Red, White and Blue: House of Cards

Addicted to House of Cards and cannot wait until season 3. This started off as a doodle on my Samsung galaxy note 10.1 using Sketchbook pro, but then I got a little carried away :) Much prefer the version with harsh strokes and an absence of colour as it better conveys Kevin Spacey's ruthless character and is in line with the title of this post.

Sketch on a Plane

A couple of biro sketches while on the plane to Sweden. I stumbled across the bearded guy in a magazine. Think he's a music composer. Totally forgotten his name :/

Zero to Hero

A teaser of some character designs for a potential mobile game. A bit of a Tiny Thief influence here.

Ice breaking

Hey people!
I've been away from the blogging for a bit so let me cut to the chase and tell you about some things that have been happening in my life...

Dark Cow Rises
In my previous posts you may have remembered I was working on a CG animation for a TV production company in Sweden. Well, production on that was suspended due to some major technical issues.
The good news is that the Cow will return as all the technical shizzle is now sorted!

DIY PC maintenance

She's back! Much more to come!

Graphic Design projects
I've been designing publications for a few businesses. It has been a worthwhile experience and challenge (especially when working on an office PC with 1gb of RAM!) and I've met some truly wonderful people. My most proud achievement was creating and designing a mascot for the children's cancer charity, Neuroblastoma Alliance UK.

Mascot for Neuroblastoma Alliance UK

Character development

3D version of their logo for possible 'bouncing ball' animation

Drawing, drawing, drawing
Recently, I've been asked to design a tattoo of an Egyptian sphinx (the part female, bird and cat one). Surprisingly, I haven't designed a tattoo before so it's a new challenge that I'm excited about completing.

Initial design for tattoo, flying lady with deadly sharp nipples

'Team Edward' cartoon. What's life without humour?

Run Forest, Run!

I've always been keen on fitness and challenging my physical limits but never keen on going for runs outside as a supplement. I usually preferred running on the treadmill in the gym as it put less strain on my body. However, since the beginning of 2012, I've totally scraped the gym and decided to go for regular runs outdoors as well as use breakdancing techniques to stay in shape. It's much cheaper anyway!

I'll also be dancing at the Paralympic ceremony (missed the main Olympic auditions) and rehearsals have been a lot of fun and met some cool people. That's all I can say on the subject at the moment because it's proper top secret and I'll be kicked out if I reveal more!

taking a breather after a run in the local park

strawberry picking my way!

3 is the magic number!

Quad-biped cow designs

Some more character development for that cow that has now invaded my dreams.
Research on quadruped anatomy, not just cow anatomy, was essential.

closer to final design

Moo cow - caricatured designs

These are my early character designs for a recent project. The initial project brief didn't specify the characteristics for the cow so I explored many ideas. None of these will be developed further as we have now gone for a more realistic look.

very animatable

Yes, it looks more like a pig

??? Odd, but one of my fav designs

safe

Daily Drawing Challenges

While on Google+ I did some quick doodles in response to a caption from artist, Carsten Bradley. Various entries including mine can be found on this blog: http://geeplusart.blogspot.com/
Will attempt to do these everyday as they are good practice for developing my creativity and speed drawing.

dragon with parasol

Cartoon character as a sea creature

Monster cereal

Interview with Ian McCaig

The great artist, Ian McCaig (worked on Star Wars), comes across as such a positive and knowledgeable person. Here's a swiftly sketched portrait while I listened to his wise words.

Character Design - Animal Mashup

I designed this creature while in the waiting room in a hospital in Sweden, looking through a wildlife magazine.
It's a cross between a cat, a mole and an eagle. The instincts and speed of a cat, the wings of an eagle and the digging ability of a mole. I imagine it's habitat to be a forest or cave. Pretty random concept, but was just a bit of fun. I may develop this character further and create a 3D rig for animated short.
Below is a copy of the initial sketch and some quick colour tests.

Gesture Drawing

10-20 seconds per sketch

These are 10-60 second gesture drawings using this Figure & Gesture Drawing tool:
http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php

The basic premise of gesture drawings are to capture the shape and energy of the human body through flowing & instinctive strokes. I'm not used to having such a short time between drawings so it makes for an exciting challenge. Great for warming up your fingers before you start on the hardcore stuff.

About 60 seconds

10 seconds per sketch

Caricature - Sean Connery

A long long time ago, I used to draw caricatures for fun but then for some strange reason, I stopped. Now many years later, I have decided to pick up the pen (well, tablet in this case) and reignite the passion. You only live once after all... or is that twice ;)

I was inspired by the amazing artist, Jason Seiler. I recommend checking out his work for a visual feast.
Before I began painting, I collected various reference images of Sean Connery so that I could build a greater sense of his character and 3-Dimensional facial structure. I then drew quick thumbnail sketches of his head to warm-up and get some ideas flowing.

Thumbnail Sketches

With this photo as my main source of reference, I decided to put emphasis on his large forehead, thick eyebrows and pouting lips. I'm not a fan of the extremely exaggerated caricatures so my aim was to make mine look humorous but less offensive than these. However, in hindsight, I feel I could've played about with Connery's features a bit more.
I believe the hair could have fit better with the rest of the painting but I struggled with that part. With practice I'm sure there will be a noticeable improvement. I added some finishing touches to the portrait by applying some depth of field and noise.
The next caricature/portrait I will paint will be a toss between the United legend, Ryan Giggs, and the star of BBC's Luther series, Idris Elba. I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun with whichever one I choose!

Tools used: Photoshop CS5 + Wacom Tablet

Blocking values1

Painting values2

85% complete - adjusting and more painting

Wicked Princess - Concept and Idea Development (CID)

Recently, I have been working on a project where I will create conceptual art for a potential video game. The game is based on the story of 'The Wicked Prince' by Hans Cristian Anderson and the artwork will be finished by May 3rd.
Here are the list of the assets:

Environments
-Magnificent Ship Interior
-Magnificent Church Interior
-Devastated Peasant Village Exterior
-Heavenly Exterior

Props
-Prince's Primary Weapon
-Magnificent Ship Exterior (as vehicle)
-Prince's Army's Tools of Destruction
-Statue of Prince
-Prince's Treasure Item - inanimate or dead
-1-3 x Mundane Props from Devastated Village

Characters (one non-humanoid)
-Prince/Princess Protagonist
-Numberless Angel
-Priest (impoverished or otherwise downtrodden)

I've been wanting to design something that has influences from West African culture so will use the culture/traditions/people/architecture as my main reference. However, I want this to be a fictional game world so will combine with reference from other sources too. At the moment, I have created mood boards (see below for examples) for each asset and  made some initial sketches.

Village Exterior

Priest

Wicked Princess

Princess Statue

There's a lot of free-flowing experimentation at this stage - no idea is set in stone. Below are a few of my initial thumbnail sketches (I've highlighted my favourites) for my version of the 'wicked prince'. As you can see, I've gone for a female protagonist.

Silhouette thumbnails are good for focusing on the form of the character and less on the fine details. This is a new technique for me and not what comes naturally to me, but I have given it a try in these initial drawings. Still needs improvement but I can see the benefits - a strong silhouette is a key asset for any character concept.