ethermancer

Actaeon

2011-12-24T10:51:00.002-05:00

Quick sketch. Even I got bored of it. Not a good sign.

Sigil Terminus

2011-12-09T21:43:00.001-05:00

Brienne of Tarth

2011-12-07T20:02:00.001-05:00

Quick sketch. Finished the second book recently.

Timd

2011-12-04T14:49:00.001-05:00

A fanart of Timd from Kevin Snow's excellent Bravemule... which, incidentally, is updating again!

I tried to draw him in a Disciples II style, and it somehow morphed into a bad Vance Kovacs ripoff. I'm rusty.

EDIT: Timd's namesake is, of course, the talented Tim Denee, another veteran of illustrated Dwarf Fortress tales. (Thanks Kevin!)

Vagrant Squib

2011-07-17T14:20:00.004-04:00

Fanart for one of my favorite characters from Bravemule, a terrific Dwarf Fortress story by Kevin Snow and George Kavallines. Also, a tribute to Akihiko Yoshida's cover art for Vagrant Story... although I really botched the style.

(Massive thanks to George and the rest of the Platformers for helping me fix her arms!)

Second Act

2011-06-19T19:08:00.003-04:00

Quick sketches of some old faces.

THAT'S ALL YOU GET.

In Seclusion

2011-06-11T20:37:00.001-04:00

An environment sketch loosely based on the Roussanou Monastery in Greece. The perspective is badly faked, I'm afraid.

Devola

2011-05-22T20:41:00.004-04:00

Trying out a few things. Not sure if it's actually finished -- but I'm kind of tired of it, so good enough.

Detail:

Mount Beardmore

2011-05-01T11:03:00.015-04:00

A little work I did for my buddies over at Nitrobeard, laserboxing emporium and classy Internet hangout extraordinaire. My friend Brian wanted me to draw something beard-related for the site, so I recommended hirsute versions of video game characters of the gang's choosing -- an idea I totally did not rip off of somewhere else. (Shyamalan tweest: Actually, I totally did.)

After some weeks of work, the final result was the image above. I would like to point out that this picture has both a bearded Grim Reaper and a bearded spaceship. I... should probably stop drawing things now.

Concept Work

For his beardatar, Brian selected the ever-classy Manny Calavera from the legendary PC adventure game Grim Fandango -- which, I shamefully admit, is the only game on this list I haven't personally played. Mind you, I'm fervently awaiting the day when GoG will help me correct this grievous personal failing, but at the very least I'm able to show my appreciation through fanart. That counts, right?

Wes selected Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII, which I thought was a joke until I realized the hidden genius of his choice. Of all of these characters, I fervently believe that Vincent is the one who most benefits from having a beard. Sadly, I fell a bit short of the Yoji Shinkawa-esque visions I had planned, but these were still a lot of fun to do. Thanks to Brian for the brilliant suggestion of weaving belts into the beard.

It's a little weird drawing a beloved character from your childhood, but that's exactly the situation I faced when Imran chose Mega Man. I somehow felt that I was failing the Blue Bomber in every sketch, and it didn't help that my messy style jostles uncomfortably with the anime cleanness of the source material.

Finding the right beard for Mega Man was also a little tricky; there's a fine line between something that looks comical and something that simply looks out-of-place. This immediately disqualified more realistic-looking beards, but I thought there was a little bit of potential to the Dr. Light puffball and the spiky anime beard. Eventually, we settled on a style I lifted straight from Alan Moore. I think it sort of makes him look like a little robotic berserker.

I actually think I could have done a passable job with Mark's first choice, Bayonetta. No really, hear me out! It's well-established that Bayonetta can effectively "shape" her long hair into whatever she wants -- hell, many of her standard attacks involve summoning huge demonic fists woven from her long-flowing locks. So it would actually be a fairly paltry matter for her to wrap her hair around her head in such a way that it resembles a mock-beard.

(Okay, okay, so I guess the world really doesn't want or need something as disturbing as a Beardanetta, but I'm just saying -- purely mechanically, of course -- that it could work.)

(WHAT, STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE I'M WEIRD.)

Anyway, Mark's real choice, Vic Viper of Gradius fame, turned out to be an inspired selection. Of course, it also left me with the task of figuring out how to put a beard on a spaceship. Somewhere along the line I got the idea of transforming parts of the ship itself into giant bladed tusks of hair, but we decided it would be simpler and funnier just to stick the damn thing right on the nose of the ship.

BONUS: Hastily-added monocle version!

Surrounded

2011-02-20T16:54:00.003-05:00

I felt an urge to revisit this character when I saw her pop up in a recent Beardcast. This was originally going to be a quick doodle, but then I started emulating the colors in this fantastic Justin Cherry/Kevin Dalton collaboration. Things kind of snowballed from there.

