Isaac Orloff Illustration

Quick color sketch

2012-01-28T01:09:00.003-05:00

When I was in LA for CTN, I rented a car and drove around to shoot some reference material for some color studies. Haven't gotten around to actually using any of that material until tonight! Just a quick little photoshop sketch, enjoy!

BIGGEST PIECE EVER

2012-01-12T00:15:00.003-05:00

Hello Bloggers everywhere!

Happy 2012! My apologies for going so long without posting but I guarantee you I had good reason. My last post, I wrote a bit about how to stay interested in working on a piece that takes multiple sittings to complete. Little did I know that I would soon thereafter be tasked with the largest, most time consuming piece of artwork I have ever worked on. This piece is a mural design for STUDIO Y in Canada. Based on a sketch from the wonderful Kim Smith ( http://twsketch.blogspot.com/ ) This piece took me over 300 hours to render! Working on this in addition to working full time at a studio has been a wildly ambitious and difficult undertaking. The final render of this piece is, believe it or not 100 feet by 8 ft, and it was painted ACTUAL SIZE in photoshop.

I hope to soon be posting more frequently, I appreciate all you bloggers sticking around!

Artwork copywrite STUDIO Y

"Hoodlums!" And something I learned along the way

2011-10-08T22:58:00.003-04:00

Theres many different instructional videos out there about process, technique, color and design. Something that I have never really experienced is people giving lessons on developing an actual workflow. Working full time as an artist, making time for personal work on top of drawing for 9 hours day becomes an overwhelming challenge. In order to complete a piece as detailed as this, it required me to come back to my computer night after night, working for just a couple hours at a time until it is finished. As many of you know, finishing pieces that take this many sittings is one of the hardest things to do. Here are a couple tips that I learned about my own personal workflow which may help some of you somewhere along the line.

1. UNDERSTANDING THE LIFECYCLE OF THE PIECE

Every piece of art has at least one false summit. Reaching these summits and pushing forward to the next stage is a crucial part of finishing a complex piece. Most pieces start as a sketch, some might say the most fun part of the piece. Once the sketch is complete, we have our first "false summit" en route to a fully rendered piece. It is very easy to stop work once we have a complete sketch. The product looks good, it portrays the information we wanted to get across, what else is needed? For some this is an OK stopping point. Every once in awhile we need to bring that sketch even more to life with color and rendering. This is where things get tricky.
After completing the sketch the next step is an under painting. Under painting is messy, rough, and undefined. The energetic finished look of the sketch almost always disappears under the underpainting, leaving us with somewhat of a mess that needs to be tidied up. This is the MOST crucial stage of the piece. In my own personal experience, every time I have stopped work on a piece during the stage of underpainting I have never returned to finish it.

Why is this?

The fun part of sketching is that we get satisfaction from seeing our ideas come to life quickly and easily. Starting a new sketch is far less daunting then starting out your drawing session rendering from a clutter of color and shape. When I have worked for 9 hours and I only have 2 hours to draw before bed, would I rather start a new sketch or hack away at something which I probably wont see anything exciting for a couple more days? I sketch, every time.

How to counteract this?

Never stop work with a mess, leave yourself with a visual puzzle to think about, something that looks good and sparks your interest. Never step away from the piece when it is in disrepair or else restarting will be way more difficult.

2. SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS/ MAKE IT FUN!
Set yourself up for success! Something I learned when I worked in the service industry. When getting ready to stop work for the evening, I am always sure to leave myself with something exciting to start out with for my next sitting. This eliminates the issue of needing to wait a couple hours to get an exciting return on your hard work. For example, when working on this piece, My stopping points were just before completion of each individual building. By leaving a small portion of rendering left on a building, it allowed me to start of my next drawing session with a large reward for a small amount of work, inspiring and motivating me quickly. I found that this elevated my level of productivity and accelerated my work speed every night.

By treating the piece as a serious of individual hurdles instead of a massive undertaking, the piece stays fun and exciting no matter how long it takes to complete.

