Teaching again this summer

I'll be teaching Entertainment Projects which is basically an advanced concept art class at CDA again this summer. Register early as there are only 15 spots open. I keep the classes small so that everyone gets individual attention.

costume and self portrait

I do a bit of historical fencing so I decided to design a padded fencing doublet for myself to use during practice.

Class March 21st and 28th

Make sure to sign up for my class the two Saturdays coming up this week and the following week at Concept Design Academy. We'll be doing a cybernetic war beast and rider, till then here's an armored space trooper.

props and vehicles

Seminar Demo

I did a demo over at the Laguna college of art and design yesterday, representing the Concept Design Academy. I redesigned the spider from The Mist. The Mist was an amazing story from Stephen King's anthology Skeleton Crew.

I began with showing how I create a composition within the design. This is stuff I normally do subconsciously but I made it more apparent for the purposes of the demonstration. I paid attention to the relationships of proportion, creating a hierarchy of triangles so the elements either framed each other or emphasized where I wanted the viewer to look, rather than fighting each other for attention. the low slung composition gives the impression that it is capable of quick scuttling movement and the giant fang/claws frame the mandibles. I made the mandibles smaller and overlapping to give it a creepier look having the smaller mouth parts slide over each other while eating and to have more mass variance in the face.

I would like to thank the Laguna college of art and design staff, students, and visitors for welcoming me and showing me a good time.

Alien extraction team

demon

Here's a demon I designed last year. Oh yeah, BTW, I Just hired Joshua The James.

Charon

Minoan

I'll be teaching Summer term as well

Due to many requests I've decided to teach an advanced concept art class over at The Concept Design Academy. Sign up early as there is only room for 15 people.

Monster face

Tank Mech

Persephone

The goddess of the underworld, wife of Hades.

Dragons and Demons

Justin and I double team

Justin Murray and I painted this for fun and to promote the PSP game we've been working on.

This is his site:

http://justinsaneart.xbuild.com/

ZOMBIES Are Rad!

Space Opera Mech Pilot

Last week's mech needs a pilot.

class demo

Redesigning Jak

How I would redesign Naughty Dog's young roughneck:

Teaching gig

It's official, I'll be teaching a character, prop, mech concept art class on Sundays at the concept design academy. I only have room for 15 people so sign up before it fills up. Enrollment can be found here:



http://www.conceptdesignacad.com/1340.html

More Cyborg Fun

An evolved version of the creature in the previous post.

Despite the scary mechanical claw I wanted a feeling of sexy playfulness so I created something that has the shape of a girl wearing over sized pajamas. So starting with a rough pose I draw the overall shape of the suit, this was done on a cintiq in photoshop CS. I'm using oversized space boots and an umbilical line that harkens to a jet refueling pump to give it that aerospace flair. I'm creating areas of quiet such as the sleeves in order to empasize the details in the mechanical parts. After the rough shape is done I printed the image in reverse and drew on the reverse side of the paper in pencil unlike the head which was all pencil.

P.S. Dont worry I will draw the claw in the far hand.

finishing touches

Someone asked about the hair so here it is. I often paint hair in blocks and think of it as a mass rather than trying to render out individual strands, again the flat brush is great fun here. I'm still learning this stuff as well so nothing I say here is gospel. Look at the work of Loomis and the advertising artists of the 1950's and see how they solved this. I made the right side of her face brighter and more rendered to make it look more three dimensional. I also did it to get rid of the five o'clock shadow that was happening on the painting :p

Work has had me horribly busy, sorry for the long absence. Here's a short tutorial on the basics of how I paint the face of the lovely Jeanet. I generally draw with a pencil and scan it in. I mess with the brightness and contrast till the drawing is fairly clean and then in Photoshop I turn the drawing into a multiply layer. Underneath the multiply layer I create another layer to paint on. I usually use a flat brush so I can chisel out the planes of the face. My brush is set so that opacity is set to pen pressure.

Note how features are a little stylized and become design elements, you should check out the work of Gil Elvgren and J.C. Leyendecker who are masters at this.

now on a concept this is pretty much done but if this were an illustration I would render this more, using this as an under painting and obliterating most of the lines.

Cheers and much thanks to Jeanet and the impatient Saskia.

Next time, costume design or turning Jeanet into a spacegirl!

Gina

What is it with me and sexy cyborgs?

So she's gonna be the heroine in a short comic I'm doing and here is some music for her. The director of the video is a great concept artist and a highschool friend of mine, Warren Fu.

God of War PSP: Cyclops

Cyclops! Oh my God!

Grand Theft Auto with Hollywood starlets! That was my sketchgroup assignment so here she is.

Dragon Killer!

I did this as a redesign of a character a former student made for his birthday.

Girl face studies!

Yep, that's PSP. In case you've been wondering whats been keeping me busy at work.

Here's a critter for Saskia. A pokemon I designed at lunch which took about 10 min but figuring out the name took the rest of my lunch hour.

Also, here's a jeep I did for Resistance.

Troll sketch.

Some random samples

Alien with pet

For Queen And Country

This is an alternate history royal marine commando, so liberties have been taken with the uniform. Sean Bean was the inspiration for the face. The idea was to come up with someone who looked unsinkable, confident and charming. I'd also like to take a moment and thank the people who have stopped by with a kind word and praise. It is much appreciated.

Zelda

Ok, so I redesigned link at lunch. I wondered what would have happened if he got in with the wrong people as a child. I'll probably render this out later.

Druuna Study

Figure drawing excercise at lunch.

Viking

This is an older piece but girls seem to like him. The Viking as rockstar.

Pink Kicks

I drew this for my wife. She likes cute and sexy. Admittedly I was giggling the whole time I was drawing it.

Rachael

These are from a PS3 project I did last year. Doing the orthographics was fun as well, it was a great learning experience for me. So many things to consider, even in the simplest of designs. Does the form follow the function? What kind of archetypal being is she and how do I express that in the design? Does she have the proper tools to survive in her world?

Darkside Fun

Size matters not.

Now In Color

Here it is in color.

Friends

Ok, so it begins. I've said this once i'll say it again. I feel lucky to have worked with so many talented individuals over the years. The art I am sharing here is a result in part of my education at the hands of my coworkers and colleagues.