Thursday, December 27, 2012

Holidays - YEAH!

Haven't posted in awhile, been pretty swamped with year end work and (steamsales). I have a couple of pics started up in a rough state ready for the next steps, which hopefully I will get more time this holiday to get jamming on :D

Otherwise! Have had a pretty awesome Christmas, spending time with families who have adopted me in a bid to use me as a storage device for all the food - its a mutual benefit, so no complaints. At all. Hope it was as good a day for you and your families!

Here's some stuff I've done in between work and life:

A scribble that started during work breaks turned into a sweaty, body cleaving, waddle of fat.



Varna, from Digital Devil Saga - why Shin Megami Tensei games are the best inspiration for weird designs.

Rough draft for a piece I want put together soon.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The Loser


Sometimes in life, you lose the fight.

You're not the greatest looker out there; it doesn't make it any better that the opponent took a bite out of your ear; your cheap cigar is falling apart; and your head is bleeding like a stuck pig...

...but sometimes all you need is a beautiful girl to give a damn, pour heaps of stinging alcohol on your wounds, and laugh away your frustrations.

This goes out to everyone who's lost a fight once out there and the beautiful girls who helped them pick their asses up with the aid of laughs and rubbing alcohol - especially my girlfriend Tamryn, who uses that rubbing alcohol with much zeal.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Eat your heart out

Nothing drastically new here, just a piece that I completed a little while ago and forgot to upload - FB friends may have already seen this one, bear with me whilst I give it some pimping again :D
ALSO, no story this time - I simply in that state of thinking whilst on those long international flights, and 'girls', 'blood' and 'hearts' seem to come together quite nicely, so I hit the Wacom when I got home and this came out.

Whilst I'm at it - saw The Dark Knight Rises and was thoroughly entertained; I dare say more than The Dark Knight, but all the more reason to go through and rewatch them all again...got a feeling this may show up in this blog sooner or later.

Take care and stay cool!




Saturday, June 30, 2012

The A Bao A Qu

I'm quite used to starting something up, either a art website account or a blog, and slip into long hibernations of....nothing - and then coming back an apologizing. Well not today, I'm skipping the formalities and moving straight on to posting art.

Struggling a bit as of late to carve out the time to actually make art at the moment, either not having the schedule or not having the tools - but when all else fails, there is no excuse to just grab a pencil and sketchbook and just start jamming in there. It helps nowadays to 'declog' my mind with the current increase of brain trash - things and concerns that I need to learn to not worry myself with as they only inevitably lead to demotivation and a dent into creativity...which only demotivates more, and with less and less productivity, you kinda slip into a spiral. So priorities right now are getting out of that rut, and into a calmer, fulfilled and productive mindset.

One of my personal projects on the side to help keep my sanity is a illustrative guidebook to creatures and beings from myth and folklore; after being somewhat inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' 'Book of Imaginary Beings'. It's a great means to put in some research and reading into a creature and putting my own spin on how it looked, which really floats my boat. 


Starting at the very beginning is the 'A Bao A Qu' - a creature often left out of the traditional creature books which made the depiction of it all the more fun. The A Bao A Qu was an immortal entity from Malay mythology, which was said to reside within the Tower of Victory in Chittorgarh, India. This alien like creature slumbered at the base of the Tower's spiraled staircase, only awoken when a man begins to climb the stairs in the pursuit of reaching the top, where he will achieve the state of Nirvana. The A Bao A Qu closely and somewhat curiously follows the man, in a shapeless and translucent state, giving off a blue glow - becoming more defined, solid and colourful as the pair progress further and further up the Tower. As the climber becomes closer to achieving Nirvana, so does the A Bao A Qu become closer to reaching its perfect form; contorting and bending from it's multiple forms.

However, the climber almost always fails to reach the top of the Tower, and when the A Bao A Qu realizes this, it shrinks back, losing colour and form that it had developed, before falling down the staircase to the entrance again, where it again takes its shapeless and sleeping shape.

It is said that the A Bao A Qu's cry of failure is so soft it is as the rustling of silk, and when touched, it feels like the fuzz on the skin of a peach.



Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Mood: Hell Yeah

Feeling pretty damn good as of late - getting my creative juices all over the place when I get home, working on a new piece which I'm pretty excited about; taking a leaf out of the many legendary and imaginary creatures out there, only with my own twist/interpretation.

As before, I wanted to keep up with posting up my old pieces here whilst I finish my latest stuff (ie. buy some time so I don't look like a loser). Here's a couple of concepts I did around the same time as my environments - also on the 'game that never existed' path, I did a couple of unit concepts for the Four Horsemen idea I was running with back then. Wow I feel old just looking at them...

Enjoy, and keep cool!



Stalker concept, for Death Faction. Interestingly enough, has resemblance's to the Asari from Mass Effect - even more interestingly enough, I made her race's name 'Asrai' (as in the mythological beings) before I even realized the ME connection. Ah life.

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Man Eater concept, of the Dead Sun Cult, for the War Faction. Still wasn't sure where I was going with War guys, but when does Aztec architecture inspired stonework fused into flesh and a necklace of hands ever go wrong? When you have to take him around to your parents, that's when.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

This would be where I smash a champagne bottle

Spent all day drawing chocolate at work, so it got me in the mood to get back home and put some touches on my blog before I spam-post it into the great yonder. Sadly, no chocolate art - yet.

So here's the thing; I'm juggling a couple of ideas for pieces at the moment, but in the mean time I've really wanted to post up some of my older pieces I (for some reason) never posted up on my blog before I left it to rot.

Roll on the nostalgia - its really weird looking at old stuff and criticizing them the hell out, but at the same time its gotta be good to see the lengths an artist has come. I mean, if you're looking at something you did 5 years ago and you still think its the shit, then perhaps its time to start pushing the art schedule to overdrive. Or take a break - I won't be ashamed in saying I did.

Okay maybe a little...sigh.

Gonna start with a couple of quick environments I did for a conceptual exercise, where I imagined creating a game (probably an RTS) where the player could choose one of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Really wanted to push some stereotypes and break some new ground in my ideas. These were a couple of environments I did up for Death and Pestilence homelands.





...these ruins and remains of a nobility that cut itself from typical society and once worshiped Death as their god, teacher, and ultimately, saviour. They believed Death gave them power and authority - and the very woods they were based within seemed to move at their whim. Unknown to them, was that their "god" was already one known and worshiped by creatures and entities that called the forest their home - some even going as far as saying the forest itself was merely a disciple. 



When the nobles new found power reached their head and swollen ego over time, they sought to expand and attempt to domesticate the woods they once respected. What soon followed should have been no surprise to ones who all to recently called Death their master - inhabitants would disappear day or night, their bodies only found days later with wounds carved with bestial teeth, or in other cases, frozen and blue with cold. Fishermen and washerwomen spoke of horned silhouettes scrutinizing them from the trees; odd shapes reflected along the water; whispers, clicks and guttural howls that would turn blood into ice.

The nobles chose to ignore these simple warnings and despite pleading, pressed on with assaulting the forest.



What remains now is a mystery by all means - the pristine and elaborate walls that once stood high lie crumbled and entrapped with black vines. History books lie mute about this unknown nobility and only storytellers ever whisper of these Death worshipers and their untold fate - how their lands now lie overgrown, and only their colossal ceremonial statues of Death, their master, which ironically still stand tall amidst ruin, and how the trees seem to almost turn and point at these effigies. Some would dare go further to say that at night, bestial and unearthly shapes converge to these statues, almost if only to revel and worship their old god... 


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And my Pestilence picture, where I'm too tired to write a story for it. Deserts, diseases, insects infesting the well preserved dead and taking their bodies as hosts to wreak havoc on the living....you get the picture.

Stay classy and enjoy (and have fun), till next time!





Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Under Construction

Time to blow off the cobwebs and jumpstart my blog again - this time actually updating it with art...

I know, pretty bad choice for a header image but currently in a transition phase (read: trying to learn how to customize Blogger) and will be back shortly!

Heres to a busy and updated art blog!