Monday, 23 February 2009

Tomb Render




I'm not the biggest Tomb Raider fan but having received the latest game, Underworld, for Christmas, I booted it up and found myself once again enjoying the exploration aspects of the game - as I did with the first few games many years ago. So, as with most things I find an interest in, I decided to channel my emotions into something a little more creative.



This painting started out as any other speedpaint, but while I was perusing a Tomb Raider forum, I stumbled upon a thread filled with photos of real hardcore fans in Tomb raider costumes. I thought some of them made great reference poses so I asked one member if I could use her photo for the above painting. It's probably as close to a finished piece (without actually being final) as I get so I guess it falls under the category of a speed-plus-paint.

Monday, 2 February 2009

Helm's Deep...




...That is, deep sea diving helmets - not that place out of The Lord of the Rings. :)

Sunday, 1 February 2009

Saturday, 3 January 2009

Winter Spirits: Photo Session

Reading some classic ghost stories over the past few days seems to have infected the very air around me. It was very cold today and I had every intention of staying in bed until noon, but once I had glanced out of the window, that idea was dashed and I rushed to charge up my phone (unfortunately I don't have a dedicated camera). The thick fog that hung in the air, coupled with the ground frost, made a trip into the woods and briers a must. So off I trotted to commune with the crows, and the odd dog walker...


Nice crystal formations.


The odd stubborn leaf still clings to a tree. I suspect the frost is probably aiding this rebel, but I do not want to belittle his achievement. :)


His fallen comrades feel nice underfoot, though.


A tree snuggling up to... itself! It must be colder than I thaught.



Bally can keep his seat. It seems a bit too frosty for my butt!


Out of about 80 photo's this is possibly my favorite: A mutilated, but proud-looking tree stands in a clearing. This is the highest point of the woods and you might be able to make out the pale blue sky above the fog line.


The sun starts to set and I'm blown away by the colour.


Ooh, very gothic looking.



Climbing down from the top of the hill, the sun is lost in the fog. Possibly an alternative cover to Anne Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest? ;-)



In an open grassland area I was half expecting to see the ghosts of past Impressionist masters trying to capture the lighting effects with brush and canvas, but I had to settle for the odd phantom dog that came bounding out of the fog.



Let's play spot the dog!



Bodies of plague victims are buried under this particular patch of land.


The last photo I took, and a fitting 'end of the line' subject: This is actually the end of an old towpath beside a series of canal locks which have long been filled in.

Thursday, 1 January 2009

Winter Spirits


While tradition seems to indicate I should be looking to the future and what this new year may bring, I can't seem to shake the nostalgic feeling I have today. And while I am indeed looking forward to the warmer months ahead, I'm also trying to squeeze in a little ghost story session before I go back to work. I missed out on the traditional Christmas Eve slot so I decided to dig out an old anthology of victorian ghost stories to curl up in bed with later on.

Sorting through my christmas cards ready for recycling, I noticed a distinct lack of those beautiful old winter scenes that look rather bleak and brooding when compared to the current trend of chirpy little robins, cuddly bearded men and bright sparkly things - usually with some kind of humorous undertone. There's nothing wrong with these things, and I can see why people would rather send more overtly 'happy' cards, but I didn't even receive one of those quaint victorian scenes of figures skating on a frozen lake while a horse drawn coach passes by. At least meet me half way, guys. You're supposed to be my friends! :-D

I know that in many art circles these picture postcard paintings are frowned upon in much the same way as the work of Constable is undermined by sticking The Hay Wain on every other biscuit tin. But I rather like the bleaker ones - particularly when I received a card a few years ago that had the same painting on the cover as a book of M.R. James ghost stories I have. Classy.

So while I was thinking about the amalgamation of christmas cards and the tradition of ghost stories I decided to knock up an example of the sort of christmas card I would like to receive in future (take note relatives & friends). I might do a few more of these before I snuggle up in bed with my book.

Tuesday, 23 December 2008

DSG: 1439


Latest Daily Sketch Group topic: Seasonal/Lovecraftian • CTHULHU STANDS IN FOR SANTA CLAUS. I must admit I'm not really a big fan of the whole Santa thing, but Cthulhu is another matter so this topic was fun. Go Tentacles!

Saturday, 20 December 2008

Colour Choices

One of a few speedpaints I did to try and pin the background composition and colour for the cover of my ongoing .pdf Dragonlance project. My usual love for muted browns are there but I played around a little and added touches of cool purple and warmer, slightly more saturated pinks. A subtle change, but one that marks the begining of my growing fondness of exploring complimentary (but very subtle) colours that absolutely do not appear in the reference photo.
I intend to add a figure on the crevice to the left fighting off an airborne creature to the right before I start refining, but looking at the speedie now, I have distinctly different feelings about the image than I had when I started. Even subtle colour changes seem to be exasperatingly devastating (in a positive way) to my initial subconcious reactions to the picture. Hmm...

Thursday, 11 December 2008

Wednesday, 10 December 2008

Shiny Things


Having a go at painting shiny surfaces on my DS. I was really drawn to the orange on this bike.

Sunday, 23 November 2008

Growth Rate

An afternoon walk provided me with a visual update on the state of a spot of land currently being reclaimed by mother nature. The rate at which moss and weeds take advantage of cracks and crevices on reclaimed land is very pleasing. It inspired me to have a little fun with a photo of a street in Kobe City, Japan.

The cool thing about many Japanese residential streets is how the citizens seem to love putting plant containers on every available surface, so you already get a feeling of how things would be given time.

Saturday, 22 November 2008

FFVII: MP


I booted up Final Fantasy VII (again) last week as I was feeling rather ill, and needed a familiar comfort zone to take my mind off the amorphous mass of thick, heavy snot that seemed to be in a constant state of mutation inside my head. It's rather amusing to look back on the times in my life when I thaught I had the flu. Now that I have actually had a good solid dose of the real mccoy (including the inability to walk properly for a few days) I see the error in my judgement. The distinction between a bad cold and a case of flu couldn't be clearer.

Cold = poor mans influenza

Anyway, playing FFVII again gave me the incentive to do a spot of fan art - complete with bad shoulderpad placement to throw the anatomy way off. Hey, I was ill damnit!