More Raven stuff

So I finished up on the first set of character sheets for the Raven, as well as the accompanying accessory sheets. I've also started on a render of a portion of the t-pose picture to help define colour and texture for when that part of the modelling process starts. It's actually been quite some time since I've painted flesh.

Dragon - WIP

Around an hour or so, based off of a rough sketch. Nowhere close to complete and I get the feeling this is one of those pieces I'll be on an off on for a few months (see the Ravens Nest for a prime example of this) before I decide it's good enough to call complete. By the looks of it though it could be a good candidate for a wall print. There's a type of person that likes hanging pictures of badass dragons on their walls right?

Character concept sheet for the Raven, with some flyouts. Still need to do a second sheet with his cloak and hat on it, and probably a painting of his head, as well as texture samples/details to illustrate the materials his clothing and armor are made from but I hope it's enough for Phil to get a start on modelling, when he can.

Ok so, I only put twelve members into a painting of the council of thirteen. I suppose someone could have been absent, but that'd be silly and lazy. So I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to paint in that last guy and have it submitted on time.

The Thirteenth Member, illustration for issue thirteen of the Skavenblight Gazette. Composition ummm...borrowed...from Leonardo DaVinci. Fun fact - from creating the file to submitting it in to Matthew to be placed on the cover was a total of thirteen days. I may have purposely taken that long, although a big part of me wanted to push it to the line and take a few extra days on it. This is the first full illustration I've completed since buying the new PC and Photoshop, and the first picture to have started and completed with the new PC actually sitting at a desk. Originally I planned to have some animation to it, for the cover, but that can wait for another day.
I've got a few work in progress shots I plan on compiling into an animated .gif instead, so people can be all like wow, it fades between things!

Oh! So I mentioned it but hadn't actually posted any of it. The Son of Colin Astronauts Magnetic Ball vehicle, work in progress concept pictures for real.

A few work in progress shots of a character sheet I'm working up for Phil to work on. Once I'm done with these base views I need to draw the top view of the arms, and some flyouts for the bits of detail on him. After that, hopefully Phil can start modelling while I finish illustrating the hat, cloak and scarf to go on over the top.

After that, I can work on the remaining three character sheets for this character, and the three or more other ones I have planned for this particular IP. In between, I can work on the astronauts magnet ball for Son of Colin!

Recently built a new computer and purchased a full retail copy of Photoshop CS5. These are the first two quick images I painted with them...after sorting out compatability issues between my Wacom drivers and Photoshop CS5. The new brush engine seems to produce more organic results, even without using the new 3d brushes. I'm not sold on those yet either,  but I've never been a traditional painter anyway.

Space Marine update 23/9/2011

Worked a bit more on the Space Wolf elements of the space marine today. Not sold on the face, want a kind of viking look but it turns out I'm not that great at painting blonde hair. Red could work though, and I feel like it'd fit in with the colour theme a bit more.

SPACE MARINE!

Three WIP pictures of a Space Marine piece I decided to start on after completing Space Marine. Started out with a Crimson Fists marine then decided to start shifting it to a Space Wolf at the last minute.

Quick thing I knocked up over about one hour, two beers, and a conversation with James. Mostly to play around with a brush I'd made after I got home from work, since I hadn't really done anything with new brushes for a while. It's always fun to see what chaos you can make with a new toy.

Knocked the top two out over about seven or eight hours total, after being asked to do them for a Skavenblight Gazette issue that was technically due out something like weeks ago. Had fun with them, although I'd like to have spent a few more hours on both of them to make them feel more like something I'd be truly proud of. As always, I had trouble nailing rat heads. They're easy to draw when they're on a rats body, somehow it looks wrong when I do it on a mans body.

The second picture is four images to accompany a short story in the same issue of the SBG, I rushed them out pretty fast a few weeks ago because I thought they were all the issue was waiting on before being published. Not so! I like the figure in the lower right one, and something about the brushwork on the barely visible rat god face in the top right appeals to me. Not really at all proud of the two on the left  though, particularly the first. It doesn't match up at all with what I had in my head.

Personal piece WIP - The Nest

Something I had sketches for and started today, it's a nest made of corpses with it's builder sitting atop it. Yay! Fussed around trying to choose a set of colours to go with, and I think I'll slowly be letting hints of other colours leak in, particularly around the focus.

UPDATE 30/7/11: A few days later, been working so I haven't had alot of time to work on this. Just been fiddling around with the main figure, adjusted him a bit to fit in more with a character concept of him I had around. Probably noodling a bit too much on the figure itself and ignoring the rest of the picture too much at the moment. Really want to find the time to work in more details on the nest itself.

S.Team Project - Steambot Thumbnail Refinements

Picked out my three favourite steambot thumbnails and worked on them a bit, adding a little bit of detail and colour to help me flesh out the ideas a little. Eventually I'll decide on one that hits the sweet spot for likeability and ease of modelling/rigging, which means that even though I like the feel of far right most so far that middle will probably win out.

The Forest

And so it's gotten to the point where I don't think it'd be wise to work on it any more. I'm just noodling whenever I touch it now, which I could do for hours and hours more but would ultimately just be wasted effort. I like what I've ended up with, and I've learned things during the painting process (especially since I completed quite a few other pieces and scribbles while working on this). I'm thinking of painting a few more environment pieces and having them printed to see if people would pay money for them.

WIP - A Forest, minor update

Placed a mountain and stuff in the background, some clouds. Something to stop it feeling so empty. I like that it now has something there, I do kind of wish I could think of something better to put there (that is still suitable).

UPDATE: Couple of hours, one load of washing and a tiny amount of general house cleaning later, this is what I have. I think I certainly like where it's going and think it'll be finishing up soon, but mostly because I want to work on a few more pieces like this that I can print and sell to fund my alcoholism.

S.Team - Character Thumbnails

Quick thumbnails for a few character concepts for the S.Team Project. The Gyronaut and Robot ones were fun and yielded some good results, but I'm really unsure about the security one. Having trouble nailing a satisfactory feel for that character.

Personal Piece WIP - A Forest

A personal piece I've been working on, of some sort of forest place, with leaves and grass and a rock, some water. Some trees. And some pleasing, pretty colours. It's a pretty piece but it still feels unfinished, like it's lacking something from the whole middle area. Thinking maybe I shouldn't make it so blown out and work in some more details of the clearing and waterfall there, since you wouldn't even know they're there if you weren't me.

S.Team Project - Bed v2

Bed redesign. Feels a bit more betterer now, because it is a bit more betterer.

S.Team Projects - Assets backlog

Just a post to contain all the S.Team assets concepted before I created the blog. At least, all the concepts I feel are worth sharing.

S.Team Project concepts

As usual, chipping away at concepts for the S.Team Project. Latest two are the chest and bed concepts. I'm fond of the wood grain on the chest, and the rendering on the quilt on the bed. Pretty interested to see how they look once they're modeled and placed in the living quarters.