Dunesteef cover #1 - Uberman - more things

A few more details added in.

Dunesteef cover #1 - Uberman - stage 1

Haven't updates for ages. For that I apologize to my legion of rabid fans.

So, I recently got in touch with the Powers That Be from the Dunesteef podcast ( which is really cool - and you should totally listen to it ! ) and offered to do them some cover art work, and they said yes !

I'm starting off doing some for past artless-episode, the first one for the 'Uberman' episode. It was a really cool story which had the Nuremberg interview of a Nazi super-soldier, who was being held in some sort of containment device - which was described as looking like a cross between a deep-sea diving suit and an iron maiden. That image really hit me - so I volunteered to do that episode almost right away.

I'm trying a very different style for this piece - more pieces of block colour, which I'll shade slightly later on. This is a very early stage composition :



As I said - it's at an early stage so far - but I'm excited at where it's going so far !

Me and my boys

Me and my son Angelo ( 3 and a 1/2 years old ) and my son Lorenzo ( 5 mths ).

New sketches

These are mostly what I was doing at the Swimming Sports today. Good to use the time constructively !! :

Kinda a Jedi


Scary Ghost


Deathbot


Killer Robot Ape


That must catch me up a little with my 'Thing a Fortnight' backlog !

Coverwork - Drabblecast Art Reclamation Project

Hey there - thanks for stopping by ( possibly again ! ).

Here's what I've been working on lately. It's something for the Drabblecast Art Reclamation Project. They're trying to get a bunch of art for old episodes that didn't have any, so I signed up for an episode. This is for episode #52 I think - 'Eggs'. It came out on the day Angelo was born, so I thought that would be fitting in some way.



It's SUPPOSED to be like an electron microscope picture. It's about as good as it's going to get in that way. Not perfect, which is annoying, but there you go. I had a heck of a time with this one. I had to ask a very talented friend for advice on the texturing process ( which I then promptly ignored when I discovered the 'texturalize' filter option in Photoshop ! ). It's vaguely successful I guess - and it looks alright. I'll try and tart it up a little more - but I don't think I can make it that much better.

More rehearsal sketches - Thing a Fortnight

Some more drawings from production down time :

Power Armour #2

Alien Armour Suit

Knife Grrl

Encounter Suit - Hightlighting and background

Highlighting done ( pretty much ) and a new background added. I like the circuit board pattern ( though I might need to have a different eye colour now ! ).

Encounter Suit - first round of shading / eye highlights

Really liking the new techniques I've learned. I mean, they're nothing amazing - but clipping layers are very useful !

Encounter Suit - first colour application

I've been working on this little drawing for a wee bit now.



I've been learning how to use solid colour layers combined with mask layers to quickly colour a picture. It's a really good technique for a couple of reasons. First - you can tweak the colours REALLY REALLY easily afterwards. Second - it's VERY easy to colour in areas efficiently via the fill tool in the mask layer.

I know it doesn't look like much now - but it'll pick up once shadows and highlights are in.

More as it happens.

Sketches

With this and that ( read - new child and school production ) I've had precious little time to do any drawing. I have been doing some stuff on my 'encounter suit' pic - but that's not ready for publication just yet.

As a bit of a catch up - here are some sketches I did during rehearsals over the last weekend or two when I had a second :

Late for a good reason this time.

You might have noticed there is no new 'Thing a Fortnight'.

This is largely because of the birth of my second son, Lorenzo Alexander Moretto.

He was born on the 24th of March, at 7.51pm.

He is healthy, and a good deal more relaxed than Angelo was at his age ! Which is good.

More soon - but I have started a new blog for Lorenzo ( largely to facilitate picture viewings by grandparents who - for very good reasons - don't want to deal with that 'Facebook nonsense' ). You can check out the little guy here :

Lorenzo : OMG - ALMB !

Thanks for your patience !

SSS Cover - More colour, more reflections, a reg.number

The latest version - quite a few changes. Some feedback for the last version was that there was too much gray, so I colour shifted the robo-cat to a more orange / coppery tone. Also added some darker patches via a new layer and reduced opacity. Mice are now a range of tones too ( that was a bit of a pain to do - had to re-colour a number of layers. Kinda finicky ). There are some more reflections, and the cast shadow of the cat is darker to help ground it ( looked like it was floating a bit before ). There were a couple of other things I did too - but I can't be bothered talking about them here !
This may well be the last one - we'll see what the art-director for SSS says. :-)

Thing a Fortnight #4 - Flying Robot

Just a quick one this time to keep up with the quota ! Quickly did this tonight while watching an episode of Fringe. I think I'll have to do more giant robots.

Thing a Fortnight #3 - Frost Wyrm

Fairly late ( I think that'll be a theme with this ) but here it is - a sort of dragony thing. The name 'frost wyrm' jumped to mind when I was drawing it.

