22 Feb 2010
Commando vs. Demon Nazi
Couple of quick images done for a “Draw My Character” activity at a forum. The first one is based on Chi-Yun Lau’s character.
Posts Tagged ‘featured’
19 Jan 2010
6 Jan 2010
Cell Phone Shark
I did this illustration awhile back. The idea of the campaign (that it was for) was to visually incorporate different animals’ defense mechanisms on cell phones. My animal was a shark. With the brief I got an image that illustrated the concept and which to me seemed like a stock image that someone else had done. So i was a little hesitant as to how to approach the assignment since I didn’t want to rip off or copy someone else’s work.
Well, with a little research it turned out that the image was actually a montage of two different images and it had probably been done at the ad agency that hired me, so I was free to do whatever I wanted with it. So, off to sketching I was.
First I googled a bunch of reference images of cell phones and sharks and drew a few quick sketches to get a grasp of how they looked and how I could mix them up.
Since the image would be a single character on a basically blank background, the shape and design of the cell phone shark would have to be interesting enough to hold the image and composition together. So I started thinking in shapes.
Above you can see the sketches that I thought were worthy of finalizing marked. They’re far from perfect but I now knew what I wanted and where I would take the final sketches. There were two different ideas: One for the traditional cell phone model (which was much like the image in the brief) and another one for the shell fish model. I finalized sketches for both:
The first one was pretty much a cleaned up and refined version of the thumbnail. The second was a combination of two different sketches. I wanted both of the sketches to have a sort of a fake fish eye perspective. I added the mockup type, and sent the sketches to the client.
They went for the second one. The final had to be all vectors which was a challenge since I usually work with raster images – and the final would have to have a painterly, retro quality to it. So, after some emails back and forth with the client and tweaking things, I finished the piece:
Some extra space added around the edges for cropping and bleed.
22 Dec 2009
Happy Holidays!
I’m finally on holiday, hoorah.
20 Dec 2009
Phone Stalker
Hi, I’m back. After a month of slacking and a another one being crazy busy with a new day job, I think it’s about time to get back to regular updates.
So for starters here’s a little something I did for the Character Tag Team activity at Unit 16 again. After CamdenLikesGreen’s hedgehog sketch.
16 Oct 2009
Chainsaw Maid
This one’s sort of a tribute to the wonderful Chainsaw Maid wax animation, a healthy dosage of gore and candy colored zombies. I saw the clip a long while back and somehow the concept popped into my head now so I thought I do an image. And why not, you can’t really go wrong with a sexy French maid with a chainsaw, cliché or not.
Forgot to add an apron and a hat, though.
I’ve been playing with the idea of setting up a scene in DAZ Studio and using a render as a reference for an illustration but haven’t gotten around to doing so until now. This time I did, however, and it really worked in my advantage regarding speed and probably outcome too. Much less thinking involved when it came to perspective, foreshortening and shading – even though this still just a sketch and a bit funky in places.
Crap lighting, but good enough for a use such as this. I probably took around 30-45 minutes to set up and render this scene.
In case you don’t happen to know what DAZ Studio is, it is much like the better know Poser except that it’s FREE. You just need to register (again, for free) at the DAZ website, and you’ll be able to download your own copy. There’s a ton of free content available – including figures, clothing, hair, props – in sites like Renderosity.com or ShareCG.com as well as DAZ’s own website – because for the most part DS uses the same files as Poser.
Essentially what you do with DS is clothe and pose a figure, possibly include some props, add lighting and then render the scene. It’s like a “virtual photo studio”. It’s easy to use and good fun actually, I’ve ended up wasting spending a lot of time playing around with learning the program myself.
18 Jul 2009
17 Jul 2009
Gator Food
I was away on holiday last week and happened to catch an episode of “CSI Miami” on TV.
So inspired by the myriad of expressions mastered by David Caruso, this is what I came up with for this round of the Character Tag Team after Sticmann’s watercolor.
3 Jul 2009
Aava & Bang Promo Illustration
Here’s an image I did for Aava & Bang advertising agency’s new visual identity. I tell you folks, this thing is HUGE – roughly 217 cm wide and 42 cm high in 300dpi resolution. That’s 25638 x 4962 pixels for anyone who’s counting…
It was quite an enjoyable challenge, and even more so for my old computer which really couldn’t handle files this big. I had to do the final, full sized image in pieces (which the client put together with better hardware), and still the working file for the biggest of the pieces was 542 MB. Phew.
Check out some details too. These are 25% of the actual pixel size:
This was a fun project – very clear brief and just few minor, good changes in the sketching stage. The client seemed happy with it and I like how it turned too. There’s a slightly bigger version of the image in use on their website.
24 Jun 2009
Danzig
Here’s someone I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time and who seems to fascinate me to no end: Glenn Danzig.
A bit of eerie synchronicity going on as well: Going through some biographies I just realized that I finished the image – truly unbeknownst to myself – on his damn birthday, June 23rd. So happy birthday, Glenn…
Fucking metal. Serious business.
9 Jun 2009
Rodent Fashion
Another two for the CTT at U16. First one is after Mike Monroe’s sketch of – to me – a bit insecure looking rodent. So here he is with a friend, overcompensating:
And my entry for the next in line, a gentler, more confident fella:
26 May 2009
Grace Kelly Blues
Grace Kelly was gorgeous but unlike – for example – her contemporary Audrey Hepburn who had a very distinct face and look, Grace was more of an epitome of neutral beauty – whatever that may be. That makes her really difficult to draw. Even if you get a decent likeness, you might still end up with a drawing of beautiful but generic looking dame…
So I decided to go for mood instead. Maybe young Grace Kelly getting a brief glimpse at the crystal ball – and her eventual fate.
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