Archive for the 'Sketches' Category

oz concept sketches, chicken dragon!

Published on April 21, 2010 in Concept Art, Sketches and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: dragon, oz, winged monkeys.

Rooster Dragon is a probably a bit more dignified, not chicken dragon. Been playing a lot of Dragon Age (again-for my birthday, Josh gave me all the dlc + awakening, though now that I’ve played all of that, I’m a bit dragon age-d out for a little while…) so seem to have dragons on the brain. Also recently saw “How To Train Your Dragon”, which by the way is probably the best animated film I’ve seen in awhile (I think I might have enjoyed it more than “Up”) and all the dragons in that were fairly creative*. Anyway, here is half of rooster dragon:

(I really liked his head, and then I added the wattle/flap and he sort of looked like a chicken, so I felt like I had to continue. I don’t much like his body, which is why there isn’t much of one. Since this is just a sketch, I should be able to give him better treatment in painter…)

In other art-y updated, I’ve been working on some concept sketches for a private project I’ve been sort of pondering. Over at Concept Art.org, there was a Character of the Week (CHOW) challenge to re-design some of the wizard of oz characters. I didn’t really get around to doing it, but once I did, I sort of took the idea and ran with it.

I’m thinking of a different sort of oz, where dorothy (who might not be named dorothy in this version) doesn’t get the ruby shoes. Anyway, haven’t gotten much further than some character designs (and a monkey), but there will probably be more. In my version, the cowardly lion isn’t actually a lion, but a prince (with a hamlet-y backstory and his family crest is a lion-SYMBOLISM!) exiled to oz; the tin man is a golem of sorts and dorothy doesn’t wear a dress. The scarecrow I’m still sort of working on, but will probably be something undead…

Oh and the winged monkeys aren’t called winged monkeys (but you know that’s what they are…). I imagine they’re more of a prosimian-esque species, probably cave dwelling (or at the very least nocturnal- hence their overlarge eyes). They’re a smallish scavenger/predator (probably about jackal size- but lighter, seeing as they have to “fly”) that dwell in caves and deep forests. They are notable for their modified wing arms- though they’re much more like flying squirrels than bats (hungry, terrifying flying squirrels…)- which they use to glide between trees. They have prehensile tails with a single claw on the end that they use both for stability and defense. They are also notable for mobbing behavior when they encounter a potential predator, which has given them a reputation for malevolence…

*my only major gripe with that film was the final, big bad dragon. While pretty to look at, it’s wings were WAAAAAY too small for it to believably make it into the air. The dragon itself was way too big to fly (as are most fantasy dragons, but they’re allowed some leeway), at least the other dragons in the film were designed with at least a small nod to aerodynamics and to a lesser extent, physics. Magic only gets you so far, your wings have to be believably large enough to get you off the ground. Apart from that, the movie was beautiful and adorable, and the dragon animation was fantastic. Definitely worth checking out.

Rodney & RhinoBot

Published on March 23, 2010 in Concept Art and Sketches. 0 Comments Tags: concept art, Sketches.

Did some sketches of the little monster from the animation I posted earlier. His working name is “Rodney”. He reminds me a little bit of Bill Peet’s style (total accident, but it probably slipped in from my childhood memories. I think I might have read ALL his children’s books when I was small). He came out looking kind of like the monster version of a pink chinchilla.

Also, doodled RhinoBot. Really need to work on my mechanical stuff, it’s just not something I have a natural aptitude for. Figured I could try to ease into it by taking an organic concept that I am comfortable with (a rhino) and turning it into something mechanical. Rhinobot is generally used as a siege weapon- its snout is actually a diamond edged drill that can be used equally as a ram. Its single “eye” is actually a high powered light- so Rhinobot’s drivers can see where they’re going. Essentially, it’s a slightly more modern version of a trojan horse (but with ramming power, reinforced metal sides and the ability to cram a whole army inside instead of just a few greeks). So actually, more like the bastard child of the USS Monitor and the Trojan Horse…

need to do something more interesting with its legs, maybe with more of the prosthetic cheetah style- since you can do more innovative things with robots than you can with organic creatures…

Air Kraken Day

Published on March 17, 2010 in Concept Art and Sketches. 0 Comments Tags: concept art, sky kraken.

