First of many...

OK so this is more than likely the first of many apology posts in which I say sorry to the minimal people who read this. My updates have become fairly scarce recently and I know at least for this week it's not going to get any better as Im pretty busy.

Currently on a good turn as a storyboarding project Im working on is starting to look pretty cool as we progress further with it. Hopefully some more news later this week and also hope to get back to some design updates in the future.

I think a major discussion on a film again soon word be worth while as well as the end of year Top 5 Films of 2011 voted by... me.

So sorry again and speak soon I hope...

A few doodles

Hello all.
Quick update featuring these little black and white white sketches using various brushes to quickly create a design composition. Each took about 20mins and Im gonna do these as warm ups each day and store them away for a rainy day :)

They remind me of black ink on scratchboard sketches that I used to look at by Vincent Di Fate. Love his work as far as analogue artists go. If you get the chance, read his book as he also talks about his passion for film in particular the monster B-movies of the 50s and 60s.

Anyway catch up soon,

Hanging Sci-fi scene part 1

The notion of a hanging city has become more apparent to me within the concept art world over the last 5-10 years. Visually intriguing to say the least and Im sure one day, will appear as a key location in a film (if it hasn't already). Although Im sure it wasn't first seen here, I'd have to say the first time I became aware of the idea was of course the concept art knocked out for the Star Wars prequels.

Here's a brief backstory to the art:
Typically entitled 'BridgeWorld' many artists early on in the production were given a short brief; the clone wars will be seen in a handfull of planets that are new to the viewer. While the artists were given certain free reign over the subject, there were also key issues with each design. As these locations were brand new and were to be on screen for literally a matter of seconds the difficulty came with giving each location a specific design style/language that would be obvious to the viewer that they were seeing several different places. Among them were a giant plant-life planet, a crystal world and of course an upside down environment.

Enter Bridgeworld aka Cato Neimoidia.

So back on track, the other day I began to work on an environment design. My intention initially started with creating a large arching set of livable buildings that looked more like extreme bridges. I wanted a dusty washed out look and so started searching for dust cloud pictures as reference. As I messed about with them I inadvertantly flipped a picture vertically and low and behold saw the potential to create my own upside down world.

So with these next few posts I'll hopefully continue to show my thought process and work flow as I go through the design. What I have here to show you is the initial 45mins-hour of arranging things to a place where I feel a composition and story could be told. So here is my first step to my bridgeworld; my upside down planet; my Cloud City if you will. This is Hanging Sci-Fi Scene part 1...

Painter pro? Not so mucho...

Short one again. I've been taking the time (finally) to attempt to make more use of Coral Painter. Tutorials from Ryan Church are brilliant help. Very basic sketch that needs major work. I hate looking at work like this even though I'm new to the program I expect better lol Anyway here it is below. Maybe a movie post next time...

Is it a bird? is it a plane? umm yeah it's a plane...

Posting a fresh concept painting right after its been done. If it had been painted traditionally it would still be wet! (but it's not so don't worry).

This week after a run of inspired videos from Coral Painter Pro, Ryan Church I had the bug to paint something in the air with some of the skills I had picked up from his tutorials. While his lessons didn't necessarily bring anything revolutionary to the table, it certainly refreshed my knowledge and approach at times. As a major Feng Zhu fan, I'll admit my biased ways of following his work purely on it's own is a very narrow minded view to see the industry but Ryan Church's tutorials have genuinely opened me up to a broad acceptance of concept design. I'm probably digging myself in right now but I have and always will enjoy concept art in general but was always taken by Feng Zhu's design style. Now I am looking to follow a collection of other designers more so...

Anyway enough gasing. Check out the new design which is the last image on my personal work page here.

Car rear

So here is my first proper 'design' post. Been admiring the renderings of Harald Belker and Daniel Simon of late. Feel I needed to work on my general vehicle drawings. Below is the sketch I knocked out today. OK for a starter but I plan to improve vastily on the next one (hence why I'll show it on here and not on my actual portfolio). A good render can't save a poor design and to be brutal, the sketch wasn't as polished as I could have done. The next one I'll work hard to improve!

SiteShoutOut

Very quick post. Recently came across DesignerMart which gives various tutorials on photoshop rendering of vehicles. Nice little site for students and semi-professionals who might like to refresh their knowledge/methods of car design.

That is all