One Last Time

Comic & Concept has evolved. But this version of it will remain as it was, now as the 'Classic' iteration. If you want to know why my brain needed a full refresh to kick my inspiration into gear, you can read this.

There's still some good stuff here though, so it'll stick around as a back issue (until the paper dissolves). It served as an oft-forgotten journal from the end of my college days to years later as a somewhat-freelance illustrator. It covered fan-art and ambitious fan-projects like A Fistful of Arrows to original creations like the first issue of my comic, Mayflower. Each entry is a signpost along what I think is an important transition in (and perhaps maturation of) my art. I still don't know what I'm doing now, but I do know that it is at least a significantly different thing that I'm doing.

So it's time for this blog to rest and lay still, making room for something new - which isn't an easy thing to do.

Enjoy a half of a decade below. If you want more, follow the sign.

"Brothers In Arms" - Destiny Fanart Walkthrough

I've been working with Claude Errera (Louis Wu of Halo.Bungie.Org) and a great team on Destiny.Bungie.Org, a fansite dedicated to Bungie's new IP, "Destiny".

I pitched the background and basic design of the site. They'll be more to it in the future as we learn more about Destiny.

Lately I was tasked with creating a background for the DBO Twitter feeds the staff was readying. My first step: procrastinate and work on other things.

... After that, though, I sat down and got my butt into gear. I was going to be out of town in a few days and I wanted the piece done by then so that the Twitter-addicted Mr. Errera could have his account as soon as everything else was prepared.

1.

I started sketching, obviously inspired by the amazing concept art Bungie has posted, especially this piece and this piece. I was also trying to think in terms of a Twitter background; since the center would be obscured, I would need the best parts of the picture on the left and right.

2.

Originally, I was just going to do this piece in black and white and match the news sketches I've been doing for the front page. "Fast and easy" and then I could get onto other things. But then, logically, I made it a hundred times harder and started playing around with colors.

I got rid of the good-guy in the middle and replaced him with more incoming Vex robots. I also moved away from the ship graveyard I was imagining in the original sketch's background and towards a Martian volcano (not sure if it really ended up in Mars...).

One thing I stressed upon myself was to work more (and more unexpected) colors into my landscape that would still look natural - and thus make the piece more interesting to look at in the end. You'll notice blues and purples in the dark side of the mountains as evidence of this attempt.

3.

I continued solely on the background for a while. I find it relaxing to paint happy mountains, rivers and waterfalls and it's one thing I consider myself decent enough to the point where I'm not constantly criticizing every move I make.

I smudged the clouds with my custom brush, added cracks and highlights to the nearby rocks, and enjoyed playing around with where the lava-falls would carve into the mountainside.

4.

I switched back to the characters and had a lot of fun fleshing out the Vex on the right. The action and posture from the initial sketch yelled 'drama' so I tried hard to not kill that as I laid the digital paint atop it (I also don't always capture that kind of action in my non-comic art so I'm trying to get more of that dynamic movement in my concept pieces these days).

Some laser blasts were added on the left for more diagonals to draw your eye in. I started experimenting with colors and new designs for our left hero. He started to look a little like a Carter/Jun hybrid! :)

5.

Continued to design-as-I-painted this attacking (or fleeing?) soldier as well as carve out the background Vex. The soldier's gun started to pick up some of Halo's assault rifle but I thought the bayonet and extended barrel would pull it away from that.

6.

More work on the left soldier. Hard to see in this format, but I also shrunk him down a bit.

7.

Here I made the middle Vex bigger, trying to create a better rhythm for your eyes (I went back and forth a lot on this - I eventually made him smaller in the latest version).

The left soldier also received a nice heap of texture and scratches on his armor at this point. His weapon grew a number of crooked wires which at first seemed strange in my mind's eye but as they were implemented I fell in love with them. I'm going to be using them on more of my artwork, I can guarantee you!

I also tried to bring his cape to life at this point and got distracted for a while by trying to melt the rocks directly behind him on the left. I think it might have worked...

