Thursday 28 April 2011

Weekend Workshop - Easter 2011. The Dark Visitor.

this was a fairly simple affair to begin with - though thanks to tech problems and a little drunken stupidity on my part, it has not been uploaded until now. see the previous posts for details.

anwyays. for this particular challenge, i figured ti would be beneficial for both psynexus and myself to endulge in some character concepting.
he came up with three characters within my given boundaries, i sketched each loosely and rolled with the one i preffered.
you can see what he gave me to work with here LINK

i decided to go with his final idea as it seemed like the most fun to play with, although now i wish id actually gone with the first character on offer as after a week of drawing nothing but shadowy figures, i feel my design here lacks a little lustre. regardless, i hope you enjoy it and the steps in progress for the final piece. ive also included two small thumbnails i threw away in the early stages as they show another direction it may have taken. feel free to comment your thoughts.








Sunday 24 April 2011

The INVOKED 4...

Yet another teaser for a forthcoming treat from myself and Psynexus for our blog visitors.

More news to follow soon. If you are interested in knowing more, make sure to 'follow' the blog - through the variety of means in the sidebar, but also click the facebook 'like' button at the bottom of the post so I know.




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The INVOKED 3

Another teaser for a forthcoming treat from myself and Psynexus for our blog visitors.

More news to follow soon. If you are interested in knowing more, make sure to 'follow' the blog - through the variety of means in the sidebar, but also click the facebook 'like' button at the bottom of the post so I know.


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Saturday 23 April 2011

The INVOKED 2nd Teaser Poster

Another teaser for a forthcoming treat from myself and Psynexus for our blog visitors.

More news to follow soon. If you are interested in knowing more, make sure to 'follow' the blog - through the variety of means in the sidebar, but also click the facebook 'like' button at the bottom of the post so I know.

Thursday 21 April 2011

The INVOKED...

...a working title for THAT little extra special project I mentioned in a post a few days back. Here's the teaser-poster.
Working in collaberation with Psynexus - LINK
More news to follow soon. If you are interested in knowing more, make sure to 'follow' the blog - through the variety of means in the sidebar, but also click the facebook 'like' button at the bottom of the post so I know.


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Monday 18 April 2011

The Tree of Woe...

okay... so it isnt actually the tree of woe from 'conan the barbarian', but the second i finished it, thats all i could think of...

'...CONTEMPLATE THIS UPON THE TREE OF WOE!'

Sunday 17 April 2011

WEEKEND WORKSHOP 17/04/2011 - 'The Chapel of Many Angles'.

Well, this was another epically scaled challenge for our weekends workshops. For as tart, whilst I was given quite a free-reign in terms of perimeters by Psynexus, he’d chosen something for subject matter that doesn’t always grab my attention or inspire me too much;

- A Classical Era Drama

- The main character is upper class, like a Count


- The scene takes place in his place of work or refuge. It is esteemed like a chapel or a theater.

- Times are troubled - give the majestic scene s sense of dread or depression.

- Feel free to exaggerate elements to enhance the story like some media of the era has, but keep it historically accurate whenever possible.

- 90 minutes.

- Bust a nut!

When you're done I'll switch back to a 500 wordish minimum description/short story or just see where it goes. Have fun.


It may be true, I have something of a knack of finding the dark little corners of whatever I choose to play around with, but even given that and my liberal boundaries of execution, I struggled at first to think of what to do. It didn’t really help that I was not entirely sure of whether he meant a ‘period’ drama  set in the 1700s / 1800s or something slightly more late / high medieval - set more in the renaissance.

That night I sat up and tried to first of all come to some theme for my protagonist  - to better maintain the flow of creativity and my attention span (which has been sorely lacking this week). This was the really hard part… and with my low attention span dragging me, I soon gave up for the night and slumped down to channel hop around the TV when serendipity struck.

I had chanced upon a documentary about twenty men charged with plotting to murder the king (shortly after the English civil war). It wasn’t this that inspired me so much - as the mentions of the reformation - that is what sparked me. I soon had an image in my head of a priest sat awaiting his end behind the alter of all he once held so sacred - the mob bursting through the door with cries of “Blasphemy!” flying from their tongues.

I started doodling almost immediately. You can see some of the outcomes on my previous post. HERE.

After a while, I brought the timeline forwards somewhat; having still had no reply to my query about Psynexus’ specifics about the time setting.  I chose instead a more Victorian / Edwardian setting after reading several of HP Lovecraft’s stories and comic conversions - and realising consciously just how much of a pyramidic influence the guys’ stuff has been upon me.

Ultimately, it made me turn a corner - giving the image a hint of Lovecraft's 'invisible horrors' or the suggestion of 'the old ones' at work. It actually made me turn the piece into more of a book-cover kind of thing - adding the crows and clouds as some tie in to parts of the story to come - as yet unwritten.

So, there ya go - that’s all I’ve got to say - though yer welcome to ask questions. Here’s the final piece;


And  FULL VIEW the piece on my DA account as always HERE.


Within a few hours of this post, you'll be able to see Psynexus' companion / reply peice to this image upon his blog HERE.

Monday 11 April 2011

Weekend Workshop - 10/04/2011 - 'SkyPirates'

okay, so last weekends workshop didnt quite work out - initially because the only way i could implement the initial challenge given to me by psynexus would be to spend a few days piecing together a mighty, intricate and epic utopian deal. after a little haggling, we settled on an alien civilisation amidst their own 'bronze age'. sadly, due to overworking on the computer for about a week, my eyes packed in until midweek and my flow was lost. youll have to see that piece as and when i finish it.

this week, i challenged him to write a piece about skypirates. ive never been much a fan of yer usual pirate affairs - but as a long time miyazaki and final fantasy fan, the idea of swashbuckling from some crazy airship / flying contraption really appeals.
after sending him some source material, relevant screens etc, he got going and sent me something tasty to work with. - you cans see it at his blog; LINK

so, here we have the steps - including all my preliminary drawings. i sourced turner, miyazaki, koijima and plenty photos of old tall ships and world war two aircraft to get the style i wanted for the focal point of the airship.

the tower features brushes by SHIFTY J


and the final piece - its not perfect, but im happy with the composition and basic desing lements - enough that im going to revisit the piece and do a full version when i have time.
full view version available HERE.