Tony Montaño

3DTotal

2012-01-21T17:53:00.000-08:00

My Akiko illustration was recently accepted into 3DTotal's online gallery. I am very honored to get their nod of approval. I will also be creating a detailed tutorialof my Akiko illustration and will be added to their 'Making of' section on their website. AND my illustration will be featured in their 2D Artist magazine coming out in February. I am so excited!

Akiko

2011-12-23T11:31:00.000-08:00

Well, here she is... meet Akiko. I began painting my friend and talented artist, Akiko, since the beginning of this Summer. What started out as a regular portrait painting... eventually evolved into this final illustration, which I am really excited about. For the past few years I have been eager to explore into fantasy/concept/surreal illustrations. I feel this is my first successful step into that. Stay tuned for more illustrations like this. I've got a lot of things baking in the oven and will show more teasers soon. For now, enjoy this one.

So close...

2011-12-04T16:24:00.001-08:00

This should be my last teaser/update for this illustration. Just have some final tweaks, details, and coloring to do. My computer almost exploded when I last saved this haha. When I started this illustration it started out at around 11x17 inches @ 300ppi (horizontal)... ended up at around 30x20 inches (vertical) somehow because of some composition changes. After about 300 layers... yea that's right... I reached 2GB and things started to get really slowww, which has never happened to me on this newer computer. I'm back down to a normal file size, layer count, and canvas size now - so now worries.

Paint paint paint

2011-11-22T11:21:00.000-08:00

So far this week I have made some decent progress with this illustration. It's amazing how fast it's been going since I've been on vacation. Still aways to go, but I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's been way too long since I've painted hands. Hands are just as hard or even harder to render than portraits.

Progress...

2011-11-19T07:44:00.000-08:00

Thought i'd give you another update. After many months of saving I was finally able to get a Cintiq. This thing is a beast. I tried a 12wx before awhile back and liked the feel and natural response. Been saving ever since. The first couple of sessions with it were a little different and my workflow needed to adjust slightly - less keyboard and more Cintiq buttons. Overall the experience has been great and I am loving not hitting cmd + z as much.

Here are a couple of teaser shots of my progression with one of my illustrations. Still aways to go, but felt worthy to share. I'll be taking more reference shots here soon for the scarf and rest of the body, so things should look better from here, I hope. I know most of you want to see more sketches and finished work posted, but I am taking my time now with each illustration and painting. Hoping to deliver even better, higher quality, full, and even a little content/narrative driven illustrations rather than my usual portrait/caricature studies. I have several paintings started, but it'll take awhile to get them thought out, rendered, and worthy to share. This next week I have time off from work. I have not had a vacation since August 2010, so trust me i'll be painting for myself as much as my eyes and hand can take, plus enjoy family and friends.

2011-10-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

Thought i'd share a couple of teasers/progress shots. I've been crazy busy with my new, awesome gig. Hoping to get into a new groove to share more sketches and progress shots. My new works are requiring a lot more time and careful rendering.

Update...

2011-05-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

The last several months have been really busy, hence a lack of cool artwork posted, sry :( After graduating last Summer I immediately started working freelance for studios in and outside of Idaho... designing, illustrating... trying to get as much experience as possible. Most, if not all of my spare time has been taken up so I haven't been able to produce any new work. After about 6 months of working freelance I found a talented studio in Nampa, ID - Curious Media. We made a great connection and now I illustrate and design for them full-time. Life is good :)

Now that I am done with school, i've found my full-time gig, ...it's time to get back to creating work just for me. I have some big things planned: new body of work, website update, and more frequent posts on here. Stay tuned. Thanks for all of your support!

Self-portrait sketch

2011-03-12T15:17:00.001-08:00

[up close]

Thought I'd share a sketch I have been working on.

Society of Illustrators 53

2010-11-18T13:18:00.000-08:00

AWESOME NEWS: My painting of Cheryl was accepted into the Society of Illustrators 53 show. I am so excited!

Update

2010-10-03T14:18:00.001-07:00

I just updated my website with some new works. Check 'em out!

C.R.B.

2010-09-03T10:21:00.001-07:00

This is a portrait I made for one of my illustration/design friends. It feels good to be painting again :)

Mark Twain

2010-06-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

Been busy getting artwork ready for my upcoming website portfolio. Here is one of my finished illustrations that will be on my website. More work coming soon...

2010-06-12T00:27:00.000-07:00

LOST

2010-05-23T18:50:00.001-07:00

Charlie and Locke. I have been a fan of LOST for awhile. Finale is tonight. It's been a great show. Hope you enjoy these two caricatures ;)

Concept Landscape

2010-05-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

Concept landscape. This was a lot of fun to make. Experimented with brushes and color treatments. I hope to create some more soon.

2010-05-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

Samurai drawing. Tried just using the lasso tool and harsh/flat brushes. This was inspired by a great artist, Rich Anderson.

Abstract fun

2010-05-18T23:35:00.000-07:00

Just playing around with shapes and brushes.

