Tuesday, 26 June 2012

Ungatt Trunn Portrait




Back in 2010 I painted this monstrosity.


Urrrhh! *scrapes hands* unclean unclean! (but nice to see I actually have improved since then)

I have decided its about time that I re-painted it. Plus, I'm still in the Redwall mood from the last painting.
Above is the first fella, Ungatt Trunn. One of only two warlords to successfully invade and occupy their target.

He's a Scottish Wildcat (as in the books he was described as coming from the "Cold North" so he has that tartan wear and woad dye (but that's relevant for in the book he was Master of the Blue Hordes, who dyed their fur blue)... He also has an obsession with spiders...

Thursday, 21 June 2012

Mattimeo Poster


 I felt the need to get my previous painting printed to a glossy poster...and an excuse to try out Artflakes quality (could have gone for a smaller, less expensive size...meh! *shrug*)
It printed out darker than the original painting, but that's to be expected on a glossy 'photo' paper.

Saturday, 16 June 2012

Just A Little Speed Paint


Just a little speed paint of a character from the book featured in the previous post.

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

Mattimeo Book Cover

Not a real book cover, a fan-made one...


It feels good to be plunging into some Redwall art, like visiting an old friend. Must be how John Howe feels when he gets a Lord of the Rings painting.


Slagar has that metal thing on his nose because I figured he’d need to, you know… BREATHE with relative ease. Having a blooming silk mask over your face is surely stuffy, not to mention suffocating, making it hard to breathe when kidnapping children. I’m also playing Final Fantasy VI so Kefka’s outfit had an impact with Slagar’s costume.
I think in the book, Ironbeak is never described as having a metal helmet, but thanks to the cartoon adaptation I shall always picture him with such. Obviously if this was a real cover commission I wouldn’t have a helmet, so fan-boys get off my case!





Tuesday, 29 May 2012

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.


Sunday, 27 May 2012

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.