A moon was dropped in above and I added a few spaceship/missile trails to help it feel like more of a battle.

8.

By this stage, it was late into the night before my trip and in a few short hours I needed to drive to St. Louis. After a few more refinements, I spent an hour or more tweaking the levels and colors of the entire image (I can get stuck in this stage for way too long). The main thing I settled on was an orange filter to 'heat' up the piece. I uploaded the piece to DBO_tweets and fell asleep.

9.

The artwork had been posted for a week, but I was looking at it again the other day and found myself dissatisfied. It felt too washed out in some areas and too dominated by the orange filter in others (although I did like the 'heat' of it).

Hesitantly, I worked more purple into the background and covered our closest soldier with a rough coat of blue paint. I also shortened his gun's barrel and elongated the bayonet to make it more practical.

I also refined a number of little things here and there across the piece that I probably didn't need it and were completely impossible to see by the viewer... I have a problem with doing that!:)

Then, today I looked at the piece again. I was happy with the changes...

But it needed more damnit!

10.

Here's the final piece (At least, that's what I'm saying right now).

I kept the heat of the orange but tempered it with lighter and cooler colors at the top (I especially liked how the blue drifted in on the top-right). I also redrew some of the cliffs in the middle as well as our hero on the right (almost completely).

I pushed the middle Vex further back and changed the posture of his arm a bit to make him seem like he was reacting to the scene instead of motionless. I also motion-blurred the right Vex's flying, dismembered arm as well as the rocks he was knocking off the sinking boulder.

The hero on the left received more contrast to make sure he was the first thing you see and to make sure he appeared closest to you. I blurred the entirety of the background just a hint as well.

Happy for a few brief moments, I quickly saved and ran away to something else!

Thanks for reading all the way down. :)

Shield and Sword: United

On Halo.Bungie.Org, I've been posting design ideas I had for what Halo 4 might have been like for some months now. Obviously, as we've gotten closer to the real thing, the more outdated my scenarios have become, but I still believe that elements of these designs might find their way in, maybe even in future sequels. No matter, it's been fun! But Halo.Bungie.Org is on a bit of hiatus, so I'll be posting my final design brainstorms here on my blog.

Previous Posts:

The Menus of Halo 4

Mission 1: The Howling Dark

Mission 2: Shield World

Mission 3: The Broken Chord

Armor Augmentations

Mission 4: Hub Station 42

Mission 5: Reconciled

Mission 6: The Monitor

Halo 4 hits Tuesday and there’s still three Shield and Sword missions left off that list. Time to tie up all the loose ends! Since we’re short on time, much of these last few missions will be swift summaries and outlines, focusing mostly on the story and some of the big action set pieces. Some of the more integral scenes are fleshed out with illustrations and dialogue that I have finished. Perhaps in the future I’ll go back and expand further on some of the ideas I glance over here.

But before launching into the deep end, let’s go back and summarize where we’ve come from:

-The Master Chief and Cortana have floated in the void for years, with no idea if their distress call has reached the UNSC. During this time, John has slept while Cortana has improved upon his armor, his weapons, and his vehicles.

-Cortana awakes the Master Chief as Forward Unto Dawn reaches a mysterious Forerunner planet. A gaping port opens in the planet’s surface and the ship is drawn towards it as Sentinels and Enforcers begin to tear the Dawn apart as part of a ‘quarantine’. Master Chief leaps into space with his new thrusters and finds another way into the machine planet’s interior.

-The planet is revealed to be a Shield World, and the first one built at that. Its interior, inverted surfaces sweeps around a central slipspace portal that captures the light from a distant star. As Master Chief explores this planet, a massive Forerunner army of various robotic sentries continue to hunt him down. During his explorations, Master Chief sees signs and murals of someone called “The Begotten.”

-Eventually, John and Cortana establish a base at Hub Station 42 where Cortana can hide their presence from the Forerunner army and the presence that is leading them. Cortana sends the Master Chief to the Resonance Cascade to shut down the Shield World’s block on outgoing communications.