Stopping Point

Completion
Hopefully this is helpful, thank you for stopping by my blog!

New Piece!

2011-09-26T23:31:00.002-04:00

Hey everybody!

Wow! In the time I have been away theres been so much traffic on my blog! Thank you to all of my new followers, I am so honored there is over 200 of you now, I felt it necessary to sit down and work on a real piece for a change and not just a sketch. So here it is, something I have been working on in my spare time for the last couple weeks. enjoy!

Conan the Barbarian Sketch

2011-09-13T00:11:00.001-04:00

Im still here..and im 3d baby!

2011-08-02T00:13:00.003-04:00

Please excuse my long absences...lots of stuff going on at work etc. I have also been learning 3ds MAX..its an amazing program and I am picking it up much faster than I expected. Here is a first look at my first 3d project...I am hoping to get those made into actual toys so I can make a little city on my desk. On another note, i just booked my trip to CTN...some coworkers from ZYNGA and I will be going down there and do some studio visits a long the way. Stay tuned for my updates!

Thumbnail of the day

2011-07-08T22:19:00.000-04:00

No rocks... Very loose

Todays Thumbnail Sketch

2011-07-07T21:51:00.002-04:00

I have got to stop drawing rocks....seriously.

Believe it or not...I am still alive.

2011-07-06T23:56:00.002-04:00

Much thanks to all of my followers who have not dropped me for going dormant for months at a time. Im totally that guy that loses track of his blog when he gets busy. Here is a quick sketch I did this evening. I have started several very labor intensive environments with the intent of having a "wow" piece to post on here. However I can't even seem to finish anything. So here is something a bit more manageable. I think I'm going to try and do one of these every morning as a warm up sketch at work, that way I have something that I can share with everyone.

In other news, Is everyone going to CTN this year? The time is fast approaching, I was planning on exhibiting but I haven't had nearly enough time to do anything outside of work. Which has been very exciting lately, unfortunately I cant share anything I have been working on anymore...but it will be worth the wait. Thanks again for stickin' with me!

Draw!

2011-04-26T00:06:00.002-04:00

This sketch is for our group blog, this weeks topic is Old West!

http://ten-paces.blogspot.com/ Check it out!

Plein Air Study

2011-04-14T20:41:00.002-04:00

I managed to fit in a quick painting on my way home from the studio today. It was a race against the sun! I managed to finish up just before the sun disappeared, then I realized I had to go to the bathroom horribly bad, being in the middle of nowhere but farmhouses I was forced to run up to the closest house and ask to use the facilities. Interestingly enough they informed me across the street was the home of Joseph Meyerhoff, the owner of the largest collection of american art in the world! Also the major funder of my college, and art galleries around the world. So that was pretty cool, really looking forward to doing more of these now that the weather is getting nice. Also, I want to start using them as reference for some more creative imaginative pieces.

Collaboration!

2011-04-12T22:41:00.005-04:00

Heres a fun piece that I collaborated with my good friend Alyssa Nassner. We have been wanting to work together on something for a long time. She recently started a pretty cool new blog where artists will trade sketches every week, painting another participating artists sketch. Alyssa did this sketch, and i did the coloring...maybe soon the tables will be turned!

Check out Alyssas work here.. http://smalltalkstudio.net

The group Blog is located here... http://ten-paces.blogspot.com/

Stop by and please follow both of those awesome blogs!

The weather is getting warmer!

2011-04-09T17:32:00.002-04:00

Finally the weather is getting warm enough to go outside and play again. Todayi went for a nice hike with one of my dogs and she was kind enough to wait patiently while I banged out this little number. Unfortunately there was no sunlight today, all clouds and cold...a little rusty but looking forward to getting back in the swing of things. One of my little studies made it into the upcoming creative quarterly in the fine art category! Imagine that!

Also, stay tuned I am working on some T shirt design's for the Chicago Bulls!