Thing a fortnight - teaser post !

I have yet to scan the official thing-a-fortnight ( it's coming ! ) - so here are some things to keep you going !

I loved loved LOVED my magna doodle thing when I was a kid ( until some idiot acquaintance of my folks split beer on it at a Christmas party - which ruined it ).

I was having a play with one on the weekend - here are a few ones I did :


Robot with guns !


Spider with bugging out eyes !

Stripy thing !

Damn I love magna doodle !

Some actual writing !

So - I tried to to write a drabble today. The first draft came in at around 500 words instead of the required 100. Still - for the first thing I've written for ages, not too bad an effort. It needs redrafting - but here it is, just to prove I did it !

Scrape

I know what you’re thinking.

I’m not insane.

She’d asked me to scrape off the old wall-paper to help the renovations. It was a old house, and it needed some attention. Insulation. Double-glazing. Keep out the cold – keep the little guy from getting sick.

Sure, I’d said. I like the simple hands-on monotony – kinda zen-like.

It was slow work – taking me well into the late night. It was downstairs though – I didn’t disturb her, or the toddler, with the gentle splash of sponge into bucket or the grind of the scraper in my rubber-gloved hand.

The first thing I noticed were the numbers. Penciled into the drywall, hidden under the layers of garish wall paper. But there’s nothing usual about that. Measurements. Tallies of construction material perhaps. How long to cut the wallpaper. How wide the next piece of dry-wall needs to be. Practical.

Normal.

But then the other things crept in, revealed piecemeal as the sodden paper sloughed away.

The symbols.

Circles. Triangles. Spidery stars – slanted hexagons – spirals.

Interlocking and eldritch.

But they were only shapes, right ? In pencil. I mean – that’s normal. Right ?

Perhaps a child. All those years ago – when the house was new. A son or daughter. Whiling away the long stretches of tedium, while dad is busy papering. And dad doesn’t mind – it’s all going to be hidden soon anyway. Hidden away. Under the paper.

That’s normal.

So I didn’t pay it any particular mind.

I carried on. Heaven help me, I carried on. Spash and scape.

Splash.

Scrape.

By the time I noticed that the symbols had given way to language, to words, spiked with harsh consonants and coughing vowels, I guess it was too late.

I had read them. And then I couldn’t stop reading them.

And then I was saying them. Echoing the words with lips and tongue, the words rolling in my mind like a broken body down a cliff face – all snap and hiss and whispered, mangled scream.

And though I tried, heaven help me – I tried, I couldn’t stop saying them.
And when I finally did stop, stopped those terrible words – that abominable alien litany, and opened my stinging eyes – I could see them.

The things behind the walls.

Not the walls of the house, you understand. The walls of this world. This universe. This dimension. This reality.

All hooks, claws. Faceted eyes. Snapping maws. Sniewy quivering limbs and tongues.

Writhing.

Scraping against the walls. Trying to get in.

And in those last patches of uncleared wall, hidden only beneath a few breaths of glue and paper – traced in unearthly curving lines of pencil – I knew there was a door.

Did I start the fire ? You already know.

It had to be done.

I wasn’t thinking straight. I was so desperate, so out of my mind with terror. It wasn’t till the house was well ablaze that I remembered.

I tried to go in.

Look at me. Can’t you see the skin crafts I’ve suffered through ? I tried.

I’m sorry. I wish I’d gotten them out first. I wasn’t thinking straight.

I’m so sorry.

I know I deserve to be in here for that. I have to pay. There’s no need for the padding on the walls though.

I’m not insane.

And it doesn’t hide them. Heaven help me – I wish it did. I can still see them. Pressed against the walls.

Writhing. Undulating. Scraping against the barrier between us and them.

Trying to get in.

Bonus sketch : Ape vs Robot

A wee bonus sketch for you ! I found this in a clip board - I think I started it during a sports / cultural exchange with the sister school of the one I work at. Those things can be pretty tedious. I also fleshed it out more at the dance auditions for the school production last year.



Inspiration ? I saw someone else doing a 'monkey vs robot' drawing and thought I could do one too.

Thing a Fortnight #2 - Weresquid

Second 'Thing a Fortnight' and I'm on time this time !

I posted a plea for help on the FB, because I couldn't thing of anything to draw - and one of my pals said something like 'Weresquid - circa 1910'. I don't think I got the '1910' bit - but the rest isn't too bad.



I tried to post this yesterday - but whenever I tried to add the pic, I kept getting an 'internal error' message. Finally I looked at the image - it was immensly huge ! The canvas size was something like 8000 cm !! WTH ??

