Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Website!

My website isn't finished yet and I still need to buy the domain name, but here's how it's looking so far:
http://www.wix.com/unreal_skill/aaronhainportfoliosite

Monday, November 15, 2010

Getting better with different custom brushes

I've been trying a lot to incorporate more brush variation into my paintings, and I've had some truly great results. This first one is some sort of dragon lizard that has foliage growing on it's skin. I tried several different color palettes for this one but ultimately settled for a more autumn feel. something like two and a half hours in photoshop.
Another painting from a creature thumbnail sketch, again having a little bit of the line drawing showing through in the final version. throwing a couple environment objects in here to keep it from feeling too limbo. I liked this particular bird that I made up quite a bit, and plan on doing a few more versions that feel less cartoony. I was happy with the way the colors turned out on the bird itself. reminds me a little of a toucan.
This started out as some speedpainting of a forest, but after some hue/saturation tweaks I discovered the new colors worked great for something a little "cooler" :P
only one custom brush here for the cracks in the ice, but didn't expect much from this and didn't work too much on polishing it. The bases in the background were a complete afterthought, was originally going to have some giant ice palace or something.
When messing with some adjustments on the above painting, I noticed that it took little more than a channel reverse and a little touching up to completely change it into a fiery inferno! I think I actually like it better this way. I'd like to do another painting of some underground fire pit using these colors in the future.
This painting probably stands out, as it's the only one that I used a reference for. This is a photo study of a painting by Thomas Kinkade, but I took a few liberties with colors and the mountains and I'd say I made it my own. Didn't really use the default brushes at all here, and 90 percent of it was done with a single custom oil brush. The mountains are a combo of 3 or 4 brushes. Overall, I'm very pleased with the final product and the extra time I spent here really paid off. Going to do more studies of actually paintings in the future.


Last painting in the group, and also the one that took the longest. This is funny because the thumbnail sketch that I painted over was barely developed enough to read as anything at all. I started out thinking it was some sort of goat or ox, but it ended up being some kind of baboon-ox hybrid. Very pleased with the colors here, and especially the lighting and overall detail. This is easily more polished and finished than I've gotten any previous creature or character paintings. The very organized and clean layer setup I utilized was very rewarding, and I plan to stick to that scheme for future works.

 Now for some rough work. Doing more sketches than I can possibly post in one update, but a certain class has kept me very busy with drawing. Doing mostly creature sketches in my spare time, as well as some architecture (which I don't have scanned yet) and foliage (below).

Friday, November 5, 2010

Painting Madness

This first one is a speed painting focusing on colors and lighting. Nothing special, but worth mentioning.




Number two is a gigantic beast that sleeps underground for hundreds of years, only to emerge without warning, uprooting civilizations that mistake its back for fertile ground.


Now it's an island in the middle of the ocean! getting some phototextures in here, not usually my favorite thing, but certainly less strenuous than painting lots of texture patterns.


Some sort of gigantic crashed spaceship in a badlands-esque environment. I may do another version of this that's more finished and less implied.


A gorilla with raptor claws. Run for your life.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Colorizing Line Art

I'm currently in the process of taking a number of my creature/architecture/environment designs and painting over them in Photoshop CS4. I've also got a lot of new sketches, but those will be on their way soon enough. Enjoy!


Tuesday, October 5, 2010

1st painting of the new quarter, Finished Hut scene, lots of sketches!

Phew! So much new work to show, I'm tempted to split this into multiple posts. I might as well start with what I finished a few minutes ago, colorized version of a monster I drew a couple weeks ago.

It's my first painting of the quarter, so expect plenty more. His tail looks like it's made out of candy corns! XD


Next up on these four sketchbook pages are some creature and environment designs for a probable side project. trying to push style and variety here. Trying to imagine different domiciles and types of trees that are visually interesting. lots more where that came from! Mostly done without reference, except for the marmots and the elephant on this first page.






I had a really bad night a little while back, and decided to channel it into a few pages of creepy shit. Just playing with patterns, teeth, and visceral imagery. None of this was really intended on being something specific, mostly just scribbles turning into monsters. The guy with the horns on the third page here was meant to be some sort of demon, and I toyed around with a couple other sketches of him, which i might post at some point. The giant thing next to him could be just about anything, but i like to think it's his throne or something.





 Right above this text are two more pages for the side project. Some potential desert creatures (including a rock worm) and some ideas for mountains with large slits cut into them.

Below is the 3D version of the concept art for the futuristic Egyptian mausoleum. I'm not totally pleased with how it turned out due to the fact that it was rushed, but I'll throw it in for a comparison with the concept piece.


Last but CERTAINLY not least, is a near-finished render of the entire swamp scene for my background design and layout class. I must note that I'm not responsible for everything seen here. The background image, the trees, and the textures for the boards as well as a few small objects were done by my group members. What I did was create everything in the main hut, which was repeated in the smaller huts, and modeled the boards and stakes, as well as details like the spears, tiki, skull, etc. I also designed the layout and was responsible for lighting the scene. The second image was entirely my work, although it was before a few problems were fixed.

Credit for everything I didn't just mention goes to my group members Maria Schaeffer, Bryan Sanders, Nathan Thunder, and Chelsi Schetzle.

 ...and that's it! There are a few things I've done in the last day or so that I didn't include here, but I'll get them in the next batch. Any feedback is encouraged!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Sketchbook Work

finally getting around to posting some sketchbook work, most of you who are interested in this have likely seen it already. This is what's been taking what little spare time I have this quarter.

This first one is a little scene i did of a candy shop. panda hat :(


The second one is of some internet "urban legend" called slenderman; look it up, it's kinda creepy. also for someone else. I like the pig on the bottom of page 3.


A Zebracorn idea, and an upright crocodile warrior. I love drawing reptiles and crocodiles are my favorite animals to draw. Below, a pregnant chick with a hammer (???) and some viking looking fellow as well as the poodle from hell. bellow right we've got a snail with a rocket pack, and a predator and his three types of prey.

 Down below is a lot more randomness, including dudes with weapons, robots, animals, faces, and structures. At the very bottom is a drawing very special to me.