Digital Paintings
The following works are a collection of paintings that I began work on while living in China. It has been an exciting ride seeing my skill set improve. There are so many incredible artist out there using so many different styles now and days it’s hard to keep up. But I will try to include a little blurb about each piece explaining the process and story behind it.
Found Nature Objects
Each of these is a 1.5 digital study meant to focus on the intricacies of nature. With texture explorations mixed with graphic design finishes.
Tonal Studies
The Big Chicken has landed, Pirate Cave, and Dragon at the Dog Park are all tonal studies meant to explore scale, lighting and how to create dynamic space within a composition.
Monster in Hiding
This black + white and texture illustration depicts a monster being hunted by knights. It’s using the piece of a castle it stole as a mask to hide its face.
I was in not the healthiest relationship when I did this painting and was feeling like I was walking on eggshells around my partner.
The Monkey King
Moving from traditional mediums into digital is a very important theme in these early works. This one is no different. I brought with me to China my box of chalk pastels and put down a large sheet of paper in the middle of the floor in my small room. I created this…. and it stayed there for months…
I got stuck on the city portion in the back, I couldn’t decide the coloring for the city. Should it be realistic or stylized? I knocked this digital painting out in a morning and with the layers, I was given room to explore the color of the background before committing to the final design.
Animals Go to Party in Space
I love telling the story behind this one. Ideas come from all over. One day my girlfriend and I were lying about and I told her ” Dear, I want to paint you a picture, got any ideas?” She wasn’t exactly an artist, but without hesitation she began telling me what she saw. I sketched ferociously these characters and their motivations until we had about 26 or so, the best ones made it to the party.
Kitty Cat: Who just wants everyone to look at her
Pink Hippo: Just wants to help everyone
Elephant: Arrive late because he work to much
Camel: He drink to much and must take nap
Tsunami vs Bullet Boy
I’ve always had a love for graffiti and over the top super moves. This painting allowed me to work on composing characters within a narrative. I am always trying to find that one vital moment of action, as if the painting is a movie that you hit the pause button on at just the right moment.
The 3D version was created during a class I was teaching. I was trying to get the students to model faster and to really translate their concept into 3D. This was done in about two hours.
The Force / Album Cover
This was a wonderful project to work on. This hip hop duo has won the South Carolina Artist of the Year award, and their upbeat and enlightened message is inspiring.
The concept included about as many odd references as one painting can take. They wanted Star Wars elements, and to have them both appear as Jedi. They also wanted all the mascots from the South Carolina football teams on the cover. As well as the two of them having a cook out on the inner coast.
Inside the Sleeve
When it came time to design the inside of the sleeve, I wanted to continue the Star Wars theme by using a Tie fighter design and modifying it to have a speaker on the front and showing a photo collage of their journey to this album. It was a good time getting to mix in some more 3D modeling into this project.
Wolfs Scouting
Anytime you search out werewolves on google or deviant art they are always howling at the moon or crouching about to strike. I wanted to paint them in full motion running with the pack.
Space Giants
This one should stand out to all the kids who grew up during the 1970s. This somewhat obscure children’s show featured some of the most radical designs from this period in costuming. It was really fun getting to update these characters and add a modern twist.
Cyclops at this point in the comics had turned into a mushy brooding character that was rarely given the spotlight as a warrior and leader for the X-men, I wanted this painting to help change that. It was a lot of fun showing the clouds clearing right after his blast.
Have a look at
Buffet Class Room
Concept work done an 3D animated series produced for Ori Animation in Suzhou China.
