FACEPOCALYPSE

Life drawn

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:28:51 -0500

Been awhile since an update. My recent life has been consumed by work and a sister’s wedding festivities. Mostly work.

Here are a few life drawings. 30mins each, at a pretty leisurely pace.

Spawn Delicious!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:20:39 -0500

This is the game I worked on for the 48hr Global Gamejam 2012 with a programmer and some outsourced music. It’s more of an ~interactive experience~ than a game at the moment, but we hope to make it more fun in the nearish future.

And now for something completely different.

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:06:20 -0500

And now for something completely different.

Hermit filter feeder concept. Might revisit this a bit with...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:44:00 -0500

Hermit filter feeder concept. Might revisit this a bit with fresh eyes… Painted in a very dark room.

At the Concept Design Workshop Australia this week and James...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:17:44 -0500

At the Concept Design Workshop Australia this week and James Paick is sharing some awesome tips on environment concepting. Here’s one I whipped up after a talk on thumbnailing.

Awesome anatomy and painting archive. Great resource for artists.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 05:35:00 -0500

Awesome anatomy and painting archive. Great resource for artists.

2011 retrospective

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:28:59 -0500

After the 2010 half-year stint in the US, 2011 continued in nomadic fashion, having stayed in 13 different houses/apartments for at least a week during the course of the year.

As far as location goes, here’s a “Where in the world was Simon?” pie chart.

Following 2010’s intense art studies and exposure to the San Francisco scene I wanted to get back to making money as opposed to just spending money. Here are some art-related conquerings for 2011:

Biggest project to date - hired to define the background art style of an animation pilot, and created ~60 backgrounds in total.
Tested a working relationship with some great, skilled programmers and a film dude from the UK.
My favourite interview to date on Design Montage.
Feel like my art’s “leveled up” having focused on areas of weakness and pushing the polish level on my work.

Career-wise it was a year of film concepts, storyboards, animation backgrounds, and a little architectural visualisation.

As far as pushing polish goes I want to extend this to game development. I’ve documented so many ideas for games and never truly pursued them, but now I’m determined.

I’ve been quietly working on art/animation and game design for a personal project for the past few months and am powering on into the new year with time to devote!

2012 is a year for making games!

Happy New Year!

"What do I study to become a concept artist?"

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:40:00 -0500

This question was posed awhile back in the Perth illustrators’ group on facebook and generated a bit of discussion. I thought I’d transfer some of my thoughts into a blog post for all to see!

In context it was referring to courses/education available as a path to getting a job.

I’ll just jump right in with my response; I don’t tell any employers I have a graphic design degree and they don’t ask. It means virtually nothing for an artist in the entertainment industry. It’s definitely an advantage to have complimentary skills (3D especially) but concept art is actually significantly different to graphic design. While there are aspects of each that reinforce the other, being a concept artist is more like art/illustration combined with other forms of design (like industrial or fashion) depending on your specialty.

To work as a concept artist the most important question is “Can you do the job?” which breaks down into a few things:

- Are you technically and creatively competent?

AND ONCE YOU’VE GOT SOME SKILLS:

- Can you meet the deadline?
If you can do the job you don’t need any qualification. In fact, I’m skeptical of most courses for this very reason: If you’re not self-motivated you won’t make it in this industry, and if you ARE self-motivated you don’t need to pay to study!

However, studying with skilled mentors/teachers is a great catalyst for improvement, as is being surrounded by likeminded peers.

If you’re going to pursue a career in entertainment art then study somewhere that has people who take it seriously. Who treat it as a lifestyle! If you’re not drawing or painting EVERY DAY the people who are will be improving faster and eventually getting the jobs. If you’re the best person in your course, your course is probably shit.

You’re not competing with your peers in Perth to get a job in the entertainment industry, you’re competing with your peers globally. As a freelancer I do 95% of my work remotely. Anyone could get that work.

I was also asked how I got into concept art. I’m probably not the best example as I directed my studies in an awkward, semi-blind kind of way. Just an aspiring artist with the internet; I learnt to paint by painting photos and trying to deconstruct other artists’ work. If I liked someone’s technique I’d try adding it to my own. In retrospect a more efficient path is to study from life, but be aware of what’s going on. Hunt down resources like Scott Robertson’s Gnomon DVDs on matte rendering - they’re awesome for value and lighting knowledge. Gurney’s book on Light and Colour is great for… Light and colour. I could’ve really used that knowledge earlier, and instead tried to backwards engineer how to paint with colour without it becoming muddy. I desperately wanted to avoid muddy colours and the visibly airbrushed aesthetic.

