Dominance War entry finished!

So, I actually DID finish my Dominance War pieces on time. Here are the final illustration, and the model sheet. Wish me luck! I can SMELL the Cintiq!

My friends' NIN "Ghosts Film Festival" entry on Youtube

My good friend Dave Haddock has put together a really awesome submission for the Nine Inch Nails Youtube Film Festival, where fans were invited to make videos to go along with one of the songs from NIN's new instrumental album "Ghosts". I think his entry is one of the best I have seen for this, and it has awesome visual FX too... pretty impressive for one guy, a camera, and a computer. Check it out! Link Here

More work on the Fishy Cleric dude....

I got into Spectrum! YAY!

After years of trying and trying, i have finally made it into the hallowed halls of the Spectrum annual "Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art" competition. All I know right now is that I got in, and that is according to Spectrum's own website. I am listed as Sean "Muttonhead" Murray.

What I do not know is which piece got in, but I think I can safely assume that since I only entered 2 pieces, it's probably THIS one, since I think it is the better of the two that I entered:

Anyways, I think what happens now is I have to do a nice digital print so that it can be displayed at a gallery show or something (at least, that is what I have seen them do in the past), and then the piece will be printed in the annual book which usually comes out in October.

Yay!

Fish-Cleric for Dominance War

OK, so my pace hasn't been very steady, but I am determined to finish this before the deadline, despite the book cover commision and the overtime at work. here is the final drawing for my entry: I have decided to make him a "clericon" instead of a wizard. His weapon will be a blunderbuss that uses Holy Power as it's source of energy, and he uses it to blast the faces of heretical robots in the FACE! YEAH!

Dominance War RESEARCH!!! YEAAAH!!! KICK ASS!

I went to the Walters Art Museum to get some inspiration for my Dominance War concept. I ended up doing a bunch of drawings of the old flint lock guns. Maybe my character will be a cleric that uses a powerful gun that uses Holy Powers to vanquish enemies. It could be carved with all kinds of religious iconography.

The view from my apartment...

So, as I mentioned before, I now live in Baltimore. Now, bear with me here: I have been working for Big Huge Games for more than a year now, and they are in the suburbs of Baltimore, yet, I was LIVING in New York State, that's where my house and my wife were. I had been a contractor for Big Huge up until this past September, whenI agreed to come on full time.

During this time, I was working from home every other week, and the weeks I was in Baltimore, I rented a room from an old lady in a neighborhood close to the Big Huge offices.

Last month, my wife moved down here and we got an apartment together (what a crazy concept, living with my wife! Fancy that!). The apartment we are renting is on the 14th floor of a building in downtown Baltimore, in a neighborhood called Mount Vernon. Baltimore was never a place I thought I would live, especially having grown up in the Northern Virginia suburbs, where most people consider Baltimore to be barely better than Chernobyl.

But it turns out, I kinda like it here!

Now, I ain't sayin it's all wine and roses. Two people did get shot a few days ago in a road-rage incident the next neighborhood over. But I have to admit, Baltimore is a city with a lot to offer, and so far, the wife and I are enjoying ourselves, and looking forward to the day when our house in New York finally sells so that we can start looking for a real home here (anybody wanna buy a lovely cape-style house in the heart of the Hudson Valley with shining wood floors, a double lot, and a 2 car garage?), but until then, I will stare out my window onto this creepy, but cool old church tower.

FISH WIZARDS!

Because I of my insatiable thirst for acceptance, and my undying love of fish-people, I have decided to enter the DOMINANCE WAR III competition... (just kidding about the thirst for acceptance... I just want a free Cintiq).

Anyways, here is the first round of ideas I am playing with. The theme of the competition is something along the lines of: "Futuristic Fantasy Character who uses Magic instead of Technology because Technology was Wiped Out, but now Mysterious Robots have Returned and your Character must Fight this New Threat using Some Sort of Magical Device"

So Naturally I thought of doing a fish-wizard of some sort (makes sense, right?):

Sketchbook Oddities...

Sorry 'bout the gap. I was in a transitional phase - "officially" moving to my new city: Baltimore (more on that later...).

Sketchbook Oddities....

Flat face no more!

OK, so I got so much feedback about this guy's face looking too flat (including from the great Lorne Lanning), so I finally decided to concede and make a modification. I was finding it increasingly difficult to defend my position. OK EVERYONE! I GET IT! How's it look now?

