chars.28-30

Finishing out my Very Belated Month (year? D:) of Characters with these three celtic characters. Invented a little narrative in my head about a tribe of irish celts reacting to the spread of christianity, that's why there's a priesty guy. Might be fun to do something with these characters sometime! They were a few hours in photoshop each.

In other news, I've been trying out one of my coworkers' Cintiq lately, he's selling it, and I'm really leaning towards buying it. I thought it was one of those totally superfluous toys - I'm really not a fan of gadgets and phones and iWhatevers, but I can spend an entire evening working on the Cintiq and it doesn't bother my wrists, which have been acting up lately. Since my wrists are basically my career I think it's a good investment. Working on a Cintiq forces you to draw from the shoulder, and lately I've been able to do a lot more freelance work because there's no strain. I guess that makes me a believer! The one I'm using is an older model coming at a good price, I'd recommend folks check out gently used Cintiqs on ebay, you don't have to have the newest model to reap the benefits.

Char.027

Gehhh. Almost to 30! Here's a semi-finished guy I was working on. Supposed to be kind of a fancy villain, likes his fancy shoeses. Still messing with rendering, I'm not super fast at it. I've always done more linear/graphic stuff than rendering. First time for everything! Few hours in photoshop.

Char.026

Whoops! It's been like a month since posting. Busy busy busy! This guy's not really an original character but it's a take on King Midas that I was doofing around with at work last week. Few hours in p-shop.
Been trying to build up some freelance work/clients now that storyboarding is over. Been contributing some concepts to a neat iphone game project my friends are doing, feels good! Too bad I can't tell you about it. 8D

Char.025

The lady counterpart. More sure of herself. Her face and gesture didn't come out as independent/strong-willed as I was hoping, but the costume was fun. I don't like it as much as the last one. But she has nice gloveses. :B 3 hrs photoshop, approximately.

Char.024

Character 24. Sort of a revamped character from a steampunky western comic idea, extension from character 22. The idea is that he's a very educated doctor who ends up stuck on a frontier planet. I still can't decide whether i want to go a more linear route with my work, or stick to rendered/painted, but I'm happy with how this turned out. I think slapping a watercolor texture over the color adds some interest, and the pose was way fun to work out.

Char.023

Char 23. Flying valkyrie bird lady. I was inspired by some of the final fantasy tactics costume designs. I was actually looking at photo reference of a girl sleeping on a bed in this weird pose, and it looked like she was swimming or flying. :) Maybe 5 hours in photoshop.

Char.022

Character 22! This guy is kind of a firefly inspired space cowboy. I suppose he lives in some cold system that requires him to wear heavy furs, I drew them to add some interesting texture. He's a scruffy down-on-his-luck Han Solo type. :p Sketch took about 30 mins, scanned and spent about an hour laying some rough colors down.

Char.021

Okay, so I guess the title of this show is changing from "Character a Day" to "Character every so often". At any rate, here's another - she's a spring/forest elemental of some sort. She was supposed to be the spring counterpart to the Autumn girl I did previously. She was about 3 hours in photoshop plus an hour or so in sketch form.

Char.020

Character number twenty. I scrapped so many character beginnings today, just wasn't at the top of my game, but I came out of it at least with this little pikeman dude. He's a bit sketchy and he's kind of vomit-colored but I dig the pose. About 2-3 hours in photoshop.
I feel like i should add some environments to my portfolio. I was thinking of doing an environment a day after I get to character number 30, but that also might drive me insane.

Char.019

Decided to do a revamp of Gazib, who was an anthro gazelle character in my webcomic in highschool. He was not at all african-looking before, which made no sense, so in this version he's kind of a combination of a Masai warrior and a Kudu bull. Definitely had fun revisiting my old character - might do that with some of the other anthro characters I used to draw :B About 3-4 hours in photoshop, based on a pen sketch.

Char.017

Yikes! 14 characters in like 20 days. Trying to get back on track.
Here's a sort of arabian/north african warrior guy inspired by the character Jaffa in Hidalgo. Am fascinated by all things arabian/turkish/persian, but not so much in a crazy bepierced Xerxes kind of way. He needs a little detail or pattern or something, not sure.

Char 13 redux

Decided to paint up one of the previous C.A.Ds. Trying to get better at stylized rendering. Took about 3 hours to polish, i think, in photoshop.

we'll be right back..

Took the weekend off from character-a-day, still shaking off plaguey remnants. Might start posting concept material every day instead of characters if I decide to pursue a graphic novel project. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Char.016

Number 16. Sorta more western cyberpunk than steampunk. He's like a cross between Van Helsing and Captain Harlock. Fear his redness! About 2 hours sketch + color in potatoshop. Tried to ink this one like some of the first characters but it kind of lost something in translation. I wonder where this experiment will lead me. :p

Char.015

Is the one i messed up from yesterday. Still pretty sketchy, but I think i'll end up spending way too many hours on it if i try to detail out all the tech. She's got some kind of crazy propulsion device. Anywayyys. Did like a 30 min thumbnail and then spent an hour sketching over the top of the thumbnail.

Char.014

She's an armed escort! Get it? Nyuk nyuk.
A different steampunk char was taking a little too much time, maybe i'll post her tomorrow, so instead tonight i did this doodle of a steampunky redheaded western brothelgirl, kinda based on an old character. Took about an hour in photoshop.

Char.013

Okay! Back in the game. Here's number 13. I decided this week is steampunk week. I figured if one of them went really well i might submit it for the latest CHOW over at conceptart.org. But steampunk is just fun anyhow.
Tried a cooler palette and didn't ink over my digital sketch. Yay!

derp

Brief haitus to finish some freelance storyboarding. Characters back soon.

Char.012

He's kind of a rich philanthropist guy with a tinkering hobby :p And a fascination with minerals. I was inspired by the inventor/uncle character in Young Sherlock Holmes. Wanted to mess around with some different body types. About 1 hr 45 mins, all in photoshop.

Char.011

Char 11. Generated by seventh sanctum's deity generator - he's the god of keys! 30 min sketch, 1 hour inks in photoshop.