Art & Creativity

Herk Deco - 29th Weapons School Edition

2008-07-26T21:45:00.010-05:00

A Weapons School Herk Deco print is now available at mabrooks.com

Everyone Gets the Blues

2007-09-28T10:25:00.000-05:00

Spread Open Media

2007-05-16T22:57:00.000-05:00

Well, it looks like I'm one of the winners for the Spread Open Media logo design contest. It was held on www.openclipart.org 's website. Of course, the day I found out that I one was also the day the website went down. It has not yet come up. I'm not sure who the other winners are or even which specific entry they picked (you could submit more than one) but all my designs were based upon the symbol of the phoenix. Open media formats, like the phoenix, will often go through phases of reinvention. Not always from its own ashes, but that happens too. I don't see any other mascot suiting the open media format more than the phoenix. The goal of SOM is to spread the word. The more people know about open media formats, the more likely consumers and eventually content providers will embrace this format. No more liscensed windows format or JPEGs. That's the goal.

Illustration Friday: Super Dude

2007-01-19T17:32:00.000-06:00

When I saw the Illustration Friday topic this week, I figured...great! I've got something. Now this is only a quick sketch I did, but I had fun doing it. I like the lines you can get using the scratchboard tool in Painter IX.

In Progress: D,NTP! 1

2007-01-16T23:20:00.000-06:00

I sketched an idea for this painting well over a year ago. I was deployed to the desert at the time. After my first deployment, I always brought my laptop and Wacom drawing tablet. While I worked hard, I was in the Air Force. I wasn't suffering field conditions like the most of the Army and Marines do. Still this wasn't home. It was a long walk from the latrine back to my hooch, especially in the middle of the night. On my way back to my bed, from the latrine one night, something funny hit me. No, David Letterman didn't give me a quick jab to the face, although he has travelled often to entertain the troops. It was just an idea, and I knew that I needed to capture that thought before I lost it. So I sketched this idea out.

Now, you're not seeing the whole idea here. Or even the sketch. This is the underpainting for my project: D,NTP! I'm leary to even mention the title beyond the abbreviation D,NTP! But I feel I need your help. After all, I'm just a hobbyist. I plan to add much detail and even some more elements, but what should I do about the color? I want that hazy feel at the bottom, but I think it's too blue. If you have any suggestions for color, please add your comment.
I hope you'll join in the D,NTP! Project with me.

-MB

Illustration Friday: "Gravity" - Charged Worlds

2006-12-29T23:47:00.000-06:00

"Charged Worlds"

Back in the 90's I created a series of space paintings. Corel Photo-Paint was my tool of choice and I found that making space scenes were easy. It's been years since I've dabbled with any kind of space creation, but recently I stumbled upon work by Greg Martin. I was totally blown away by his work.

I decided to go back and recreate one of my favorite stellar paintings, Charged Worlds. I was originally going to reuse the planets I created and just repaint the starfield, using Greg Martin's technique, but I decided that maybe I could do better if I started from scratch. Swapping between Corel Photo-Paint and Adobe Photoshop, I recreated the planet and it's moon. Then with the help of Greg Martin's tutorial I painted a new starfield. KPT filters helped me with the sun and some of the other stars. Positioning everything on different layers allowed me to move things around, non-destructively, until my composition was complete. While, no Martin masterpiece, I'm quite happy with the result of a few hours of work.

The Mighty Hercules

2006-12-01T17:34:00.000-06:00

I'm a pilot by day and artist by night, but no matter what time it is I'm always a big fan of the Mighty Herk.

Up and Running

2006-10-25T06:50:00.000-05:00

Well, I'd like to say that the moving process is done, but it's not. While the boxes are all unpacked, we have a storage room of empty boxes. I guess we're hoping to sell them. I still can't park in the garage either.

The good news is that I've been able to sell my artwork again...and they're selling. I'm hoping that in a little more time, I'll actually have time to start painting. I have my two "Premier Airlift" paintings to finish and a tribute painting for my inlaws' 50th Wedding Anniversary.

I need to get the anniversary painting done soon. I hope, that as things settle down, I'll have more time for creativity. See you then.

Moving

2006-10-02T17:46:00.000-05:00

It's been a long summer. If I were a teenager, that'd be a good thing. It would mean I was getting to spend extra time at the beach and goofing off with my friends. Unfortunately for me, it just means that I spent the last several months working hard. I'd like to say that I spent all that time furthering my career, but nothing could be farther from the truth. (aside: Did I get that further-farther thing right?)