If I were to break down my little reverse-engineered ‘rules’ I’d be explaining a style and not the way light and colour actually work. There’s something nice about well-crafted ‘naive’ art, like a charming comic produced with broken or misunderstood perspective, but if your goal is to work in a studio you’re better off learning the rules before breaking them.

Then being mindful of the things you learn, go and observe them in reality. Paint/draw from life, look at how different colours and lighting conditions affect real objects. If you want to focus on one particular area then minimise the variables. eg. To study light and form get a white plaster cast of a head or facial part, light it with a single source and do an accurate drawing/painting of it. Note where bounce light affects surfaces and how the form turns with the value. There are lots of notes on what to observe which you can probably find by searching for a Cast Drawing process.

Ok… Lots of writing. I’ll leave it at that for now. Feel free to ask any questions if you’d like any particular insight.

“Merring Christmans, Meatbag.”

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:45:00 -0500

“Merring Christmans, Meatbag.”

Another background! Lots of photostitching in this one. Also, in...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:46:00 -0500

Another background! Lots of photostitching in this one.

Also, in related news I’ve just finished the background art contract! Woot! That was ~60 backgrounds in total.

The project also brings me 300+hrs closer to matte painting mastery. Probably still ~9500hrs to go though. ha

There are one or two scenes in the animation based on 3D sets....

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:34:00 -0500

There are one or two scenes in the animation based on 3D sets. This is one of them; the rundown apartment of one of the main characters and her deadbeat boyfriend.

I did this quick pass over it to give the 3D guys some guidance on how to texture and grade it.

Swampy ruins enviro sketch

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:02:00 -0500

Closeup:

Monster concept paintover

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:21:00 -0500

Did a quick paintover last night for an aspiring concept artist friend, Jacob.

Thought others might benefit from this, so I’ll post the paintover first then expand on some critiques.

Note: This is entirely his concept and design, I just did a 10min paintover with some colour adjustment and extra details.

The rendering was pretty solid, and limiting the value range a bit (through curves adjustment then overlay colour) was an quick way to make it less muddy. The original was painted in greyscale and then colourised, which can often be troublesome.

My main points centered around adding more variety to the design.
Variety in colours, textures, materials, purpose etc. Adding more narrative to the image.

The original concept didn’t really distinguish between sections of the monster other than the shape of muscle forms. The ribcage area paintover is a good example of what I meant; changing that to a deep, fleshy, muscular red colour now makes it look like a vulnerable spot on the monster. Possibly a great visual cue if this appeared in a game. It also makes the blue flesh look stronger and more solidified in contrast.

Developing a good concept is about pushing these contrasts. One aspect exaggerates another. I also added some furry patches to add environmental context and textural variety. It looks more like a descendant of some animal/creature now. Maybe its ancestors were a lot more hairy and it’s only left with a few patches after climate shifts. In terms of its back, the furry patch also seems to make more visual sense than muscle strands.

You can also add pattern in areas for more visual interest, I put some spots on the back, and things like subtle veins would push the flesh even further.

All in all, this was just a quick pass to make a few points.

Design Montage artist interview!

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 01:28:16 -0500

Design Montage artist interview!

Mech construction concept art. A little painting from the...

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:14:04 -0500

Mech construction concept art. A little painting from the weekend.

What I imagine Skyrim is like

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:48:00 -0500

I’m a little hesitant to play it. I like to complete games… Instead I made this comic:

Animation background - seedy district.Larger image here

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:31:14 -0500

Animation background - seedy district.

Larger image here

Monsters ate my Wagyu beef. Little illustration with characters...

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:52:00 -0400

Monsters ate my Wagyu beef. Little illustration with characters from Pikpok’s Monsters Ate My Condo.

Animation background - establishing scene for a dodgy...

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:20:18 -0400

Animation background - establishing scene for a dodgy motel.

Lots of photo stitching involved to make this scene. Probably about 15 photos! Crazy, I know. Also required a complete relight as the photos were taken at daytime.

More backgrounds

I like how this background turned out… It’s not...

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:34:19 -0400

I like how this background turned out… It’s not quite finished but I’ll add a high-res link when it’s cleared.