Frankenstein Revisited - WIP1: Roughs

Welcome to the Art of Schwager Halloween Special!

With every horror fan's favourite holiday just around the corner, the good folks over at the Imagine FX forums put up an appropriately themed weekly challenge:
"Its nearly Halloween so time for a scaaaary challenge. Mary Shelley's book Frankenstein was published in 1818. Show your homage to her by creating your very own Frankenstein monster, try to stay true to her vision."

Over the next few days, I will be posting my progress on my own version of Frankenstein. All going well, there will be an update every day until it's finished.

So here's WIP1: Roughs

I use these kinds of sketches as the starting point for all my work. It helps me explore the general theme and come up with some rough ideas for composition and character design before I get started on a proper sketch.

Speaking of which, I've already started on a pencil sketch. I'm planning to get that finished sometime tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled for another update coming soon...

A New Hero

Another entry for conceptart.org's Character of the Week challenge. This time, the idea was to create a hero that is entirely unsuited to the task... because all the real heroes are away fighting monsters and evil elsewhere.
I went with a young peasant girl for mine, with armour and weapons that are way to big for her. If you can spare a moment, let me know what you think her chances are in the comments section.

And here are some WIPs to show how it all came together.

Piety & Wickedness

Monarch of Duality was the excellent theme for the big CHOW (Character of the Week) #300 challenge over at conceptart.org a while back. Needless to say, I couldn't resist giving this one a go. The piece below is what I came up with.

I've also created a little GIF animation, to show how the artwork evolved from a pencil sketch into the finished painting.

Concept Art Practice

A while ago I was offered to do a test for a massive concept art contract. Unfortunately I didn't land the gig (due to some mis-communication from the potential employers), but it prompted me to work on my concept art skills.
So I did a couple of ImagineFX challenges with goal to keep them rough and do them quick. Although I still struggle a little with the quick part, I think I'm getting there with the roughness.

You can let me know what you think of them in the comments section...


MyFX #297: Deep Sea Danger

MyFX #296: Magistrate Grimm

From deep under the mountains...

... rise the dark and twisted Nuem.

As some of you may already know, I've been doing a lot of work for Tor Gaming's Relics over the past year, mainly miniature concepts.
Check out their website for more info about the game and the awesome range of miniatures that goes with it.

One of my recent assignments was to create a series of 4 paintings to go with the Nuem pre-order campaign on IndieGoGo.com.
These paintings will be sent out as a set of postcards to everyone who purchased models through the campaign. In the future they may also be available as postcards or prints from the Tor Gaming online shop. So keep your eyes peeled if you want to get your hands on those.

And here they are in all their un-cropped glory... enjoy :)

Hobbits, Beasts & Demonswords

After having realised just how long I had neglected my poor blog for, I now present you with some new-ish artwork from a number of Imagine FX challenges.

Hope you'll enjoy them :)

MyFX #274: Elric of Melniboné

MyFX Monthly Challenge March 2012: Tarra's Scary Friend Beast

MyFX #267: Kill Billbo

Wrapping Up 2011

Happy 2012 everyone!

I thought I'd kick off the new year by having a quick look back at 2011 with a few more pieces I never got to post.

MyFX Monthly Challenge December 2011: Character Remix

Red Sonja (of the Warhammer World)

MyFX #258: Camelot

MyFX #253: Tarot Card (The Moon)

MyFX #236: Grumpy Troll

Eowyn and the Nazgul

It's been way too long since the last update, so here's a little something just before the holidays...

This was my entry for the Eowyn and the Nazgul Challenge on ArtOrder.

I was pretty happy with the feedback I've received and I even managed to snag a prize: John Jude Palencar's wonderful art book Origins.

Concept Art Test

This is my take on the Concept Art Test for Gameloft NZ. The jury is still out...

New Challenges...

Time for another update. Here are my latest contributions to the Imagine FX online challenges.

MyFX Monthly Challenge February 2011: The Deadly Sin (Gluttony)

MyFX #215: Chimera

MyFX #213: Goblin War Train (Winner)