2010-03-21T00:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posts. School, work, and internships keep me busy. Here is a fun illustration I just made. I began with a pencil drawing, referencing another artist's photograph (model mayhem), but adding tentacles for hair. I then scanned my pencil sketch into the computer, added a paper background, added color digitally using different blending modes (multiply, color burn, overlay, etc). Rendered the face and added some abstract textures and lines. I made this for a collaborated art book. I should be able to post more work soon. Spring Break is just around the corner ;)

Fear

2010-01-21T21:47:00.000-08:00

Fear illustration. Digital painting.

Short step-by-step...

2009-11-23T09:44:00.000-08:00

Here is a short step-by-step tutorial that i quickly put together. This is one of the ways I like to work digitally. I still have some work to do on the subject (mostly the hair), but I thought I'd share a little bit about how I work and how I do my digital paintings. Enjoy! :)

2009-10-02T21:27:00.000-07:00

2009-09-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

Been busy lately, which is a good thing ;) but I thought I'd post something I did this morning real quick. Can't wait till LOST returns early next year.

Obama

2009-08-19T10:33:00.000-07:00

...

2009-07-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

This guy was pretty fun to sketch briefly...

From my sketchbook...

2009-05-18T15:18:00.001-07:00

Some quick sketches of random people and a few hand studies. Drawing and sketching everyday is very important to me, even if it's on a napkin that gets thrown away later... but I try to always keep a sketchbook with me. So if you haven't sketched anything yet today, find something to draw with and get to it!

Morning sketch...

2009-04-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

Morning sketch of Mark Twain. I'll be working on him some more... just wanted to post something on here since I haven't for awhile :)

Sketches...

2009-03-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

Jim Gaffigan and Adrien Brody sketches... I will spend more time with them, almost have their likeness down.

"Get to da Choppa!"

2009-01-20T12:35:00.003-08:00

I was just sitting on my computer checking the usual sites and blogs... when I caught a glimpse of George Bush and his wife get into a helicopter on the tube... I started to think... I've never done a caricature sketch of George W. ..., so here you go... here's a rough sketch of our former President.

Morning sketch...

2008-12-29T11:27:00.000-08:00

Just a quick sketch I did of Edward Norton this morning. I enjoyed seeing him as the new HULK... he has a pretty cool face... hopefully I can do more sketches of him soon.

Poynter Institute 2008 Election Book

2008-12-27T10:31:00.000-08:00

The Poynter Institute selected a bunch of newspapers both nationally and internationally to be included in this book. All of them are front covers of the 2008 Election. They selected Boise State University's newspaper, The Arbiter, of which I was one of the newspaper's non-paid illustrator interns. My illustration was one of the lucky ones chosen. I had an interview with one of the reporters from the Poynter Institute too... kinda cool for me because I don't get a lot of recognition. I am very honored to be included in this book :)

...

2008-11-21T10:42:00.000-08:00

I was looking through one of my sketchbooks today and noticed this random sketch I did in class weeks ago... kinda liked it so I thought I'd post it...

Obama Wins!

2008-11-05T12:24:00.001-08:00

I worked on this yesterday evening into the wee hours of the night for my internship at The Arbiter. I started with two paintings, one of each candidate winning, but at around 9pm last I decided to just concentrate on the Obama one... turns out I made a correct choice haha. This was a fun illustration, but done very fast and somewhat sloppy. If you zoomed in on my original you'd see a ton of loose paint strokes, messy lines, and very simplified renderings. Painted in black and white and then added color afterwards. I also added in a motion blur of the hand and arm, I think it looks cool. I did several sketches before hand... but I spent about a total of 6 hours on this one, which isn't a lot of time for my usual work. Learned a lot from this painting though. Simplified forms and big brushes can go a long way :)

This was a fun sketch...

2008-10-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

Had some time today to do this sketch of Obama and McCain... I might possibly turn this into a painting later...

Something I'm working on...

2008-10-13T17:51:00.001-07:00

Something I'm working on currently.... stay tuned...

Charlie...

2008-08-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

This is Charlie from ABC Lost TV series... can't wait till the next season starts up again!

Random stuff I'm working on...

2008-07-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

Here's some things I'm working on... Morgan Freeman and Obama.

Hugh...

2008-07-14T15:07:00.001-07:00

This is my final illustration for my online class.

Benicio update...

2008-07-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

Spent a good amount of time today working on Benicio Del Toro. All done in Photoshop thus far. I still have some rendering to do on his hair, facial hair, suit, and small places in his neck, but it's coming out pretty cool. I intend to color it after I have it finalized in blk/wht, although it is looking kinda good in a limited palette... we'll see what I end with :)

Benicio Del Toro

2008-07-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a sketch that I did this morning. I think it could turn out well in either a black & white painting or full color. I will try and do another sketch of him before I begin painting... although I will need to go and buy another sketchbook soon... I am down to 3 pages left :(

Finished...

2008-06-03T21:28:00.001-07:00

I did some final renderings on this citizen caricature. I think he kinda looks like one of those garden gnomes. I should have spent more time exaggerating than painting though...

Eddie, Jack, and Paris - Digital

2008-04-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

I will be including these 3 Illustrations in my 2008 BFA Show at Boise State University.

My digital work - Bruce Willis

2008-04-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt making a caricature in Corel Painter X, and digital painting for that matter. I still have a lot of learning to do. This Illustration was shown in 2008 The Society of Illustrators - Student Show.

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