DootDootDoot

It's been a pretty crazy week, but also a very, very awesome one. I may have some really great news to post soon, but until then it's just the finished image from Mike Bierek's illustration class. This one changed quite a bit since the original sketch, but I think it was for the better. I learned a hell of a lot about light and color, particularly when it comes to using saturation selectively.

Now back to thumbnails and onto the next one.

Tuesday!

Another round of head painting over at Safehouse. Tonight I had the awesomely awesome Kemp Remillard giving me some advice and helping me fix what was (and still sort of is) some super messed up facial structure. Like all portraits, this eventually descended into yearbook-style doodling of Hitler mustaches and devil horns, but here's what came of it prior to that.



And the aforementioned Mi-go from the Art Order Lovecraft Creature Lab challenge. This was something entirely new for me. I've never been strong at creature design, largely due to a lack of practice. But joining in on this was one of the more fun art experiences I've had lately. The Art Order community as a whole is both extremely welcoming and helpful, and I'm extraordinarily happy to be able to be a part of it.

They See Me Updatin'

They hatin'

More work on this guy, and a 3-hour portrait (2:15 without including the breaks for the model) from Tuesday night head painting over at safehouse.






I will have a Mi-go concept to post tonight. Putting the finishing touches on it for the ArtOrder challenge.

Progress!

Progress is happening!

Thought I'd post the WIP that has come from the thumbnails posted before. I recently finished my entry for Blizzards Blizzcon fanart contest, but won't be able to post that one up until October 22nd after they announce the winners. Fingers crossed!

Thumbnails

We've started up illustration class again with Mike Bierek, which involves going through the various steps of creating a solid illustration with critique each week along the way. For this one, I decided to keep plugging away at my portfolio for Blizzard and work on a piece for one of my dungeon bosses, Lord Xavius.

The first part of the assignment was to do a set of very small, fast thumbnails which were readable at first glance and focused on composition.



The second part was to pick some of those thumbnails to take to the next level; larger linework thumbnails.



Of these three, I've decided to go with #1 for a few reasons that were pointed out:

- The low camera angle gives Xavius the large "boss" feel I'm going for. The purpose of this illustration is to showcase him as Big Bad Guy, and I think #1 does this best.

- The wing and rock shapes give the "danger" feel I want to convey.

- A lot of different lighting options.

Things that were pointed out that should be changed this week:

- Change horseman's position in order to make it a more engaged/confrontational scene

- Vary up the rock shapes

- Don't use the trick of putting his foot on the other side of the ground plane, put it up on a rock or something to include all of him rather than cutting him off at the ankles.

The Happy Haps

Exciting things are going on in the art world lately, so I thought I'd share some with the (few) people who actually read this.

1. While I didn't make it into ImagineFX, a good friend and schoolmate of mine, Lake Hurwitz, did! So congrats to Lake. His work can be found here

2. Over at ArtOrder (which you should be reading, if you don't already), Jon Schindehette has touched on the importance of mentors in art. He has also put out a call for mentee applications. I thre my name in the hat, and so should any other aspiring artists who would like to take a crack at being mentored by someone who has a lot of experience and knowledge to pass along.

3. Blizzard is running their annual Blizzcon fanart contest again this year. The deadline is Sept. 27th and the prizes are pretty epic. Go check it out!

Been working mostly on my WoW project lately (and a series of Planeswalker fanart to submit to MtG someday), which I've decided to save for posting until it's done. Instead of leaking out images one or two at a time, I'd like to release the entire thing in one massive post. So that will be coming around March. However, I do have some designs for Queen Azshara that I decided against for several reasons.





And a quick sketch commission for a friend. I really need to work with pencils more.



I will start posting my studies here once I find time to scan them. Maybe I'll just copy Hannes, spread them out on the floor, and take a picture of them to save time.

Stuuuuuuff

Been busy lately getting this Azshara Project organized and fully under way. I have about 6 months to do over 150 designs and images, so it's going to be a crunch. I have faith that I'll get it done, as long as I don't get too caught up doing things like CGHub's awesome Megaman Redesign challenge.

Rush and Roll.exe in a fantasy setting:




Working on the warlock armor designs. I want to aim for a more integrated skin-type armor. I don't like this first rendition so much, but it's heading in the right direction. However, this is a WoW mockup, so everything need to be turned up to 11. Going to aim for more dynamic poses in the future as well.

Before and After

I recently wanted to try to re-do an old image that had been done shortly before I started at the atelier. I chose to re-paint this one: link

I chose that image because it was done about 3 weeks before I sent in my second portfolio and got accepted into conceptart.org's Next-Gen Atelier. I remember being really, really proud of that piece at the time, but looking back on it it makes me think my standards for myself were set pretty low. Nevertheless, it does make me proud of what I've learned since I've been in the school.

Also the last of my 5 pieces to submit for ImagineFX's Rising Stars of Fantasy Art competition. Sent in my submissions today, so fingers crossed!

Commission illustration. Learned a LOT from this one.

Sometimes I Paint Portraits

I love doing these quick portrait paintings of characters. I love it to a point where it should be illegal that I'm actually getting paid to do it.

Step-By-Step

So my personal project currently is designing an entire mock WoW dungeon based on the lore from Azshara/Nazjatar. I decided to start with an opening illustration featuring the Naga queen herself to establish the feel I wanted the entire dungeon to have. The artists at Massive Black have been leading the students through a specifics illustration process, which I used for this image. Here are the steps. =)

Lineart Thumbnails:

Of the two thumbnails, the majority preferred the more dynamic pose. The upper was more of a flat presentation shot, while the second captured the large-scale and epic feel I wanted Azshara to have.



Value Study:

I chose "God lighting" from above for this scene for three reasons:

1. The instance is technically underwater, at the center of the maelstrom. Particularly this chamber is directly underneath the opening left by the whirlpool above, allowing for a strong overhead light source.

2. To accentuate the focus on Queen Azshara and all of her crazy, world-ending Naga Queen glory.

3. It's just insanely fun to paint.



Painting Progression:

This may seem like a jumbled mess, but that's only because the way I paint is... a jumbled mess. I tend to lay in my colors fairly early once I have simple values. From there, it's just pushing and pulling things until I get it to where I want it.

Casts

The first thing we learned at the atelier was cast drawing, learning to turn form and all of that jazz. It was an extraordinarily helpful practice, and I cannot begin to express how much it has changed how I approach painting. These were done over the course of several weeks, three hours a day in our morning sessions. I still have to scan/upload Nike.

Of Blogs and Ships and Ceiling Wax

All of the cool kids are doing this blog thing, I though I'd hop on board. Here's a bunch of work from the past few weeks, including some from my personal project. I'm attempting to design an entire mock World of WArcraft dungeon to present to Blizzard next year at GDC, in an attempt to land my dream job as a concept artist over there. Also speedpaint things, sketches, anatomy studies from photos, etc. Pretty much everything I do will end up dumped in here at some point.