Thursday, July 30, 2009

Come Forth...

A new environment concept I did. I wanted to try doing an interior. Not sure if this completely qualifies as an interior, but as far as I'm concerned, if it's got a roof and a few walls, it's an interior! :p

comeforth

I went about this image quite differently than how I did the Arena image. I started with the colors first and I used a lot more photographic elements (some I hid and some I just left alone).

I'll be moving onto the astronaut from the Arena concept next. Stay tuned!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Arena Process- Final

Alright. I think I'm pretty much done with this one. I'll be moving onto designing the astronaut starting tomorrow or sometime after that.

For this final step, I basically just added in some photographic elements into the image in order to apply texture and also some subtle lights. I also changed some architecture so that it wasn't too Roman-esque. I've attached my reference sheet as well and I think it's also worth mentioning that I was looking at Khang Le and Jaime Jones' work.

arena

Reference Collage:
arenarefsheet_web

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Arena Process- WIP 4

I honestly haven't had a chance spend much time on this image this past weekend.  Been feeling a bit under the weather. :( Anways, onto the blahblah's and haha's!

The biggest change I did this time was I opened up the arena some more. It really helps the image breathe. Probably the fix that I'm the most satisfied with!

I'm trying to make sure that the arena feels a bit more sci-fi. I guess I was going for a hybrid fantasy/sci-fi sort of setting. This image should be completed by tomorrow night.

arenawip_4

PS- Color and value tweaking will be done after I'm done with the image. Last night's post was just a little test. ;-)

Arena Process- WIP 3

I'm tired. I'll edit this with some more comments later.

arenawip_3

Friday, July 24, 2009

Arena Process- WIP 2

So, I definitely didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted to on this piece today. I ended up spending most of the day fighting off a stomach ache and finishing up the cover challenge image. But I did get a chance to start working on the colors and changing around a few things that were bugging me.



arenawip_2

Changes:

1. Moved the mech.
-He was covering up way too much space and he seemed to be too much of a focal point. If I left him there, this image would serve as more of an illustration than a concept piece.

2. Changed the arena.

-I felt like the arena was looking very un-arena like. It seemed more like a science facility more than anything. So I added in some more textural surfaces and tried to add in some more box seats for the audience to sit in. I'm sure I'll still be changing things around, but I'm starting to like where things are now.

3. The astronaut's got a new buddy!

-And I gave them a bit more form and an idea of what they might look like later on. Once again, I'm doing my best to make sure that the astronauts aren't obstructing the environment, as this is intended to be more of an environment than anything else.

One thing I'm really striving for for this particular painting is the sense of being in the shadow and being in the light. I've always been fascinated by people like John Watkiss who can pull this off with ease.  I'll be adding some more photos into my reference sheet (which I'll post up tomorrow).

Stay tuned for more updates!

Cover Challenge

Another challenge I did for ArtOrder . I've never really tried doing a cover illustration before, but working on this one was a good learning experience. I only spent a few days on this and I kind of wish I went for a more dynamic composition.

Here's the clean cover
cover_final

Here's the cover with the template we were provided with
cover_final_robinchyo_template

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Arena Process- WIP 1

I've never really bothered to document my process for any of my images. People have asked me before to put together a tutorial or record myself painting, but honestly, I really wouldn't even know where to begin in describing my process. What I usually start off with ends up changing into something drastically different by the time I'm done with the image. So for the next few days, I'll post up some WIP shots of an image I started tonight. I'll try to add some notes to it, but.. well, we'll see how that goes.

In regards to the image, I basically wanted to do a bunch of different things. I've spent a lot of my time recently working on fantasy stuff, so I wanted to try doing some sci-fi stuff again. The keywords that were floating in my head were "space, astronaut, and arena". I want to make more of a concept image instead of an illustration, so I want to minimize vagueness and not have any unimportant elements obstructing the view of important elements. After I finish this piece, I might do some quick sketches of some parts of the environment and characters/creatures.

So here's what I have so far after about 1.5 hours of doodling around and messing around in Sketchup to find a cool composition.

arenawip_1



I actually usually start in colors, but i wanted to try doing greyscale this time. The advantage to starting off in greyscale is that 1. you can read your composition a lot more clearly and 2. you're only thinking about values and design and not so much about colors. I know things are a bit loose right now, but I'll definetely be tightening this up a lot more tomorrow. I'm really anxious to do a side-piece that'll show the design of the astronaut!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Sketch/Bot

Back in Gainesville, Florida ( :[ ) Had lots of fun in California. Would love to make my way back to the Bay Area or at place that's similar to it and it's weather.

I did some actual drawing while I was in California. Not much and nothing crazy, just some observational/creative sketchwork. It was fun, but I feel like I need to spend more time doing it.

sketchsf

And here's a robot I designed. I wanted it to have some asymmetrical features. I think I (still) often resort to making symmetrical mechs a bit too much. I was really inspired by Greg Broadmore's work and the mech he designed for District 9. What an impressive mech design (and one that translates extremely well to film!).

asymbot

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Update From California

Funny enough, this is my last day in California before I make my way back to Florida. I really enjoyed my time here. The weather in phenomenal and being in the presence of San Francisco's cityspace again is really breathtaking for me. After having spent 4.5 years going to school in SF, it was a great pleasure to be back (even with all the smelly sewers near North Beach).

While here, I spent most of my time working as a concept artist at a media studio named Eveo. I got to do some really cool stuff there and learn about some things I thought I'd never have researched on my own. During my off hours, I got to visit old friends and of course, paint! I finally got the chance to work on an ArtOrder challenge. For those of you who aren't familiar with ArtOrder, you should head on over there and check it out. It's ran by the Senior Art Director of Wizards of the Coast.

Anyways, here's my entry for the Earthquake Dragon Challenge:

earthquakedragon_design_robinchyo

earthquakedragon_quickillo_robinchyo

It's a mix of a lot of things. I was mostly inspired by many of the Colossii (from Shadow of the Colossus). Looking forward to seeing everyone else's entries :)