All Contrived Office Comics

I am waiting for my lunch atm, so I decided to blog. I have been really busy the past month and have finished 4 Children's storybooks already. I am still working on some Privateer Press inspired posters on the side and various other fun projects.

One of my regular projects is this ALL CONTRIVED web comics strip. Super fun stuff to make! It is a web comics published weekly. I find it very relatable as I worked in a corporate setting for 10 years. The comics is written and created by Vex Chagrin. I am just commissioned to illustrate them.

I would love to use the characters for my own script sometimes. I will need to ask permission from Vex. I prefer a RAT with big ears as character for a boss tho ( LOL ).

Anyways, do check out the comics at Instagram, Facebook and at the link below...

ALL CONTRIVED web comics

We are also releasing a weekly Corporate Dictionary now. Should be funny! 

Anyways, thanks as always for dropping! Lunch is here! CIAO! 

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Freelance Work Is More Fun!

I have been working at the 2nd largest TV Network in my country for the past 10 years, but have just recently resigned. I resigned back in February. I have set-up my home office immediately upon resignation, and have been doing a few commissioned artworks since then.

It took me a little more than a month to get used to the new lifestyle. No commutes and home cooked meals, will help you transition pretty well.

It has been a life changing experience thus far. I have 3 kids and they seem to love the idea that I am forever at home. Working freelance at home is Life! You get to spend more time with what matters the most, the family and the projects that you work on. No wastage of time. No traffics and downtimes.

You get to spend more time with the family, more time in honing your craft and more time to earn more. Other than the family time, even during work. The best thing in freelance work are the clients. You get to directly interact with your clients, thus you directly get praises for your hard work. No bosses to act as middlemen.

You are in control of your earnings, your time and your value. Do give it some thought. Do you love your cubicle life? Or do you want to potentially earn more, while you comfortably work at home?

Anyways, t's 4am now... and I have an interview at toptal in a few hours. Wish me luck guys! Hope I get to be accepted as a toptal artist after tomorrow! Until next update guys! Ciao!

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Colored Trollbloods Inspired Poster

People love colors! So due to popular demand, I figured I do a colored version of my Trollbloods inspired poster. Characters were based on characters from Privateerpress.com .

It has been a while since I digitally colored an artwork. I tend to lean toward traditional watercolors and inks or pens. But there was no way to color this piece, as it was originally drawn over an ordinary illustration board. Ordinary illustration boards ( black back ) are fairly good for inks and markers... But they cannot handle watercolor washes.

So I colored this piece digitally. Had fun coloring it, but not as fun when I do watercolors and inks. Not a fan of digital work, as I am a graphic artist for 18 years now. Anyways, I hope people will love this colored version. Both the pen and ink and the colored version are available at the ART shop as digital prints. Digital prints are now as big as 30x24 inches. Do check them out...

Trollbloods Inspired Poster

Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! CIAO!

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20 x 30 and 16 x 24 ART Prints!

The wife claimed these 30 x 20 and 16 x 24 ART prints earlier today. Did not inspect them until just now. Man they are huge! The original drawing / illustration was drawn in a 15 x 20 illustration board, so basically both the 30 x 20 and 16 x 24 are picture blow ups. But they look so good! I have yet to print a 30 x 20 for myself tho, as I am afraid of the cost of having them framed.

Seeing your artwork blown up to 30 x 20 feels so good! I can stare at the huge prints for hours. I had all my ART prints printed at a KODAK photo print shop. They are a bit costly, but the customers paid for them anyways. NO extra income for both the shipping and printing costs of all my ART prints.

I will need to sign and number all these prints and ship them as soon as I can! I high recommend the 16 x 24s as they are the perfect size. But the 30 x 20 ART prints are so dang nice on any wall! Do check out the ART shop in the link below...

Trollbloods inspired Poster

Anyways, thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! CIAO!

All ART prints ship in durable plastic tubes!

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Digital Prints Are Looking Good!

I was supposed to meet my best friend from my old day job today, but I was carrying tons of plastic tubes ( for shipping the artworks and prints ), a huge roll of Watercolor paper ( for a couple of watercolor commissioned artworks ), tons of digital prints and a paper bag of food for my kids. So, me and my friend decided to call off our date ( insert emoji here ).

I am so stoked when I unwrapped the digital prints at home! All the photos here were taken on top of our dining table ( bad warm lighting ), and they look nicer in person! I don't know if it's just me, but seeing a ton of reproduction of my drawings, and the idea that I will be shipping this all over ( mostly US and one to France ) made me sooo happy today.

The prints are mostly 8 x10. But there are a handful of huge 12 x 15 and 12 x 18 prints too! The bigger prints, specially the POSTER ART I just did, look so darn good! I could just imagine the larger 16 x 24 and 20 x 30 prints! The larger prints take two days to process ( print ). Will be getting them by Friday.

I know it might sound HARD SELL, but I must say they really look so dang good! The colored artworks stand out so much, as the colors are so vibrant. The texture of the photo paper is matte ( but they have a shine in some angles ). Nevertheless, they are very good reproduction of my artworks. I am very glad I decided to have them printed at a KODAK Photo Printing shop, rather than in a normal home printer. It's not about saving cost, it's about sharing good quality prints after all.

I can't wait to see the huge 20 x 30s by Friday! I will then have to sign and number each print once all prints are here. I decided to make all the prints LIMITED. Giving them a bit more value in time ( specially when I die already - LMAO ). Artworks regardless of style, gain more value once the artist dies ( fact ). hehehe

Anyways, pardon for spamming all my social media accounts with photos of all these prints. I am just too happy seeing them on our dining table today! Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! CIAO!

