So long, 2007.

New pens, woo!

Just felt like posting a couple little sketches I did tonight to break in a couple new pens I got. First we have the long-time favorite of mine, the Pilot Hi-Tec C. A very fine tip pen that I believe is only available through importers, like Kinokuniya Bookstores. I love doing little sketches with these. Secondly I was looking for a brush pen, but with a bit more control, and I ended up picking up something a bit different. It's a dual tipped (one on either end) Pilot pen, similar to a felt-tip, with one end black and the other a gray. I like it quite a bit so far, and I think it'll be great to use to put in splashes of gray for the little sketches I do with the Hi-Tec. I'm going to be traveling to Hawaii on Friday for some good friends' wedding, and I'm looking forward to all sorts of stuff to draw while I'm there!

Love is a Battlefield

Here's something I've been working on for an independently published video gaming magazine called The Gamer's Quarter. It's put out by some people I met back when InsertCredit.com had a forum that I used to visit. It was a great place for discussion on videogaming and the medium. TGQ grew out of that and I offered to submit a couple art pieces for their latest issue. This is based on one of the articles, and pokes a little bit of fun at the game Gears of War. The theme for it is "Even with all my macho posturing, you still don’t take me seriously."

I'm back!

Hey all, know I've been gone a while. I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and heaven knows I needed it. That contract ended, so I'm looking again. In the meantime, I am sorely need to get back to posting up some work, so, to start things off...


Kind of a tie-down of a design I've been kicking around trying to get right for awhile. I'm pretty happy where it is at the moment, and should really get on finishing it up, as well as some of the other characters that go along with her. So those should be coming up in a future post!

Just tying down the design a bit. Going for a real cartoony type of the character you typically see in Epic's games, such as Unreal Tournament or Gears of War. Cable is also a very big influence, so Tal gets 10 points for picking up on that. Even though Cable would totally get his ass handed to him by Moon Knight.

Unnamed Unreal Tournament character

Thor Hammerbjorn

A couple sketches of Benedict Blackburn's Partner, the Cyborg Nordic Rock-God from the future, Thor Hammerbjorn.

More 3d work...

Here's the bookcase to go along with the sketches below. I modeled it out pretty quickly, and at the moment it's pretty much all unwrapped, including the books. For the books, I only made about 3-4 templates, and just made instance copies to populate the bookcase to make it look jam packed with stuff. At the moment it's around 820 triangles, which I would like to get smaller. I think what I'll try is dumping all the faces on the backside of the books that face the back of the shelf where you can't see. As long as it's under 1000 I'll be happy, but I might go back in and add some planes to add more cobwebs hanging from the books. Right now the black polys you see are where existing cobwebs will go, they just haven't been textured yet, and doing a screenshot from Maya on my machine won't alpha-blend those sections out.




Update: I'm about to say the modeling is final, and UVs are done. Here it is, with the Unreal Tournament Default/No-Texture Texture:

Some Lab prop concepts

A couple sketches for an environment I've been kicking around the idea of modeling and building, and then throwing into Unreal Tournament for some nifty lightning effects. I think the inking on that book is probably the best inking I've ever done my entire life.

I've started texturing the lantern that I modeled; texturing isn't one of my strengths, but even so I'm trying to do a good job of it.

A couple props I've been working on in 3d in Maya. The first is based on a lantern I saw in Kamakura, Japan. The well I just made up out of my head, and tried to stay as low poly as possible. The modeling (the part I find easier, and definitely more enjoyable) is done, now comes the texturing.

a couple pirates

Just a couple more sketches I did on the train today.

Just some stuff I sketched today; I kind of like the finished look of the second drawing, kind of surprised myself with how it came out. Don't think the composition really played out like how I wanted. And I'm still wondering why the tower itself is bending.

Just playing with some pose ideas for the big sword guy. The 2nd and 3rd are meant more to be a cycle of his head twitching back and forth like he's just waiting for someone to pick a fight with him.

Just some more stuff for Fanboy Attack! or whatever it'll be called. First up is Big Sword Guy, because he's becoming fun to draw. Apparently SciFi guy isn't as favored much at the moment so I'll be putting a bit more work into redesigning him a little bit (personally I think he looks great). Next is the character who will probably end up being a mid boss or the end boss of the first stage. White guy who thinks he's a Japanese Samurai; he'll probably be introduced flanked by fangirls on each side of him, and will have a standing rivalry with Big Sword Guy that will be brought up in dialogue or something.

After that, two characters from a later stage based around a trip to the RenFaire; and then SciFi Con nerds. From the way brainstorming sessions are going each stage is going to be a descent through various cons and beating the hell out of the people therein. And then maybe a final trip to the mythical land of JAPAN.

FA part 2:

Some more Fanboys Attack! stuff that I did on the train yesterday. Think I'm closer to nailing the style that I'd actually like to use for the characters. I need to hit up Tremayne and his Summon Night artbook for a bit more ideas and maybe some photocopies for reference. I think my favorite poses here are the two on the right side of the Big Sword guy, and the top left corner of the Sci-Fi dude. Haven't really nailed a good machine gunning pose yet.

Bat Family

Working on some ideas for a family of bats, from left to right we have mom, son, dad, baby daughter, and another attempt on the son, maybe he'll be the middle child. Just some shape sketches till I get a better idea of what shapes I want to use.