Jonathan Topliss Art Blog

Finished wallpaper illustration. © Jonathan Topliss 2012 The...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:22:00 +0100

Finished wallpaper illustration.

The images I create are FanArt and created for my own amusement and learning, and not for any kind of commercial gain. My art/site is in no way affiliated with the companies that own these characters. Any use/replication of them for commercial gain would probably be frowned on.

Coming soon! The walking dead cartoon.

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:42:01 +0100

Coming soon! The walking dead cartoon.

Finished illustration, Perfect size for wallpaper on a Mac :) ©...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:17:00 +0100

Finished illustration,

Perfect size for wallpaper on a Mac :)

Coming soon! still got his trousers and hands to finish.

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:18:55 +0000

Coming soon! still got his trousers and hands to finish.

Because I’m Batman! Finished illustration. © Jonathan...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:42:35 +0000

Because I’m Batman!

Finished illustration.

Little screenshot of something im working on :)

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:27:06 +0000

Little screenshot of something im working on :)

An Inspiration

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:04:46 +0000

An Inspiration :

This man is an inspiration, I don’t think there is a blog out there that is as important as this one. Iram leon has brain cancer and its a blog about his achievement of winning a marathon while pushing his daughter in a pushchair. I have so much respect for him and my heart goes out to him and his family. I truly wish them all the best.

Well here it is my guide to making your images look retro. For...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:44:22 +0000

Well here it is my guide to making your images look retro. For the tutorial I used a royalty free image. Its best to use a high quality image and remember that the effects work best for this image. But feel free to change percentages to what you feel is right. Remember this is just a guide. Happy Photoshopping :)

Little illustration I have been working on of the admen team...

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 10:21:24 +0000

Little illustration I have been working on of the admen team where I work. Produced in Illustrator.

Retro retouching tutorial coming soon! Even works on yummy...

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 09:56:00 +0000

Retro retouching tutorial coming soon!

Even works on yummy food!!

Did this little comp of a retouch I did along time ago. I...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 11:53:00 +0000

Did this little comp of a retouch I did along time ago. I became heavily inspired by a photographer called Dave Hill. His style is almost illustration but it was more about the grain feel and how everything was sharper. So that was my mission, I wanted to figure out the fast solution. So after trial and error I came up with a simple and fast way to get a simular outcome. Sooooo whats the secret? High pass filter and a overlay on the layer. Thats it! one simple effect in the filter tab of photoshop used twice can create this effect.

Image taken from a royalty free archive.

Well I thought I would upload another set of stages. Its not far...

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:21:21 +0000

Well I thought I would upload another set of stages. Its not far from the finish now, still really unsure with it. I can not seen to get happy with it. But I don’t want to quit so im going to carry on. I think its going to be one of them pieces that I will just not be a 100% with.

So any tips, hints or advice is more than welcome.

As always feel free to like, comment and follow.

Ok so last year I started a digital painting of the grandpa...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:14:58 +0000

Ok so last year I started a digital painting of the grandpa munster and the last update I did was in stage 2. So in looking back on files I came across my digital painting and with the weather being like the north pole and also forgetting to bring the notes for a band logo, I could be working on. I thought what the hell, while I have the chance I will continue with my painting. So to be brutally honest the last time I worked on it the only words I can think of are what a load of crap. I hated it! I wasn’t happy with what I was getting and im still not 100% with the way im going about this painting. So I figured if I start blocking shades, then I can get to a stage where I am happy then refine after. The beauty of photoshop! I am using a graphics tablet for this peice and it is just a small wacom bamboo and im pretty sure I would benefit from a intuos or them cool screen ones that I have no idea what they are called, So I am gonna refer to them as the cool screenie ones :) I think if I had a cool screenie one, I would be a lot faster and probably less mistakes cause its right in front of me like a pad/paper. But as they are far too expensive I will just have to carry on with the one im using :(

So thats it any tips, hints or advice is more than welcome :)

As always feel free to like, comment and follow

3D paper Admen. How they were made. So its time to blog the...

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:46:00 +0000

Final outcome

Stage 1: How the models will look

Stage 2: How the models will hold thinks and start of the Illustration

Stage 3: Ready to cut

Stage 4: All cut out

Stage 5: Making process

3D paper Admen. How they were made.

So its time to blog the steps taken. So to give you a bit of background on the making of the 3D paper models. Basically a friend of mine designs 3D paper models of superheroes, which you can download and make yourself at My Paper Heroes So I had a go at making up ironman and that was it I was hooked! so me being me I was inspired to try it out myself. Not being sure of what to do I decided I would make a 3d model of myself. Then it became ‘I have a great idea lets do all of my work colleagues (what an idiot I am!)’ so the process was to mock up a cutter for the position and statue of both a male and a female which you can see in the stage 1. so this was a process of messing until i had a idea of what people will be holding etc.

