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Here's where the rubber meets the road. This is where it all happens. The learning that is. Finished images are nice but we need to get there somehow and for me and many other artist's that I know it's through our sketch books. The interesting thing here is that these sketches aren't even in a sketchbook yet and I'll tell you why..

In order for me to really throw caution to the wind and draw without restraints I often just carry around printer paper with me and draw on that using a ball point pen or Micron pen. Anywhere I go I'm doodling on these pages trying to work out movement, form, ideas, characters, anatomy, personality, etc…I want to be able to draw without limits and to touch that freedom you have to put in the work on the page. By drawing on plain printer paper there's no pressure because it's just scrap paper right. You can throw it out if nothing good occurs. That's the beauty of it though. That's the frame of mind you need to explore, and challenge yourself to understand the things you need to know in pursuit of your understanding as an artist. These images have been scanned from many pieces of paper and complied here to show you some of the thought process that goes on behind the scenes.

Page 1…(random images that I feel were successful in trying to accomplish the things I'm working on)

Page 2…(Most of these images were drawn together on the same page)

This is a fun image that I used to try my hand at painting fire, combustion, and mayhem.
The reason this image is important to me is that I realized drawings in my sketchbook can easily be imported into the computer and developed further using a painters thought process in photoshop. Right now it's all about study for me so I'm continuing my education with this image.

This is natural subject matter for me due to the time I spent in the Marines as an air traffic controller. I was surrounded by and interacting with Fighter jets for 5 years of my life. I've even seen a few planes crash at airshows.

I'm trying to learn by drawing subject matter that's natural to me while I'm working on things like perspective, lighting, and value. You'll even notice that the structure of the plane is not correct. This is because I'm used to drawing things of an organic nature. I'm approaching more structural items in an organic way so that I don't get too tight with the drawings. One day, if I get to train in an industrial design fashion I'll be much better versed at creating more perfected man made structure. Right now though I'm good with slowly incorporating structure into my organic tendencies..

My two critiques about this image are:
1. The fire seems like it could look hotter to me. Could probably accomplish this by using darker colors around it to create contrast thus brightening the fire.
2. Pretty sure the smoke on a engine fire might be black coming out of a jet. I'll have to check reference for that. Maybe not but there's where research comes into play which I did none of for this image..

Mayday…

As some of you who are very close to me know, I'm fairly obsessed with my continued study into painting, drawing, and my ability to design. You can say that I'm kind of a late starter in the serious study of art and design having begun this path around the age of 26. The past 14 years have been jammed with the study and creation of art in various forms. At this point in my development I'm really focused on pulling all the pieces together and I've got my mind set on becoming a conceptual artist for the movie and video game industry. I'll hopefully be applying to FZD school of design this year and attending their one year certificate program. That's one year of drawing 12-16 hours a day just focused on learning. This is the type of experience I want for my development. If I get into the school I could be starting in Oct 2012, however I'm not waiting till then to begin my education. I'm using numerous video tutorials from the Gnomon Workshop and the FZD school's free tutorials (Created graciously by Feng Zhu) to pursue this education now. I'm explaining all this because I want to be clear of where my inspiration is coming from and give proper credit to the people and resources that are helping me…
Here are two images that I created recently.

> The first is a painting of a knight that I did to study using value and color to complete an image without the use of line or drawing. This is painted from a photo reference that I found online but I've changed it up a bit having to add the lower part of the body. I found this very helpful to paint. I learned a lot and that's the point..

Knight Study..

> The second image is based on a tutorial on FZD where Feng created two zombie knights. I wanted to try creating my own character but some of the things that I gravitate towards like natural materials. I envisioned this warrior to be roaming the arctic terrain. This would be the gear that's used in warmer weather made of local materials and adorned with animal skulls and trinkets that speak of a shamanistic nature. I just realized that a good exercise for me to do would be to design the winter combat gear. I'll work on that soon…

Arctic Warrior..