No this summer, I moved. I moved from Texas to Arkansas. That in itself may not seem like much, but it was. I've never liked moving, but after this summer I think I've developed a pyschosis about the whole thing. God forbid the day we move again.

Needless to say, I'm here. I'm in my new home and I'm getting settled in. I did sell a couple paintings during the madness, but not a lot. After all, I put a note on my website saying I wouldn't be available. Now that I've established myself some, I'm hoping the sales will pick back up.

I have so many projects that I would like to start, but my real job keeps me busy these days too. It's tough moving. I have to restablish myself there too, I guess. A that'll take longer than just unpacking some boxes.

I hope to see you all online and even better, at my online store.

-MB

Happy Father's Day: A Father & Son at War

2006-06-13T01:14:00.000-05:00

As Father's Day approaches I think back to my own father. He's been dead now almost a year, but his legacy lives on in me. That legacy included two things. The first is patriotism. Although my Grandpa Brooks never served in the military, he taught us all respect for the flag, for our leaders, and for ourselves as Americans. Grandpa Brooks passed down that patriotism to my father who served in Korea during Vietnam. My dad was only a soldier for a short time (just a few years), but he was proud of his service and thought serving was a noble endeavor.

He passed that on to me. I enlisted straight out of high school. While he was an expert in the use of motars, I was POL. A fuels truck driver for the Air Force. Eventually, I went out, got a degree, and found myself flying in the Air Force. While his war to him to the Southeast Asia, mine took me to Southwest Asia. I too, think military service is an honorable endeavor. It has been my life for some time now.

While I love the Air Force, my father's other Legacy, art, has been my passion. Dad used to create anything out of wood. Painted ducks, carved mermaids, wood burned plaques of different animals or Native Americans. He was my hero in that regard. My own art has taken different forms; I've drawn and sketche with pencils and charcoal, painted with watercolor and acrylics, and created all kinds of artwork digitally. This photo collage is my latest. It's my father (Big Mike on the Left) and me (Little Mikey on the Right). His original photo was taken in Korea during Vietnam. Mine was taken in Afghanistan not too long ago.

I hope this is an appropriate tribute to my father. I miss him.

Illustration Friday: Portrait

2006-06-02T07:53:00.000-05:00

"Velvet Elvis" - Digital Drawing (Painter IX)

On the Corel newsgroups someone asked if a velvet Elvis style could be simulated using Corel's painter. I gave it a try and think it can (used a chalk brush, I believe...maybe a pastel as well). Anyhow, for a quick drawing, I like how it turned out. When portrait popped up I thought I'd add it to Illustration Friday.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The Blues" - Digital Painting (Painter 6)

Just a quick painting testing out Corel Painter 6 back when it was new. I was also experimenting with elongated features that you sometimes see on people in various magazines.

"Touch of Class" - Digital Painting & Photo Collage (Photoshop)

This was a quick illustration using Bryce, Photoshop, Corel Draw, and Painter. I rendered the C-130 with Bryce, designed the nose art with Draw and used Photoshop to place all the elements. Then I went back and applied a filter or too and began painting on top switching back and forth between Painter and Photoshop. The final touches were done with Photoshop.

Herk Deco: Custom Open Edition

2006-04-07T21:33:00.000-05:00

Herk Deco has become my most popular pieces to date. Because of it's popularity, I have gone back to it and refined the image. I found out that parts of image (edges of some letters) were being covered when matted. I worked with a framer to ensure that when using standard matting overlap, no part of the image will be hidden. I think I've fixed that now.

When I resized the interior part of the image, I realized that I had learned a lot about my craft since I originally created Herk Deco. As such, I completely overhauled the C-130. For the most part it will be transparent to anyone but me, but one may notice slight differences on the larger sized prints.

I originally designed Herk Deco just for the 40th Airlift Squadron, but I found that others were interested in it as well, so I created a "50th Anniversary of the First Flight of the Herk" edition. While I currently have no plans to make editions for other squadrons, I have decided to create a custom, open edition.

What is a Custom Open Edition? Well first of all, an Open Edition means that an unlimited number can be produced. Since, I print them in small batches (usually one at a time), I don't have the limitations of traditional lithography. Kodak will produce a photo print on request.

What does the Custom part mean? When I drew the first Herk Deco, I created nearly everything by hand; the clouds, the Herk, and all the text (except Tactical Airlift). Mind you, if I could have found the fonts I wanted online, I would have just typed all the text. Instead I created "The HERCULES", "FORTIETH" and "50 YEARS" all by hand. Much later I found fonts online that weren 't exactly what I originally envisioned, but were still in that moderne style. Of course, I wasn't going to spend $120 for the Casablanca font I wanted, so I created my own version of the font. What does that mean? It means I can easily customize your Herk Deco print.