Doom Duck

2011-02-12T18:34:00.006-05:00

By popular demand -- which is to say, two commenters asked for it (thanks sQuiz and schols!) -- I decided to dig this one out of the trash and give it a quick paintover.

The prompt: "A weak blonde fanatic flees an old woman with a duck in the bamboo."

Process

Housekeeping, part 2

2011-02-05T23:37:00.011-05:00

More rough sketches and doodles from last year's trash drawer.

The buried dragon, yet another failed 3CH prompt.

Angelic concepts for a 3CH prompt that never got off the ground.

Maori concepts for another 3CH prompt that never got off the ground.

A man with an atrocious hat confides in a surgeon. You guessed it -- 3CH prompt.

A cowardly shamaness flees an old woman with a duck in a bamboo forest. Actually... maybe I should have finished this one.

A sketch of a girl! I know, right?

Girl with an axe. Barely started, but the rough outline is sort of interesting.

Pipsqueak knight.

Fanart concept for a [Let's Draw] thread over at the Platformers. Barely started.

Study of a Waterhouse painting.

Sketchbook Project

2011-01-07T22:45:00.035-05:00

Around the beginning of November, I signed up for the Sketchbook Project. My assigned theme was "Science project gone wrong," which I basically used as an excuse to sketch a lot of science-fiction tropes.

See, I haven't been completely slacking off. Just mostly.

(influenced by Jason Chan)

(influenced by Frazetta)

(guess)

(influenced by DiTerlizzi)

(after Maknien)

(influenced by James Jean)

(Quick sketch: untimed)

(Quick sketch: 20 minutes)

(Quick sketch: 15 minutes)

(Quick sketch: untimed)

(Quick sketch: 10 minutes)

(Quick sketch: untimed)

Housekeeping

2011-01-07T22:36:00.006-05:00

Anyone still reading this? No? Good!

Some stuff from last year's junk drawer.

Chie

2011-01-07T22:35:00.003-05:00

She was my favorite. That is all.

Down Time

2010-07-17T17:28:00.003-04:00

Another sketch from the trash drawer. Of the many 3CH prompts I've attempted in the past couple months, this one got the farthest along before I lost interest. This was the text:

An in decomposition insane exhales on a little girl on the roofs of a city.

Still taking a break from things. Back soon.

Stories-Bones-Tell

2010-07-15T21:12:00.003-04:00

From the trash drawer -- an undead monk character, one of the precursors to Sasamuhn.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Work's got me beat lately, but I'll be back. Eventually.

Ningyo

2010-06-13T15:08:00.003-04:00

Paraphrased from 3CH: "An irradiated fish grafts onto a female phantom in an arctic environment."

Preview below, click for the full sketch. Could be semi-NSFW (implied female nudity).

Sasamuhn, supplemental

2010-06-13T13:53:00.008-04:00

I've been working on a few more sketches for my D&D character Sasamuhn, an Egyptian-themed warrior priest. I thought the first sketch was a decent start, but it left me wanting to explore a few more avenues.

The "Dude Huge" version. I decided early on that I wanted to emphasize the character's physicality -- not only because of his stats, class, and combat role, but also for the interesting twist it brings to the concept. There's a strange sort of appeal in having the party's burliest fighter double as its gods-chosen holy man.

That said, I'm pretty inexperienced at drawing the male figure, so I started referencing artists like Frazetta and Brom for the kind of heroic character I envisioned. Then... I stylized a bit. Probably too much, as the disastrous proportions above can attest. I think he's like 40 heads high in this sketch.

The "Desert Wanderer" variation. Ok, so first off -- yes, I suck at legs and feet. That said, I like the direction suggested by this sketch. I think ditching the head cloth was a good idea for several reasons. For starters, the head cloth is a pretty non-subtle way of indicating "HEY THIS GUY IS EGYPTIAN." Design-wise, giving him the head cloth seems to add too much visual clutter, whereas leaving his head bare implies greater simplicity and directness -- traits that are more in line with his character.

It's tough to see here because of the shading, but the other main feature of this version is the extensive hieroglyphic tattooing on the left side of his body. I was hoping to establish a more unusual, mystical vibe for the character. I also reintroduced the funeral mask for much the same reason.

I think Sasamuhn still has a little bit further to go before I call him finished, but this is still a pretty valuable process. With every sketch, I feel like I'm finding out more and more about who this guy is. That must mean something is working.

Silver Soul

2010-06-09T19:40:00.003-04:00

Lazy sketch, lazy update. Because I was just thinking to myself that this place didn't have enough knights.

Definitely had Demon's Souls running through my head on this one.

Sasamuhn

2010-06-04T21:37:00.006-04:00

My brother has recently been developing some ideas for an Egyptian-themed D&D campaign, a combination that happens to be incredibly relevant to my interests. Here's a rough sketch of my proposed character, Sasamuhn (sah-sah-MOON). He's an undead Egyptian warrior priest who wields a giant two-handed flail and channels his divine powers through a series of eldritch hieroglyphs. Mechanics-wise, he's a Runepriest. Flavor-wise, he's awesome.

