attic

Finally had some time to get to this one. I started this one the same week I started doing free lance full time and been plugging away at it bit by bit. Glad to be done. And here is the work in progress steps.

gunner bot

weekend sketch.

blue bird

Been a while since my last post. busy with free lance (good thing) but almost no time for my own stuff.  I started this one late night last week with just a sketch and been plugging away at it during breaks from work.  Had some fun with this one.

sun set

Hedge funds, short selling, sub prime loans, and CDS. Been listening to the "Big Short" by Michael Lewis author of Money Ball, fascinating book about the financial collapse in 2008. Haven't painted anything in a while, busy with other freelance. Tried to keep it simple and zoomed way out.  I miss painting...

Rolling Mech

inspired by some cool Lego Mechs link here. 
edit took the colour out, what was I thinking racing colours?!? simple works for this one.

studies, sketches, and the sandbox

"I know that's why were here" love this movie

 This one was a interesting exercise that I wish I had more time and patience for it. So it involves doing a study then doing it again but this time from memory. I want to do more of these I think they help develop that internal visual dictionary that all of us should have.

80's style ship sketch to warm up.

 Playing in the sand box again, it's been a while This one was really, really...  REALLY frustrating. But that's what the sandbox is all about playing out side your comfort zone and learning. Witch I did and will use the lessons going forward.

"we are the smartest, we are the smartest"

For the sworcery A/V jam check out the awesome work there already.  Here big ups to superbrothers for putting this together.

So long Relic...

Well I said it once before I'll say it again (actually this is the 3rd time in 6 years) "all good things must come to a end".  So back at the start of April I along with a bunch of very talented people were let go as part of a round of layoffs THQ had.  Which sucked, cus I genuinely enjoyed working with everyone at Relic. It was one of my most productive years of my career, and I will always remember my time there with great fondness. I hope to work with a company or team that good one day again. It was a fun ride while it lasted, and it's shitty that's it's over.
However I am free lancing now, so that's a new career move I suppose, and also I finally updated my portfolio with new work, and Space Marine work, so that's good too. Anyways, exciting and nervous times ahead.

Also some studies I've been doing to warm up in the mornings and I revisited this old painting. Changed the colours a bit,  it always bugged me but now it bugs me less.

journey

a perfect game, loved it.

woods witch

started with just a simple gesture and just went with it.

Titan Gate

Saw the plants documentary series form the BBC and got inspired with all the planet talk. Titan one of the moons of Saturn.

Racing yeah...

Been busy with work stuff, but here is a slightly inspierd sketch of some racers. Think F-Zero (N64 version thank you) meets rally racing.

Blitz

There's only a couple of games that I would ever say that I love.  Ico and Motor storm PR are the easy ones to mention. The original golden eye, Free space 2, Ocarina of time and Vice city are in that love zone and orbit there proudly with a couple of others. But the all time leader in amount of time sunk into, is the original Blitz for the N64, and sits squarely at the top of that pile. And I don't really follow foot ball making my love for it that much more impressive. So just after the new year EA release a update to it on the download services. Aside from a  difference in play speed it's a very good and accurate reboot that  has captured my attention like the original did. It's great and frustrating (in a good way) fun.
In the reviews of the game they mention (a lot) the lack of late hits in this reboot. A trade mark of the original,  it has gotten a lot belly aching about it's absence form this version. I personally miss them a little but I don't think the game suffers that much from there absence. Besides the NFL has been clamping down on that type of crazy behavior. However Playing the game I often think that it would look weird for the players to give the late hits in this update. I think that unlike the old Blitz I don't find the players wacky or cartooney enough to be doing that. This is not a knock against EA by the way, I think they did a great job all around. I just think since it's a download they probably needed to design the players to take advantage of the more realistic madden engine's animation system or the NFL had a say on there look. Regardless when I love something I want to paint it.
So I thought how would they have to look for it not to seam odd them doning late hits. I thought they needed to be more distinct in difference according to the positions they play, not unlike what team fortress 2 did. Looking a the N64 one I couldn't help but notice that because of the graphics you could not see there eyes on the players making easier for them not to look real. So I tried to caricature the face, and hide the eyes more in shadow. I tried to make the defensive line men more lumbering slow but powerful the tanks of the field. The quarter backs/ defense men  thicker good all around but squarely in the middle in strength and speed, arms built for throwing. And the wide receive/ running backs more lean and built for speed but not that strong.  Blitz is a arcade game so I simplified the types of player types to just 3.
And again this is not a knock against EA I really think they did a fantastic job and I love this version in it's own way. I just thought it would be fun to paint some football players. Also like I said I don't really follow football so I didn't research the who wears the numbers on there jersey. So excuse the inaccuracy of said numbers.  Crazy 81 followers thanks for looking folks.

 I only play in big head mode!

happy 2012

200 hundreth post, crazy. I wanted to start simple this year, dark scenes are always easier then  light scenes to me at least. I find that it's easy to find that right balanced of colour temperature, images tends to be a lot bolder since it's almost mono chromatic.  Inspired by a photo of a friends winter trip. I also finaly swiched to CS5 after my CS3 finaly forced me with it's horrible lag.
Thanks for lookin.