"Horror" Book Cover Commission

Forgive me it's been too long since my last post. A lot has happened in the past months, including some personal things & experimenting with new digital illustration techniques (some of which are posted on my tumblr).

Here's one of my more recent commissions, a book cover for a private client. It was no easy feat working on it, including coloring the whole thing in grey tones. But for the most part, it turned out much better than expected. It was a great learning experience for me for experimental inking & a different method of coloring.

Materials used: Bristol board, Faber-Castel markers, Holbein Ink, & Photoshop

Monster Fest part 1

Been a few months since I last updated and was very busy with my personal projects, including this one. It's part of my Monster Fest 2013 sketch challenge in which I wanted to draw one of my chosen monsters for the month of Halloween. Unfortunately, I was able to draw roughly 20 (with a few I haven't inked). Now it will be finished, with my goal being the end of next month. But in the meantime, here's part one of my Monster Fest challenge.

From top to bottom: Slenderman and Slendermane, Chimera, Naga, Hellhound, Kasa-okabe, Sphinx, and Mermaid

MLP: FIM - Come Back and See Us

A long overdue gift art for a good friend of mine, Alicia Schwalm. Drew her three favorite characters (Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Discord) from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Original - Creature Concepts Part 1

Did some more experimenting with digital painting and for my willing guinea pigs, two of my creature creations. On the left, a wolf-lizard like creature I named "Drarowk," and on the left, a creature that I'm temporarily naming "Aquaerpent." Out of both subjects, the Aquaerpent is perhaps my best effort. Still trying to work out on how to digitally paint fur, but at least it's a start.

As for the creatures themselves, I will make reference sheets of them in the near future, but for now, here's their current designs.

Pokemon - Pond Playtime

Featuring Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie from the recently announced Pokemon X & Y.

My final illustration I did for an artist alley print. Though I will admit, it's probably one of my least successful pieces compositionally, and will more likely do a better one in the future. But for now, it's not so bad.

MLP: FIM - Afternoon Flight

Twilight and her friends enjoying the afternoon with her friends. (Sorry for not including Spike. I had forgotten to include him while drawing this.)

It's another piece I did as a print for Nashicon. In my opinion, out of all four illustrations I did for artist alley, this is the one I'm most proud of. And I think it shows so much, especially in composition and coloring.

Original - Moth Rider

Finally some original art after a slew of fan art related pieces. This is one of those silly concepts I've been toying with for a while, which is essentially boils down to moth/butterfly riders and tamers. It's nonsensical and impossible, yes, but hey, I enjoy messing with concepts that are fantastical in nature. Admittedly, it's not one of my better compositions, but for a first piece, it's not bad. Also was one of the prints I had for sale at Nashicon.

Adventure Time - Causal Tune - Marshall Lee

Everyone's favorite vampire king--Marshall Lee. For while, I had wanted to draw Marshall Lee and it wasn't until a few months ago I finally got an idea of what I do. Initially, it was going to be finished by the time "Bad Little Boy" aired, but that didn't happen the way I planned it. But I'm happy it turned out well as I wanted to practice flat coloring. It is also one of my works I made prints of for Nashicon, which I ended up selling one of them.

MLP: FIM - Twilight Sparkle Gains Her Wings

Or my alternate title, "I--I Have Wings?"

Done in honor of the season three finale (which I happened to enjoy by the way) as well as more Manga Studio inking practice and coloring practice.

Recent Inked Drawings

Just thought I show off some of my original inked artwork. All of them have been colored, and the first two were for digital ink practice in Manga Studio, which I've gotten the hang of by now.

Journey (PS3)

Mudkip and Swampert (Pokemon)

The Great and Powerful Trixie (MLP: FIM)

On a side note, this drawing was inked by traditional means, but fixed in Photoshop.

Journeying On - Journey Fanart

Finally, some fan art from my favorite game of 2012--Journey (PS3). Admittedly, it took way longer than expected to finish, mostly due to the character's intricate scarf and my original file being corrupted. I plan on doing more artwork based on my second playthrough, but here's a small version I did for Manga Studio and coloring practice.

