Lunchtime Speedpaint

I liked quite a few of the characters from the previous blog post, they all had potential. So, I decided (with a little input from Dan McDaid) to work a few of 'em up. Quick look! here is one now!. Also, it saves me reinventing the wheel every single time I want to do artwork. Just so as you know this is all personal development stuff, I'm doing VERY little art during work time these days.

Learning Mudbox

Those of you who follow my blog know Im no stranger to 3D. I moved away from 3D as the technical V creative balanced shifted dramatically. Dont get me wrong I can 'do' technical but it doesnt float my boat and you dont get the instant gratification you get from 2D art. I use a bit of 3D to block out scenes and what-not.

Mudbox was one of those packages I opened every now and again and though "yeah I could use that" but never actually did. I have a bit of license at the minute to learn it so I thought why not? Here is the result of an afternoons work. Hey, Im not saying its great or original but felt duty bound to show, afterall a blog is for showing ideas and experimenting (those who want to cast a more critcal eye head over to my portfolio site www.jasonpickthall.com for what I consider is my strongest work)

Mind Dump

Its been a little while, not sure why.. I've had things perculating here and there. In the mean time here is a page of character thumbnails

Sci Fi Racer

Here is the final design and finished treatment. I feel I've pushed it as far as I can. I like it, feels like the late nineties were never gone I will certainly look into doing another one or two of the other designs. I'll add that to the backlog of projects I 'mean' to do

5 years

Okay, I know this isn’t a visual update but it’s the 5th anniversary of when I started this blog! Probably doesn’t sound like a huge deal. For me though this was when I decided to set aside my 3D skills, which were pretty good. I was Senior and Lead and even got employed overseas. It would have been easy to live off this but the roles but with next gen technology they were becoming less and less creative and after working with some great concept artists at Krome in Australia I was so envious I had to make the first step in a long journey.

In one respect 5 years sounds like a long time but I think with the progression Ive made its no time at all. I’m now getting senior concept roles, being sounded out about lead roles and even getting a few interesting nibbles, none of which I can divulge at the minute but will once anything becomes concrete.

I’ve taken a little time to look at the start of the blog to see where I was 5 years ago. Of course I wasn’t a complete n00b but there is definite development. I may pick a couple of old pics and revist them.

Total Wipeout

I recently downloaded Wipeout Fury HD for the PS3 and I always loved te wipeout style and general design republic vibe. I've always meant to do something similar, as much as an exercise in graphic design and layout as concept art. Here are the initial sketches and ideas. Expect a finished design soon so watch this space

Matte Paint (kinda) - Revenge!

Here's another scene. It's loosely based on Photograph but not that much.

Shamelesss Plug - BUG WINGS for iPhone & iPad

Yeah I know a blog of any kind is self promotion (read also self indulgent) but Im just posting up a game (or 'app' to use apple parlance) myself and my colleagues worked on and the fact its now live and actually available to buy.

We are kinda chuffed with this seeing as we did it in around 4 weeks plus I did all the art. By 'all' I do mean all, from the launch icon, models,textures, art direction, UI, cough-animation-cough through to the promotional trailers.

Its official website is - http://www.bugwings.net/

The game itself is a gliding target game. You launch yourself from a leaf, tap to open your wings and use the tilt and tap controls to glide your bug to land on a high scoring flower trying and to hit as much bonuses on the way. Be warned, its pretty tough but it'll keep you coming back for more.

It's available now, quick go buy!!

Matte Paint - New York Jungle

A bit of a shift of gear here. I'd noticed that alot of concept art seem to make heavy use of photographic material so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Im a bit of a purist usually and like to paint everything but Im beginning to learn that its a results business and it's a legitimate way to create concepts without reinventing the wheel everytime.

Arcade Classic Reboot - Rolling Thunder

The other day a friend of mine and I were going on a little nostalgia trip thinking about old school arcade games. One game we both agreed on was Rolling Thunder. The problem was that when I googled it the character was nowhere near as badass as I remember or indeed as he deserved to be. So I thought it high time he has a make over. Also one of the key things I remembered was the pink and green palette, turns out this iconic colour scheme was reserved for the henchmen, so I thought I'd try and bring that to his sartorial redesign.

I really enjoyed this one, not only the character but the whole treatment. Got me thinking of other characters that were over due a reboot. Watch this space.