I think I overworked this sketch a bit, so some variations are probably in order.

Higher Perception

2010-06-02T20:44:00.002-04:00

Sketchy sketch.

Elle Standing

2010-06-01T19:36:00.004-04:00

Figure practice, referenced from Character Designs (arty, but NSFW). Click the close-up for the full sketch (again, arty but NSFW). I think this is the same model I drew back in the day.

Got a bit lazy with the legs and feet, as usual.

Sigil Pauvre

2010-05-31T17:52:00.002-04:00

I think it's time to start over.

The Red Claw of War

2010-02-27T12:49:00.001-05:00

Bidja Gams

2010-02-13T10:47:00.005-05:00

Digging through my archives today in search of my lost Nephilim sketches, I ran across a few old still life projects from my college years. Being the immense nerd that I was, I usually chose video game equipment as a subject when given the choice. Thought I might as well share them here.

This was the third project in my introductory oil painting class, and probably the one that turned out the best. The assignment was to endow an inanimate object with a sense of emotion through composition and color, and as luck would have it, I ended up picking "joy" from the hat. So I guess this one comes across a little too easily -- but just to prove that I could muster some subtlety, I tried to make the bottom contour of the controller suggest an upturned smile. So there.

Sorry for the low-quality picture. I never bothered to replace it with a better photo.

Here's a color pencil homework assignment from one of my winter terms. Those are my bedsheets there, hoisted over the back of my desk chair and swaddling my second-hand Gamecube. The controllers are looped around the back of the chair, crudely taped in place just off-frame.

I realize that there are some perspective and proportion mistakes in this one, but... man, I was in shape back then. I really need to work myself back up to that level of discipline.

Null Moon

2010-02-10T14:50:00.003-05:00

Surprise, it's a sketch of a knight.

An experiment that didn't quite interest me enough to finish it.

Spurned

2010-01-24T13:16:00.005-05:00

Yup, after a long and busy December, I'm finally back and drawing again. Still feeling a little rusty, so I thought a [3CH] would be a good way to warm up. Topic this time around: "A merry geisha dodges a tree man in the clouds."

Sigil Nova

2010-01-19T20:24:00.000-05:00

Bad Odds

2009-09-20T15:30:00.008-04:00

UPDATE: Here's an almost-finished version. Larger size here.

Two sister soldiers pick a fight with Verrazano. Probably not the wisest of ideas.

This is still enormously rough, obviously, and I'm still not sold on the knight's pose. However, keeping it in monochrome will hopefully allow me to make faster progress on it. And as an aside, yup, the girl in the front is a Frazetta reference.

Details from older versions:

Older versions.

Homunculus

2009-09-19T19:27:00.002-04:00

From 3CH: "A stinking golem dissects a beautiful red-haired woman in a crystal forest." Probably one of the most macabre prompts I've seen from the generator.

Special thanks go to Resurgere for the texture, Trame of the Platformers for resurrecting 3CH, and the Silent Hill series for leaving its indelible mark on my mind.

Shadow Hunter

2009-07-12T18:11:00.002-04:00

Work in progress. Still very rough.

Show Your Bones

2009-07-11T13:50:00.004-04:00

I don't have much in the way of new things to show, but Schols has been anxious for an update. So, in lieu of presentable things, here are a few random doodles from the failure drawer.

The Redcap. This is a WIP that got pretty far along, and I actually wouldn't mind finishing it sometime. Finding the time for it is the tricky part.

This is a pretty old sketch of a Brass Man, one of a race of mercantile automata who inhabit a grand bazaar at the edge of the world. Originally, this was concept work for a short 3CH story I was considering, a little like what I had planned for the zombie monks.

Speaking of robots, I'm always trying to come up with new playmates for Hephaestus. This is a sketch of Verrazano, a steam knight based off of old Spanish armor. I actually really like this design and would love to do a full illustration of this guy someday.

I think Charele is too cute to lose, but this sketch of her with a crossbow wasn't turning out right.

The Demiurge

2009-06-30T19:43:00.005-04:00

Long before Hephaestus became my pencil's constant companion, there was another iconic giant who had a way of cropping up in the margins of my homework: a brooding, stoic-faced golem with wings of shimmering steel. It was too long before I graduated him to the pages of a proper sketchbook.

Here he is amidst a menagerie of Lacrimaean characters and creatures. As you can see here, at this point he was simply named "Nod," but the reference was a little too baldfaced.

I spent a lot of time trying to decide what this his role might be in the setting. In the size-comparison sketch above, he is described as a member of a race called the Nephilim - once mighty creator-gods, but long since reduced to servility. But I ended up scrapping that idea and assigning the name "Nephilim" to a different race, one with a more obviously angelic bent. In the meantime, the Demiurge-to-be was reduced back to a single being.

