Firefly Fanartica and some Random Bits

After neglecting the awesome Fanartica Tumblr fo far too long I decided i'd jump into their Joss Whedon theme for June and do some drawings for an Imaginary Firefly Animated movie. I'd watch the hell out of that btw just in case if anybody out there can make that happen...

Random Skeletor Challenge with my colleagues Carlos V. Dustin D. And Clayton S.

Nother random Challenge with the dudes.

JL

John Carter of Mars

Back in 2007 I was working at American Greetings alongside some extraordinary illustrators and creative thinkers. Back then the Sketch-o-rama blog was a way to vent the creative steam that builds up when your working on say...Care Bears or some such.

We had just heard of the Disney/Pixar John Carter of Mars deal and were psyched at the prospect, so much so that we all did our take on the fearsome Tars Tarkas ( James Groman and Carlos Villagra )

I opted for a longer leaner look for the Thark, less muscle bound than the iconic Frazetta
imagery.

It seemed to make sense that a 15 foot tall alien will be intimidating regardless of how ripped they were and it helped reinforce a sort of tribal theme I felt tied in well nicely with Burroughs description of the Tharks in "A Princess of Mars".

It was so much fun that I did a few MORE drawings to get the designs out of my system.

Variations on a theme. I moved the tusks from inside the mouth to the outside of the mandible and gave him a ridgy spinal protrusion to balance out the larger, engraved tusks.

I remember trying to find an approach that was true to my vision of the character at the time.

And this is the important part: While that vision might change, it's important to infuse as much of your art with your personal spirit and vision. In the end it's all that matters and will make your art stronger and vastly more appealing than anything conjured up to please someone else.

I spotted this image in a sneak peak article on io9:

                                                                 Tall skinny Tharks!!!



And then this screengrab of the very excellent trailer released yesterday:

I was lucky enough to meet Iain McCaig, Concept Artist, Master Storyteller and all around Force of Nature at this years' Illustration Master Class. During his presentation he talked about working the John Carter of Mars movies. THREE times with THREE different directors.

Ultimately he and his uber talented daughter, Mishi, also worked on this Disney Pixar version.

Can't wait to see it and congrats to all those involved in finally bringing this story to life.

Teaser Trailer

Shock and Awe

Updated: Scale reference

This weeks Artorder challenge. Here's the description:

Challenge #1
Concept Name: 'Shock and Awe' weapon
Due Date: April 26, 2009, Noon PST
Concept Description: In my D&D game last week, we had a moment that called for a 'shock and awe' moment. It was my job to run in with my Goliath Warden and set up that "Shock and Awe" moment. I kept wishing I had a weapon that would have helped with that task. Help me out please. Design a weapon that just screams death and destruction, or makes monsters pause before going up against someone wielding it. The only constraints, it has to be a fantasy based martial implement (swords, hammers, axes, etc.) and has to be wieldable by a 8 foot tall, 300 pound juggernaught of destruction. See what the D&D Goliath looks like here.

I've been playing some Soul calibur 4 and I think a little bit of the Soul Edge snuck in there. Hehe...the soul lives on...

I haven't designed a prop in a long while and I have to admit that this was a bit challenge. But i ended up having a blast: the research alone was worth it.

Bromides Continued

DRAGON-BORN:Evolved

This weeks ArtOrder entry, got carried away but it was also alot of fun.

Feedback, as always, is welcome.

Ptera-Gloth!!!!

Pteradactyl + Demon + Undead = Ptera-Gloth!!!

Check out the rest of the submissions on Tuesday at the Artorder blog.

ArtOrder Sketch 2:Bromide

My take on this weeks Artorder challenge.

I imagine the Bromide race as humanoid tribes that use Plants and fungus as a primary material. As they began to expand the use of the plants, a symbiotic relationship began to evolve. Now the Bromides ritualistically remove a limb as sacrifice and symbol and regrow a symbiotic replacement.

The breathing "graft" is also Symbiotic as the Bromide exhales the plant instantly converts the Co2 into oxygen, giving the wearer the ability to enter low Oxygen environments.

Construct

When is an image truly finished? I couldn't help myslef. These were done for the Artorder weekly themed sketch session.