Friday, December 31, 2010

My Apologies

Lineart, a humbling experience for the messier of painters.
(Commission WIP)


I promise I've been active. Regrettably, I've yet to update my blog with my most recent works. I'll remedy this, and soon! 


UPDATE: Colour Comps!

Friday, December 3, 2010

More Gift Art



Sneak peek of some more gift art, some refs.
 I'll post the finished wallpaper sometime soon (if I get my way!).

Monday, November 22, 2010

Friday, November 19, 2010

A mouse? Really?

Did a demo for one of my friends, looking to paint in Photoshop with a mouse. I used a Rick Berry painting and tried to emulate it some by using Warp, Liquefy, the Smudge Tool (sparingly!) and mostly harsh lines. I learned in the process myself!


In closing, if I were teaching a class on digital painting, I would require the first project to be done with a mouse. I like how intentional one must be under that restriction.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Touch up of a sketch I'll flesh out later.


Illuxcon Journal: Final Days

Late entry to explain some of the last of our days of Illuxcon 2010:

Five portfolio reviews later, I have a refreshed direction on continuing to aim for a job in art. I have many directions I could take, but for now I shall settle for concept art. Fortunately, I've found my need for narrative to be satiated by Art Order's frequent challenges. While my narrative skills and general critical eye are immature, I have enough friends and master examples to point me in the right direction.

The artists made the convention: Tom Kuebler, Justin Gerrard, Mike Sass, Aaron Miller, Marc Fishman, Chris Burdett, Peter Morbacher, Katie McElroy, Chris Hayes, Lucas Graciano, Ralph Horsley, Jon Schindehette, Jeremy Cranford, et al brought much insight into my life. It was also a pleasure to be reminded that all of them are indeed humans with emotions and needs. Yes, even the excellent artists!

The lectures were probably more entertaining than they were supposed to be. Even talking about finances and art agents was a hoot! Between the lectures and my 'folio reviews I scribed down pages and pages of little life lessons. Ah, to be a young student!

In closing, my sympathies go out to any art student that couldn't attend. This was right up there with SIGGRAPH on my list of highlights. I can't wait to get a table next year—my friends and I are going to hog a good quarter of that convention space next year!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Illuxcon Journal: Day 2

On the first night there were some fifteen people congregating in the hotel lobby when we arrived. Our group's first impressions were something along the lines of, "Uh oh, we should recognize who these people are—they're probably amazing artist." When we got back to our room we Googled everyone on the guest list. Surely enough, they were all here for Illuxcon, and most of them were artists held in high esteem. 

We saw these artists a second time during breakfast this morning. I hated the idea of seeing them again without saying anything for a second time, but the only way I could talk at all was by embarrassing myself. Oh well. I searched on Twitter for "illuxcon", found a pretty cool artist that was in the group, and called his cell phone. One slightly awkward (but smug!) phone call later and we were one of the first students in the convention center. 

For nine hours we stayed there, talking to some of the nicest, most hard-working men in the entire industry. Absolutely beautiful, gross, dynamic, peaceful, overly sexualized, and reserved images were hanging, the artists (and sometimes wives) talking all about it. The sensory overload had us floored, and we retired back to our hotel completely void of energy.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Illuxcon Journal: Day 1

The total of ±10 hours of driving is behind us! David Kegg, Josh Johanson, Jarrod Evans, and I are all in this together. We will rendez-vous with three other friends from IWU later, as well as meet some online friends whenever that comes about.

Even though we haven't interacted with any of the hardcore pros here, I needed to stop and put this into perspective: I am in a commune with three very different artists, all here for the same reasons! So incredible an experience, to be united by the common thread of expressing oneself through the visual arts! While our portfolios look drastically different from each other, one can't deny that we all have a passion for the ethereal, the bigger-than-reality genre of art, and can't wait to get this thing kicked off. 

I hate the idea of making this post without an image, so here is a group shot of the four of us:


Clockwise from far right: David Kegg, Jonathan Duncan, Jarrod Evans, Josh "Sunshine" Johanson

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Chronomage WIP



She's gonna freeze some serious time, so watch out, okay?

Illuxcon is gonna be so much fun. I'm going with a great group of students, and I'm so pumped to meet all those great artists in person! 

Saturday, October 30, 2010

On Venting Emotions

I don't handle emotions in a typical way. I don't escape or suppress them, but I rarely get to express more intense things, like crying. Over a year ago I rationalized that crying wasn't going to help me out once I understood why I wanted to cry, and what I was going to do about it, and how it wouldn't be worth crying later. I don't get to experience the present often, and I am going to pay dearly for that, if I haven't already. 



I don't believe this image counts as venting through art. I drew this fenced-in tree when I couldn't really do anything else. It wasn't how I felt at the time, it wasn't a need I expressed, and it wasn't trying to understand myself better. It was, physically, performing the only task I could—no, not out of anger or grief—out of confusion. I don't need anger or grief to create something, especially when much of my images come from outside of myself. 

In closing, good afternoon! I hope your Saturday has been relaxing, regardless of stressors.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Nope, not done yet.

