Orlon Cray

This was a commission I recently completed. I had a lot of freedom in this one - I was asked to paint a pail villain wielding a sword with a kilod on his ear; The rest was up to my imagination. I also took the time to focus a lot more on the environment, which I feel has been lacking with my recent paintings. I spent quite some time on it, but the effort was well worth it.

Tattoo

This is a book cover illustration I illustrated for a novel titled 'Fiends'. The painting depicts one of the novel's villains named 'Tattoo', a twisted psychopath who excises tattoos from his victims. I wanted this image to be very dark, borderline disturbing even, so I made sure I spent quite some time conveying this theme. Lots of time was spent spent on the details, specifically for the skin, which was a lot of fun to paint.

Speedpaints - Bouguereau studies

I recently found some time to complete a couple of Bouguereau studies, and learned a great deal as always, especially in regards to how to handle colors and skin tones.

Angel

Portrait of an Angel. Had a lot of fun with this painting, and was going for a much softer look than my usual work, which I feel worked well for an image like this. I'm very happy with the colors as well, turned out pretty much exactly how I wanted in that regard.

Skin Tone Practice

This painting was completed in a couple of hours, and was mostly done to practice painting skin tones. I decided to use colors than I normally shy away from with this one, and learned a lot about how colors work in the process. I'll definitely be doing more exercises like this, as they're very beneficial for me - both for skin tones as well as how to handle faces/portraits in general.

Aqua

Wanted to paint another underwater scene with this one, as it's always a lot of fun. I referenced the figure from my friend Diego's gallery (http://www.flickr.com/photos/diegofraustro), who's an amazing photographer. Learned a lot about how colors and skin tones work with this piece as well.

Dusk: Emo/Goth Vampire

Another illustration completed for 'Dusk'. I spent a lot of time on the background here, which was difficult because the deadline was very tight, but it was a fun challenge. The skin tone was very challenging as well, and I ended up repainting some of the tones several times until I got it right - Vampire skin is a lot more difficult to paint than one might think. I also created a ton of brushes for the foliage here which sped up the painting process severely.

Speedpaints and Studies.

Been keeping up with my studies, although it's a bit difficult to manage both studying and handling commercial work at the same time, but I can't really complain. It's a welcome challenge :) Here are some speedpaints, some were done in 30 minutes, others up to 1 hour. First two are from photo reference, last one is from imagination. I seem to be progressing a lot by doing these speed paintings, so I'll definitely try to get at least one done each day.

Speedpaints - Face Studies

I've been drawing and painting faces all month, doing intense anatomy studies from Loomis to Hogarth. Here are some speedpaints: Approximately 1-2 hour each image. First 2 are done from imagination, last one are photo studies.

(Megan Foxx, Ledger/Joker, Marylin Manroe, and Angelina Jolie)

The Awakening

I had the concept of painting a statue coming to life for a while now, although I haven't had the opportunity to paint it until recently. The painting turned out pretty much exactly as how I envisioned it from the get go, which I find is happening more often as I progress with my paintings... it's a welcome change, so I'm not complaining! This was painted around 3 or 4 evenings.

Fotia

I haven't painted a personal pieces in what seemed like ages, and I haven't found the opportunity to do so until recently. This piece was very challenging and fun - I wanted this image to be very lively and saturated, so I chose very warm tones primarlily, complemented by much cooler colors to help the figure pop. This concept of this image was very much inspired by Boris Vallejo, whose works I'm always studying. A 'Making Of' feature will be posted soon as well.

Speedpaint: Statue Study

Yep, another one. Learning a lot on how the face works with these studies so I'll probably do a few more. I captured the progress as well, video will be up later today. Approximately 1 hour of work.

Prints of My Work Finally Available!

For only $20.00 each, you can purchase a poster print of one of my pieces in high quality format. Please follow this link if you would like to make a purchase and support me. Any purhase is always greatly appreciated :)

Speedpaint: Athena Bust

Photo study of an Athena statue bust, approximately 1 hour. I also recorded the process in full screen, will upload it shortly as well.

The Clockwork Man 2 Available For Pre-Order!

I'm proud to announce that The Clockwork Man 2 is available for Pre-Order!

After 14 months in the making, The Clockwork Man 2 is around the corner, soon to be released for both the PC and Mac in what we feel is the best edition ever to appear in the Casual Games scene! We call it the “Ultimate Edition”


Check out The Clockwork Man 2 Official Website for more information and/or to place an order!

Speedpaint: Socrates Bust

Photo study of a Socrates statue bust. Roughly 1 hour.

Yearning For Carnage

Portrait of a friend; I painted him as a Vampire to show his natural roots (I kid, I kid). This image was fairly challenging, especially in regards to the color scheme. I ended up altering the color scheme several times, but I think it all worked out for the best. I painted this image with an earlier version of Photoshop, but refined it later with the new version CS5 which is a blast to work with. This image will also be featured in the upcoming Facebook video game Dusk.

Speedpaint: Antique Portrait

This is an unused image for a project I'm currently working on and was based on a stock photo I found on deviantart. Spent around 3-4 hours on it, and was going for a very antique/old fashioned look. Very happy with how this one turned out and learned a great deal in regards to skin tones as well. The client was looking for something a bit different and more modern, so I scrapped this for something else (which I'll be able to show soon as well); I might finish this one sometime in the future whenever I get the chance.

