Eddie Redesign

(I didn't make this one)

I have recently decided to enter a fighting game character redesign contest over on polycount.com. I chose to redesign Eddie from the Guilty Gear series. For those who don't know, Zato was an assassin who acquired a shadow demon named Eddie. The demon Eddie gave him crazy powers in exchange for Zato's eyesight, and eventually killed Zato and possesses his dead body to this day. I've always loved playing as Eddie in the game and thought his unique nature would be lend well to a redesign. I was going to redesign Akuma, but this is a REDESIGN contest and we all know Akuma is already perfect.

I've made some pretty massive changes to the character. The most obvious is that I've made Zato a woman. Eddie has always been flamboyant and I figured I might as well just embrace that. I also did away with Zato's clothes, in exchange for a living suit. In a very Venom-esque fashion I decided to play up the possessed aspect. I've also tried to give an even more menacing appearance to Eddie. I really want to drive home the fact that he is an evil body possessing demon.

As for the final pose, I've chosen to go with Eddie's Cerberus..thingy. It is a move I use often and I have always thought it looked cool. I also feel it will make for a nice lush 3D sculptural form. I want to give each of the dog's heads a little personality. Enough jibba jabba, here are my concepts so far.

The first concept that has since been scrapped completely.

The current design. Still need to layout her shinguards. I had a hard time deciding what to do about her eyes. Zato is blind, and wears a blindfold in the game, but I knew there was something more I could do. So, I took her eyes out completely. Less IS more in this case.. literally! (harharhar) I think she looks much darker and creepier without them.

Concepts for the cerberus heads. I could draw these things forever, but I really need to get cracking on my basemeshes. Eddie shapeshifts quite a lot in the game, so I wanted to pull some of that into my sculpt. One of the forms he takes is a shark, so I referenced that for a little homage to another one of my favorite moves! Completely channeled my inner 5 yearold on this one.

Fett Layout

I tried to go lighter on the details this time.

This one was adjusted to make the distinguishing lines of his helmet more visible.

Anatomy Journal Excerpts

During college I was unable to take an proper anatomy class due to scheduling conflicts. In an attempt to rectify this, I started an anatomy journal for personal reference. My current project requires a much more comprehensive anatomical prowess that what I currently have. Hopefully by following in the footsteps of the Old Man I will be able to push myself, and my work, much farther than I have before.

Distracted From Work

So like always, I have been listening to tunes while drawing my life away. Although I have about 50 more story boards to draw out I tore myself away from the panels and started cranking out this uncontrollably haha. I'll stop for now and get back to boarding.

Numbernin6 is 100% to blame for deterring me from my duties haha!

Storyboards!

I'm swimming in a sea of storyboards! I'm boarding out a music video, three comics and my graduate animation proposal! They are everywhere! Currently browsing my iTunes for the two perfect songs for the last project I mentioned. Decisions. Decisions..

I'm highly considering using this as one of the tunes. For those that don't know, this is possibly my favorite song of all time.

I've Been a Bad Blogger Lately..

I have to apologize for being digitally MIA over the last month. I've relocated to Michigan and am currently working on pieces for two shows I have coming up in St. Louis. I'll have some new pics soon. I think this was the last thing I drew.. I'm not even sure anymore.

Spiritomb Redesign

Lately I've been sharpening my drawing skills in Photoshop with a series of character redesigns. Here is the first.

Illustration Before Bed

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Here's a quick little something I started. My apologies for the low res version, no hi res till I'm done. Posting then passing out.

I cannot stop listening to Strung out - Bar9 Song is seriously stupid.

Findings in the Field!

So remember all those posts I used to make way back when I used to go draw in the Field Museum? Well I'm still doing the drawing. I just haven't been doing the posting. I was in the museum today for about four hours and walked in with a blank page and walked out with this.

Went back to the Field to work on my newest study. I spent a little too much time in one spot. Gotta move around the piece more!

Captain Leonard

Progress

Here are some pics from my ongoing project. I have decided to combine all of my various works into one larger more ambitious piece. So.. here are the fruits of my labor thus far!

Newest Work From the Field Museum

I haven't been able to find anything that I wanted to draw on display at the museum, so I decided I'd draw the statue and marble work above the entrance of the museum. I think the artistry up there goes unnoticed for the most part. I just finished the layout of this one last week, many more details to be added. I've got a few more drawings that are still stashed away in the museum that I'll dig out soon and post up!

