Viper 3

Here's a little story about a character from my book who, until a few days ago, was only a faceless figure vaguely described in the words of my  manuscript. Before I continue let's have a look at him.

This illustration makes use of advanced overlay layers for texture.

Viper 3 is his designation. He has no name and when you read the book you will understand why. Viper 3 is a soldier in the Elysian army. More specifically, he is a member of the elite division of the Elysian military called Viper squad.

Viper squad is the fictional equivalent of the British SAS, though much fewer in number. They train in all the combat skills that every other Elysian soldier does, but hold themselves to a much higher standard. That training is supplemented with advanced political and espionage training. These guys are not only dangerous on the battlefield, but also from the shadows and the crowds of any city in Giaos, even during times of peace.

They answer only to Emperor Tiberius Elystar.

The weapon that you see Viper 3 carrying is a type 1, variant 2, mass driver. This firearm delivers arcanium infused slugs at blinding speed. Before the invention of these devices the most advanced weapon was the bow and arrow. The variant 2 mass driver basically fires explosive shells, granted the explosive element is derived from the mystical element arcanium.

Now, for the development process of this illustration.

The drawing started as an doodle in Alchemy. At this point there was no goal with the design, just sketching random shapes.

Then my friend Dima, who was hanging out that night, saw what I was doing and asked to play with Alchemy. I let him, embracing the concept of not falling in love with my work. It was his idea to give the character 4 arms. At this point the figure had no place, just a continued doodle.

I imported the sketch into Photoshop. Here I threw in a photo of an overcast horizon I found via a Google image search. I then started painting in the value and refined geometry of the figure. I also removed the second set of arms. Sorry Dima. At this stage I had the idea of making this piece a supporting asset for my book. Thus the addition of the lion facade to the gun.

I added color through an overlay later, keeping the same value from before. I went with a bluish grey for most of the armor, with golden yellow accents and finally red for the fabric and top of the helmet.

Credit: The final piece has specific aesthetic elements from a steampunk rifle I found on DeviantArt. It's hands down one of the coolest guns I've ever seen. Check it out here: http://johnsonarms.deviantart.com/art/Steampunk-Rifle-Outdoors-Photo-2-284228206

Refined Art Style for Echoes

It's been quite a while since I had a chance to work on my book. Lot's of life to deal with.

I'm starting to once again schedule time to rekindle momentum on the project. And so with that I present the refined art style.

Some of you may recall this Spread. The obvious difference is the new dependence on line work for fore-mid ground elements. I'm blocking out complete shadows in pure black; a happy side-effect of which is the drastic shift in contrast. So if printed in black and white, the piece will still read very well.

See?

I've been reading a lot of Batman New 52 graphic novels and have been reminded of my love for the genre. When I was in High School I sometimes thought about becoming a comic book artist. I never looked into it, but being an author never occurred to me, and look at me now.

6 Leg Tails

6 Legs Cat Drawing
Reference

Basic rough sketch over a light warm background. I see this thing being a type of transportation for a primitive culture.

Started in on refining the look on a new layer.

More detail on the same layer.

Finished the first pass of line work and added some tinted core value via color on a Multiply layer.

Final 6 Leg sketch. I didn't want to overdo it as it was basically a study in the first place.

Working on live Web apps

I'm working on updating the eWebsitemaker content and I'm running into the same issue that I always do. Where changes aren't showing up on the internet. I need this to be done before I have to go to work at 1PM, but the server doesn't seem to refresh instantly.

When I work on my own projects deployed on my FTP server changes are instant. I prefer working remotely, but the SoNet platform has no way to deploy a testing area so this is the only way to do it. It's literally the worst setup because it creates massive exposure, especially if there's a technical problem to fix.

Back in the office

Today is my first day back at Kelly's Sports. I'm not working full time, just here working off the car payment for the Acadia. It's 9 hours a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm not earning a paycheck, so it's a wash.

Luckily I am still able to work on my own projects in between customer calls. Unfortunately I'm not working on my own computer so I'm lacking all the software like Photoshop and Illustrator. I'm not allowed to install any additional software on this workstation, but I can access the web and if I bring my external hard drive and dock I should be able to access most of the documents I need to continue doing my web design work.

Without Dreamweaver to help guide my HTML writing I will have to work in Notepad. This should be interesting.

It will take me a few couple weeks to figure out my workflow here. Regarding my book I plan on blocking out the sketches at home and printing out the rough ideas. I can bring tracing paper and refine the concepts with pencil and ink. Then I can take those drawings home, scan them and continue the paint over process on my Cintiq at night.

All in all I am optimistic about this. The extra $600 that I don't have to pay will help out a lot with the last of the wedding expenses. I know Jamie is happy about that.

Much work ahead

Tonight I'm starting work on 2 completely new website projects care of Diamond Group Marketing.

I swear; working in web design isn't only about understanding web languages like HTML and CSS, but also becoming knowledgeable with  multiple web platforms. Understanding how to work with Wordpress and even custom built platforms has become part of the job description.

Unfortunately I can't charge for time spent "learning" a new system. I have to learn on the fly and limit exposure to funky technical issues that may arise.

And this is the main reason I prefer working my own way. From the ground up using the web authoring tools I'm familiar with.

In the next few months I'm going to invest into learning how to use Adobe Muse. Then I might be able to charge a premium price for delivering visually engaging and dynamic content without focusing so much on code.

Turning a familiar leaf

After hanging out yesterday with Justin, who is soon heading south to Los Angeles for a life changing career move, I have made a decision that I'm oddly familiar with. I will be putting forth a considerable amount of attention into managing my time and making the most of the opportunities I have throughout the day to get more work done.

I would elaborate further, but that would just take away from said time. So let's go to work!