Drabblecast Episode Art!

A few weeks after graduation I reached out to the Drabblecast, and audio fiction podcast specializing in the Weird and the Strange. I got the opportunity to do the cover art for this week's episode, number 256: "Roanoke, Nevada," by Edward J. Knight. You can check the story out by subscribing on iTunes, or just heading over to Drabblecast.org. They run a great show over there.

Here's a higher resolution version of the cover. Go check out the podcast to get the context!

The Bat Returns

Here's the finished pencil test of my little Bat vs. Golf Ball animation!

I've had this sitting around for about a week, actually. I plan on taking this to full color. This is probably the last WIP I'll post until it's done, but I may put up some color stills as I work on it...? We'll see.

"Pterosaur" is an order, "Pterodactyl" and "Pteranodon" are genera.

And these are Dimorphodon. Well, with plenty of artistic license.

The painting is the result of me messing around with my new setup this weekend. Same with the sketches, really. Of all the various prehistoric monsters, the pterosaurs and the dromaeosaurs are the ones that really appeal to me. I think it has to do with how bird-like they are, although I'll spare everyone the amateur paleontology lecture.

Anyway, here are some sketches of a particularly cartoony D. macronyx, mostly with absurd headgear concepts. The general consensus is that pterosaurs had hair instead of feathers, but pterosaurs are famous for ridiculous headcrests, so I went a little birdish with these.

Check them out after the break!

A Very Short Short About a Bat

About five or six years ago, during a high school summer animation thing AAU was doing, I animated my first...anything, really. It was a bat character reacting to a bouncing ball. I don't know where the actual animation went at this point, but over the weekend I decided it'd be interesting to revisit the idea.

So, this is me just mucking around in Flash. The whole thing took about two days of work and a third day to fix up some of my roughs. Cleaner roughs make a whole lot of difference!

I plan on cleaning this up properly and coloring it further along down the road.

The Battle of Fingolfin and Morgoth

"Then Fingolfin beheld (as it seemed to him) the utter ruin of the Noldor, and the defeat beyond redress of all their houses; and filled with wrath and despair he mounted Rochallor his great horse and rode forth alone, and none might restrain him. He passed over Dor-nu-Fauglith like a wind amid the dust, and all that beheld his onset fled in amaze, thinking that Oromë himself was come: for a great madness of rage was upon him, so that his eyes shone like the eyes of the Valar. Thus he came alone to Angband's gates, and challenged Morgoth to come forth to single combat.

...Therefore Morgoth came, climbing slowly from his subterranean throne, and the rumour of his feet was like thunder underground. And he issued forth clad in black armour; and he stood before the King like a tower, iron-crowned, and his vast shield, sable unblazoned, cast a shadow over him like a stormcloud. But Fingolfin gleamed beneath it as a star; for his mail was overlaid with silver, and his blue shield was set with crystals; and he drew his sword Ringil, that glittered like ice."

-Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin, The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

Here it is! My first painting. I spent a week in Photoshop, maybe two hours a day, although I ended up doing a lot more tinkering on it than I'd care to admit. The most obvious bit of tinkering in comparison to my original sketch was shrinking Fingolfin down. It makes the fight a little more one-sided, I think.

I'm probably going to do more Silmarillion artwork down the line, as my schedule permits, and I'm definitely going to practice doing more painterly work, but I don't think I'll be combining the two again anytime soon.

The Golem's Back

Just a little experiment with After Effects.

Silmarillion Concept Sketches

I'm a big Tolkien fan, and the Silmarillion has way more stuff going on than the other books. I've picked it up off and on over the years, and I've never really had time to finish it.

This is a sketch I'm in the process of turning into a painting. I don't normally paint, so it's...an experiment. The scene is High King Fingolfin's one-on-one duel with Morgoth, Sauron's boss back in the day and more or less the Middle-earth version of Lucifer. If you're interested and brave enough, I'd suggest checking the Silmarillion out.

More concept work after the break!