-Master Chief makes contact with the Sangheili, who are now on their way, but is ambushed by the peak of Forerunner robotics: the Proto-warrior. Master Chief cuts a swath through these humanoid adversaries as he races back to Cortana before they find her. The Sangheili, led by Shipmaster Rtas, enter the Shield World secretly with a new cloaked corvette and unite with the Spartan to push back these Proto-warriors.

-The Sangheili did not arrive alone though. The Reconciled, reformed remnants of the Covenant, tracked the Elites to gain control of the Shield World in the continuing post-war arms race of Forerunner weapons. They were also somehow able to enter the planet without contest and are mysteriously at peace with the Forerunner guardians.

-The Chief and Shipmaster lead an attack on the Reconciled’s foothold before the UNSC fleet arrives. In the battle, John discovers that the Reconciled had brought with them a Forerunner War Sphinx named Recondite Clairvoyant. This massive sentient machine was using the Reconciled that discovered him to reach this Shield World and was able to protect them from the Forerunner army. But now that he has a Reclaimer in his hands…

-With the Reconciled now pushed back and hunted by the Sentinels as well, the War Sphinx leads a small group consisting of Master Chief, Shipmaster, and a few Elites into the Monitor of the Shield World, a massive complex housing the data core of the A.I. in control of the Forerunner Army. Shutting him down will at last pacify this planet and allow the UNSC to arrive in something other than a hornet’s nest.

-Inside, John finds that the Proto-warriors have been learning from the Master Chief and improving. But why all this hostility from the Foreunners? It is revealed that the Didact, who shepherded the Shield installations placed the Monitor here to study the Flood and discover new ways to defeat them. A 100,000 years later, and the Monitor is as obsessive as ever, believing he is fighting a new form of Flood with Cortana as its Gravemind and her soldiers as her combat forms. Cortana shuts down the Monitor’s core and gains control of the Forerunner army as the UNSC finally arrive.

Mission Seven:

UNITED

Reunion Tour

A grey storm is drawing close. A massive UNSC cruiser hovers above a vast, empty ocean. Four frigates are moving in formation alongside her. New iterations of Longswords, sleeker and more maneuverable, patrol the air. As the camera zooms in on this mustering, radio chatter starts to fade in.

"I'm reading four destroyers, five cruisers."

"They're amassing thirty kilometers east of here."

"Deciphering any of their communications?"

"Only this, sir..."

Prophet: "The Great Demon has subverted our own living gospel and deceived our Gods. But we know the way. We walk the path. And those that would halt or turn us deserve the greatest punishment..."

A pelican starts a descent towards the top of the massive cruiser . Towards the center of the spine lies an open deck like that of the Spirit of the Fire. As the bird lands, a receiving party stands at attention nearby.

"Master Chief, on behalf of the UNSC and all of humanity, I'd like to welcome you back from the dark. We missed you." The admiral reaches out a hand to shake John's.

"The name's Moreau. Admiral Moreau."

Master Chief: "Thank you, Sir. Awaiting your orders, Sir."

Admiral: "Orders? Hah, I think you've deserved a very long-overdue shore leave. Captain, show him to his quarters--"

Master Chief (unmoving): "The Reconciled are here. You need me on the line."

Admiral: "No disrespect, Chief, but we came prepared." He moves slightly out of the way and behind him two Spartan IVs walk forward, their advanced MJOLNIR armor gleaming in the sunlight.

"It's an honor and a privilege to meet the greatest of the Spartans," says one of the S-IV's as she extends a hand. She's actually slightly taller than John.

Master Chief (a little taken a back): "Not the greatest. Just the last."

Cortana (through John's helmet speakers): "But his line lives on, doesn't it? You (towards the Admiral) just had to keep playing with people's minds and bodies didn't you?"

Admiral: "Ah... Cortana (slightly condescendingly). It's also an honor to have you back, of course. But I'm afraid you've been out of the loop for too long. All of our Spartans today are volunteers and experience only small and safe procedures. The new MJOLNIRs do the rest. By the time I retire, I think every one of our soldiers will be a Spartan."

