Rocket Boy Corps. Interface

I've been working most recently on a redesign for the in-game GUI for Rocketboy as well as a updated title screen. Some examples are below.

Open Outcast

Here are a few of the concept illustrations done for Open Outcast recently. Most of the architecture for the area is simple mud structures but I think that the modelers did a really great job bringing them to life.






These are some of the inhabitants for the area. I started by trying to rework the original anatomy a little bit, but we ended up going in a different direction keeping their poses more upright.

A Few 3d Models

Here are a couple recent 3D Models I have worked on

Recent Works

It's been a long time since I've updated the blog and a great deal has taken place since I last had a post. Most recently I have been developing concept art and game assets for a project with Wild Pockets. Here's some of the different pieces I've produced from that.










The only truly personal stuff I have been doing has mostly stayed in the sketch book. But a few have crept out. These are all small sections of a unfinished whole. Hopefully I'll get them done eventually.

Thanksgiving 08

Here's a couple of digital black and white sketches I've been working on. The first was a possible freelance gig with a UK band looking for some artwork, but they went with a different artist. It's too bad it turned out that way, but the guy I had been speaking with was very friendly and at the very least I got to work on a drawing I actually like. I'll be coloring it eventually and most likely be using it as a part of my portfolio.


It's been said quite a few times that the creature in the image is our cat Kenny. Pretty much any disturbing creature of the night is automatically likened to him.


The next is something I whipped up tonight after Natalie and I watched Reign of Fire. I don't know if anyone has seen or remembers watching this movie, but it was about the end of man-kind at the hands of dragons who had been in a long hibernation. They were responsible for the death of the dinosaurs and then, eventually, the ash from all they burned clouded the sky and brought on the ice age. It had gotten really bad reviews and I had seen it when I was pretty young, but had remembered liking it. The film features Christian Bale and Mathew McConaughey. McConaughey's character, Van Zan, of the Kentucky Irregulars is, quite possibley, one of the strongest men ever to live. He musters a make shift militia in the USA, flys them accross the ocean in a rebuilt C-5, (which he probably welded together himself) then rides around England on the cannon barrel of one of his tanks. All the while smoking a cigar, swigging from a flask, wielding a sawed off shot-gun, and looking for dragons to kill, because he is just plain pissed off at them.

The character inspired me to draw. I used a photo from the web for reference but it was fun practice.


Maybe I'll expand on it. I'm not sure. Might just stay as is.

UPDATE***

I thought it might be cool to show my work progress for that drawing. So here's a animation showing my steps. You'll have to click on the image to show the animation, for some reason it doesn't preview below.

Goblin Gunslinger

A character concept done for this weeks CHOW. Unfortunately you needed to provide them with a "character sheet" for this round which I couldn't stomach completing. So I did this action shot instead. Not terribly detailed, but I like the pose.

Recent Cover Illustration

Here's a recent digital painting I did for a cover I have been working on. It hasn't gotten approval yet, though I hope it will.

Roman Standard Animation

I've still been plugging away this morning at models. I made a Roman standard to act as the "Princess" object for the Warlords game. Here's a quick animation I did with it.

More Gaming Things

I'm continually feeling as if I'm being pulled in a million different directions by the goals I have laid out for myself. Just when I start in on the Torque Game Engine, I feel the need to start creating game assets for Sim Ops Studios Wild Pockets Game Jam that's next weekend. I'm unclear at the moment whether I'll be teamed up with people or not since I signed up as an individual. But, I figure, even if I am on a team and we go in a different direction, I can still use these assets in the future. Anyway, there are a couple screen shots below. The premise was to recreate the classic Atari game Warlords in a 3d environment with physics. I went with a Roman setting for the game, which I think turned out fairly well. We'll see how the rest of it turns out in the future. I'm confident in the art, but as far as the coding is concerned I'll be a little lost unless I have something to work from. Coding for me is a lot like speaking Spanish. I get the gist of it, and can chop it up ok, but I could never speak it fluently.



In addition to all this stuff going on I still have work and I really need to make more time to draw. I got in some good sketching this morning and was really happy about it. The outcome was good and so was the experience. I was surprised today with a phone-call from work letting me know we're getting tomorrow off, so hopefully I can take advantage of the time and crank out some more work.

Torque Success

I've been trying hard lately to stay focused on my goals and to get a little more organized in the things I want to create. So far it's been a horrible failure. I'm notably bad at organization and it seems that there's no sign of that trend altering. However, I have managed to spend enough time digging through the Torque Game Engine, and the tutorials posted online, to start getting some objects "in-game". I worked on a vehicle this past week. After being crushed by an overwhelming belief that I could build an entire demolition derby game by myself. This single model took me a couple days to just get working in the engine and that was with all the hard stuff already done for me by those who have already tread this path. Here's some screen shots of it in the stock environment that came with the sample. It's my first car (with a specialty paint job,) a 1983 Mercury Grand Marquis four door sedan. I seriously would buy one if I could find one and the mileage was reasonable.

Books

Submitted for your approval. Some recent designs that I'm sure will never see print because they're too "artsy". Anyway, I like all these covers.

Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley

Here's my final rendition of Poison Ivy for this weeks CHOW. I spent a lot of the week working on it but still feel like I didn't draw enough. I think I'm going to try to take part in some of the Creature of the Week and Environment of the Week competitions as well.

Poison Ivy

An update of the picture below. I think it's coming together rather well. I still don't know how I'm going to work the character aspect of the image. I have become so caught up in the anatomy that I haven't concentrated on much else.




Here's my WIP for the next CHOW. More info to come.

My hand is swolen

I've been trying to spend almost all of my free time lately drawing. Here's a WIP I did tonight. 2 hours of work into it so far. Not too bad. I like the skin tone ok, but the pose needs refined more; particularly the left leg. Time to get some sleep.

Another Week

Another Chow. This weeks topic was the John Carter of Mars. A character from some old sci-fi stories. They wanted something Frazetta-esque so I did my best. It's hard for me to see much improvement in my work. I feel a bit in a rut.

CHOW 118

So this past week I have been busy doing just about everything other than finishing my CHOW entry for competition #118. I finally get on task tonight, and scrape something together, only to find out after I'm done that it's been canceled. It's very unfortunate because I think that my character actually had the most dynamic pose and I feel that the image is a good fit for a fantasy cover design. Regardless, I'm happy with the way it turned out. Though I'm exhausted and tomorrow will surely be long I think it was worth while. Here's the image.

Smaug

Here's the WIP so far for the CHOW. I'm really happy with it. I feel like I've learned a lot and have a lot of fun doing this one. I don't know how well it will fit the brief that's posted though. I get the feeling that they wanted a more expressive creature when it comes to the face.

Smoke

I'm working on a new CHOW seeing as how I didn't keep it together to finish the last one. Part of it will involve smoke, something which I don't have a lot of experience with. Here's a image I did as an experiment to get a feel for a new brush I've been using.

New Painting

Two nights in a row with something to show! This is digital painting that took me about an hour and half. I'm not really content with the way the fabric looks, but I did not spend much time on that area. I like the colors alright, but it could may be use a higher contrast.

Hour Sketch

Here's a sketch I cranked out this evening. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing. It's nice not to be too worked up while you draw. The landscape below continues to bother me the more I see it. So much is wrong with it. But it's good practice. Perhaps I'll redo one this week sometime. I look forward to being able to do more illustrations this year for the 2009 schedule of titles. I think we have a few that should lend themselves well to it.