Insomniac

My first client of the year was a great friend, Matthew Coffey. He had requested of me a cover for his first album, Insomniac. He had a particular idea in mind, and we worked together over several days to flesh out what he wanted. In the end, this is what we came up with!

It was a lot of fun working on this project, as Matt gave me a lot of room to play around. The initial sketches looked quite different from the final product!

Please take a moment to give a listen to the incredible creativity and talent in Matt's first album Insomniac

First step: Initial sketch. We had the idea of the Man picking a piece of his exploding head, but Matt felt it would be better to have him not acknowledge his head at all. We changed it a little more, as he wanted the Man to look more Alien...

 After moving the hand, and having the idea of the heads' glow illuminating the title behind him, we started to make him look less human. I was pulling out all the stops I could, adding ideas of glow, fins, spikes, tentacles, and even wires! Matt loved it all, so it was a go ahead...

 Establishing a rough outline now, Matt decides he wants the hand to hold a glowing sigil. I start working on my anatomy, and get the basic forms figured out...

Once I move around some of his features so that they are in proper scale, I get on the colouring. I have a palette on the side of  my workspace for easy reference...

Starting to get the reflected sources of light bouncing off his skin, and adding lots of glow. Figuring out what the background will look like...

Almost done the Aliens' body, and getting the template down for the background. Decided upon a skyline of sorts. Matthew worked on the text graphic while I finished the main colouring, adding even more glow, some sub surface light scattering on the skin in front of light...

After all is said and done, this is what we came up with! The process of concept sketch to final product was not a terribly big difference, but it was very fun!

Please feel free to visit Matt's website for his album Insomniac!

Insomniac

Tribute to Davy Jones

As many people know by now, my favorite character of all time is Davy Jones from The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest and At Worlds End. I even have a movie replica of the Key to his Chest! Since the image I originally posted for this was way back in college, I figured I'd post it again up front. I hadn't changed the image since then, except for flipping it horizontally. 

I have not to this day spent so much time on one single piece of work. Davy Jones took me a cumulative 40+ hours of work. Studying over a dozen screenshots for colour reference, I painted over a sketch I had done. Even after all these years, I am blown away by this. I might even hazard to say I was entranced while painting, absorbed and transfixed to complete the perfect tribute to my favorite character. I still stare in wonder how I had pulled it off, but I had. Sub surface light scattering FTW!

Out of interest to study Davy a little more, I rendered this out in graphite over the course of a couple days. It taught me a lot about using values to show depth. I only hope that I may get so passionate and driven by my own characters that I may be able to render them in such detail. I have too many characters to know where to begin!

This concludes my Tribute to Davy Jones! Many thanks to Bill Nighy for breathing life into this incredible character! No one else would have been able to do him justice!

Up next I have completed an album cover for a great friend!

Expo Posters Part II

Onward to the next set of posters done for the Expo. This batch I think are my top favorites. My exploration with colour deepens, and my designs get better. These three images all have their own stories, so let us not waste any more time!

First up we have the Carrion Runner. This odd bird like creature is a scavenger in the desert. It runs at high speeds from it's predators, and can make some very strange mating calls. I had fun making him, and even more fun playing with colours. The background is a blurred stock photo, so I know backgrounds will be the next on my list of things to work on.

This is the Bondage Bunny. Long ago, I played an online game called Gaia Online. I was one of the first thousand members. Now the game has millions of users, and I no longer play it. This character is a tribute to the avatar I had on that game. The armband colours are also a tribute to a character from an anime called Dragon Ball Z. A great friend and I once were fans of that character, and he had armbands and leg bands of the same colour. This image is sort of my own "Jessica Rabbit", though the two are still very different.

This is the Angel. Carrying on with the BDSM (bondage/dominance, sadism/masochism) theme, I was inspired to paint this image while watching Jennifer Lopez in The Cell, by far one of my top favorite movies. Again I tried to paint without lines, and it turned out really well. Just like the Mona Lisa, this cheeky girl doesn't have eyebrows. To be honest, I couldn't settle on how I wanted them to be expressed, so I omitted them entirely!

I can easily see the jump in progression from the Expo Posters in Part I to Part II. My style is better refined, the colours are better, and the overall images look great. I was very impressed with the progression I had made from just drawing outlines and pencil sketches the year before, to omitting outlines and drawing with colour only!

Next up we have the return of a great character, by far my ultimate favorite character.