More digital sketches......

I have recently been inspired by the works of Beksinski to try to more solidly define my level of fantasy surrealism. Beksinski had an amazing ability to give you just enough reality to make you think that maybe his visions could actually be alive on some distant planet, or in some alternate reality.... at least during his "fantastic" period. Not so, in my opinion, with a lot of other surrealists. Even Giger's work can drift too far towards the abstract for my taste. I think a good rule of thumb is: 70% fantasy, 30% surrealism... well, for me anyway. I'm excited about sketching this way, I could see taking any one of these and doing them up in a style like the Globe Chaser. At least, that is what I am going to try.

"The Globe Chaser" - FINISHED! YEE-HAW!

Will he ever catch that pesky will-o-the-wisp? It's just so dern pesky!

I think I am pretty happy with the end result of this guy. I am going to experiment with using this method more often in my personal work. It's more satisfying... for me anyways. I don't see a whole lot of line-oriented work in American concept art and fantasy illustration, but maybe I need to look harder.

I think digital painting has encouraged a lot of looseness and painterliness, which is awesome, and works great for artists who are "painters" and think in those terms.... but that just isn't me. I am a slave to the line. Don't get me wrong, I think the painterly guys really are doing some amazing stuff, but I find the art of mark-making fascinating and relaxing, almost meditative. My better "paintings", I think, are the ones that start with a more well-defined drawing, or line art. Although, I do enjoy doing those quicky, loose black and white digital sketches.... but really as more of a starting point.... so I guess there is merit to both, and maybe learning to combine both methods will have good results too.... so many choices, so little focus....

Finished Mr. Skullneck!!!!!

Finally, something "finished". Well, at least what I am willing to call finished. Nothing is ever truly finished, right?

Also, if you want to see image grabs of my process on this piece, follow this link:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=112322

-SAM

The Globe Chaser.....

Here's ANOTHER WIP, which is using a more "hyper-detailed, pen and ink/crosshatch" approach which I really enjoy doing, and is influenced by some of my favorite artists like Ian Miller (see link on the right), Bernie Wrightson, Gustav Dore, Arthur Rackham, Hieronymous Bosch, Peter Breughel the Elder, and Albrecht Durer. I think I just like making lines, so I want to try to do more of my personal work in this style.... let me know what you think.

More digital sketches....

And yet, some good ol' sketchbook sketches....

Here are a couple of recent sketches from the ol' sketchbook.... gotta love the pencil.....

Quickie digital sketch.

I have started doing some sketching digitally, despite my love of the pencil. I find it's better to experiment with new methods, than to get bogged down in one way of working for the rest of your life....... remember kids, a rolling stone gathers no moss.... God, that's dumb.

Another WIP: The Messenger

Here's a piece where I took three separate thumbnails from my sketchbook and cobbled them together to make another piece. I like the composition so far (thanks Kenji for the suggestion), but not sure about color. Thoughts? Any suggestions for a good direction to go with for the colors?

Mr. Skullneck

Here's a piece that I am almost done with. I started it a while back, then I got bored of it, and now I am into it again, and plan on finishing it...... sensing a "lack of focus" theme yet? But instead of fighting it, I have decided to embrace the chaos, and let the chips fall where they may.

Another dude smoking.....

Just to illustrate my last statement, here is a recent sketch from the sketchbook. Another guy smoking. But this guy has a cat/dog-thing. Don't smoke, kids, it's bad for you. Would you really want to look like THIS guy?

"Fish Lady" WIP

"Fish Lady" WIP. I also seem to draw people smoking a lot. I guess that is another recurring theme. Weird. I used to smoke a little bit. It started to get more frequent than it should have been, so I decided to stop. But I still like the visual of weird creatures smoking... kinda like those old Hollywood head shots, only with aliens. Anyways, I should finish her up pretty soon.....

The Fish Lady

OK, now for my first legit sketchBlog entry. Here's a new piece i am working on called "The Fish Lady". For some reason, i seem to draw fish people in my sketchbook a lot. I guess that is what you call a recurring theme. No idea what it means.... I once had a pet catfish when I was 5 or 6, guess that could have something to do with it. It lived in a little pond in our front yard for about 6 months, and then the pond kinda dried up. But amazingly, when I went to check on the fish, it was still alive! Living in the mud. So I grabbed it and took it to a nearby lake and let it go. Goodbye fish.