alexries

WIP - Fighter Cover

Working on an Ebook cover featuring an atmospheric/limited space ops heavy fighter aircraft. Here is how I present my initial ideas to a client!

Finished!

Check out this Tumblr link to see the sketches I based them on :)

Commission Update

Almost done on this kid's creatures commission! Full of weirdos.

What I am Working On

My current commission is a cute one, so thought I would give you folks a behind the scenes look: The job is to take creatures designed by children and place them together into a formal painting. Shown is the WIP, which still contains a few masked creatures, and attached are the sketches of the critters!

It Begins...

The ugly, but rather relaxing process of masking has begun. At this stage I have the basic forms figured (for now), so I am blocking in the major elements in simple bold colors. Since each element is on a different layer and will be changed later, any color at all can be used.

Commission - Tentacle Beak Megafish

A recent commission for Deviantart user Ivan Camoretti: Check out their initial design here! http://fav.me/d9za4yc

Update

Puppet design continues!

Puppetry For Babies

I now have more of an idea for the function of the outfit - a lightweight articulated puppet to entertain the tiny ones!

Finalising Lineart

Almost ready to begin coloring, need to finalise the positions of the youngsters and tweak the frame design before moving on.

Progress Update

This decorative costume may be getting a little... elaborate. I will experiment tomorrow with stripping it back a little as it could be distracting from the characters interacting.

Backbasket

Work continues on the design of the play basket structure, and considerations as to what sort of things it may be covered in (beads, rattles etc)

Now researching playing birds and cats for the poses of the babies

Ramping Up

Just starting to get some momentum on the birrin playtime image. Stage one, and possibly the most important, will be positioning the adult and their six legs. I am aiming for a playful, dynamic pose, rather like the 'play bow' used by dogs.

City Scene - Reboot

Hello folks,

I have returned from the tropics with many insect bites and crocodile sightings.

The city reboot is now resuming, with a more intimate setting; young birrin are very boisterous and full of energy, so keeping them entertained, even when newly hatched, is an art unto itself.

I am wo...

Week Away

Hey folks,

I shall be away until next Sunday, exploring the tropical Queensland town of Port Douglas!

As a thanks for all your support so far, here is an image never completed: a concept for a super-predator on the Birrin world.

Have a good week, I shall return with new ideas for the birrin city...

Crossroads

I am at a point of decision making on the birrin city piece. My question to you all is:

Would you rather see a broad overview of a city, with the focus on the location, or a more intimate setting of Birrin life, say a side street, with less city on show?

Megastructure

Working on a new capital building for this city, a meeting place for the matriarchs of this region. I will see I can make a composition work around it!

WIP

City sketchies continue!

3D Assets

Working on creating a basic 3D model is a good way to lay out how this city scene might work, and get accurate perspective

As I don't particularly ENJOY 3D, it is also partly a hellacious nightmare :P

Sketching the Birrin City

Work has begun on the urban life of the birrin, and these (very) initial sketches give some idea of where I would like to go.

A: An old sketch for a never-completed image of the birrin 'whaling' industry, and one I hope to complete some day. I want to include it here as it forms the early inspiration - the birrin are carni...

Happy Easter Weekend!

Thank you to all my patrons, as a reward for all your support so far I thought I might share a creature design drawn some time ago - a well disguised, slow moving scavenger and occasional predator of the floating forest!

Skydrops - Complete

The small flying creatures are complete, thanks to the help of all of my Patrons! Rewards will go out at the end of the month, if there are any reward types you would like to see in the future, let me know!

"Within the humid understory of Chriiah’s richest

rainforest, sudden flashes of color can occasionally be...

Bird Butts

A background I quite like, reminiscent of the works of wildlife artist  Peter Schouten. The big remaining problems? I need to make the tail parts of the larger creature work better, as well as correct perspective on the head crest of the smaller one.

Background Experiment

How does a more classical wildlife art style background suit you?

Elegant Wing

Redesigned the wings of the nearest creature, as well as a new color scheme, which I shall now apply to the main birdlien. Getting close now!

Reward Image - Idiran Light Infantry

Completed reward sketch of an Idiran internal enforcement/light combat soldier, from The Culture universe of Ian M. Banks.

A splash of color

I am experimenting with the use of flat, colorful scales in the manner of moths and jumping spiders. The birrin ancestors, and indeed their young, have soft fuzz, and so this could have evolved into light refracting display structures.

Idiran Update

More work on the Idiran. Next stage is to add decals and weathering, and some experiments with the size and position of the lower torso...

Idiran Update

Now that I have cleared up some earlier commissions I can accelerate my work on the Idiran reward image.

As the coloring progresses I can see some errors in scale (head is too big for that body) and some ideas for a revised combat uniform, changes that I will make on the fly as the work goes on.

WIP Update

More work on the coloration of these tiny beings. I am using a combination of references from hummingbirds and various moths and metallic insects as inspiration, as well as trying to make the colors somewhat make sense: the bright blue spots on the display crest are designed to mimic the coloration of the flowers, which instinct...

Hummingbirrin Progress

The flying critters themselves are still in the masking/shading phase, but here you can see the current design of the inflorescence. It emerges as a long pea-like seed pod, and progressively curls open over a series of weeks to reveal fresh flowers and nectar. The lower flowers wither as the seeds begin to grow, as new flowers a...