since taking my laptop to the cemetery was out of the question.

Carved Stone - Chase Restrepo

Media: Photoshop basic and textured brushes
Time taken: 1 hour
Made in: June 2011

Cemetery View

A very quick study I did this past summer on my grandmother's front porch.

Cemetery View - Chase Restrepo

Media: Photoshop basic brushes
Time Taken: 1 hour
Made in: June 2011

Background Concept : The Springs

Something that I made by complete accident, but wound up being very proud of.

The Springs by Chase Restrepo

• This isn't how you should work, but I had a foreground that I drew this AROUND, and I rather liked the sketch, so I decided to take it beyond just that.
• I put in the basic colors of each section after I finalized the composition.
• After that, I darkened everything to give it the night time feel I wanted, and worked over that.
• I added in layers of colors with different textured brushes until I got up to the highlights. I was very careful throughout this whole process to keep the many light sources consistent.
• After all the painstaking work of adding on colors by scratch, I added in the actual bright light sources, and the brightest highlights.
• Now I turned my attention to the water, and duplicated all the layers I had thus far, and flipped them over to resemble a reflection, applied a ripple filter, and did several other hours of tweaking and experimenting with it until I got it right.
• I added some color adjustments over the whole thing and was done with.

Media: Photoshop, Photoshop basic and textured brushes
Time Taken: 6 hours approximately
Made in: February 2011

Skulls and Glows

This one is a bit older, made for the concentration of my AP portfolio back in 12th grade. The idea was centered around Skulls.

Brimming by Chase Restrepo

• First I set up what I was actually drawing. I started from observation, but obviously...my light source was a limited one, so I worked from a photo in the last half of completion. This is a real coyote skull with a green 6" glow stick set inside the mouth. Set on a glass top table for reflectiveness.
• Again, I start with a black canvas and start to block in basic shapes in a very dark green, mapping out where the main areas needing my attention would be.
• I gradually go in with brighter and brighter greens, attempting to match the actual colors as closely as possible without using blending modes.
• I add on the final highlights after going through all the values of green. Between the upper/lower teeth, and inside the eye socket are the most lit up areas.
• I go in and fix up some areas that need refining, but I didn't need to do much to this one, this is a very simple piece in ways of color and composition.

Media: Photoshop, basic brushes
Time Taken: About 3 hours
Made in: April 2009

Angler Fish Speed Paint

I try my hand at speed painting every so often, I really ought to do it more. It's a great way of getting your hand and your eye used to getting down basic shapes and colors and ideas really fast, so the picture is more unified with a better and more gestural composition.

This was a really fast one that I clocked in as finished at 55 minutes.

Angler Fish by Chase Restrepo

• This is no particular species, I just used two misc references that had colors I liked, so I picked those out and got to work.
• I made a black canvas to start on. A lot of people prefer to use a midtone rather than the darkest dark right off the bat, that would have worked too.
• I then started laying down a vague shape of the fish in a very light brown, and planned my light source(which is pretty obvious and straight forward in this one)
• I built up to lighter and lighter shades of brown until I got up to a point where I felt comfortable adding the light blue highlights. I highlighted the bioluminescent appendage with a soft brush set to "screen mode" to set how bright I wanted the strongest light to be(this helps me make sure the highlights don't outshine the actual light source)
• After all the lighting was done, I went bak in with smaller brushes and added texture to places like the fin, and around the edges of the fish where it would catch the light rolling off of it.
• The final steps I took were adding some floating detritus in the water around the fish with a really small brush, and I set a texture over the whole thing. Minimal color adjustments were made after that.

Media: Photoshop, basic brushes
Time Taken: 55 minutes
Made in: October 2010

Sleeping Selina

I'll start things off with something I painted a while ago.

Comfort by Chase Restrepo

• First I took a screen shot of my girlfriend all wrapped up in a blanket over a video skype chat.
• The image was extremely pixelated, so I couldn't do much with it save for selecting colors from it. I decided to grid enlarged it to a larger size that I could work with, and added line clarity with my own lines.
• The picture I took was too bright for what I wanted, so I selected my own colors for this, and laid down the basic dark tones that I would paint on top of.
• I built up colors and colors until I got up to the brightest highlight(the highlight on the tip of her nose, I think was the brightest)
• I added in the texture of the blanket with a very small brush, and I topped the whole thing off with some very slight color adjustments.

Media: Photoshop CS5, basic brushes

Time Taken: Not sure, but I think it was about 3+ hours.
Made In: September 2010