A bite of Appleseed fan art

Redesigning someone else's characters, isn't something that I do too often, but while reading Masamune Shirows's Appleseed books I decided to give it a try.  In the fiction, Deunan's GUGES Landmate is built with close quarters combat in mind and while I love how solid and massive that suit looks, to me it seemed bulky and cumbersome when going through doors, turning in confined spaces, etc.  

 Here's the original design

I wanted to see if I could redesign the suit with more of a "westerner's approach" with slimmed down proportions and an updated look.  Looking at it now, I think my design is a bit more practical for its intended CQC abilitities, however by removing some of those large simple shapes, I've lost a bit of that iconic magic.  sigh. Oh well this was a fun experiment non the less...

V22 Osprey part 2

Here's where I am at with the digital version of the V22.  I'd say there's a bit more work to be had before I label it "done", but it's coming along nicely. 

I have also started doing a pencil version of this image to submit simultaneously as the digital piece.  Man, its been sooooo long since I've worked with pencil to this extent.  lol. Don't judge me.

Have luggage... will travel.

This is an idea I've been playing with-  a biped "mule" of sorts.  Meant to carry extra ammo, supplies and goods into the field for troops.  Currently holds anti material rifle/ extensive med kit/ rations/ gear etc.  When drone is turned off, it runs in autonomous "standby" mode. following its team wherever they go .  When activated however, its Ai turns on and can fill any role of the team.  ( Breacher, scouter, rifle man, medic, etc) and therefore able to use the goods he carries as needed.

The downside however, is that to reduce cost per mule, the Ai has intentionally been kept very limited and it does not posses complex functions to act on its own.  At best it would be able to follow a set of pre programmed vocal commands, identify targets and speak back a few bits of intel using a limited vocabulary.  Also, activating its cognitive functions takes it out of its "standby" mode and rapidly decreases its run time.  

V22 Osprey

After the push to complete the images for the Nuthing But Mech art book (coming soon) I took some time off to relax my wrists and play a few video games...

BUT I'M BACK NOW, and have started working on a piece for the USAF Art Program.  I'm still playing with the volumes and forms of shapes.. but u start to get the idea.  I'm hoping to complete this by the end of the month.   heh.

Nuthin But Mech art book

For the past few months I have been covertly working on images for the upcoming Nuthin' But Mech art book.    (and thus the lack of posting on my blog.) Today however I am pleased to announce that all of my hard work is coming to fruition as the book is available for pre-order at amazon.  It will not only feature my artwork, but my colleagues on the NBM blog as well.  Heads up tho: this book will give anyone who glances at it, mech-boners;  I kid you not.  Go on, add it to your cart; but plan accordingly...

Head on over to the NBM blog site to get more details.

The load screens of RAGE

I am very proud of the effort and work that went into the load screens of RAGE.  They are a great way to showcase the amazing art that were done for the game.  Most of the concepts were generated before I got to the company by Ben Olson, Kenneth Scott, Nicolas Bouvier (Sparth), and Stephan Martiniere.  While I DID throw my own concepts into the mix, most of the work featured in the load screens is theirs.  I did my best to make their work look awesome in these screens ( honestly tho.. it wasn't very hard and didn't take much effort.  These guys rock).

Basically, I took their concepts, and arranged as many of them as possible in one screen, added a little flare and viola.  See image below for an example.

If you want to see more of their work, you can check out the artists individual websites:

Ben Olson: http://www.sketchthing.com/
Kenneth Scott: http://kennethscott.cghub.com/
Sparth:  http://www.sparth.com/
Stephan Martiniere: http://www.martiniere.com/

and so, with out further adieu and in no particular order:

Have much to show... but can't show yet..AAARRRGGGH!

I've been slaving away on some really cool personal projects, but for various reasons I cannot display them to the public just yet.  (All in due time I suppose).

In an attempt to post one last thing before the new year, I offer this instead.....BEHOLD!!!

Another collaboration with FlyingDebris straight from the archives (a few years old, but still classic.)