Here's a poster for a project in class. I based mine on The Moon Men, a book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It's my favorite book of all time. It's a story about an uprising, set in the future amongst the ruins of Chicago.
I made the elements (except for the type) with actual spray paint, which was really fun
To help inspire me, I listened to the Rammstein song title 'Sonne'. I wanted the piece to suit the mood of the chorus, so hopefully if you can listen to that at the same time as you look at the piece, you'll get a better understanding of what I was going for
This summer my brother asked me: What if they did to other monster archetypes what Twilight did to vampires? And I said to him quite plainly, "horrible things."
This is the cover for a process book of any subject/story we wanted (for school). I chose to redo Creature From The Black Lagoon in a satirically Twilight way, after talking about it with my brother this summer. It was a tough choice between The Creature From The Black Lagoon and The Wolfman, but it's sometimes a lot more fun to draw scales instead of fur. I'll post some of the other pages from the book soon (more of a pamphlet, really)
This is for a class project where we had to do an illustration for an article of our choosing. I chose a recent one from The Washington Times about the discovery of the fact that fetuses as young as at least 30 weeks have been discovered to be able to develop memories.
I've been meaning to try a few things with my art lately, and I finally found the perfect opportunity with this piece. That would be stuff like using a fine line, taking my time, rendering more carefully than normal, and trying to make something beautiful. It was very fun making this one.
The article can be found here, for those who are interested:
Here's a picture of Captain Nemo I made today. It's for a project in class where we have to choose a fictional character and their antagonist. I chose Captain Nemo for the protagonist, and I'll be drawing the British Raj of India as the antagonist. I think it's due either next week or the week after.
This post isn't about art, but it's about the stuff that inspires me to make it the most: music. Below I'm posting my top 5 favorite songs of all time. I love sharing music with people, especially if they like it. I've had a few people on the street and at red lights ask me the name of what I'm listening to, so I've started keeping post-it notes and a pen in my car so I can jot them down quickly. You could say showing people music they might like is a hobby of mine. Maybe you'll hear something you've never heard before and like it, or maybe we just have something in common. Either way, cool!
For me to consider these songs as my top 5 they've had to reach a few criteria: -They have to give me goosebumps -I have to be able to listen to it for 9 hours on loop and not get boring -It has to inspire me and put images in my head for me to draw which suit the songs
The first one is "Private Road" by Bent. It was my favorite song for 8 years. I still can't believe humans can make something so beautiful
This music is good for walking through a misty green pasture in a light rain wearing a comfy, just-out-the-dryer set of clothes
The second here is "Goodbye", by Ulrich Schnauss. It was hard to just pick one by him, because his music is consistently amazing.
This is the music that would play when after you die you see your old dog in Heaven and catch up for lost time
The third song is "True To Form" by Hybrid. This song has a really satisfying, chaotic "I don't give a shit" vibe
If you're ever driving exceedingly fast, all alone, through a looong tunnel on a hot summer night, this song should be blasting in your car stereo
Fourth is "Stay Crunchy" by Ronald Jenkees. I can't put into words how much I admire this guy. His attitude and personality are top-notch, and I want to be the illustrator version of him one day. He's passionate, incredibly, mind-blowingly gifted, but he's the most down-to-eart, kind person on the internet
This song is how Jesus makes my soul feel
The fifth one here is my all-time favorite song ever made. It's called "Happy Up Here" by Royksopp. Every song ever made wishes it sounded this good. The music video is phenomenal too. I recommend you listen to this one on high quality. It makes a huge difference.
If my mind and worldview had a physical feeling it would feel like how this song sounds.