Cortana: "There's more to it than just shiny armor and fancy toys."

Admiral (ignoring the last comment): "I'm afraid we'll need to take a look at

Cortana, Chief. She's been gone a long time and seen things the UNSC has never been able to confirm."

Two technicians approach from behind the Chief, who uneasily takes a step away from them.

Cortana: "It's okay John."

Master Chief: "Cortana - she's past seven years... Can you help her?" He takes Cortana's data core from the back of his helmet, looking at it before handing it over.

Admiral: "We'll do our best."

---End Cutscene----

An elevator lowers through spinning red lights to a lower hold. The Chief and two Marines exit as the player resumes control.

You take control of the Chief with no weapons. This first part is all about re-immersing yourself with the UNSC and getting up to date on all their advancements in technology and what's happened to your old comrades.

This ship you're exploring is the UNSC Keyes.  The Marine escort will describe to you the breakthroughs in Slipspace travel, the miniaturization of MAC technology, and the advancements of point-defense lasers.

You'll also pass by hangars full of troops preparing for battle and overhear some familiar voices like Sgt. Stacker and That Australian Marine. Eventually you'll be left in a ready room with a handful of ODSTs. One notices the Spartan and approaches. He wears short brown hair and a trimmed beard. And he's voiced by Nathan Fillion.

Master Sergeant Buck: "The Master Chief. I... I can't tell you how much of an honor it is." The Master Chief just stares. This whole experience has been more surreal than exploring a small Dyson Sphere for him.

Buck: "I... uh... well. Whatever you need Chief, you've got it. A lot has changed since the war, and I have to admit, I'm still not used to most of it. So I can imagine what you're feeling right now. Well... I'll let you be." He begins to walk off.

Master Chief: "Admiral Hood. Did he...?"

Buck: "He survived. And he led us all out of the dark after you left for the Ark. But the times changed and Hood was a leader of war, not peace. And folks like Moreau here forced him into retirement once things were settled with the split-chins."

Master Chief: "Why are you still fighting?"

Buck: "Could have settled down I guess. I got a wife, but we're both still married to the UNSC. I guess once you experience thirty years of non-stop blood and glass, you never get to believe in 'peace'. It's just a breather."

A TAC device on Buck's wrist sounds an alert.

Buck: "Speak of the devil." He turns around to face his ODSTs. "Time to drop boys. We got uglies prepping bases on the nearby peninsula. Let's make sure they don't get too comfy."

The troops begin to issue out a far door. Buck has to tap a sleeping ODST in a corner, and then they both head out, leaving Master Chief alone in the ready room.

Cortana: "They're coming, John. And they don't know what they're dealing with."

Master Chief looks around. It's either being broadcast to him... or a telepathic message.

Master Chief: "Cortana. Where are you?"

Cortana: "Here with you. Not far. They think they've given me over to the ship's AI, but really, they just handed me the keys. But they're facing a massive fleet of Reconciled. They may not like it, but they need you out there."

Master: "They can fight this battle without us.”

Cortana: “No they can’t. They have learned a few tricks, but they don’t have the experience. The Admiral is actually trying to negotiate with them--"

Thunder rocks the room.

(Over speakers) Admiral: "Red alert. Multiple explosions in deck eight and nine. Emergency crews, on the double!"

Cortana: “You need to get out of here and help while you still can. I’m downloading my core to a new datapad on a terminal nearby.”

Master Chief is hesitant to disobey, but another rocking of the ship and long, low groan moves him. This isn’t the same UNSC he left years ago.

A door opens in the room. Lights begin to blink on and off, showing you the way. Through a few hallways and an armory of weapons to stock up on, you begin to cross a catwalk above a hanger, but an explosion tears through the ship to your left. Through the fire, the War Sphinx steps into sight. You're on even ground with his eyes now. On the other side of the catwalk, two technicians approach, but halt, startled by the freed War Sphinx. The War Sphinx turns to observe.

War Sphinx: "They will not keep me from my duty."

Master Chief: "Calm down. They're Reclaimers, just like me."