Expo Posters Part I

This is the first group of art I had completed for the Expo. On reflection, I had said I wanted to do only original artwork for the Expo. That wasn't the best of ideas. Even though I might have had good intentions, fan art would have turned me the biggest profit. That being said, I will aim for that the next time I get an art table there (I have some TMNT, Green Lantern, and Spiderman fan art already in mind)

First off we have a Shaman Mouse. I loved the movies The Secret of NIMH and The Tale of Despereaux. I've never been terribly fond of anthropomorphic mammals, but they've started to grow on me!

This was my very VERY first work with colour for the Expo. It had been years since I had painted my Tribute to Davy Jones, and without touching a brush for that long, I lost some of my magic. I think that magic is on its way back. A Catalope is what this is.

This picture was my first attempt to paint without outlines. This is my mom's favorite image, but to me it's still not amazing. Once more my ability to render the female form isn't perfect, but it gets better and better. This lady is like a spirit mermaid/ghost form that lives in lakes.

 

The last of the first batch of images was a nifty creature I made that's part woman, part sea dragon. The yellow tang in the corner is maybe my favorite part. This one was one of the first images I made during my time off construction.

My exploration with colour began with these images. I'm getting better with every image, I believe. 

This concludes the first part of my Expo Posters. Up next will be Part II, which I think are even better than the first!

 

Meet the Bookmarks

One thing I learned at the Calgary Comic Expo was to make things small and affordable. I made four bookmarks for the Expo, which were decently popular, but Pins seemed to be the in thing this time around (what with the introduction of eReaders, bookmarks seemed a little old). I do not regret making them, even if books are not as common, it was still very cool to work with a different canvas shape.

First up was a nifty contrast between the ocean surface and the deep sea. I enjoy the concept of bio-luminescence, especially in a place void of light.

 

Next up is yet another little dragon. I also very much love the insect kingdom, so I wanted to show a mix of my imagination and reality. I like the choice in colours.

I once used to draw a lot of anime inspired work when I was much younger, and even though I have been trying to push it away (many folks in the gaming and comic community do not look highly upon those too inclined to Japanese style artwork). I still believe there can be a lot taken from anime and expanded upon. This bookmark and the next are two of my more "cell shaded" styles.This one was a sort of mermaid.

A little Sylph for between the pages. I would like to redo this one with better wings, but everything else I like about it.

These bookmarks are some of the first pieces of work I had done in full colour. I had always been afraid of colour (perhaps not colour in and of itself, but of my limited experience with it) so it took a lot of effort to make the leap from outlines to colour. I think I made the jump more gracefully than I had expected.

This concludes the bookmark section of my artwork. Next up we'll have some of my full page pictures that I had made for the Expo (as well as a return by someone that I very much love...)

Stay tuned!

Some Oldies, But Goodies

Let's start this process with a quick look back on some of my older artwork that I think is worth a mention.

I have always been interested in outlines more than colour. Here are some of my favorite images that are strictly outlines.

This is my rendition of one of those Chinese Dogs that protect entrances.

This is what I called a Draconic Ryder, a creature that travels on lightening.

Continuing my love of dragons, this is an Ancient Lizard, since it has no wings, it cannot be a dragon.

This is a quick study on the female form. I have always had a tough time with female bodies, but I'm always getting better. 

The last two you might have seen on this blog before, but I will post them again, as I very much love the detail and design of these two dragons.

Lexis is his name, a dragon no bigger than a large house cat. I loved drawing him, his details in his skin surfaces and the little poor mouse!

The final dragon, and my favorite, drawn for a very great friend, is Mathias. If he wrapped his wings around, it could encompass a small house! Beware, he does like the taste of human.

So this concludes the first post of my artwork. Next up will be some of my newer work that I had brought with me to the Calgary Comic Expo. Stay tuned!

A long awaited return

I have been away from this blog for a long time, but I think it's high time I post at least some of the work I have completed over the last while.

After attending the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in 2012 as an artist, I was given a lot of feedback and comments on my work. I still have not given up looking for work in my field, but I have definitely decided that I must not stop working to get better.

This is a little difficult in some regard, as my primary means of work currently states that I spend up to 11 hours in a piece of heavy equipment. This leaves very little time to work on my art, let alone anything else. 

This past off season I spend my time working on my jewelry crafting rather than my portfolio, which has brought me some great insight; I am meant to create. My necklaces have become so popular that I will likely set up an etsy account next year to sell my fine jewelry.

That being said, I still have not lost interest in looking for a career in my field of concept and digital artwork. I have, and always will, love creating creatures and characters. It's just unfortunate that, as with every year about this time, I must return to construction to pay the bills.

So without further adieu, I shall post some of my most recent work.

