Digital Paintings
Killzone Shadow Fall (ACTION)– Origin Studios, Inc.
16/01/14 09:41
Killzone Shadow falls box art concept piece for Origin studios, Inc.
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Killzone Shadow Fall (ROOF)– Origin Studios, Inc.
16/01/14 09:29
Captures and Calamities
24/04/13 11:25
Captures and Calamities is a book cover commissioned by Christopher Kastensmidt for his “Elephant and Macaw banner” series.
This is the fourth book cover that I have done for him- and every time it gets more fun.
Check out his stuff here:
www.eamb.org
Lost city
06/02/13 11:49
Game in a frame for a really exciting game concept in development at Gamecloud studio’s….. wish I could say more.
They've found us...
24/04/12 14:39
In my youth I spent many a weekend happily locked away in friends bedrooms playing “role playing games”.
Although we enjoyed “Traveller”, “Call of Cthulhu” , “Paranoia”, etc; my favorites were always the “sword & sorcery” games-
“MiddleEarth”, “Runequest”, and of course “D&D”.
This painting is kind of an homage to those wild and varied adventures that my friends and I went on.
It represents one often repeated moment. A moment that always managed to lift the hairs on your neck.
“They’ve found us...”
At that point you knew it was game on.
People got in character, acted heroically, and fought monsters with dice.
Hulk
20/03/12 12:26
HULK SMAAAASHHHHH!!!!!
Check out my process for this painting in the “Process” section.
ROOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!
Hulk say- Jay need comic work!! RARRRRRRGGHHHH!!!!
Angels and Airwaves Painting
06/03/12 14:10
This piece was commissioned by the band “Angels & Airwaves”.
Tom from the band wanted it to have a Drew Struzan feel, and 70’s sci-fi flavor.
I loved the album covers from the 70’s.
The covers for bands like ELO, Meatloaf, and later Iron Maiden were some of the reasons I got into art.
I feel that album covers these days tend to be boring- maybe I’m just getting old.
Anyway’s. This was my take on that stuff.
Hope you like it.
I would loooove to do more of this kind of work.
Batman vs Joker
03/01/12 10:52
The relationship between Batman & Joker has always interested me.
I always wanted to do a piece where Batman was losing his cool and beating the snot out of Joker.
As the idea evolved I gave the Joker a blade to make it more of a “fair” fight- kind of ripping off the final confrontation in “Dark Knight Returns”
I played around with the composition with the intent of leading the eye from Joker getting hit by a very angry Batman to the Jokers blade, and subtle punctures in Batman torso.
I above all wanted them both to seem their own kind of crazy.
I used SBP and PS. Had some problems with image artifacts and weird hard edges appearing.
I think its a problem with too much back and forth between software. Meant I had to repaint some areas which sucked.
Regardless, I had a lot of fun doing this piece.
It’s no secret that I would love to do some comic work- here’s hoping that this gets me a cover somewhere someday.
- dream on right.
Timeflux
02/12/11 10:52
I followed the art style of an older piece of mine called “Big Guns” where I sketch the design, do a tight linear ink line, and then fill the lines with painted detail. As usual I used SBP and PS.
The art director supplied me with a photo of his face, wanting to be immortalized as a bad ass time traveling bounty hunter type dude. Who could blame him.
I had a ton of fun doing this piece...Sometimes when I do a painting the character forms and develops itself. This one took off by itself and carried me along for the ride.
I always have fiction running through my head as I paint- "why does he have this scar?", "What does he do?". These questions ultimately shape the character.
A time traveller (if I were one, and maybe I am); would adorn himself with his favorite stuff from throughout time. There may be a gun that he favors, or a blade. He might like modern tattoos and clothing, or not. I think he would be a yard sale of style, weaponry & tools.
This guy is a hunter of sorts- part Ranger, part bounty hunter, part buccaneer. He prefers an augmented blunderbuss that can take down a TRex. His flintlock can cut a man in half, and his single action colt is a special edition .50 caliber that can put an end to almost anything. A wrestling trophy for a belt..... sort of? Er, stomach protection from knife fights maybe? Or just cos it looks cool?