War Sphinx: "They are humans. You are a Reclaimer."

The hangar bay doors to the right of the catwalk open to a grey sky.

The Master Chief hops off the catwalk to the hangar floor and walks to the edge. Kilometers away, a fleet of Reconciled cruisers and corvettes are assembled across from the UNSC ships. The War Sphinx steps up behind him.

Lights issue forth from the enemy, straight towards you. But they are absorbed by an energy shield around the UNSC ship before it breaks down once and for all. UNSC frigates pass into view and return fire, grabbing the oncoming enemy’s attention. One of them is destroyed as a number of the cruisers concentrate fire.

Cortana: “Do you believe me now? They need you.”

The Battle of Resplendent Seas

In the midst of the chaos, the War Sphinx becomes a vehicle for the Master Chief to wreck havoc upon the Reconciled in a massive aerial battle. Soon the Sangheili Stealth Corvette arrives to flank the enemy and Cortana brings in the Forerunner army to drive the Reconciled back.

This is the Ark or Covenant missions of Shield and Sword. Times ten. It is a massive aerial battle, with a huge number of both friendly and enemy AI as well as number of capital ships engaging one another. Imagine the second space battle of Long Night of Solace with its epic-ness increased.

Oh, and you’re piloting a War Sphinx. There will be a few big engagements in different areas of the open level, with smaller objectives innerspread randomly between, a la New Alexandria’s mission structure. You’ll even land on the hull of a few ships (like the levels in Halo Wars that take place on Spirit of Fire) to protect or attack them.

If you leave the War Sphinx and board a Banshee or take control of a new Hornet, he will continue to follow you and assist you.

You’ll also see a new kind of Reconciled vehicle: the Sentry ship “Eidolon”, which is about three times the size of a Phantom. It’s a heavily armed, moveable launch pad for Banshees and soldiers. It has a pulse canon like the top of the Halo 3 Scarab has.

But when the epic battle is almost over, and it feels like you’ve just about blown up the Death Star…

A massive hole ripped open in the side of the Shield World.

Seeing themselves nearing defeat, the Reconciled have unleashd their ultimate weapon: a captured Halo Ring. The next controlled burst cuts through the UNSC Keyes, cleaving it into two.

Latest Work Round-Up

I thought I'd be more active with my blog than lately, and try to do posts of recent, random artwork that doesn't fall into a category of big news, or will be a long time coming before it's added to the portfolio website.

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I was commissioned to paint a local church for a charity auction.

And this is something I doodled after a surprise zoo-visit... Yep. :)

Here are some shots of a 3D model I'm working on for the game "The Seeker".

 Aft view.

From above.

Portrait of a character from said game.

A piece from my Shield and Sword project.

And more from same project: "The Infinite Hallway".

"Zero G"

"Inspector" design for hypothetical Halo 4 ideas.

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A Year In Review, Another To Come

This image pretty much sums up the highlights of what I've accomplished in the 1.5 years since graduating college. I think I'm most proud of finishing Halo: A Fistful of Arrows, the largest project I've ever embarked on. Anything that could spawn such rabid support, petitions, soundtracks, etc, is something to be satisfied with, I think.

Of course those jobs that actually paid weren't too shabby either. :)

Anubis can now be added to that list... well, at least for my part. The art is all complete, the actual comic won't be released till the spring, though.

We'll be starting up a Kickstarter project soon to help fund the initial print run.

Next, I've got to work on...

-Re-doing my (this) website
-Various jobs and commissions I need to do
-Halo: Shield and Sword
-The Mayflower Project

Too many ideas, too many things to work on, not enough time... :)

The making of "It Will Never End" - rejected illustration for Ubi Workshop's Art of Assassin's Creed.

So the prompt said basically to create your own assassin within the Assassin's Creed - the rest was up to you.  Any time period, any style, any medium, etc...

I decided upon crafting a near-futuristic (is that a word?) assassin.  Now, I figured a futuristic version might be popular, very popular.  But the execution of a piece of art is just as important as the initial idea, right?

