Catwoman

Portrait of Catwoman, still in Fan Art mode it seems.  Very happy with how this turned out, pretty much as I envisioned it from the beginning.  I wanted this to look realistic and a cross between the comic book version as well as the live-action films, and it was a challenge to combine the two to create something original.

Sonya Blade

This is a portrait of Sonya from the Mortal Kombat games.  I basically mixed several incarnations of her to create this painting, and made sure she looked feminine while also tough looking at the same time, which was a bit tricky... But I believe I found a good balance.  The angle of the face was difficult to pull off, even with a reference, but it was definitely worth it I'd say as I learned quite a bit.  The eyes we're the most difficult aspect of this image to paint due to the angle, and I had to adjust them several times during the painting process to get it right, but I thing I managed them well.  Special thanks to Reid Southen for his feedback as well.

Liu Kang

This is a portrait of Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat.  I'm a huge fan of the games so this was a lot of fun to paint;  I plan on doing a bunch of paintings based on the main characters as well.  This painting is also a tribute to Bruce Lee, who I find very inspirational and whom the 'Liu Kang' character is based on as well.  For reference I looked at some pics of Bruce Lee and the actor from the first film, as well as some photos of hands to help make this as realistic as possible.  Overall I'm very satisfied with how this piece turned out. 

Two Face

This is a portrait of the classic Batman villain.  Finally had some free time to paint something I wanted which was a welcome change of pace, as I had envisioned this image in my head for quite some time.  The look I was going for was basically a combination of all the character's appearances, from the comic books to his appearance in 'The Dark Knight'.  I wanted to go all out with the detail on this one as well, especially with his burned face which was easily the most challenging element of this painting.  Overall I'm quite satisfied with how this turned out!

If you'd like to see the 'Making Of' this painting, you can check out a tutorial here.

Caricatures!

I was recently commissioned to paint several caricatures, and I had a blast doing so!  These paintings are meant to be shown at a much smaller scale as well, so I didn't want them to be overly detailed, but at the same time I wanted them to be fairly refined.  Overall I had a great time painting these, and plan on illustrating more caricatures in the future when I have the spare time.  Enjoy!

Persephone (revised)

I had a chance to revisit this painting, and I heavily revised it.  Among the changes I made was strong lighting, as well as reworking the environment significantly to give it much more depth.  Overall I'm very satisfied with how this piece turned out, and I consider it one of my strongest works.

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I created this image in order to practice painting drapery, which I view as a challenge. Greek Mythology inspires me heavily as well, so I wanted to show that with this image. Persephone's story mainly evolves her abduction from the Earth realm, to the Underworld, courtesy of Hades. This image deals with that concept (albeit a bit subtly). The figure's pose was referenced from Lockstock as well, who has some great fantasy themed stock photography.

An older version of this image was included in Advanced Photoshop Magazine as well.

Statue Studies

I'm continuing my studies on painting heads, so I decided to do some speedpaints of various statue studies, which is a huge help in helping me further understand the forms and anatomy of the human head. 

Various Studies and Speedpaints.

I finished a bunch of studies this week, learned quite a bit from them especially in regards to obtaining a better understanding of the human body.  First up is a portrait for a friend.  It's not entirely finished as I wasn't 100% satisfied with it, but it was great for practice and I'm quite pleased with the colors. 

 

Steps:

Here are a bunch of photo studies I did, roughly an hour each:

Some movie still studies:

Some Studies.

Study of a statue done for practice.  Although I consider portrait painting my strongest skill, I feel like I can use more practice on more difficult and foreshortened angles, hence this study.  Here's the WIP if you're interested:

Another statue study.  Below is the WIP:

Figure study.  WIP below:

Arthurian Legendary Figures

These are card game Illustrations I painted for a board game. I was asked to create a dark and gritty atmosphere with these, which was a lot of fun and a welcome change for me. I really enjoyed this set, I always have a blast with painting portraits, and these were no exception.

Sin City - Promotional Illustrations

This is the final set on the Promotional Illustrations I completed for Sin City Poker. These were completed last year, and I am very proud of them. 2011 has been a great year for me as an artist, as I've been freelancing quite a bit - and I feel my technique improved tenfold because of that. This project plain a very large role in that, so I'm very grateful of the opportunity I had to contribute to it.

Environments

Some environment work created for a client. These two were a blast to paint, I really want to expand my portfolio in terms of showing environments, so this was a welcome change for me.