Megan's Endless Fall

So I held a little mini competition on my facebook, and the winner gota free illustration of whatever they wanted. My friend Megan won and wanted me to illustrate her in the game Portal in the middle of "the endless fall."

I was kinda nervous because I had never done a commission like this before, and although I wasn't getting paid for it, it was still supposed to be a "prize" lol so It would of been pretty embarrassing if it came out like crap. All in all though I think it came out pretty good, and she liked it alot and allowed it to grace her profile pic on facebook lol. So maybe I'll be open to commissions in the future :)

:D

Not much to say bout these really... Experimenting with a new way of coloring that my professor showed the class one day. Changed up a little of the finishings to make it my own, but yeah Im pretty happy with how the final results look :)

A Day at the Beach

(Bromance)

Ofcourse its all in your head!.... But why should that mean it isn't real?

God I loved the last Harry Potter soo much, I just had to do something to commemorate it, especially being the last installment of the series! (zomg sad face) When i read the book so much things struck me hard on an emotional level, and I was wondering if the movie would be able to tug at the same heart strings, and it was extremely successful... loll

So for this piece I wanted to include some of the scenes that were really special and outstanding to me, being, Harry's mother speaking to baby Harry before she's murdered, Ron and Hermoine's long awaited kiss, and the Dementors looming over Hogwarts. I also felt it was important to include the duel between Harry and Voldemort, because its become the series' trademark since the 4th movie. I wanted to include the horcuxes but I felt it may of cluttered the piece so I just included the snake, (and I suppose Harry if you want to count him lol) I have Snape and Voldemort next to each other because they represent Harry's protector and killer.

Also, and this is probably for the most astute observers but I did want to include the Deathly Hallows symbol in the piece, so I arranged the composition to make the shape. Harry, elder wand and where the spells crash is ur straight line, tip of the want down the sides making your triangle and Harry at the center making your circle. Anyways nuff of that, hope you like.

Next update will be the Princess Peach spread as voted.

Today at work....

Well its my last day at work, and whilst finishing the last of my projects here at work i started doing a sketch of a dude, decided to make him ugly and scary, then I decided he bore some resemblance to Gannondorf... so I rolled with it, and straight up made him Gannondorf. And I saw that it was good, so I decided to make Zelda and Link too, and on the 3rd day I rested.

I do not own Gannondorf, Zelda or Link, they are copyright nintendo.

First update for the Summer (and in a while)

These are just some quick warm up sketches that I did while at work not working, that I took to finish on a lark, I had no intention of finishing them when I started haha.







This one actually started off as a cover design for a judiciary annual report, however my boss didn't like showing the full butler, so the idea was scrapped. I personally really liked how the butler looked, so I decided to recycle it. :p

Skateboard Decks

This was a piece I did for my Vector Illustration class. A short series of board designs, using mostly my own logo: "The Jester."
I always wanted to design skateboards, snowboards, surf boards etc. When I first designed the Jester logo my initial intention for it was to be an extreme sport brand, much like quicksilver. Billabong and No Fear. So this would be my first swipe at going into that vision. The Jester itself as a logo, I think is a great story, I've been redesigning it, perfecting it, rebooting it, for about 6 - 7 years, and I think it has reached a point where its pretty final... Time will tell, I'll do a specific post about my logo later on, for now I hope you enjoy my decks.

First Post of the First 2011 school term

Phew, well I've reeeally gotten into all my classes this term, I think its gonna be a great 10 weeks... I'm currently enrolled in Illustration for Concept Art, Vector Ilustration and Survey of Illustration, and I already I have work to show off :)


A Trinidadian Legend

HAPPY 2011!!!!!!!

WHOOOO Its a newww yeaaarr I hope everyone had a great time!
I had a very simple New Years with my family and cousins etc. Not complaining at all. Thought I would ring in the new year with some new artwork! :O :)

The Protector


Slytherin Steals

The Deathly Hallows

So I just came back from the latest Harry Potter movie, annnd I was blown away lol. Ok I'm just gonna be up front and honest here, I read these books aaaageess ago, annd yeah I dont remember all the fine tune details the sequencing of events blah blah blah, and I damn well didnt Re-read the books before the movie, soo I can never really be disappointed that the "movie didn't live up to the books" because frankly I only remember the jist of the books and the movie is really supposed to just be based on the books, so, basically, I can enjoy the story twice. Enjoyed it once with the books, now again with the movies. I mean I have some freinds who read the book right before the movie so they can see if the movie got EVERYTHING in the book....I personally think thats DUMB but ANYway. Yeah. I'm a big fan of this last one. Story was great, the actors were great, and the cinematography.... oh...ah...mm... (changes pants) Yeah loved all the shots. Anyways soo Spoiler Alert i THINK :/

My 3 favourite things of the movie... The way they did the story about the "Deathly Hallows" AWESOME animation. The way we kinda go to see how Emma watson would look like naked hahaha lol. Pretty awesome. annd well the final final scene in the movie. I'm a big fan of that also.

Soo without further ado. Quick speed painting I did when I came home.

The Deathly Hallows



Annd cue Process....

One


Two


Three


Four


Five


Six


Seven


Eight


Nine

Lara Croft

Well, its Christmas break and I'm NOT working on anything work related. So its been a really good time for me to work on me and practice my craft and process on personal projects just for me. So this would be my first Illustration just for me for the break. :)

Lara Croft
I also have process work for this to help me remember what I do basically. Especially with this one, it was alot of trial and error, and just responding to what I see and the things I do while I'm working.