Granny

2011-04-04T23:31:00.001-04:00

Frustrating Day.... Heres a couple images from today. First up is a grandma...second is a quick little study of my desk, its for a new blog which a friend of mine is starting up. I will post more about it later. Check it out..its located at http://ten-paces.blogspot.com/

MMM....Cake

2011-03-31T23:00:00.000-04:00

More Bear poses on the way

2011-03-30T11:29:00.001-04:00

Full Time Blues

2011-03-28T16:01:00.005-04:00

I hate being that guy that totally abandons his blog after getting a full time gig. I am going otry my best to continue posting regularly....and to start that, here is a cute bear. Been a couple weeks since I did some character design, should have a few more bears later tonight.

Heres a few samples of the type of work that I do at work. All of the artwork created for the game has to adhere to a certain pre-existing style. This being said all the work is very heavily art directed, as you can see Its very different from my usual style work, but its fast and fun. Hopefully soon I will be able to show some of my more in depth projects, but for now those are all under wraps :)

Environment study

2011-03-02T01:18:00.005-05:00

Heres a quick rendering from one of the color keys I had in my last post. It's nice to work without a sketch sometimes, I find it allows my work to be looser and sometime more creative. Although not entirely rendered to the last bit, I didn't feel the need to take this piece any further. The cool thing about places like Hawaii, and some remote areas of the world is that the forest is so thick and un-touched that it appears almost opaque, like the trees come together to form one enormously dense blanket. Such un touched areas was part of the inspiration for this piece. Rather pleased with it, any suggestions are welcome!

Color Keys

2011-02-28T21:53:00.002-05:00

One thing I really like to do is to take photos when i' m traveling when I dont have time to sketch. These are a few scenes I documented in Jordan and Hawaii. Although drawing from photos can be no good as they frequently result in boring and stiff compositions, using them for reference is a handy tool. Id like to develop these a bit further sometime soon, stay tuned!

Illustration Friday : Sweater

2011-02-13T02:00:00.003-05:00

Fun little sketch for the website Illustrationfriday.com check it out!

who dat?

2011-02-11T21:31:00.004-05:00

Just a fun little sketch from today..trying out the new brushes

Car Sketches

2011-02-07T19:49:00.000-05:00

2011-02-06T01:01:00.001-05:00

Roo!

2011-02-04T00:19:00.002-05:00

As you may have seen, here and there I like to draw my dogs. I really should draw them more, they are such amazing wonderful animals..and super cute. Here is Roo, based on a sketch I did nearly a year ago which i came across in an old sketchbook. She may look peaceful here, but she can be quite the guard dog.

Something that I have learned recently is the importance of using different brushes than the normal ones in photoshop, the default brushes are just the tip of the ice berg my friends. I have a lot of experimenting to do with over 200 brushes I just got for photoshop. Very frequently I get hung up on trying out new stuff because I get so excited to draw that I don't want my medium to hold me back. This can be true, but new mediums can be extremely inspiring in their own way so remember to always keep an open mind. I have been working full time at ZYNGA for some time now and I am finally settling in. Hopefully I will be able to share some more personal work soon.

Doodle

2011-01-25T22:16:00.000-05:00

Funky House Sketch

2011-01-21T00:48:00.000-05:00

2011-01-19T00:17:00.000-05:00

Giveaway Winners!

2011-01-03T23:33:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year everybody! My apologies I am a bit late announcing the winners of my holiday giveaway. Thank you all for follwing my blog. The following people will receive a free digital print of a piece of their choice.

David Campbell

Leah Heming

Drew Green

Kate Moon

Seema

And the winner of an original sketch is..

Chris Kennet!

Here is the Important part. If you are one of the lucky winners, you have to email me in order to receive your piece of artwork. My email is Isaac@orloffillustration.com. Please email me by the end of the month in order to be eligible to receive your print. Thank you to everyone else who follows, I will be doing more giveaways in time to come.

