Scriars Art

2012-01-31T10:49:00.003Z

Development work for macmillan 2012

2012-01-21T00:55:00.001Z

The 2 older brothers

Currently starting off my designs for the Macmillan children’s book competition. This year Ive decided rather than write my own story to adapt one of the Grimm brother stories. Ive chosen ‘The Queen Bee’ due to how open the story is to interpretation.

These are my initial designs for the 2 older brothers in the story, literally the only description of them is that there’s 2, they are older, and brothers, lol You can also probably gather from the story they are brutish and bit of a douche, so I kept this in mind whilst doing the initial designs. I’m thinking of developing number 4 and 7 at the moment.

Worth noting I guess that I also did a bunch of head, and initial pencil sketches before this stage. So I knew I wanted to go in a 'cartoony' direction for this project. I'm hoping to have something similar to the quality of Jonny Duddles 'The Pirate Catcher' Which I brought recently, really like the illustrations, design of the book and story. I don't think I would of done Macmillan this year if I hadn't seen this book, it definitely tipped me over the fence so to speak lol

2012-01-09T21:55:00.001Z

High resolution of my Final Corrupted Night Elf illustration.

2012-01-08T11:32:00.002Z

A shot design I finished just before xmas, haven't posted it here yet. And a corrupted night elf 'fan art' I am currently working on as something different to do :) If you like you can check out my CA sketchbook for more updates/iterations. http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=130388&page=6

Im currently keeping up to date, a CA sketchbook, a Tumblr blog, this blog, a deviant art account, a cghub account and a facebook page lol I think I have the whole internet exposure thing covered, oh wait I still haven't posted any art in my cgsociety account lol

2011-12-26T21:36:00.004Z

7 deadly sins finals
and Forest stream speedpainting.

Update: Have been using other blogs lately so Ive neglected this one. Heres my 7 deadly sins finals and a personal painting that I did to try something different with my rendering.

2011-12-03T21:16:00.001Z

Version 2 of my Lust illustration. Mostly aesthetic changes such as the circular wall to add another geometric shape to the composition which helps to frame the points of interest and makes the picture more dynamic I think.

My tutor suggested changing the colour of the bull as it introduces envy into the picture which confuses the meaning. Because I changed it to blue I decide to change the colours of the floor and skin tones so that they relate better to the rest of the image.

Made the female figure larger as she wasnt dominant enough in the picture considering she is the main point of interest next to the bull in the previous image she appeared subservient due to the decreased size in comparison.

I couldn't figure out how to get the tongue that's licking the lips to stand out more without zooming in, so I guess that part has failed.

2011-12-02T17:36:00.001Z

Version 2 of Envy

My assessment is just over a week away since I finished early Im going back and improving my illustrations. If I can I want to completely redo pride so need to get these smaller tweaks out of the way.

For envy I have made the following additions:

- my tutor felt it would help improve the narrative of the illustration if the witch was being enveloped in a green light to help emphasize that the witch is being lost in her envy.

- He also pointed out the shadow under the widow was too long, and the texture of the table was too 'planky' like floor boards. So Ive tried to address those critiques.

- I decided I would improve the narrative of the illustration and create more visual interest by adding letters and a book (if you zoom in its entitled snow white and the 7 dwarves ;p ) floating in the water like substance. This is to add movement, and to emphasis the witches life is flowing away as she is lost in her envy.

2011-11-27T17:54:00.001Z

Envy


Wrath

My Final for the 7 Deadly sins. Envy was a take on snow white where the wicked witch says ' who is the fairest of them all' and wrath is fairly obvious, the bears are the associated animal of wrath.

Glad I have finished this series, Ive decided not to go back and improve each one, I dont really have the time, and I would rather move on to other things using what I have learned from these illustrations.

2011-11-20T16:51:00.001Z

Lust Final illustration

Lust final, apart from the obvious symbolisms ;p the bull is often associated with lust, moreover I have made this bull an Ankh bull, which in Egyptian mythology was associated with fertility which I felt was appropriate for this illustration.

Now I have Wrath and Envy left to do, I finished all of my development work the other day so I can just go straight into the finals. Brought my self an Intuos4 large, hopefully it will arrive on Monday. Apart from the fact it looks amazing lol it should help reduce the problems I have with Tendinitis as I won't be using my wrist as much.

2011-11-13T14:06:00.001Z

warm up speedies.

2011-11-11T23:15:00.001Z

Gluttony Final

Finally finished this illustration depicting Gluttony. The symbolisms for this one are fairly self explanatory so I don't think I need to list them lol

Just have Envy, Wrath and Lust left now.

