New Concepts/Blog

Hey Folks, just finished a few things and thought it was time for a post. I was busy doing a painting for my brother this past month. But I forgot to take some pictures of it before mailing it off to him, so as soon as he sends me some pictures of it I'll be sure to post it. In the mean time, these are a couple of new concepts, I realized that I don't draw women as much as I should so I thought a female concept was in order. I was inspired by some photos taken from a costume carnival, I really liked the look of one of the models so I knew I had to do something based on the pictures I had of her. The second is a not too distant future soldier, he's an old concept of mine that I thought I should update and fix what I didn't like about him.

Now on to the new blog!! Well, it's not really a blog as much a portfolio. I originally planned to use this blog as my portfolio but I realized that anyone who wants to hire me doesn't want to scroll through paragraphs of type to look for my work, so I made a clean and simple portfolio. Be sure to check it out here and let me know what ya think!

Close, but no dice

This past week I was asked to do a test for a game developer I applied to. I was given a rough description of what they wanted to see and two days to do it. It's been a while since I had a short dead line so I couldn't take much time to explore a lot of concepts. After some brainstorming I got to work, I had to remind myself to keep things simple so I can match the developers art style. I think the traveling merchant is the best example of that style. Unfortunately, they decided to pass on me, none the less I think these turned out well under circumstances and I'm glad to share'em. Enjoy!

My WonderCon experience

I can’t sleep so here I am to share my WonderCon experience. I mainly went because my roommate works for a game developer which means him and a guest can get in for free. After attending GDC the previous couple of days, I wasn’t looking forward to being in yet another large crowd. After getting our passes we made our way down to the main hall and set about exploring. We walked around for a while, taking in the sights and such. I couldn’t really enjoy anything for very long because it was just so damn crowded that you just couldn’t stand still long enough to appreciate anything. There was a point when we passed an artist table that had the books of Joe Weatherly, this perked my interest because I had recently done a horse turn around and his book was my main source of reference. The book was five bucks cheaper than it’s normally priced, but money is tight these days so I moved on while still considering weather I should buy it or not. After about another hour of just browsing the convention, I decided to go back and buy the book after all. So when I came back to the table, there was a 30 something gentleman sitting behind the desk that wasn’t there the first time I had passed (there was some girl manning the table earlier). I said I’d like to get the book and when I did the man asked me if I’d like it autographed. That’s when it dawned on me that the man before me was in fact Joe Weatherly himself! I was just at a loss for words, first because for some reason I had imagined him to be some old fart and secondly because his book was such a great source of reference and was filled with knowledge. I had analyzed his drawings for weeks and studied his method of drawing animals. I regained my composure and spouted something that probably went like this, “dur…um, yes please, autograph…” As he signed it I let him know how helpful his book is. He reassured me by saying that drawing horses is hard and that he’s glad his book helped me out. After shaking his hand I walked away, my mind was still racing and I was legitimately star struck. I mean in the same day I had seen Lou Ferrigno, Peter Mayhew (the guy who played Chewbacca) and comedian Brian Posehn (all of which I am a fan of) and I wasn’t phased! So all ‘n all my WonderCon experience was brief but awesome. Here is a scan of the page he autographed and if anyone out there is into drawing animals, this book is a must.

Big Update!

It’s been over five months since I have updated, but I’m making up for it now. I’ve been hard at work interning at a local game developer and have learned so much in such a short time. I recently ended my internship so I can focus on my portfolio, especially before GDC came around. I still think my portfolio wasn’t showing all I can do, but none the less I was getting great feed back. GDC was very exciting; I met a lot of art directors and received priceless advice on my portfolio. It was great to see so many other concept artists, it really lights a fire under ones ass when you see the talent you’re competing with. Anyway, the work below is a mix of characters, props and environments. I’ve nothing else to do but focus on my work so updates should be more frequent. Enjoy! :D

A not so quick...quickie

Yet another race from the Warhammer universe, this Dark Eldar gave me some trouble. Unlike the other races I had trouble finding good reference for Dark Eldar, so he ended up taking me much longer to finish than I expected. I tried to stay true to the feel of the race by making sure almost every part of him came to a sharp point...

Some more Quickies!!

Here are a couple more Warhammer inspired pieces. I tried to make these quick studies but the first one ended up taking around 40 minutes. The second took two hours, which is a lot longer than I wanted to spend on these but I couldn't stop until I felt the piece was...well, complete. I'll likely do a few more of these while I still have the Warhammer bug....till next time folks! :D

Quickies!!

A couple of quick studies inspired by WarHammer...

Acrylic owns Oil

I was moving some paintings around today, when I came across these two. I figured it would be a good time to scan and post them up. These paintings are by far my favorite pieces I've done in acrylic. I never thought I'd be able to paint anything until I tried acrylic. Compared to oil, acrylic was just so damn liberating. Oil forces you to plan things out and for me it leaves little room for spontaneity, all of which is due to its long drying time. But with acrylic it dries so fast that even if you put down a color or brush stroke that you don't like, a few minutes later you can just paint right over it. I don't worry about screwing up when painting with acrylic. I try to paint digitally the same way I paint with acrylic but I still know I paint differently with each. I suppose it’s because with real paint you're slowed down and forced to think more about each brush stroke. Anyway, I just got a new sketch book today so be sure to check back soon for new sketches.

back alley paintin'

This is a painting I've been working on the last couple of days. I haven't painted an environment in a while and when I saw a picture in National Geographic, I thought it would make for a nice painting. I wanted to finish this painting in one sitting but after a while I needed to get away from it. But taking a brake from it and getting feed back was really helpful. Also threw in the quick roughs, each took a couple of minutes. I'm pretty happy with the end result and I know there is room for improvement but I'd rather move on to another piece.

I'll be sure to post something soon again, some more sketch book stuff most likely.

Project Octopus hits YouTube

One of the guys I worked with on Project Octopus posted a trailer of it on YouTube. Here is a little background on Project Octopus for those who don't know. The project spanned four semesters at the Academy of Art University and it set out to create a Half-Life 2 mod. It was an Adventure/Horror themed FPS inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Recently, the project received a "Best Game" award at the Epidemic Film Festival. (You can read all about it here)

As proud as I am to have been a part of such a great and valuable experience, I do have a problem with the trailer. Now assuming this is the trailer that was submitted to the film festival, whom ever made the trailer forgot at least one person. No, that person isn't me, I was credited for the concept art work I did. But I did spot the textures I made which I didn't get credited (which is fine since I want to be known for my concept work rather than my textures). Anyway my good friend Bret Motyl, who was a texture artist on the project and did excellent work, received no credit what so ever. Not getting any credit for something you worked hard on is just not right, but all of us who know Bret know he deserves every bit of credit for his contributions to the project.

Here are a couple of the environment paintings I did for Project Octopus that never made the trailer...

My first post! (bout time)

Well here it is, my very first post. I made this blog at least a month ago...don't ask me why its taking me this long to actually post something. This is something out of my sketch book. I really love strong silhouettes, which is why I really like this drawing. I'll be sure to post something regularly. till next time folks!