WoW Cards - Throne of Tides

Here are some illustrations I did a few months back for WoW: TCG Throne of Tides deck.  Different set to Hogger, but all of these seem to be releasing at the same time, so I have lots of work to show!  Win.

Hogger

As promised, here's the full image of Hogger.

Rarg!

Blizzcon was awesome fun.  I have had my t-shirt and Diablo III beach towel needs met for the next year at least.

Dragon WIP

I figured I might post a WIP of this guy, seeing as I haven't posted in a little while.  I started him over a few lunch hours in the past couple of weeks and since have taken him home to get a bit more polish. 

...and a closeup

He's not done yet, but seems reasonably likely to get there eventually.  Hope you guys enjoy!

Unrealised Sculptures





Maybe it should say "failed" instead of "unrealised" up there, since that's definitely what this one is at this point!  I did make an attempt at a sculpt of this guy about a year ago, and I have to say it was a mega-fail.  Artistically I guess it was coming along, but I foolishly glopped a ton of sculpey onto him without thinking about his rather tenuous armature.  The result was him flopping over and being unsalvagable.  I dug this up the other day and I think I may try to make another go at it (with a bit more thought beforehand) because I really do like this drawing... I guess we'll see!

Unicorns need more attention

I was rewatching The Last Unicorn the other day.  I can't tell you how much I loved that movie as a child, and it still holds up pretty well!  Quite stylish, for reals.  And it put me in mind to draw a unicorn.  Not enough people are doing that these days, I think.

I played with My Little Ponies too :P

Green Dragon

Oh, what creativity I display in naming my posts...
Sorry there's been no post in a while, guys.  I humbly offer up this little fellow as an apology.

I do have an excuse, however -- lately I've been in the process of moving over to California, soon to start work as a concept artist at nowhere else but Blizzard Entertainment!  Hopefully when I'm settled I'll be able to be a bit more regular with the updates again.

Prehistoric Elephant - Platybelodon

Second in my weirdo elephantidae series after Deinotherium, Platybelodon!  Possibly the weirdest one.  I love their heads.  They're called "shovel tuskers" for a reason.

Something I learned: Google image search any prehistoric elephant and there's a decent chance you'll get a picture of one standing next to a girl in a bikini.  The more you know...

Bateleur Eagle

So I've got a bit of a thing for birds also.  This is a bateleur eagle -- kind of a weird red-faced eagle from Africa.

Mouse!

Just doing a bit of a sketch here for fun.  I decided mice are adorable .. except when they're in my house, not in a cage.  Nothing wrong with this little guy though.  He's staying in the computer.

More Brink Concept Art

BRINK's been released, so I can show you people more of the art I did for the game!  How exciting...

Here are four more of the characters, and a couple of environments:

Hope you guys like!

Dragon Head - Texture WIP

Over the past few weeks I decided to do a low poly and texture for that zbrush sketch I did recently.  Not finished, but I had some fun hacking into it.  I've a plan to do different colour variations -- I'm thinking bronze and orange would be badass too.

Portrait - James Randi

Portrait of the Amazing Randi -- I've always thought he had an awesome face.

This piece is about a year old, cobbled together from a few different photos.

William Snow

An unfinished piece of a character.  I do like me some stippling.

Pen and Ink

Detail -- Pen and ink

I'm pretty sure his clothes aren't entirely historically accurate -- but being persnickity on that is something for a day where I have more energy.

The Underground

Piece I haven't posted here yet!  There's still something I quite like about -- just a preliminary image for a story I was thinking about.  Haven't really done anything with it as such, but I still enjoy this painting.

Skinny Cthulhu

Bit of a speedpaint/sketch.  Your buddy, Cthulhu.

Dragon and Sage - Zbrush Sketches

Been having a bit of Zbrush fun lately.  It's all pretty much just for weekend afternoon giggles, though I'm rather enjoying the design of this fellow, so I may make an attempt at finish.  I could do with a bit of texturing.  It's been too long!

Different angles for the viewing

And another...

This one just hacked into a sphere, obviously, but little faces with a lot of character are exceptionally fun to do.

Major Wilson Trickett - a WIP

Just doing a bit of character portraiture lately.  Big-necked man with tan-line on head!  Tom Selleck moustaches!  Big mech suit!  Toothpick!  Caterpillar eyebrows!

Can you tell I <3 faces?

Vodun Demon

I was digging through my archive of photos and found some process pieces of this guy:

All finished up -- I'm pretty happy with how he came out.  The raffia I used in the ties was a really good find -- it holds its shape very well so you can really get a lot of movement out of it when it's short.  Quite stiff stuff, and easy to find at craft stores.  The foliage on the base was actually thyme, chervil a bit more raffia and some red foliage that model train enthusiasts use for trees.  There's a little muddy puddle there too - it's made from epoxy and brown paint.  Was fun to put a bit more thought into the base on this guy.  Mostly super sculpey though, as always.  His weapons are made from Milliput -- which is nice for things that are too thin for sculpey to handle.  Sculpey that thin would be very brittle and break easily.  Milliput is not as easily workable as sculpey, but is much stronger and ideal for these sort of thing.

