I was worried about my time on this 30 minute sketch so decided to use a photo for paintover. From now on I will probably avoid this for these quick warmups.
Sketch - "Turret" + "Decay"
Here is today's 30 minute sketch - the light source wasn't great but I didn't start off with lines! Go me!
30 minutes - done with prompts from CAS
Assorted weekend sketches + The Google Art Project
The "Google Art Project" Chrome extension
A few days ago on the Verge I saw that Google has released a new chrome extension that turns each new blank tab into a masterwork from over the last few hundred years. I immediately installed it and am glad I did! Historically I've never really gotten into fine art but I am finding it really inspiring when something shockingly beautiful pops up unexpectedly!
30 Minute sketches
For a bit I was debating if I would post all of my daily sketches or just the ones I liked most. I think for starters I will post everything as a way to drive myself forward, but I hope they don't turn perspective people away from my work as a whole. I am trying to push myself into different workflows and out of my comfort zone. I've seen some amazing stuff done in 30 minutes and I want to get there!
As always my prompts are coming from Concept Art Sessions. (Who has a TERRIBLE mobile site...)
Sketch - "Norse" + "Wagon"
Getting back on the daily sketch horse and will try to get one 30 minute drawing down and out every week day.
This one was hard to start off on because my horse/oxen game is pretty weak - so I knew I didn't want to burn a large part of my 30 minutes on it...
For the wagon I basically cut a long ship, threw wheels on with a hint of knot work for the spokes and called it a day.
Man that horse sucks hard...
Via Concept Art Sessions - 30 Minutes - Vehicle - Tags: "Norse" "Wagon"
(Derelict) Space Fighter
I am wrapping this one up and calling it done! Over the past few weeks I've been exploring this type of ship design - and you can catch up with the thumbs and progress sketches by checking out my previous blog posts.
While I started off drawing an agile space 'fighter' I ended up framing this illustration as a recovery or inspection of a derelict ship adrift in space. Hopefully in the further future I will be able to revisit this branch of design and better demonstrate some of its physical characteristics.
This model carries 12 missiles (one is missing) on its side ready for release and 2 laser cannons. The end of each axis can spin freely around the central trunk and houses a primary thruster in addition to 3 folding and articulated vectoring thrusters. And while we are here making stuff up they can also tear holes in space time for FTL travel... Why not!?
A thanks goes out to the guys who helped me on this, especially Nick who suggested changing the spotlights from being on the astronaut to on the ship behind.
Space Fighter WIP - March 10th 2015
Some more baby steps! I decided to trash the telescope and replaced it with an open airlock to toss in additional narrative. I might be ready for 'atmosphere', debris, decals and details as I turn the corner for the home stretch in the next day or two!
There will be a lot of color corrections and work done on the mood and tone as well - but I am feeling that out as I go.
Any suggestions and feedback would be appreciated as always!
Sketches - Feb 28th 2015
Wanted to post up some work in progress shots before heading out to GDC this next week. I wish I had another day to finish it up but oh well - See you all in SF!
Sketches - Feb 24th 2015
A bit more development on my space fighter concept, looking at a few different ideas for the final illustration. Probably won't get this really underway for a few weeks however.
Gamers for Good and the KKG Artbook
I wanted to take a moment and drop a stone of thought into my RSS feed on the very excellent art book I recently had the mixed pleasure of donating a piece to.
A long while back my friend Peet queued me into a project his wife Liz and him were working on. A project to help a great friend of many with his fight both emotionally and financially with cancer. I never knew Kevin but over the following months a bit of who he was was bright enough to bounce off of others and still manage to blind me. A coworker of mine who worked at Blizzard years ago in completely different departments echoed what so many were saying - Kevin and his wife Constance were truly wonderful.
Kevin passed away just a few short months before a book compiling fanart from his top 10 favorite games could be completed and bound but not before having seen a test copy. Currently the book which is raising funds for research and charity is chugging away on indiegogo, and is hopefully (but regretfully) the first of many ways that artists around the world can show their support for people they know and love.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gamer-for-life-kkg-fan-art-tribute-book
The 3x5 Artist Challenge - Day 5 (c.2007-2008)
My first block model! And using painter?! Anyway, I created this guy with a few cubes and cylinders and felt pretty awesome about myself afterward. Im not sure what prompted me to start walking towards this natural combination - Like I said I worked in 3D and 2D but never put them together. If i had to guess it was probably something I saw on Conceptart.org.
This "warlord" was done for some sort of computer contest and I was feeling pretty secure on victory until I saw just about every other entry! This also marks my last use of Painter! It's all Photoshop from here baby! I still see this as a weird chimera of ok and suck. I'm most happy about the blood ring on the ground :D
This demon dude as alluded to marks my major step forward into Photoshop. This also closes out my 3x5 challenge as the step into the modern age for me. This was the first thing I created on my Cintiq 12wx (A flawed piece of technology but a hundred thousand times better than my Intuos 2!). Beyond this point my art can be found on most of my modern sites.
Thank you very much Kai for getting me to relive some of these old memories and diamonds in the rough! I was unpacking .rar files that hadn't been opened for almost 10 years and realized I had forgotten most of what I had ever created or worked on!
The 3x5 Artist Challenge - Day 4 (c.2006 - 07)
Starting off we have another "Industrial Design of the Week" entry - and again done in Sketchbook Pro.
This gunship marks another somewhat misguided turn taken - The shift towards using Painter! Sometime before this I stumbled into some Ryan Church tutorials where he demonstrated how to do marvelous stuff in Painter. I followed suit without even a scrap of traditional painting knowledge or need and spent over a year using it. It clearly wasn't all bad, and there are still a thing or two I miss, but once I rounded the corner into Photoshop things got way better for me I feel.
And lastly, here's is where I found my personal "lens flare" - the FX Glow tool in Painter. That thing could polish all sorts of turds!
The 3x5 Artist Challenge - Day 3 (c.2005 - 2007)
Moving on to day 3. One thing I hadn't mentioned was that starting around 2004 I also had started working in 3D. I had taught myself how to use Cinema 4D (as it was the only 3D program I could 'find' on the Mac) and while I wasn't yet clever enough to use it for block modeling I did spend a large amount of time and needless polygons on elaborate models of my own work!
The "Troop Transport" also shows a notable turn as I had dropped painting in photoshop and transitioned over to Sketchbook Pro almost exclusively. My favorite part of art was the line work and idea of the piece, and I felt (feel) that Sketchbook Pro did a better job of letting me communicate that. It held my hand and treated me nice at the cost of my rendering. It also is a small window into the Conceptart.org forum threads I was participating in. It took me a long time to muster the courage to post there but once I did, the daily sketch groups and industrial designs of the week were foundational for me.
And lastly "Keep" as I called it was my last graphite rendering ever completed and scanned. It in reality one of the last traditional pieced I ever worked halfway seriously on and so with that my day 3 is capped out!