Retro Redux

These are some Level and Player assets for a Retro style side scroller I'm working on with Tame-Tick, an Indie developer based in Vienna. Tame-Tick is handling game play and programming and vomisalabs will be doing the art and animation. It was started as a hobby project and has been on hold for a while, hopefully we pick it up again, perhaps next year some time.

Last Live Demo

Some character sketches from the final live demo class done today. 16 demo sessions in total, and I look foward to doing some more next year.

Blender

This is my progress after 3 nights of staying up late and teaching myself Blender, very basic still, but I've managed to lock down low poly modeling, morph keys and UV unwrapping. Next I will sort out some sort of soft-body or cloth sim for the hair of my character, and then get on to lighting and atmosphere. Once all of that info is safely stored in my brain I can get on to animating.
 So far the biggest problem is that my little laptop keeps crashing.

Get to the chopper!

Big Daddy Demo

These are some creature designs I did for the live demo class today. 

Probably been my favourite lesson to do so far, something about drawing monsters just relaxes me.

Last Mysteries

I just found out that the game that I worked on for about 5 - 6 months has been released.

With free playable version online now!

www.lastmysteries.com

 

Amazon Princess Sketch

This piece started as a rough line sketch, done during my live tutorial on anatomy and figure drawing. I kind of liked it so I decided to work on it a bit more. I feel it's still missing something, and it's not quite got the punch I want. But I've lost interest in it so I won't be taking it any further.

Birthing Pains

And so begins my life, version 3.0

Heinlein Book Covers

Some thumbnail cover concepts I did last night. I've enjoyed so many of Heinlein's books, I think I could possibly write one myself. I would love to have the chance to actually produce covers for his books, but for some reason, publishers and agents I have approached for this purpose either ignore me, or tell me cover art contracts are only given to artists who have already done published cover art, which seems mighty rediculous.

A quick rant.
To show an example of the dichotomy that exsists between those that make art, and those that require art. I was once told that my CV had not been short listed for a contract, and the reason given was,"Your portfolio is great, but we are looking for somebody that can draw characters with big eyes."
another time the reason was,"Great stuff but we are looking for somebody who can draw dogs."
Obviously because I don't have a portfolio full of dogs, or characters with big eyes,
Or Dogs with big eyes? the employers assumed these were simply impossible subject matters for me to produce.

Update:

Dropped some color and texture on the thumbnails.

Topless Girls

Just a few sketches from the Hard Drive. Work has slowed down lately, so I don't have any updates at the moment, waiting on a some pieces to be published before I can show them here. I've spent the last couple weeks working on a new personal project for mobile devices, and also trying to sort things out with agents and publishers for my book.

Warhammer Illustration

Here is yet another piece I did for Fantasy Flight Games a few months back.

Environment Thumbnails

I've always prefered doing character design, compare to environments, partly I think beacause I had no formular for doing landscapes. Mountains and open fields bothered me. A large open space with nothing to focus on is extremely hard to make interesting and boring to draw. Compare that to a single character on a sheet of white paper, where the focus is unavoidable. So last week I decided to sit down and work on some landscape concepts until I had a decent method to produce them. After about 4 or 5 failures I got into the groove and punched out these 8 designs. It was well worth the day of frustration to come out the otherside with a bit more confidence in my Environment concepting.

Update

Picked a couple of the thumbnails and worked them over with a bit of color and texture.

Illustrated Novella Update

On Friday, I got an updated test print of my Illustrated Novella, still a few mistakes, mostly to do with image prep and formatting. But when compared to my first print the difference is huge. The whole thing is much tighter and actually feels like a real book now. I will have to do one final pass before the book is ready for the shelf. Agonizing work, and by this time the editing process has become completely loveless. I'm sure if the book is well recieved it will all be worth it. If not, then at least I've learnt from doing, and will be able to do better next time.

Oil Painting 02

( Hmm right side of face seems to be missing, Damn it)

So this is my second attempt at mastering oils. The first got thrown away it was so shit.