Photo Reference

So yes. This is me. I use myself for my photo references mostly. Pretty much because I know exactly what I want, I'm very responsive, open to ideas and follow instructions to a tee. Very goofy, and no I do not feel weird doing a pose that will be making a female character do in my artwork.

Initial sketch

This is very rough and sketchy, I do this on a separate layer, following my reference. This is done very scratchy and quick to just get the figure down, the pose, the attitude etc.

Tighter Lines

This is just me refining the sketchy lines that I laid down on the first layer. I lower the opacity on the scratchy lines so they are verrry faint, then I do these on top of them in a fresh layer.

Tighter Lines 2

Same process as before, on a separate layer I just focus more on details, so in this case clothes

Base Tones in Grayscale

I fill my background with Gray. Then I Tone the environment with a textured brush very loosely. In this case its a cave, so its going to be very dark. Then I just color my entire figure in a middle gray in a separate layer. I always do a middle gray because its much easier to add in darks and lights than if you were starting off with white or black.

Value Render

This is the part of the painting that most people will argue is the most important part of the process. You just basically lay down the values in terms of light and dark in a grayscale. Helps organize the painting in terms of composition

Overlay Layer

Flat red overlay layer. (I chose red because of the flare) Then I add in whites using the flare as the main light source.

Color Burn

Using another layer set to Color Burn, I wash in natural colors (Skin tone for skin, brown for shirt) This gives richness to the piece by keeping the effect of the red overlay layer.

Smoothing out

This is where the piece really starts to look finished. I do this on a separate layer in case I screw up. Basically, after the color burn stage, I have all the colors I want to use in the piece, down. So its just a matter of using the eye dropper tool, selecting and painting over and over till all the colors blend nicely.

Special Effects

This is just really focusing on the smoke. Using a custom texture brush I just brush that stuff in, pretty much unplanned honestly, just kinda went with it see what looks good. I did take a quick glance at a reference to see how much smoke and stuff is generated by a hand flare, but thats about it honestly.

Touch Ups

These are just little tweeks to the piece. I adjust the color balance on an adjustments layer, made the highlights redder and added a slight green atmospheric tone in the shadows.

The Open Window

So for my Editorial Illustration I had to do three illustrations for a short story of my choosing. I chose the story "The Open Window" written by Saki. It was quite an interesting piece and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. In my comp sketches however my professor informed me that my drawings were not historically correct in sync with the story hahah Soooo he put me on to this short film that was based on the story for reference. It captured the essence of the story quite well I think, you can take a look at it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBXb-8YoR0E

I had alot of fun working on these pieces. I applied what I learnt in my electronic illustration class with the Zombie painting to this assignment. He outlined where each piece will be if it were featured in a magazine so I was dealing with:
1. Table of contents image full color small scale
2. Story image full page full color
3. Story image small scale in grayscale

This is the Table of contents image. Basically sets the mood of the story without really giving away any characters or plot.


This is the full page image to go along with the story. From here on these images will only really make sense if you've read the story or seen the short film I posted.


This is the small scale grayscale image, basically its the last moment in the story.


Just for kicks and giggles This was my reference pic for the Grayscale image lol :p

Zombies

Well, Finals are over, Fall Quarter is over. I'm back home at the moment, I went to Miami after school for a highly anticipated, relaxing, de-stressing mini vacation, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself... :B
Last post had 3 pieces in the works, finished 2 of them for finals plus 2 more not previewed, also for finals... I know right? The anticipation is blowing my mind as well (I like to pretend I have a throve of fans just thirsting for my updates)
ANYway. Yeah these are the zombies. This was my final for my electronic illustration class, and I have process work! :D For the assignment we just basically had to do a painting digitally, with our own image in it, soo it could of been a self portrait or something like this. So yeah I'm totally on a "Walking Dead" and "Left 4 Dead" hype at the moment, or at the moment this piece was done, so yeah I thought what would it be like to be in a zombie apocalypse at SCAD. haha

Oh I've also started labeling my work so the people who take my images off my blog (dare to dream) will always know where they found it :)

This would be the final.


And cue process work...

Its always good to start off thinking just in terms of value and value contrast, so I started with a grey background, added a gradient to represent my sky. In this case I knew exactly where my scene was going to be set, so I went ahead and roughed it all out. (Its the roof of my illustration building haha)


Then I just build up the background, adding shadows and little bits of detail. Nothing too embellished as I'm still setting up value, the detail is just so things make sense to me.


Then after fleshing out the background I just sort of sketch in the figures, very rough, just to plan out where I want everyone, and how it would look compositionally


Well its around this time where I actually get reference. I actually went up on the roof did the poses etc. Found out the correct size relationships of the characters the proportions all that good stuff. So I refine my sketch based on the first rough.


This is where the fun starts. Fleshing out the figures. Yours truly in the front, and the others were modeled from two of my friends except the guy on the ladder, I didnt bother with him because we don't see enough of his face for it to matter. I should of explained this earlier, I think I said it in a previous post, but I like doing backgrounds first completely before attacking figures. Pretty much for the same reason I eat my french fries first before the burger, I like to leave the best and most enjoyable part for last. Also, If I eat my burger first I might be too full to finish my fries.... hope you get the metaphor here...


Now Color. This part was pretty tricky for me, because up until this moment I had been appreciating it in grayscale. So needless to say my first dash of color was a bit strong. A bit too cheerful for a zombie apocalypse I would think...


So I muted the colors a bit, especially the background because it popped too much, and distracted from the foreground. Basically I had all my colors and Im just scuplting my focal point, at this juncture. Manipulating color value and the intensity of each to pull your eye where I want it.