Zoo Sketches (Part 2)

Here is the last of the zoo sketches. I tried to 'get' the lemurs but a) they dont stand still and b) well there isnt really a 'b'. Doing these reminded me of the meercats I did September time, difference being I didnt manage to destill my sketches into simple elegant lines. My daughter, who was getting over chicken pox was tired and wanted to go home, next time lemurs....next time!!

Zoo sketches (Part 1)

On Easter Sunday I visited another zoo which is pretty close to me, Whipsenade. So obviously I got my sketch on. the Hippo is my fave

Happy (belated) Easter

Just some fun. I enjoyed this one, been a while since I could say that

Sharpie

Here is my latest sketchbook offering. Still trying to get in shape again. I went for the sharpie (brave I hear you cry) I quite liked it but didnt factor in that it would bleed through to subsequent pages (Doh!)

Ive got to try and find a new angle on these as even though these are only from the second sketchbook session I feel like Im treading old ground. Any thoughts or suggestions please feel free to share.

Spring Sketches

It's that time of the year again. Yup, get the old sketchbook and out and start using physical media. Man, it was tough again. Not so much the quality but having the guts to just jump straight in, and the speed! oh, I need to get quicker. Anyways. Hopefully more coming soon. I may even indulge and do some on my iPad but I really want to finish this sketchbook.

As before these were literally seconds worth of work in order to capture a gesture or pose.

Keeping the Peace

Splash!

Here is a mermaid/Siren character I was playing with over a lunchtime.

Testing Photoshop

I've been having hassle with Photoshop (doesnt everyone amirite!? high five anyone?) I tried a few things then tested out for painting and this kind of happened. Dont none of you greys anantomy pedants tell me its all out, I know it is but hey 20 mins what do you expect :)

EDIT: added a colour treatment

iPad + Artrage + 2 minutes

My first 'passable' sketch on the iPad. Sketching on the iPad has potential though if I brought it for that purpose I'd be a little disappointed, obviously its not pressure sensitive but also a little 'laggy' Still I'll work a method out that works, it's just a different digital medium. So excuse the lo-fi nature of these sketches and dont judge them against my more complete pieces.

Witch Doctor

This is a tidy up of the doodle I did yesterday. I decided against polishing it too much as It would be in danger of losing a certain quality it has.

Lunchtime scribbles

I started a new character at lunchtime... I thought I'd post up the WIP

PROP DESIGN - Final Image

Ta-Da! okay maybe an exaggeration. Here is the final work up. In this step I added decals and texture to the design.

PROP DESIGN - Design Work Up

Here are some more steps in the design process. I thought I'd compress them down to one post to save dragging out.

The first step is working into the chosen silohuette. This is simply line art. The aim here is to work on internal shapes and design motifs. These should echo the overall design shape and form. Nothing is set in stone here though.

The next step is to block in some colour. It's not important what colour as this can be changed but you can begin work on the shape and colour contrasts to make certain details stand out.

The next step is to add form and lighting to the design. This makes the design feel more three dimensional and solid.

Tune in tomorrow for the final design. Yes it is done, but it would be no fun if I posted it now would it? :)

PROP DESIGN - Concept development

I've taken a few ideas I liked and played around with them. Not exactly an indepth commentary I know but hey I'm a man of few words :)

PROP DESIGN - Weapon Brainstorm

Here is a brainstorm for a weapon design. Stay tuned for the development! you lucky people you..

District 9 inspired

Here's another character (kind of) piece. I love district 9 so I needed to get this out of my system.

Character Dev Take 2

Here is some more character work. The real purpose is to get a work flow for creating characters.

Character - Dev sheet

Here is some character work I've been developing. As you can see, this starts as a silohuette and I follow it through to a loose concept. The face started as a photo but I edited it heavily to make it fit and help 'sell' the design. It's not usually something I'd condone but there is no point reinventing the wheel.

Not sure what it is really, perhaps some kind of post apocalyptic oriental mash up?

'My Paint'

I recently discovered an open source paint program called My Paint. Essentially my paint is to Painter what Gimp is to photoshop. I used My Paint for this image, I did cheat a little and drop into Photoshop to boost up the colours using the blend modes. It's not perfect, its not meant to be, it just allowed me to try and new program with a sense of purpose

Environ-MENTAL

The new Sponge bob?..ok perhaps not

More Farm Tomfoolery

These will stop soon I promise. Im currently in a bit of a holding pattern in my life so I've not been getting in the 'zone' as it were. Something fresh soon no doubt.