4/4/13

The Green Cave


Esta es la 3ª imagen que realizo en el formato de 4k. Creo que es un buen formato para paisajes, porque se abarca mucho más ángulo de visión y el efecto de amplitud espacio que se consigue es mayor.

Está pintado enteramente con Krita, desde el concepto inicial que era un speed painting (con más que nada los bloques de color y algun detalle, )a la fase final de correción de color donde la imagen dio un vuelco en la atmósfera.a mejor, según creo.

Desde el boceto inicial quería imitar un estilo de matte painting de pelicula de dibujos animados. con sombreados bastante planos y formas muy geometricas. Además tenía que separar mucho los planos.En mi cabeza creo que tenía imagenes de "el principe de egipto" algo así, vosotros direis si la imagen cumple esas expectativas.


Es bien sabido que me muevo mucho en la gama de los rojos y los naranjas.Pero no quería saturar mi book de rocas y paisajes en tonos calidos. Así que una vez terminada la fase de detalle decidí llevar la imagen a Gimp y hacer unas pruebas de cambio en el color. Usando algo muy sencillo que es color/auto/white balance. El resultado era bueno pero no lo suficiente. así que apliqué un efecto de Color Balance para conseguir la imagen final.

Bueno y para acabar unos crops en alta



resolucion. Saludos.

20/3/13

Cuando la tierra respira




Siento una especial fascinación por los volcanes y la lava. Aunque no he estado cerca de ninguno me hipnotizan los tonos anaranjados y el contraste entre la piedra y la roca liquida.
No se si son mis origenes Vascos, las piedras y las rocas me atraen. A la roca no le preocupa estar guapa, o tener la mejor luz. La roca es directa, es sincera y se desnuda ante tus ojos. Lo que ves es lo que hay, y lo que hay es mucho cuando se sabe mirar y te dejas llevar por las sugerencias de las formas, sombras y luces.

Cuando la tierra respira retrata la propia naturaleza interna de nuestro ser. Procedemos del Barro, de la tierra, y eso es lo que me dio la idea de la composición con dos columnas de fuego a modo de pulmones rodeando ua roca central como corazón.

Sobre la técnica
Pintado en Krita para poder manejar una resolucion grande 5000x6000px.
La mayoría de la textura es pintada aunque tambien hay algo de textura de lienzo puesta en modo overlay para que no quede tan digital. Lo demás es puro pincel redondo y horas de trabajo.



Espero que os guste.

8/3/13

El Nacimiento de los Nanth.




“Cada 100 años cuando se producen las auroras, los Nanths dejan su estado acuático y ascienden a la superficie para prolongar una vez más la especie. los llamados "humanos" lamentablemente descubrieron que en la transformación metafísica se produce una gran cantidad de Energía. energía que puede ser almacenada, expoliada. Usaron su inteligencia para dañar un ecosistema que ni siquiera les pertenece.Habitantes de otro planeta, viajeros parásitos que se apoderan de la vida de otros seres buscando únicamente su propio interés.

Yo, un Augurel contemplo como se llevan mi comida, el sustento de mi especie. Ya no podemos nadar en el mar para cazar a los Nanths como hicieran nuestros antepasados. No podemos usar las manchas sagradas de la atracción para acercarnos a ellos sin ser vistos. El líquido que nos envolvía se vuelve tóxico en nuestra piel por los restos de desechos que dejan sus extrañas criaturas mecánicas.

Solo me queda esperar, en silencio, sin que perciban mi inteligencia como una amenaza a su especie.
No dudarían en aniquilarme por pura diversión o lo que es aun peor ...por un miedo infundado. No entienden que antes de que ellos llegaran mi raza ya vivía aquí en paz. Ahora analizan nuestro suelo en busca de algo que llaman “metales preciosos” sin saber que lo más precioso que encontrarán sera la luz que irradian las auroras... ...luz que irradia algo que aún desconocen y que lamentarán conocer. Inocuo para los Augurel, pero mortal para toda otra especie.
Podría avisarles, tengo la capacidad de comunicarme y fácilmente la descifrarían. Pero no lo haré. Cuando lleguen a su planeta todos ellos perecerán por la epidemia. El secreto está bien guardado en los glifos antiguos de los Augurel.

Ese será nuestro legado en el dia del nacimiento de los Nanths.”

Nueva ilustración para mi Portfolio de 4k (landscapes en formato cine.). Se trataba de dar un mensaje. Una imagen que encierra un gran significado para mí. Desprecio por algunas características de mi especie “civilizada”. Es mi manera de decir que siento vergüenza cada vez que veo como explotamos los recursos del entorno, que por alguna extraña razón creemos que nos pertenecen. Una imagen con estética sci-fi pero temática muy actual.

Detalle a 100% del tamaño en Alta resolucion.