So i opted to do something subtle.  No giant cities and flashing colors or giant mechs.  Just a hologram HUD and an electrified blade, with the real time and setting to be interpreted by the viewer.  Give it a bit of mystery and keep the viewer engaged (like making them have to read the text backwards to figure out what it says).

I started off with a rough sketch and fell in love with the idea (first idea included said 'gaint cities and flashing colors or giant mechs')

Then I broke the piece down and deleted the Googled lightning I had used as a placeholder.  I'm mostly just using a custom brush here to smudge the hell out of everything.

Really worked hard to capture a realistic likeness using a custom smudge brush, some thinner brushes for the hair...

...and some spotted brushes to add in some skin texture.  Started adding in some color as well so I could start to figure out its affect on the piece.  I was trying to create an assassin with a darker skin color... but with all the reflections and lighting that came later, that was kind-of lost.

The hologram was a lot of fun to do.  Used a number of built-in Photoshop filters on colored shapes to give me the effect I wanted.

Painted in his glove.  Looks really strange and doesn't fit at the moment so...

... I added shadows and details and highlights to immerse it within the work.  I also added the electrified blade and tweaked the whole image.  A scan of a sheet of paper that I wiped ink across in various ways was used atop of everything to give some slight texture to everything.  And it's done.

And then two months later, rejected! Hah.

Here's a link to the piece on DeviantArt, as well a shot of all these in-progress pics laid out next to each other.

Art Recap

Here's a recap of recent work that's gone up around the internet.

"Fires, Still Burning" - Concept art / matte painting practice

(Originally posted here.)

"Virgil" - Character design

(Originally posted here.)

"Watchful Protector" - Batman fanart, experimenting with using Google SketchUp to aid in the art process

(Originally posted here.)

"Cyclops" - X-men fanart

(Originally posted here.)

You can now follow me on twitter, by the way.  I'll update it whenever I upload a new piece anywhere on the web.

Halo Reach: Return of an Old Foe

For this Halo fan art, in the vein of trying to emulate professional concept art or illustration, I first started out with sketching in a notepad.

Then I put a base of digital paint down in a variety of brushes and shapes and colors, which helped me keep a 'painted' look throughout the process. If I start to lose that feel later on, then I would grab that layer and copy more versions of it above everything else.

I start to use pieces of photos that I've taken in the last few years (part of an on-going attempt to photo any texture, reference, or anything I might need for collage or reference in the future) and crop those in. Almost all the photos I used for this particular piece were taken just a few weeks before I began it at a park nearby at sunset.

I'll rearrange the photos, stretch and distort, and paint atop of them so it doesn't look out of place. Concept art seems to often try to take advantage of photos and screenshots to speed up the process or help the piece look more realistic or fit in with the desired aesthetic. The hard part is making the final image look cohesive.

Next, I just start really painting. I looked at screenshots from Halo 2 and 3 for the Covenant cruiser, as well as screenshots from Halo 1 for the dropships in the background. But the big reference here was the Reach VG trailer which inspired all the colors and tone I was trying to go for, in addition to being my only source for the Lone Wolf's armor. That was by far the most frustrating part of the piece. Man, is it detailed!

I went back to the background for a bit, added the Elite and some trees and grass and rocks, and then worked all over so no one part of the piece received too much attention. I try to do a pass over everything every few steps.

I started to notice that I really wasn't that correct with the Wolf's helmet and other places so I spent a huge amount of time revising it all and pouring over all the details to make sure it was pretty close to what I could see in the trailer. I guess you'd call this and the last step the 'rendering' stage, when everything starts to become detailed, realistic, and finalized. I also tried out some fire in front of the Spartan III and added a nice layer of glare to his armor.

At this point, I show it to my girlfriend or to anyone who will look at it and get some feedback.

The fire didn't make the cut, and my girlfriend thought the piece needed to be darker to add some more drama and intensity to it. So then I continued to tweak minute little details, things most people probably wouldn't even notice, as well as adding some more layers of that initial base coat of paint from earlier, this time tinted a dark blue, overtop everything, giving it that drama it needed. Done!