Uberman - Some progress !

I'm back ! Did you miss me ?

With Christmas over - and the main story in Arkham City finished - I've been able to get back into some art. I would have liked to have this one done before the close of 2011, but that's not happening !

Here's some more detail on the dials, and the face of Uberman present. He's supposed to be wearing a monocle - but that could be on the side in shadow. I couldn't make it work visibility.



I figure this is almost done now. I have to resize, and get a background in.

Indoor Kids contest - Aftermath

On Tuesday a picture of my entry was posted on the Indoor Kids Face-book stream.

I was a winner.

Not THE winner mind you. I didn't get the Xbox - but, to be fair, I didn't think I would. Nor did I win a copy of 'Gears of War 3' - which isn't so bad, seeing as I don't have a Xbox on which to play it.

But I did win a book on the art and design of Gears of War 3 - which is what I had hoped I would win.

I was pretty damn happy.

Almost better than the prize was the short e-mail I got from the Indoor Kids hosts - saying that they loved that I had made them into a retro-gamebox, and the facebook person who said in a comment that my pic was his favourite.

So, that was a success !

I've been pretty busy with family stuff ( Lorenzo, for example, has been up for the last hour, and my attempts to get him back to bed haven't worked terribly well ), and Christmas is fast approaching - but I do plan on getting right back into the art, and finish of f the first of those cover pieces for The Dunesteef.

Oh great - Lorenzo is laughing maniacally now. That can't be a good sign...

Back soon.

Indoor kids contest - finished

It's done. I'm pretty pleased with it. There are things here and there I would like to have done better, but on the whole it's pretty good. As usual, I learnt some things about photoshop along the way, so that's always good !

Now I can get back to the podcast covers I'm supposed to be doing !

Indoor kids contest - 1 day to go

Almost done now. I'm REALLY liking the elf's magic sword. The glow is really easy to do in photoshop.

Still have to :
- Add shade to the rogue's arms.
- Shade / highlight the chest.
- Get a background for the demon room.
- Add glowing magic power fireball thingies to the demon's hands.
- Add a spider to the wall.
- Maybe tweek the masonry colour.
- Add the 'cartridge' backing ( I want the whole think to look like an old atari cartridge box ).

It's going to be close !

Indoor kids contest - 2 days to go

It's really picking up pace now ! I'm getting to the fun stage where I can add lots of colour, shadow and highlights.

I've also learnt how incredibly useful it is to have layers organized in folders and sub-folders so I can freaking FIND what I'm after. For example in the folder 'Elf Warrior', there's a folder for each bit of the body that's coloured - 'breast-plate', 'Sword', 'skin', 'hair', 'leggings' etc. These contain the base colour, highlight and shadow(s) layers. When the folders are collapsed, it's WAY easier to navigate the layers to quickly get to the bits I need to work with.

Having photoshop CRASH and make me re-do the colouring for the shoulder armor and the armored kilt / skirt wasn't fun though. Gotta save more regularly.

Indoor kids entry - more colour

Here's the latest version - it's starting to take shape now.
I'm not entirely sold on the purple stone - but it's better than the yellow !

Indoor kids entry - stone, chest, demon and colour

Here's the progress with 4 days to go :



I'm not thrilled with the colour at this point - I'll mess around with it via the 'hue / saturation' tool. Perhaps a cooler shade ? Blue maybe ?

The stone and wood textures were done by me as well - not ripped off real photos. There are all sorts of arcane secrets in Photoshop. Things involving channels and such. I don't even know what a channel IS precisely - seems to be something to do with colour, but apart form that I have no idea.

I really should find out some time.

Indoor kids contest - 5 days to go

With Viva and the boys away for the day - I was able to get a good amount of drawing done today. Here's the stage of play so far :



The basic outline of the elf-warrior is done, the rogue is almost done - I think I just have to do a more refined face. The masonry needs distressing, and the chest and demon need to be added. I'm not sure if I'm going to have the open door anymore - I was always a bit iffy on it.

Then I can get to the fun colouring stage !

Indoor kids - my replacement

I'm not great at drawing female figures either. This is a decent start though for my replacement body, based on my pose / proportions :



It's already imported into the main image - and I've started re-sketching / vectoring it. The sword is done, breast-plate, and I'm working on the face.