Yes, it’s also st. patrick’s day but that allows for less creativity than AIR KRAKEN DAY. I mean, giant celestial cephalopod? Sorry, that beats green beer any day of the week. anyway, found a new concept art technique that i’ve been experimenting with today, and here are some of the results.

sky kraken

and a gryphon:

still working on it. this is the tutorial/speedpaint I’ve been following.

Elves doodle

Published on March 12, 2010 in Sketches. 0 Comments

Messing around with different painting styles in photoshop, trying to achieve that fun scratchy look and ended up doodling these guys. Kind of liked them, so I kept going with it a little bit. Originally I was thinking something semi-more cliched like “he’s off to battle she doesn’t want him to go” junk but now I’m thinking it’s more like they both fought in major battle and now comrade is dead, yada yada yada. Added the bloody bits mostly because I’ve been playing a lot of DragonAge lately and one my favorite touches in that game is after you fight anything, your whole party is spattered with blood. So you have all the normal conversations with NPCS and stuff, while spattered in blood.

Okay, so I think it’s funny.

The Owl Keeper

Published on March 10, 2010 in Concept Art and Sketches. 0 Comments Tags: 2d, concept art, owls, painting, portrait, the owl keeper.

The man appeared out of the underbrush, right in front of her. The abruptness of his appearance was nearly as startling as the rest of him. The man was large and looked like some kind of huntsman, particularly the sort that had read about what huntsmen should look like in a magazine. He was carrying what might be a butterfly net, except it looked like it was made to catch the kind of butterflies that rampage through cities and do battle with large lizards.

What was most alarming was his hair. It grew in all directions out of his head in clumps that seemed to move of their own accord. As he moved his head, it seemed to follow a fraction of a second too late. The overall impression was of a large frightened cat on the top of his head. The bits of his face that managed to escape from his exuberant facial hair were ruddy and slightly tanned. The man spent several minutes standing in the path, sniffing the air and examining the underbrush distractedly. Eventually, this inspection brought him round to see her standing before him.

“HAVE YOU SEEN IT? IS IT HERE? DID IT FLY THROUGH?!?!”, he inquired in a loud and hearty tone, while continuing to survey the seemingly empty trees.

“Er, seen what?”, she managed to squeak out as she stumbled backwards, since being in front of him while he spoke was like being in front of a firehouse.

“The OWL, dear lady! Tiny chap! Wings, Big eyes, brownish plumage. Cheeky way about him. Hard to miss!!”, He gesticulated wildly as he described it. As he was speaking, a tiny brown bird, which may have been the creature in question, fluttered out of a nearby bush to settle on the strange man’s shoulder. He didn’t appear to notice.

“Ah…er. That owl?”, She stammered and pointed to his shoulder. The man swung his large, fuzzy head to look at the bird and his face broke into a grin.

“THAT’s THE CHAPPY!” He patted the bird and fastened a tiny chain to its leg, before turning conspiratorially to her and adding, “He’s a real escape artist, this one. Almost impossible to keep! But I’m not called the best for nothing!!”

“Er..and what is it that you’re the best at?”, she whispered and then stepped back slightly to be out of the main blast of it.

The strange man grinned and handed her a business card. It was almost completely blank except for a small picture of an owl in a cage and the words, “DAN RODRIGUEZ: OWL KEEPER” neatly printed in the center.

—————-

So several years back, at new years, there was some kind of trivia game from whence came the title (for one of my friends) “Dan Rodriguez: Owl Keeper” and I drew a tiny picture for his fake business card. For whatever reason, I’ve been thinking about how to make The Owl Keeper an actual character and I had a brainstorm the other day and had to get it down. Also I really need to practice painting semi-realistic people in photoshop. Mostly this is just a doodle, but now the idea of the Owl Keeper is kind of lodged in my brain and may take more than one doodle to get rid of him. I sort of imagine him as a combination of over-eager sportsman and park ranger, and probably the reason he’s “the best” is because he’s the only. But this doesn’t occur to him- the owl keeper has a bit of an ego about him. So when people ask what he does, he replies that he keeps owls. What this means is anyone’s guess.