I've been hard at work teaching myself how to create environments that depict scale with the help of the amazing set of free tutorials over at the FZD school website. I want to personally Thank the creator of those videos (Feng Zhu) for all the work that he put into them. Feng Zhu is one of the top conceptual designers in the Entertainment industry. I've learned a lot so far but I'm just beginning. Thinking about applying to the one year design program. I'll let you know if that happens. Here's some of the studies I've done so far..Let me know in the comments below how you like them…

Biplane Race..

Prehistoric Forest.

Seal Team..

Well, there's a whole list of reasons why it's fun to make Matte paintings. It's not just that they look cool but, for me, it opens up a whole new world of dialogue as an artist. Matte painting is something that's used for creating environments for TV, Film, and Gaming. It's an exercise in creating stories and that's what appeals to me the most. I just started learning about it and so far I've been having an interesting time getting my feet wet. I'm generally teaching myself the ins and outs of it with the help of some dvd instruction from the amazing artist's over at The gnomon workshop. I am in no way affiliated with them, just a very happy customer of about 5 tutorial dvds. I've learned a lot from them and I'm using that knowledge to move my self along as an artist. Here are a couple of quick black and white environmental design comps that I did. After I had a few compositional sketches completed I opened up a cool image that I had in my image library of Scotland and decided to try my hand at making a matte painting. Check out the results below. I'm personally very happy with where this is taking me…

Here's one of the first environment sketches I did in photoshop. Very loose, just trying to sell some depth in the image and an interesting composition. This took about 10 minutes to do.

Here's the second one I did. Again this was quick, about 15 minutes. Just working on creating an environment with some decent scale to it…

Here's my first matte painting. My intention was to incorporate the Asian buildings into this Scottish landscape. Please understand that I am just beginning with this. I realize this would not be suitable for an actual Matte painting but one day through practice I'll create something that will be.. I find this process interesting because your starting out with some kind of mood or feeling and then your allowed to build whatever world you want right into that landscape. It might be too early to tell but I think I'm hooked..

MATTE PAINTING, I call this "The BonnieLand"

This is a 12 foot tall by 240 foot wide collaborative mural accomplished in the summer of 2010 by the following artists:

Peter Bragino
John Bragino
Kevin Corcoran
Lisa Distefano
Christine Kane
Jeff Slack
Jennifer Quinn
Sonia Vera-Leon

I designed this mural as a 4 seasons cyclical theme starting in winter on the South wall and ending again in winter on the North wall. It's painted inside a 120' tunnel and both walls were painted to complete the cycle of the seasons. I gathered some of the best artists I knew to come down and join me in the creation of this mural. My brother John shot a documentary while we painted this.

Here are two versions to view. The top one is a wider format so you can see more of the mural at one time. The bottom is for checking out details. Enjoy!!

This image has been through many stages to get it to this point. Here's a list and a good reason to embrace technology as a tool for art…

To the "I AM HUMAN" show at Theceeflat Gallery in Greenpoint Brooklyn on October 1st, 2011.
Figure drawings created at our Friday night drawing session will be on display and for sale.
Artists in the show include Myself (Peter Bragino), Mandy Gor, and Kevin Corcoran.
See our bios here >

I hope to see you there!!

> Visit the Facebook Event page here.. <

A friend of mine asked me why I draw with a ballpoint pen the other day. When I first began learning to draw the figure I chose to work with pen initially so I couldn't erase. The thought process of having to accept and work with the marks that you put on a page still intrigues me to this day. It generally forces me to be braver when I draw and that always helps create more dynamic drawings, mistakes, and nuances that identify me as an individual. I like to see the struggle of the artist on the page and using a pen or any other permanent tool to make marks with encourages that. Here's some images drawn with a Ballpoint pen.

This is a drawing of Craig who regularly attends the Draw Humans sessions at Theceeflat.

Here's a few drawings of Gestural poses. These were about 2 minute poses

Here's a complete figure drawing from a 20 minute pose of Laura

"Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium." Henri Matisse