Metroid Illustrations and Sketches

My versions of Samus Aran. Full image below.

 And a few older sketches and illustrations I did of Samus, based on a friend who asked for an original. Goes without saying that she likes her her video games, so I played around with making her the star of the show. The first set were work up sketches for the pen & ink version, the latter were for prints for a charity show we were both a part of. So in effect she's famous now, at least for the half dozen homes where this art is framed on the wall (hopefully).

 

Kolyma Tales Book Cover

 

Mock up for a book cover, full image below. 

Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma Tales was rereleased sometime around the end of last year. New publisher, new book cover. But I liked the old Penguin Books design with the photo of two prisoners working at what looks like a gold mining operation. So, I combined the two designs, used a couple of filters, etc. 

Was kind of bored with just that, so I added an additional layer of art and commentary. Hence the wily prisoner contemplating philosophical about the nature of Gulag, just before he suggests to the viewer that survival comes at any price, to avoid general labor, to get yourself set up with a cushy administrative or storeroom job, to grab whatever scraps of food that you can, and to stay out of the way of both bosses and criminals. You know, like the modern corporate workplace.

Garageband

 

Full image below. And no, not the great graphic novel by Gipi. Just an illustration of a bouncy metal girl, courtesy of Albert Campillo Lastra (@he_perdut_el_llapis over on Instagram), along with her backup band, the Allan Hancock Animation Hellhole Quartet. Yes, that's a capybara on guitar and a tetrapod on a six-string bass. And a yokel on drums. 

 

Blue Collar Acanthostegids

 

Some random character design and digital painting pages. (Yup, plural.) Not much to say other than I really need to figure out why I keep adding tetrapods in average everyday settings in my drawings. 

Random Character Design Sketch Page

 

Not much to say here, just a random sketchpage I did a few months back while listening to comic book industry talk on Youtube. It's probably what got me to drawing the characters doing typical super hero crap in the background. I know it's what definitely got me to add the Google Streetview images: The person talking mentioned his old comic book hunting grounds as a kid, in... I think it was somewhere in Ohio, some little town. I like the storm cloud atmosphere in the pics near whatever freeway, so I thought: Why not have some superhero / UFO shenanigans going on there?

 

I have no idea what I was thinking with the Bond / Get Carter-style character with the gun arm though. The foreshortening is probably correct, but it doesn't totally "feel" correct. Meaning that it isn't jammed in your face Terry-Gilliam-style enough.

Character Design Challenge - 06 - #skyfishking

The last one of the Sky Fish King series. Added the two additional post-script illustrations and reference pages at the bottom that were part of the original Instagram post.

I did a few more #drawthisinyourstyle's after this based on other folks' characters, but as with most things industry or internet it has its limits. Maybe I'll pick it up again at some point, but that well has been drawn enough from for now I think but blah blah blah.

Basically I got bored with it after while, and just... tired of seeing how clique-y folks from the studio system get, even when it's something online that's supposed to be fun involving other folk's art. Am not sure whether to blame them or the corporate culture they're immersed in everyday when they act like that. Maybe it's a generational thing, maybe an occupational hazard when ego meets millstone, but I doubt either one of those is the sole cause for people turning into insects and only recognizing others that occupy the same hive (and not even then).

Character Design Challenge - 05 - #skyfishking

Technically the first version I did of @jakemorrisonart's Sky Fish King series. Added the extra dunkleosteus character (Dunkleosteoid?) on the side, as much to take up negative space as to add a little more character fun and an additional thumbprint of mine. And as always, @meekius' piece was also a factor in how this turned out.

Character Design Challenge - 04

(Full image below.) Another #drawthisinyourstyle using @jakemorrisonart's character design, as well as referencing @meekius' take for inspiration.

This was the first of three versions I did. (I'll post the other two soon.)

The fish's scales were probably the most difficult to codify since there are so many different shape choices going on around the head area. Should have taken a cue from the other two characters and simplified it somewhat. But, that's part of the fun of doing these character design challenges, reinterpreting not only someone else's designs but playing around with whatever you come up with, and not worrying about whether it'll work the first time or fit into some corporate animation production pipeline. Part of the process of designing should involve room to breathe and explore, to have fun, *and then* refine for efficiency's sake. 

Character Design Challenge - 03

Another bit of covert fanart. #drawthisinyourstyle, this time using @porkbellyramen's submission of a moto girl getting her gear on. I wasn't all that happy with the forced perspective in the full piece below, but I think if there's enough abstract in the design with bolder graphic shapes, things that are more literal and fragile in a drawing like perspective or anatomy can be overlooked or forgiven.

Character Design Challenge - 02

Realistically, this was my #4, but whatever. The full sized version below was my second take on @joriouxdraws' #drawthisinyourstyle submission. Most everyone's take was pretty much keeping to Jo's illustration, so I figured on doing a fuller scene with background and a little bit of atmosphere.

Character Design Challenge 01

Pretty sure these were the first attempts at #drawthisinyourstyle over on Instagram. It was a cool character design by Max Ulichney, and was a challenge to try to figure out how to take a design that starts to cross over into that UPA style of flat graphic (especially this guy's hair) and making it more three-dimensional without losing the original intent or feel.

70s and 80s Shopping Mall Americana

Random character designs I did awhile ago. Some of these ended up used for a larger piece (below).

Pulled as many memories as I could from high school movies (sorry folks, too young for this time period) and my older siblings' yearbooks, as well as a documentary on Youtube I ran across about the Oak Park Mall (Kansas) during the early 80's. Tons of feathered hair and thermal jackets:

New Banner Illustration

As well as playing around with a new watermark logo design. Had the same banner since 2015, which is enough time to be hitting the design of these characters differently, hopefully with a bit more attention to shape balance. I don't remember if I used the older drawing as an underlayer or if I sketched these from scratch; I want to say I did the latter.

(An alternate take):

Espionage

Tone study, but also a reminder to myself that a scene needs an environment and atmosphere.

Posted this over at the Instagram account already: Complete revision of an ancient piece back from the CalArts days, 2005 or so. If you look closely you can see the original image in the background. I think I may have even used it for my portfolio submissions that landed me one of my first studio jobs at the time.

(Yes, an actual physical portfolio. 30 to 45 page booklets, with clear insert sleeves, badly printed images courtesy of Kinko's, and a grand total of 30 seconds spent by companies flipping through them - these existed at one point in time, back when Cintiqs were seen as a novelty item in the industry.)

If I remember right, one of the roommates at the time had a high end printer which I used to knock these portfolios out with. Later on I was at the mercy of Kinko's. The first got me into the industry, the latter not so much. Which makes one wonder if it was the quality of the work or the prints that caught their eye first time around, since I was drawing sh*t at the time. But it was sh*t that was high res on 80lb satin matte paper.

But oh well. Предоставь мертвым погребать своих мертвецов.

Another Sketch and Illustration Dump

This place is becoming more the clearing house for anything I do over a several month period. In any case, enjoy these several images my tens of viewers.

Forget Me Not - Art Against Alzheimer's prints

For archive purposes, some pieces from this year's 4th annual Forget Me Not - Art Against Alzheimer's, as well as a few from 2015.

Sketches before the year ends

...Because tumblr's flipping out for some reason over showing images proper. From the past few months going back to Halloween:

Space Harrier comic pages and WIP cont'd

And the Space Harrier saga continues.

Some WIP pages and illustrations:

Beta Euthynus sketches illustrations and WIPs

Because Mr. Chris Palmer has really appealing shorthands for character faces.