Dragon Tamer initial sketch

Some pr0n before bed.

Native New Yorkers sketch

Started this last night after shotgunning the movies. I've had this image in my head for a long time but I finally got around to getting it out of me.

Sietch Door sketch

Stuff I practice during lunch. Inspired by Lasaine and other Disney environment painters.

And now for something REALLY different

Thought I'd share something different and unusual, to say the least. A long time ago (at least 7 or 8 years ago) I was really into the Hindu mythos, and I used to paint Indian creatures and goddesses and the like; I was really obsessed with Indra Sharma, an Indian mythology painter. I painted a number of these, including this image in 2005, which must have been when i was 19:

Something about the sounds of the cosmos coming out of a sea conch, and she's listening to it on headphones, I dunno. It was a gift for an ex-girlfriend. Anyway, a group of kids in INDIA found the image on a website and told me and wanted to reproduce it in a Rangoli mural (I didn't know what that was at the time). I surprised that people in India were looking at my work, worried I had offended them somehow with my art, and then flattered that they wanted to use it at all at the same time. 

Then I saw these.

I hadn't shown this to anyone other than my parents at the time, and then I came across it while searching for stuff in my email. I had completely forgotten they existed. I remember I was just so relieved and stoked that people in India appreciated the work I was doing. Probably one of the coolest things that will happen in my artistic career is this, and the other is when i get to work on a Dune miniseries.

Lunch Time Sketch: Steersman

Luuuuunch. I've shown concepts of how I'd like to design the steersman, but I don't think I've ever shown how I'd like them lit. I want to evoke something both horrifying and fragile about them, like a mutant test-tube baby. As characters in the Dune novels, the steersman are often greedy, weak creatures, so I wanted to show that he would be just as reserved about meeting you as you would be to meeting him. Alright, back to work.

Jubes Final + gif

Final Product! And, bonus process gif because I actually remembered to save steps.

Explanation:

1)Initial sketch to make marks on paper. I had no idea where I was going.
2)At this point I decided I want it to be Jubilee, and have her blowing gum while holding shopping bags. The eyes are darker so they remain high contrast when they are multiplied over the...
3)Flat colors. I know want this to be a colorful piece even if I do use high contrast shadows, so i exaggerate the colors now.
4)Add some basic lighting, not sure what but a rim job is probably involved.
5) Paint up the face. This dictates the rules of lighting for the rest of the image, which is two light sources similar to outdoor sunlight with a studio back light for rim lighting AKA the rim job.
6)making my shadows dark, popping contrast, added color to the bags, details to the clothes, shadow colors, etc.
7)knock back some of the contrast below the waist to put the focus back on her face and add some J.J. Abrams light streaks.

The More You Know - Supposedly Jubilee is fully Chinese despite having blue eyes, not half Asian as I was lead to believe all these years. Back in the day it was alright to represent minorities as long as they had unnatural eye color, see: Storm.

Desert Shepard pt 1

More Dune concepts! And not girls! I've gone through a lot of iteration and way more to come with the Fedaykin death commandos. The other hard part is that I think each one would be very rag-tag and personal rather than a uniform, which means the variety is endless.

Jubes progress

painting late into the night. I actually saved steps for this one, you'd be surprised how hard it is to remember when you're in deep. I'll post them later when I call this done.

Lost in the Woods (Aka Golden Axe part 2)

 Here's the rest! If you haven't guessed, this is a tribute to Golden Axe, one of my favorite games ever. This is a screenshot of the game I'm talking about:

This game genre is probably my favorite; beat'em up side scrolling RPG-type shit. TMNT, AVP, Dungeons and Dragons, The Simpsons arcade game, X-Men, I played all of those at my local arcades. The recent incarnations are Castle Crashers and soon to be Dragon Crown, the game that inspired me to do this painting. 

