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.