Bidja Gams

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.

Gwen and the Green Knight

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

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.

This Old Barn

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.

Oilbending

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.

Iron Giants

Lately I've been doodling giant steam-powered robot-knights -- which sounds a lot cooler than it is, because mine always come out dorky looking. This is a more common affliction than people think. My physician assures me it's just a phase and I'll be perfectly fine if I redirect my attention elsewhere for a little while... like, for instance, the ridiculously exciting Heavy update for Team Fortress 2.

More on that later, when it becomes a tactile reality.

In the meantime, here are those aforementioned steambots.



An unfortunately-rushed watercolor poopie from a week or two ago. I had originally roughed in a crowd around the central figure to establish scale, but ended up obliterating pretty much everything out of sheer inexperience.



Warm-up sketch of the day. In hindsight, even this minimal background seems extraneous, but it may be worth salvaging for speedpaint practice later on.