creative process

The Creative Process Explained

Richard is always asked how he produces his artwork. With traditional mediums like coloured pencils, oils, acrylics, graphite and pen and ink, people can understand the process more easily as they’re widely used. You can walk into any gallery and see examples on show. But digital painting is the new kid on the block. Richard is privileged to know some of the best digital illustrators and artists around the world through Facebook. If ever you want to learn how to do something, just ask the experts online – for free. 

He has been using the digital drawing board starting with a Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch tablet finally settling on the Wacom Cintiq 24HD Creative pen display digital drawing board which is commonly used by many on Facebook and Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks. Richard also uses his iPad Pro which is brilliant too; so versatile and convenient. With the iPencil and the Procreate App, any artist would love drawing and painting digitally. Procreate also gives you a final video too.

Year on year, this form of art is becoming more understood and accepted in the art establishment and galleries around the country. Digital artists are starting to be noticed and recognised, especially in the illustration world which covers a whole multitude of form. Take a look around you now. Packaging to your goods, book illustrations, magazines, cards, video covers – one can go on – have mostly been produced by digital means.

Richard has included this page on his web site to explain the process further by adding a link to a Wacom video explaining the process of digital painting and step-by-step demonstrations for each of the Chumleys Art genres on offer here: Architectural Illustration; Caricature & Cartoons; Digital Painting; and Fine Art.

Wacom cintiq 24hd creative pen display

This is the digital drawing board Chumleys Art has used since 2012. It’s a huge lumbering piece of amazing technology that allows you to draw directly on the screen using a pressure sensitive pen that picks up every nuance of drawing traditionally but on a digital board.

He uses Adobe Photoshop software as his digital palette, but you can also use many other programmes such as Art Rage, Sketchbook Pro and CorelDRAW programmes. 

It has many, many great features but above anything, it is precise and natural — it is a weirdly non-synthetic experience. You are pushing pixels, but it feels like pigment. Richard has created oil, acrylic, graphite and pen & ink brushes to paint with. 

It is considered the industry standard for hand-drawing in the digital space but Richard also uses this for his virtual reality 3D modelling work too. From drawing sketchy lines and cross hatching to building up a painting through many layers of textural brushstrokes and blending, it is the most important tool in Richard’s studio.

This Wacom display is far from portable, though, but then Richard uses an iPencil and iPad Pro with the Procreate App when away from the studio or just sketching ideas and concepts but it’s also great to use a good old-fashioned sketchbook, of course. Wacom do provide a portable Cintiq for mobile use now as do many other companies so illustrators have a wealth of digital pen displays and tablets than ever before. 

Hit the drawing board image for a web link to find out more information on the Wacom superb range of displays and pen and touch tablets. 

Robin Hood Digital Painting by chumleys art
European Archery Championships 2016

Cartoons and caricature

illustration & digital painting

fine art & traditional media

pen & ink and sketchbooks

VR Illustration & cgi

Chumleys Art YouTube Channel
Step-by-step Demonstrations
Art & Illustration

The YouTube Channel showcases many years of artwork. With commissions, especially when using the Procreate App in the iPad, records the screen as you draw giving me the opportunity to show clients and social media followers just how I create each piece of artwork. YouTube is also great in learning off other like-minded artists and illustrators for continual improvement.

Chumleys Art Vimeo Channel
VR Visual Animation fly-through & Process Video Productions

The Vimeo Channel showcases the many projects Richard has produced over the years, working with a whole raft of clients across many industries and sectors.  Videos are uploaded as private or restricted viewing until projects go live on the web, sometimes many months later so please check back to see new videos as they become live.