A Weekend of Dragons

So this weekend I got out of a weeklong slump. I had not been drawing and should have been, and have been fairly under the weather causing me to fester in my own sorrow. Don't worry though, all is good now, and even moreso due to the fact that I drew some dragons that make me very proud of my talents.

I had pondered the last week of my abilities, considering whether or not I am really on the right path. After a long conversation with a dear friend I realized that yes, I indeed am doing precisely what I should be, and that is translating what my imagination gives me into works of art for others to enjoy. With that being said, I do hope you enjoy these two dragons! They will be two of many more to come, as I find they allow me to explore muscle structure and flow in my art, rather than drawing characters just standing there, showing off their outfits.



This one is named Lexis, and she will be making a decent meal out of that poor rodent.



And this one is named Mathias, another version of Matthew, whom is the talented musician that helped me realize what I am meant to do. Thank you Matt, and I hope you like your dragon!

Arturios Zbrush

So here's a little update on Arts' details. These are the big details, I have a lot more work to do on the little details, but with my other models ready for thier rotations (which I shall be sneakin' in to the school to use the sweet new computers for rendering on the weekends, hehehe) I am free to do some decent reworking of this character.




His detail work thus far hasn't taken much time, a good 5 hours or so, but it's the tiny details and texturing that will take time a patience. This is a large picture, but it shows some nice detail, and is a mix of about 4 smaller, close up screenshots from the Zbrush interface.

If anyone has comments or critiques, feel free to post!

Arturios Remastered

As of this final semester at CATO, I have chosen my final 4 models for my demo reel. They are Mana, Visarith, Vespoid Scout, and Arturios. I have avoided finishing Vladmira as her base mesh is a little floopy and my over enthusiastic approach to tackle her has caused me more time than I wished for... so on to the back berner she goes :)

Almost all of these are complete, but Arturios needed a very big fix. He was very low in poly count, and poorly done in ZBrush. This was literally my first model done with a model pack, and thus I agree it wasn't my finest of models, but I can not let him go now!

I've fixed his base mesh with the knowledge of what I've learned over the last year, and am proud to admit it's much MUCH better.


The primary changes made if you cannot clearly see are as follows:
- Body in general is smaller and more proportionate
- Features are better rounded and less sharp
- Hands and feet are more detailed to accommodate normal map
- Better use of edge loops and mesh in general
- Much easier to animate with higher poly count

All in all his remade base is much better. He's under 6k tris, and I may make room for some armor, but only if time permits. I shall be unwrapping him very soon and will get going on his normal map and diffuse. He'll also have a specular map, and I may try with some subsurface light scattering on him.

A Quickly Revamped Mana

As I had mentioned before, I was having a few issues with Mana's normal map. This was a great mistake on my part, as I missed a single crucial step of giving him a tangent property. Here's a pic of his newer version!

I am very proud to say that he looks 100% better! I hope you can all see the difference as well, and I'd like to thank my classmate Bill (sorry, your surname is unknown to me) for helping me with him! The fix took all of 5 minutes, but it was certainly an "A-ha!" moment, and it helps incredibly! Enjoy!

Daily Deviation

So I've taken the idea from a few forums to try my best and post a daily/bi-daily/weekly design or otherwise piece of artwork just to show what's on my mind. Today, as it's my first day, I spent about an hour and a bit during a slow moment in class to make this little fella.


Here's his outline and a little shading to give me an idea of how his skin will look.


And here's his final outline. I'd like to color him in the future, but for the most part he's just a little guy from my mind.

A short synopsis:
He's like a reptilian chicken thing about the size of a large house cat. He swallows his prey whole, suffocating it with his tongue, and then slowly digests it in it's exposed stomach. The orb of goo on his back is where his prey is digested, and when nothing but bones are left, he regurgitates them much like an owl. It can run about 14 km/h, and is a strict carnivore, eating creatures up to a quarter of it's size. It's primarily nocturnal, coldblooded, and aggressive, living in temperate climates . I could go into deeper details, but this will probably suffice. Hope you all like him/her/it!

Mana Completed

So I have worked well enough on making this character the best he could be, but I am wary that my skills on making Normal maps needs some attention. For the most part, Mana is relying on his diffuse more than his normal map, which is indeed sad since he'd be much more detailed if it weren't for my lacking ability. To rectify this situation, I've taken it upon myself to get a tutor. I'm quite happy how he turned out nonetheless, but for my final demo reel, I do hope his normal map will shine more.

