Long Time No Art

Here's a few things I did recently. Hopefully some more to come soon? It's always hard to say with NDA's, and freelance which gets in the way of personal projects....

Went hiking at Arabia Mountain near Atlanta. Really cool area, took some pictures and painted one.

A recent character, which if you follow me elsewhere you've already seen.

I started a new piece based on an older character. 

Studies

I've been trying to squeeze in some studies between house hunting and freelance work.
Something I wanted to try was taking a photo, but changing elements to be more unique. Here is one attempt- could use some more practice with textures.

(The Reference)

Talisman: The Deep Realms

The last few weeks have been a total whirlwind.  I filled my plate very quickly with a lot of freelance work, which has kept me very, very busy, while also applying for openings at studios, talking to art directors and recruiters, all while trying to consider what I might want to do next artistically.

It has been interesting balancing all the work while also trying to do more reading and exploratory sketchbook work, which had really fallen off over the last few years (yikes!)

Here is a piece that I did some time ago, as is usually the case with contract work. I worked with Zoe Robinson and Andy Christensen art directing. As always, its great to work with them. This piece was definitely kind of a new challenge for me, but I really had a lot of fun designing the armor and painting all the glowing, whispy magic. There is another piece I did around the same time for this project, but you'll just have to wait for the game to come out.

Moth Eater

New piece! Yay!

This one was started for the Color and Light class on cgma. I was lucky enough to take it this summer.

The other news I have is not so fun.

I was laid off from my job as a concept artist at Turbine last week. Which is a bummer because after three years I think I was actually getting used to the concept of people.

If you are looking for a concept artist (I am willing to move for a full-time position), or need a contract artist or freelance, please email me and be sure to take a look at my website. I happily do both characters, environments, props,etc.

Also, if you are not looking for a concept artist, but are looking for 3d, VFX, animation, producers... please let me know and I can also try to hook you up with those people as well. Turbine let go a lot of people.

Studies and a sketch

I have been taking one of the CGMA classes the month (Color and Light). It's been really awesome.
I won't bore you with the studies of spheres and materials (although I found the material spheres very helpful- it's a great way of digesting information).

Here are some photo studies from the class however. These were very quick studies, painted very small. The idea was just to capture the color/lighting information rather than all the tiny details. I'm sure I could have noodled on the city forever.

I think in the future it might be more useful to take these studies and extend the scene, or significantly alter the shapes of the elements within. It would really help to digest the information better. The city study ended up pretty lame- I have much more practice painting environments. Yet, I find the repetitive, grid-like, quality of cities interesting.

I also took a break from all my freelance work to do a stylized version of Ged- the same design as last time. I'm probably going to finish it up, I am pretty happy with how his face turned out. Working this way is really fun for me- I like jumping back and forth between this and realism.

Some work for Infinite Crisis

I've been working on Infinite Crisis at work, and recently got permission to post a few pieces that have been out for a bit.

I was pretty excited to do the Wonder Woman portrait (the concept is by Devon Cady-Lee). I actually did all of this illustration on my off hours.

Wonder Woman and all related Elements TM & Copyright 2014 DC Comics
http://www.dccomics.com/

http://www.infinitecrisis.com/

A WW2 tank inspired skin for Mecha Superman was the first character I did on the project. (Hunter Schulz did a really kick ass portrait of him... its on the site if you want to check it out! www.infinitecrisis.com/en/media/wallpapers)

Hopefully more to come soon! There is another skin and character out that are up on the IC site, but I'll have to make sure I can post those before I share. =)

Superman and all related Elements TM & Copyright 2014 DC Comics
http://www.dccomics.com/

http://www.infinitecrisis.com/

Desert Winds

A new character design. I wanted to explore something a little bit between Dune and Star Wars. I think a lot of the design elements from my last character, Sparrowhawk, were reused here, which I am cool with. It is nice to explore a theme  I've been really into pattern and cloth lately.

I do wish I'd spent the time to think of more story for her. When I was younger, I'd always have a running novel in my head for each character I did. Somewhere along the way I lost that. I think it's time to get it back.

Sparrowhawk!

Sparrowhawk! (From A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin)

One side of me felt like I should keep this more realistic and down-to-earth, and the other side of me is wondering why I didn't just going insane with it- so maybe I'll explore that path too.

I figure this is probably him at some point later on in the first book

Jasmine silver needle- and prints!

I made some edits to an old piece. Wanted to add a border, as I felt it would make it feel better as a stand-alone image.

I had pretty good intentions on finishing a series of these ladies- all based on types of tea (this one in particular is "Jasmine Silver Needle"). But my interest in it has been very off and on. I think they are cute, but I also feel the appeal of them is to a younger audience- for some reason I envision them as something young girls between 12 and 16 would like (because essentially this is what I drew at that age), and grandmas. I could be wrong though. Is this a series that you, my viewers, would like to see more of? Perhaps as a group these paintings would feel less geared towards that age bracket however. At the moment I am seeing plain black tea as having a south-western vibe, and that is definitely not a thing I was into as an adolescent.

Also, I recently put a few pieces up on InPrnt for sale as prints. If you've ever wanted to own a print of my work, now is your chance! I'll post some more artwork soon.

http://www.inprnt.com/gallery/achrisart/

Garlic and Teacups

 I have been doing some oil still life paintings lately as a way to get used to painting traditionally, but also do some work from life studying form and color.  But really, there is nothing better than holding a little painting in your hand (this one is about 5 x 5 in).