Skeleton keys- every time traveller is going to need universal keys that open or start anything, right?
Multiple watches, betrays a lack of faith in technology.
My favorite is the arm knife- cos when it comes to shivs, you need to be able to get to your knife fast.
First men on the moon?
02/12/11 10:52
I love all of that ancient aliens/nazi conspiracy/UFO stuff.
So what did a Nazi space suit look like?
I figured it would be a kind of diving bell pressure suit with robotic appendages- right?
This piece came together for me when I started playing around with what the Nazi’s were collecting on the moons surface.
It started out with basic rock samples and evolved into a human skull- posing the question “who really were the first men on the moon?” NASA? NAZI’S? An ancient civilization?
Hahaha- I had fun doing this.
I used SBP and PS to mess around with the colours. I tried to restrict my time on it to force a looser style.
The last egg
30/09/11 11:11
Years ago I did some concept art for a game called “Dragons Bane”.
In a nutshell the game was a Dragon “simulation”- nice idea, never got made.
I came across some of my old sketches and decided to do a quick painting of one of them.
As usual I used SBP, and did some tweaking in PS.
Magic
26/08/11 11:13
Lame title- I know.
Didn’t know what else to call it. It was commissioned by an old associate of mine and he was nice enough to let me put it on my site.
It was almost entirely done in SBP, but I did some of the magic in PS as well as some selective palette manipulation.
Had lot’s of fun doing this (Thanks again Ed!).
Hopefully I’ll get the chance to do more Sword & sorcery, D&D type stuff in the future.
After the Battle
13/04/11 11:29
Conan- post fight, steaming, and covered in blood.
Pretty stoked on how well this piece came together. I started out with a full ink illustration (check it out in the illustration section) and then painted over it.
If you want to know how i painted it check out my “process” section.
I used SBP and PS.
Gruesome discovery
26/01/11 17:24
This is my fourth piece for Chris Kastensmidt for his book series “ The Elephant & Macaw banner”.
Check it out at www.eamb.org
I love illustrating this rich world. Go Chris!
This painting has our heroes encountering the “Capelobo”- a fearsome creature from South American folklore.
I used the new version of Sketchbook pro to paint and used Photoshop for the occasional “dodge & burn”.
Hope you like it.
The Fellowship
03/11/10 09:40
Finally a LOTR piece!
I spent to much time on this one, noodling away the hours. I am a huge fan of the books and movies, and wanted to do my take on “The Fellowship”.
Purists may argue that I have made Frodo too sickly looking for this relatively early stage in the story.
My interpretation is that the ring is constantly wearing on him and draining him- especially when Gollum it’s former owner is around.
I started out using Painter; but reverted back to SB (despite it’s crashes). I also used Photoshop for the odd “dodge & burn”.
Wish I hadn’t made it so damned tall. It looks great when printed out; but is tough to see on a computer screens aspect ratio.
Hope you like it.
Attack craft
05/10/10 09:27
Did this for a movie project. VTOL attack crafts of the future called “Hoppers”.
I used Sketchbook (which I am sick to death of crashinnnng!!!), and photoshop.
Romans Vs Alien
10/07/10 09:32
This image started out as an idea I had for the "Aliens" franchise. A Roman legion hunting and battling what they believe to be a dragon who is terrorizing the countryside. The Romans were highly organized proficient fighters and I felt that they might stand a chance against an alien queen. Well maybe...
I think i overworked the image, and relied way too much on the airbrush and zoom tool. It took me way too long to finish this painting, and although I like the image I do feel it would have benefited from being loose. I have a tendency to overwork my stuff, and push back against this when possible.
I used Sketchbook pro for the illustration but also messed around with the temperature in photoshop.
Giant hunter
11/12/09 12:33
I had an idea for a a painting where some guys were setting a trap for a giant.
After screwing around with it for a few days it just wasn’t working. So then I evolved my idea- what if it were the results of a failed attempt on a giant.
A guy being chased, running for his life, with only one arrow left.
I used SBP.
Shooting the Hoop
11/12/09 12:30
I did this painting after being inspired (again) by John Berkey’s art.
