Studio

This is where you'll find images of projects that I'm currently working on. Subjects might range from conceptual artwork to protoype interfaces and digital photography. That being said, you are just as likely to find something really strange...

 

Old Samurai: "End of an Era." (Corel Painter IX / Photoshop CS)

Update: This image was selected by SEGA / Creative Assembly as a promotional piece during August, 2007 for their multi-award winning computer game "Medieval Total War II". The image was converted into a themed calendar and is available from the SEGA Europe website.

Part 1: I've finally started to add colour to my old Samurai sketch (click for the larger image - approx 100kb.) The original piece was drawn on my WACOM tablet using Corel Painter IX. Here's the first hour's work - to see the preliminary stages for the face, pop here for a step-by-step guide.

I'm only an hour into this project, so I haven't done too much. Firstly I tinted the background and then I've started laying down some colours. At the moment I've just 'blocked in' the face and will probably leave it for the time being. The clothes and armour will take the most amount of time, as the detail is quite intricate. I probably should've picked a simpler piece to do, given my limited timeframe (in between uni semesters,) but I'll ride this puppy until it's finished.

Part 2: Alrighty, this took an extra 2 hours. I adjusted the resolution so that I could get into all of the intricate stuff on the Japanese armour and Ukata (male Kimono.) Bumping up the res meant that I essentially had to redraw what I'd already done. Note to self! Anyhoo, here's a closeup.

Part 3: I've added some extra detail to the Yukata (nope, not finished yet) and then moved onto the helmet. I added a brass rim and some Sakura - cherry bloosom - embroidery to the brim. Sakura are very important to the Japanese as they only flower for a couple of days per year. So it's sort of a 'good luck' thing. Try telling a Samurai he's a pansy.

Here's a couple of closeups of the in-progress work on the helmet. You can see the broad colours that I use as a base for the metallics. I lay the colour down using broad strokes and then start to work it & add detail with the smaller brushes. I keep the bristle hardness set on '100' for most of this work, as the softer brushes look a bit 'wishy washy.' Go hard, or go home ;-)

 

Well, this update took awhile longer than the hour I'd budgeted. I wasn't really satisfied with the woven interior of the helmet, so I redid it. I also extended the frontal horns on top of the helmet (yes, the Samurai commanders were really this flamboyant!) and started to add some of the metallic detail to the crown. When you're painting you don't generally have access to metallic paints (unless you apply PhotoShop filters and try and 'fake it') you have to mix your own. The brassy-gold colour started off as a dull brown and was layered slowly to give the impression of polished metal. The same technique was applied to the crown which was built from a variety of blacks, greys (with a hint of brown for warmth) and whites. The only difference is the direction of the paint strokes, which gives the surface a slightly different look. Once again the detail was done with a tiny brush (5 pixels at 100% hardness, varying degrees of opacity.) I say tiny, well in comparison with a 300 dpi image, the brush is rather small.

Beauty, we're heading for the home straight now. I've added metallics to the helmet 'horns,' added some studs, replaced the Sakura pattern on the helmet fabric and fixed up the internal weaving. I've also done most of the shadowing and highlights to give the helmet a really 'solid' feel (most of this is done through the use of 'multiply' or 'screen' layers placed above the layer that requires the work.) For a really good close-up of this illustration click here for a larger version (220kb.) I've still got the shirt, breast armour, cords, sleeves etc. to go. Oh yeah, and I need a background :-)

Final image:"The End of an Era." An old Samurai warrior reflects on a full, yet turbulent, life which has come to an end with the Meiji Restoration. This 'Restoration' drew the Bushido period to a close, and brought an end to the feudal clan system.

Click to see a hi-res version of the finished piece. I ended up keeping the background simple, settling on a smokey red-tinged sky (alluding to the warrior's violent past.)

 

Shane 'Sugar' Mosley: 2B, 4B, 6B pencils & willow charcoal on cartridge paper.

The next piece is an illustration that I'm doing for 'personal development' and is an A3 sketch of boxer, Shane Mosley.

It's still in the preliminary stages, I've roughed out the body and composition and done a detail sketch for the face. It's only taken about 2 hours at the mo and should be finished this week. The end product will be digital and full colour.

Old Poster Design: University Project from 2004.

This sequence is quite old but is interesting because it contains snapshots of the individual stages that I followed in order to push a poster design from concept illustration through to completion. The poster was titled "Lord of the Toys" and the criteria stated that it had to contain at least two client-supplied stock images of toys. Everything else within the composition was created from scratch on my Wacom tablet using Adobe Illustrator and PhotoShop.

The inspiration for the poster was drawn from my love of old Akira Kurosawa Samurai films from the 1960s. Combine that with a large plastic Godzilla and some crazy building blocks and you just can't go wrong eh?

The images are at quite a high resolution (approx 100kb each) and might take a while to download over slower connections. Once loaded, click the image resize button in the bottom right corner to see the full size graphic.