Giant Cave Crab

Started this concept then got busy with a contract and then came back to finish it. The final version has some changes to the mouth area, when I came back to it I wasn't crazy about the initial design in my sketches.

During this concept, the exploration of texture and color were the most enjoyable.

Once I have an idea of a creature, I try to get as weird as I can while doing the silhouettes.

Personal project

I've been sitting on this stuff for a while and thought it was time to share them. This is some character work I've done for my personal project which I worked on in between my contract work, it's the same project that these environment concepts are for. I've been designing a side scroller shoot'em style game that's akin to the classic Metroid, Contra and Megaman games.

Before starting the project I had never work in pixel art but I've always had a tremendous respect for the style. In the modern age of gaming with stunningly realistic graphics, pixel art has proven to be a viable art style for games and it will always have a fan base. Learning to push individual pixels has been fun but often not as easy as I expected.

This was my first animation test, I chose the simplest creature to learn how to animate. My roommate during my time at the Academy was an animator and I picked up a lot of helpful animation tips from him.

                                                     

Here are some character sketches where I explored various shapes for the protagonist. I knew that a lot of detail would be lost when converting the design into pixel art so I focused on pushing the silhouette and shape contrast of the body and limbs.

These are the creature designs that I took to final polish. Although rendering these concepts to this level wasn't really necessary, I did want to flesh out these creatures to get a better idea of how they would move and interact with the player.

Trying out new brush set

Here, have some creature sketches.

Concept for unannounced title

This is was the first rough I started when I began concepting for a project I am working on. Once I got it to this stage, I didn't like the direction so I left it alone and started another painting which was ended up heading closer to the direction I had in mind. By doing this rough I realized what design elements I wanted to avoid in the world I was trying to create. The terrain was coming out too familiar and not alien enough, so moving on to other paintings helped me flesh out the alien planet and develop a color palette.

 Once I had developed the alien world, it was easy to come back to this rough painting and take it to a finish.

Reynisfjara beach

30 minute study

90 minute study

Finally back from the east coast and I'm getting back to work. Took a break from my project to do this quick study. I had a lot of fun working with a set of brushes that I got from shaddyconceptart.com. Shaddy is an amazing artist who is having a huge influence on my work flow, so big thanks to him and all that he gives back to the digital artist community.

More clouds

10 minute study

Quick study

Took a break from my work and painted some Florida clouds.

Current project

These are sketches and paintings I did recently for an unannounced project I'm working on. I planned on sharing this work when I was closer to announcing the project, but I'm going through a rough patch right now. I figured I'd get back to focusing on work by sharing some of it.

The painting helped me settle on the basic shapes of the landscape, but it lacks a sense of scale. That's due to me not being sure about how large I wanted these crags to be, my indecisiveness during the painting left design issues unresolved. But I did settle on some details, contrasting shapes and atmosphere. I then went back and did some value thumbnails and this time I was thinking on a grander scale.

Once I captured just the right atmosphere and feel of the planet with my second painting, the other two paintings came along quickly. Each painting informed the next one and gave me direction. I'll post more of this project soon.

Another speed painting

40 minute study, more to come.

Waitress

Happy new year folks! It's been a couple of months since my last post and now I return with my most recent art test. I've done a lot of art tests over the years and this one is one I'm particularly proud of. I was provided with a clear description of the concept and a great style sheet. From preliminary sketches to completion, I feel like I explored a lot of possibilities of what a waitress concept is. I'm happy with how it turned out. I think at this point I have to admit to myself that I am better at doing cute things than I'd like to think. This would be a difficult admission if I hadn't enjoyed the process so much. More to come soon!

Vacation painting

So here I am in Florida to visit my family. I never look forward to these visits, don't get me wrong, I love my family, it's Florida that I hate. People here are rude and will eat your face off (that reference will never be out dated in my book). I also don't enjoy flying, it's a big hassel and is an exercise in patience. My visits here are often not very productive. Luckily this time a friend lent me his laptop so my two weeks here aren't a complete waste, as an unemployed artist I can't afford two weeks of vacation. My first three days here have been pleasant, catching up with the family and going out to enjoy each others company. But today is the start of a new week and so it's back to business as usual, even if you're on vacation in Florida. So here is something I did today, it was supposed to be another quick 20 minute speed painting that ended up being a 90 minute painting. It's obviously much tighter than the previous speed paintings and the extra time invested in the painting was well worth it. This was done from photo reference and I'm hoping to snap some good photo reference while I am here. I have a couple of other bigger things I am working on, which I am hoping to finish by the end of the week, I refuse to let these Floridians and this muggy weather drag me down and lounge on the beach with a drink that has a tiny umbrella in it. Till next time!

Speed paintings

I did these in the last three days, the first one was done from my head and the second two were from photo reference. You can tell the first one has a surreal fantasy look to it while the second two feel more grounded in reality. All three took 20 minutes, maybe a bit more, I'm trying to get in the habit of stopping at exactly 20 minutes, but it can be hard when you get neurotic about your paintings. Also, the job hunt continues, I'm trying to produce work daily and not get hung up on one piece and fiddle with it for days. I finally uploaded images to my cgHub account which I have had for years. Take a moment to check it out and give me some my work some love! http://echo.cghub.com/

Rain and characters

Been away for some time, busy with friends wedding, but that's all over now and the fall is here. I welcome the rain and cloudy weather with open arms because it's perfect drawing and painting weather. During the summer I get antsy while I work because I think of all the outdoor activities I could be up to! Anyway, here are some new character concepts, not fully polished, but the style and type of character are clear! As always, I included the silhouettes I do at the start of ever character concept I do.

Oh and here are a couple of pics of the field by where I am living now. Oregon is beautiful in the fall! Stay warm folks!

Olympic tribute

Haven't watched much of this years Olympics, though I hear NBC has really dropped the ball on airing the events. Anyway, I did a quick sketch of one of the events based on the best photo reference I could find. I worked off the reference image and obviously added some from Street Fighter-esque energy strokes.

Armor

Inspired by one of my favorite science fiction books, this cover was done in Painter. I did the thumbs and value roughs in PS and then moved on to Corel Painter for rendering. I think the any of the thumbnails could  work as good covers, but I chose this one because it conveys emotions that were felt by the protagonist. The helmet itself has plot significance, so this composition provided the greatest potential for depth. I tried out a lot of different blocky fonts, I liked a lot of them equally and went with two of them for the type. I finally learned how to get a gif to play in a blog post instead of having to click to watch it. 

Ice temple

I kept this one small so I didn't spent too much time on it. Took about 2 hours, spent some of that time playing around with different layer effects to give the ice some depth.

Between a rock and a volcano

An environment I did during my time at Twist.

Fat creature thing sketch

Recently I decided to go through my folder filled with sketches that I never finished and found this fat bastard. I did this sketch months ago and had left in grey scale. I decide to just splash some color on him and a few gruesome details. This was definitely one of those drawings that I didn't plan out, I just started sketching and he appeared. I don't have a story for him, other than he enjoys...cows. Hhmm, he's not much different than us after all!!