digital Archives - Rodney Pike Art

Jay Z – 2018

Oct 12, 2018

Rapper Jay Z

Shawn Corey Carter, known professionally as JAY-Z, is an American rapper and businessman. He is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, having sold more than 100 million records, while receiving 21 Grammy Awards for his music. The man with the million dollar lips. This image was a poster commission from a while back. I have many of these in my store and have had some requests to add a little flare to some of them so I reworked this one and several others. All are available in my store now and several more on the way. I’ll be posting more tomorrow.

Interview with Jay-Z
Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Caricature of Baron Colossal Schnoz

Dec 1, 2017

Caricature of Baron Colossal Schnoz

Todays post is a study on caricature exaggeration, namely a big nose. I wasn’t sure what to call this one so I came up with Baron Colossal Schnoz which I thought was original. By chance, I decided to Google search the term and it led me to the Wikipedia page of American singer, pianist, comedian, and actor Jimmy Durante who was famous for his big nose among many other things, so I guess it was appropriate. I started off with this British figure who had an arrogant look about him and wanted to push the exaggeration of the face. My original intent for this piece was to exaggerate the nose to an extent that it would make up 50% of the mass of the entire head. I fell short of my goal but I think I hit a good 30% of the mass of the head. This is no small feat. I do know a caricature artist who came pretty darn close in a caricature of Fidel Castro. This great artist is Sebastián Cast and is incredibly talented. You need to check out the amazing work from this young artist. I’ll add his Castro image at the end of this post. As I was saying about the exaggeration, I was going for several things here. The exaggeration of the face with the huge nose, the color scheme which is something I’ve been working on lately as well as the arrogant nature of the subject. I hope I got close in at least one of those areas.

Below is a brilliant caricature of Fidel Castro by the great Sebastián Cast. Click on the image to see a recent artist feature I did on Cast after I received the painted portrait of me. What an honor to be in his portfolio.

Fidel Castro by Sebastián Cast

I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

American Singer Songwriter – P!nk

Nov 29, 2017

American Singer Songwriter – P!nk

Alecia Beth Moore, known professionally as Pink or P!nk, is an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. She was signed to her first record label with original R&B girl group Choice in 1995. The label, LaFace Records, only saw potential in Pink, offering her a solo deal. Choice disbanded in 1998. Pink rose as an artist with her debut solo album, Can’t Take Me Home (2000). It was certified double-platinum in the United States and spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hits: “There You Go” and “Most Girls”. She gained further recognition with the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack “Lady Marmalade”, which gave Pink her first Grammy Award as well as her first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100. Pink took more artistic control and pursued a pop rock direction for her second album, Missundaztood (2001). It sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and yielded three US top-ten singles, “Get the Party Started”, “Don’t Let Me Get Me”, and “Just Like a Pill”… Wikipedia

This is a manipulated caricature of American singer-songwriter P!nk. It was originally requested by a friend of mine on DeviantArt and has been published several times. It was also an entry in an international before and after Photoshop contest. I’ll include the source image at the bottom of post so you can see what I started with. I’ve taken the original and spiced it up a bit as I’ve been doing many of my old pieces while my back is healing. It’s great practice. I’m learning a lot about color and these can be done relatively quickly so I’m not sitting behind my computer for days on one piece. I’m doing my best to cut loose on the color and not hold back. I’ve been playing it safe too long. I still have a long way to go but I have a since of where I’m headed now with my new work. Well, I hope it’s a good direction and you like the work that I’ll be posting in the coming months and starting through 2018. I’m having a lot of fun as I experiment and learn along the way.

Original Source Image:

A Sneak Peak at P!nk:

I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Rodney Pike Digital Art Summit Caricature Demo

Mar 9, 2014

Above is a caricature study of Joschka Fischer who was the subject of a Digital Art Summit I was invited to be a part of by Tim O’neal of Digital Paint Magazine, as well as a 90 minute teaching video and caricature demo from start to finish. Click on the image below for viewing details.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day and be inspired!

The Rodney Pike Project 2014

Jan 22, 2014

On a whim two years ago, Gigi Fotieo, the founder of the Digital Media Academy at Lake Nona High in Orlando, Florida decided to email me and tell me how she is inspired by my work and my story. She told me about the “Rodney Pike Project” she does with her Digital Media Academy students. The first part of the project involves the students studying my work in order to grasp an understanding of what makes my caricatures interesting. The second part involves researching different techniques and tools within Photoshop that can be used to do these manipulations. The final part of the project is to put that research to the test and use Photoshop to manipulate a celebrity portrait in the “Rodney Pike” style. I showcased her students’ work on my websites last year so that my 2.4 million plus followers on Google+ could see Lake Nona High School Digital Media Academy students’ work. For the second straight year, Gigi, her students and I are excited to Showcase the winner of the “Rodney Pike Project” 2014, judged by me. I’m a huge supporter of the arts for our youth and am privileged to share this among my social network.

Gigi Fotieo has been teaching for 19 years with Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Florida and is the program coordinator and instructor for Lake Nona High School’s Digital Media Academy. She founded the Digital Media Academy at Lake Nona High in 2011. Students in the academy can earn Adobe Industry Certification in Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, InDesign, Illustrator and Premiere Pro. Not fulfilled by a career as an accountant right out of college, she decided to pursue a much more fulfilling career as a high school Career and Tech Ed teacher. She earned her National Board Certification in Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood/Career and Technical Education and is a Certified Adobe Education Trainer. You can learn more about the academy at teacherpress.ocps.net/LNHSDMA.

Congratulations Jasmin Quinones!

Below are a few words from Jasmin and more samples of her awesome Photoshop work.

My name is Jasmin Quinones and I am a 16 year old junior at Lake Nona High School in Orlando, Florida. My interest in Photoshop began in my sophomore year when I took Digital Media 1. I haven’t worked with Photoshop long, but it has definitely become something I love. I think it is awesome to be able to take a photo and change it or to create something from scratch on the computer. There is so much to do with Photoshop and I’m excited to learn more.