I am currently only selling an 8 x 10 version, but may produce 16 x 20's in the near future. I have to sets currently ready for production: Aircrew & Support. The following Aircrew Herk Deco prints are available (AVIATOR, PILOT, NAVIGATOR, FLIGHT ENGINEER, & LOADMASTER). On the Support side, I have (SUPPORT, MAINTAINER, CREW CHIEF, LIFE SUPPORT, INTELLIGENCE, & ADMINISTRATION).

I can put almost anything job title at the bottom. Ten letters is the recommended maximum, but I could probably do up to 15 letters without compressing the text too much. If you're interested in a custom Herk Deco, send me an email mike@mabrooks.com.

My Pirate Name

2006-03-07T23:03:00.000-06:00

My pirate name is:

Mad William Rackham

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Premier Airlift - Abilene

2006-02-28T14:14:00.000-06:00

Here's the first upload in my new project, entitled Premier Airlift - Abilene. It's one of 2 paintings the series. (Can it be a series, if there is only two?) Anyhow I haven't taken the reference photos for the next in the series, but it will be entitled Premier Airlift - Dyess AFB.

In this first one it's Downtown Abilene facing the south. I'm trying to feature the Paramount Theater, but it's difficult when it's drowned out by the other buildings. I'll do my best to honor it though, but it's tough to do that in this sketch. I still need to value study and determine exactly what colors I want to do. I'm really trying to emulate the style of old aviation posters...like those by Kerne Erickson

Alarm Red For Sale

2006-02-23T20:55:00.000-06:00

Well, not only is the painting complete and printed, but I've flown it into Balad Airbase, Iraq. They are signed, numbered, and ready for sale. These are truly limited edition prints.

There was a time when I didn't understand why prints were sometimes called Limited Edition. I learned that lithographs require a metal printing plate to produce the individual prints. Because the plate wore out after repeated print jobs, after awhile it could no longer produce quality prints. Depending on different things a plate was good for 500, 700, 1000 prints. That's why they were limited.

These days, even traditional artists will use alternate methods of making prints rather than the traditional lithograph. Giclee has become the most popular. While Giclee has often been associated with the Iris printer, it's really a generic term for fine art ink jet printing. Digigraph is another term used.

Computer or digital art have long sufferred from the stigma of being less valuable than traditional media art. The truth is, digital art is just another medium to be creative. Most digital artists out there today, do not import a photo , and press a button that results in a painterly work of art. Most digital artists, like myself, often use a pressure & tilt sensitve stylus to draw & paint their creations with. Unfortunately until the development of fine art quality ink jet printers (these printers cannot be purchased at Best Buy or Circuit City) there hasn't been an avenue for digital artists to reproduce and sell their artwork. Giclee & Digigraphs have filled that void. Unfortunately, unlimited number of prints can be produced by these methods. So what makes them special? How can they be limited edition?

That's the question that faced me. I wanted these prints to be special, so I had 100 giclees printed on a fine somerset velvet watercolor paper and flown into Iraq. The chances of me producing another 100 prints and having the opportunity to fly them into Balad Airbase are pretty small. I've already sold 1/3 of these limited edition Combat Prints. I enjoyed painting Alarm Red, I enjoyed personally flying them into Iraq, and I would enjoy selling my remaining 2/3. If you are interested, stop by my online store for more information.

Thanks

-MB

Alarm Red: Final Update

2005-05-22T19:17:00.000-05:00

Alarm Red is complete! Or I'm just fed up. Technical difficulties painted me into a corner (pun intended) where I couldn't add some of the hidden elements I had envisioned. That said, I am satisfied with the final result. I'm still looking for a printer, but I hope to have this ready for sale prior to the holiday season to be sure.

I'm still working on the details, but I plan to have 500 printed in two separate editions. One will be a standard Limited Edition print signed by me. The other set will be a Limited Combat Edition Print. The latter set will be flown into Balad AB, Iraq and signed by me and by the Squadron Commander of the unit who inspired this painting, 40th Airlift Squadron - Screaming Eagles. Those of course, will be sold at a premium. -MB

Alarm Red: Update 4

2005-02-07T23:23:00.000-06:00

Believe it or not, this isn't a big update. Finally the Herk show's its face...or rather its tail as it were. This is a really rough version of the Herk at this point. This project is going slower than I intended. My goal of having it completed by Valentine's Day looks is just a dream now. But I am making progress, and I wanted to show you that.

