Fringe Posters and Female Phoenix Rangers.. Oh My!

 Dear Blog,

It's been a busy last couple weeks and a lot of good news!

A few weeks ago I finished up some more animations for Video King and I am just waiting on final testing to make sure they're good to go. As soon as I know, I'll be posting them here!

Last week I was painting at Jubilations Edmonton again for the Johnny Be Good show.  More trees and bears and stuff.  It was a crazy long week!  Most days were around 15 hrs, with only a break for dinner. The room has the largest wall space of the three theatres and we have one less day to paint than in Winnipeg...

We just barely made it out before tech rehearsal, so I never got a chance to take pictures.  I will take and post some next time we are there....

Got to see one of my bestest friends Aimée, who just so happens to be moving right here to Winnipeg, in with my other friend Cherie - seven blocks away!

When I got back, I got an email from a good friend of mine, Cory Wojcik, requesting some Winnipeg Fringe poster work...And he needed it in a jiffy!

Here's the poster I did for his Fringe show Phoney Baloney Pantaloné!

And seeing as how it's a kid's show, I did up a colouring sheet of the main character for the little childrens!

 While a little more time and notice would've allowed me some more polish, I like both of them a lot!

I particularly like the sketchy, watercoloury illustrative look the poster has.

Both were done based on photos of the cast in costume.

Look for these posters around the city of Winnipeg soon!

And please let me know if you see any! I'd love to hear about it! :)

While I was in Edmonton last week, I began discussing some commissions with a fellow online by the name of Chad Shelton...

He has an extremely wild and fantastical story and cast of characters that he wants to see brought to life.  We have very similar tastes and we have been working on some thoughts about a web series and/or some printed material to collaborate on. 

There will be much more to come (Character designs, environments, weapons, scenes etc), but we decided to start with one commission to make sure we're on the same wavelength...

This is the first sketch of one of his characters...

 She is a female Phoelarch Ranger.

A Phoelarch is like a humanoid Phoenix.

Her cape is made of a magical firey material and her hands burn white hot, fueling the scorching arrows she fires from her glowing obsidian bow...

Her clothes are made of swirling "liquid hot magma", that she controls with her thoughts and her ankle and shoulder spirit wings help guide her through the air in a blinding burst of energy!

Check back soon for the finished version and much more from this new project!

 Another exciting project I've been asked to be co-producer of is Slingin' !

Slingin' is a collectable card game like Magic The Gathering or Pokémon etc.

But Slingin' is a game based on "The Streets".

In it you control playable character cards and gain power ups like Rep, Muscle, Smarts, Heat, Cash, Weapons, Whips (Nice cars), Properties, Drugs, and of course, by killing the other playahs, yo! ...Just don't go to jail or get capped yourself!

The project will involve myself and the gentleman who created the game, Richard Hart.

We worked together on the project a bit last year and it kind of fell through for various reasons...Richard recently contacted me to offer me the opportunity to be the Artist for the entire game, and to share in the (potential) profits as Co-producer once it get's off the ground as well!

We are in talks of some Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign in the near future to get some funds to complete the game (so stay tuned for that!), but right now we're fleshing out the card designs first.

We've yet to start on new ones for this version, but he liked the direction I was going with the last ones, so we are going to use them as a base point and go from there...

Here are some of the OLD CARD ROUGHS  that I had worked on last year... 

What do YOU think, blog? .... I'd love to hear your comments...

...Lastly...  Just some face sketches I did a few weeks back.  Nothing fancy, I just find that sometimes my faces all look the same, so I thought I'd try some ethnicities I don't usually draw...And yet they still look similar! Haha...Just my style I guess.

Well, that's it for now, but stay tuned for a lot more updates on our new web series, Slingin', my personal work, and more illustrations for the Champions of Brumor by Riley Martin!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave a comment! 

Until Next Time

Works in Progress

Dear Blog,

Here is a work-in-progress commissioned illustration for the next upcoming short story to be released by fantasy writer Riley Martin!

 

... And the original sketch. All done digitally with Photoshop CS5.

In this tale, Leo, the knight in the foreground endures a grueling swordsmanship tournament.  Without spoiling too much, this scene is inspired by the climax of the battle, when a previous champion knight makes a last minute entrance into the circle.                                                                           

With his life and veins nearly sapped dry, will the valiant Leo be able to make a final stand and reign victorious, or will his weakened state spell his doom...!?

