Decided to make this piece about my favorite Jaeger from the film, Cherno Alpha. I've been wanting to do a piece about it for a while, and figured, why the Hell not.

The critique I received was to finalize the background, resolve some anatomy issues with Cherno, and make the characters interact more. People commented that they seemed distant within the same frame image, so some more monstery bits attacking Cherno while it recoils might be what fixes it.

Another project, more indecision. This is a movie poster to potentially tie in with a short animation with CCAD's animation department. It's going to be a Pacific Rim fan art piece, with hopefully more of the armor being sorted out later on. The Jaeger with be of my own design while the Kaiju will be based heavily off of a bear. After producing a few quick thumbnails and a half-hearted line and value study I eventually scraped the whole thing for an entirely new composition. I also decided to try a non black and white value study.

The original composition, I didn't like how little it described both characters, and the view was uncomfortable to work with.

The second composition, much better I think, but the foreground is still bothering me, I'll ask for help on it tomorrow in class.

Indecision

Well the new semester's been underway for a while now and I've been neglecting this site for quite a bit. One of the things I really want to improve on this semester is my ability to produce quality work and keep a log of my progress.

This piece is for a project given to my Digital Design and Concepts class, the project was to make a split reciprocal design using a word we drew in class, my word was 'fire' and so I eventually settled on a witch-burning scene. We've had this project since basically the first day classes resumed, but I loathed every other idea I came up with until this one, and that was only this last Sunday I settled on this one and started work.

I plan to finish a complete value study and then add overlays of color. I've seen this technique done before and I'm a fan of the results, so hopefully mine will turn out well.

Finals

One of my final pieces from this semester of school. Happy with the composition of this piece but not so much the style or way it was carried out. Need to work more on a good style. Something similar to Darren Bartley's.

Busy busy busy...

Finals has been keeping me preoccupied as of late. Learning more about the requirements needed for a good piece, one of the biggest being a good drawing, so I set aside an hour and threw together a composition I sort of like. There's still an enormous amount of work left before I can do anything with it, but it'll probably be one of the first things I finish once the semester's over.

Line quality

A few (terribly) scanned images from a sketchbook. Including gestures and thumbnails for class. I need to do more of these, as well as improving my overall line quality. It's becoming apparent no matter how well I can render in Photoshop my work will be consistently flawed if it's not preceded by a solid and successful drawing, which will only improve with conscious effort on my part.

Inspiration

While many artists inspire me, I find myself continually drawn to certain artists works over others. It's o coincidence that these artists are also in the fields that I'd like to find myself in someday, that being the fields of editorial illustration and concept art.

Karl Kopinski

I adore Karl Kopinski's use of value and color, as well as his subject matter. He's able to bring material that's often thought of as being purely fantastical and root it in the real world. I also love his artistic and painterly style of working.

Darren Bartley

Darren Bartley is a concept artist currently working for Ubisoft, Montreal. His style is very unique and his reliance not on line so much as value is similar to how I like to approach works. His subtle shading and muted tones are also a large source of inspiration to me.

Steve Prescott

Being a CCAD alumni, I've actually been able to meet Steve Prescott in person. He still works in traditional medium, much like Karl Kopinski, and has found many interesting ways to incorporate digital as well. What most draws me to Steve Prescott's work is his flawless character design, each one over the top but still very believable on a realistic level. Even when painting he's able to give each character and creature a distinct personality and uniqueness that makes him a great source of inspiration.

Progress

These images are to give a sense of how far I've come and where I would like to go as an artist. The first image is my first digital painting ever, done at the end of my first semester Freshmen year (Fall 2012), the second is the final piece I did for my Intro to Illustration class second semester Freshmen year (Spring 2013), and the last image is an in class alla prima piece I did with a picture of myself as reference, I intend to continue working on it and make it a good portfolio piece.