Ya' see, I disagree on many levels with how they dealt with the most recent incarnation of the franchise, which is Golden Axe: Beast Rider. I'm sure the game play was horrible to merit the meta-critic score it received, but I didn't even play it because I immediately got try-hard vibes and ignored it... and I LOVE Golden Axe! I think the entertainment industry often makes the mistake of trying too damn hard with revitalizing beloved but forgotten franchises, essentially trying to just reinvent them and put a loved title on it. They lose sight of why people play these sorts of games, and what the original art direction was, and what sort of characters people became attached to. It's a real shame. That's my I have such high hopes for games like Dragon Crown, because Vanillaware does genre-revitalizing awesomely.

Now, about the importance of keeping your original sketches. I was starting to dislike the way I had rendered the face. Something was lost that I had, and I didn't know what, so I put this painting down for like half a year. When I picked it up again, I went through the layers and realized I had kep the original drawing of Tyris Flare I had done as the basis for the painting:

 I immediately liked this face more, so i made the decision to scrap the old head.

 It just worked with how symmetrical her pose was, and was just more fierce of an expression. Although it's more rough in rendering right now, it is still stronger than the old one. Lesson learned: always keep your old sketches so you don't get lost in the woods with big paintings, and fix mistakes when you see them!

Golden Wax crop preview 1

And now for something different! Sort of. Still girls, but maybe you know this one. I hope to do something with the background, maybe silhouetted with a bad guy of sorts.

Ritual: Gettin' Weird

More progress. Keep's gettin' bigger, what the hell? Added some more detailing that I wanted to add, string, atmosphere, strategic crotch fog... Not quite done, but getting there.

Ritual progress, part.... I forget

That's right, I still work on shit that you think I forgot existed. Honestly this blog helps to remind me what I have unfinished which is useful. I think I've finally come to terms with the lighting conditions I want, far less harsh light that isn't directly on her face anymore. Now that I have a clearer view I can really start going to town on the smaller details and what the hell I'm gonna do with that smoke. I might even consider stretching the canvas down a bit more, we'll see. I like how graphic the birch in the background is looking. All in all, much happier than when I started. Finding reference for this sort of lighting is a nightmare, though... So if you know any blonde models who have been hankering to get topless and drip blood on themselves, forward me their home address ASAP. Thanks in advance.

Calligraphy Shai-Hulud

This was fun. I was inspired by Arabic calligraphy, which I've always had a vision took a big part of how I imagine Dune... mainly because I like to write in made-up languages that sort of look like arabic anyway (see example from college ). Islam has an interesting limitation on what they can and cannot depict with art, so much of it is through calligraphy and pattern rather than literal drawings of scenes and things. I plan to do the same with how I interpret the Fremen; although they aren't strictly Arabic their culture and religious beliefs were still based on cultures from the Middle East.

Big Dump

I'm droppin' a big load because I haven't posted in a while. Shame on me! Shame. Most of these were done over Thankgiving break and Christmas break, since I had no access to technology and was trying to keep myself sane. from top to bottom: Dragons/random dudes/GOLDEN AXE/Laza tiger/random bros and brodettes/Witch King/Street fighter girl for Eliot/slave/contract consultant.

American beauty

Train of thought: drawing a study of a girl with her fist clenched. Sees if Supergirl symbol would nice on her chest. Study becomes Supergirl.

The Southern Oracle

A continuation of an older painting. I'm glad I held off on it, because I paint faster now. I realize that part of the secret is, don't give a shit! Not too much, anyway. The longer I painted it, the longer I realized I was channeling my memories of Neverending Story. So, blame that movie and those damned sphinx boobs for this nightmare.

Spinosaurus

Young Spinosaurus chasing dinner. I don't always draw dinosaurs... but when I do, I draw MEGAPREDATORS.

The Escort + Process .gif

I'm calling this done for now. I also thought it would be fun to put all the steps into a gif, so I did! I think I understand values and edges better after this painting, I will apply my knowledge to the next one.

Three Undies

Did some pin-ups, trying to exercise drawing from imagination. I didn't draw them from reference, but I did practice color use with some photo ref. Line art below.

Dragon Sketchin'

When I don't know what to draw, I can always poop dragons like hotcakes. Fun going back to colored line art concepts, I sorta stopped after college to become a "painter." Lul.

 I was obsessed with monitor lizards and dinosaurs as a kid, so these is just years of muscle memory at this point. I don't even like dragons, fuck dragons.