EWG Wed Night Live should be? Vote Now!

So EWG Wed Night Live should be? http://eryckwebbgraphics.deviantart.com/journal/poll/3865785/ 
Vote on this poll! The winner will be GO tomorrow 8pmEST

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Ungrounded page production completed

Well happy to say last page of Ungrounded has just been sent out, as of 11:00pm Monday, 8/12/13!! Thanks to Patrick Gerard for the opportunity to work on it with/for him and also thank you for his incredible patience as its been a very challenging year to get through as well as produce this book. But I think its my best comic work to date and backers/ readers and so forth should really enjoy it. Its not to be missed!

Heres to final corrections and gettin this sucker printed!

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Hands

This morning's warmup
[click to enlarge]

Good Morning! As I primarily work with my hands day in and day out, I found the following email I got this morning pretty neat, and wanted to share! Have a great week, with no complications straight into the next weekend!

~Grandpa, some ninety plus years, sat feebly on the patio bench. He didn't move, just sat with his he...ad down staring at his hands. When I sat down beside him he didn't acknowledge my presence and the longer I sat, I wondered if he was OK.

Finally, not really wanting to disturb him but wanting to check on him at the same time, I asked him if he was OK.

He raised his head and looked at me and smiled. "Yes, I'm fine.
Thank you for asking," he said in a clear strong voice.

"I didn't mean to disturb you, Grandpa, but you were just sitting here staring at your hands and I wanted to make sure you were OK," I explained to him.

"Have you ever looked at your hands," he asked.
"I mean really looked at your hands?"

I slowly opened my hands and stared down at them. I turned them over, palms up and then palms down. No, I guess I had never really looked at my hands as I tried to figure out the point he was making. Grandpa smiled and related this story:

"Stop and think for a moment about the hands you have, how they have served you well throughout your years. These hands, though wrinkled, shriveled, and weak have been the
tools I have used all my life to reach out and grab and embrace life. They put food in my mouth and clothes on my back.
As a child my mother taught me to fold them in prayer.

They tied my shoes and pulled on my boots.

They have been dirty, scraped and raw, swollen and bent.

They were uneasy and clumsy when I tried to hold my newborn son.

Decorated with my wedding band they showed the world that I
was married and loved someone special.

They trembled and shook when I buried my parents and spouse
and walked my daughter down the aisle.

They have covered my face, combed my hair, and washed and
cleansed the rest of my body.

They have been sticky and wet, bent and broken, dried and raw.

And to this day, when not much of anything else of me works
real well, these hands hold me up, lay me down, and again
continue to fold in prayer.

These hands are the mark of where I've been and the
ruggedness of my life.

And it will be these hands that God will
reach out and take when he leads me home. ~

Kinda neat huh? Have a great week. EWG Live Wednesday is still up in the air this week but hope to see everyone out 8pmEST on Wed to watch my these ol' hands at work. Later!

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Working Late Tonight, Livestreamin

Working late. I had a sworn duty to make up for botchin the Orchid piece from lastnight (did the whole thing and forgot to save) and so did that todsay then dealt with some software breaking down and overall maintenance/ hunting around for other options. I in the end decided to do a lean mean install/ reconfig of my ol' trusty software. Needless to say got a bit behind today. One or two things I can push back a day or two but Ungrounded I want to stay on. Its at the end and this is no time to get delayed!

Livestram is broadcasting tonight whilst I working. Doin some comic pencils and inks on a fun page. Most viewers will probably wtf is goin on on the page. But its all good. Will have to buy the book and find out when its all published :) Playin a lil' catchup. Dig. Click 'EWG Livestream' to the right or this link - http://t.co/PMIKhKfLws #workhorse

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EWG Livestream Wednesday 8713 Recap

This week's EWG Livestream Wednesday was a lot of fun, and a change of pace from the crazy amount of comic work and other graphic projects I've been cranking on all week. I much looked forward to some more free-style free-reign character art commissions. Well, it was an interesting night for sure. First it took me a half hour to get a good flow going on sketches to where i was happy with it, then I shot myself in the foot getting into the project and getting carried away and adding in way more 'stuff' than the commission was supposed to include. But ya know, I love spoiling the clients when they come out watch this stuff happen on Livestream. They probably don't get that enough. When it was all said and done, I ended up with the image shown first. And then hit CTRL+S like i usually do to save a job, and proceeded to restart Photoshop as it was glitching up pretty bad so I closed, it asked if i wanted to save something i clicked no..... and turns out it was all the work I did below. OOPS. But I figure the client signed off on everything I did, and enjoyed watching it happen, and I was due to get going on the next piece anyways so I decided not to stress out the client and let them know there was still 'some stuff i wanted to do' to it and would get it to them by the weekend, aka tomorrow. Well today all I had was a screen capture shown here of the original piece from the Live stream video, and I proceeded to re-ink over this capture and recolor. 

