I’m using watercolors to make quick value studies from animal photos. Learning how to organize a piece in the comp stage.

#art #watercolor #painting

A sketch of a warrior dressed in fur, standing at the ready. She has a long white knife in her hand.

A sketch of an imposing evil queen wearing an elaborate crescent shaped headdress looking down on her vanquished foes.

Designing a character for a mini-comic and her evil queen.

#art #comicart #procreate

Photo study: I think this would have taken half the time if I’d focused on slowing down and thinking each stroke through before making marks. I want to get the mental-muscle-memory of that feeling.

#art #painting #portrait #procreate

A girl in yellow leads a large magical cow or bison to market

This started as a gesture sketch that got out of hand. I have no idea what’s going on here other than she might be taking some plants to a market?

#art #painting #comicart #conceptart #procreate

A rough watercolor sketch of a bluebird

Initial studies for a bluebird painting based on photos my friend took.

#art #painting #watercolors #birds

I sketched these animals earlier this year and it was the first time gesture and shape language really started to *click* in my brain, and I want to get back to that place.

#art #sketch #conceptart #comicart #procreate

Watercolor studies of plants and leaves

Watercolor studies of plants and leaves

Shelves wired up with led lights to keep unlucky plants alive

I’m trying to look after plants again so I can paint studies for a project.

But my apartment is a dim little goblin’s cave so I’ve wired up super shelves to blast photons at them all day.

So far only one death. My lifetime record.

#art #painting #watercolor #plants

A contact sheet of cartoon designs for a music video set in a swamp. Some are in color, some are grayscale. There are miscellaneous plants rocks trees and turtles in a simplified style.

A design sketch sheet for a music video I keep picking up and dropping:

I think I’ve finally gotten to a level where I actually enjoy designing discrete elements of a future piece instead of just getting frustrated

#art #painting #conceptart #procreate

A contact sheet of multiple cartoon space helmets. All different styles and shapes.

Hoping to post more art instead of just scrolling. And I’m messing with new design workflows:

Each of these helmet sketches started in a different way. Some from cg layouts and others from line art and other kinds of sketching.

#conceptart #comicart #painting

New York, New York (1977 film) - Wikipedia

It’s get‘s even weirder: it was written for Scorsese’s only (I think?) musical: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yor...

All I remember from it is DeNiro plays a saxophone.

It's bananas how huge the difference in detail is between the thumbnail and the lineart!

Sketch of Melinoë from Hades 2 holding the Moonstone Axe and getting ready to cast a Hex

Death to Chronos babeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

#hades2 #procreate #sketch #art

And here's the original rock sculpt render.

Another 3D render paintover. I like how quickly I can set up variations on an idea, and still start to work out the mood in a painting program.

#blender3d #clipstudio #art #conceptart

A 3D render of a loosely sculpted rock in Blender

And here's the original sculpt render out of Blender

A loose painting of a large rocky island shrouded in mist

I'm messing around with a 3D sculpt/paintover workflow to get some rocky backgrounds for my comic book.

It feels like cheating, but it's fun taking the noisy render and simplifying the shapes.

#art #blender3d #clipstudio #conceptart #sketch

A rough painting of an incredulous looking girl in yellow, looking over to screen right.

A sepia-colored painting of a suspicious looking man with wisps of smoke curing around his head.

A sepia-colored cartoon of a young woman with a haunted pendant, out of which a smiling ghost is emanating.

I've covered my office walls in corkboard to put up my sketches for inspiration, and it's funny that some of the drawings that are neighbors have started to imply new stories.

#art #digitalart #painting

Bit more sci fi strip

A page of anatomy sketches for a lion's upper arm. There are also a few goofy sketches in here of a lion with an owl's head.

I'm trying to focus on one piece of anatomy at a time during sketching sessions. And luckily skeletons and muscles are similar between all tetrapods.

Here's I'm trying to understand the upper arm of a lion. #anatomy #sketch #art

Hey! Just saw this! iVCS3 is sooooooo cool. I can't wrap my head around it, but I love the patches it comes with.

Doodling this character who works out in deep space. How seriously does she take her job? Does she wear her uniform properly or tie her hair back around heavy machinery? Does she miss home?

Another round of sketching would be focused on trying to find visual answers to these questions. #comics

I really like how you paint trees, and I keep getting pulled into finding all of the wonderful detail in the background like the rabbit. And now I'm curious who runs the cafe during the other shifts!

A loose painting study of a smiling woman with her hair done up in a bun on top of her head.

An unsuccessful master copy of a John Singer Sargent painting, where I've let the dynamic range of the lit part of the form grow too wide. The effect is "noisy" and damages the simplicity of the reference piece.

A lot of the art I like is of evenly lit subjects. And I'm only now realizing how almost invisible changes in value can still convey form. This second study is a master copy of a Sargent, and you can see how I've overworked the detail in the lit form and damaged the value structure. #painting #art

Discovering the Environment Design Sketching Process — Lee Mendez This is a work in progress for a location design where the first scene of my comic takes place: An unstable space station. Constructed procedurally by a swarm of robots whose prog rammi ng h...

I was convinced for so long an art project began and ended on the same piece of paper. But I've only just learned that a successful design might have an entire sketchbook behind it.

www.leemendez.com/blog/2025/9/...

An exploratory sketch for a comic book. The sketch is of triangular doors and bridges jutting out at an odd angles in a rock wall criss-crossed by glowing cracks.

This is a work in progress for a location design where the first scene of my comic takes place:

An unstable space station. Constructed procedurally by robots whose programming has degraded over the centuries, until they've created a place where no human can survive.

#comics #conceptdesign

A loose blue painting of an old bearded man wearing a hat staring out at the viewer.

An unsuccessful study of a woman in profile

In first blue study, I chose to ignore the reference and focus on light and shadow, and I got a mood and character I really like. But with this second stiffer study, I tried to match the reference and fell into the trap of trying to fix things in the details rather than the large shapes. #painting

A rough sketch of a young sci-fi man sitting back in a chair. He has a bionic prosthetic over his ear and a prosthetic hand made up of many smaller hands, which hold his drink and cigarette. Every choice his makes in his clothes is to "look cool," but also to stay warm because he comes from a hot place, and can't stand the cold.

I'm starting work on a villain using Ian McCaig's character design technique: Do a rough sketch, ask questions about the character, and try to find visual answers to those questions. Those answers then make up the design elements.

check out this album cover i finished for my buddies in Austin #dayfriend i think it speaks to the current situation we are in 🥰

An untextured render of a gas canister with brackets and a wall mount. I want to take another stab at this and make it more squat, futuristic and 'cartoony' to fit the style of my comic.

Another #hardOps sketch. I'm trying to make these light enough for Gravity Sketch, but my natural corner-cuttingness is making me question how clean these should be. If they're just going to be for digital paint-overs, do I need to sweat the topology? #bg3 #conceptart

I really like the sound of that! good luck on the hands and feet!