Here's the first time I actually referred to him as the Demiurge, as well as the first time I began to show him in his more creative aspect. There's no size-comparison here, but one assumes he's now significantly larger than the incarnation in the last sketch.

And he became bigger yet.

This is the last project I drew for school. The photo doesn't really convey the size very well - the drawing measures almost four by two-and-a-half feet and is easily the biggest thing I've ever attempted. You can actually see the seam where I glued the sheets of charcoal paper together. Here's a somewhat enlarged view.

The drawing depicts the Demiurge in his full glory, shaping a primordial landmass into a living universe. The tiny female figure perched on the rightmost ridge is a Pashkarai, one of the elemental spirits of chaos soon to depart the world. And for those of you still wondering - yes, Shadow of the Colossus was definitely an influence on this drawing. And the flock of birds swirling around the large tree in the bottom left corner is a direct reference to Secret of Mana.

That's enough of the archives for now. Hopefully, the next update will cover something new.

Dark Deeds

2009-06-27T09:51:00.003-04:00

The Crossing, rendered in charcoal and graphite. I can only vaguely remember the influences that led up to the drawing - a Gene Wolfe story, certainly, and perhaps one too many Japanese screen paintings. I also forced myself to use a more unusual perspective mostly as a personal challenge, but I think it strengthened the piece in the end.

I think the bleeding fellow on the ground is a self-portrait, if I remember correctly.

Chapel Inverse started with a pretty memorable dream I had back when I started school, then somehow got tangled with Okami in the intervening years. I don't think the reference really registered with the class, though.

Equivalent Exchange

2009-06-23T20:03:00.005-04:00

In lieu of new stuff, here are a few more works from my school years.

A depiction of the Amphisbaena, one of the creation myths of this setting. I attempted to give it a proper coloring, but it wasn't going very well and I soon gave up. (This, of course, was long before I ubercharged my speedpainting skills with the Grudemath.)

The Benediction, in which a vindictive Lacrimaean highcaste commissions a plainclothes assassin to settle an old score. Ironically, the classmates who posed for these sinister characters were incredibly nice people.

In the Archives

2009-06-22T20:37:00.002-04:00

Apologies for the lack of updates, but my new job has kept me pretty busy over the past month. Though I'm adjusting well to the work, it's taken a bit of a toll on the time and energy I usually reserve for art. So... progress on new things has been a bit slow lately. As in, you'll probably see Valve release Episode Three before I get around to doing more with that zombie monk.

That said, I'd still like to throw something up in the interminable span between New Stuff, so I'm forced to delve into the musty vault and post things from my school years. Be warned: stuff was a bit boring back then.

The fabled city of brass, Sansaret, which burns like a jewel in the setting sun. Or would, if I did any color back then.

A cloister from the city Lacrimae, rotting heir to a shattered empire. I was sort of going through a heavy Piranesi phase back then, but even so, architecture still daunts me.

A portrait of the Exarch, reigning despot of Lacrimae. Any similarities to Wolfe's Autarch or Gehn from Riven are, um, purely coincendental. Yes, that's it.

Also, I really sucked at paintovers back then.

Zombie Monks, part 2

2009-05-21T13:56:00.004-04:00

More quick zombie monk concepts. Since the project is going to be sequential (and also since I've been watching Meet the Spy about half a dozen times a day), I'm thinking about moving the character towards a more stylized design.

Zombie Monks

2009-05-20T15:56:00.006-04:00

Quick, exploratory concepts for the main character of the next project I have in mind.

Cloud Age Symphony

2009-05-14T23:08:00.002-04:00

From [3CH]: "A menacing commader dances with an assassin in a steampunk universe." Click here for the full-size image.

Details

Process

Your Armada, My Delight

2009-05-12T22:01:00.002-04:00

Just a small, in-progress preview of something I've been working on over the past week or so.

Amelia

2009-05-11T22:12:00.000-04:00

Old, but I wanted to post something.

Claudia

2009-05-10T11:43:00.001-04:00

Wild Girl

2009-05-09T09:45:00.000-04:00

The Opened Way

2009-04-24T22:53:00.002-04:00

A quick [3CH] before bed. Topic: "A wounded torturer eradicates a golem on a galleon."

Grunge texture once again courtesy of Princess of Shadows.

Magnus

2009-04-23T19:50:00.003-04:00

This is a quick sketch of Magnus from Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. I think I'm liking this game even more than Fallout, and I loved Fallout.

I promise I'll draw something other than a dwarf for the next update.

Bardryn

2009-04-16T17:31:00.002-04:00

A Photoshop sketch of Bardryn Garleth, the dwarf fighter I first drew back in October.

The New Model

2009-04-13T14:20:00.001-04:00

Just like old times.