Pokemon - Swamp Champ

Because even a mudkip can evolve into a total badass.

Anyways, wanted to do some ink practice with Manga Studio, and since I've had this little idea for a Pokemon related art piece, I decided to go ahead and use it as my guinea pig of sorts. Could of did a little better job thinning and bulking up the lines in a few areas, but for my first ever success digital inks, it's not a bad start.

MLP:FIM - Return of the Great and Powerful Trixie

Done in honor of the new episode that just recently came out. Kind of cheated on the colors a bit because I wanted more darker values to invoke more dramatic look I was going for. And since this is more of a personal sketch challenge for me, I'd figured I just go for it. And I really like it came out.

Adventure Time - Super High Five Time

Been awhile since I posted some art, mostly pertaining to sketches and finished artwork per week. And this week, I give you... Fionna and Cake, Finn and Jake's gender-flipped counterparts from Adventure Time!

Inspired by the episode "Five Short Garyables," specifically Finn and Jake pulling off the Super Ultimate High Five. I wanted to draw it, but this time with Fionna and Cake, and the end result is this.

MLP:FiM - Moonlit Metamorphosis

Another MLP: FiM piece, this time of one of my favorite characters of that series, Luna. Wanted to do some fan art of her as well as experiment with painting techniques in Photoshop (on top of doing as much artwork and comics as possible while on summer break to keep me active), and here's the end result. Overall, I am very pleased in how it turned out. I may do a companion piece featuring Princess Celestia, but that will be for another time.

Pie in the Sky - Pinup Illustration

Start of the new year and here's an illustration I did in my off time during break. I plan to do the other five plus Spike in the near future.

Advanced Inking - Pinups part 1

It's almost halfway through the quarter and I thought I would go ahead and show off some artwork I've been working on for Advanced Inking. Mostly the pin-up illustrations using different inking techniques.

 

Devilman Pinup. Using PITT pens and Micron .05 and .02.

He-Man pinup. Using G-nibs and school nibs. Probably my best one so far (which isn't saying much for now), even though I still need a lot of practice as far as nibs go.

 

Adventure Time pinup! My favorite subject since I'm a fan of the show and I tend to be simplistic in terms of line marking in my own work. I used my trusty #3 round brush, which is my favorite along side markers. But like with the nibs, I need further practice. Still think I have my share of hits and misses.

Personal Art - Into the Shadows

Cliche title is cliche. Yeah, I know. Just thought I'll share some bit of artwork I did manage to do over the summer, featuring my favorite creepy original villain, Vritra, from my three novel (or possibly graphic novel) story entitled The Guardians.

Sketch Challenge - Power Girl

FINALLY! I did something for a Sketch Challenge for the Temple of Cartoon Mojo. For those who probably don't know what I'm talking about, Temple of Cartoon Mojo is a sort of club for all the Sequential Art majors and minors at SCAD Atlanta. I've always wanted to do a sketch challenge, but never had the time to do so. And finally I got a chance and this challenge--Power Girl from DC. Well, at least my rendition of Power Girl. Enjoy!

Concept Illustration - Small Dump

Another quarter gone for my time at SCAD, though wasn't really my best overall. But that's the subject for another time. Thought I share some artwork from conceptual illustration that I'm personally pleased with.

First up, my original characters for Job Two in which we had to come up with a story and the characters, vehicles, and environments for it. I chose to do two female bandits in which the core story was a competition gone wrong. For the concept, I went for a more sci-fi-ish twist for them and this was the result.

First is the land bandit who is more hotheaded of the two and is the main instigator of the competition.

The second one, I'm most happy with, is the aquatic bandit who is the more calm and cool of the two, but can't resist a little challenge every now and then.

Next is an environment from job one and definitely, the only one I'm somewhat happy with. It's based on the amazon river area where in my view amphibious beings lived similar to the tribes of South America. Granted it, I did needed to push that angle more, but that I'll do when I get the chance.