Well hello there Blog world!

Ok...so I remembered that I have a blog! Ha :/ I feel quite disappointed in myself that I haven't made the time to draw and finish anything decent enough to post up here...surely it can't have been almost 2 years since I last posted something big?! I promise that I have been doing stuff like; working on some concept and 3D work for a friends game (will try and get permission to post some shots up!) sketching and designing some tattoos for friends and then I seem to have gotten caught up in making a lot of textile and crafty things which is nice working in traditional mediums and creative physical things.

Anyway, now that I've settled into a new house in a new big city, there's lots of creative things to do and explore!! Can't wait to get back onto a life drawing class and fingers crossed, search for a new more creative job...exciting stuff! I will do my best to get on here more with my creative bits and bobs.

For now though, I do have something to post to update this desperate looking blog; a piece that I have been working on for the last 8 months or so in the free time that I have managed to scrounge together. This is a digital painting of a character for a friend's online competition. I LOVED working on it and loved how it turned out! Tried a few new painting things...I kinda get scared when I have to add colour to lines cos it never turns out as good as I first imagine but I am happy with the outcome of this one :)

Enjoy...

Competition Entry!

This was kind of an experimental piece. I had an idea of what I wanted to achieve but fancied taking a more painterly approach than normal! I kinda like the outcome. There are some obvious problems with proportions and things but I don't really mind as I think I achieved what I set out to do!

It was also an entry for a random online competition! I got 2nd place =)

Creature Design Class

Had some extra lectures at the end of Uni with Leavon Archer; a games artist.
Had the chance to loosely design some stuff. I decided to do something I don't normally do and had a go at designing some kind of wierd fantasy creature.

I started by playing with ZSpheres in ZBrush and just sketched over it until I got this wierd lizard looking giraffe thing with a super saggy neck :D
Then took screenshots of the face front and side and developed a concept:




Really really good fun! Was nice to focus on using some Zbrush for the most part and then really getting into the painting too :) Fun times!

FInal Year Project

My Final Year Project was an Investigation into the Character Creation Process used within the Games Industry.
It looked at all aspects of design development and concept work, and then the 3D Modelling and production of the character aswell.
Heres the progress of the project work to go with my dissertation:

Idea Development:







Final Idea:


Final Beauty Render/Painting:


Orthographic Views/Design Sheet:


Sculpting/Modelling/Texturing:



Final Posed Model:


It was an awesome project to work on. Shame that I ran out of time and she couldn't be finished to the full standard I had hoped!

Character Development Module

In my final semester at University I did a module looking at character development methods. A couple of the outcomes are the Zombie Mario and Sci-fi ish Nightelf below:




I really really enjoyed doing the Mario paintings! The 1st one was inspired by Left 4 Dead if you hadn't already guessed :D

Advanced Modelling

I've just about finished my 3D Modelling module at university. This is some of the work I have done this semester. (Sorry for the random layouts, they are the presentation slides I posted up for marking}

Dominance War Character Challenge:


Modelled in 3D Studio Max and rendered using the Xolioul Shader.

The Splash Damage Environment:


Modelled and Rendered in 3D Studio Max. Texturing all done in Photoshop using photo stock images from cgtextures.com etc

Had so much fun with this module! I really love modelling so was cool to get to focud on just that for a while =)

Summer Uni Project Work

I'm doing a University summer project to contribute to my third year. It's a concept for a web/tv series called Siphonheads, which is being run by the guy who created Holby City?
Anyway these are my concepts for the main character called Belial. The actress playing her is Ciara Janson from Hollyoaks I believe (hence her photo reference)...



This is my developed concept. There are a few others before this but they didn't scan well so left em out. This is going to be the final painting of her on the right with a few outfit alterations.



This was my first speed paint of a character called Belial. Just a practice run to show my style and level of skill with colour and lines.
Spent a lot of time refining the face, then roughed in the rest of the colour and shade as it became too tedious for a speed paint.