Learning from Aaron Blaise

Can you guess which one is my version? Have a look, and you can find out if you were right down below.

If you don’t know already, I have a contemporary art / fine art background, and have been making digital art starting around 20 years ago. I’ve given up on the contemporary art world, and am moving more into digital painting. I’m trying to learn the industry techniques of illustrators to add to my own styles and techniques, and come of with some sort of unique hybrid.

Aaron Blaise has a ton of online art and digital art courses, and I just completed his Digital Painting course. You aren’t really expected to replicate the alien. It’s a demo, and you just observe and take note of the techniques. I’m a bit of a stickler though, and I have to do things to really pick them up, and even now I’ve got to keep my PS file as a reference to remember all the steps.

I did an earlier blog post about how I approach tutorials when I finished Andrew Hou’s digital painting course, and this is kinda’ it. I just duplicate the whole process as best I can, and then hope to integrate it into my own work later.

Some artists don’t like to do this sort of thing, and they get spectacular results, but I’m one for getting technical and doing whatever it takes to level up my game.  Sometimes I have to drag my feet and force myself to go through the work, but hopefully it’s worth it. Aaron’s style is much closer to my own than is Andrew’s, so it was a bit more fun to copy his alien (I do lots of aliens) than to do Andrew’s more cartoon-oriented approach. But both are exceptional teachers and their digital painting courses are solid.

Aaron Blaise worked for Disney for 20 years, I believe, and only switched to digital towards the end, and was very reluctant to do so. I also have a traditional background, and only taught myself Photoshop after I got my MFA. He does some aliens and other creatures, which are what I’m most interested in by him, but specializes in wild animals, particularly big cats.

OK, my alien is on the right. Here’s the pair again:

I thought they were much more alike until I put them side by side. I’m working on one monitor, and never had the images together, but switched back and froth from his video to my own painting. I took some liberties, and there are so many variables it’s probably impossible to replicate his alien exactly. I also threw in a few of my own tricks.

[Note: If you looked closely at the images, Aaron signed his. I didn’t sign my copy because it’s a COPY, essentially. It’s not for sale or anything, and all credit for the design and technique goes to the original artist!]

I learned a lot more about secondary lighting, rim lighting, highlights, using texture, and depth of field. Andrew covered most of this is his course, but with a lot different emphasis, and I hadn’t nailed it down yet. Aaron’s my age, roughly, and he’s just an easy teacher for me to pick stuff up from. I’ve got some more of his tutorials I may work through.

But it’s time for me to make something new using the techniques I’ve been developing. Stay tuned.

~ Ends