May Sketch A Day #1

It's that time a year again that means me and many other artists attempt to do a sketch a day for the whole month of May. This is the first batch heavily inspired by or based on Ashen Falls.

Various Recent Speedpaintings

The first two are doen for the Daily Spitpaint groupd on Facebook so they were done under 30 minutes. The titles are "Dead Planet" and "Glacier Lord". The other two took slightly longer.

Sketches from Scratch

After relying a lot on photo-ref for a while now I decided I needed to go back to zero and experiment with brushes and light. These are some that could withstand the light of day. I learned a lot from some lectures at the Industry Workshop event in London last month. Especially Jama's one on brush efficiency was eye opening. I might be addicted to his brush set...

Daily Spitpaint Entries - 30 minutes or less.

It's very nerve-racking but also a lot of fun to do these Daily Spitpaints for the facebook group. From top to bottom; "Horned Helmets", "The Tudors", "Destroyed Warship", and "Demon Dog".

Medieval Sketches and a New Job!

 

From the beginning of August I will start as a full-time illustrator at the home of the Total War series, Creative Assembly. I'm really excited and honored to be joining them.
These sketches have nothing to do with my new job but I had them laying around and figured I should post them. The top two environments were speedpaints done to come up with a mood and setting for a more detailed illustration, though I never got the time to do that.

Speedpaints - Random

I had an afternoon to kill and thus the speedpainting commenced. I tried to use no reference material and tried out some new brushes. It was good to unwind like this.

Lassoscapes

I've been playing around with the lasso-tool some more recently. I know that one who masters that tool masters the universe. So in an attempt to one day at least dominate a solar system I figured I'd spent my lunch-break on these very generic lassoscapes. I suppose Galacticus didn't become the swallower of worlds without practicing on some meteors first. These are also tests for the art direction for a personal project I will reveal in a couple of months.
On another note, I might actually be able to show some more exciting stuff I've been working on soon. Woot!

Lunchbreak Speedpaints

Well, it's been awhile since my last update. The main reason is that I've started a new job at Jagex in Cambridge as a Marketing Artist. Therefore I had to move and had to leave my trusty PC in Holland. On top of that the only internet access I've had was at work on a very secured network which doesn't allow me to upload files...
Looks like I will have to do without internet at home for another two weeks (FFFFUUUU!)
I've done these at work during my lunch breaks. Since I have to do very polished and detailed illustrations during working hours it feels nice to do some loose speedpaints. I wanted to try out some new ways of approaching color, texture and light. It's an never ending exploration of trial and error.

PS. I'm well aware that I'm encroaching if not copying some well know artists their styles, it's just for research :)

This Morning's Speedpaint Woke-up the Brushes

It has been ages since I really went mad with my huge set of brushes. Normally I restrict myself to two or three. Feels really good to be working like this. I should do more... then again, I should do a lot of things more. Oh, well. Back to work!

Some Old Quick Sketches...

These guys were haunting my hard-drive so I had to let them out. Most of them were doodles that were never finished or just completely abandoned. The second from the top was the first sketch for what later became a finished piece. Okay, back to work.

Speedpainting harvest

I had to just get some more of these out. I done a lot of speed-paintings recently, most of which will never see the light of day. Mainly because I just did them in the morning as warm-up and never really got to a level where I feel they would do my blog any good.
I've be adding some textures but tried to keep it limited to keep a painted feel.

More Speedpaints

Okay, I say Speedpaints but when you start messing around with textures it normally takes a bit more time. Still, the end result is much more satisfying then just brushes. 

Lunchbreak Speedpaints

I've been keeping myself busy during lunch. Even though the weather is great I had to stay indoors to try-out Photoshop CS6. I'm very happy with it so far. Now I really need to do more environment speedpaints!

Quickies

I didn't look at the time, so I can't say if they were 15 minutes sketches. But they were done quickly!

SIX

Rough sketches - Photoshop

SIX is the story of earth after a sunflare almost completely destroyer life. Those who survive have to shelter from the sun during daytime and fight of bandits at night. More to come soon.

The way to Redskye - Quickie

I spent about an hour on this one. Just trying out to mix brushwork with custom shapes. I can see I need some more practice but it's quite a lot of fun.

The death of Motoyasu and the Oni on the roof.

45 Minutes - Wind in the Blossom

Another one, this time a little faster and a little sloppier. Same brushes as before and I'm still loving them. Now I need to come up with a more original scene because I totally ripped the idea from Yoshitoshi. Cheers!

APC votex

I just had the urge to paint a APC for no good reason. I spent around 5 to 6 hours on it. I think that I will try a more extreme design next time. Anyway, I think that for an afternoon of painting the result is not to bad.

Landscapes

Another try at some landscapes, I think I need to really keep practising. It still feels like a subject I haven't really mastered yet. The one on the top might actually get a new version of it because after I finished it I wanted to see more of the mountains in the distance. I might turn it into a panoramic shot. Anyway, I've got some great news coming soon. So stay tuned!