In the image of stage 2 you can see that I started to add a idea of how the illustration would look. I did the illustration in illustrator. I took references (photos to work from) of the people and just worked straight on the illustration in illustrator. Because i’m lazy and can not be bothered to draw it by hand first and it saves time.

Anyway once I was happy, I started work on the faces, which I saved for last cause of them being the hardest thing to work on. When I was completely happy with why illustrations I printed them out on A3 and started work on cutting and modeling.

With already making mock ups of the characters. I was confident on how to assemble (that and the fact that in the prototype stage I must of made about 5 models as practice). So I was defiantly sure they were going to work :)

So as for tips on making these models! From experience they can be really fiddly, but i wouldn’t say complicated. I found that making up the iphone was a pain it was so small and I got threw a few print outs of the phone. So advice if its small make copies and print out a good number. Next advice don’t use scissors, its to much hard work cutting out little pieces. So use a cutting mat and scalpel, but change the blade soon as its blunt as it will cause the paper to fray. Another tip don’t use pritt stick glue it makes the paper curl and can become dirty, so try double sided tape it can be cut down and its a lot easier to work with. A tip my friend gives with his characters is when making the heads, to stick the neck part together, and then stick the rest of the head together afterwards. I found that this did help with mine.

As always Like, Reblog and Follow and of course check out My Paper Heroes and try making your favourite superhero :)

A little project I was working on before Christmas. A friend of...

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:32:55 +0000

A little project I was working on before Christmas. A friend of mine designs 3D paper characters of superheroes (My Paper Heroes). So I had ago at making up Ironman and I was hooked! I decided I had to make one myself. So not being sure of what to do I decided I would make a 3D model of myself. Then it became ‘I have a great idea lets do all of my work colleagues (what an idiot I am!)’ So the process was mock up a cutter, re-mock the mock as it was basic, lots of messing around with paper and scissors, then work on a cartoon illustration to map on. Then make the things (which are fiddly!)

I will upload the sets taken in a later blog :)

As always Like, Reblog and Follow and of course check out My Paper Heroes and try making your favourite superhero :)

Picture of me working on my John Lennon drawing. As always feel...

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 10:39:19 +0000

Picture of me working on my John Lennon drawing.

As always feel free to Like, reblog and follow :)

2013!

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 12:06:00 +0000

Well all being well that the world does not end on friday! 2013 must/will be the year when I get myself into gear. I have a lot in store and need to start making stuff into a long awaited reality.

First of my drawings. I’m going to set a task of doing a portait a month. Going to create a collection of celebrities and start work on portraits. I’m not sure as to who so any ideas???

Also going to start a 30 day challenge where I have 30 days worth of drawing ideas so for example day one could be draw a eye and day two can be draw a bird etc. This should be a good practise and a good development over time.

More illustrations are a goal currently working on a spiderman illustration that needs to be finished. I plan to do a lot more. Mainly comic book heroes.

But probably the most important is to make a start on my Jim and Pippin episodes. i’ve had ideas sketched out and even attempted a start at animation, but this needs to come to life and I need to just make it happen.

Final idea is some sort of comic but this needs some thought as to direction.

So this is my list and I need to stick to it if I dont then 2013 will just be like 2012.

Closer image of my John Lennon drawing. #johnlennon #beatles...

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:17:10 +0000

Closer image of my John Lennon drawing. #johnlennon #beatles #drawing #art #sketch #pencil #portrait

Christmas Illustration I have done for where I works Ecard and...

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:37:17 +0000

Christmas Illustration I have done for where I works Ecard and Facebook cover photo.

Captain America Illustration Time Lapse Screenshots of the...

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:03:00 +0000

Captain America Illustration Time Lapse

Screenshots of the steps taken to produce my Captain America Illustration in Photoshop. Basically all I used is the pen tool and gaussian blur and the odd time the smudge tool and nothing else, NO WACOM PEN! Just a normal mouse and lots of shapes :) I know what illustrators will be saying why not just use Illustrator, well I like Illustrator and I have done lots illustrations in the software, but I carn’t help but think the effects are a bit to mechanical you want a perfect brush stroke you can get it, but like drawing with a pencil not every line is perfect. So I kinda like photoshops more fluid effects.

Lost track of how many hours was spent as it was a off on project. Im pleased with the outcome. But like most stuff it may be one I revisit to tweak or add more. I was struggling for ideas of how I should approach the background. I tried buildings and stuff but just didn’t look right so I went with simple splash of colour.