Epic Werkes: science-fiction

Showing posts with label science-fiction. Show all posts

Friday, November 21, 2008

The Sad Serpent of the Swamp

I did this when I was inspired by a new project I am a part of. It is I think a little too friendly for the project, but it makes for a nice piece and I can put it here for you all to enjoy. So... enjoy!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Dungeons and Dragons

For all of you who enjoy(ed) this series, check it out on You Tube! I have attached the first part of the first episode. Each one is in three parts of about seven (7) minutes each. You might have to search for them a little, but it's easy cause they usually show up in the related movies section to the right of the viewer. Plus, I have attached a very well scripted and acted short film featuring Hank and Sheila, and an episode guide:

The guide can be found at:
http://www.tv.com/dungeons-and-dragons/show/5499/episode_listings.html

There is another episode called, "The Last Illusion."

Undead Barbarian King

I can't show the one I like cause I gave it to Triple Ace, but here is another that is similar to it. Enjoy!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Epic Werkes Logo Sketches

Here are some sketches for the Epic Werkes Logo for the blog. It's also a tribute to the late Keith Parkinson. There is an image that I will post here, without permission, that I loved as a kid. I love dwarves. They're my favorite race. If I could be anything, it would be one of them. I tend to play them in roleplaying games. Anyway, I wanted to do something to honour him, after seeing a wonderful youtube videothat someone had posted as a tribute to him and to some of his werke. It only seems right. Keith Parkinson's werke has touched my life in so many ways and helped define fantasy for me over the years.

A wondeful Parkinson tribute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od8jpCQuycE

Sunday, September 21, 2008

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Image 4

Here is an in-progress image. Many of you may cringe, but for these particular images I am using a butcher paper substrate. Not archival at all but it is a fascinating surface. It gives me a soft effect and the tooth is interesting. It lends the images a sense of faerie that I really enjoy. A mistiness that conveys, for me, the idea of another world. Just like the compositional choices I have made convey a looking from one world to another. Sometimes a world of light into dark or vice versa.

Here's the colour study.

Here is the line drawing for the next illustration in the series.

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Images Revisited

Here are the touched up versions of older works from this series.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Image 3 Concepting

There are a few colour studies that coincide with this partial final. I started the "final" very uninspired. I was not pleased with the way the image fit in with the other compositions. It just wasn't working. And as I worked, the more frustrated I became until I finally just stopped and chalked it up to grindwork.

I sat down again and worked until I came up with the finished piece further down in the blog. I was in such a stride with the other images. This one really stumped me and took the wind right out of my sails for awhile.

I do like the above image as a whole and I will probably revisit it as a larger work, maybe 18"x24", and let it be its own entity. I won't say that I gave up on it. I hate giving up. I merely decided to use it as a stepping stone to success.

This is an image that I felt gave me the effect I wanted while departing from using a main character from the story dominantly in the foreground or background. However, something wasn't coalescing. I went ahead with the next steps anyway, hoping to get a final out of it, since I did like it.

This is one concept that I felt really captured the attitude of the Witch, but failed to evoke the sense of mystery and voyeurism I was looking for.

These are some thumbs exploring the basic value and compositional structure I was looking for.

Sizes

The actual size of all of the images for "Of Gold and Morning Light" is 5.5"x8.5". The book cover with Iduna is 18"x24".

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Image 3 Final

Here's the final image.

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Image 3 Colour Study

Here's the colour study.

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Image 3 Value Study

Here is the value study.

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Image 3 Line Drawing

This particular image gave me a great deal of trouble. I will upload all of my concepting for this image at a later date. For now, here is the final process and image. Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Updates!

I am curently in the process of updating some images. I returned to the "Iduna and the Golden Apples" image, pumping up the saturation and contrast, changing the costuming to fit the story more and applying some newly acquired skills. I did the same with the last three images for the "Of Gold and Morning Light" Project. I will be posting these images shortly, along with the newest illustration for the "Of Gold and Morning Light" Project.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Iduna Cover Project - Final

The finished piece.

Iduna Cover Project - Line Drawing

A line drawing for a recent cover submission for a Creative Writing Annual.

Friday, August 22, 2008

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Image 2 Process

The in-progress second plate.

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Image 2 Final

The final image for the second plate.

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Image 2 Colour Study

The colour study for the second plate.

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Image 2 Value Study

The value study and line drawing for the second plate.

"Of Gold and Morning Light" Project - Inside Image 1 Final

The final illustration for the first plate.

Pastel Technique

Just in case any of you are curious as to how I use pastels, here is a run-down of the technique I use to create the images you will see here.

1. Concepting - I like to pour over my favourite books, catalogs, photographs, illustrators, fine artists, graphic designers, look out the window, go for walks and generally just look at as much as I can stand, or until I am inspired, before I begin most projects. I keep all kinds of wierd stuff around that inspires me. I bring rocks, sticks and other stuff home from parks and anywhere else I am able to get my hands on things that strike my fancy. I spend more time goofing off looking at art and playing than I do illustrating sometimes. Seeing, at times is more imporant than drawing. It is always good to hone your technique, but it is equally as good to observe everything. Don't let someone thinking your wierd stop you. Their vision is not yours and they are not doing what you do because they are not doing what you do. It is good to hear how other artists work and see them work as often as you can, no matter the skill level. You will always learn something. These are the things I do before I start paintings.

