I often travel the world giving demos & lectures and get the opportunity to work with aspiring artists, illustrators and animators from all walks of life. I am continually impressed by the talent out there as well as the questions that I get. A HUGE part of our mission with this site is to continue to offer affordable art education. As a special “Thank You” to returning students I am offering a 50% Off Promo Code for signing up for my newsletter.
Cecil The Lion Portrait & Time Lapse Video
UPDATED BELOW – PRINTS NOW AVAILABLE
Like many people around the world, I was extremely moved by the recent tragedy surrounding the hunting and killing of the beloved lion know as Cecil. (Read More) – As you may be able to tell I am a HUGE animal lover and it drives me crazy when I see these beautiful creatures destroyed for no good reason. In fact, I’ve decided to get personally involved and hopefully our efforts can help educate people and prevent these horrible things from happening in the future.
As some of you may also know I was one of the animators on “The Lion King” – When I heard the news about Cecil I got inspired to create a tribute image. It’s not much but hopefully it will make people think.
I also created a time lapse video of the creation of this image which you can see below:
Updated: How to Draw Lions Tutorial
UPDATE: The complete “How to Draw Big Cats” Course is NOW AVAILABLE – CLICK HERE
This is a quick SNEAK PEEK at my upcoming video series “How to Draw Animals: The Big Cats” – In this 53 minute video I’ll show you some key tips for how to draw lions.
The complete course will be available very soon! It covers Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Cheetahs + Much More. The full course contains over 8 Hours of video lessons and includes tons of bonus materials and PDF Files. In the meantime though I wanted to share this early look at it with you. ENJOY!
Disney Animators Share Artistic Advice
Recently I was invited up to Nashville, TN to attend the second annual “Taught By A Pro Weekend” which was presented by TaughtByAPro.com – While there I got an opportunity to give a lecture, do some demos and speak with my good friends and amazing animators Tom Bancroft (Mushu from “Mulan”) and Eric Goldberg (Creator of the Genie from “Aladdin” and co-director of “Pocahontas”).
I had a brief chance to sit down with them and record some of their insights and wanted to share them with you. Enjoy! Continue reading Disney Animators Share Artistic Advice
Speed Painting Photoshop Chewbacca from Star Wars
As a chance to experiment with my new Hair Brushes Volume 2 Set and in honor of “May the 4th” I thought it might be fun to do a quick speed painting of one of my favorite characters. Enjoy! Continue reading Speed Painting Photoshop Chewbacca from Star Wars
Hand Drawn Animation – “Trunk Troubles”
I’ve been excited more and more recently by the possibilities of TVPaint. It had been a little while since I had sat down and created any original animation so I got the itch to do something fun. This was just a quick little piece that I created in 8 days using my Wacom Cintiq and TVPaint. I was thinking about elephants when I got the idea for this character name Cyrano. This short animation shows some of the hijinks he gets into with his trunk. I hope you like it… I think I’ll do more with this character soon. Continue reading Hand Drawn Animation – “Trunk Troubles”
A Basic Introduction to Illustration in Photoshop with Aaron Blaise
I often get questions from new artists of all ages on the best way to get started with digital illustration/painting in Adobe Photoshop. There are probably thousands of methods and techniques so it can sometimes seem overwhelming. To address this I put together 1 Hour and 11 minute video giving a brief overview of my techniques and my approach.
This is a basic overview intended to help less experienced artists or those who are new to Photoshop. Ultimately you will develop your own approach but I hope this helps some of you that are looking to get started. Continue reading A Basic Introduction to Illustration in Photoshop with Aaron Blaise
Animation Tutorial Sneak Peek – Bi-Ped Walk Cycle
So today I wanted to share a very special sneak peek of my upcoming animation lessons with my newsletter subscribers. The video below is a free 48+ Minute Video where I take you through the fundamentals of creating a great two-legged (a.k.a. bi-ped) walk cycle. This is an early rough-cut of the video but I wanted to share it with you all!
Again this is currently an exclusive just for subscribers – ENJOY! Continue reading Animation Tutorial Sneak Peek – Bi-Ped Walk Cycle
“The Dude” – Sloth Animation Sneak Peek
So today I wanted to get back into TVPaint and do some traditional animation. So I decided to grab a snippet of dialogue from one of my favorite actors (Jeff Bridges) in one of my favorite films “The Big Lebowski” – So without further ado I present “The Dude… Sloth”
[youtube_sc url=”jG3rNpNHV40″ width=”750″]
This is a sneak peek at an upcoming series of animation training videos and lessons that I am working on coming early this year. Enjoy!
UPDATE: My Animation Tutorials are now available.
Interested in Digital Art & Animation Instruction? I offer a line of tutorials videos and lessons. CLICK HERE to Learn More.
First Ever “Art Giveaway Contest” Winners + Happy 2015!!
Hi Everybody!
We had a great response to our first ever “Art Giveaway Contest”.
First, I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who purchased my Custom Photoshop Fur Brushes. I’ve had a great time experimenting with them myself and I wanted to let everyone know now that I’m currently working on creating a second set, so stay tuned!
Note: There were too many entries for me to provide individual feedback on each one. But as a general rule I must say that I was very impressed with what I saw and each and every one of you who participated has talent and should continue to develop and pursue it!
As for the art we received…We had such a wide variety of subjects. It was so much fun going through everything and seeing how the brushes were used. There were illustrations, photo-retouches and more! Everything was really great and I could see the fun you guys were having. That being said, there were a few that stood out for me. Out of the entries I picked five.
I’d also like to announce that along with the first place winner receiving a signed original drawing from me, the remaining four will receive signed prints. So here they are!
Click the Images Below to See the Other Winners:
Interested in Digital Art & Animation Instruction? I offer a line of tutorials videos and lessons. CLICK HERE to Learn More.
A final note on the the “Photo-Retouches” there were some really fun and solid ones that were this close to making the final cut so please don’t hesitate to keep them coming in future events. There were also some great images that unfortunately came in after the deadline. Sadly, to be fair to everyone I’m trying to keep the cut-offs as serious as we can. So if you don’t see your name here, keep at it and be on the look out for my next art challenge which is coming soon !
Once again, Thank you so much for your participation and Happy 2015!
– Aaron Blaise
P.S. I’ll be contacting all the winners shortly to get shipping details, etc. – Congrats Again!
