Appreciation for Traditional ART is very Good these Days!

I am currently working on a handful of commissioned ART at the moment. A few Warmachine Warlocks and a couple of Warhammers. So much ART to do in the next few weeks or months. I also just got commissioned to do 6 more Warmachine Warlocks ( check PrivateerPress.com ), so stay tuned guys!

Although I am a digital artist / visual effects artist at my day job, I do like the trend that the appreciation for traditional ART is pretty good. Both Traditional and Digital ART takes skills, talent and time to do, but a few people tend to dismiss Digital Art as mass produced art, done by computer operators. I obviously beg to disagree, but I would need another post for that.

Anyways, I am really enjoying producing these ARTworks for my clients. Albeit I do ride my "Artist Mood" whenever I do one. Thus It could take me a day to a few days to produce each ART. I hope this trend of Traditional ART appreciation continues, as I am looking forward to producing a ton more in years to come.

The hardest part of producing Traditional ART is shipping them to clients tho. Sometimes, much like anything that you spent hours in producing, ART is difficult to let go! LOL

Anyways, will share more ARTworks to you very soon! Hope you like this post and the photos of Father Lucant in progress. Should finish this piece soon! Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! CIAO!

Read more >>

Digital ART versus Traditional ART

I have been an artist since grade school. I am one of those little kids who rather draw than write in their notebooks, during classes. Have always been in the top 10 of my class tho, as my parents are teachers in the same school, and they will kill me if I have really bad grades.

My drawing skills could have been better tho. I took up Advertising back in College and have been doing Post Production ( Visual Effects, Color Grading and Compositing ) since after College. I should have sparingly focused on my drawing as that was 15 years of Post Production work.  My greatest regret in my adult life is NOT HAVING a SMALL SKETCHPAD during idle times. Well, It's not too late to do that, I guess.

Below is my scanned drawing. I used a Brush Pen and some Technical Pens on Paper.

Below is the sand drawing colored in Adobe Photoshop.

I am average in both, but let me share my thoughts on Digital Art and Traditional Art.

Younger artists these days are so darn good in digital drawing and painting. They have access to all sort of softwares and tools to produce their masterpieces. These young digital artists are so good with their craft, they treat their computer screens like paper!

Digital Art is very versatile and you could Command-Z ( undo ) many many times during work. It gives you so many options and you could produce a wide range of effects. Digital Art also could be easily reproduced.

NEVER ever call a Digital Artist a Computer Operator tho. Artists in general are too passionate with their craft and have taken years to master it. Calling them operators is like asking for a Death Sentence. It would be the dumbest thing to say if you ask me.

Traditional Art on the other hand is a tad bit limited to the paints and tools that you have. It takes longer to do and is a ton messier. There are no UNDOs in traditional art and you create unique one of a kind pieces. Traditional Art pieces usually have more value ( selling-wise ) than Digital Art.

However, I am more of a traditional artist when it comes to drawing, but would prefer to color my pieces digitally. I simply lack the digital drawing skills to create art in my computer, but would like to maintain a clean workspace. Basically, I draw my stuff on paper, scan them and color them. I do use markers and the occasional watercolors, whenever my clients want them fully colored but completely traditional.

Anyways, I would highly recommend younger artists to always carry a small sketchpad anywhere. Traditional pencil drawings in a sketchpad are always fun to flip around than having them in iPads. Besides, you could always scan them later to make them digital.

Hope you like this post. Do hit me at donc0023@yahoo.com for any inquiries. Until next post guys!

Read more >>

Ink Drawings by Don Suratos from Pencil to Paypal

I have been drawing for the past few days and have been getting so many requests of different characters from different people all over. I am about to finish my 2nd commissioned artwork and will be shipping them by next week. I am excited to see my pieces on the walls of the homes of my clients very soon.

Pardon the huge watermarks on these photos as I will eventually offer digital scans of the images in their different drawing stages ( except the finished artwork ). There will be NO digital copies of the finished artwork to maintain the originality of the commissioned pieces. The original pieces drawn with Zig Kurecolor on 10x15 illustration board will be one of a kind art pieces. I highly recommend to clients that they should never produce digital copies of the artworks to maintain the value of each original piece.

People who follow me at Twitter, Instagram and Facebook will be updated with every drawing I produce during weekdays ( weekends remains dedicated for Gunpla and miniature commissioned works ). So if you like my drawing style, do follow me at Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. I am most active at Instagram ( @don_suratos ), then Facebook and Twitter. For commission work inquiries or reservations, pm me at facebook or email me at...

donc0023@yahoo.com

Read more >>

Custom Ravagore 3 inch Blighted Blast Templates

As usual, I have shared photos of these 3 inch Blighted Blast templates at Facebook and Instagram ( don_suratos ) already. I like archiving my stuff here at my blog better though as finsing old posts are much easier than at Facebook. Plus I talk a bit more here. lol

This post is basically my usual " Weekend Dump " posts except I think that the templates makes for a more interesting post.

I did some quick cookie / burger looking templates the night before painting as it was made of wood glue and sand over a thin .5mm plastic sheet. I let the wood glue and sand cure overnight and painted over a nice coat of Vallejo Brown Earth texture paint. I then let the texture paint dry to touch under the heat of the sun for 2 hours before painting.

I was too lazy to bring out and set up my airbrush for this project and my son was bugging me to paint it quick so that he could play with these templates. These templates are basically my son's, as he has a Lylyth2 50pt army that he fields against my Cryx. My 8 year old son also loves fielding our Khador army ( but until he gets a Conquest or Victor ), he likes playing his Lylyth2 against my Cryx more often ( I hate eyeless sight ).

Obviously playing with an 8 year old that is very imaginative during battles makes me want to do more of these kinds of stuff. I want my son to continue to enjoy the game as I get an excuse ( from wife ) to get more army faster than usual. Our weekend visits to the miniature store ends up with either a faction book, a couple of solos, or even a unit sometimes ( with the approval of the mom ). So making templates that would make my son enjoy the game more ( win or lose ) is definitely a win win situation for the dad. hehe

We had a chance to use these templates with a couple of Cryx vs LOE last weekend. Not only did my son enjoy using them, he almost wiped out my Bane Tralls and Bile Tralls on my left flank. Dang! Did I say I hate Eyeless Sight already?

Anyways, I plan to create more fun looking templates in between commissioned works. I should be able to create some water and forest templates for tier bonuses and stuff as soon as I can.

I also finished painting a lot of commissioned works last weekend. I told the client I just need to let the paint ( Vallejo ) cure for a day before varnishes. Then I will take proper photos before sending to client. I want to give my client properly cured models with nice strong Vallejo varnishes ( gloss then matt / satin coat ).

Anyways, that is about it. More posts every after weekend as I cannot post as much as I want. Do check me out at Instagram and Facebook as I am mostly active there these days. Thanks as always for dropping by! Just enjoy the hobby! :)

Read more >>

DC23MechArts Weekend Photo Dump 060215

The past week was so eventful for me! I got my box full of Vallejo paints, a couple of models from Privateer Press, my wife's birthday, a handful of WarmaHordes models to add to my army, painted a lot of commissioned models and got some tools from my younger brother who went to Japan for research work. Cool week!

Lazy to write today as I need to go home early to paint some more models! So I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoy them ( lol )! Some people love taking selfies ( photos of themselves ), I love taking some workbenchies ( photos of my work bench )... so pardon the loads of photos of my workbench every week.

Anyways, thanks for wasting your time here. Until next post, just enjoy the hobby! :)

Read more >>