As for WIPs, you can see kind of how I was thinking with this guy.  The feat of getting him to stand on one foot as though running was the hardest part of the armature.  In the end I sculpted everything except his foot but left the wire long, then sculpted the base with a hole for the wire to stick into, then secured the whole business with epoxy putty.  I wouldn't recommend this technique for the beginner, but in the end it was quite effective.

And the original sketch -- I am rather glad I decided to change the pose (looks a bit here like he needs to go to the bathroom), but I think I pretty successfully managed to carry over what I liked about the drawing.

Cheers!

Goblin Sculpture

Keeping with the theme of goblin-type fantasy creatures, I've done some new photos of a sculpture!  Just a personal piece.  It was an exercise at working at a larger scale (about 1:4 in this case).   I found it quite rewarding to be able to put a bit more detail in, so I may have to try again.  At least some busts!  Those would tend to be quicker than the full-body maquettes I've tended to do in the past. 

And some work-in-progress images for those who are interested.  In some ways I liked this guy more before he was painted -- could see a lot more detail in the skin, but that's why we just have document the process!  Need to get more stringent with that, actually.  I always find WIP stuff from other artists fascinating.

Cheers for looking!

Phineas J. Hartley Esq.

Some time ago, I was overcome with the urge to do Victorian etching-style pen portraits of animals wearing human clothes.  The result is this: Phineas J. Hartley Esq.  A somewhat ornery Scottish artist-gentleman who spends more of his free time tromping about the highlands than at the Edinburgh University anatomy school where he is at times paid to help record dissections.

He's been sitting in a pad of paper in a corner for about a year, but after a trip to the highlands recently (and seeing one of these deer in the wild for the first time) I was compelled to finish him.

Though you can't really tell from this image, it's quite a big drawing.  For scale reference, and also a preliminary sketch, check after the jump.

The Egg Thief - Completed

A follow up to my previous post, a finished illustration!  It's not from any particular story, but I was hoping to make a picture that was a fairly complex composition with lots of figures, but encapsulates a moment in something that feels like it's got more of a context.  I don't see griffins nearly as much as I'd like to in fantasy paintings, and they're fun sorts of things to draw.

Also took the time to document the process a bit in a video.  Not terribly long, but you'll see I changed my mind a bit about the thieves as I went.  As occasionally happens, I eventually went back to what I'd started with.  A fun piece to do, anyhow!

Click download video.  It's about 5mb.











Cheers, everybody!

Brink Characters

One very nice thing about this time in the production of a game is that a lot of concepts get released.  I can actually show people that I have indeed been producing art for all these years!  BRINK's characters were awesome to work on.  It was challenging, but obviously really rewarding to pin down the aesthetic for both teams and design the tons of different customisation assets that people will eventually use to make all their own characters.

It's difficult not to invest personally when working on one project for so long. Fortunately it seems to have worked out, and there is nothing more awesome than being able to see other people take the things you've designed and make them come alive. The trailer by Blur Studios was a particular treat.

That's all for now.  With luck will be able to post more later.

Bucephalus

I've been posting images of this guy around in various places.  He's a Styracosaurus by the name of Bucephalus, who carries an as yet unnamed (not to mention unfinished) tinker on his back.  Unfortunately I haven't got around to finishing it, though plan to eventually.  I haven't made a point yet of posting these in any coherent way.  I always forget to take process shots while I'm working, but I was trying to be good with this guy.

Semi-early shots -- you'll see I really don't work very evenly on this. The smaller details are often more fun than getting the larger shapes right first. I don't actually recommend working this way for professional pieces, but if you're just having fun in your spare time you can do it however you like. Using Super Sculpey Firm here, with aluminum armature wire and aluminum foil.

Here's the dinosaur sculpt finished, and sprayed with a brown base-coat. Also some images of the beginning of the rider. Unfortunately (though you can obviously not tell scale from this photo) the head of the tinker ended up a bit too big. I'll likely remake it, but it was quite a successful as a test of materials. The flesh is regular Super Sculpey and the hair doll hair. If you use the flesh-coloured sculpey and do washes of greys and reds over it, it makes quite convincing skin I find. Doll hair also is absolutely fantastic. I suppose this is precisely the sort of thing it's made for, so I shouldn't be surprised, but I was very pleased at how good it was to work with.

And here you see the paint-job. It's not absolutely finished, but the finer points won't likely to too visible in these photos (though in real life it will make a large difference). Obviously the packs and tools will need attaching and the rider finishing, but I think he's coming on pretty decently at this stage. Just need to nudge myself to finish.