25 January 2011

WiP: All Our Battles 2



Still not quite finished update. Im afraid there was a stoppage at the last hurdle of this piece... I got distracted *cough*Mass Effect 2*cough*

Well anyway, this is something I envisioned when I listened to Europa by Globus. I wanted something fairly epic in scale and heroic like a scene of a rally cry. I am a big fan of using up-shots to enhance the epic feel, like you are mere mortals looking up at these towering figures. I kept enlarging the size of the flag too, a small one felt out of place in the scale I was trying to convey so it kept being sized up. Ive included a second song too! Consider it the after theme for the painting. Its Proud Nation by Immediate Music (the same people as Globus).

Ive also attached a few progress shots to show you. I started with big shapes and then gradually narrowed down into smaller details. Think of it like sculpting, you need to chip away the big shapes before you go into the finer points, you dont jump in and chisel the nose of a figure do you? I also keep the values quite close together, I plan to add the darkest darks and lightest lights towards the end committing early is a bit of a trap as it gives you less control of where the best place to use light and darks. Also overlays and other blending layers alter your values anyway so I try to be loose with the grayscale and think of it as a base for me to build on top of later. The colouring via the blending options are just to block in colour with hints at what the lighting is doing, its just easier for me to think about things one at a time, then I flatten the painting down and paint on top of it normally.

Oh and another thing... If you are an animation student at the Arts University College at Bournemouth check out this new blog Geoff King set up AUCB Animation. It is a good opportunity to get some critique and feedback from the alumni crew. If you are a student I think you should take advantage of this opportunity. Cheers :D

20 January 2011

WiP: All Our Battles


A wip of what Ive been cooking for the AIB Jumble. Still some more painting to be done on this. I was inspired by Kekai Kotaki's work for this piece and started off in grayscale adding colour by overlay and hard light layers. For more tips on how to colour up a grayscale image check out the idrawgirls blog. I also planned the compotition of this image as if it was a book cover illustration. More details on this piece when its done...

In other news... my Sketchoholic picture below finished runner up! I hope I can do one better next time :D Taking lil steps forward! And the next day I was quite surprised to find myself listed on Parka Blog's Art Blogs of Note. Its all quite flattering stuff but a part of me feels unworthy hahaha. I still feel I have more to offer and developing to do, theres no room for complacency. Since I first started drawing seriously I thought to myself that as long as I am improving and making some progress Im heading in the right direction because I knew that I would not quit drawing and painting... EVER! So lets keep pushing ourselves and appreciate the progress we are making :)

17 January 2011

Skelanimal Class


New painting for a Sketchoholic competition hosted by Mitchell Bernal (creator of Skelanimals and visual development artist at Walt Disney Animation Studio). Ive recently been hooked on artwork done for animation which is probably evident in my recent work. Im a greedy person! I dont like to just do one style, I want to try all sorts of ways to express my creativity. More to come for sure!

EDIT: Please welcome the new addition to the concept art team here at Blitz Games Studio... Marco Caradonna!

9 January 2011

Lady in Red


First post of the new year! This is something done for the AIB Jumble blog. It is based on a random shape given to us to manipulate. I used this opportunity to experiment with a style, its a nice break for me as I normally aim for a realistic look.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and looking forward to an even better New Year full of creative energy!!!!!! More updates to come... I need to up my productivity :P

In other news: check out this blog Muddy Colors for lots of good art talk and advice from some of the leading sci-fi and fantasy illustrators.

Oh yeah... and this now means I have been at Blitz Games Studio for a year :D