BFAShow22: Desert Encounter

Desert Encounter
Pencil, Digital Color

A few people have expressed their love of this Tyrannosaurus-rex-with-wings abomination, and the answer is: yes you may draw pictures of you riding it through lands of magical hope and wonder. In fact, I encourage it. This means you Claire and Chelsea.

Thank you Shane Lewis for making me change the drawing in the last panel, I like this one better.

Again with the lazy and the lack of sub-surface scattering where it should be. :T Mmph.

And that's all folks!
Good bye April~

BFAShow21: Industrial City

Industrial City
Digital Paint


Boring pyramid is BORING.

One of the few landscapes I think would benefit from not having a super-structure in it. It just looks so... placed.

Overall this one is very boring to me.

BFAShow20: Ancient Ritual

BFAShow10: Ancient Ritual
Pencil, Digital Color



It's amazing what switching panel order can do for the readability of a piece.

If you switch these, it looks like the birds have been shot, not that they're diving. That's how I originally drew them. Yes. Very confusing, I know.

If I had been a little less lazy I would have made some nice sub-surface scattered light through those feathers, but, you know.

BFAShow19: Forest City

BFAShow17: Forest City
Digital Paint



I referenced the Tetons and got the Matterhorn. What.

Go-go-gadget... lots of trees!

So my digital painting teacher showed me how to make a stamp brush in photoshop and make a lot of pine-trees with it. Then I painted all of them out, and started again from scratch. Kids: stamp-brushes are not always the solution.

Hm. I think I want to re-paint this as more sun-setty. Well. We'll see.

BFAShow18: Height and Silhouette, Uniform Development

BFAShow16: Height and Silhouette Comparison, Uniform Development
Pencil, ColErase, Digital Color

Pretty self-explanatory, just some visual development sketches pretending to be art.

Move along, move along.

BFAShow17: Captain Armed Escort

BFAShow15: Captain Armed Escort
Pencil, ColErase, Digital Color

So this guy is kinda a borrow character from another story I'm working on... but I wasn't doing anything with him so here he is.

BIG MAN IS LIKE BEAR WHAT HATES PEOPLE AND DOESN'T AFRAID OF ANYTHING. Actually he's really friendly.
Unwittingly he looks a lot like an older version of this character, designed by my friend Jacqui. WHOOPS.

BFAShow16: Lieutenant Armed Escort

BFAShow14: Lieutenant Armed Escort
Pencil, ColErase, Digital Color

I designed her to be the "stunningly-beautiful-no-funny-business-gets-shit-done" woman. Did I succeed? I don't know...
Second in command to the Captain, she has a professional intensity matched by few others in her field.
Gotta make sure I push the femininity in her face, she's lookin' a little too masculine in her uniform. :T

BFAShow15: Apology...?

BFAShow13: Apology...?
Pencil, Digital Color

Probably spent the most busy time on this, not really doing anything, but getting the edges on those frills just right. So many nooks and crannies.

I am the least satisfied with this page overall. I feel like the background was rushed and could be done a lot better. Note to self: pencil it in, don't just assume you can paint in your background and it'll all work out.

But I really like my plant monster.

BFAShow14: City in the Clouds

BFAShow12: City in the Clouds
Digital Paint



This piece didn't work until I put a red multiply layer over the whole thing and made it into a sunset/sunrise landscape.
Convocation's today, so I'll update this text later.

BFAShow13: Peace Offering

BFAShow11: Peace Offering
Pencil, Digital Color


Probably spent the most work time on this page.

Yup, I'm really happy with my purple shadows.

But what's this? Charpi being nice? AND THE PLOT THICKENS!

:O

BFAShow12: Senior Research Scientist

BFAShow10: Senior Research Scientist
Pencil, ColErase, Digital Color

So this guy...? Yeah. Complete nerd. He's also a key catalyst in setting off the action of the story.

He was chosen as a colony-pod escort; long story short the colony pods contained everything you needed to sustain yourself and establish a colony on a foreign planet. Problem is, during the war, his pod was never called down from orbit. So for the next 100+ years he stayed in the Lazarus Pod, mind kept lucid.

After all that time he was finally able to land the pod / it was called down / the orbit decayed enough to initiate an emergency landing... I don't know yet really.

He just loves science.

That exchange between him and the Captain was inspired by an actual conversation I had with a co-worker. I was talking about the brilliance of the DNA molecule after having seen the NOVA special What Darwin Never Knew, and I started to trace the shape of the DNA in the air... and it looked like I was describing a woman's curves.

I just love science.

BFAShow11: Cadet Armed Escort

BFAShow09: Cadet Armed Escort
Pencil, ColErase, Digital Color

This kid is a derp. He's not really mean spirited, just kinda a jerk.

But a well-meaning jerk.

I like this kid. Not sure what to say about him... I'll just let his personality come out on its own.

BFAShow10: Data Analyst/Tech Support

Data Analyst/Tech Support
Pencil, ColErase, Digital Color

And by "meet her in a few days" I meant, "the very next day." Hurr.

So this is the Data Analyst and Tech Support, she takes care of everything from helping to organize and analyze all the collected data, to field-repairs of equipment, to doing the kinds of stuff that ends up saving everyone's asses and in the end not getting thanked for it.

She's kind of a snob and a bitch though... Sorry, but it's the most appropriate word to describe her. :T

BFAShow09: Aquatic Encounter of the Fifth Kind

Aquatic Encounter of the Fifth Kind
Pencil, Digital Paint

Today is Jelly Fish Daaay~!

So this is the Data Analyst, finally getting out of the office and into some field time. You'll meet her in a few days.