En el aspecto técnico he de decir que ha sido complejo dar tanto detalle. Pero siempre por debajo de l mensaje narrativo. La imagen original tiene 4992x2080px. Eso implica que todos los presets están optimizados para ese tamaño. Hecho en Krita 2.6. En el transcurso de la pintura he ido depurando los presets utilizados creando algunos nuevos y aprendiendo a usar mejor los que ya tenía. Creo que me estoy llendo un poco al estilo Gouache de las temperas o acrílicos opacos.( Al menos en algunas partes como la montaña de la guarida de los Augurel Y todo el fondo.

Cada vez estoy más satisfecho con Krita y sus pinceles de Color-smudge y las posibilidades de configuración que da. Además los asistentes de pintura son muy útiles para usarlos de regla y crear halos.

Espero que os haya gustado. Podéis comentar sobre lo que os ha parecido el mensaje o la técnica, cómo podría mejorarlo, como lo hubierais enfocado vosotros...

Happy Painting!

22/2/13

Winter Temple in Krita

 


Hi all, as i am painting more and more with Krita i decided to paint some 4K landscapes as personal projects. I have to say that i am very happy with the performance. I like the Blending capabilities with color-smudge and the assistants wich i used to set up the building in the scene.

My goal is to tell a story with each image. The same story that i am develope in my head when ideas came to my mind and i sketch them. I think if i make well my job there is no need of text and viewer can tell the story or at least feel the same mood like i did.

EDIT: 4 Feb 2013. 
 I have added the nightshot and Snowshot due to a talk with Daniel Pascual. He Told me my landscape wasn´t enough rough! and i said he was right so that night i painted the Snow shot to challenge myself to make a not so static landscape. Dani Thanks for pushing me a bit with your comments. nice talk by the way. Is a good resource to have friends with another point of view and constructive ideas. same for the NightShot story.


The next one will be more  related  with metal and surprises... Yes! Glows and Lights! The following image is a 100% detail of the whole painting, therefore you can see all the brushstrokes. To fill a 4K with lot of detail is challenging but the result worths the effort. I hope you like it.,


15/2/13

Book of Gimp. Review and video.


Hi all,
As you all know, I am always interested to know about new projects and the topic covered today is the best example.
Some time ago I was contacted by “No Starch press” to review one of their books called “The Artist's guide to GIMP by Michael j. Hammel.
It was a great Experience. No doubt is a good book that provides a good starting point with examples to increase our creativity or at least inspire us.
Today I present you my 2nd review. “The book of GIMP” .My first impression is This book is like and adventure and you feel like like Indiana Jones discovering lot of things, going deeper and deeper into the depths of GIMP. At the end of the book you will become a Gimp Expert if you follow the path of knowledge provided by Olivier Lecarme and Karine Delvare.

I thought it would be a good idea to review the book with a video not only text with some photos. So here we go. Is A HD video if you see it in Youtube :D



Book in General:
  • Presentation or look:The book is presented in a standard size for computer related books. It is about 650 pages full of text and images all about Gimp universe. So you can imagine the amount of knowledge this book is covering.
  • Amount of pages. 650 pages is more than you can read in several days. You can consider this book, your personal encyclopedia of Gimp. But that means you need to have patience and don´t give up as you read all the content.
  • Price. I think is very reasonable, Full color, 650 pages and lot of research done for you with tons of links. Of course you can search all the topics on google, but don´t you prefer just read the content and create your own works? I think is perfect for a newbie and also good for a more advanced user that wants to use the book as reference guide.
  • Content.It has a good order and layout because it shows 3 main different parts.
    • 1 Learning
    • 2 Reference
    • 3 Appendices
    And I have to say the more you use it, the more confident you feel with the program. Olivier has done a very complete range of topics. And this book is now on my shelve, because I am still learning things too.
  • Web support. Maybe you notice some photos look too small but wait.. no problem! The photos are also in a Website. This is a plus, you can watch all the photos with good resolution
  • Appendices. One of the sections that I didn’t expect to find in the book was the appendices covering things like visual perception, tips and tricks, resources links list. , and so on... I enjoyed it a lot and learnt a lot.

General info.

+1 for “No starch press.” to be an editorial promoting opensource publishing with quality.

25/1/13

Mongul The conqueror. Fan-art.



Title: "Mongul The Conqueror"

Mongul is a Character from the DC universe. First time i read about him was when i was a kid. He was fighting with Superman in Warworld.( One of the best comics that i read during my childhood.) Now I am able to paint him as i want, with all his strenght but in a quiet pose.I started this painting with SAI but, as i am not using SAI anymore i decided to finish him with Gimp and GPS 2. I hope you like this little homage to DC.  All the rights are copyrighted by DC. This is only for fan-art and fun.
Notes:
First aproach was more human than I wanted. So i decided to change his face searching more the "monkeysh" face with prominent forehead and very deep eyes. The Expression was hard to choose because he is arrogant,and the first face was more like "businessman" face :p. not happy with that. Finally i added him some scars as an artistic license. It is not a young Mongul but mid-age.

The Texture Work adds a very interesting "Classic painting" feeling. That is the reason for Dark Browns on the background. This helps to isolate the figure and make more important.

Contact: mirandagraphic@gmail.com
Website: www.ramonmiranda.com

I hope you like it , see you soon.