Screen capture I redid the piece from Click to enlarge

And I also, for my brain fart, and for the client being awesome coming out, and there was several spots i wasn't happy with, I decided to make it more than worth the wait, and redo the piece improving it as much as possible. I decided re-inking/ coloring was a great opportunity to do it up right. And so I'm very happy with how it came out the second time around. A lot of guess work was gone because I worked from the original drawing, and new the general background/atmosphere I wanted. All I had to do was make it better this time around and I think I did so. But ultimately its up to the client whether it worked or not. Thanks for coming out Anubis, I appreciate you hanging out and also wonder if you realize this happened or not. But I think your gonna love whats sitting in your inbox waiting for you now. Readers should consider the Livestream video below completely accurate, and maybe like a tight 'mockup' color sketch that I did the final piece off of. Yeah... LOL. I believe you can even see where I clicked 'no' to save on the video. Ooops.

Final piece second time around. I had fun and made it good as possible to make up for the brain-fart karma of it all. Click to enlarge

Second up lastnight was Witty, who came in during the second half and had commissioned a very awesome character that screamed 'action shot' with weapons to toss and everything. So I did it up mid boomeranging and used drop shadow and the grounding backdrop object to create motion lines for a neat effect. I still think that's fairly unique to my pieces but nothings original in this day n' age! Also as late night streams do and fan pleasing goes, I tend to get a lil' crazy. Like I went to the wall on the 'Orchid piece' above I decided to give the client some jollies after they said 'looks like a comic cover!' and I set it up with type to make it just that :) So they got a copy o' both. Never know what random comments in the chat and late night and lots of coffee and software crashes will produce. Good stuff.

The original, click to enlarge

The cover version, just for fun.

Enjoy the livestreams below. One for each piece. The first one of 'orchid' will have to fast forward a bit took me a while to get going. I also had a brain fart (foreshadowing the non-save brain fart?) where I couldn't remember whose commissions or find the emails with the info lol. Wow... probably not a good night to be streaming if I was having issues that much but. I think these two ended up turning out alright! Needless to say I spent way too much time on the orchid piece all day and will be chopping at the bit to get caught up on some comic work and tshirt graphic work. Several things will get pushed back but there were some already being pushed to next week before the recreation of the piece. LOL LESSON LEARNED. SAVE MINUTE ONE! and save often after that. I know this. but. Again. Brain-fart night. Enjoy the videos below, and hope to see people out next week for another livestream, and hopefuly then will go smoother. In retrospect, today after finishing the recreated piece, Photoshop completely broke down so I was looking into other software alternatives and there's some good options out there but nothing 100%. I decided to reinstall Photoshop and actually researched setting it up to run faster, deleting extra plugins and presets, setting the cache and ram usage and setting up the scratch disk onto my external drive (shouldn't hurt the backup files) instead of on the C drive. Its already running 25% faster I can honestly say. 

Alright, thanks for checking out the art, the articles and the livestream vids below. See ya round the interwebs.

eryckwebbgraphicsart on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

eryckwebbgraphicsart on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

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EWG Livestream Wednesday Tonight!

Wednesday Night Livestream is a go! Come see EWG crank out two commission orders live! Working from start to finish digital pencils, to finished inks and digital colors/effects! Will start with Anubis' piece and then Witty after that. Will be trying to keep the work flow at 2 hours per piece. But will stop when done. 

No set soundtrack music/theme for tonight, just hit whatever playlist strikes me to properly inspire each piece. See ya then! Watch it directly on this EWG website by going to the EWG Live button on the featured menu or by just clicking this link

See you tonight!

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The road so far

"I have come so far since venturing on my own in the world of digital art and commission services. But I am humbled, and motivated by seeing and knowing I still have so much to learn and discover, and so far to still go. The evolution never ends."

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How To Become A Successful Freelance Artist

Pulled from http://www.artsyshark.com/2013/04/19/successful-freelance-artist/

Once and a while I do some research/ reading up on my general field and make sure i'm doing stuff right or see what others approaches are. And when I stumble upon generaly good advice I like to share for others out there. I think customers/ and comrades alike out there can benefit from these following tips. Be sure to visit the author's page for the full article. But heres the main points and I think they all apply. I especialy like 1, 2 and 5. These are ones to live by as far as EWG is concerned! Poppin this post in the ol' 'reference' section for whenever i need a little inspiration.
Enjoy!

"...1.  Work hard. Work really hard. Work really, really, really hard. This career is not for the half-hearted. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and devotion to succeed.

2.  Keep at it. I know plenty of people who could have been great, but simply gave up too soon. Success is never overnight and rarely comes as quickly as we might like. You might be doing great work but just need to keep trying a little bit longer to find success.