Things have been crazy since I got back from LA. So much talk with different studios and what not, I have had no time at all to draw. Hopefully things will slow down and i will be able to post up some more work soon. Happy New Year everyone!

Scary!

2010-12-15T18:38:00.006-05:00

Heres another personal piece from today ...and just in case you missed it, at the end of the month I will be raffling off a whole lot of artwork. All you have to do to enter the raffle is follow my blog on blogger, I can't see who you are on google reader so it's gotta be blogger too.

And if a chance in the raffle is not enough, there's another way to get some free art...

Anyone who is nice enough to post a link to my blog on their website or blog I will give you 2 signed post cards. All you gotta do is post a link, and send me an email with your address and blog address ( so I can verify the link) and I will send off some postcards pronto! My email is Isaac@orloffillustration.com..thanks!

RIP Wild Blll

2010-12-15T00:34:00.006-05:00

I have been very busy and neglected the blog entirely. Thank you to all my new followers. Unfortunately, I got some bad news today, a good family friend and very talented artist named Bill passed away today. This piece is a tribute to him, one of the funniest, warm hearted people I have met in a long time. Hopefully somehow you can see this Bill I know you would enjoy it.

And also don't forget! At the end of the month I will be raffling off a whole lot of artwork. All you have to do is follow my blog on blogger, I can't see who you are on google reader so it's gotta be blogger too. Thanks everyone!

New Years Giveaway!

2010-12-01T22:42:00.004-05:00

Since CTN I have been meaning to get into some more detailed sketches and environments but I have not had the time with work and the holidays and such. Heres a sketch I had some time to complete tonight on some down time from work. Hopefully everyone is having a good holiday season, tonight is the first nigh of Hannukah!
Since it is the holiday season, why not give away some artwork? At the end of this month, I will give away 5 pieces of artwork. 5 prints, and one original sketch. All you have to do is follow my blog on blogger to be entered into the giveaway! January 1st will be the announcement of the winners. Stay tuned and thank you all for the support!

CTN success!

2010-11-23T11:39:00.004-05:00

I just got back from CTN, which was way better than I could ever have imagined. It was a great opportunity to meet some extremely talented people. I had the pleasure of interviewing with several studios while out there, the responses I got to my work were far better than I could have imagined. Hopefully it will no be long before I'm out on the west coast again. I have added a bunch of new links on the right side of my blog, all people who i met and hung out with for a bit at CTN, I'm sure you already know most of them because they are all extremely talented. If I have forgotten you please leave me a comment or follow my blog so I can be sure to add you later today. I have a stack of business cards 2 inches tall to look through and visit blogs etc. Keep in touch everyone! Following, links, facebook or whatever you like!

And here was a scan of my last Art Block for ghana, the original photo looked like poo. Will have some new work up shortly, will be starting a job for an up and coming studio in the UK soon.

The wait is over!

2010-11-16T19:29:00.006-05:00

Tomorrow I embark on my journey out west for CTN, my first trip to California. Needless to say i have been looking forward to this for a long time. If you can find me at CTN i will be giving away signed prints. I have 250 of them, so if you can locate me i would love to give you one! At the risk of sounding creepy, my contact info is up at the top of my blog, if anyone wants to meet up and do some sketching or exchange artwork, feel free to contact me at any time.

Here is my final Art block for the Art Blocks for Ghana benefit. This is Ink on wood. This was really hard to document because it is too big for my scanner..and the wood is reflective. Oh well...enjoy anyway!