2011-11-09T13:46:00.000Z

Sloth Final illustration

This is my final illustration for Sloth. The symbolisms for this one are the fairy is generally seen as a very playful creature, fun, carefree etc, and so I thought she would pride subtle hints to sloth, and of course the cliche of the fact she is a asleep is there, to help communicate the idea. The goat is the associated animal for Sloth hence why she is sleeping on him.

I thought that the back lighting with overcast provides a more dramatic scene whilst also suggesting dusk, subtle shadows are created as a result, and a general attemp to make a really relaxed lighting scheme to help the sloth like feel.

I decided to blur the background to bring focus on the characters, and give the idea that the eyes are sleepy still and thus everything that you arent looking at is blurry as a result.

And on another note Ive just passed my driving theory test :) So I now have one less thing to worry about.

2011-11-05T19:43:00.005Z

Final 2

Improved my previous illustration a bit. Its actually a illustration for Greed, not Gluttony, although they are very similar. Corrected the text on the last one to correspond with that.

2011-11-03T22:46:00.004Z

Greed Final

Finished another of my 7 deadly sin illustrations. As you can see I've change the style completely, I wanted to try a more painterly approach, and I feel the illustration works better this way, rather than the stiff/digital looking Pride illustration that I did previously.

This approach was inspired by Frank Frazettas work, and the 'Barbarian' illustration by Maciej Kuciara.

As for symbolisms this one is more obvious than the Pride one I think. There is a frog as the central character, as Greed according to my research is represented by the frog. Hes overweight, and has donuts on his spear when he clearly does not need more food. I tried to make his mouth look like its watering to imply he wants more food.

As a direct contrast to this I have a anorexic looking male figure reaching out for food in the foreground, the fact the frog has food is there to emphasize his greed and lack of caring for others. Also as you can see in the background theres some sundaes lol

Had trouble with the anatomy, still don't think it looks right, and the colours seem to have gone a bit muddy towards the end. Ahh well, have to move on as I still have 5 more illustrations to do on top of all my other work. Hopefully I'll have time before the hand in to be able to go back and fix up my illustrations.

2011-10-30T15:05:00.002Z

Work in progress 2

This is my current progress on the Pride illustration. I think that I'll move on to the designs for the other illustrations now, as I am in danger of having to rush them all towards the end. Can come back later to finish this one up.

I've added another symbolism as you can see at the bottom of the illustration, it was brought on by an accidental slip of the mouse when using the smudge tool. I realised it adds this sort of fake-ness, melting away that can be associated with prideful and vain people who have plastic surgery. I've also suggested that he is standing on a pedestal, and that as you move away from the character the colours are getting cooler to suggest he is radiating.

2011-10-26T22:18:00.001+01:00

Initial watercolour

The part were I completly messed up

Digital version wip

Gustave dore, lucifer tattoo (as he fell due to pride)

This is my current progress for the pride final illustration. I initally intended to go from traditional mediums to digital but it didnt work out too well when I got to the gouache stage, I believe because I stupidly tried to use the gouache like acrlic and forgot how opaque it was, result very muddy frustrated mess lol Started to fix it up in photoshop and realised it would be easier to just start again.

So I used the scanned drawing I posted previously as a base point to paint the character digitally instead. This is the work in progress so far, and a close up of the tattoo which I probably should of left till last, ahh well you live and learn.

Hopefully ill get this finished up tomorrow, after my tutorial. And then can move onto my other characters. I want to try and get this project done relativly quickly due to the amount of work I want to do/have to do this year.

Driving theory test is booked now as well for the 9th November, so studying like mad. Pixalated videos for the hazard theory are starting to drive me nuts :S Starting to consistently pass them though, and my practical driving lessons are going well, so fingers crossed lol

2011-10-25T00:04:00.002+01:00


Pride - illus320 character

This is my character design for the 7 deadly sin - Pride. Some of the symbolism: The armour points upwards showing how he tries to be more importent, his pose looking up whilst standing on someone else, the horses on his armour - pride is represented by a horse according to my research. The peacock feathers in the hair, a mirror in his belt.

Im going to add a tattoo which ive indicated on his arm, of lucifer since he fell from heaven due to his pride, and another tattoo on his forearm of a peacock feather. Then lastly ive given him loopy laces to show he is fussy with every little detail, the guy he is standing on is going to be in a business suit and is overweight to show corporate greed and the ruthless rise to power.

Oh and the armour is meant to emphasise his form because he is vain. Now to paint this one and do 6 more, study for my driving theory in a few weeks, and oh did I mentioned I have a dissertation, visual diary, and 2 competitions to do as well? lol

2011-10-16T13:24:00.003+01:00

Lizardlike creature set

Trying out a sketching method I saw on Feng Zhus latest video. Quite liked drawing this way might try it more often.

