Merry Christmas!

I did a little Christmas comic.

I did a little development for skinny Santa before getting started.

Star Wars Gun-saber

I've been playing around with 3D a bit in my free timeand I finally finished something! Star Wars is coming out this week and I just saw an episode of Star Wars: Rebels and I was totally inspired by the lightsaber/gun in that episode, so I decided to do my own. The process sketches for this was once are a little boring, but I was surprised how many small details changed in 3D between sketch and finish. Just got to find that balance between 3D and 2D. Modeled and lit in Maya. 

 maya render

 maya render

 final paintover

 final paintover

gun saber jedi coming soon....

Duel!! In space.

Been awhile since I did a new blog header.

San Pedro Korean Friendship Bell May 3, 2014

Fantastic view of the ocean and San Pedro.

Big Robot City Valley Super Awesome Go!

# 2 in my big robot series! I find it hard to maintain interest in doing a series idea in my free time, but it's working out so far. I'm also happy to say that working with a Cintiq is getting more and more comfortable. Look for #3 in the next couple months.

Hot off the Cintiq!

This is my first painting made on my new Cintiq. It's a little tricky to get used to, especially after almost a decade on a tablet, but I liked it. Hopefully, a few more pieces and I'll get the hang of it. I haven't done a piece this ambitious in a while, but I've been trying to tackle bigger environments and moodier environments. I don't usually use so many photo textures, but I've been trying to get a better handle on my photo bashing technique. I'm hoping to make this number 1 in a series.

SPECTRUM WINNER!

You guys might recognize this image from this blog ;) It just got accepted into Spectrum 21! Another blog banner brings glory. I'll know it's a fact if my next banner gets in next year.

Congratulations to all the artist that got in this year! Check out the full acceptance list here:

http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/spectrum-21.php

Just a fun fact, but the time I spent painting this last February marks the very first time I watched The X-Files, courtesy of Netflix.

Color keys! for UP.

I took 25 days (almost in a row) this past December to try and build up my speed and color/light understanding. I took 30 minutes each night to create one color study from UP. I chose the beginning sequence since it's basically a contained short film on it's own with a beginning, middle, and end. To make sure I stayed speedy and really focused on identifying color, I only used one kind of scraggly brush and tried not to use the eyedropper tool at all. It's become such a part of my workflow, I confess I did eye drop over the course of these paintings, but I only slipped a few times. It feels very excercisy, but I learned so much about the color decisions that went into these sequences, and perhaps even more importantly, I often found myself noticing differences in the way scenes are light and colors are chosen compared to my when I do my own work. This is definitely the best way to walk a mile in another artist's shoes.

Happy New Years! Welcome to 2014!

I got pretty busy at BrainZoo after my TMNT explorations and then there was Inktober, which blew out another month, but I've been working on this Rapunzel idea for a while now. I've had the idea for a real long time and it's nice to finally put digital pen to tablet. 2014, here…we…go!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

 Donatello

 Leonardo

 Michelangelo

 Raphael

Splinter

Just thought I'd take a crack at the origin of my love of all things ninja. And also mutant. Usually, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles look like identical quadruplets, so I my goal was to create 4 distinct bodies. The team didn't seem complete without it's master, so I did Splinter as well.

Cavemen and Knights.

Needs lens flare!

It's been a while since I finished this piece, but I always thought it was missing something. I don't usually put in lens flares to my artwork, but after looking at some the awesome work done for Halo 4 and Dead Space 3, I had to put one in.

New blog banner!

I think it's been about a year and it's time for a new blog header. I'm trying to keep things graphic, but also make things a little more painterly.

Hellboy Final color.

Perhaps I should have mentioned this in my previous post, but it took a while to get the lighting situation that I felt worked. Since the setting is Easter Island, I started with a more cheery look with more daylight lighting and punchier colors. That just didn't look quite right. However, I didn't want to go with super gloomy or foggy colors, so I started hitting sunset colors. That still didn't quite feel right. The breakthrough came when I painted the background sky with that super cyan blue at the bottom. It totally gives the scene a slightly supernatural vibe. With that in place, I could still keep the punchier colors in the foreground and really pop Abe and Hellboy. The rest was just brushwork and adding texture. This piece came together very quickly.

Hellboy color development

I settled on this sketch because the action vibe of some of the other sketches overpowered the humor. Much like in action, the best compositions are the setups, not the payoffs.

Hellboy Sketches!

I don't often do fan art, but I love Hellboy! I almost always sketch before I paint, but they usually look like chicken scratch. However, these came out pretty nicely, so I thought I'd show them off.