Hopefully you like the music. If not then, well, I just feel sorry for you
A couple other tracks that almost made the list were: -Hawksley Workman: Striptease -Manual: Neon Reverie (it would've been in the top 5 but I couldn't find a YouTube video of it) -Boards of Canada: The Beach At Redpoint -Crisopa: North Left -Juno Reactor: God Is God -Royskopp feat. Robyn: The Girl And The Robot -Sneaker Pimps: Low Five -Nathan Fake: You Are Here
This is a piece I made for my friend's nephew for his 13th birthday. I told him I would draw him whatever he wanted and this is what he requested, and I thought it was awesome. He's the raddest kid ever
Also here's a bigger version
I normally wouldn't be so arrogant as to offer up a wallpaper version of one of my pieces, but a lot of my friends are big Halo fans, and we all know what Halo fans are like. Also if you're also on Xbox Live my gamer tag is "Thomas Q Murphy". Add me as a friend and we'll "roll some noobs", as they say
The idea for this piece was to make a "summer" to the "winter" that is the Pegasus piece a few posts below. I just took the theme of a kid riding a mythical creature and this time I went with mermaid, and a girl riding on his back. It's just sort of a contrast to the pegasus picture in a few ways. Male/female, up/down, under water/high in the sky, you get the picture.
I also wanted to do a little twist on the mermaid/merman idea and instead of making it a fish-man I went the mammal direction. At first my sketches were of a more cetacean-like creature, but that seemed a bit cliche, so I went a bit more after the seal direction. I was somewhat inspired by the Aquatic Ape Theory. His body is more of a human body that's in the process of adapting towards permanent life in the sea than just some tossed-together hullaballoo. Some liberties here and there. Anyway, I had fun making it.
Further down the page there are a couple process illustrations of this piece. I was working with a retired Navy SEAL in the States who claims to have had an encounter with the creature known as sasquatch, or big foot, for you Americans some years ago. It took about 20 back-and-forths or so to get it up to the final piece posted here.
Since I was a kid I've always loved the subject, and I still find it extremely fascinating. Though one of my biggest pet peeves with this was how every time you'd see an artist's rendition or a witness's sketch, it always looked like shit and was so vague and scribbly and sloppy that it wasn't even worth looking at. I wanted to create an illustration of this creature that, if you looked at it, your mind wouldn't have to fill in the blanks, and you could feel satisfied that you were seeing what the witness claims to have seen. I wanted those who believe in this creature to be able to look at a large, clear, detailed and realistic image and could be left feeling confident that they now have an 'accurate' picture of what they haven't yet seen for themselves.
I got in contact with this particular witness because he had a relatively long, face-t0-face look at the creature and claimed to have a crystal clear mental picture of it. His story is that he was about 15 feet away, and the encounter lasted about 20 seconds. The average is 3 seconds.
After I finally laid down the final touches and sent it to him, he told me the hair on his arms stood on end, his eyes watered up and his heart started beating quickly because it was so accurate. So according to the man that worked with me on this image, this is as accurate as it's going to get. I feel confident that, wether you believe or not, that this is the face of whatever species people have been seeing in North America for centuries.
I don't know if there really is such a creature out there, and I can't put faith in it's existence like I can when it comes to the existence of China or my dog Ben, but the man wasn't lying to me. Anyway, here it is, the face of sasquatch:
This is a project I did for my figure illustration class in which we had to fill a 16x40 inch composition with human figures in a procession across the page. The subject matter was left up to the students, and my mind immediately fell on an evolution of man poster. I've always found the subject fascinating, and love to draw hominids and other ancient creatures. I've also often thought about doing reconstructions and scientific illustrations as part of my future career, and instantly saw the potential for learning with this project.
I started with my own research online and in books from our school library, but that was only to get my initial sketch done. I went to the University of Calgary's Archaeology department to get critiques and further information from an expert. I didn't see any point in making this piece unless I tried to make it as accurate as I could get it.
I ended up meeting 4 or 5 experts while I was there, and was even allowed to take photos of, and handle samples of fossilized hominid bones for helping with reference, along with the wealth of information I was given by the professors. It was an incredibly stimulating process, and I learned a lot about this most-interesting of subjects. I left with a lot more information than I thought I would, and was really excited to move forward on the project. After discussing the piece with Dr. Anne Katzenberg and listening to her critiques and insight I was inspired to start over from scratch, only using my previous sketches (which had been critiqued) as reference, and all the books and information I was given for a whole new drawing. Two of the main ideas Dr. Katzenberg left me with was her desire to see the Neanderthal stereotype broken. They weren't hunched-over half-beasts, but were just as able and intelligent and cultured as "we" were (at that time). They had language and would even burry their dead (and decorated the grave sites with flowers!). She also wanted to see a friendly Neanderthal, and really, so did I. She also mentioned how she thought the idea of making an "evolution of woman" poster would be a real breath of fresh air, and I felt I could really sympathize with her point of view. I thought it was a very stimulating idea, and that along with all the other amazing information I gathered, I resolved to start my piece from scratch.