Sigil Mundus

2009-04-10T21:18:00.004-04:00

I finished drawing this while waiting for an interview over in Princeton. I seem to be making a habit of starting off new sketchbooks with unusual symbols -- this is the third book I've started that way.

Elements

2009-03-22T10:18:00.005-04:00

I just wrapped up a new project for my client down in Maryland, who previously commissioned the Avatar map and the White Lotus. This time, we decided on charcoal drawings based on the elemental symbols drawn by Iroh, the Dragon of the West. They're small and quick, but as always, they were tremendously fun to make.

On another note, apologies for the huge delay between updates. We just got a pair of dogs, and suffice to say they're a lot of work. Especially the puppy.

Anchag

2009-03-03T10:51:00.004-05:00

From [3CH]: "An angry sentinel cuts in a temple."

Grunge texture courtesy of Princess of Shadows.

Charele

2009-03-01T14:10:00.004-05:00

Giving the Space Buddha style another try.

Girl knights are fun to paint. Thanks to exit for the crit on the eyes.

Here are a few details.

Masked Ogre

2009-02-25T17:26:00.000-05:00

I need to get back into the habit of speedpainting.

Toug

2009-02-22T17:00:00.004-05:00

Just a quick sketch, drawn on the back of a placemat at the Plum Crazy Diner in Westminster, Maryland.

This past weekend was far, far too eventful. I'm just glad that everyone is okay.

Storm and Shadow

2009-02-19T12:41:00.002-05:00

I've always had an incredible fondness for the Ogre Battle series, but it wasn't until recently that I finally finished a playthrough of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. And a good thing I did -- it's swiftly become one of my favorite strategy RPGs.

Here's a fanart of two of my favorite classes, the Valkyrie and the Ninja, in a somewhat poor rendition of Akihiko Yoshida's style.

Details:

Oh Lord, Not the Livestock

2009-02-18T12:07:00.003-05:00

Here's a quick [3CH] sketch based on a haiku by fellow Platformer megamario. This was the original concept:

"A solidified emperor destroys a chicken at the edge of the sea."

From this, megamario composed:

Emperor of stone

Falling from cliffs to the sea

Smashing chickens, *squish*

And finally, the drawing:

I really have to stop doing these.

3CH by Layers

2009-02-14T17:45:00.007-05:00

EDIT: Okay, now it looks like several of the .gifs aren't working properly. If you're not seeing any animation for these, go ahead and follow the Picasa links and they should display correctly.

Apologies. --The Management

Iainuki!

2009-02-13T21:29:00.003-05:00

Felt like I was on a roll tonight.

From [3CH]: "A bienvaillant (sic) apocalyptic warrior [eradicates] a shadow in the snow."

Evidently, they still have Megaten games after the glaciapocalypse.

The Visitation

2009-02-13T18:06:00.004-05:00

From [3CH]: "An angelic knight communicates with a cowboy in the twilight."

The cowboy is based off of Delmar from O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which is possibly my favorite Coen brothers movie.

Kriv

2009-02-13T12:29:00.002-05:00

Dragonborn ranger.

I Hope I'm Not Getting You Down

2009-02-07T13:00:00.002-05:00

More [3CH] madness. The theme of this sketch is: "A sharp-edged teeth fairy charms a creature with long legs in a dark mood."

Bloodletting

2009-02-06T11:37:00.005-05:00

[3CH] is, apparently, a nonsensical premise generator. Every time you go to the site, it jams together several random nouns, a verb, and a general location or scene.

Needless to say, sometimes the results are quite interesting.

Here's the fifth one I got: "A malefic creature cuts a queen in an unchained sea."

And here's what I made of it.

The stalwart Platformers have more on display, over on the thread.

Space Buddha

2009-02-06T08:58:00.000-05:00

Zoom.

Lianna, Final Design

2009-02-05T10:39:00.002-05:00

This is a quick color sketch of the final, Amano-esque design of Lianna. Now I can start working on a finished illustration of her, for really reals this time.

Bonus sketches:

Electricity Killed the Steampunk Star

2009-02-04T16:24:00.002-05:00

Sketch practice, referenced from here.

A badly unfinished Piranesi study.

Page of random crap, including Joan of Arc (from memory, poorly, after Giacobino's superb rendition), a plague dragon, and the Littlest Ninja. On another note, bascinets seem to be my favorite type of medieval helm.

I am a Hero

2009-02-02T16:25:00.001-05:00

A little color experiment. I think this style and I could become good friends.

Texture courtesy of Resurgere.

The High Heart

2009-01-29T13:07:00.002-05:00

A drawing of Sir Able, the eponymous hero of The Knight. Not exactly how I pictured him, but good enough for a sketch.

Gene Wolfe is one of those writers who makes me pick up a pencil nearly as soon as I put down the book.