As for subject matter I just had the loose idea of designing 3 lizard like characters that each represent a different class of character in a game, so theres a warrior, a shaman/mage like character, and a brute.

2011-10-12T18:26:00.001+01:00

This Illustration has bugged me to no end lol I decided to try and improve it, feel I have done all I can with it now. Really dont like the legs and generally the bottom half of the image, and I feel the colours are muddy again, anyway could pick apart this image all day ;) Hopefully its not too dark, I think my monitor is working correctly now.

Going to be starting my dissertation soon, and my illus320 thematic module. For that I am going to illustrate the 7 deadly sins as characters, I feel my self made brief needs a context of what are the characters for so will have to think on that. Leaning towards games, but might try something different such as for skateboard decks.

2011-09-28T10:26:00.002+01:00

Readjusted the levels of my final as it was quite dark for some reason, I think my new monitor may incorrectly calibrated.

2011-09-27T21:49:00.000+01:00

Elf Warrior final Illustration

Heres the final illustration of the elf warrior, tried to get as much done as I can as I am going to be quite busy with university work so wont have the time to work on it.

2011-09-25T11:29:00.002+01:00

Starting to add the details

Update for my elf warrior. Just adding more details now, improving the design of the weapons and armour, further definition to the hands and face. And adding some more definition to the lights and darks, and improving the form of the leg around the knee.

Upped the resolution of the character to 300 now so I can start defining everything, hence why it starts to get blurry when you look closely. But I feel this will give me more edge control, and an easier time at adding focus to different areas.

Haven't made any progress on my other illustration, think ill just leave it for now. Finish this one and then work on the other one when I get time. Starting my third and final year of illustration tomorrow, so I'm going to be quite busy. Cant wait to start though, should be a challenging but fun year.

Part of the reason I am working on my illustrations in such high resolution is partly because we are expected to do art stands this year so I need ot make my illustration ready for print. So far that involves making sure im using colours that will actually print, painting at a high resolution. And making sure that the illustration will hold up at my preferred print size of A3.

2011-09-23T18:36:00.001+01:00

Second colour pass, and some more definition. Think Im ready to up the resolution now and start working on the details, further definition etc

2011-09-23T12:28:00.002+01:00

First colour pass of my elf warrior. Change the hair a bit as I didnt like the design. Think im going to give it lots of earth colours to give a forest/woodland elf vibe.

2011-09-22T15:38:00.003+01:00

Finished Sketch of Elf Warrior

This is the finished sketch of my Elf Warrior character. I think Ill start adding colour to it now. Trying to get lots of interesting shadows onto the character, and have a couple of different types of textures to challenge myself.

Keeping with trying to improve my narrative aspect of illustration by adding little rings, tokens, and so on. Also playing with the contrast of value and detail.

If you notice as well Ive added a little arrow for the light direction, who knew doing something so simple would make the lighting easier to understand haha

Didnt realise I can add captions to photos, really like this new blogger layout much easier to post things.

2011-09-21T21:07:00.003+01:00

Update.

First picture is my first pass at colour, and some more design added trying out working from the back to the front. I think I prefer my usual method of working the whole picture at once.

Decided to change the composition as you can see on the second picture, I think putting the characters closer together, and overlapping more of the elements is going to make for a more intense illustration. Just trying out different things at the moment. Tried to get the character design of the dragon and his rider done as he was the main focus of the illustration. Definitely going to change the design of the blood mage. And I just indicated the figure in the bottom left. It was meant to be a thief who's been startled by the dragon and the bag of coins she was stealing breaks and smashes on the floor.

I think it doesn't really work with my new direction so will probably change it. Perhaps making her recoil from the site of the beheaded beast or perhaps more involved with the potential fight. I don't think they'll be that much blood in the final, it was just an indicator to work out an idea I had for a potential composition element.

Also started working on a elf warrior as you can see she is in the initial sketch stage at the moment, no idea why I started drawing her. I was just practicing the planes of the face as I was having trouble with my main illustration and it just happened lol So I now have 2 illustrations on the go at once ;) They are for my own study anyway so it doesn't matter if it means I spend more time on them.

p.s I have the Internet now as well, yay lol

2011-09-14T12:18:00.000+01:00

Hi sorry for the lack of updates I haven't had access to the Internet for a long time, currently posting from my university library. Didn't realise I was getting so much traffic on my blog (1k plus views most from early September it seems) So I guess I should be updating more haha

I kept repainting and redesigning the dragon from the previous post but have decided to leave that painting to rest I didnt really think it out and the painting suffered as a result. So Ive decided to just start from scratch with a different idea for an illustration with a dragon in.

