Mattimeo Book Cover (DRAFT)

Seeing as the Redwall series, written by Brian Jacques, was the childhood obsession that drove me to a passion for illustration, it seems outrageous that I haven't done any fan-art of it in soo long. Redwall is my Lord of the Rings, lets just leave it at that.
I used to dream of being hired to do an illustrated re-print of the series, or at least doing some book covers. And now that I am older its inevitable that the covers would mature with me...I now have a more adult picture of the Redwall world, as opposed to the bright colourful one of my childhood. It's like I've moved on from the Batman: The Animated Series and gone onto Nolan's grimmer versions.  This isn't so far'fetched as the books themselves could be surprisingly dark at times, though Jacques wisely didn't go into gruesome detail and allowed your mind to go into as much detail as you wanted in your imagination (while still keeping it friendly for a younger audience). Cannibalism, warfare, sibling murders are some themes that have popped up. This book, Mattimeo, deals with child kidnapping, slavery, vengeance and attempted genocide.

Jesus, I'm giving a big lecture for a damn draft. I've had to put this on hold for a commission.

I Got Vamp'ed

This is the result of reading Hellsing manga and gallons of PIMMS cocktails. Just a quick digital sketch to get this out of my system. Also a good warm up for what I'm going to do next, a manga tribuit/tryout.



The Doubting Deep

A creature inspired by an Ink Blot.

The Mother

This is 2nd of 3 examples I am doing for a tutorial sheet on my ‘Splice’ technique. It’s basically a random ‘name-out-of-the-hat’ method to create unexpected paintings. I got Silverwing Character (Ariel) - Fictional Dog Breed - Renaissance style for this one.
 I have absolutely no idea about this one. I started painting it while I had a cold so this dragged on a long time due to my lack of energy.
This was good practise for hair/manes/fur, whatever the outcome was.



Ultimunlamiasaur Sketch

Sketch of a fictional (obviously) Vampire Tyrannosaur called Ultimunlamiasaur (Which Google Translates as 'The Last Vampire Lizard')

Was going to paint this but having a cold really brings your energy levels low. So this is just a sketch, good pratice on trying (and failing) Tyrannosaur anatomy.

Karyu'awkx Sketch

Was having a flick through a 'Feild Guide' for James Cameron's Avatar world and got the urge to draw one of my own creatures. This is Karyu'awkx (which in Na'vi means, "Cliff Teacher" - I think-), or Gargoyle in the English tongue, who dwells upon the mountains and rocky terrain of Pandora. It uses its 'bulb wings' to flash signals to other members of its species and its 'tentacles' for extra grip.

Psst, you forgot the extra limbs... Pandora creatures have 6 limbs!...
*face palm*

Failed Nouveau Work

I was going to do a nouveau styled piece, but by the time I had sketched the frame I felt the urge to do something else. That's the luxury of personal work, you can drop it if you feel like it.

The subject was going to be some sort of Crocodile-Horse hybrid, that looks more like a dragon, hence why there are a lot of bones/scales and the croc skull in the frame.

Demon's Demise

Illustration of the climax from the book, “Wolf Brother” by Michelle Paver, where the demon bear is washed away by an avalanche on the slopes of the Mountain of the World Spirit. God I love these books!
The red smoke/fire/thing is meant to be the demonic power leaving the bear, it was a good excuse to play with the smudge tool.

This is probably my best painting to date and is greatly inspired by the paintings of John Howe and his use of bold colours. His painting “Zirak Zigil” was a prominent influence, as you could probably tell by the colour scheme.

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