Just the Right Amount of Foam

2009-01-23T11:23:00.000-05:00

A pint between mutually suspicious friends.

Ourobo

2009-01-21T17:02:00.000-05:00

From this doodle:

It's Spelled "Rogue"

2009-01-21T12:03:00.003-05:00

I guess I missed that informal deadline I set a while ago, but the time's been put to good use. Here are some of the Lianna-as-rogue sketches I drew in the interim.

Your Tactics and Your Strategies

2009-01-10T12:44:00.002-05:00

Driving Miss Verilyn

2009-01-09T13:23:00.003-05:00

Lianna Verilyn is sort of the Elhaym van Houten of my brother's fictional works. She's a perpetually recurring figure who has appeared in nearly every one of his myriad universes. Naturally, there's a D&D version, too.

For Christmas, I thought I'd use my fancy college-learnin' to take another stab at drawing her. This:

was as far as I got before my brother announced that the character had undergone a sudden career change from Warlock to Rogue.

Just as well. File this one under the "unfinished WIP" folder, and expect a new Lianna (hopefully) by the end of next week.

I Guess I Like Knights

2009-01-07T11:40:00.003-05:00

Kind of old, but I thought I'd post it before I forgot about it completely.

This is a speedpaint-secretly-yearning-to-be-a-longpaint based on an early scene in Gene Wolfe's The Knight. I started it about a month ago, but I sort of doubt that I'll be working on it anymore.

Bodachan

2009-01-06T13:24:00.002-05:00

Wolfe-inspired morning sketch.

P.S. -- Gravity Bone is wonderful.

You Constantly Try to Punch Holes in my Chest

2008-12-26T10:20:00.002-05:00

As requested, here's an attempt to wallpaper-ize Hephaestus. If you're unable to extract the full image from the loathsome death-grip of Picasa, you can try the direct link here. Also, big thanks to resurgere for the lovely texture brushes.

Happy holidays, et cetera.

why so dopey?

2008-12-19T17:59:00.001-05:00

Happy birthday, Katie.

Gwen and the Green Knight

2008-12-14T11:08:00.002-05:00

Here's another watercolor sketch I've become too bored to finish. I think my interest started to evaporate at precisely the same time that the little girl started resembling Mowgli, but such are the hazards of the occupation.

I do sort of like the knight, though, but then again I would like the knight. It's entirely probable that I'll revisit the design in some kind of digital sketch, as I've done with every other robot knight since the dawn of time, apparently.

White Lotus

2008-12-08T11:59:00.006-05:00

Here's another commissioned painting from the same client who requested the map. This time, I was hired to do a simple, tasteful take on the White Lotus pai sho tile. Overall, this was another fun project, and one that went mercifully quicker than the previous two.

Model with Robe

2008-12-04T22:05:00.003-05:00

Another figure study, and probably the classiest one yet. You can view the full version here. And as always, the reference came from the incomparable Character Designs.

Idol Hands

2008-12-04T11:32:00.002-05:00

Study from this morning. About an hour in pencil.

Quelques Choses

2008-11-25T18:01:00.004-05:00

Something about the impending holiday season makes me want to do a little sketchbook housecleaning, so here are a few scrapped character concepts that I never bothered to upload.

A mechanically-minded daughter of privilege, intended as a sidekick to Hephaestus. Design-wise, I think I took a little too strongly after Jason Chan here. Plus, the concept of a cute girl tagging along with a steel behemoth been sort of prominent lately, so I decided to shelf the idea.

I was being influenced by quite a few things when I drew this -- namely a few French animators,with just the barest hint of the new Prince of Persia. I never got around to drawing more expressions and poses for her.

This is Tom, a zombie who's just the slightest bit miffed about having his eternal reward interrupted. This was back when I was looking at Steve Purcell and harboring vague plans of doing a necromantic slapstick comedy.

Warlords!

2008-11-20T19:23:00.004-05:00

A tiefling, Jados Chalat is unfairly profiled every time he goes to the airport.

Harann Pelaar is, amazingly, a female. Suitors may line up to the left.

Galindann Itarr is actually a priest, not a warlord. He's also eladrin, which is going to be my excuse for his funny-shaped noggin.

This Old Barn

2008-11-19T18:59:00.003-05:00

A late birthday/early Christmas present for my mom. I still have a lot to learn about landscapes, but it was a lot of fun to try out different stuff with this painting.

Hephaestus

2008-11-14T21:40:00.005-05:00

Presenting Hephaestus, my first long-term digital painting since college.

It started out as an aborted pencil sketch which I then took into Photoshop and colored off and on over the next few weeks. The Grudemath sketches proved invaluable here; they were the testing grounds for a lot of the techniques I used while working on this piece. The real challenge was taking those concepts and pushing them towards something a little more finished-looking. I really had to resist the urge to overwork it, though.

