Enslaved Fan Art

I got so excited I decided to do a fan art piece for the game!

here are the original lines (11x17)

This is the finished piece done in photoshop CS3 the background is taken from one of the wallpapers from the game.

hope you likes!

"The turtle is never slow when when ninjas are involved."

A Journey West...ish

A Journey West

 For those of you that didn't know there is a new video game coming out on the 5th of October from NAMCO based on the ancient Chinese legend/epic originally telling of a mystical monkey and his rise to godhood while journeying west. Called Enslaved, the game is based 150 years into our future and takes place in the U.S. Now hold on, that may be a turn off to many of you but don't knock it till you try it! The story and visuals in the game are top notch. The game is developed by the extremely talented, U.K. based company Ninja Theory- whose renown began with a little game called Heavenly Sword for PS3.

wallpapers

 

these are are all from the game's website

 Just by playing the demo I can already tell you the game is ultra fun and has some of the most exciting and suspenseful moments I've ever played in a demo before. EVER. It's a third person action adventure/puzzler game that throws a couple of unique things in like ridiculously beautiful level design and great character animation not to mention some seamless cut scenes. Plus the actual character design and visuals are absolutely stunning- which is the kicker for me- so thank you NAMCO and Ninja Theory for developing a game that is both a new take on an awesome story and yet a completely original game that I am very much looking forward to.

*If you wanna check out the demo you'll have to have xbox live.

Here some links to check out

(namco's official site)

http://www.namcogames.com/ 

(the games official site)

http://enslaved.namco.com/

(ninja theory's site)

http://www.ninjatheory.com/

All these links have some pretty sweet videos and pics (if you're interested)

"Udon noodles make up for their lack of a sense of humor with taste!"

Philly the Kid and all he stands for to me

So this past year has been one of enlightenment. I have had so many artists and styles brought to my attention that interest me way more than the traditional realist style I've been trying to perfect. I'm ok at realism when it comes to figure drawing; I would go as far as to say that the human body is my best and favorite subject. But real is real and unless I want to put some story behind my characters (which is always necessary) they all stay pretty much the same. So I figured out I wanted to create a style that was a bit more than just realistic. I wanted to put realism into the unreal, and fantastic. Not to shock or amaze my audience but to just show them what I wanted to have as my own style. Not that it's different or not influenced by other artists and art I see and like but just to say- hey this is what I do, this is what I like, take it or leave it.

Anyway Some really big influences on my artistic direction have been professionals that work constantly and have a unique style that catches my brain! Lesean Thomas- for one- is an American animator/ illustrator working in Korea in animation (the first ever by the way) he's also working on a creator owned graphic novel called Cannon Busters and his main character "Philly the Kid" has been plastered all over the internet and my walls and my mind since I saw the first concepts of em when my buddy Anton showed them to me. So I finally did a fan pic of him and put him up on D.A. and wouldn't you know it he saw it and liked it and I feeeaaakked oouuutt a bit. So ya this post is basically me bragging and confessing my fanboy-dom for his work. It is such an honor to even be noticed by a professional in my preferred career choice let alone one I think so highly of. Anywho here's the pic of his original character.

Philly the Kid

I took reference from Lesean Thomas' stuff on his blog and D.A. gallery plus I have the only issue of Cannon Busters 0' that I've seen which has some pretty sweet concepts from an artist named Corey(yy) Lewis- who has also had a huge impact on me.

check out Lesean's blog to the right 

Recent Stuff

So I just got my scanner back and have a few pieces to show everybody.

I have very little explanation for this. I guess I was just bored.

So this guy is eating ramen and gets interrupted by a would-be robber. and then gets really angry because he got startled and had to spit out his ramen... thats it.

Sagat

I used a variety of gray sharpies to get the look I wanted.

Ryu

Ya...  get on Street Fighter kicks quite a bit. This was a fun pencil sketch.

"Eat carefully or risk disturbing your bowels."

D the Dragon guy

The one nice thing about being an artistic individual is that somehow even the smallest of things can inspire me to draw. This inspiration can come from any number of abundantly random things or nothing at all... at least nothing I can remember anyway. Take this picture for instance; I just started to sketch on my friend's intuos tablet and I got a weird man creature protecting/capturing a child. I could tell you that some of my inspiration came from watching or knowing about Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, because that's what it reminds me of, but all in all I had no conscious thought in my head at the time. Any way it's just the lines- a w.i.p. but I hope to try a fun new painting technique I learned on it and get the finished picture out soon!  

Dragon Master

This was done on a digital pad and in photoshop CS3

"Don't ask a cop for directions; because he will arrest you and take your pot."  

Dreams and Characters... in my Dreams

Lately I've been working on a project with a friend. This project is very important to me but I'm only designing the characters for it. This is one of many we have come up with; can't say too much about him now but I can tell you he may be working as a Yakuza hitshark. 

This is kind of a teaser of a much larger image I used as a concept piece.

This is more of a detail piece... I actually just wanted to draw him decked out in samurai gear.

So anyway I figured every time I posted something I ought to say something profound or groundbreaking in some way. But then I thought about myself and realized that I don't think about profound or groundbreaking things too often so I guess I'll leave with this question:

" In times of great distress the Power Rangers call Chuck Norris. Does popcorn float in lava?"