I was welcomed warmly and patiently, and was thrilled with my experiences at the University of Calgary
(There's a larger version down below, with more accurate colors. Blogger always seems to dull my colors)
I regret not being able to meet with them again to go over the progress of the illustration above, but I tried to take their input and information and apply as faithfully as I could, and hopefully I didn't horribly misrepresent these wonderful hominids.
I'd like to formally thank Dr. Katzenberg for her incredible insight and input, Dr. Russel for escorting me and helping me with finding samples, as well as the books she lent me, Dr. Mercader for his welcoming attitude and generosity with his information, Dr. David for his input and also for the books he lent me, and to Nicki Engel for helping guide me and help me find valuable and fascinating information, and to all for taking time out of their hectic schedules to help me with this long-time-coming project! I couldn't have done it without you!
****here's a way-huge version for anyone who wants a closer look: Large version!
(I hope I didn't do a horrible job with these figures, and that if I did, you could someday find it in your hearts to forgive me.)
Here's a record of my process on the piece, including development sketches of the old version:
This is my first preliminary sketch, trying to get my first idea on paper. I had a lot more different "sub-genres" of homo, all very innacurate, all male First sketch
We were assigned to do illustrations for a storybook for out last project in our illustration class and I chose to do The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis. Here is the cover illustration I did for it
It's of Digory riding Fledge, the newly-winged horse. A lot of people have been confused by the mane on the horse, but I put it thre for 4 reasons:
1. To help keep it warm in the cold, high air 2. To give the rider something to hold on to 3. To give it a visual tie back to Aslan, who gave the horse it's wings 4. To distinguish it from other pegasusi. It needed that little twist to make it my own, and to hopefully make it worth looking at
This are some spot illustrations I did for Black Sheep Studios for their new magazine Vehicle, debuting at the Calgary Comic Expo. If you're in town you should swing by the Stampede grounds and meet us!
This is a quick comic I did for my contemporary narrative class. The project was we had to write a 4 sentence story a few weeks ago, and then for this project we had to take our short story and then combine with a short story from the anthology we use for the class. I combined my story with a short story called "Dog Monday's Vigil". I originally chose it for no better reason than it was the shortest story I could find in the book (it's an anthology of canadian short stories, alright? Can you blame me?), but it ended up being a really touching, heart-warming story about a dog named Dog Monday who waited for his master for 4 years at a train station while he was away fighting in World War One. It has a happy ending, and it made me cry (happy tears), so if you get the chance, you should check it out. It'll lift your spirits. So anyway, I did this yesterday. I tried to do it as fast as I can, so the art is really... Bunk. But I added color to it to hopefully compensate. Anyway, I just wanted to have fun doing it. I loved drawing Dog Monday looking out the window. I have a friendly yellow lab at home, so I tried to model Dog Monday after him.
PS: My 4-sentence short story was: Dwayne was lonely. One day a woman named Candace moved in next door. Dwayne asked her out on a date and she accepted. Dwayne wasn't lonely anymore.
This is done for a project where we do an annual report for a company. I chose Mark's Work Wearhouse (a canadian store), and I went with an Egyptian theme. The idea is to sort of express the idea of timeless styles, durable clothes, for hard working men. This is just a little spot illustration which would go inside
Here's one I did last night. I'm not happy with the perspective on the ribcage or the pelvis. One day I'd like to buy a replica human skeleton just for things like this. 3 hours total, drawn in pen, 'colored' in Photoshop.
Did this this morning. It's John Carter from "a Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Definitely one of my favorite stories. Burroughs is amazing.
There is so much wrong with it, but I just wanted to get it done and out of the way. I also wanted to work on doing painterly things in Photoshop, which is really fun, but it's tricky. Especially when you're just used to coloring line art.
