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.

Commander Gloop!

Another piece of art for TGB Customs packaging!  Continuing with the theme of doing these like a horror movie poster, like the 'Mammoth Monster' before...

After some feedback from TGB Customs, color started to work its way in.

And then I finished rendering...

This was a blast to do - especially the glowing Dr. Brain!

The Mammoth Monster

Another illustration for one of TGB Custom's figures, this time the Mammoth Monster.

It started life as...

And quickly grew into the troublesome teenage years...

Until finally reaching adulthood and moving out of the damn house.

Though it did leave behind some of it's innocence.

"You chose... Wisely." Halo Evolutions Art Contest Winner!

My 'Pariah' illustration, which I featured in my last post, won for its category in Microsoft's (specifically 343 Industries) art contest!  The winners get to have their art published alongside the short story that they chose to illustrate in a future edition of the Halo: Evolutions anthology, published by Tor.


So to recap:  my art will literally be featured in the New York Times Bestselling "Halo" series sometime this fall!!!


You can check out the news (and a winners gallery) on the official site here.

Halo Evolutions Art Contest Entries

The contest deadline just went by a couple of days ago, so I thought I should post my entry, and (sadly) the non-entry (since I discovered that I could only enter one piece) and a bit about how they came to be.

Illustrating Tobias S. Buckell's short story, "Dirt", I started with the linework below (after a few sheets of thumbnails):

The piece shifted drastically after I had scanned the original image in.  I didn't like what I had, so it became far more dramatic and grasped a much more oppressive tone.

 

Lot's of tweaking in the final stages - this period seems to be the big time-consumer in all my pieces.

  

And the final piece:

For B. K. Evenson's "Pariah", concerning a failed, tortured super solder, I came up with a much less dramatic and exciting piece... but also a much more subtle and conceptual one.

And to give it a bit more flair...

I stared at the two finished pieces for weeks, asking everyone I knew what they thought.  In the end, I went with Pariah, mostly with just a gut feeling... Hopefully I chose wisely, but I still keep imagining the old knight from the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade saying "You chose poorly."

Just Some Good Ol' Alien Insectoid Art

Click the pic for a large version of some art created for the packaging of TGB Custom's Larvoid figure.

Here's a direct link to TGBCustoms' blog and website.

Check back soon for more of the standard tutorial/in-process comparisons I've been posting.

Wolverine: The Weight

This piece kinda came out of nowhere. Just started doodling with my tablet. Doing basic line art and then building on top of that with different greytones.

Deciding to take it farther, I threw basic color ideas up to begin painting. Very freeform; experimenting with different brushes -really just going all over the place..

Continuing what I did before, but starting to bring highlights and shadows out, as well as fixing things like the posture and face. Playing with the overall hues again to find a better balance, as well.

Throwing more texture in, as well as a filtered photo I took for the far background. I make sure and paint all over it and bend it to my will, so it doesn't feel just Photoshop-ed in.

I do the same for the dirt by his feet. And then more tweaking... more finishing... more everything... and I'm done. And then I add the trickled of blood that makes the whole piece!

And then I had a little fun with a logo version.