Hm, I think I could make that Jelly Fish look bigger....

Yup!

BFAShow08: City By The Sea

City By The Sea
Digital Paint


I used my reference pretty heavily on this one.
This city is on the equator, so the planet's rings appear as a thin line perpendicular to the equator. ... Yeah, I'm a nerd, I figured all this out... shut up.
The City by the Sea is the least regulated of the five cities, the buildings are the smallest and most numerous. This is the closest thing this planet has to urban sprawl. Culturally the people are very laid back and easygoing. Because of the overall lax attitude, there is a lot of contact and illegal trade with the deserters and wilderness men here.

BFAShow07: How To Win Friends and Influence People

How To Win Friends and Influence People
Pencil, Digital Color

Probably my favorite comic book page of them all. Because it has violence in it.

I also just noticed all the panels are justified left rag right. Huh.

A note about the pages: they are non-sequitur. So don't expect much of a coherent story... yet. YET.

BFAShow06: Native Guide

Native Guide
Pencil, ColErase, Digital Color

Ah, see, this is my favorite update day. I love this character.

She's kinda like a four-foot-tall orca that lives on land and hates people.

For the longest time I've been calling her Charpi...? I don't know, I still like that name.
And I am amused that over the years she has grown more and more ornery and hateful towards the world. *sigh* No wonder we get along.

BFAShow05: Junior Research Scientist

Junior Research Scientist
Pencil, ColErase, Digital Color

I've got to be self-serving sometimes, right? Right?

Yes, this character has always been and will always be at least a little bit of me. The science loving, naïve, young, stupid part of me that I've been effectively stomping out for the last seven years.

But I still love science. So much.

BFAShow04: Terran Star Ship Raven

Terran Star Ship Raven
Pencil, ColErase, Digital Sketch

Today is probably the most boring update day of them all. All the crappy sketches that led up to the final Star Ship design.

Obviously Biblical referential name is OBVIOUS. This colonial ship was built to never come back. Hence.

I struggled with this design for the longest time. I mean like, right up to the deadline struggled with it. I'm never good with inorganic design. One of the coolest/most unusual sources for inspiration for this ship came to me when I was running around on the beach. Shells. I mean, of course I already had the idea of "Space SHIP = BOAT = watertight (like unto a dish) etc. etc. etc." bouncing around inside my head, but looking at clam and oyster shells really helped solidify it. And not just whole ones either, but fragmented ones, because the shells still broke according to a pattern of their design.

The other thing that helped in the designing process was using clay to just moosh around some shapes, get an idea for three-dimensionality.

Woah. Words.

TL;DR: Sea Shells = Space Ships

Clay = good visualizing tool

BFA Show Day 03: Fortress City

Fortress City
Digital Paint




I wanted to upload this as large as possible, so click for HUGE file.

I want you to feel like you've been immersed in this world.

This is by far the best piece of the whole show. Sorry to pull it out so soon, but this is where the beginning action takes place.

Each of the five landscapes I will be uploading in the days to come contain "city-buildings." Buildings so huge they form a three-dimensional city, housing hundreds of thousands of humans. This is where the settlers live so as to not come into conflict with the indigenous sentient species.

So this is the central city, the Fortress City, home of the government of this planet, build by the crater lakes so huge they can be seen from space.

I watched two very helpful extreme engineering episodes on super-structures, mega cities, hyperstructures, (whatever they're called, they're RAD) for research on the cities that have been built on this planet to accommodate the rising human population. More on that later.

The episodes I watched are available on YouTube in 5 parts each:

City in a Pyramid Season 1 Episode 4

Tokyo Sky City

Surprisingly I used only Photoshop for the digital landscape paintings... I usually favor painter. Go figure.

These are my confessions~

.3.

Hahahaha, oh dear.

It all started with this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3R3KqrJAI4

And you know what they say: haters gonna hate.

BFA Show Day 02: First Approach

First Approach
Digital Paint

The Terran Star Ship Raven on it's first approach of this alien planet. With extensive damage from its long journey, the crew must decide if this is a planet they can survive on at risk to the lives of the colonists they carry.

Again, kitchy space-art... I don't care, I had a lot of fun with this one too.

Rings referenced from this video: http://wimp.com/earthrings/

BFA Show Day 01: Far Away Planet

Far Away Planet

Digital Paint

I actually had a lot of fun with this one. I used a lot of photoshop tutorials I found online (for the rings, for the faint star-field, for the atmospheric glow). I like to call this my "kitchy space-art piece" because... it kinda is... but I like it so much I do not care. Sometimes I actually really like kitchy space-art.

:Bc

Anyway. This is the planet where the story takes place.

Hahaha, I actually just realized the irony of having my space-themed final show in the year 2010. And yes, I am saying it "Twenty Ten."

Final Show 2010

This is it.

My final show.

Distilled down to 22 thumbnails.

The opening reception is on April 8th at 6:30 pm - 9pm in Gallery 303 in the Harris Fine Arts Center on BYU Provo Campus. (Please come and eat my food!)

On the 9th of April I will be posting one image a day for the next 22 days. Yep. Gotta get you guys coming back to my blog somehow.

;)

Moon Lady

A sketch for an out-of-class assignment for Senior Illustration 2.

Patterned after the style of "The Book of Kells" film and my friend Son.

Yup. :d

Early Morning (Kill) Taunts

My boss... the Heavy.

This is why I have the job I do.

My boss is freaking awesome.



Kill Taunt POW! HAHA!



Eating a Sandvich... Poptart NOM NOM NOM

And for those of you in the know: YES, it is not a perfect performance, but when your boss is three times your mass you don't try too hard to correct him.

Pictures here.