Mids and Mods

Occasionally I like to compose, or at least do a sound sketch for my own projects. My instrument of choice is naturally the guitar, this is the instrument most people play, as it's easy to pick up and easy to access. Also similar to many basement guitar masters, I never learnt to read music or went to any training, instead I used tabs off the internet, my ear, and tips from friends and drunken hippies at those weekend parties where guitars inevitably end up. Regarding the Piano/keyboard - I am ham fisted. I play by ear and muscle memory and because of my limitations I play it very differently as I do the guitar.

Seductive Skulls

My interest in skulls started a while ago when I had to draw one without reference.

When I finally checked my drawing against the real thing I was surprised at how wrong I had been. I was also surprised at how many variations there are. It's not so simple as just drawing a bony dome with some holes in it. Each age, sex and ethnicity has unique traits.

When I started collecting reference and learning about different skull types, my Girlfriend at the time angrily labelled me a racist, saying I was racially stereotyping. A nasty, gratuious and completely ridiculous accusation. I have yet to hear of a court case that labels forensic evidence as racist stereotyping when it's used to identify the victims remains. I'm interested in the details that make us all unique, and learning about them is very beneficial for one's art and understanding of human anatomy.

Tech Dependency

  

These past few months have been a reality check for me. And have contributed somewhat unexpectedly to a growing distain, borderline abhorrence for technology dependency. I refer mostly to myself, and not the general public ( I don't care what other peole do with their time ). 

Rovio and lots of snow

I don't get that many visitors to this blog, but I thought my lack of posting over the last few months deserved explanation. After a 3 month Holiday/job hunt in London England I've ended up in Helsinki Finland working at Rovio as a senior artist.

I finally got my apartment sorted and found my 5 year old second hand Wacom has thown in the towel, my laptop is on its last legs, I have no scanner, and my camera leaves much to be desired. So until I collect some fat pay cheques, I will remain out of commission as far as personal digital art goes.

(photo - snapped this shot of rovio studios walking back from lunch, cosy!)

Update: Just for the sake of those that may actually be applying at Rovio, or that don't know much about Finland I thought I would add this. A photo of my office block, from the neighbouring tower.
Yes that's our view!, and the yes the weather is mostly sunny and clear!

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