It's that time of year!

Yes it's "New Game" season! This is the time of year that has the most game releases. What I love about it is not only the games themselves, but the plethora of concept art and art books that comes with it. A lot of the time you need to buy special edition releases to get your hands on the artbooks, but you can also snag them on ebay for reasonable prices.


This year I am most looking forward to seeing the Batman: Arkham City artbook that is included with the special edition. The concept art and renders they have released so far have been very impressive. If anyone is interested, this article, although quite old, will give you an impression of just how many games are released with corresponding artbooks. I love seeing the origins of characters and architecture of games I play, and I'm sure I am not the only one.

While I'm here, here is a little something I've been working on, though it's in it's early stages. I really enjoy lighting experiments with painting. Still needs a lot of work and some proportion corrections, But I like the direction it's headed. (Steampunk Elf + Dragon)

Finished!

Here is the finished painting from my previous post. More info can be found here.

Blues

The title is probably a bit misleading

My favourite colour to work with is blue. There are endless possibilities for depth when you are dealing with blue. I'm having trouble putting it into words.

Here is a WIP I am currently working on.

I've used blue tones for the shadows of her skin, and turquoise and yellow for the highlights. The result is a sort of translucent shimmering look, which I really like for underwater settings, as well as dim lighting and murky ones.

This painting will feature jellyfish. I've wanted to paint them for a really long time. They are so beautiful and mysterious and colourful, but their structure is quite complex, so I am looking forward to the chalenge.

WIP, Completed

Completed version of painting WIP from my previous post. More info can be found on my dA page.

Quick WIP

Just basic sketch of a WIP I am working on right now. it's at a very early stage, but I really like where it is going.

Some Website Ideas

Web Design has been a hobby of mine since I was about 15 and first started using the internet. I had never really taken classes or anything of the like, and at first I messed around with Front Page as you would with clipart with MS Word. But then  I began to get really curious about how it all worked, and how different elements controlled different things. I am not an expert by any means, but I would say, from teaching myself and from interest I have a pretty advanced knowledge of HTML and CSS. Well, used to. The last two years I have put that hobby asside to pursue others, but now I have the urge to pick it up again.

In 2005 I started a graphic design website. Mostly small things like icons, photoshop brushes and textures and basic web layouts for people to use. Sadly what started out as a small hobby project grew massively. The traffic was more than I could afford and I closed the site. Hosting is a lot cheaper now than it was then. I Don't think I could afford anything enormous, but I definitely want to try something again. Even if it's just a portfolio website for myself with a small downloads section.

This is the intended design back form 2009. I still love it. It's bright and colourful, while at the same time clean and uncluttered. I spent a long time working on it and never got to use it. But at the same time if I start a website again, I feel like I should have a fresh start, code somehting new to refresh my memory. I haven't touched any web code in so long I am starting to forget some things, which ins't good.

I'm not really sure where to start though. I dont know whether or not to incorporate some of my own artwork into the design or to use something a bit more abstract. I guess I'll have to think about it.

here are some palettes I've been considering though.

Musicaphilia - Finished

This is the final dust jacket design I've been working on.

This design uses a very small spectrum of colour, which not only makes pantone printing easier, but also makes recolouring easier too. I will post different colours of this jacket later.

Upon researching the book, I learned that many of it's stories were light hearted in nature, and almost whimsical, which is when I decided that maybe a less scientific looking book would appeal to people's interest in amusing anecdotes.

Another idea I had was a vaguely pop art themed one, but I felt it was not storng enough when compared to the brain reading music.

Book Cover Research

 Our Book jacket project is based around the book Musicaphilia, by Oliver Sacks.

Here are some relevant book covers that I found interesting, that relate to that theme.

"In the City" is a good example of type as a graphic element.

Personal Works in Progress

Haven't had much time to do stuff for myself the last few weeks, so I took a couple hours today to do some stuff.

Sketch of Uraania with basic colours. I'll work on this more when school year ends. :)

A firefly fairy-type-thing. Not sure really, but definitely fantasy themed. Needs a lot of work.

Packaging - Assembled + Photos

When I printed out my packaging design, I found a flaw in where I had placed the hole for the straw. unfortunately I only discovered this after I had assembled it, so I ended up having to do it out twice.

It worked out okay though. At least now I know to look for these things in future. :)

After I assembled it, I photographed it from various angles.

 

The colours printed really well, so I'm pleased!