Flashback: Get Well Card for a Friend

I ran across this little gem I made 5 years ago when my friend Matt was hit by an SUV while riding his moped in Iowa City. He broke his hip, if I remember correctly, and it was really awful, so I wanted to cheer him up. I found some cheesy “thinking of you” card at the store, ripped out the insert, and made my own ink/watercolor illustration. He told me that when he opened it and looked inside he couldn’t remember the last time he laughed so hard. Mission accomplished.

RoverVision

I made this logo for a fake company today. Fun.

Diablo III Barbarian - Finished!

Alright, it was time to put this one to bed so I can concentrate and finish my IMC painting. I plan on coming back to this IP, however, and making a series of 5 pieces of fan art, one for each class. I already have the Demon Hunter thumbnailed out. I put the finishing touches on the background, refined the hellspawn, rendered the hand and re-drew the leather cloth. Pro artist tip: Crumpled pieces of copier paper make great reference for flowing fabric. Many thanks to Doug Alexander and Boris Vallejo for their useful critiques at IMC! I plan on writing another post about that, but I'm still sick and I need to lay down. Goodnight.

Squaw Creek ink & marker sketch

Here’s a 60-minute sketch sitting on the banks of Squaw Creek at Stuart Smith Park in Ames. One of the things I learned (or rather, was reminded of) at IMC is that if I’m having trouble with landscapes and “inventing” terrain (one of my weak points), then sit outside and practice drawing from nature. Pay attention to the perspective of ground planes, how water transitions to shore, rock patterns, all that stuff. So here’s the first of many.

Side note: Prismacolor and Copic have very different ideas about what “warm grey” looks like.

Diablo III Barbarian - WIP 6

Okay, so I think I’m satisfied with where the Barbarian is at this point, so it’s time to move on to really resolving and adding to the peripheral elements. I re-drew the imp and adjusted his lighting & values. I think this one is a lot more successful. I also added lava and a stream of hellspawn or whatever coming out of Mount Arreat. I may keep one and ditch the other. At any rate, it needs just a few more denizens populating the foreground to make it look like he’s really leaping into a horde.

My art materials that I shipped back home from the IMC just arrived today, so that means I can get back to work on my oil painting! Yeah, I think I should just go ahead and sell my TV, XBox, PS3…

Some post-IMC artwork

Here's a couple quick things I did after I got back from the Illustration Master Class last weekend. This is a sketch of my good friend Galen, based on a photograph. 

This is a quick thank you card for taking care of my cats while I was away at the IMC last week. I like personalized cards. Whenever I buy a card in the store I always feel like I’m paying someone else to think for me. Not a very good likeness of my cats, but it was more of a sketch.

Diablo III Barbarian - WIP 5

First of all, I just got back from the Illustration Master Class and to say I had the time of my life would be a huge understatement. I met so many wonderful people and got such good instruction and advice it's hard to describe it right now. Plus it's late and I need to go to bed. But here's some more progress on the barbarian while I wait for my art supplies to ship back to me.

I received some informative feedback from none other than the great Boris Vallejo. I could barely contain myself as he looked over my shoulder, offering advice! Doug Alexander (an art director from Blizzard!) also gave me a great critique. It was his idea to smooth out the left side of the barbarian's figure (his right) into one smooth motion line. This gives him so much more energy compared to the previous version. I wanted to move the axe over to the other side, but the hand position just doesn't make sense that way. I'll probably drop its opacity or something to push it back and keep that smooth action curve.

I still need to do a lot to the foreground; populate the area with more hellspawn, etc. Mount Arreat is looking quite good, I think. I'd like to finish this up in the next couple of days so I can jump back into completing my IMC painting.

Diablo III Barbarian - WIP 4

I think the barbarian is starting to look pretty good! This is making me want to do a whole series of all 5 Diablo III classes. I can't wait to press on with the crowd of demons.

IMC 2012 - Consu Alien Model

Here's some more pre-viz work for the Illustration Master Class coming up in a week. I thought it would be a good idea to make a 3D poseable model of the Consu alien based on the description in the book. It has 3 sets of limbs: the two main legs used for locomotion, the small articulated limbs used for delicate manipulation, and the oversized razor appendages that can be used for attacking foes and counterbalancing. It could even drive them into the ground and rear up, kicking with its back legs. I think this is a pretty damn good design.

The model here is going to be used strictly for posing. I plan on adding hair, texture, ornamentation, and perhaps some more spikes around the edges of the carapace.