Anyway, please enjoy. Comments and criticism are always appreciated.

Details at 100% magnification:

A Leisurely Drive

2008-11-13T11:34:00.003-05:00

I was more than an hour late to last night's Grudemath, which ended up having a pretty severe impact on my ability to follow what was going on. To put it lightly, the match had devolved into utter, gibbering chaos. Cars blustering through the air like kites. Sarksus noclipping through the stratosphere. Stalkers losing their brains. And garden gnomes -- oh god the garden gnomes.

For one thing, it turns out they don't like to stay put inside the car. They slide around like mad, clipping right through the seats and tipping out at even the slightest turns. Ramp up the speed and steering even moderately, and the gnome rockets out of the front of the vehicle at dramatic angles. Not suprisingly, progress towards the White Forest base has been frustratingly slow.

A note on the artwork: I took a brief break from ripping off Ashley Wood so I could rip off Makani, a ludicrously talented cartoon artist. You may have seen her fantastic interpretation of the TF2 announcer floating around on sites of note, and her gallery is stocked with even more Valve-inspired goodies. The Gordon and Alyx in this sketch are directly based off of her Half-life 2 drawings.

Anyway, let's hope the contestants can soldier ahead and wrap up the Grudemath later this week. It's going to be awfully hard to concentrate on futuristic dystopias once the zombie apocalypse hits.

Bonus sketches:

Grudemath Process

2008-11-06T20:17:00.007-05:00

My friend Exit recently asked me how I went about making the Grudemath speedpaints. My first response -- screw up a lot, desperately try to fix things, then get tired and call it quits -- was pretty accurate but not really that helpful. After all, that's pretty much my artistic process for everything.

So, in an effort to shed a little more light on the Grudemath sketches, here are a few time-lapses of the two most recent speedpaints. Keep in mind that these are meant to be as quick as possible -- the Episode Two one, for instance, took me about 75 minutes. Moreover, both of these are heavily influenced by Ashley Wood, which contributes a little bit of comic book dynamism. Hopefully, this will be useful to somebody out there.

I was having trouble thinking of standout moments from the second half of the Episode One run. My first idea -- seen here briefly at the beginning -- was sQuiz being accidentally headshot by Alyx during the final mission. I roughed it out before deciding I didn't like it, but I was drawn to the train station as a general setpiece. So I decided to stage a straight-up action scene, and I made it a personal challenge to make it look like a frame out of a graphic novel.

As you can see, I start with a simple sketch that's extremely rough -- most of the idea is still in my head at this point. My main goal here is to establish main lines of action, dominant shapes, and a general sense of proportion. After that, I splash in a few rough colors underneath to guide the painting process. Here I took a cue from the actual art direction of Episode One, which employs a lot of warm tones.

From there, I just build up the primary figures and background elements with the hard round airbrush. After several passes of adding detail, I move on to a global layer for finishing effects and texture brushes. I also throw on a yellowish splatter texture at the very end, which is not too different from what Gabe is doing nowadays.

The concept for this sketch was easy because sQuiz told me exactly what to include. Notice that the composition conforms to the standard foreground-to-background scheme I've used for the majority of the Grudemath pics. I've found that it's usually the easiest way to add interest to some kind of interaction or comparison. (Or maybe I'm just lazy.)

Again, I start out with an extremely simple sketch. I also cheated a bit by color-picking from this screenshot, which incidentally was also a very useful reference for the gnome. From there on out, it's a pretty straightforward process of building up the figures, adding lighting effects, and laying in some texture.

Episode Grude

2008-11-05T23:49:00.003-05:00

Can we finish the Grudemath sketch before midnight? Yes we can.

The Half-life Grudemath has made its triumphant return, and the two contestants have decided to finish it off with style: god mode on, gravity guns souped to the max, and garden gnomes in tow.

Or such was the plan. Partway through the match, Sarksus has incurred the wrath of the Grude gods by pulling off shottie kills and recklessly ditching the sacred gnome. His punishment? Well, the Grude gods are actually pretty feeble, so he'll have to settle for being the butt of tonight's joke.

Change

2008-11-04T12:39:00.003-05:00

Vanity Day

2008-11-01T17:06:00.002-04:00

Conceptart.org has officially consecrated the first of November as International Self-Portrait Day, the rules of which are as follows:

If you are an artist, of any kind, do your self portrait.
If you haven't done it yet, do your self portrait.
If you did more than 1000, do your self portrait.
If you want to take part in a massive internet art event, do your self portrait.
If you failed to express yourself through art, do your self portrait.
If your art is better than any of your self portraits, do your self portrait.
If you have reconsidered art after seeing Android's SPOD's, do your self portrait.
If you want to make a step to a brand new ZEN EXPERIENCE, do your self portrait.
If you want to take part in a world record, do your self portrait.

