Itstartedin82 is Tim Coon's weekly updated personal weblog that is used to document his current freelance work, sketch book, and other forms art that he is currently working on. If you would like to contact Tim for a commission you may email him at tcoon@itstartedin82.com or go to his website itstartedin82.com and fill out the contact form on the website.

All work on this site is property of Tim Coon and cannot be used without his consent.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Pixel Illustration = A lot of squares!

So I decided to change my banner/header on my blog. Recently I found a cool group of artist called eboy. They create re-usable pixel objects and take them to build complex and extensible artwork, so I wanted to do something along those lines. Since this image was only going to be small squares I thought it would only take an hour to make. Well I was dead wrong, and it took me a week to make. Since eboy does small characters and buildings more 8 bit or 16 bit video game style I thought it would be cool to blow it up and make it a larger so I aimed 32 bit style. Since I went skateboarding with my dog a few times I thought that would be an awesome picture to recreate. Here is my process.
1. Found a picture on Google images of a guy and dog skate boarding. I didn't feel like drawing one. The image was only used for reference to get my proportions right.
2. Started off drawing my dog Misfit (aka Missy) since she had the most detail I thought she would be the hardest part to create. To get the solid pixels I used the pencil tool in Photoshop to do the outline and the coloring. (It may look like I created her to small for a pit bull, but I have the world's skinniest pit bull.)
3. When I was adding myself in I had to make a few adjustments. I use my neighbor's long board so I had to increase the spacing of my front and back foot.
4. I used another image to make the long board then I added it in to my composition.
5. Now it is time for LAYOUT! So I created a new document using the correct size for good old blogger. Then put what I had so far in.
6. Then added in a ground and some shadows so Missy and I weren't floating in space.
7. Then created some pixel bushes and dirt to give it a little depth.
8. It was then time for the sky, clouds, and subliminal images. I just added a simple gradient sky that then used a pixel filter to make it pixilated and then added some clouds. I added itstartedin82 using two different pixel fonts in the background to add some depth and it just looked cool to me.
9. After I was finish I added a boarder and title of the blog in. I just used an Arial a simple font so it would stand out more from the image. The white boarder also helps blend it into my blog layout. I was going to make it a video game that’s why there is a life bar and some hearts at the bottom, but it really didn’t fit so I took it out in the end.
10. The final product.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Moleskine sketch book

I just picked up Super Street Fighter IV for the PS3 and it is awesome. When I play online I just get owned so I need to practice more. Marvel vs Capcom is coming out soon and it is supposed to be an even better game. So I did some sketches of the characters. I found a awesome artist named Alvin Lee so I was doing some sketches of his stuff. I was listening to The Broadways while sketching it.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Blog Header - Design

Here is a header I designed for http://desperatelyseekingseersucker.blogspot.com
DSS emailed me asking for a header design with her, her puppy and some snow. Here is what I came up with.

If you are looking for a blog header, or any other type of illustration you can fill out my contact form on my website. Itstartedin82.com 
Give me a short description of what you are looking for and I will contact you to work out the details.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Moleskine sketch book

Here are two new sketches from my sketch book. I still need to clean up the lines and give Booth his tattoos. Then I have to draw Bob and the Duke.
Booth:

Tim:

Drawing peoples portraits while watching  TV has already helped improve my cartoon stuff. I just have to keep it up.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Sprites and actionscript

I have been playing with actionscript and using sprites.
If you can't see anything or you are using a jPhone or a jPad. This is flash sorry.
Click the window below and you can control Ryu.
Arrow keys move you up, down, back, and forward.
A, S, Z, and X allow you to punch and kick.
There are a lot of bugs for me to figure out, and I bet adding some one for him to fight will be a nightmare too. Well at least it is something new for me to work on.


Thursday, January 13, 2011

Moleskine sketch book

My mom got me a moleskine sketch book for Christmas. There is only a few sketches in it, because after work I really don't feel like doing anything. So all of the drawing so far have been done while I watched TV. This stuff doesn't look that great, but its practice.
Rocky IV

My dog Missy running around the house

Naruto

Some crazy buff guy from my roommates magazine

Kenny Powers

Venture Brothers

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Walk Cycle_2

With a little more clean up it's starting to look better. Now I am going to turn it into a character. 
If you click on the image you can see the animated *.gif

Monday, January 10, 2011

Walk Cycle

So I have been working with CS5 at work so this weekend I tried out a little animation with it. I did a basic walk cycle. It needs a lot of clean up. It was fun animating with flash again. I did a puppet style animation. So its just circles and squares. I am now going to work on cleaning it up, and then adding a character in.

If you click on the image you can see the animated *.gif

Friday, January 7, 2011

Tyson

I was lazy today after my meetings and kind of zoned out at lunch. Somehow I managed to fit in a 10 maybe 15 minute sketch of one of the hardest hitting boxers. Mike Tyson! My goal is to loosen up my drawings. Stop drawing what I see but more the muscles and structure of the character or object.
When I started drawing I noticed I was still drawing the same way. So I drew it again right next to the first one and exaggerated more as I built the character. I tried to keep more shapes than forming the shape.
The more cartoon style one looks more like the real Tyson, then the first one. Probably cause I already drew it once so I noticed the main features more. Then the second time around I knew what to stretch and pull to add character to the sketch.


And the winner is?????


















Congrats ABI!!!! I will email you with the gift card code!
Thanks to everyone who entered and CSN for the give away.

Thanks Angela for the help with making the drawing bowl and making me take pictures of the drawing!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Diamond Street Tattoo

Finished! After a few tweaks, I decided to make a few more tweaks and now it is done.

Nate and his guys over at Diamond St. Do some great work.
Go check them out.
Diamond St. Tattoo
http://www.myspace.com/diamondstreettattoo


Also check out the French Exit's Youtube clips
from their show 12 - 23 - 10