Lazy Vampire

2010-11-11T13:22:00.002-05:00

Dragon

2010-11-11T13:06:00.002-05:00

Sheep Design

2010-11-10T14:20:00.000-05:00

Mysterious Clubhouse

2010-11-10T10:03:00.003-05:00

As a few of my long time followers may remember, this piece was based of a pencil drawing i did a few years ago. I have always really enjoyed the subject matter of the piece, but at the time i did not really know how to work well digitally, and theres some serious drawing issues that i don't enjoy about the piece. I have been meaning to redo it for quite some time now, and finally here it is. If you are attending CTN expo, I will be giving out signed prints of this, if you can find me, i will give you one for free!
The Original:

Art Blocks for Ghana

2010-11-09T18:40:00.003-05:00

Been super busy lately, the blog has been neglected. I have lots of artwork to show but waiting for permissions. Also, comcast internet has been giving me a lot of problems. Internet has been down for awhile now so i am in starbucks. And the soonest they could come out to diagnose the problem is in 3 days..if they show up. Way to go comcast now you will all have to wait a bit longer for some updates, sorry.

Now That I'm done venting... here is my first submission for the Art Blocks for Ghana benefit. Please check it out, there's some amazing artists in there. I will be posting in progress photos as well as another piece, if my internet turns back on. This piece is 6x6 inches gouache.

Been Busy!

2010-11-03T23:24:00.002-04:00

Apologies for my lack of posting, I've been working with an awesome studio in NYC called string theory on a really cool project which I will hopefully be able to share with you soon. I am also taking part in another awesome benefit...check out this site for more information. Theres some great artists from all the top studios involved...and then theres me :)

http://www.artblocksghana.blogspot.com/

Only two weeks to Cali!

2010-10-23T21:44:00.002-04:00

Feeling Sheepish?

2010-10-21T01:26:00.001-04:00

Heres a little sneak peak of something new i'm working on. Bringing back an older style mixed with some new techniques. Should be done sometime tomorrow

More Studies

2010-10-13T18:12:00.005-04:00

My apologies if this is getting repetitive. I have been making a considerable effort to do as many of these studies for a few reasons. Firstly, i'm trying to touch up on some traditional skills. I don't want to be one of those all digital artists, not that there is anything wrong with that, I just like variety. Im also taking note of different painting methods, how I layer the paint and which order I paint things in, because i'm trying to bring those methods into my digital painting. I think that will improve my digital painting and give it a more painterly feel. The whole process should make for a nice diverse portfolio. Another part of the fun is just studying light. Light makes everything possible in drawing. Light affects, mood, contrast, value, and the overall believability of artwork. Without good light, its hard to achieve the drama a good piece should have. So taking all of these things into consideration, I think i'm getting somewhere.

All of these pieces are for sale, and reasonably priced if you are interested shoot me an email.

Watercolorin'

2010-10-12T18:55:00.009-04:00

Happy 400 posts!

2010-10-10T23:14:00.001-04:00

Just got back from upstate ny for awhile, this will be my last little study for awhile. Got some more illustrative projects in the works.

Todays Study

2010-10-06T01:18:00.003-04:00

Weather has been hell for painting lately. Rainy every day, today i drove around for two hours looking for a spot to paint. The interesting thing about driving away from baltimore city is that the scenery just gets more and more beautiful as you go, which makes stopping very difficult. Today, the sky was very strange, fast moving clouds would open up pin holes of amazing sunlight that would only last for 30 seconds at a time. So i drove and drove until i reached the edge of the enormous mass of clouds..(took nearly an hour) I whipped this one up ias fast as i could before this hole also filled with more clouds. Never got more than 10 minute look at a hole in the clouds...strange weather.

2010-10-05T00:47:00.002-04:00

Im not a landscape painter I swear

2010-10-01T19:03:00.003-04:00

Another study from today, if you are in baltimore please come out to the fells point festival over the next couple days. I will have some sweet t shirts for sale! Will be posting some more illustrative work later tonight hopefully.

Gouache study of the day

2010-09-26T18:20:00.003-04:00

Im getting a lot more of these done than i thought.. it was very over cast and cloudy today...this was the one break in the clouds i saw, unfortunately no cast shadows to play with.