This guy was one of the greatest science fiction artists of all time (IMHO).
My idea came after a conversation regarding “Ring-world” books & “Halo” the video-game.
We were guessing that the space at the center of a “hoop” (Halo or Ring) might be illegal airspace for high velocity space craft.
My piece has someone “shooting the hoop” an event that everyone on the artificial world could witness.
My bear creature is there for scale, I now wish I had made him look a little more alien; but I was attempting to juxtapose it with the science fiction nature of its habitat.
I painted this in SBP.
King Conan
11/12/09 12:28
This is one of the few paintings that I have done using “Painter”.
Painters got some nice features; but i tend to get caught up in too many options and overwork my stuff.
Way back when “BottleRocket” was in it’s infancy we were approached by WB to pitch for a “Conan” game.
This is one of the pieces that I did. We didn’t get the gig (it fell through at the last minute); but I at least had an excuse to paint.
Blimp chase
11/12/09 09:40
This is one of my favorite paintings.
One of those rare serendipitous moments where idea, composition, reference, and palette seemed to come together for me.
I originally painted the car in pretty tight- which is a bad habit of mine to overwork a subject then rework it.
I switched out to a fatter brush and went back in and loosened it up, and much preferred the result.
This was done for “Fallow” a comic/game I was working on a few years back.
I used sketchbook pro (which I use pretty much all of the time).
The Fallen
06/12/09 12:35
I was just messing around with this painting. trying new stuff. A dark take on the scales of justice.
I found some great reference of a skeleton posed with fake wings, messed with it’s colors and then painted this guy.
I used SBP.
New Rik
26/11/09 12:48
Main character design for a game that I recently worked on.
I think I got a little obsessed with his damaged arm.
The idea behind the "guts" in his hand, is that he would rip parts off of an enemy and use it against them....
This was done entirely in SBP. I used reference from various cuts of meat, a “hulk” statue, & a hockey mask.
Tempted by Faerie
25/11/09 13:08
I had an idea about Faeries leading crusading knights astray. Kind of like land bound mermaids, the knight would be drawn by their singing and beauty.
I used SBP and Painter to create this piece. I think I got a little carried away with the dodge and burn tool (which is easy to do cos they are awesome).
The Kraken
25/11/09 13:02
While coming up with ideas for bosses in a horror game, I developed the idea of a Kraken attacking a ship on which you were a passenger.
The idea was unrealistic based on our limitations; but I got to paint it anyway.
This was painted in SBP referencing some great photos of octopus and old ships that I found online.
I wanted the palette to have a stormy and almost ”other-wordly” quality to it and so played around with the colours.
I do feel that I hit the airbrush a zoom a little too much...
Rik
25/11/09 13:00
Early on while designing a horror game I recently worked on we toyed around with what the hero could look like.
This guy was one of my first takes on him.
I found some awesome body builder reference online. The wrench just seemed to make sense- he is supposed to be homicidal.
Once again I used SBP, alternating from fat brushes and the airbrush tool and even a pencil.
Hero and Caddy
25/11/09 12:57
We were pitching an idea of mine a few years back called “Fallow”.
We were out selling it as a game with animated series, comic and toy line potential. Cowboys, cars, dinosaurs, & demons- it had them all.
I painted this piece over a posed Maya model a few years back. A colleague of mine did a great job modeling the character and car and another did a great job of posing the two.
They were low rez models without any textures but it was great composition for a painting.
I kept the paint loose and experimented creating SBP brushes. I used a chisel brush for the most part.
A horse, a horse
25/11/09 12:50
Based on Shakespeare's Richard III.
This was my first foray into Painter. I used a loaded oil brush that left a wonderful texture. I attempted to keep it as loose as I could.
I am very happy with the way the blood came out.
Dive attack
28/10/09 13:12
An old friend of mine is working on a pretty cool sci-fi project.
He had an idea for a future warrior who has the capability of flying through space as well as through the hulls of spacecraft.
The hero rams and cuts through the ship using a combination of his suit and futuristic blades.
I painted this in SBP before bringing it into PS and adding the lens flare.
Overall I felt that the piece was a little overworked. I had fun doing it though.