27/12/12

Colored Pencils effect in Gimp + G'MIC



Hi there,
This year is finishing and we have to think about our lifes and new goals.But before that i want to give you a gift: A new tutorial!

some weeks ago i started to explore G'MIC and i decided to mimic "colored pencils" technique using filters to achieve a more "human made" look. this is the result. Maybe i will put this in html format but for the moment there you have the PDF in English and Spanish.
I hope you liked it. If you want to improve it or share your results with me i will be pleassed to see them. Thanks for your comments and sugestions. 

bye and see you next time... well year? ;)

DOWNLOAD english version
DESCARGAR versión en español

Edited: 28/12/2012
A video !

19/12/12

Color Study 30min


Hi all, yesterday i was playing a bit with colors and different styles looking for a not realistic mood. This is the result. I Think clouds are interesting , different and a bit abstract in shapes .
After the painting session i was playing a bit with G-mic to add some effect. really nice Pluggin for Gimp. and very versatile to mimic classic techniques look.

I hope you like it.


9/12/12

Gimp Magazine Issue #2

BOOM! Here it Is.:D the Issue #2

http://gimpmagazine.org/

Hi there! Gimp Magazine #2  is Out!. this issue is full of interesting content if you want to spend a bit of your spare time learning more about Gimp and the Gimp-Users. I recently discover the project and i found it very interesting and fun!
also, the presentation or better said, how it looks...cool.  A good layout clean and easy to read. So check it out!

Thanks to all the team that makes this magazine possible. great resource.

Español:
Hola a todos! Gimp Magazine Nº2 está ya disponible para descargar. Este número está lleno de contenido interesante si quieres pasar un buen rato aprendiendo más acerca de Gimp y de los usuarios de Gimp. Hace poco que descubrí este proyecto y lo encuentro muy interesante además de divertido. No es un inglés muy complicado de leer.
La presentación está cuidada y tiene buena apariencia. Un layout facil de entender y de leer. así que ¡échale un ojo a ver que te parece!

Gracias a todo el equipo de gimp Magazine que hace esta revista  posible. Una buena fuente de conocimiento.

¿cómo mejoraríais la revista? se admiten sugerencias, ellos encantados y nosotros más.

19/10/12

Gimpusers Challenge 1st Place



Click the image to see the finished painting.

Hi all,
some months ago, Gimpusers made a contest with new gimp 2.8 release called . Create a nature landscape scene in GIMP! The subject was Nature or Landscape Painting with no "human technology arround". It was a nice subject and i decided to present my image and see what hapens with it.Thanks Gimpusers crew for organize all the contest.

I had a good idea in mind about mood and color palette, but there wasnt too much details. After few hours of work the landscape turned on in a classical See landscape with rocks and lot of foam in a "emotional-realistic" style. I won the compo so thanks for voting me. and thanks also the others people who presented their works, they were beautiful images too.

Here is the image. If you want it, you can see the "Making of" opening the original file with all the layers separated in 5 stages group layers. Is Not very usual to see these kind of files, but the compo required and here it is, enjoy it :D. Also the image was produced under the CC terms so you can share it freely and post on news or social media, respecting the CC limits.

I hope you like it, thanks for your support and comments.

2/9/12

Vulcano Land Making of.



Recently i published this image on my DeviantArt.and here on the blog. I thought it would be fun to share with all my viewers a bit of the process involved to make it. So there you have...The Vulcano making of!
Click on the image to read all the tips and see it better. questions, ideas and critics on comments or by email are very welcome. I hope you like it.




Vulcano Land in Gimp!


"Vulcano Land" is my last picture done in Gimp 2.8 with GPS.
It is a foreign place where fire rules. I enjoyed  a lot playing with the smoke effect ,fire ,glows and these kind of things. It has a lot of work on textures  painted by hand and using also some photos and painted over again. 
I love orangeish tones and this was a perfect test for stability on Gimp 2.8 . 0 Crashes!
with 20 layers divided in groups and masks. here is a capture showing the layout.



As you can see , there is a good amount of info separated in layers. This way the image is more versatile. Really happy with the group layers but i saw that needs to be refined as always , so more good things to come for 2.10, Who knows.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0  artwork : Ramon Miranda ([link])

Software : Made with Gimp 2.8 +GPS2
Tablet: Intuos 4 S
Time aprx 16h
Total Layers: 20
If you have more questions , just comment ! and i answer as fast as i can.

1/9/12

NEW set for KRITA software (2.9 or later)



EDIT:09/09/17

As i have noticed, there are lot of visits to this page! :) Well, honestly These are old presets that i created for Krita and i think maybe people is missing my newest ones. So if you are interested in my Presets packs, here you can find much better designed pack. Enjoy it!


DOWNLOAD: Krita Preset Pack by RamonMiranda

And this is the post where i explain what does it have the new bundle.
http://www.ramonmiranda.com/2016/02/muses-dvd-preset-pack-in-bundle-format.html

 BTW i am thinking about to make new presets again so stay tuned. ;) And thanks to Jacob for letting me know that the link was broken.