Doggy Portrait

2010-09-25T23:37:00.003-04:00

Todays Gouache Study

One of my wonderful puppies

Illustration Friday: Old Fashioned- Signs

2010-09-24T23:10:00.003-04:00

Why don't they make signs like this anymore? Old liquor stores and bowling alleys always have the best signs. Such great shapes and all different sorts of typography put together. Just a few samples i did for fun...I made an effort to do some painting today but got suckered into buying a newspaper subscription to benefit some kids school. He stood in front of my still life talking to me, i couldn't get away because i only had like 30 minutes of light to complete the painting. So i sat there with all my supplies strewn about around me, trying to rush finishing my painting. By the time he got done with his rant i had become frustrated and the painting was ruined, and now i have a subscription to the sunday newspaper. Better luck tomorrow hopefully.

Another study

2010-09-22T22:09:00.005-04:00

My apologies if this is getting repetitive, but its so much fun. And i need some real painting in my potfolio, this is a quick study today, got caught in a thunderstorm

Studies from today's outing

2010-09-21T18:59:00.002-04:00

Ride and Paint

2010-09-20T20:12:00.001-04:00

Went mountain biking today at patapsco state park, threw the watercolors in my backpack and heres what i did! I am going to spend the entire day tomorrow doing little studies like this, should have some good ones!

New T shirt Design for More Collective

2010-09-17T23:26:00.001-04:00

CTN animation expo; Animation Alumni

2010-09-17T19:16:00.014-04:00

I am counting the days to my trip out to cali for the CTN animation expo. www.ctnanimationexpo.com

One of the draws is a major recruiting fair, i uploaded my portfolio to the site today...www.animationalumni.com . Here is a snapshot of what people will be seeing from me come november.

Fruitstand

2010-09-16T18:41:00.003-04:00

Living in Baltimore is a bummer sometimes because of the lacking animation industry, however it has many upsides. One of my new favorite things about baltimore is how easy it is to get fresh local produce. My girlfriend and I found an awesome little produce stand where we have been getting all of our produce from. So it inspired me me to do this nice little number.

Also take a look at this old sketch i did quite some time ago, a 3d artist named simon henry created it in 3d. I may soon make a 3d model out of it.

Light study

2010-09-16T02:01:00.000-04:00

Waiting for comcast

2010-09-13T10:22:00.000-04:00

quick sketch while waiting for comcast guy

Happy Birthday Chris!

2010-09-13T02:08:00.001-04:00

my friend chris turns 32 today...he's quite the character

Out of business

2010-09-11T00:37:00.002-04:00

It's past my bed time

2010-09-09T02:25:00.002-04:00

Study

2010-08-28T01:24:00.002-04:00

My apologies for the lack of posting, more to come in the near future, my birthday is this sunday and i have been distracted by family visits and surprise parties. But back in the saddle again shortly...

Tree Sketch

2010-08-15T00:55:00.003-04:00

I've been developing this style of rendering for a little while now..decided to revisit an old sketch I had in this style. Im glad i did, hopefully within the next few days ill render out a full background like this instead of these roughs ive been posting. stay tuned!

Handyman to the Resuce

2010-08-13T15:08:00.001-04:00

Illustration Friday: Caged

2010-08-12T02:05:00.003-04:00

Everyone else seems to be posting monsters, so heres mine. This is pretty terrifying

New More Collective T shirt design

2010-08-11T23:36:00.003-04:00

www.morecollective.com for more info

Snatch: Cousin Avi

2010-08-09T23:00:00.003-04:00

Sketch of the day

2010-08-07T15:58:00.002-04:00

Snowy Base

2010-08-06T14:38:00.002-04:00

Town Video

2010-08-06T02:53:00.005-04:00

Portraits

2010-08-04T00:00:00.003-04:00

A little tid-bit from some development work i did recently

Sketching

2010-07-28T22:45:00.002-04:00

These are some sketches I did in New York the past few days. Some are done at a farmhouse in upstate NY , the rest were done downtown in NYC, racing to get as many done before the sun set.