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Trollbloods Inspired Poster DONE!

Just finished my very first Trollbloods inspired poster. All rights to the names and likeness of these characters belong to Privateer Press. This is just a fan art available in very limited number of copies.

There are only 35 copies left as of this writing. A couple of people also asked for reservations ( I have to figure out how to reserve in my automated webstore ). I had fun with this piece and I am very happy that people seem to like it! Work in progress photos of this piece are in HERE.

I might produce more posters for other factions. Thinking of Orboros or Legion next!

The LIMITED prints are available in the link below...

Trollbloods Inspired Poster

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Trollbloods Inspired Poster in Progress

All photos were posted at my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Page... But I felt like blogging about this piece, as it is taking me a bit long to finish it. This is a photo heavy post.

I wanted to create something big, something nice to help launch my ONLINE SHOP, So I decided to do this huge project. I am enjoying the experience so far... BUT, I honestly cannot put a price on the original piece. I will also LIMIT the number of digital prints as usual.

These are Trollbloods inspired characters from Privateer Press. I own a handful of Trollbloods miniatures and I love playing my small Trollbloods army against my son's Legion, once in a while. Needless to say, I love my TROLLBLOODS!

It's been a week since I started this project. I hope to finish it tomorrow or Monday. Not too sure if I can. I will surely be so stoked once I finish this. This is the biggest detail heavy illustration I have done so far. I actually plan to do some more.

I might do the other armies next! I might also do  Ghostbusters, TMNT and He-Man posters soon! Depends on the mood... artist's mood is very unpredictable! LMAO.

Finished poster HERE

Anyways, hope you'll enjoy the progress photos below. Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! CIAO!

A few close-ups of this poster...

I enjoyed doing both the furry coat of Borka and the foliage on the sides of the filler character.

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ONLINE SHOP NOW OPEN!!!

Decided to open the ONLINE SHOP on my Dad's Birthday! Should be memorable that way. I have been tweaking the shop for a few days now. Usually late nights when the WiFi is extra fast and I am a bit tired from sketching and drawing the whole day.

The ONLINE SHOP should be working fine by now. Product options, checkouts and pricing have all been set already. Customers should be able to create accounts and purchase already. Do check out the shop and the initial prints available. Will expand the print choices as I create more illustrations. Thanks as always for dropping by! LINK to the ONLINE SHOP below...

Don Suratos Online Shop

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Don Suratos Online Shop SOON!

Just finished the initial setup of my Online Shop yesterday. Uploaded a few artworks and did a bit of tweaks on the basic design. Still working on some settings and getting used to the admin page of the website, but I am pretty happy with the ease of use of the template so far.

Prices are all temporary. Me and wifey is to check the actual costs and shipping rates of selling these prints. We will also look into selling them on shirts. After working on some "Math" stuff, we should launch the Online Store as soon as we can!

I am also currently working on a series of character designs for an upcoming board game. You'll see glimpses of those drawings on my Instagram and Twitter accounts ( @don_suratos ). But will post them here, once I get to have a design approved by my client.

The "checkout" option of the Online Shop is still locked. But you could view the site and the drawings that will be sold there soon! As always, thanks for dropping by! Do check out our new Online Shop in the link below...

Don Suratos Online Shop

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Traditional Dip Pen Art to Digital Art

I love my Dip Pens! Albeit some clients like them traditionally colored ( with markers ) or digitally colored. I have this one client that needs the drawings ( illustrations ) for box art, manual and cards. Thus I scan my Dip Pen drawing and color them in Photoshop. The Aliens piece here ( and the project for Labmasu ) are perfect examples of Traditional ART to Digital ART.

As I've blogged here, there are various advantages between traditional and digital art.
I do enjoy both. And my current process of drawing on paper, and coloring in Photoshop, makes me produce a traditional dip pen and Indian ink ART, and a Digitally enhanced version at the same time.

Much like anything else, ART is a process. You need to enjoy making ART from pencil to rendering. An artist is in his own world from penciling to Photoshop work. You cannot jump to details OR you cannot be effective in any part of the process, if you did not enjoy every step of the process. ART is unlike office work where the boss jumps at the end and critic your work without understanding the process. Enjoy it and it will reflect in your final piece.

I hope you find this post insightful at the very least. Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! CIAO!

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The Grendel for LABMASU

I just finished this piece for LABMASU ( Italian Gaming Company ) today. Sketched the creature on paper using Staetdtler 4B pencil early yesterday. I got a couple of miniature model photos and a ton of description as guide. Me and the client went through the details and revisions of the sketch until I got the look of how he imagined the creature should look like. It was actually fun getting revisions online and showing the revisions right there and then.

Once the client has approved the pencil drawing ( much like all my other commissioned ART pieces ), I then scanned my drawing and colored it in Photoshop. Other than the fact that I am not too good with Photoshop ( old artist ), I really like that my pencil strokes show through the digitally colored piece.

The combination of my rough pencil strokes and the smooth transitions of digital painting, gives my piece a HYBRID Digital and traditional ART feel to it.

This will be a series of three ( 3 ) ART pieces for LABMASU. Next piece would be a Viking guy with a harpoon. Excited to produce the third piece, as it will be a battle between this creature and the Viking guy!

Anyways, thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! CIAO!

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