I decided to really focus on the narrative aspects of the painting, and also try and add multiple figures. As I find figures particularly hard so the best way of fixing that is to paint lots of them right? Part of the reason of doing this as well is due to my dissertation that I have to do for my final year. I am thinking of exploring the narrative aspects of illustration, maybe with the title ''Do pictures speak a thousand words' or some such lol

I recently have been looking at the dungeons and dragons art with more in depth analysis of Todd Lockwood's and Ralph Horsleys paintings that have a lot of action and little story elements, so I want to try and put that study to use :)

This is the initial sketch before I do the clean up drawing to make it ready for painting. I'm trying to keep my process for painting the same at the moment as it makes it easier to tackle the different aspects of the painting and to help with the consistency of quality of the paintings.

I feel that I produce better work when I start from sketch and clean it up as well. At the moment I'm probably going to do the clean up sketch working out the little details etc ready for for paint. Then ill do a value painting like I did with my dominance war V entry.

2011-08-05T11:25:00.003+01:00

Dragon painting Im working on at the moment, not sure what I want to do with it yet hence why its just a loose sketch. Lack of updates is due to not having a scanner, mostly im just doing anatomy studies focusing on gestures, and trying to improve my line control in my pencil drawings, which will hopefully translate to my digital work as well.

2011-06-23T16:58:00.001+01:00

Entry for this months Gnomon competition, subject for the month is 'Forest Edge'

2011-06-14T15:30:00.003+01:00

Speedpainting Ive been working on on and off, at the start I was thinking of taking it to finish but I got rather bored of it. Plus ive been reading the song of fire and ice series just finished reading them all, 5 books in just over a week cant wait for the 12th July (for the new book) lol

2011-05-16T15:29:00.002+01:00

My Dominance War V entry, final illustration, workflow sheet, and model sheet. Still plan to work on the edges, texture and background for the final illustration but this is the version I am handing in for my final assessment.

2011-04-18T23:41:00.001+01:00

Quick late night speedpainting :)

2011-04-09T15:48:00.002+01:00

Finally finished this painting.

2011-04-09T00:02:00.002+01:00

Update on Sorceress painting. Also I now have a portfolio website: http://scriarsart.carbonmade.com/

2011-04-06T21:41:00.002+01:00

Some more progress on the sorceress.

2011-04-06T00:19:00.003+01:00

Work in progress of a painting Ive been doing on and off for the last couple of days, Ive restarted it so many times and wasnt quite sure what I wanted it to be at first other than I wanted it to be better than any I have done before haha Ive learnt a lot from the process, I think now I am going to try and turn it into a portfolio piece.

2011-03-17T22:16:00.001Z

Speedpainting that I did this morning, trying to do more character paintings, and personal paintings/drawings so that im not just doing university related work all the time.

2011-03-10T19:41:00.000Z

illus241 final

2011-02-20T23:33:00.001Z

Entry for the gnomon competition.

2010-12-02T00:50:00.001Z

Front cover for illus210

Back cover for illus210

Watercolour and pen final illus210 page design

2010-11-30T16:42:00.000Z

pen and watercolour drawing i just finished for illus210

2010-11-05T21:29:00.001Z

2 more digital sketches for my project.

2010-11-04T21:55:00.001Z

Digital sketch Ive just done for my project, will upload my traditional stuff once i have time to convert them to small files.

2010-10-18T08:49:00.003+01:00

Digital sketch I did of my warus character, yeah I did name it something that lame ;)

Will update this blog once I get around to taking pictures of all my work for this project theres quite a lot :)

2010-10-07T09:40:00.002+01:00

New character for my project, looked a bit like a turd at the start due to the brown colour scheme thought it best to change it lol

2010-10-03T21:17:00.005+01:00

Bunch of stuff for my illus210 project.

2010-08-30T21:04:00.001+01:00

Bear study

2010-08-28T19:58:00.002+01:00

My blog got click jacked a few weeks ago but Ive just fixed it, I think :D

Heres some paintings I did recently. Ones an entry for this months gnomon competition, and the other I did today is a painting of a wolf.

2010-06-24T10:30:00.000+01:00

made a few adjustments to the last picture

2010-06-21T23:26:00.000+01:00

Gnomon monthly challenge entry : rustic inn

2010-06-17T12:34:00.001+01:00

Portrait study

2010-06-13T16:22:00.003+01:00

Two watercolours I did for my location module at uni.

2010-06-08T15:27:00.001+01:00

Portrait study

2010-06-04T20:58:00.001+01:00

Final, could do more but sick of the picture lol

2010-06-01T21:08:00.001+01:00

Step 3 - final underpainting.

