The Rose Princess

This is a design I submitted for a contest online for an art community called "CGCookie". The contest had "Rose Princess" as its prompt for creative inspiration. It'll be judged amongst other submissions towards the end of next month. Regardless of what happens in judging, it was a lot of fun to make. Thoroughly enjoyed this one!

I’m a huge fan of traditional Disney animation. Thinking on the concept of “Rose Princess” led me into a fantasy world that Disney films are known for making. She is small; wandering about the flowers like Alice did in Wonderland. Roses with a gradient of colors are my favorite so it seemed only right to have her dress have a variety of hues of rose colors. Flowers in general bloom in the morning as the sun rises so I envisioned her walking about just after waking up with some dew drops on her dress. Being plant-ish herself, she has a light green tone for her skin.

Good morning!

Ah, the early morning colors of the forest : )

Davy the otter in the front is waving good morning to some new faces. The Duck family consist of Betty, the mother duck in the center, Jaz, the one holding some electric device on the right, Henry, the boy duckling on the left with a hat and Lily, the eldest child with a large pink bow. Davy is out on a journey to find his new pad and he's got a snack of rainbow trout with him too!

Making of "Mystery..."

First up is to rough out the composition/plan out the scene.

Next up is however many passes I need to refine the anatomy of the characters involved and the composition of the scene.

Third up is final pass over the rough design. I double check one more time if the poses on the characters work as well as their expressions. Also check the background environment. I use several different colors for different pieces of the scene to help me stay organized in my thinking. This pass will be used to block in my flat color shapes.

Next is my block pass. (looks like  a rainbow mess, huh?) I section off the masses of the scene and the characters for easy selection later on for my FX pass. The colors of these masses matter very little since they will be thrown out/deleted before I save the final file.

Now, I can move onto the flat colors for the scene. Flat colors are the main colors used throughout the scene that don't take lighting or FX into account.

Last step is also the most intensive for skill and time needed to execute properly. This step is all about FX and getting the lighting done such that a time of day, location or mood can be felt for the scene. FX, at least for this scene, include fur/hair, eye details, mess and dirt on the walls as well as wall props and the specks in the capsule. The lighting covers everything else from the level of darkness behind the character to the soft orange lighting on the wall and ceiling as well as the effects of any light source on the character, chair, desk and capsule.

And of course the ever important signature is needed (see it right there in the bottom right corner?)
This piece took several days to complete....primarily because I only spent a few hours a day on it. Staggering out the different steps helps me to catch mistakes, bad lighting and allows me to make sure the mood is being set properly : )

Mystery...

The character here is called "Creela". She cruises the aftermath of battlegrounds, ruined civilizations and the like for scrap and treasures. This time, she's found something that can't be identified despite all of her experience in the field and impressive information network. Can't profit off of something if you don't know what it is or what it's meant for!

Commission for a friend, final part

This is the 3rd and final page I drew and rendered in color for my client. Thought it would be fun to explore the character through her younger years : )

Commission for a friend, part 2

This is the 2nd part of the commission I did for a friend. Vanilla Buns is a baker in her village but it's a cover for her being something on the order of a spy for the "night ponies" (It makes more sense if you read the story. It's called the "ask project" and it's intended for mature audiences) If curious, the ask project can be found in M-P-L's gallery on fur affinity: http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/m-p-l/2/

As an artist, I do my best to appreciate all forms of creativity and expression :)

Commission for a friend

This is a commission I was asked to do for a fellow creative.

This is an original character created by M-P-L of FurAffinty.net. Her name is "Vanilla Buns" and she's made for the "My Little Pony Friendship is Magic" universe. I drew an animation turnaround for her on this page as well as a couple of poses and stuff. Check out M-P-L's gallery to see more of her and other art: www.furaffinity.net/user/m-p-l…

It's April already?

E-gads, it's already April! How is everybody out there? I've been thoroughly enjoying my role as colorist on the comic series, "Tales of Lyla"( http://www.10forwardproductions.com/talesoflyla/)

Here's some new original pieces from me : )

When I'm working on a project for a client or just drawing for me, I love to listen to video game long plays. For those who unsure of what a long play is, it's somebody just playing a video game from start to finish w/o any voice over commentary. I grew up on video games so it has a strong nostalgia/happy factor for me. I was inspired by one of the long plays for this kid above.

At the moment, I just call him "Billy" which is short for William. This one is a tragic sort of character. Billy is from around the 1920s to 1930s or so. While trying to sell newspapers at a busy street corner, he was hit by a car going far too fast. Having died so suddenly and so quickly, he wandered about the city he called home, confused as to why nobody would notice or talk to him. Even when he returned home, nobody could see or hear him. Looking at a small nearby mirror, no reflection stared back at him. Enraged, he hurried back to that fateful corner, looking for the one responsible for taking his life. The guilty party had also died after crashing into a nearby building.

'What do I do now....?' He pondered despondently. At a loss as to where to go or what to do, he headed for a nearby alley. He didn't have anywhere else to go so what did it matter? 

Decades passed. What memories he had of his life disappeared slowly. Eventually, he forgot his age, his family, friends and on and on until he finally forgot his own name.

Fear and sorrow from this emptiness turned to anger. That anger twisted his image to what you see above....