So there you go. As you can see, I took some pretty bold liberties and drew a picture of a caucasian male. Sketched in Photoshop and referenced from a digital photo.

If you're interested in seeing other people's submissions (and trust me, you are), then you can check out the official thread right here.

Elf Quest

2008-11-01T16:55:00.002-04:00

Erdan Sarkell left a lucrative career as shooting guard for the New York Knicks to pursue his lifelong dream of Fightering.

I tried to mimic Witchblade artist Stjepan Sejic for this sketch of Firalle Nemis, a Rogue stricken with inexplicable muteness.

Oilbending

2008-10-30T11:54:00.002-04:00

I've recently wrapped up work on a commissioned painting for a client in Maryland, who plans on presenting it to his wife for Christmas. You might recognize the source material; suffice to say that it was tremendously fun to work on. Perhaps more importantly, it finally got me painting again.

As with all of my projects, I started off the painting with a round of concept drawings, which were sent to the client for approval.

The initial concept sketch, drawn freehand from a reference.

Concepts for a more illustrated approach to the borders, which we ended up deciding against because it might have looked too busy. Probably a good choice, even though I thought some of these looked pretty cool.

Symbol practice, with a few locations on the side.

Major location concepts. Pretty much all of these made it into the final, albeit with abbreviated detail.

Minor locations, which ended up being so boring that I quickly ended up doodling.

Naturally, after the concept stage I dove right into the painting. Here are a few of the progress shots.

The entire map, roughed out in pencil. I used a grid to ensure as much accuracy as possible.

Base colors and shading applied to each of the landmasses.

Water and sparing detail on the Earth Kingdom landmass.

More land features, base colors around the border, and a little bit of detail work in the corner.

Near-finished border and landmasses, and a second base coat over the water.

Just thought it's cool how it catches the light in the dark.

First wave layer.

Second wave layer.

Light and dark glazes over the ocean.

The final product.

Sympathy for the Short

2008-10-25T20:03:00.001-04:00

Continuing the series I started here, this is Corrin Reswald, halfling warlock.

Fallout Girl

2008-10-25T13:29:00.002-04:00

Two things I'm immensely enjoying right now: learning from Ashley Wood, and playing through the classic Fallout games.

Exit 17

2008-10-21T17:32:00.004-04:00

Episode One has drawn to a close. sQuiz has secured victory once again, but not without a challenge -- Sarksus did an absolutely superb job of catching up in the final levels.

I stalled for a long time before finally deciding to try something a little different: a sketch in the style of comic book artist Ashley Wood. I failed miserably of course, but it was a lot of fun and I got to try out different brushes and rendering techniques.

Natalie

2008-10-19T19:11:00.003-04:00

An excerpt from today's figure practice, referenced from here. The full-length NSFW sketch can be viewed after the cut. In my defense, it's entirely artistic.

Some day, I'm going to have to learn how to do these in color.

Dwarf Fortress

2008-10-19T10:28:00.002-04:00

I've recently started work on a stack of 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons characters created by my brother. This is actually shaping up to be a pretty fun project, so I hope I make it through the whole roster. Here are the first two characters.

Adrik Ungart, dwarf wizard

Bardryn Garleth, dwarf fighter

Paraphernalia

2008-10-18T16:57:00.004-04:00

A modest proprosal for how one might substantially improve ballet.

An unabashed attempt to satiate fish enthusiasts, the most crucial demographic in my readership.

Some guy.

A quicky Leo study.

Stylish ladyfolk.

Gordon Faceplant

2008-10-18T13:48:00.002-04:00

Because, y'know... physics.

Episode One has officially kicked off, and Sarksus is already re-enacting his epic struggle to cope with his environment. Which, if you stop to think of it, is sort of a profound comment on human nature.

Wastelands S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

2008-10-16T15:29:00.005-04:00

Also known as the "Khyr-Garuke," as the natives call it. And sometimes known as "Grandpa Spaghetti-arms," though that usage is considered highly colloquial.

The sketch was inspired by this vignette, courtesy of English major and all-around-fascinating-person Ryuu. I think I inadvertently took some liberties with the design (chiefly the zomg monster feet), but hopefully it's close enough to the original to at least be classified as a genetic relative. And for the record, the claws are portrayed in their separated cross formation, not snapped together spear-shape.

(And yeah, sorry about the title pun. Nothing at all to do with the games; they've just been on the mind lately and I couldn't resist.)

Intergrude

2008-10-13T18:59:00.004-04:00

Last Wednesday's edition of the Half-life Grudemath was unfortunately cancelled due to difficulties with Mogulus, the streaming software that enables the whole thing in the first place. I think it's safe to officially rule that Dr. Freeman has spent the last week buried alive.

As far as I know, though, we're still on track to continue things this Wednesday.

EDIT: Disregard that last bit; sQuiz is a proverbial buster. There will be no 'maths this week.