Here are some character designs of John Carter and Dejah Thoris
Here is a speedpaint of the surface of Mars
This is a speedpaint of the desert that John Carter wakes up in during the last scene of the book, where he's transported back to Earth, not knowing if he's saved Mars. Burroughs was able to make that part feel so lonely and still
Here's a quick sketch of John Carter in some battle gear. In the book, practically everyone is naked all the time. But it isn't sexual nudity, it's National Geographic nudity. In books later in the series the martians actually tease humans for wearing clothes. You would think it's ridiculous, too! That anatomy is messed up.
Here is a quick sketch of Woola. I was just trying to figure out a way to organize his proportions. Jigga's got TEN legs! That makes NO sense. I'd like to later take this to a finished level. I love Woola.
Since I've had the last week off due to reading week, I felt it would be a good time to relax and have fun. I also wanted to practice inking, so I decided I would redraw a bunch of video game characters from my past that I'm familiar with. Gotta draw SOMETHING, right?
These are the ones that started it. From Earthworm Jim
Psy-Crow (get it?)
Peter Puppy
Peter Puppy when upset
Here's Fox McCloud from Star Fox. I've never played these games for more than 20 seconds, because I'd been spoiled by flight simulators I liked a lot more, but I always thought the character looked cool, so that's probably why he came to mind.
Here's Duke Nukem, as he would be designed today.
This is a monster from Duke Nukem 3D. It would shoot energy or something at you
Here is Sonic and Knuckles
So you wanted to play a game about a brilliant, british, female archeologist, huh? Well, knock yourself out
Here's Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter. Did you know that Ryu is supposed to be Japanese??
Here is Mario. The overalls gotta go, I'm afraid.
Here's Yoshi
A Goomba and a Koopa Troopa (I think that's what they're both called). That array of little black dots are eyes
Update: Took some time off from doing these over the weekend, and classes start back up tomorrow, so if I'm going to be doing any more of these redrawings (which I would like to), then they'll be trickling in slowly. But anyway, here's 2 more
Here's Bub and Bob from Bubble Bobble. This game was really fun. The drawings are a bit of a copout. I've always just interpreted these guys as little plush dinosaur things, so I just redrew them with more blatant dinosauroid bodies. If I redrew Gon, he wouldn't look far from this, other than his face being more "bad ass and cool"
Gordon Freeman. I've noticed a lot of nerd artists tend to draw G-Dawg here as this brave, heroic, smirking bad ass crushing alien faces with a crow-bar, but if there's anything my life has taught me, it's that nerds aren't bad asses, and the way the first Half-Life game was played was far from bad ass action hero. It was a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants game of ammo-management, with really suspenseful silent parts, and frantic action parts. If anything, Gordon Freeman would look like this:
Feb 25th Update
Here is one of the Battle Toads. I should've given him scars and shades. Not battley enough
Here is Donkey Kong
The Pong paddles
The Blue Bomber, MegaMan himself
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions! I've got a big list that I'm going to whittle away at. Also, I wish I knew how to say how blown away I am by the response these are getting. I've read all your comments and I appreciate them all. Thank you VERY much!
This is for a project for school where we had to draw a western Canadian environment with the foreground in shadow and a light background. I'm pretty sure we're supposed to include a narrative aspect as well (ie: people doing something in the environment). The narrative I had running here is some farmer dude was out tractoring but his tire popped, and during a smoke break while repairing it, he sees a ufo and is getting his cell phone camera ready. It took me about 3 hours, and I had a lot of fun doing it. It's rushed and sketchy, but I've spent a lot of time looking at the art of Sam Neilson*. His rendering and colors blow me away, and I'm working on putting more and more effort into my rendering. He's doing what I want to do, art wise.
I think I'm going to go in and add to it later and make the lighting correct
Sam Neilson's art blog: http://artsammich.blogspot.com/
Everyonce in a while, when the mood so moves us, my good friends Dave and Cale and I will play a little art game. I'm sure most people have done it; You take 3 animals and then get someone to combine them. Cale, being the glorious bastard he is, told me to combine these three, and the result is the most abhorrent thing I've ever drawn. It did get a good laugh from Cale though, so I consider that my compensation.
This is the other portrait which is also due tomorrow. It's of my best friend Cale. He isn't actually the third. We just call him that because he has a very poncy name, and it fits at the end of it very well. We sometimes just call him "The Third". So I put it in his portrait as an inside joke for people who know him.