3.  Get your work in front of the right people. Far too many people create great work but never show it to people. Sadly, art directors cannot magically find you if they don’t know who you are. So make sure they do. Get your work in front of their eyes. Put it online in every place you can and send personal emails to the clients you really want to work with. Do the leg work to put your work out there.

4.  Network like crazy. Networking seems sort of scary to most of us. It’s a weird, sleazy-sounding activity that we’d much rather avoid. But it’s not all that bad. Networking is just making friends. Go to conventions, local meet-ups, and classes and start to connect with your fellow artists. These connections will be mutually beneficial and are essential for maintaining a successful career.

5.  Do the work you love. As you begin to get work you’ll soon find yourself wrapped up in commissions, never doing work for yourself. Make the time to do personal work. These will be your chances to do work that you’re truly passionate about and will most advance your career. Even though I’ve done plenty of work to fill a portfolio with, half of my work that I show is still personal work

6.  Be a pleasure to work with. Be on time, be polite, be professional, and communicate clearly. An artist who is fun to work with gets a lot more work than an obnoxious artist. Be a nice person and nice things will happen to you...."

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Good Morning Tuesday

Goodmorning! Livestreaming Wednesday night will feature two pieces, one for Anubis and one for Witty both of their OCs! See you then over at ( www.eryckwebbgraphics.com ) livestream channel starting at 8pmEST! Click that big 'EWG Livestream' button under Featured. Always a good time, look forward to the interaction with customers and making their orders come to life before their eyes!

Today will be concentrating on two comic clients I'm working for and tomorrow some more plus some awesome tshirt art due to be finished. Getting to a point where I can more accurately schedule work finaly and tackling the stack first come first serve as it is only fair. Anybody still waiting for an invoice or thinking about contacting me just hit me up sometimes I forget to get back to you. Just a busy boy is all I can say but always looking to schedule new work in and usualy do it a few weeks in advance so I have time to give proper attention to each project individualy without rushing anything. 

Thank you very much in advance for your commission, and all the supporters that make this lil' tour bus named EWG possible. Have a great day

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EWG Live Stream for 731 Post Stream Recap

Lastnight's EWG Live Wednesday was a great one. Thanks to the average dozen or so folks that came out and checked it out. Those who stayed past the first half hour got to see me finaly get wamred up and into a groove and knock out 3 fun customer orders. The first half hour was tough... really tough. I was struggling. But finaly found the groove.

First up was a chibi commission of two champions online 'Eternals' gf/bf and depicts the hero launching off into the air and his gf the heroine going for piggy back ride. She may be barely holding on but shes loving every minute of it. I solidified the pencils and cleaned them up a bit, but didn't worry about how crisp they were, along with shading initially with an 'ink wash' style I think gave it lots of texture and character. Then colored/ finished right over that. Played upbeat, teeniebop style pop tunes and beastie boys and rockabilly to go with the cute/ fun vibe.

Click To Enlarge

After that, switched gears into some serious dubstep action and cranked some Netsky and Deadmau5 and rocked this rave-style elf character meant to be a humanoid/elf version of My Little Pony's DJ P0n3 - I thought about setting her up on a turntable but wanted hip/ leg action showing and the piece to not be weighed down by a big turntable so just had her jammin on headphones in a club setting dancing it up. Fun stuff for sure. Digital pencils tightened up just enough to define all the shapes then colored/shaded/finished per usual!

Click To Enlarge

After that I finished up this new portrayal of a customer's OC and we had already gone through a round or two of tweaks and changes as it was a bit of a design revamp for the character. Love how he came out and was totaly feeling a Billy Idol or Judas Priest (80s punk/rock/metal) vibe throughout. The inks were only partly finished so I finished the black fills, then proceeded to color this sucker up! Finished ink lines and colors per usual! Grease Lightning baby!

Click To Enlarge

And heres what happens when the Livestreams run to/past midnight LOL. Based on randomocity in the chat during the Livestream. Never know what'll happen on these sessions lol. The 'blooper moment' of this pic is on the tail end of the Haseo Rabbit video. So keep an eye out for that.

Click To Enlarge

 Thanks to everyone for making it a fun and successful Livestream night. The enthusiasm fans/ customers show for the events is what keeps me doing them. Gives EWG a little more exposure probably but mostly, I don't make money off the events, I do it for the fun I have during them, and the enjoyment the viewers express. So thanks for continuing to make it worth it each time :) See you next Wednesday! Enjoy the Livestream videos below, OR if you go to the new improved EWG Livestream channel page you can sit back watch any videos from the 'library' below the screen and stuff n stuff. Comments always encouraged / welcomed on this site or Facebook.
See you next Wednesday for two new commissions scheduled for Anubis and for Witty!

eryckwebbgraphicsart on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Watch live streaming video from eryckwebbgraphicsart at livestream.com

Watch live streaming video from eryckwebbgraphicsart at livestream.com

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