DaveRapoza

March Q&A - another video with my face in it - pt. 2

Watch the video here! 

Hey!

Hope you're doing well! Here's part 2 of the March Q&A - a lot is addressed here - martial arts, darkness, discipline and how to deal with negative family members - we covered a lot of ground together!

If I addressed your question but you feel I didn't fully get what you were after, please feel free to leave a comment below and I will follow up!

Th...

March Q&A - video with my face in it - pt. 1

Watch the video here! 

Hey!

Hope you're doing well! Here's part 1 of the Q&A from March - I split this up to maintain my energy so I'm not slowing down on the question answering a couple hours in - instead, this one is around 1hr 26min. Around the end of the video I do a short preview of the current PDF I'm putting together surrounding most everything I've done up until now and how I did it - studies, ro...

Robo Head - Grayscale Process Gif + PSD

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Hope you're all well! I wanted to share with you a small piece I did to play with the grayscale approach I used to have while working in Photoshop. This was more or less a test to see if I could apply this same look to concept art without it looking out of place. I think this works well for what it is and I've seen a ton of artists use this approach successfully in their client work but I tend not to use it too much. That being said, it is always a great way to knock something out ...

Concept Art - StarVeil + How I Approach Concept Art - Video + PSD

Watch the video here! 

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Hope you're well! Here's something I've been meaning to cover - working in concept art - I'm just coming off a job working on a video game as a concept artist and, while it's still fresh, I wanted to cover my advice/approach to working on games/movies. I also attached the PSD of the character I show in the video process as well as the brushes - 2021-03-25 04:20:14 +0000 UTC View Post

The Basics - Current Process // video with commentary

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Hope you're well! Here's the latest Basics video covering my process using the Mixer brush(attached in the snowman brushes) as a means of final render, or rather - just part of the final process. I think that this approach lends itself to a more naturalistic oil style painting, which is something I've been after since I started that Symphony of the Night piece a while back - truth be told, I've been looking for something like this for forever. 

If you'd like the chalk br...

March Q&A - leave your questions here!

Hey!

Hope you're well! Please feel free to leave whatever questions you like here for this month's Q&A - you can ask me anything personal/professional or otherwise. Go ahead, ask me how many rats I've eaten, ask me about my glands, ask me if I can predict how much longer my dog will live without actually taking it's life with my bare hands - I'm open to it all!

Looking forward to answering your questions! Talk to you soon!

Thanks as always for your support!

Dave 2021-03-14 07:37:49 +0000 UTC View Post

Persona - Makoto & Ann

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I'm back at it! Added in Makoto, began rendering her, going to add more characters as I go, but this is coming along quicker now that I'm using the approach I outlined in the latest Basics video coming later today(Sunday, March 14th). A big thank you to Wes Burt for hooking me up with a beautiful mixer brush that has helped so much - it's included in the Basics video post but is also included in the Snowman post. 

As well as starting Makoto, I went back over Ann and bega...

Fran - Final Fantasy XII - High Res + Walkthrough PDF

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Hope you're all well! I wanted to share with you the current process I've been playing with for quicker blocked in paintings. I'll go into a bit more depth with the Basics video on this process as far as the steps & brushes go, but I felt this would be a helpful walkthrough to share in the meantime!

Also, I've included the high res of this piece if you'd like to zoom around and look at the detail or print it out for yourself.

I used 2021-03-08 06:05:18 +0000 UTC View Post

The Walking Dead - Mural Breakdown // Video w/Commentary

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Hope you're all well! First of all, I want to thank you for the huge amount of replies I got to the message I sent out to you all. I read every response, I couldn't thank you enough for the sheer amount of relief you all brought me, the stress was getting to me for sure this past month so I really appreciate it - I also address this in the video!

I wanted to give you a breakdown of what I did in order to create this giant Walking Dead cover mural - I also attached some high r...

Snowman + Alien concept // layered PSD's + process video(no commentary) + brushes

Watch the Snowman video process here! - this video is real time, nothing sped up, runs for 2 hours w/Dark Souls 3 ost

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Hope you're well! Here's two new concepts, I did these with a focus on trying new techniques. Both use the brushes I attached to this post, I sketched everything in with the chalk brush, smoothed things out with the blender2021-02-21 04:51:50 +0000 UTC View Post

Live - Blackbirds RPG Character Concept

Come hang out!

Bloodborne - Drawing Ludwig video w/commentary + brushes

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Hope you're well! Here's the Ludwig drawing video I've been talking about for a bit, this goes through the process of detailing out all the line art as well as my thoughts on the style I've chose so far and the time it's taken me to work through the piece. I've also included the brushes used in this video as well as the brushes I've been using to complete my most ...

Ann - Persona 5 & Bloodborne - Orphan of Kos redo!