Step 4 - initial colour pass

2010-05-29T23:50:00.004+01:00

Something Ive been working on.

Step 1

Step 2

Will hopefully get around to tightening the rendering and then colouring it at some point.

2010-05-13T23:36:00.000+01:00

2010-04-24T14:55:00.002+01:00

2010-04-17T22:59:00.002+01:00

Final image for my location project for uni. Would like to do more, ill have to see how my wrist/arm hold up.

2010-04-14T21:04:00.003+01:00

Speedpainting for uni project.

2010-04-12T22:12:00.000+01:00

doodling since ive been doing a boring ass essay all day lol

2010-03-18T17:01:00.000Z

Playing around with Maciej Kuciaras' brushes

2010-03-12T16:52:00.001Z

Mushroom cave speedpainting, about 45 minutes.

2010-03-12T16:42:00.001Z

Quicky for my location drawing project at uni

2010-02-21T19:13:00.002Z

Different crop and slight alterations to previous painting, not sure if it works better this way or not.

2010-02-13T21:19:00.001Z

Doodling, trying a different approach to painting.

2010-02-11T20:30:00.000Z

First proper speedpainting I guess of 2010

2010-01-18T21:55:00.000Z

Doodling- first personal painting of 2010 ;p

2009-12-15T21:29:00.000Z

My final version, would like to do more but dont have time.

2009-12-13T20:07:00.001Z

WIP for let it snow, gnomon competition, hopefully I get it done before I go home for xmas :)

2009-12-09T22:38:00.001Z

Rendered for a bit longer

2009-12-06T22:21:00.001Z

Waterscape

2009-12-04T20:21:00.001Z

doodle - for some reason its come out very bright on this screen.

2009-11-22T13:50:00.001Z

Finally finished, to the best of my ability atleast ;p

2009-11-21T16:02:00.004Z

Collaboration between myself and Tim Douel. Original line work by Tim, digital painting by me. Still have a bit more polish to do on this one.

2009-11-08T12:37:00.001Z

Brush test, ;p

2009-10-23T21:18:00.000+01:00

Speed painting, sort of a surrealist I guess.

2009-10-19T08:05:00.004+01:00

This is for a university project where we had to include the object we have been drawing for various briefs over the weeks in a scene that would relate to a phrase picked from a list. This one is for 'A dead...' My object is a scalpel. The first part of this project was the 'ghost of...' its a traditional piece so I cant show it at the moment.

2009-10-11T13:48:00.004+01:00

A Tshirt I designed, Ive had it made on http://www.zazzle.co.uk/ My Tshirt is on sale here

2009-10-07T21:02:00.000+01:00

Rusty robot lol

2009-09-26T17:23:00.000+01:00

More smudge tool abuse :)

2009-09-25T20:29:00.000+01:00

New speedpainting, first one from university ;p

2009-08-24T22:21:00.000+01:00

Quicky before bed about an hour.

2009-08-20T16:55:00.001+01:00

Something Ive been working on, about 2 and half hours so far.

2009-07-28T18:10:00.000+01:00

Finally finished, about 3 and half hours in total.

2009-07-24T09:55:00.000+01:00

About 2 hours, will probably finish at some point.

2009-07-15T18:03:00.001+01:00

My first attemp at a Pen and Marker drawing. I was more interested in seeing what the marker could do so I didnt notice the lobsided buildings ;p

2009-07-12T17:41:00.000+01:00

final version for dragon rider contest

2009-07-10T13:25:00.000+01:00

Quick doodle about 25 mins.

2009-07-09T13:35:00.001+01:00

My image for the monthly Gnomon challenge, character and creature design are definitely not one of my strong points lol

edit: fixed problem with hand.

2009-07-06T10:26:00.002+01:00

Spent another hour or so on the 40 minute speedpaint from the other day.

2009-07-02T19:57:00.001+01:00

30-40 min speedpaint.

2009-06-26T17:19:00.001+01:00

40 minute speed paint

2009-06-25T12:53:00.001+01:00

some life drawing of my grandad and my dog, both sleeping at the same time lol

2009-06-23T17:00:00.007+01:00

Heres some of my older studies.

2009-06-22T12:20:00.000+01:00

Hi I decided to try this blogging thing, hopefully I will keep it updated. First post is a entry for the Gnomon workshop community contest.

I started this image very abstract, picking shapes from the random mess I caused with custom brushes. Defined the image as I went along, and finally added colour with gradient maps, and overlays.

Also edited the image with a quick title for a basic banner to make the blog look a bit better.