...Tune in to Riley's Blog to find out when the story releases later this month! ...and in the meantime, for other fantastic tales and future updates!

...Next is an armour study I painted yesterday. 

 The left is a photograph, the right is my painting. Photoshop ~ 4hrs.

  All the colours were "picked" and/or mixed by me in an effort to better understand colour and light, not taking directly from the photo.

The photo on the left, is NOT my own, and I DO NOT own the copyrights to that image. It was merely used as a reference image, with no intentions of replicating or selling the finished study.

I realize I need to crack down on using research materials and studies to better my art, and so I spent some solid time working on medieval knight's armour this week.  It's been a lot more fun than I thought, and I will defninitely be incorporating more into my future work and self-schooling.   

 Hope you like!

Leave a comment and tell me what you think, and be sure to share and come back for more soon!

Take Care!

Updates Galore!

Dear Blog,

Sorry I haven't written to you in a while... I haven't been ignoring you, I have been busy learning all sorts of new artsy things and painting fancy murals!

Here are some of them!

First of all, here is a new concept piece I painted this week:

This angry looking knight is a fellow named Septune, the Champion Knight of Brumor Province in the land of Haven...

I am currently working on conceptual design and illustrations for a series of publications by the talented and creative fantasy writer -not to mention a good friend of mine- Riley Martin

Here' s small excerpt from one of these stories:

     

      "The sound of the carriage door swinging open caused Sweather to turn in his saddle. Septune had pulled his enormous body from the carriage and was stepping down to the ground. Once he was out of the carriage he poked his head back in briefly and the sound of murmured speaking came from within. Lord Sommer’s Champion Knight turned around and swung the carriage door shut.

      The Champion Knight was enormous for a Brumor, he stood six and a half feet tall and was wide with the bulk of muscle. His chest plate had a large eagle emblazoned on the centre of it; the sign of his master, Lord Sommer, and it marked him as the Champion Knight. Septune’s helmless face was a mask of expressionlessness. His eyes appeared to have no emotion, Sweather had seen him smile only once and the smile never reached his eyes. He had a scar that something with three claws had left on his face from a far gone battle; it reached from just below his right eye to his jawline..."

Check out Riley's Blog for the full story, other fantastic tales, and for future updates!  

And be sure to share!

Next up is just a random muscle/anatomy study: 

And a personal creature concept I've been working on:

This creature was the result of not knowing what to draw and just beginning to make random scribbles until this giant weevel-tick-beetle-crustacean-peacock animal started to come to life...

~About the size of a one-car garage, the Greater Armoured Tartazan is usually quite docile, but can pose an enormous and extremely dangerous threat if provoked. 

~During the daylight, they enter a kind of temporary hibernation, burrowing their tendrills and long tongue like proboscises  into the earth, absorbing the Geo-thermal energy, water, minerals,  and nutrients from the soil.  

~Their hard exoskeletons "lock down" into a solid fortress during hibernation or as a defense mechanism, often with their colourful tail streams waving high in the air as a warning to potential threats.  

~Their tail streams, tendrills, and multiple retractable antennae are all capable of deadly, poisonous stings, and are used to sense vibrations, wind, and "taste" the environment around them, as the Tartazans' eyesight and visual ranges are very limited.

~Tartazans have been known, on occasion, to attack other creatures, penetrating their flesh with their tendrills and absorbing the proteins and fluids of it's victims until their body becomes a shriveled husk. 

These are the first round of animations I've been working on for a gaming company here in Winnipeg:

Video King makes video lottery games for various platforms.  

These animations are meant to be sort of "Bingo Dabbers" used to cover numbers in a digital bingo game.  

A wizard on the screen, casts these runic circles out of the air with magic and these float across the screen and block the player's called numbers.

It's been a great experience so far, and I am currently working on a second set of dabber animations that I will post once they are complete!

Lastly, here are some more murals from Celebrations/ Jubilations:

A bear-filled magical forest from Johnny Be Goode.

And some Rats that have invaded the dilapidated Central Pork Café since Monica and Chandler last owned it in 2005 from the new Winnipeg show Best of F.R.I.E.N.D.S Reunion!

Thanks for all who continue to read my blog!  I will have more updates shortly and spread the love if you like it or the likes if you love it!

Take Care.