1a. Thumbnails - I explore many different scenes, angles, etc. for an image before choosing one idea. These thumbnails are usually small, but contained within a space roughly proportonal to the final image size.

1b. Rough Sketches - Usually I explore my final thumbnail choice a little more by making several larger rough sketches of the same idea but considering a few different angles or positions.

1c. Final Sketch - After the rough sketches, and I have picked a final image, I draw it out without using much reference. This way I can place all of the elements I want where I want them, then take reference later and use that to help define areas rather than determine them. This step is done at the size of the final image, in most cases. Sometimes I make it smaller, but it is always proportional to the final dimensions, with room for bleed and trim.

1d. Colour and Value Studies - For this step I usually make a photocopy of the final sketch at a smaller size and mark the darkest darks and lightest lights in abstract shapes so that I know where the eye is going to be led by the play of light and shadow. Sometimes I make a full value rendering in addition to or in lieu of a general breakdown of light and shadow. Either way I am able to see where the darkest darks and the lightest lights are. I do several of these, modifying the final sketch to coordinate the value study better, if necessary.

Then I use another photocopy and, after deciding on the colour scheme I want, mark the colours on the photocopy, not worrying too much about value. I just want to know where the largest blocks of colour are and how they respond to one another. However, I tend to make full value scale colour studies over the photocopy in addition to or in lieu of the more general colour study. The important thing here is to make sure the colours work and your colour choice is adequately indicative of the mood you wish to express, both metaphorically and literally. If your value study is fully realized this step is easier. No matter what colours you choose, the values will make the image work. Even if your colours are not working the image can still be recognizable by virtue of a good value structure.

1e. Reference and Final Drawing - This step is where I collect any reference I might need. Sometimes I do this in other stages. If I have a hard time finding a colour scheme for the colour study, I look at other painters to see how they handled a similar situation. Don't be afraid to reference other painters. They did the same thing and people will also be inspired by you. We don't work in a vacuum. Take photos, use catalogs, whatever gives you the reference you need.

Once I have reference I do one of three things. One, I grid off the final sketch and redraw it on the final board or substrate, making corrections to the sketch where it needs to be corrected. Sometimes I do sketches and studies of the subject matter, separate from the value and colour studies, to better support an intuitive connection when I make the final drawing. Two, I take tracing paper and lay it over the final sketch, tracing shapes and changing what needs changing to tighten up the image from the final sketch. This way I have the added bonus of being able to flip the tracing paper over and see the composition from a mirrored perspective, which, in some cases, ends up being more interesting than the original orientation. Three, I erase the final sketch and work into it with whatever reference I need to tighten it up and transform it into the final drawing. This method gives me the added bonus of having a full value rendering of the final composition ready if I had used my final sketch as a value study.

Note - As you can see I am pretty loose with the way I work, mixing the above steps up quite a bit, but generally find myself working in the afore mentioned ways more than in any others. Sometimes I find that limiting myself too much to one specific method is stifling and can cramp the creative process. In fact, I find that when I am most stymied is when I am doing a series and have fallen into a rut. Each piece will tell you how it wants to be realized, if you listen.

2. The Final Image - Despite the loose quality of the conceptualization phases, I tend to stick to a pretty strict regimen when I lay down colour for the final image. This is the way I work as the image actualizes itself. That is not to say I don't run into problems sometimes. Maybe values are not dark enough, lights are not light enough and I need to rework them.

2a. Transferring the image - Usually when I work in pastels I will make a photocopy of the final image, find or make a toned paper I think works well with the colour scheme, whether it compliments it or is analogous, secure the paper to a hard, flat surface, usually a drawing board, then rub a light coloured chalk over the back of the photo-copy, rub off the excess dust, but make sure there is enough to sufficiently transfer the final drawing, then line the drawing up over the toned paper, trace the drawing with a pencil, hard enough that the chalk on the back of the drawing will show up on the the toned paper, remove the drawing, and voila!

Now, sometimes I will grid off the final drawing and redraw it on the toned paper. Sometimes the line quality from the tracing is a bit monotonous and uninspiring. So to maintain that fresh line quality, I will redraw the final image from a grid system. Yes, it takes time, but it is worth it. The final image invigorates me more to see the thick to thin relationship in the lines.

2b. Laying Down Colour - When I lay down colour, I start from the background, lay down the darkest darks then build up to the lightest lights, then gradually work my way to the foreground. This way of working allows me to better establish a perpective and makes it easier to work details later. And, of course, I have my value and colour studies there so I don't have to guess how I'm going to build the colour and value structure. I've already done that work, this is the easy part.

As I work to the foreground, I start to go back into areas that I have already worked, as the image does change when new colours are introduced. It always amazes me how much faith you need to have in the colour's ability to work itself out versus what you think it should look like when the first stages are underway. And remember, keep your final drawing handy so that you can have a reference if you lose your linework under the colour. The drawing will allow you to pick the details out again. This is helpful because I work loose to specific and lose the linework occasionally. I start with a general application of colour, not caring too much if I spill into other areas, as this can later lend the piece a sense of variety and unity, then tighten it up as I work into the highlights and final details. This allows me to see the painting as a whole rather than getting too lost in noodly details and thus losing coherence and perspective. For broad applications of colour I use Prisma Colour Nupastels (c), then tighten up with Stabilo Carbothello (c) pencils.

Please, feel free to comment on this process. Sheesh, it doesn't sound this complicated when I'm doing it!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Monday, November 10, 2008

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Friday, August 22, 2008

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