Ceratosaurus with video!

So here's a little sketch I did after visiting the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller last week.  I'd recommend the place to anybody who has the slightest interest in dinosaurs.  They have some truly stellar things on display there.  I have a serious weak spot for horned and crested theropods.

I also made a process video for him which can be found here on my website blog.  I've also put a few other things up there that I hope readers will appreciate.  Enjoy :D

New website!

After being plagued with several years of technical issues that I can only begin to comprehend, and the unfortunately untimely death of CGHub, I have decided that I will start a new website!  A brave new website with such creatures in it!

It can be found at www.LaurelDAustinArt.com and I would very much love it if you guys would check it out.  Hopefully there will be new art for anybody wanting to check it out, though I'm afraid my full time job full of the most secret of secret things has prevented me from showing as much as I would like.

I will also be migrating my blogging activities in that direction.  Specifically at www.laureldaustinart.com/blog/ .

Hope you guys enjoy :)

Orc Bust

A few months ago I did a bust of a Warcraft orc as a demo at Blizzcon.  Just finished him up and took some photos!

He was auctioned off to support the Children's Hospital of Orange County.   Thanks to everybody who donated!

Dragon Turnaround

To all those interested, here's a 360 of Smaug.

This guy's still available to see at Gallery Nucleus until mid Jan!

Smaug - Out of the Shire

A few months back I had the happy occasion to be invited by Gallery Nucleus to take part in "Out of the Shire" -- the Tolkien themed tribute show that's opening up in Los Angeles this weekend.  I had been waiting for an excuse to make a dragon sculpture, so I leaped on the change to take a stab at Smaug.  Far from Tolkien's only dragon, but definitely my favourite.

I took my inspiration mostly from two sources -- the illustrations Tolkien made himself and that of Roger Garland.  The latter is hardly the definitive version of Smaug, but it has a particular nostalgia for me since the painting below was the cover of my mom's copy of The Hobbit that I'd seen lying around the house since I can remember.  It had an incredibly formative affect on my personal idea of dragons in general and Smaug in particular.

Roger Garland's cover for The Hobbit

And although I don't think it's absolutely necessary in all cases to follow to the letter precisely what an author has set forth regarding the look of their characters (see: Daario Naharis in The Song of Ice and Fire), I've always found Tolkien's illustrations of Smaug to be really charming.

Tolkien's Illustration of Bilbo's Conversation with Smaug

If you're in LA on Saturday night (Dec 14), please do come by Gallery Nucleus and see all the pieces in person!  There are a ton of fantastic artists with pieces in the show -- Karla Ortiz, Wesley Burt, Iain McCaig, Justin Gerard, Donato Giancola, Nicolas Delort, etc etc ... there is no reason not to :)

OUT OF THE SHIRE: A TRIBUTE EXHIBITION TO MIDDLE-EARTH

Blizzard Trio

Recently I had the opportunity to paint this trio of characters -- obviously one each from the three main Blizzard titles.  Ever since I started working there, I have been DYING to paint a hydralisk, so this was a welcome treat :)

They were painted in a way that they can be used independently or grouped, and in super high res so they can be printed very very big.  Fun stuff!

The Burdens of Shaohao are now all out!

The last part of Shaohao's was released at the end of last week!  There are 6, including the prelude in my last post.  We learned a lot through the production of all of them .. for me they get better and better every time.  To watch all 6 in sequence, go first to the prelude I linked before.

Shoutout to Doug Alexander, Lucas Merino, Josh Horst, Micky Nielsen and all the other people who helped to put it out - tons of work went in and I'm just happy to have been a part of it.

The Burdens of Shaohao

Feeling lucky today that a project I've been working on for more than a year has finally started its release!  I did the final 2D components of the art, (i.e., the painting part) while the story, storyboarding, animation, editing and sound were all handled by various amazing people all over Blizzard.  I learned a ton about storytelling and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to be a part of it.

Thanks to everybody who took part, and everybody who watches :)

There will be 5 more parts, so stay tuned...