Some more progress, in animation form! (5MB)
Still has a ways to go yet, Hobbitses. It should be done on time for Altoona.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010


I'm reworking this image from my Arenanet 'folio. I'm going to buckle down and develop it. Buckling down things, developing things, I need more of that.

Also, messing a bit with another SIGGRAPH image.



And here's the animation in GIF form. 

Monday, October 18, 2010

Fan Art


I often think about artists that inspire me. I have tons of little doodles of their characters. Today, instead of doing homework, I paid tribute to one of many good sketches from Ayato.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

NOTTA GALA


Two of my dear friends had an art show recently. Here's one of the images I submitted—that one DS sketch with some Photoshop on top of it.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Let's Down To Fashion! Part 2



Trying to make my females look less like Powdered Toast Man.

Exciting News!

A few weeks ago Art Order's Jon Schindehette delivered a call for all artists interested in having him as a mentor. Many artists entered their names with work examples, reasons for entering, and long term goals. I am honoured to be among the five artists he chose, as detailed in the latest post. 


Jon has survived the position of art director at Wizards of the Coast ("survived" chosen because I cannot fathom being working such a demanding position) and has many exciting things to teach me, and I can't wait for us to get started! 


Finally, here's an image for the Sci-Fi portfolio. I realized I hadn't uploaded it here.




Sunday, October 10, 2010

Good Male Character Designs

I'd fanart any on this list:



In no particular order:
- Dean McCoppin (The Iron Giant)
- Beast (Disney)
- Nightcrawler (X-Men)
- Akuma (Street Fighter)
- Blanka (Street Fighter)
- Dhalsim (Street Fighter)
- Nightmare (Soul Calibur)
- Xenomorphs (Alien movies)
- Raziel (Soul Reaver)
- Kevin (Seiken Densetsu III)
- Bowser (Mario series)
- Ridley (Metroid)
- Yoshimitsu (Misc. Namco games)
- Venom (Marvel)
- Ganondorf / Ganon (Legend of Zelda)
- Most of the Goetic Demons 
- Skeletor (He-Man)
- Mumra  (Thundercats)
- Ronsos (Final Fantasy X)
- Pyramid Head / Red Pyramid (Silent Hill 2)
- Charr (Guild Wars)
- Brooklyn (Gargoyles)
- Beast (X-Men)
- Hellboy 
- Doggy Cruger (Power Rangers)
- Jon Talbain (Darkstalkers)
- Man-Bat (Batman)
- Godzilla 
- Wolf o'Donnel (Starfox)
- Fox McCloud—when he doesn't look like a kid (Starfox)
- Falco Lombardi (Starfox)
- Japanese Samurai w/ Oni masks
- Gary the Rat (though most rat characters suck)
- Grayfox (Metal Gear)
- John Blacksad
- Tony the Tiger (shut up)
- Miguel (Tekken 6)
- Luis Sera (Resident Evil 4)
- Pookah Cornelius (Odin Sphere)
- Hector (Castlevania: Curse of Darkness)
- Albus (Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia)
- Balthier (FFXII)
- Basch (FFXII)
- Angel Kefka (FFVI)
- Ifrit (FFVIII, X, XIII, Crisis Core, whenever)
- Solid Snake (Metal Gear)
- Mad Max
- The Big O
- Lynx (Chrono Cross)

Monday, September 27, 2010

Friday, September 10, 2010

Fallout Wedding

Colors! DS sketch on the left, Photoshop on the right

Two of my art friends were married last week.
Here they are, leaving Vault 101, ready to explore the world on their own!

Happy Marriage, Will & Sara Holbert~! :>

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Let's Try This Again


Still in progress.
This time I made sure to include my less-flattering traits. This has been my most successful self portrait to date (according to my sister, at least)!


Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Fishbot Animation

 


I try to keep a record of progress on my digital sketches. I remembered to do so on the latter of the SIGGRAPH sketches from the last post. Enjoy!






Friday, July 9, 2010

Jump


I put more time into the left version, but it looks slower than the rough.
Don't you just hate it when that happens?

Friday, July 2, 2010

More Wallpaper


Lacrosse is a pretty cool-looking sport. 
But it's not as cool as racquetball.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Wallpaper


I had been meaning to make a wallpaper for my MacBook for ages. Finally got around to it today!

I used a texture from CG Textures, as well as a picture of grease from tonight's dinner (spinach rice and marinated pork, in case you were wondering).

Friday, June 11, 2010


Drawing the old Space Police outfit on Charlie before going with the new design.
Afraid I'm still a sucker for vests!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Tuesday, May 4, 2010


I'm using more than one layer this time! I used black and neon green to make sure I was nailing the transparency. 
I now have two hours left on this commission for Heidi. I'm currently reading up on Neoclassical and religious art to get some context for a background. 

Wish me luck!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Warmups for Painting II




Did these the day after Christmas 2009.
They're from a children's book on Southwest Indian tribes.

Saturday, April 24, 2010



I could spend the rest of my life doing images of Native Americans and be perfectly okay with it.

Trying to get used to the laptop again. I've been spoiled by the computers at school.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Friday, April 16, 2010


Back to basics again with Photoshop.
(Thanks again to FFFFOUND for the inspiration!)