So here's a set of picks with him slightly posed. I would like a more dynamic pose in the future, but I'm happy with this now. I still want to pump out his pants colour a little before he's done, but aside from that, I think he's a swell guy! I hope everyone enjoys him! I sure did creating him!

Vladmira Returns

As an added bonus, I finished (after a minor design and technical issue) Vladmira's base mesh. She is unwrapped and ready for ZBrush!


So here is it, a small collaboration of her side, front, and close up torso view. Feel free to critique! I have made some minor changes with her hands, and am intending to use a transparency map for most of her fins, hence the sharp edges. All in all, she was my first modeled female character, and I am, suffice to say, proud to show her topless ;) Hope you all enjoy her!

Mushroom Crew: Mana Diffuse and Normal

So it has been a few weeks since my last update, but with good reason. After taking a well deserved week off I jumped back into working on Mana and got a great slice of his normal map and diffuse map done. Here's his current colour scheme as well as a taste of his texture.




So there's a small idea, from ZBrush, what he'll be looking like. Thus far I'm quite thrilled with him, and am excited to admit that I wish to animate him. He should be done perhaps 2 weeks before schedule, which gives me enough time to work on Vladmira and possibly rig him before next semester. Hope you all enjoy him!

Mushroom Crew: Mana Basemesh

So after some decent time and effort, I have finished Mana's basemesh, making him ready for a few touches in ZBrush and eventually a texture. I'll post a simple mini rotation picture without the wireframe, then post one with it once I make one, but for now I'm just pleased how well he stayed with his Rotoscope and initial model pack. Enjoy!

Mushroom Crew: Mana Ver 2.0

All's well in the world of Zoomers, as Mana's model sheet is nearly complete! He's been ironed out, and now all that is left is a sheet with details such as expressions and so forth. And here he is!




I'm keeping it simple, but for the most part I may have to fluff up the layout to get better marks. In my honest opinion I like simple layouts; more attention to the model, but some people really like a flashy layout. I'll work on that part, but the important thing is Mana is complete! Now he's ready to be modeled in 3D! Muscie is coming along as well, and I may have his model pack up by tomorrow. Unlike Mana, Muscie's cap is a little big and makes his sheet quite long, but that's ok, his attitude and ego alone deserve a large layout ;) Feel free to post coments and critiques!

Vladmira: Lioness of the Sea

Here is my second model of the semester. She was first conceptualized about three semesters ago in Life Drawing class. The criteria for "him" at the time was a human structure with a uniquely inhuman design. The actual model I made was of sculpy, and again, at the time, Vladmira was Vladmir.

Now, after having an issue with the character I developed last semester, I had chosen to pick Vladmir up again. In his redesigning process, the unanimous vote was cast (of myself and Sean) to make him a her. I'm not too proud of the older version sketches, but I'll put them here just to show the changes I've made.



The updated version, in my opinion, looks much better. She has more fin variation, a better build, breasts (which are always great), and other minor changes to make her more appealing, and in some cases, more proper (like her tail fin is going the correct way).




So all in all, I'm glad to be working on her again. She will be made with the specifications of this years Dominance War (www.gameartisans.org) which is a low polie count model of 9k tris. I'm currently working on her base mesh and shall post her progress as she does. I hope you'll all enjoy her as much as I do!

The Mushroom Crew: Muscie Ver. 1.1

I have worked a little on Muscie's design, but since he needed little work I only attempted to make him more warrior looking. His personality pretty much mirrors Mana's, with a large ego and an uptight attitude, Muscie works well as Mana's battle buddy.




I'm thinking of giving him some form of marking of the sort to cut up the emptiness of color in his beard area. Otherwise his kilt color can change and even eye color, but for the most part this is how I want him to look; Scruffy, a little worse for wear, and ticked. His usual arsenal consists of a shield and axe, but any combination of weapon and shield could work. Dual wielding weapons could do as well, as they'd suit his personality a little better. Feel Free to post your critiques!

The Mushroom Crew: Mana Ver. 1.2

I have been working on Mana a little and made this new concept for him, including a color design. I hope you all like him! I'm expecting to finish Mana by next week (including his model pack) then get on to Muscie. Muscie isn't exactly in as much need of a makeover than Mana, so I figure it would be better to get done the one needing more effort.


The primary changes thus far are his hands and feet. With such thin wrists and ankles he looked rather frail. I also figured that since Muscie had a form of pant/skirt/kilt on, Mana needed some form of clothing as well. He was first going to wear a loincloth, but those are not too fun to model and animate. Instead he has tweed-like pants with a small sash. I'm debating whether or not to give him his "in game" weapon, which is a large staff. If I have time I may model it.