The Ocean Is A Big Place

This is a protostill from my new animation short.

Staying Busy

Since I'm still on break for a little bit longer, I figured I'd start my projects for the semester a bit early and get some of the mind numbing work out of the way now. Here's the illustration for the character I'm designing/making. This is just one layer of a four-layer armor schematic. I've always wanted to enter in Dominance War and test my modeling/texturing skills, but I've always been too lazy or busy. I don't know if I'll enter this model, as i do not know the specifics of the next competition yet, but I am aiming for the same photo realistic quality. *holding breath*

Still untitled..

2010

It's not 2009 anymore. Wow! Well, while everyone is conjuring up their New Year's resolutions, I hope they are also staying warm. It's way too cold outside. 2009 wasn't so bad for good ol' MD. While it has probably been the most introverted and secluded year of my life, I managed to grow exponentially as an artist. I think that word is a good one to use in terms of summing up my goals. Just good old exponential growth. Well, now that I think about it, maybe that's not so true. Exponential growth hints that the scope and quality are both at a rapid increase. For an artist especially, or anyone really, I think that both scope and quality are extremely important facets. However, me personally, I don't believe all my projects need to be on such a massive scale all the time. I like to enjoy the simpler things as well, and I feel that I learned a lot about complexity through simplicity during 2009.

While some people like to say that each new year is going to be big, as if every year isn't big, I must state that for me, 2010 will be massive. I'll be done with my education at the Art Institute! I am looking extremely forward to applying what I have learned to projects that will have more exposure than those I have done so far. Being as picky as I am over my work, it's quite difficult for me to consider anything finished, as you might have noticed by everything on this blog being called a WIP. I don't think that will ever change. Time constraint is an element in the equation that spawns true genius. Nothing would make me happier than to become a part of team that utilizes creativity to teach people something and to maybe even give them a sense of hope. Something positive. My last semester at school will spawn the most closely related symbiosis of my drawing and 3D work that I have done to date.

This project, which still remains untitled, will serve as my full portfolio in the coming months. I'll post some pics soon. But having the chance to re-immerse myself into drawing has really made me more critical of the 3D work that I do. When working in Maya, there are absolutely no limitations, and because of this, I feel as if I have aimed much too low in the projects I have undertaken in 3D. It is my goal to illustrate a more educated mastery over each pixel on display. I also tend to be very impatient in regards to my 3D work in comparison to my drawing. The same elements apply, and I feel as though my 3D work has lost touch with the drawing nexus. I have the entire universe at my fingertips and am utilizing mere specs of sand. It's really time to dig in! In closing, I'll end with some pics of the process so far. This is a few days of work, and you may not be able to identify what you are looking at just yet, but that's ok. It's all about the reveal.

Cover

I went MIA again. Sorry. I was holed up in Michigan hiding. This is the final cover that I decided on for my comic I worked on last semester. I tend to say that everything is still in progress, but I'd like to consider this finished. I'm really glad to have had the opportunity to get this comic under way as it is something that I have had floating around in my head for quite sometime now. I learned a ton from this past semester, possibly more than any other thus far, and I am looking forward to putting this knowledge to use in 2010.

Self Portrait

I dislike drawing self-portraits immensely. This is the final for my figure drawing class. Squeezed out the beginning portion in 2 hours in between comic work sessions. I've been listening to Madlib a lot lately. Props to him.

Omega-9 Cover Art Preview

This is a poorly taken photo of the pencil work that will be the cover art to my new comic book Omega-9. The draft of the first 12-15 pages will be out next Friday. I'm playing this one pretty close to the chest so don't expect to see too many pics from the comic here. You'll have to manage to get your hands on an actually copy for that.

New Figures

These are some recent figure drawings that I've been meaning to upload. This first one of the two figures ripped about 30 seconds after I took the pic. So I guess I'll redo it this evening on some nicer paper.

This drawing is done on the nice paper that I was talking about redoing the first drawing on. It's basically a giant sheet of sand paper! This stuff is righteous!

Slick With the Slime

Just a watercolor update. This one is about 85% done, I guess. Just have to finish up the body near the top. From now on, I'm just going to use numbers. I like numbers.