Right now I am painting the C-130 on its own layer. It's allowing me to reposition it should I need to. I had intentions of using a 3D model to paint from, but I scrapped that idea and am painting the Hercules from photos I've taken. At this point I've basically just blocked in colors...but with the image here on the blog at like 5% of the full size, it doesn't look that bad. I'll have to post little sections of detail as I get them done.

-MB

Alarm Red: Update 3

2005-01-30T23:14:00.000-06:00

If you've ever flown into a field visually, after awhile there are landmarks that you just pick up and remember. Maybe it's an oxbow in a river that points you to final. Sometimes it's a building or a road that shows the perfect place to perch from. I realized that the fields before the approach end weren't quite accurate enough...I did a little more research and fixed them. Now it isn't perfect, but I've also gone in added quite a bit of detail. You can't really see it with the image this small, but it's there. One thing you will notice is smoke in one of the farmer's fields. This isn't the result of a motar attack. That'll come later. Flying around Iraq, especially around Balad, there always seem to be some kind of fire burning.

I'm finally ready to start roughing in the Herk. I've got a lot of new reference photos to paint from, but I didn't get the exact angle I wanted. I guess I should have brought a ladder. I've built a 3-D model of a Herk, which I'll rotate and light to the proper perspective. Unfortunately my 3D skills are limited, it's only a reference. I'll have to use the new photos to figure out how to paint the details. That's next! Hopefully the difference in the next update will be more dramatic.

-MB

Alarm Red: Update 2

2005-01-08T21:19:00.000-06:00

Believe it or not, there are a lot of changes to this painting in this update. You can see the East side of the base coming in a bit more. I didn't have enough reference photos, and my memory isn't good enough to rely on...so I hit the internet today. GlobalSecurity.org has a great website. They had some satellite imagery that helped me place buildings where they needed to be. I am taking some artistic license, but I want it to be at least somewhat accurate..

I'll try to include some close ups on my next update. I want you to be able to see some of the texture and brushstrokes. There's still a lot of work ahead. I'll be roughing the Herk in soon. One of the great things about digital painting is the ability to paint in layers. So far I have painted everything on the canvas layer, but the Herk will go on it's own layer. That way I can adjust its position to get the best composition possible. I'm still hoping to complete this painting before Valentine's Day, so keep checking back for updates.

-MB

Alarm Red: Update 1

2004-12-28T16:34:00.000-06:00

I lost a lot of work when my original painting got corrupted. The focus will be more on the right side of the painting, but since I had already completed a lot of it, I've decided to start working on the left side. You can see the buildings going in and the tree line as well. I still need to work a bit on the Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters, but you can't really see them in this small of version of the painting. I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm getting there.

I still need to get some more reference photos before I start painting the Herk in the painting as well. I need some additional helicopter photos from above to paint the quick reaction force. It's coming together though.

-MB

Alarm Red

2004-12-27T13:47:00.000-06:00

The Commander of the 40th Airlift Squadron commissioned me to create a new painting. Alarm Red was to be a depiction of a Herk full flaps on final at Balad Airbase in Iraq. He wanted the painting to give you the feeling you have when you're actually on final landing into an airfield shortly after a motar attack; the smoke in the air, the sense of danger, and the knowledge that you're bringing our ability to fight...directly to the fight. Tactical Airlift bringing beans, bodies, and bullets on time and on target. Fear Tac Air!

I spent a couple months, on and off, painting Alarm Red to wake up Christmas morning and discover that the file had been corrupted. I don't know if it is a quirk with the new version of Corel Painter, but I lost everything. I had to start over. So I spent Christmas repainting it. I'm still using Painter IX, but I'm saving the file in the Photoshop format. The painting above is the first iterative save. Stand by for more....

-MB

Welcome

2004-12-26T22:30:00.000-06:00

The website has been up in one way or another for years now. And the longer it's been up, the more I have become passionate about creating. As an untrained artist, I've turned to the internet for both support and inspiration. I've found useful tutorials and amazing pieces of work online. And as the internet has evolved I have moved away from Guestbook and towards blogging. I sometimes like to keep some of my projects secret and show it only when it's finally done....but I as a viewer myself, I like to see other artists' paintings progress. So I'll write journals for each of my new paintings. You can see where I'm going...maybe where I've made my mistakes, and you can even comment or offer suggestions. Please do. I'm a growing artist. If I can't take criticism, then I should just keep my art to myself. I look forward to any comments. Thanks for visiting.

- MB