Next time I do something like this I'm going to use natural media to do the line work. Digital has overstayed its welcome as far as line work and texture is concerned, and I'm eager to branch out. That is, until I get my hands on my own personal Cintiq.
This is for a project where we draw a portrait of someone based on what's written about them in their obituary. This is Jim "The Tiger" Warnock, from Ontario. He lived from 1926 through till 2006.
I also wanted to do a portrait in landscape format. Because it's ironic. The colors are a bit washed out in the original, to give it a more children's book/baby feel, but blogger compressed it a second time and now it's extra dusty looking. But I hope the idea gets across.
Also, I used the song "You're So Cool" by Hans Zimmer as inspiration. I really wanted my picture to go along with the mood and feeling of the song. I would love to have just a looping animation of this tiger running with the baby on its back with the music playing. I think it would suit it excellently. Particularly from 0:55-1:25. You can find the song here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ab1l2TwFp8&feature=related . I think it can go without saying that the video has nothing to do with my picture. It's just footage from the movie the track was from: True Romance.
Here are some pictures of my room, which is where I do most of my drawing, sleeping and procrastinating. I really like my room, and I recently just got some new stuff for Christmas that helps pimp it up. I got a brand new awesome glass-topped, tilting drawing desk and some little plastic drawer things, and I found that lamp behind my reading chair and I forgot my plant on the out cropping above the foyer, so I put it all together, along with all the DVDs (yup, I'm still on those) and the books I got too, and I decided I wanted to show it off. It's the sort of room i've wanted ever since I was a kid, and I don't mean it has a lot of comic books and action figures and toy guns; I mean it has a desk in a little nook thing lined up with the window, and a bookshelf full of books and DVDs all about topics I find fascinating and entertaining. A comfortable bed is a plus, but my dog thinks it's his. And some big juicy speakers that I use to raise a little hell every once in a while.
for a couple of years now people have been asking me to make a tutorial on how to use markers. they seem to like the stuff i do with them, and if you know what youre doing, they can make anyones sketchbook look AMAZING. it's like photoshop happened in your sketchbook! so anyway, i decided i'd make a quick tutorial on the basics. this tutorial is really quick and basic, but i think it gets a lot of the most important aspects out of the way. i think if you follow along/read what it says, you might have a different understanding of markers, and will hopefully be excited to go wild and experiment.
i use prismacolor markers, and faber castell pens. i developed my technique for coloring markers by, when i first got my hands on a set, trying to make what i was doing look like how frank frazetta painted. by doing this, i lost my fear of mixing colors, adding blobs and color spots, doing under paintings with base colors and building up new, blended colors, and doing washes. it gave me the confidence to put a collar on markers, and its been toms-best-friend ever since. i turned the wolf into the labrador retriever and i want you to meet him (figure THAT one out!)
i'd like to apologize in advance for the quick job i did with this, but i wanted to make something today. the result is a little sketchy and rough, but the ideas are still there, and i think it will do the job.
i promise to one day make a complete art tutorial covering every thing i know. with a big section on markers and digital (my 2 favorite mediums), with refined and beautiful pieces. i might be far from the best ever, but i have strong opinions and i know a little bit about what im talking about, but the hand is slower than the mind when it comes to developing. so hopefully i can make something we can all be proud of. but anyway, here's the pages in order:
if you found this helpful in any way id love to hear from you. also, if you have any questions about process, or would like more information on doing certain things and different techniques or you just need a little more clarity then dont hesitate to ask. chances are if im not making sense to you, im not making sense to a lot of people, and i could use your help to make this better for every body!