SSS Cover - Generally darker / mice shadow

Had to knock out another draft. The other one was just too annoying. Like a torn-nail for my brain.



This one is better I think. Now that it's darker the lens flare looks better.

The mice are still bothering me. I think when I fix them this mess will be done. Yay !

SSS Cover - Thicker lines / lens flare / darker walls

Getting near the end now. I'm a little annoyed with it at the moment.



It took ages to go over the mice again - but the other ones weren't well scaled. I like the lens flare effect of the eyes. I'm not thrilled with how it looks with titles though...



Seems a bit too 'busy' now. Hmmm.

Might have to try and fix that...

Thing a Fortnight #1 - Only three days late !

A new year's resolution of sorts for me this year is to publish a sketch or drawing here every couple of weeks. Y'know - just to keep me motivated to actually draw something !

Here is number one - some kind of robot thing.

SSS Cover - Some highlights. Lighter walls.

Some highlighting on the cat ( which I'm not totally thrilled with - I might have to do it again ), and a different lighter colour in the background.

It's a bit better.

SSS Cover - More shading and sci-fi eyes

Another few steps. Shading on the robo-cat and mice and wires.
Glowing eyes for robo-cat.
Slowly shaping up !

Cool thing from last year - SSS Cover #1 !

Happy new year to you, faceless internet wanderer ! I hope this planetary revolution brings to you many victories against the vicious squid-men of the Atlantic trench.

I bear you this gift in accordance with ancient custom - the cover art I made for the Hugo award winning pod-cast Star-Ship Sofa !



And here's a quick mock-up I did to see how it would look with titles. The titles on the actual publication were a bit different.



I was pretty happy with how it turned out - and it was neat to see it used and published. A highlight of 2010 !

SSS Cover - More colour, reflection and some shading

More progress.



I like the reflection - though the robo-cat's shadow on the floor isn't as good as I'd like.

I'm going to have to do something with the background though. Darken it up so the cat pops a bit more. It's merging into the background a bit too much right now.

Hmmm.

SSS Cover - first base colour application

Only a DAY later ! Can you even believe it ??

Cover update. First colour application !



It's looking better already !

New post - new project

Well. Over a year since the last post.

All I can say is - oops.

I'm going to try to do better in 2011 ! I'm going to be using this place to post pictures of my drawings for the next year. It's all going towards a new resolution I've got coming.

Here's the first. This is the current outline drawing of my new cover project for Star Ship Sofa. I did one last year - I'll post a pic of the last one soon !



It doesn't look like much at the moment - though they usually get better when colour is added !

New post soon. In under a year this time. I promise.

Bad Family cover - final draft 1 !

So here's the big drawing thing I've been working on for AGES ! The cover art for my pal Steve's RPG game 'Bad Family'.



This is the first 'final' draft. Steve's a bit unsure about the fridge magnet title ( I think it looks pretty groovy - but there you go ). I still need to add a tag-line for the game at the bottom. I've got an idea - but I'll run it by Steve first.

Here are all the other bits and pieces that made up the cover. The fridge drawing thing I didn't do - I stole it from somewhere on line and adapted slightly. The business cards are modified web-images ( though the phone is pretty heavily modified - and I'm pretty pleased with how that turned out ). The receipt is all my own work though ( with a tiny bit of help via a LED font dowloaded from 'DaFont' ).

What would Aristotle say ?

So, I'm down at the toy library with Viva, helping her get the toys back into the storage area, and I pick up this girls bike.

It's VERY much a girl bike. It was a vivid, almost violent, pink colour. There were spangly bits. There were star designs on it. There was a rainbow or two. I even think there was a unicorn.

Then I notice the name of the bike.

"Apollo".

What ?

The ultimate girly bike is named after one of the most quintessentially MALE gods ever ? God of the sun and medicine ?? Does that make any sense ? Shouldn't it have been called the Artemis, or the Diana ?

Or am I being too cerebral here ?

Things I Made #4 - Year 12 Play set

Yeah yeah - I know. I've been busy. It's the standard answer I know - but here's evidence of something that's been taking up my time.

It's the set for the Y12 play I've been directing - "A Place in the Present". It takes place in a train station waiting room.



The tricky things were getting the stencil style writing done ( found a font on 'DaFont' - penciled it on, painted over ). It didn't totally look like I wanted it to - but it was okay enough I guess. Getting the door on was a pain. We tried to fit it into a flat, but that was a disaster, so I just bolted it into the sides of two flats in the end. It worked fine.

The graffiti tagging was mostly done by me. I took some shots of some real tags at the local train station and then copied them. That's probably breaking some code of 'the street' - but screw 'em ! You show me a copyright for your optically offensive vandalism and I'll give a monkeys.

So, all in all I was pretty happy with the set. The production wasn't half bad either !