I decided to take a break from my job hunt to create a new creature concept. I also decided to record my speed sculpt and share it here. This is Ralph, a ZBrush speed sculpt.. The initial sculpt took me around two hours to complete (hi-res details, and final painting took a couple of more hours). I will post the final image later.
After I completed producing this video, I realized I needed to make some minor changes to my website. If you look at my menu at the top of the page, I have added three new categories: “Characters & Creatures,” “Objects and Mattes,” and “Videos.” The first two pages I created because I noticed I had created enough work to build up new portfolio pages. As for the “Videos” page, I felt that I am confident enough to keep a video record of my sculpts and share them. I am also in the process of creating a video portfolio (which I will also share at a later date).
“Characters & Creatures” is a collection of many of the characters and creatures (as the name implies) I have created in ZBrush. “Object & Mattes” is a portfolio of background images, and object I have created for use in my illustrations.
As always, I look forward to feedback.
“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.
“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.
“Aviator.” Character Bust. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.
I decided to taking a break from creating aliens, and monsters, and sci-fi characters and draw up something new. I am in the process of a new illustration for my portfolio, and decided to produce a new character for its. This new characters is called “Aviator.”
With this character, I learned a few new techniques. These techniques mostly involved the leather helmet and goggles, and I am really pleased with the results. I ran a search for “leather healmets” and found images online, and based the sculpting of the helmet and goggles on the images I found. I wanted to create an old-tymie looking pilot for this illustration.
This character bust was created in ZBrush, and composite produced in Photoshop. This 3D Model has been added to my 3D Modelling gallery. You can also view my other works in my Illustration Portfolio.
I would like to know your thoughts. Please leave a comment.
— Mike Barnes is a professional graphic designer and illustrator with over 15 years of experience. His online portfolio can be viewed at www.lookingtodraw.com.
“Evening Stroll.” Digital Illustration. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.
This is the second illustration for my series of “Candid Shots from around the Galaxy” (still just a working title). Here we see Eleanor and Edgar taking a casual stroll through the streets of their home town.
Both of the characters and their clothing were sculpted in ZBrush. The background image was created in SketchUp, then imported into Bryce for rendering. The final composite was produced in Photoshop.
his image Evening Stroll is the second illustration of the series and was inspired from a photo by photographer Daniel Arnold.
“Edgar.” (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.
“Edgar” here is my latest character sculpt. He’s another alien set to appear in an upcoming illustration. Created in ZBrush and composite produced in Photoshop.