Tried my hand at horror this afternoon. My friend Chase Toole pointed out to me how he's never seen a "good" werewolf design. He made his case, and for the most part, I agreed with him. So around lunch time I made it my mission to draw a werewolf that was a: scary, b: unique, c: disturbing. I left it for a while and came back and decided it needed to be scarier so i changed it up a little bit. I think it is scarier, and I believe almost everyone would agree, but I think it looses some of its character and uniqueness. The new scarier version seems more along the lines of something someone is just bound to draw eventually by throwing together "scary" parts. But, whatever. I think it's still unique, and I'm kinda proud of it. A bit fast, and the human anatomy was rushed like all get out and looks like butt, but I wanted to get my idea on paper as soon as possible
i asked myself this question on friday morning, and this is what i drew in answer. i went with an economic design. a "this should just about do it" design for a military group sent back to the cretaceous.
the idea behind the gun is basically to satisfy the needs of the user as best as i could imagine them. it has to be powerful, hence its girth and size and heavy dutiness, it has to be fast and maneuverable, hence the legs (ill explain in a bit), it had to be small enough to be able to move around in a jungle, and then later in hallways on space ships and bunkers, and it had to have enough room for fuel, a motor/engine of sorts to power the gun, legs and computers and equipment on board, and ammunition (which the guy using it would carry in big chains as well as a compartment on the side of the gun to feed it in), looks like it could be mass produced without too much difficulty, looks sturdy, and also look kinda scary.
so the legs. basically the idea of this is to enable one man to be able to bring down, with as little effort as possible, a creature with the same size, toughness and ferocity as a tyrannosaurus rex. inside the guts of this contraption would be a shit load of accelerometers, a gyroscope, radar/sonat, and tons of sensors that would literally read the input given into the handle by the user, as well as it would use blue tooth or something to transder information taken by a camera inside the guys visor which would also guide the gun (like an apache helicopter pilot has. the giant machine gun aims where he looks). and so anyway, it takes this information and accomodates to the users actions. so what this means is the guy could swing that thing around like a pistol. if he wants to do a 180 and shoot behind him, all he has to do is turn, point, and shoot like he would with a pistol, and the gun will do what needs to be done to get itself into position. imagine a mix between the darpa dog robot cargo carrying thing, and the doll head/spider bodied thing from toy story. and maybe a little johnny 5.
note: the legs under the big green fuel tank and engine encasement are shorter than the legs on the other side, though id imagine they would be attached to some sort of framework that could swivel around to so it could straighten all its legs out and still keep the gun level
i also tried my hand at a different technique on the gun for this. i did it with a blocky digital style, sort of like how id like to learn how to paint with photoshop, rather than just color in simple linework. and then hopefully ill be able to learn how to do that and itll help me with my portraiture and even just painting in general. and then the guy was done in markers, but i sorta wish i pushed his colors further
we were assigned a project in class today with a heaven and hell theme. i was sitting there thinking about stuff i think is awesome and it just made me so happy i had to make a shitty collage to put on my wall to brighten me up on those monday mornings when theres poop in my coffee
for the unenlightened, heres a quick rundown of whats in it
big puffy clouds mountains meadow frank lloyd wright house Falling Water rolls royce phantom bear skin rug with Bryce Dallas Howard on it a shit load of lab puppies daft punk performing a saddled trex with corked teeth and shit tons of beer to enjoy with my friends C.S.Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas, J.R.R. Tolkien and Jesus Christ
this is for a class project where we had to draw a "cowboy". i wanted to make the project more interesting for me, so i redid the main star wars cast as a if it was a western, rather than a scifi/fantasy thing. i also put up a 1440x900 desktop in case anyone would want such a thing
Saturday, November 01, 2008
character sketches from 2008
Pages from the children's book project at school. these are from early 2006
the trolls are from late 2005, and the rest is from 2007-2008
This blog is where I will be posting school projects, as well as pieces from the past that I still like. The images on the blog are all from the period between 2005 and the present. I love to design characters and creatures, both real and imagined, so you can expect to see your fair share of both. I do a lot of anatomical studies, so you can bet on seeing a lot of naked guys and animals with no skin, but it's all part of the learning process. We'll try to enjoy it. Together.
"Plan to Fail" comes from a popular phrase my dad told me when I was just finished high school and just wanted to play video games all day instead of getting a job. He said "Tom, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail". It hit me like a ton of bricks, and it's still part of my central out look of the world. I become more and more aware of it's truthfulness and validity all the time. Always have a plan, and if you're too stupid for that, then just set goals for yourself. Either way, always move forward, always explore, always ask questions, always think for yourself, always challenge authority, and especially, always challenge yourself.
