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Flying Cars

"My First Futuristic Flying Car." (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

“My First Futuristic Flying Car.” (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

"My Second Futuristic Flying Car." (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

“My Second Futuristic Flying Car.” (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

As a kid,  I was a big fan of the Jetsons, and later of the Star Wars series. In both of these shows, they featured “flying cars.” To this day, I am greatly disappointed that we don’t have flying cars today, as I hoped we would when I was young. Well, fear not, the flying car is here. These images above show two of the concepts I have created for production. I just need to come up with the “actual” technology to make these vehicles airborne.

Actually, I have created these to be background elements for a future illustration. These “flying cars” were modeled in ZBrush with composites produced in Photoshop.

 

WIP: “Eleanor” A new character.

"Eleanor." Digital Character. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

“Eleanor.” Digital Character. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

So, this is Eleanor. My latest alien creation, just an average middle-age female. Eleanor will be a feature character in an upcoming illustration.

This character was digitally sculpted in ZBrsh, with the composite produced in Photoshop.

Wally and Beth.

Wally and Beth. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

Wally and Beth. Digital Illustration (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes. Click on picture to view larger image.

I was recently sent a link on Twitter for a photographer that specialized in taking candid photos on his smart phone. Apparently this link let to the photographers Instagram page where he had a vast collection of his work. I browsed through his work — which is, for the most part, very good — and became inspired. This inspiration had led me to create a set of illustration of Candid Shots from Around the Galaxy (this is just a working title, suggestion for a better title would be appreciated).

With this in mind, I have searched through many “candid” shots I’ve found and I will work up illustrations of humans and aliens doing “everyday” things.

This image Wally and Beth is the first illustration of the series and was  inspired from a photo by  photographer Daniel Arnold. The characters were created in ZBrush (as I have demonstrated in previous posts – Meet Wally  and Sculpting Session: Female Alien Head) with the composite produced in Photoshop.

I hope you like it.

Sculpting Session: Female Alien Head

I am in the process of creating an illustration that includes two alien characters – “Wally,” who is displayed in the previous post, a male alien character. And a female alien who is featured in this video.

Sculpted in ZBrush, I begin with a pre-sculpted female human skull that I created. I like to begin by shaping the skull, then adding the major muscles, then fleshing her out, until I completed the final textured head (shown below).  This sculpting session took about an hour. I decided to name this character “Beth.”

I envisioned these characters to be humanoid, with a very close resemblance to humans, but not quite. Wally and Beth, which is the working title of my in-progress illustration, needed characters to fit this description. I’m hoping to have the new illustration completed by early next week.

"Beth." Digital Illustation. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

“Beth.” Digital Illustation. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

Let me know what you think.

New Character: “Wally”

Wally. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

Wally. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

I have been inspired to create a new series of illustrations (more on that later). Meet Wally. Wally is a digital illustration of an everyday good guy alien dude. Wally here is going to be a character in an upcoming illustration. So, technically, this is a WIP (work in progress). I realized I hadn’t updated this site in a while, so Wally is my latest submission.

Wally was created and rendered in Zbrush, with the composite image produced in Photoshop. Any feedback would be appreciated.

FREE Mike Huckabee Caricature

Mike Huckabee Caricature. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

Mike Huckabee Caricature. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

A new caricature that can be found in my new and growing Illustration Library, I present to you my take on former Arkansas Governor, Fox New Channel Host, and potential 2016 Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee. This caricature is available for use for blogs, bloggers, newsletters, etc.

This image is free for your use. To download, right click on the image and select “Save Image” from the pop up menu. I just ask that if you do use this illustration please add a credit line: (c) 2014 www.lookingtodraw.com. If I can help you with a custom illustration, please contact me.

One last thing: If you use this image, please let me know, and tell me where you used it (i.e. website address)