Magister Malikov

This drawing is of a character I was/am playing in a Marvel D&D style roleplaying game.  It is always sort of fun to play and draw ridiculous characters.  

I am continuing to explore styles and ways of working that are a bit different.  The extreme slowdown in posts, not that anyone really sees these, has been due to starting a day job and restarting a project where I am working as the concept artist.  Not enough time for what I like to do.

Quick Draw- Engineer Portrait

Trying a style again which I may use in a personal project down the line.

Space Suit Concepts

I should be doing more thumbnails samples rather than this sort....oh well.

Quick Draw- 2 in one!

Just a quick diversionary speed painting. Done in about 2 hours.

Quick figure study done from a fashion type photo, the source of which I can't find anymore.  Done in between 2-3 hours.

Crash

I leave it fully up to interpretation whether the woman is from a technologically disinclined/primitive society or a sunbather who decided to go for a walk.

Quick Draw- Fight Suit

Slight longer than what I would classify as a speed painting, oh well.

Earthen Golem Concept

I needed to show some concept illustrations through the process, this is the first of such samples.  I have some trouble doing silhouettes at the moment, but that should become easier with time.

Invest in Monocles

Just a quick self portrait to use as an avatar in various places.  I wanted to involve a monocle, but didn't really want to just have it be the traditional type.  Thus the augmented reality monocle.  Also some sort of fanciness with the hat...I like top hats...

Quick Draw 3

A fun little speed painting.  Good practice on posing and quick working.  This took around 2 hours.

Stalwart Companions

Not a lot to say about this, I am trying to work faster and in a more loose manner which I think worked fairly well.  I started this just as a sketch to work on some different perspectives, but ended up enjoying the idea so I thought I would see where I could take it in a decently short time.

Total work time was somewhere around 15 hours in PS CS5.

Quick Draw 2

I need to do more landscapes, this is a start, more to come...

Painted in about an hour.

Quick Draw 1

I decided to attempt to make a fast drawing/painting each day for a while to push myself to work faster.  I should probably just call them speed paintings, but I prefer the gun-slinger vibe of quick draw.

This took between 2-3 hours in PS CS5.

Wolf Warrior

This image was originally started just to divert myself from another that I was working on, but I ended up liking this much more.  My focus was to get the lighting and general material feel of the armor down far better than previous attempts.  Towards that end I added more texture into this image than normal, which I have to say I will likely continue in the future.  

Not much else to say...still fiddling around and trying to learn more.

Demon's Friend

Is it so strange that a sentient creature (presume with me for now that demons would indeed be sentient, for I find it hard to believe they would function otherwise) would choose to deviate from a bloodthirsty nature in order to gain emotional rewards? I thoroughly enjoy thought experiments such as this. There exist species on our planet that coexist in equally "strange" symbioses, for example the Egyptian Crocodile and a small bird called a Plover. Mind you there is a probable lack of affection, more just a beneficial cease fire for the crocodile.

All the same such a relationship between the demon and the mouse mimics the human habit of keeping pets for our own pleasure and their ease of living. Wolves were smart enough to realize some large moderately intelligent apes would take care of them and feed them in exchange for certain affections and labors. What is to say a mouse (or perhaps a rat as they are omnivorous) would not see such a benefit from a kindly demon. After all he only wants and needs to flay humans!

I did not track the time to completion on this one as I was experimenting with a more open and fluid way of working and did not want to pressure myself to finish overly quick.

Process Animation for fun (click the second image to view it).

Market Volatility

I decided I should create an illustration outside of the realm of fantasy and science fiction, hence comes this illustration. I was always amused by the imagery conjured by market terminology for trends. 

I was also attempting to add some form of spot illustration example to my portfolio, aka no background, which is definitely not the most comfortable territory for me.

Created in Photoshop CS5: 12 hours from sketch to finish.

Reciprocity

At the moment I am sick and cannot think of anything to say to go with this, I will edit this in a few days with some form of explanation.  Sorry in the meantime.

Light Touch (complete illustration)

I am not entirely sure this won't get some more time for tweaks, but I am pleased with it right now.  It took about 25 hours for this one.  I definitely learned a good deal about how I want to work images going forward from this one.

Light Touch (line art)

I decided to make a line drawing, which will later be fleshed out into an illustration.  I usually skip the fine tuning step that making finished line art tends to be.  I am using this drawing as a test of concept for another image I would like to create down the line.  It took about 8 hours from the start of the sketch until I called this "finished".  I have a really hard time saying a line drawing is a finished product...I am relatively sure that makes me a minority. 

In other news I like patterns O_O. 

Lion's Last Roar

Finally finished this illustration...in theory.  I keep thinking I missed something.  Oh well.  At any rate this one took a bit over 50 hours.  I spent a lot of time early on waffling on the colors for the orc (his armor).

Sigmar's Blessing

This image is part of a set I will be sending off to Games Workshop to see if I can get some work.  I needed a portfolio piece showing how my images evolve to finish and finally got around to doing the necessary iterative saves.  I also tracked the time it took me to finish this- 42 hours give or take a margin of error (I would occasionally sit down at my computer convinced I was going to relax and ended up working instead without really noticing).  So yea...I am not the fastest illustrator out there, but I hope it can be said I at least craft a well rendered image.