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Illustration

New Character: Frank

"Frank." Character Concept. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

“Frank.” Character Concept. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

Meet Frank. My newest character concept. The idea behind Frank was to create a half human, half alien rogue. I had in mind from the beginning in this concept to create a dark-skinned character with blond hair and orange eyes, giving him a more alien appearance. However I wanted any other alien features to be softened (skull bones and ridges less pronounced) with the hope he would be a handsome “Face-like” (from the A-Team) character. I hope I achieved this goal.

As always, I created this character using ZBrush, and final production was completed in Photoshop. Feedback would be appreciated.

New Work: “Gaur” — Character Sheet

"Gaur -- Character Sheet." (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes,

“Gaur — Character Sheet.” (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes,

Here is my latest illustration. I decided to create this as a one-color line drawing because I wanted to make sure I could still do it. Line illustration is my first love. I first realized that I could draw when I was very young — many years ago — when I discovered that I could draw “Tippy the Turtle.” Like most of you, I grew up reading comic books (unfortunately I didn’t have enough foresight to hang on to them… they’d be worth a fortune today), and knew I wanted to draw for a living.

So, here is my latest submission. I hope you like it.

WIP: ‘Seeing Red’

"Seeing Red." Digital Line Art Illustration. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

“Seeing Red.” Digital Line Art Illustration. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

I am currently working up a series of email ads for a prospective client and this is the first of a set of line art illustrations that I am proposing to appear in the ads.

I have called this illustration Seeing Red. The concept of the ad is to buy the client’s product to help you ” Stop Seeing Red.”

I haven’t done a lot of line art work recently, so it was good to get back to my illustrative roots.

New Cover Art: ‘Intruder’

"Intruder." Digital Illustration. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

“Intruder.” Digital Illustration. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

I recently viewed a video from an artist who was creating concept art piece, which inspired me to try a different style of art. Instead of the realistic portrait style I’ve been presenting lately, I wanted to create a more action-filled piece. The primary character is one I created previously The General, I thought he would be perfect for what I wanted to present.

My goal here was to create a sci-fi/fantasy concept cover-piece with the antagonist crashing through a wall and intimidating his victim. I hope I got it. I’m thinking this would make a pretty good book or comic book cover. Or not. Let me know what you think.

Creature Concept: Red-Hooded Lizard-Thingy

"Red Hood." Creature concept. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

“Red Hood.” Creature concept. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

I decided to try my hand at creating a creature concept. I was playing on my ZBrush application with no real idea in mind when I just started pulling out shapes from a sphere. Eventually this creature came to life.

“Red-Hooded Lizard-Thingy” is more of a working title for this creature concept. The fact is, I’m no biologist so I can’t think of a real name for this piece. If anybody has an idea, please add a comment with your suggestion.

I was actually very pleased with the results of this creature concept, that I created desktop wallpapers from this image. If you’d like one, visit my FREE Image Library to download a copy for yourself.

As I noted above, this creature concept was created in ZBrush, with the final image produced in Photoshop.

I hope you like it.

New Character Concept: ‘Alix’

"Alix." Character Concept. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

“Alix.” Character Concept. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.

I had some spare time on my hands the past couple of days, so I started doodling with an idea and finally came up with this. I named this character “Alix.” This new concept piece is of an alien character. I will probably use him in a future illustration, but I don’t know how to employ him just yet.

During the process of building up this character concept, I decided I wanted to make him into  a “tough guy,” but I didn’t want to put him in armor. I finally decided that I was going to create a “crime boss” character. Someone like Jabba the Hutt. With that in mind, I decided to add piercings, then a scar through the eye that rendered this character’s eye damaged. I actually thought about adding a tattoo to the face but scrapped that idea because I decided that would be too much. Finally, I decided to put him in “casual” wear, which would be more “boss” like.

This character concept was sculpted in Zbrush with the final image produced in Photoshop.