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Hope you're well! So, I wanted to share where I'm at with the Persona 5 piece as well as what I've done to the Bloodborne piece. I spent a good amount of time staring at the Bloodborne piece really feeling like it wasn't up to par with what I know I'm capable of, I couldn't shake the feeling that it just wasn't going to end up looking good. I started on the Persona piece because I needed to take a short break to really think about it - the Living Failures & Maria were feeling l...

January Q&A - Part 2

Watch video here! 

Hey!

Hope you're well! Here's the follow up to the previous Q&A where I had to end things a bit before the final questions. I hope this covers everything you were looking for, please ask whatever follow up questions in the next Q&A questions post. 

Thanks as always for your support!

Dave

Venom 34 - Walkthrough PDF Breakdown

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Hope you're well! Today I wanted to share the process involved in my Venom #34 cover, done for Unknown Comics. This one is slightly different for process because I leaned more into the soft round airbrush type look for all the detailing throughout the entirety of this one. It's likely more in line with what I did on the My Hero Academia pieces. 

I also attached the brushes I used on this one to the post here - as well as the PDF download!

I hope that this is helpfu...

January Q&A - pt.1

Watch the video here! 

Hey!

Hope you're well! Here's the January Q&A, it's going to be split into two parts because of the sheer amount of questions I go this time around, there were over 80 and we usually only cover around 60 in these, so, to avoid me becoming totally void I decided to do another video either tonight or tomorrow to cover the rest of the questions!

As always, if there's anything fr...

Ann - Persona 5 wip + Bloodborne thumbnail video w/commentary

Bloodborne thumbnail video -Watch it here!

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Hope you're all well! I just wanted to quickly share what I've been doing to continue to test my grayscale approach as I move a bit closer to doing a full basics walkthrough of this specific style. So far I really like the results, I think it's getting me the quickest finished look out of anything I've done thus far.

You can see from the wips ...

Bloodborne - update - Ludwig, Maria, Living Failures, Laurence

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Hope you're well! I wanted to post up an update today around the Bloodborne piece I've been working on - so far, so good, I think things are coming together pretty well! Something as ambitious as this piece was beginning to feel a bit overwhelming when it came to filling in all the tiny little details on all the bosses, but I think I've found something very helpful in the brush I used previously for the Dragon Quest VIII hero. This brush is called "plastic wrap", it's from 2021-01-31 22:38:49 +0000 UTC View Post

Hero - Dragon Quest VIII - high res + step by step walkthrough PDF

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Hope you're well! I just wanted to share something I worked up for you all yesterday - it's my approach to working through quick, painterly, portraits - this approach takes me around 1-2 hours generally and leans more toward the oldschool rpg aesthetic than the recent My Hero Academia stuff that I shared. 

I included a PDF(which is also in the pictures above) that walks you through my process for this style - I find that this is a great way to knock out covers if all you...

Bloodborne Update! + Draugr Necromancer MTG step by step GIF & PSD

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Hope you're well! Here's the latest update for the Bloodborne piece - working up placement on all of the bosses and the eventual looming hunter and background elements. I'd say the hardest part of working on this one so far is the sheer amount of detail that each boss has to them - not to mention the often vague reads they had to their structure, which is great for the game's atmosphere and horror, but difficult when attempting to depict them!

I'm using a grayscale approach i...

January Q&A - leave your questions here!

Hey!

Please feel free to leave whatever questions you'd like me to answer in this month's Q&A video! You can ask me anything, doesn't have to be art, you can ask why I sweat beneath my fingernails, how do I grapple with looming dread, or what is my favorite type of fluid to submerge my body into - anything goes.

Looking forward to talking with you all again and being a human!

Thanks!

Dave

Super Metroid - Draygon - Walkthrough Video 1hr 22m w/full commentary

Watch it here! 

Watch it (without music) 

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Hope you're well! Here's the video process I mentioned for Draygon from the Super Metroid poster - most of what I use during this process is covered briefly in the Grayscale to Color tutorial I posted recently. 

If you have any further que...

Bloodborne - thumbnail/comp sketch

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Hope you're good! Here's the latest progress on the Bloodborne piece - this is a thumbnail for the piece, I'll use this throughout the process as reference of where to place lighting, figures and overall tone of the image. I went with the iconic hunter from the concept art/cover and I decided against doing a single enemy as it did not suit the composition how I would've liked. So, I axed the idea of just Ludwig and instead went for the bosses in "The Old Hunters" dlc, I thought the...

Bakugo - high res + PSD & Bloodborne sketch

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Hope you're well! Here's another My Hero Academia character, Bakugo! The reason I'm actually doing these is because I wanted to plan something in the future and was hoping to target a style to approach that piece. This Bakugo was really quick, around 3 hours, so it's not totally emblematic of what the future piece will be, I'll definitely be putting more time into that one. All I'll say about that one is that it'll uhhh, be, well, Yu Yu Hakusho. 

Also! Here's my work tha...