Rah Rah like a Dungeon Dragon! Or in this case, a Fire Wyvern.

Lost a dragon image in a crash and failed to back it up.  So, I started anew.  Sometimes you pull something stronger from the ashes, excuse the pun.

Gandalf Plus Stepper

I did a portrait of Gandalf a ways back (see earlier post) but after seeing the second Hobbit movie I decided to try another portrait, this time in a different style.  Included is a step by step which started with nothing more than a quick sketch on some scrap.  Enjoy!

Roy Batty + Step By Step

This is an idea I'm playing with for character design class, re-imagining characters from Bladerunner for an animated film. This is my version of Roy Batty in progress plus a step by step of how I got this going. Enjoy!

The Scotsman

As a challenge to myself, I tried to re-imagine the The Scotsman from Samurai Jack. The idea was to re-design him as if this were concept art for a video game inspired by God of War. The original design is great but I've always imagined a game or animated film in a grittier style. Enjoy.

WIP - Portrait of Sonya

Here's some progress on a portrait . . . trying to play with line.  18"x18" Black and White Pastel on Rives BFK.

Avoid the Tyranny . . .

A sketch inspired by the book, Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon and the words of a choreographer from Smith College. Go figure.

Kami Kiri

   Kami Kiri, 18"x18" Charcoal on Rives BFK

                                      

Madball

I've been attracted to this idea since I sketched it out.  I think the original inspiration came from a creature in Japanese legends called the Kami Kiri.  There are two forms of the creature, a bird and bear form, but this one is slightly more akin to the bear form.  Here are some of the pieces. All are graphite and/or charcoal.

"Angst Ridden Bullshit"

My "Post Mortem" series has always been about me dealing with the trials of my past relationships. As part of my process, I typically start with stream-of-conscious writing.  The words, rants, poems, song lyrics, doodles etc. never last long as they typically get covered in layers of some medium.  However, they're important in setting the tone of the work, exorcising some demons and creating some texture.  

So, someone requested if I'd share some of my "Angst Ridden Bullshit." I'll start with these two and try and find some others. Much of what's written is my own but, occasionally, something  from the poet Charles Bukowski or lyrics written by Kevin Baker from the Hope Conspiracy make it in.

Anyway, enjoy or not.

Portrait of Linda Boltmann

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to paint the lovely Linda Boltmann (88 years young).  Here's a sort-of stepper. I'll do a better job of trying to take more "in progress" photos. This one is 14"x14," Oil on Canvas. Enjoy.

Wind Blown

A digital painting for fun and practice. Inspired by watching Memoirs of a Geisha this week along with visiting CG Hub and seeing all the great work there.

Material Studies: Fur + Armor

Trying to get a better grasp of painting different material qualities and still having fun with character. I can't help but ask myself though, is this my first "furry"?

This started as a quick sketch. I scanned it but didn't like the silhouette so I tweaked it in PS.

A little TMNT

I used to babysit my younger cousins back in the day and one of the few ways to pacify them was to draw the Turtles. I guess I was feeling a little nostalgic. The sketch and a finish. Enjoy.

Homewrecker

W.I.P (will I ever finish it?). Another exercise in "hard surface" digital painting. There's hard surface modeling so why not painting?! This was an exo-skeleton/armor/mech what have you, meant to exist in the same world as the Heart-breaker (see earlier post). Enjoy.

It's Character Driven!

Trying to stay in shape. Taking the random character challenge from It's Character Driven. www.itscharacterdriven.blogspot.com 

Mine was a silly, gigantic, fairy godmother that may or may not be a leprechaun.

 

A Bigger Boat.

Sketching today. Here's Roy Scheider from Jaws. Disappointed to hear he passed in 2008. Guess I'm out of the loop.

New set-up at work

I'm excited to have a drafting table at work; brought some drawings from the studio to work on.  Here are a couple close to finish.

Work in Progress

Here's an update on "Heart-Breaker."

Adding color, thinking story, atmosphere and mood. Getting great feedback via Facebook and have applied some of it in this. Thanks everyone!

Going to put it aside for a bit and get to making some art for Xmas gifts. I'll revisit it in January and try to put it to bed. Some things to address: Need to make sure her face is the first "read" in the image hierarchy. I want to use the LED lights to bounce you around the figure, out to the landscape and back ultimately. Some good crit included bouncing the warm, earth-tones into the armor to create more volume and make the rim-light on the figure match the material. I think I'd like to potentially add some other background elements. Need to thumbnail it back out and see. Anyway, enjoy!

Heartbreaker

More fun designing stuff. Does the world need another space marine? I doubt it but what's another going to hurt. Anyway, here she is. . . Heart-Breaker.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Caricatures

Been watching old episodes of Curb and sketching. Here are a finished Larry David and Jeff Greene and a rough sketch of the main cast. I scanned the sketches in, got some reference and painted these in Photoshop. Enjoy.

"Stolen Voices" Process

In a continuing effort to document my process and share it, I give you the process image for Stolen Voices. Enjoy. (To see the image larger, click the image and then click "Show Original" in the bottom left corner. Click the new image to Zoom In)

Kid Ronin

Latest character design with a little bit of a back-story. I feel like this is a first pass; that it could be richer so I'm open to some "costume" possibilities. This and previous designs are all done with a Wacom tablet and stylus in Photoshop. Enjoy.

Bubble-V(inny)

I'm continuing to create characters for fun and practice. I'm working in greyscale but will kick in with some color soon. Enjoy.

Ghost Girl

I'm prepping for Character Design class in the Spring. Here's "Ghost Girl" inspired by some cool movie characters and music. I'm pretty happy so far but I think she needs something . . .

Step by Step

I'm planning a lesson for my students in which they will be required to take a traditional life drawing and build it into a digital painting. They will have to add lighting, color, costume and environment. I needed to test the waters first and am happy with the results. If time permits I'd like to take this to a final stage. We shall see

Stolen Voices

Latest in the "Post Mortem" series . . . "Stolen Voices," mixed media on Mylar 24"x36"

Process: Blind Hubris

I'm trying to get into the habit of recording my process, mainly because I forget how I do things but also to share and learn more about how other artists make their work. While it's not heavy in process, it's here . . . enjoy.

Rapid Viz Painting Demo

Here's another demo I created for my students. I can't take credit for the technique. I learned it on Paul Richard's blog: http://autodestructdigital.blogspot.com

Skin Tone Studies

I'm creating a lecture and have been doing some skin tone demos for my Photoshop class. Here are some that were done so far illustrating the attributes of different skin tones. I thought it important to do studies of artists' work in order to see how they tackled skin tones rather than rely on photography. The artists I chose were J.W. Waterhouse, John Singer Sargent, Wong Kar-wai, Wai Ming and Gilbert Stuart. Feel free to use them if they are helpful. In order are: Mediterranean, African/Middle Eastern, Caucasian and Asian

Lolita

Finally an update. Here's the latest in the Post Mortem series . . .

Lolita, 4'x6' Acrylic on Canvas


Lolita Process
I tried to be diligent about documenting this piece but there are some pretty big jumps. Hope it's interesting nonetheless.

On the wall and on the easel . . . irons in the fire.

Here's more work in progress for the "Post Mortem" series. Through this series I am attempting to communicate the failings common in many of my relationships by creating a visual dialogue between figure and skull.


"Hubris II" mixed media on Mylar 24"x36"


"Hubris" mixed media on Mylar 24"x36"


Details . . .


"Coronation" mixed media on Mylar 36"x24"


"Bacchante" graphite on Arches 24"x36"