Temple by Moonlight

Brought my final floating temple illustration far enough that I'm happy with it (almost, watching it on a different screen has brought a problem to the surface which I'll get rid of before this I post this.)
I was hoping to use the rest of the week to polish off the sensor ship image, but it just isn't working. I suspect the extreme perspective.

Yesterday I was informed they now want me to pull a shift everyday, which leaves me with precious little time to work on my portfolio. It's going to be crunch time to pull it all together, print it out and rework my website (I believe this is the 4th time, though this will be more functional than cosmetic.)

Also planned to design custom tuckboxes for my copy of Race for the Galaxy, to which ended I painted these 3 spaceships. After doing the green one I feel I can do better with blue, so that might be out, and I also need a yellow ship to match all player colors. I'll also need to work on the background to pull it all together and some typography. Don't know how I'll get around to it now.

Before this mess at work was finalized I found time to do something silly, with a study of the Pharaoh of the Fish

I'll stop with the daily speed paints when I'm in Cologne for GDC Europe and Gamescom, but here are my faves since I last posted.

Bekalou as Maeda Keiji

During my last anime convention, which happened to be Fanime Con in San Jose, I finally managed to gather the courage to ask a couple (and I literally mean 2) of the cosplayers for their pictures. One of these cosplayers happened to be Bekalou who gave a panel a day before (and at Animation on Display) Now I have permission to post the painting I did based on the photo I took of her as Maeda Keiji from Sengoku Basara. From my con experiences, I noticed that non of the artists were painting the cosplayers, and figured there may be potential there. What do you think? Would I have an audience if I offered to paint cosplayers?

Cingulata Knights portrait thumbnails

Working out some quick head designs for my knights, trying to figure out what would be fun to do. I did some pretty similar heads for Steel Stag, so I tried introducing more varied shapes. Do I think it worked?

I'm still unemployed, but I hope the Door64 Tech Fair I attended on Monday may have opened doors for me. I've had someone refer my resume to an airline in Dallas to do UI work, signed up with the Advisory Board Company, sent Paul McDonald of Build A Sign my resume, and handed out all my business cards (except 1 I found today,) Hell, maybe I'll even have a choice of where I want to go. :)

2 weeks

Flying back home on the 18th, arriving early on the 20th or something like that.
Long flight, long layover (13 hours in Warsaw) and time zones will do that.

Maybe I'll finish my website in Warsaw, if I don't manage to get it done before hand.

I didn't have big plans aside from sleeping and getting my dad to fix my Wacom (I hope) but having heard Scott Hull talking about breaking into the illustration world, I think I may try to do some mock interview with Israeli game devs. I know there are a few of them doing casual games, mostly, even if I have to drive an hour and half to meet them.

Another view of downtown Columbus from the AMF building. This setup was a pain, as I was standing on a model stand, and looked through a tiny window, and we had a lot more time on it. My teacher likes it, so maybe it was worth it. ;)

"Architecture" themed drawing for Groff's sketchbook (which is no longer a requirement, but extra credit)
Kelly in the free model session.

Vasselin Behrovich, Combat tracker.

Character design for "Aphelion II" the game concept I came up with to focus my portfolio on.

A portrait of Cody.
Done for illustration methods, using Chris Payne's technique - graphite and colored pencil underpainting, gessoed, oil wash over that, kneaded eraser to take out the highlights, and acrylic and colored pencils to finish it off.

Here are some finals...

It's Thanksgiving "break."

This is the 3rd time I've been through this so called break, finding myself thankfully that it's here, but realizing that I have a lot of work to do before it ends, as finals are coming.

Fall semester has Thanksgiving. Spring semester has Spring break, student assessments, and a snow day or two to boot. Just one more reason why Springs have turned out better.

I have been planning to get my website overhauled and send out my resume, as it is 6 months before I graduate.

I'm going to get on that soon. After that, I need to work on my Payne's technique portrait, web design mech manual, Struwwelpeter collage, SOI thumbs/line art, comic page no. 2, landscape thumbs, sculpey figure, and enemy recognition manual...

Landscape painting in German Village. I like how the light was broken by the roof of the building, and how ephemeral the mail truck looks, it really was there for only a short time.

Acrylic wash portrait of Hannah, for illustration methods.

 "Dira Lehaskir" (Apartment for Rent) digital painting for the "No Place Like Home" CCAD Spotlight competition. I didn't get in.

 Final pencils for page 1 of the Comic book illustration class project.

 

"Nautical Tales" library reading program. Done for Childrens' market illustration. Charcoal drawing colored in illustrator, with a handmade font.

Flicker Street Studio

I would have liked to have taken some college level art classes this summer as well, but the Memphis College of Art started any class which might have interested me before I moved.
While looking for alternatives, I found Flicker Street Studio, and took the encaustic and wire sculpture workshops.

It's a pain in the ass to get there by bus (What isn't? Memphis Area Transit Authority sucks hardcore) but they are good people, I learned new things, and I had fun.

Here's what I made:

Student assessments this week.

I'm up on Wednesday at 12:30 pm. I hope I'll pass this time.

I'm not sure what I did this past year was really that different from what I did back then.
I'd like to believe I improved over that time period, but am I focused?
I just feel that school is the time to experiment with techniques and approaches,
I know what I want to do after I graduate, and if it goes according to plan, I'll be doing it for years to come.

Tried the technique Tardino taught at the post earlier this year, I think it came out decent.
Maybe I should have used more fixative. Mr. Kumlien, my figure drawing teacher, thought it was getting muddy, and wanted to see what I could do with straight pastel. So I did a quick portrait.