But I'm happy with how this one came out, and if I ever have the location and money for it I will probably take up oils.

I had to go over this in PS to clean up a few bits, and also darken some areas that had too much glare in the photo, especially the beanie and neck. Also sharpening up the photo resulted in some ramped colors which don't actually exist on the painting. So I still have a long way to go until I'm doing oils without needing PS for touch ups.

Gears of War - Tribute

A couple Tribute pieces I did recently. Fan art I guess you could call it.

Nice one Hawkins :)

Red Sonja Sketch

Self Promotion

Some shameless self promotion. Not much else to say about this piece, enjoy what nature provides.

Sketchup

After chatting with a fellow concept artist about Sketchup pros and cons I decided to give Sketchup another go. And ended up doodling this gun.

Random Sketches

some random sketches,

The Carpark Horror

The Carpark Horror was a short film I shot a few years ago.
Unfortunatly all the original tapes were lost when the place I was editing decided to suddenly close down. The copies I had were down graded a few generations, across many formats, and only meant to be used as a way for me to do a quick edit on my home PC before using the Avid system at the film facility. Also so that the composer Jessica Wells could have a rough copy to begin scoring the original sound track. The final film was 9 minutes long. Filmed over two nights in a parking garage in central Auckland, and cost approx $350 NZD. Two Varicams were used, and I had access to some wonderful lenses. The only onscreen talent was Alireza Moeinian, who’s performance was so inspired that he recieved several job offers for more onscreen work, though he kindly refused. The Composer Jessica Wells also did an outstanding score that I will endevour to make available for listening.

Globe Trotters Fan Art

This was a bit of Fan art for my friends at Broken Rules - a really enthusiastic group of indie developers here in Vienna. I got to be one of the guineapigs, and tested a version of their game Globe Trotters before it was unleashed. A really cool, one button game for up to 4 players. It's a perfect game for the ipad if you own one, and the learning curve is so fast it's almost unnoticed, within the first minute the player already has the game in grasp and is forming strategies. So anyway, I scribbled this bit of Fan Art.
And I suggest to anyone to have a look at the Globetrotters game, I think most people regardless of age or taste would find it fun.

I'm Batman

During the last Drink and Draw session, I had come away with an interest in Alla prima painting. Although Digital painting as it is may already be Alla prima in a way. I was also interested in trying to use color to make my forms instead of doing a tone study first, which I usually do. These are some early results of my tests. a bit similar to my last life drawing session on the tablet too. It's still hard for me to think in color instead of tone, and it takes a bit longer. But slowly I am getting there.

Just Looking - Pinup

A pinup poster I'm doing for fun. Normally stuff like this wouldn't see the light of day, it would probably sit on my hard drive until I lost it to a disk format or something. but this is a blog, so I supose it's okay to post here.

Iso Animations

A Few animations from a little game I started designing a while back. Bare bones at the moment, not much to show but sketches and brain storming. These are some tests for walk cycles of mecha characters. Also have some humanoid soldiers, weapons and vehicles, will update this post as things progress.

Photoshop and Alcohol

I like Photoshop, and I like drinking. I don't like being in bar fights because as you can see, I'm not a muscle guy. So I'm never the one fighting, unless it's against a kid, or small woman., then I can kick ass.

Warhammer 40k

This is an image I did for the upcoming Black Crusade release by Fantasy Flight games. Shows a priest and a monk. The monk is supose to be seducing the priest in a way, turning him into a traitor. I took a risk and made the situation quite camp, which wasn't how they appeared in the reference, or the exisitng toys.
So I'm happy that the art direction at both Fantasy Flight and Games workshop let me me complete the image using my own perverse angle. It's currently used as a show piece, for marketing the game on the Fantasy Flight website here:
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2192
I'm already working on the next set of images, so more to come in the future.

Industrial Design BMW Console

A bit of product design here. A console controller done in the style of BMW motors of course.