Torch Knight: Sovel Knight Fan Art

I recently found out about a really cool project on Kickstarter called Shovel Knight. It's an in-progress 8-bit video game highly influenced by the original MegaMan series, taking place in a medieval setting with a light and humorous tone. I checked out the trailer and the artwork for the game on the Kickstarter page and I immediately got excited by the project and backed it.

I also noticed that they were holding a fan art contest in which the winner would receive some cool swag. I decided that I wanted to do a little something for the contest and so I worked up my own original character I named Torch Knight. Unfortunately I found out about the Kickstarter in it's final week of funding so I didn't get to do a lot for this piece, but ultimately I'm happy with the end product.

Torch Knight, of House Burns

The response and number of entries was so great they decided to award multiple prizes to multiple entries for several different categories. I sadly was not awarded any prizes, but I did receive a Special Mention in the Original Concept category, which I'm pretty happy about. The creators were very kind in the fact that they uploaded everyone's entries to a Flickr album and left very nice comments for every single entry. I really appreciate them showing their gratitude this way and I enjoyed reading the comment they left me...

The funding has since come to an end and they managed to reach every single one of their funding goals, and stretch goals, so not only will the game be made, but there will be a lot of cool things that come with it. One of the things being made is an art book for the game highlighting official artwork and concept sketches by the creators, and every single entry submitted to the fan art contest will be printed as well, so that's really cool to be a part of.

If you're interested in learning more about the game and if you still want to donate but missed out, check out their Kickstarter page for more info. Shovel Knight looks like it's going to be an awesome game and has already built quite a fan base before the game is even finished. It will be very exciting to see the project get finished and get to play it for myself. There is even a chance that any original characters created in the fan art contest could be implemented in the game! We'll have to stay tuned for that though. Fingers crossed for Torch Knight!

Thanks for stopping by.

P.S. Check out all the awesome entries for the fan art contest HERE. There was a lot of really great stuff submitted. It was a lot of fun taking part.

My Zombie Playground concept: Crossing Guard

For anyone who doesn't know, Massive Black is working on a video game called Zombie Playground and it's based on an illustration done by my favorite Illustrator Jason Chan. I'm extremely excited for this game to come out and I wanted to create my own zombie for the game for fun.

After brainstorming some possible character ideas, I thought it would be cool to come up with a crossing guard zombie who used her trademark stop-sign as her weapon. Not only that, but when she needs backup she's got her whistle to summon the help of other nearby zombies. In order to beat her in battle you would have to figure out a way to snatch the whistle off of her so you can take her down one-on-one.

I had a lot of fun designing her and I'm going to try and come up with some other ideas for possible zombies, characters, and weapons. I haven't designed any weaponry in a long time so I'm most interested in tackling that next. Anyways, I hope you like the design and make sure to check out all of the official stuff for the game on the official Zombie Playground website. It's gonna be freakin' awesome.

Art Order Submission: Nymph Challenge

 

The Art Order challenges are back and I'm ready to bring everything I've got! In past Art Order challenges I usually start off with a lot of steam, then midway through my piece I look at the other submissions in progress and get a bit intimidated and then I slow down a bit. If I notice someone doing something similar to what I'm doing I feel like I have to scrap what I have so I don't come off as copying. For this challenge I decided to hold off looking at the other entries until I was completely finished with my own, and I'm really glad I did so. I think I was able to come up with an original concept that I'm really proud of. Below are some progress shots and the full and final image..

Original concept sketch and color study

Above is the original rough sketch I came up with for my nymph. I decided to take my time considering what I wanted to do with my nymph so to avoid just jumping into something for the sake of starting. I wanted to be happy with my idea before I started drawing. I decided to go with a fungus theme as I wanted to have a big hulking fungus creature to accompany her in my illustration. I wound up getting pretty busy and also hit a rut with my concept that kept me from completing a full illustration. I got as far as a full finished drawing for the illustration, but I wasn't happy with it so I scraped it. More on that later though.

More color options and figuring out portrait

During my rut I decided to try and focus on the portrait a little bit  more so I could get into the piece again. I played around with some color ideas but decided to stick to the original colors.

Progress shots: preliminary drawing to final product

Above is an overview of the painting process where you can see how the concept changed a bit from the original sketch. I started out painting underneath my drawing in order to keep it intact for a while, painting over areas here and there to slowly get rid of the line-work. Unsure about what to do with the lips I started out painting them purple to go with her eyeshadow, but it wasn't looking too cute so I scraped it. The most drastic change for the character over the course of the painting would have to be the tone. I also originally intended on keeping the colors muted and dead looking along with giving her eyes with no pupils, just plain white. I wanted to make it feel like the fungus was taking over her body and almost possessing her. But it wasn't working for me and it wound up slowing me down. Once I decided to brighten the colors, adjust her pose and expression a bit and then add in some pupils, I really started enjoying the painting process a lot more.

After a month of hard work I finally have a finished Nymph piece that I'm proud to be submitting to Art Order. I spent a lot of time researching for this piece and gathering reference, and I really think it paid off. I may not have been able to complete a full illustration like I had originally hoped, but I have a character I'm extremely proud of and there's nothing stopping me from completing a full illustration, and I'm actually really looking forward to doing so.

Thanks to all the people who took the time to give me feedback on this piece and to everyone who showed support. I look forward to seeing the final Art Oder Nymph Challenge lineup!

From the Sketchbook #4

It feels like it's been a while since I've drawn anything on paper. I didn't know what to work on so I decided to dig up an old piece I did of this same character of mine and give it a make-over.

I'm going to fully paint this guy and I hope to post him up sometime in the near-future. Along with it I'm going to show the past image I was referencing from to show the difference, and I'm even going to show the very first time I drew the character, about 4 years ago. It should be a fun post so keep an eye out for it. Until next time!

Concept Art for Independent Film

Just completed a few concept pieces for the guys over at REC Films. They're working on a short film that I can't reveal too much about. However I can show you the following images that I was asked to complete:

Main character

Card scanner prop

Interior setting.

The most I can say about the project at this time is that it follows the character shown above as he deals with some personal conflicts in his life and it takes place in a sci-fi-ish setting. I'll make sure to post again when the film has been released.

Art Order: Ultimate Fighter Challenge

The lineup for the Ultimate Fighter Challenge was just posted on Art Order. My entry is below. I feel really good about this piece. I think I really raised the bar on my character designing, pose and rendering. This was a really exciting piece for me to work on and it was a very rewarding finish.

Wizard design

Here's a character design I finished up with recently.

Update: My Always Sunny in Philadelphia piece is near completion and should be up on the blog within the next week or two. I'm excited to finally reveal the finish!

Artslam 2010: Month 1 Highlights

Here is some of the work I've done for the first month of Artslam 2010. My goal for the month was to develop my character "Somnipathy". I wanted to design several forms for her as if she were to be the final boss in a video game. If you want to see more of my work for her or learn more about my overall concept click on these words.



Just a few more days left to month one. I'll have a new goal that I'll announce after I state it on Artslam.

3 Little Pigs redesigns

I redesigned the 3 little pigs from the classic fairytale. In my version they all have weapons based on the materials of their houses.

Insect Monster Designs / Environment Sketch

Final pieces for my 2 insect designs



Here's an environment I came up with out of my head