Speedpaint: Character Concept

Playing around with Photoshop CS5... Really good program, much better for painting than the previous versions IMO. This one took me roughly around an hour to complete. Learned a lot about colors and skin tones as well.

African American Vampire Woman

Painted for 'Dusk'. Lots of fun with this one, especially in regards to the skin tones. The version that will appear in the game will be slightly more clothed, gotta keep it PG!

Official Website: Dusk

The Enchantress

This painting is the book cover for A.P. Stephens' 'The White Shadow Saga: Shameless Wonders'. This is easily my most detailed work to date. The background and foreground took a lot of work to bring to life; Creating the chaos and destruction in the background specifically was very fun, and very challenging as well. To order a copy of the book or if you're interested to see how this painting was created, you can check out the official website here.

Below are some close ups as well:

Dusk: A Vampire's Tale - Modern Vampire

Painting of a modern vampire. This image probably took the longest out of the whole bunch I did, as I wanted this image to look as realistic as possible. The grass in the foreground was a lot of fun to paint, and I created several custom brushes to help speed up the process as well. More info on the game available at http://www.dusk-game.com

Dusk: A Vampire's Tale - Latina Vampire

I completed this image a couple of months ago for the video game 'Dusk', and I recently had the chance to work on it more to give it a further refined finish. I'm quite happy with how this one turned out overall, it's definitely one of my strongest works for this project. Official website of the game can be viewed at: http://www.dusk-game.com as well.

Bouguereau Study

Speedpaint/study of Bouguereau's 'Seated Nude'. Approximately 1 hour 40 minutes of work. Trying to get better with color (my palettes tend to get a bit over saturated at times) and skin tones, so I'm there's no better way to go than studying from the Old Masters. I learned a lot from this study (which is normally the case when I do these types of studies), so I'll definitely continue doing them.

Forever

This painting was done for a friend. I wanted to achieve a classical feel to this image, so I studied a lot of the paintings from the Old Masters, especially Bouguereau. Learned a lot on how to approach colors and values too, which was a great benefit. The background in this image was very time consuming, but was worth it as I feel it adds a lot of depth to the image. The apples in the foreground were a lot of fun to paint, too.

Dusk: A Vampire's Tale - Vampire

Another image I completed for Dusk: A Vampire's Tale. This one was completed fairly recently, and very much inspired by the 'Underworld' movies - wanted to achieve a similar feel to that of the movie's atmosphere. This one was a lot of fun to do, and also very challenging, as I was on a tight deadline. Thanks for looking!

Dusk: A Vampire's Tale - Anglo

One of the many images I completed for the upcoming Facebook game, Dusk. The deadline was very tight for these paintings, but I'm happy with how this turned out, especially in regards to color. For more information the game, make sure to check out the official website: http://www.dusk-game.com

Dusk - A Vampire's Tale:African American Executive Male

One of the many images I completed for Dusk: A Vampire's Tale. I was asked to paint an African American male. Lots of fun with this one. The deadline for this project was very tight, so I had to work very hard to get it completed with a refined finish. Official website for the game can be viewed at: http://www.dusk-game.com

Dusk: A Vampire's Tale - Beautiful Vampire Woman

A promotional image created for Dramatic Development's 'Dusk' Facebook video game, available this summer. This image was completely recently and definitely one of my favorites I've created for this game. Be sure to check out the game's official website here for more inofrmation as well as an exclusive preview of some of the artwork I've done for the game.

Riot Shell

This is a collobaration between Abbas Saeleem Khan, who did the linework, and myself, who did the painting. This is a contest entry for Comic Idol's Cover Contest as well. The deadline was very tight, so I had to work around the clock to get this one finished, but I'm very happy with how it turned out overall.


Here's the WIP if you're interested:

Pin-Up Girl

This image came out of nowhere; Initially I started a caricature for a good friend, Athena, and eventually she gave me a different idea - a pin-up. Needless to say I was intrigued :) I studied lots of old classic Pin-Up paintings before I approached this painting to help convey the proper feel for this type of image, and I think that research definitely paid off. More importantly, Athena was very pleased with how this image turned out. Mission=success!

Special thanks to my friends and fellow artists Linda Wong and Henning Ludvigsen for their input as well.

Olivia

This is a portrait of a very good friend. Olivia has always been supportive of me as an artist from a very young age, so I created this painting as a gift to her. I wanted to give this image a generally soft feel, so I avoided over detailing it and made a heavier use of softer brushes than I usually use. I'm happy with the results, and more importantly, Olivia is as well, so I consider this image a success in that regard.

Please note: Olivia was not harmed during the making of this portrait.

Speedpaints

I've been doing a ton of speed-paintings lately, trying to get better at things I need more practice on; specifically, landscapes! Here's a bunch of studies I've done throughout the week:


Some character studies (referenced from Deviant Art). I learned a LOT about how colors work with these studies:



That's all for now. Expect my blog to be updated daily from now on, as I plan to continue practicing daily.

Superman

This is my contest entry for 'Photo Reference For Comic Artist's' contest, in which they asked to paint a DC comic book character based on one of their photo references. I wanted to paint something iconic, so I went with Superman and chose a fairly straight forward pose. My goal with this image was to push the details as far as possible. I spent quite some time creating several brushes for this piece, such as the cloth texture, skin pores, etc. I feel this really helped bring the image to life, and I'm pretty satisfied with the results as well. Thanks for looking!