I think he just collects lots of owls and trains them to do things. Or tries to anyway. I can just see him trying to have tea with a great horned owl, a buffy fish owl, a barn owl and possibly some screech owls. Hmmm…

(photoshop cs3, 2010)

Garden of the Fairy Queen WIP

Published on March 5, 2010 in Concept Art, Illustration, Sketches, Uncategorized and Work In Progress. 0 Comments

This week’s EOW (Environment of the week) over at conceptart.org is the Garden of the Fairy Queen:
“From the real to the unreal. The Faerie create a garden as a tribute to the Faerie Queen, the woodland halls are decked and warded. She walks tonight. Is all prepared?”

I’m pretty sure I’m not going to finish in time, but it’s nice to finally have some kind of inspiration- I work best with art direction. Anyway, here’s a screen shot of my version. I really like the idea of bioluminescence, plus if *I* was the fairy queen, I would want to be tiny and have my city take advantage of the awesomeness of shelf fungi.

Graduation/Sketches

Published on February 1, 2010 in 2D Animation, 3D Animation and Sketches. 0 Comments

Well I officially graduated from CDIA on Saturday. Very exciting and all that. The ceremony was actually quite nice and the key note speaker was pretty interesting, even if one of the other speakers compared all artists to prostitutes, which was a bit odd (if possibly accurate- still odd). As per usual, I brought a pen since I inevitably get bored at this sort of thing, and one should always be prepared to doodle.

Worked on a new character design which I may do more with. so that’s good.

Also my portfolio website is all up and running, demo reel/technical project reel and everything. In case anyone who reads this, doesn’t read any of my other media portals.

www.torimckenna.com

Stressed Lil Monster

Published on October 6, 2009 in Sketches. 0 Comments Tags: art, little monster, Sketches.

(click for the large image)

I have been very stressed lately and that makes me kind of snappish and irritable. Drawing helps-ergo, a new little monster ( see the rest here). This is Gordon. He is a little grouchy, but that’s only because he always rather stressed out, which makes him edgy and occasionally snap at people. But underneath he means well and he *does* always finish with excellent results.

someday i will write and illustrate a children’s book with the little monsters…

Doodle

Published on October 2, 2009 in Sketches. 0 Comments

still rigging mortimer, no images yet, because it’s draining and etc.

but have this doodle of a bearskin wearing lady (trying different styles)

New Wings, plus a chubby sea goddess

Published on September 21, 2009 in Concept Art, Illustration, Sketches and Work In Progress. 0 Comments Tags: 2d, feathers, Illustration, modeling, texturing, wings, wips.

Been sick, haven’t had time to update. But here’s Mortimer, in all his textured and colored glory.

(as per usual, click the thumb for the nice big image)

and a roundish sea goddess in progress (I have been accused of drawing only tall angular people, which is probably because myself and much of my family are tall and angular for the most part- but it’s a bad habit, so expect more rounder types…)

hands and Feet, plus battle mage…

Published on September 2, 2009 in Concept Art, Sketches and Work In Progress. 0 Comments Tags: character, modeling, wips.

Worked on the hands and re-doing the feet (the old ones looked too weird and blobby, though the new ones were a major pain to model- eventually had to take them into Zbrush and re-top the hard way. They look better though). The hands I did in maya, and I’m pretty pleased with how they’re turning out. The claws are separate and will extend/retract like cat’s claws (the claws on his feet will not be retractable, more like dog/cheetah claws). Speaking of hands, mine are freezing and it’s hard to type.

Also, my battle maga is coming along nicely,

Mortimer Concept Art

Published on August 24, 2009 in 3D Animation, Concept Art, Illustration, Sketches and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

some concept art for my character (we’re going to do them in 3d soon), Mortimer. He’s a bird dog (so gryphon but back half owl, front half dog, with bits mixed up together). He started out being more traditional border collie-ish, but I think now i’m going to go with making him a little smaller (almost lap dog size) and i really like having his back half be owl, so I may stick with that. I think as a character too, he’s going to have a small owl/dog personality- thinks he’s bigger than he is.

click the thumbnail through to the image.