Light Studies

2010-07-23T00:20:00.005-04:00

I did both of these this evening...just to try some contrasty lighting. The first one totally reminds me of an old animation background from the road runner and coyote. I left them loose, didn't want to make them too tight, my hope is to do a very large selection of these with varying light sources.

2010-07-20T23:13:00.001-04:00

Still have some touchups, but i will repost the final later on. Suggestions welcome

Bricktop

2010-07-16T01:36:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite all time characters. very loose, very quick portrait while watching snatch

Modern House

2010-07-14T22:33:00.003-04:00

House Sketches

2010-07-14T01:10:00.000-04:00

Illustration Friday: Giant

2010-07-06T23:30:00.001-04:00

Art Jumble Topic : Villians

2010-07-05T23:39:00.000-04:00

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

2010-07-02T00:52:00.002-04:00

Thanks to everyone who follows my blog, the winners of my art giveaway are the following.

JOY STAUERWALD

RENEE K

PATRICK MOORE

QUINN KELLOGG

MEREDTH GIMBEL

Please winners contact me at isaac@orloffillustration.com with your mailing address and if you have a specific piece of work you might like to receive. Thanks to everyone who participated!! Will be doing this again soon!

Study

2010-06-28T23:39:00.001-04:00

Just a quick study of the view from my desk in my apartment.

Art Jumble: Ginger

2010-06-27T22:18:00.002-04:00

I was recently invited to join a blog called art jumble. It is a weekly drawing challenge, this weeks topic was Ginger from Gilligans island, so here is my submission. On another note... don't forget only 2 days left in my artwork raffle!! Be sure to follow my blog on blogger in order to be entered into the competition, July 1st I will pick 5 names at random to receive free prints of my work.

Sloppy Joe's

2010-06-25T20:45:00.001-04:00

When i was in highschool there were these two trucks that would park outside and sell junk food to the kids on their lunch breaks. unfortunately they were disgusting, but kids loved them. i would always get candy from the candy truck but the truck that sold burgers and whatnot i wouldnt go near. gross. this is inspired by that truck

Gouache paintings

2010-06-24T19:20:00.002-04:00

Im starting to do some hand painted work, in interest of making these pieces available to hang in galleries etc, something about prints just isn't as nice as a little original painting. so heres three 4.5" by 6.5" gouache paintings. All are available email isaac@orloffillustration.com for info.

Baltimore T shirt Design

2010-06-23T00:49:00.004-04:00

Been really busy lately, traveling to chicago and working with MORE collective on some Baltimore T shirt Designs, Here is my latest design! Hope you like it, it focuses on the surveillance cameras that the BPD has all over the city to monitor high crime areas. Something you'd have to live in baltimore to really know about. Trying to make t shirts that are not touristy has been quite a fun challenge. The online store has just been launched at www.morecollective.com but you can also email me at isaac@orloffillustration.com for purchase information.

On another note: only a week left in my giveaway! Don't forget to follow the blog if you want to be entered in the raffle on JULY 1st for free prints of my artwork!

Watercolor study

2010-06-17T22:31:00.002-04:00

A few of you expressed some interest in seeing more warm up sketches which i do to keep a variety of work in the old bag o' tricks. heres a quick watercolor i did at dusk, unfortunately i was being eaten alive by mosquitos, didnt get to finish it as much as id like. but stay tuned for some more like this.

2010-06-03T02:01:00.003-04:00

Illustration Friday Slither

2010-06-01T23:14:00.003-04:00

I tried to think of something different than something that has to do with a snake for the word slither. Slither made me think of some super slinky gang member. Slither would make a sweet nickname.

If you are visiting from Illustration friday website, be sure to check out the rest of my blog and the blogger appreciation raffle!

Blogger Appreciation Raffle!!

