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...

Back from Comic Con!

... and we had giant pandas at our booth!  I did this piece about a year ago for the Mists of Pandaria launch, and he's been seeing a bit of use here and there since.

He's life sized!  Or thereabouts...

Thanks to everybody who stopped by the booth.  It was an awesome time -- like always, packed full of too many amazing things to see.  Next year, would everybody please stop having so many amazing prints, books, toys and plushie pleisiosaurs?  My wallet cannot handle the awesome.

Zombie Unicorn -- now with paint!

Finally finished this guy!  Also... finally made a lightbox so I can get half-decent photos of these things.  Not much to say about it... I just felt like sculpting an undead unicorn.

Hearthstone Launch Art

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to paint an image that would be the announcement piece for Blizzard's new digital card game, Hearthstone.

Orc wins!

I figure you blog readers might like to know, beyond its blizzard-y content, I based the composition loosely around one of my very favourite paintings -- The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks by Ilya Repin.

 There are few works of art that I think get across such a great sense of story.  Repin was a master of this.  I learned a lot about story with this piece -- makes you wish the man were still alive so we could all go ask him :)

Gnomon Live 2012

I had the good luck to have been invited to give a presentation at Gnomon Live 2012 in Hollywood this past weekend.  I'm really happy to have gone - to be part of the same lineup as such other amazing artists was a privilege.

Here's the piece I did to demonstrate different methods of creature rendering.

 

 

Thanks to everybody who turned out!

 

Zombie unicorn will cut you in the face!!

So it's been a fair while since I sculpted anything, and I was feeling the vacuum keenly for a while before I started this little fellow (ok, he's not that little, it's about 10 inches tall or thereabouts).  I dub him... creepy zombie unicorn thing!  Or.. I dunno... I'm not the best with names.

He is destined for a disgusting zombie paintjob and a mane/tail/fetlock/beard extravaganza with some doll hair I managed to get my greasy paws on.  I do love doll hair.  Hope you all enjoy!  I will post more pics when I have them.

Battle of the Aspects - WoW TCG Packaging Art

Moar WoW!   I happened upon the opportunity recently to make the packaging art for the upcoming WoW TCG Raid Deck -- Battle of the Aspects.  Word is, you can play as Deathwing or those other four dragons.  It was a wraparound cover, as you can see, hence the slightly weird composition, but to sate your curiosity, I've gone and found a picture of how the packaging will end up looking when it's printed up all snazzy-like by professional printer types.

How exciting!

You might have noticed if you often read this blog... i have a bit of a weakness for dragons.

Jonathan Strange - Another WIP

So I had another whack at the Jonathan Strange portrait I posted a while back.  I was trying to get a sort of 19th century portraiture feel.  The previous version, I felt was kind of too caricatured, and didn't feel as much like the character, looking back.  Here, I'm trying to get disheveled-yet-brilliant...

Anyway, it's obviously not finished yet, but I'm getting closer!  In the back the intention is to get a lot of those accoutrements common to Georgian-era portraits... like the busts of famous people and curtains and all that hanging in the back.  I've been getting a lot of inspiration from the paintins of Ingres, who (though french) was contemporary with the period the book (Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Suzanna Clarke of course) was set in.

Enjoy!

Progress Video - The Headless Horseman

As I did with my piece The Egg Thief a while back, I've made a progress video of my World of Warcraft Card Game illustration of The Headless Horseman

Click to Download Video - appox 4mb

Incidently, if you'd like to pick this up as a bunch of card sleeves, that's what was their intended use.
Let me know if you like these videos and I might be able to make more.  The way I work has the happy byproduct of producing a chronology in the layers, so it's not impossible to recreate the steps I took to make them.

Violet Proto-Drake

In keeping with the theme I've had going on lately, more World of Warcraft: TCG!  This time it is the fabled Violet Proto-Drake, who I understand is quite the bugger to acquire in the game.  He was painted to go on a playmat, hence the horizontal format not in keeping with the normal WoW cards.

I am also still doing non-wow artwork lately, I promise.  Just not anything I can show.  Patience though, because it should show up here eventually!

World of Warcraft TCG - Lumbering Oaf

Sorry for the lack of posting, everybody!  Though I've got a little bit more -- a card I did last year for the WoW card game.  These are always super fun.  I'm glad I've had the chance to work with these guys.



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.