Girls Bike. (c) 2013 Michael J. Barnes.
I know I’ve been throwing a lot of wips (works in progress) updates recently. The fact is that I am working on three different illustrations at this time (I just wish these were commissioned pieces) for some self-promotion pieces. Since working up the PALS logo last week, I find myself with some extra time to do up these drawings.
My latest WIP will have a little girls bike in the illustration. This model (seen above) I worked up over the weekend – about eight hours total time. I know it doesn’t look scary, or mystical, or fantastical like many of these 3D sculpts that are usually posted… but it came out so much better than I hoped that I had to share it.
In actuality, it is a very scary, evil, demon-possessed bike that will transform the rider into a hellchild that will torment her parents for many years. Okay, not really. I’m not going to go to much into the future illustration. Like I said, I liked the way this turned out and wanted to share. Hope you like it.
Girls bike sans texture. (c) 2013 Michael J. Barnes.
The Pals of Paws and Claws logo.
I just completed and delivered a new logo design to my latest client: The PALS of PAWS and CLAWS.
The client recently contacted me through my contact page and requested my help in creating a logo for their non-profit group. The Pals of Paws and Claws works to collect donations to help animal and rescue shelters (currently on the east coast). The organization had a basic idea of what they were looking for, mainly a cat’s claw, a dog’s paw and a child’s hand stack atop each other. Fortunately for me, they didn’t know how to draw out the idea. Initially, they used “clip art” of hands, paws and claws to pass as their logo.
Rusty Corridor Background. (c) 2013 Michael J. Barnes.
Completed updating the background for an illustration currently in progress. My plan here was to make the background a little eerie. Hopefully, it will give the impression that something might be amiss with this ship. In order to accomplish this, I painted in some volumetric lighting, and darkened and desaturated the walls. Let me know what you think.
Rusty Ship’s Corridor – (c) 2013 Michael J. Barnes
Working up a new illustration and this is the background for the image. I created this in Google SketchUp, then imported into Bryce for textures and rendering.
I really like using Bryce for rendering up background environments for a few reasons. First, for a quick build up of textures, Bryce has several preset textures. With this image, I employed many of Bryces “exposed metals” textures to give this background a “rustic” appearance. Second, Bryce has a great easy-to-use lighting system that allows me to create a great lighting environment. Next, I can render to very large, high resolution images. Finally, I like Bryce because I can render a panoramic image that I can import into Zbrush to use for HRDI lighting of my sculpts.
I am currently working up a full-body sculpt of my “Gaur” character. When completed he will be inserted into this background. More info to follow.
Gaur. (c) 2013 Michael J. Barnes.
Just completed this character concept illustration. He began as a test sculpt after learning some more new techniques. I then wrote up a character brief and “Gaur” here is the final result. The brief described an alien character, possibly of human ancestry. After centuries of cross-breeding with the indigenous species of an alien planet, the human features evolved into a distinct race. Finally, this character’s people embraced cybernetic implants to help improve the species. Think cross between a human, Klingon and Borg.
I had an idea recently for a new illustration featuring a fantastical monster creature dude. I’m not going to go into too much detail about the final illustration, but I will share my concept of the monster-creature-dude. Here is the initial “blueprints” for the 3-D model of him naked. I am currently working on his attire, which will be mostly armor. I will post that blueprint when I complete it.