2010-06-01T20:11:00.005-04:00

Hey everybody! Today I Reached 50 followers, thank all of you so very much for showing interest in my work, so in return for all of your interest, i'm going to hold a little give-away. I will be giving away 2 full size prints of my artwork. All you have to do is follow my blog, if you are already a follower just make sure you keep an eye out for the results, and make sure there is an email address posted on your blog so i can contact you if your name gets picked out of the hat! I know theres some of you out there that frequent the blog but do not follow, in order to be eligible for the raffle, you must be a follower! It takes 5 seconds to click the link, you can do it! The winners will be announced the 1st of July..and if somehow we reach 100 followers by then, I will change it to 5 prints in the giveaway! Stay tuned for updates, if things go well maybe ill throw some more stuff in there..

In other news..

I was featured today on the MORE collective website, this is a cool site showcasing artists from the baltimore area, feel free to check out their site here...

http://morecollective.tumblr.com/post/654381701/isaac-orloff-has-got-the-goods-his-concept-art

I designed a Baltimore themed t shirt for them, contact me at isaac@orloffillustration.com if you are interested in purchasing one.

Go Baby Go!

2010-05-30T17:50:00.003-04:00

Looking out the window...

2010-05-29T02:57:00.001-04:00

heres something nice and cheery, sat at the computer all day ..determined to get something good art wise out of the day. funny i didnt get anything i liked till near midnight, I did like 500 sketches but i hadnt rendered anything in awhile so i kept getting frustrated. So i diverted back to my usual technique instead of the new approaches. mission accomplished. maybe a new postcard?

Sketching in the neighborhood

2010-05-27T23:30:00.007-04:00

i find when i sketch with pencil my drawings can get too tight too quickly. i put too much labor into them and they lose the energy. so i elected to draw with a nice fluid pen which gives some really energetic lines. Not being able to correct mistakes forces you to draw with more confidence. works great.

Cars and a few tricks i learned

2010-05-19T23:54:00.005-04:00

I know i have been away for some time...hopefully all of my followers are still with me. In my time away from the blog i've learned a few things which i would like to share with anyone who is still reading. Recently i have been doing a lot of story board work, i don't have a long history of story boarding so i am relatively new to the process. What makes a great storyboard, a panel specifically , is translating the most information as possible wit the least amount of clutter. A mood, as well as a great sense of depth and movement are all a necessity. It is hard to capture all three effectively, and those who can, have some real talent. If you sometimes struggle getting your drawings to be as dynamic as storyboards, a good way to practice is by taking a camera and looking through the view finder. This helps you to see just how perspective can add to the composition in a frame. Especially storyboarding for animation and motion pictures, creating your artwork from a lense's point of view as opposed to a standing human, changes the artwork entirely. it is an incredibly useful trick, as well as finding photos and drawing over the top of them. This helps to understand scale and placement, then gradually you can do it on your own, but seeing just how small things in the distance really are, and how large foreground items can be really helps your understanding of depth. Once you've got a handle on scale and perspective, make sure to apply the classic squash and stretch animation techniques to what you've got. Then you will really be on your way, just don't be afraid to push it farther than you normally would! Willingness to experiment with different angles has been somewhat of a challenge for me in the past but lately i cant get enough. Stay tuned for some storyboards and some new work, mostly revolving around developing my drawing skills.

Storyboardin..yo

2010-05-19T22:31:00.001-04:00

Roo dog!

2010-04-21T23:34:00.003-04:00

thinking about redoing the story of the three little pigs.. might base the wolf character off of my dog roo. stay tuned..

Illustration Friday Sketch #2. Detective

2010-04-21T21:11:00.000-04:00

Rough Environment Sketch

2010-04-20T23:23:00.001-04:00

just focusing on some light and color...not too worried about rendering just overall feel for the environments. Anyone have any thoughts?

2010-04-18T00:56:00.000-04:00

Illustration friday: Detective

2010-04-17T00:17:00.000-04:00

Little House on the prarie

2010-04-16T22:23:00.003-04:00

Im really enjoying these quick environment sketches... great way to work with color and mood. This took just under 2 hours.