I see dark people!

After viewing this painting on the monitors at the school i decided to make some brightness/contrast adjustments. When i viewed the below image at school i could not differentiate between his boot and the shadow below his boot. It just looked dark! I checked the monitors at school and almost every one i cold find had a brightness/contrast setting of around 50-60%. So i went home and checked mine. It was around 75% for each so i adjusted it to 50% for both brightness and contrast. (The factory default was 100% brightness 75% contrast so i actually turned it down from when i first turned it on)

I could still make out a pretty decent definition of color between the boot and the shadow of the boot so i sat back in my computer chair to contemplate. Just then i noticed the screen get darker. So, if i sit back in my chair, tilt my computer screen back a good inch and a half from verticle and have my brightness at 50/50 then i can achieve what it looked like on the screens at the school. Now, after discovering this i did come to the realization that i was viewing a wacom cintiq screen that sits back at a pretty steep angle.

Still though, my obsessiveness kicked in and i decided that there may someone still who can't see all the things i want them to see so i made adjustments to the file as well. I'd love to hear your input and i'd also like to know what your monitors are set at.

Spearman of DOOM!!

Woot!! I just finished this spearman for the game. I went to go see the new Indiana Jones movie and i think that's what inspired the dramatic lighting. It was difficult pulling off having the character back lit yet still be able to see details. Also, in all my years i have never used the lens flare. (ok i did use it in the Etherealm logo)I have always been told that it is a cheap trick. I used it here because i think it fits. Let me know your thoughts.I just sent it in to the boss so we'll see what he says.
In other news, i think all my neighbors are going crazy. Yesterday i saw my next door neighbor cutting his lawn with scissors and now as i look out the window i see a lady and her grandson doing the same thing across the street! WTF? Are gas prices THAT bad?

Speed painting with texture brushes!

Hey this is so neat! I saw this icon on my deviant art account and got inspired.
So i opened up photoshop and grabbed my dirt brush and started laying in a shape. An hour later i had this!! I love photoshop!

Wizard

Just finished up this Wizard for Nayantara Studios. My first attempt at painting any sort of magic. Again i could spend a lot of time working in the details but these need to remain quick. I spent about 6.5 hours on this one.
Enjoy!

Business Cards and ComiCon

Getting things ready for ComiCon! The tickets for both the plane and the convention have been purchased. I'm working on a give away portfolio which will be in comic book form. I'm working on the cover now. I also intend to send out an order for business cards within the week. This is the current design. The phone number is blurry on purpose. it won't be like that on the print. I'm not sure that everyone will approve of the nudity but I'd love to hear your input.

Also, i added a hit counter to the blog. I'm curious to see if i'm just posting this for myself or not, lol.

Concept Designs

I thought it might be interesting to show these concept sketches for a rather large character in the game. This giant is powered by steam, coal, and the magic of wizards!! It doesn't get much funner than that! I had so many ideas but i ended up going with a more humanoid design.Two of them were chosen which i will combine together into one finished painting. Can you guess which ones?

It's me!!

This is me!! I painted this in about 7hrs all together using Painter X oil brushes. I really do like that program but photoshop has some definite advantages when it comes to texturing and adjustments i think.

Another ones bites the dust!

I just finished up another painting for Nayantara Studios. I've been having a blast doing these. This one took about six and a half hours. Probably would have finished sooner if not for all the hair, haha.













I decided that i needed to fix some things on the scout. I mainly redid her left hand. The previous version was "a bit ogreish" to quote a friend. lol
Anyway i fixed that and adjusted the contrast to help her pop a bit more.

Leo Returns!

After a two year hiatus Leo has returned to Etherealm Creations! Leo has been vital in the past to keeping spirits high during production of projects. Within the first five days of being here he has already changed the infrastructure of the office. So good to have you back Leonidas!

Geez this week is flying by. There's a lot going on. I have an eight to ten page paper due next Tuesday on "Getting a job as a professional artist". I have about half of that right now in rough draft. I won an old Punisher comic titled, "The Punisher invades the Nam" while i was in English class.


For Nayantara Studios I've made over half a dozen sketches for a colossal character. This one here was the first one. I really like it as a whole but it's not right for what the game needs. The robot creature is too futuristic and nowhere near big enough.









I rendered a character with a spear who looks an awfully lot like my friends boyfriend, Jon. I started laying in the flat colors for the outrider. I hope to finish the outrider tomorrow as well as get a good start on a female wizard.












I did this light study Wednesday morning in about 30 min.

So as i may have mentioned i started working for Nayantara Studios doing in game illustrations. What an awesome job! I get to paint fantasy characters all day! I just have to remember to do my schoolwork, lol. Here are some of the illustrations i have done for them. They are posted about actual in game size.

This first one took about 8 hrs. I started painting it in Painter X with liquid inks then moved to CS3. I made a chain mail brush which was used on his mid section and under his chest armor. This painting set the tonal values for the armor of all the other characters in this group.



This next one was done while i had a stomach virus and i really don't like it too much. I've had to go back and fix a few things. I could fix a lot more to the extent of redoing most of the painting but deadlines must be met and my boss seems happy with it so I've chosen to move on. I like how his face and beard came out tho.



God look how terrible the legs were rendered on this guy. Ugh!





This one was completed in about 7 hrs. I like the composition and colors. Once again i used a chain mail brush. This one was slightly altered and i tried a different approach. There are still a few things i would like to clean up on this one as well but I'm trying to focus on getting quicker. I know i can do the detail. What I'm trying to learn how to do is insinuate detail without actually spending a lot of time rendering.

So i hope you enjoy these and i'll post more soon.
Oh, by the way, since i've been doing these i really haven't had time to work on the succubus from the earlier post. I'll get back to her someday.