Michael Scarborough

I apologize for how long it took me to do this one, but I think it was worth the wait. This is the main character of The Lord's Legacy © during the end times. Michael is Hebrew for "Who is like God?" and Scarborough is Old Norse for "Fortress," emphasizing his role as protector of Christian refugees. His given Latin title is Optivus, which means "Chosen," as he was the long-anticipated chosen Great Monarch once prophesied by St. Malachy.

This piece is a bit more representational than the last one. Michael holds the holy sword Excalibur in one hand and a shepherd's crook in the other while standing in front of a church doorway. This signifies the dual responsibility of gathering the flock of believers and defending it from Satan's forces. The halo around his head is also purely expressing that he has seen God with his own eyes and spoken to Him directly. The bronze doors of the church are etched with the famous painting The Archangel Michael by Guido Reni, in which the Archangel strikes down Satan as it is prophesied. This alludes to the idea that Michael Scarborough may be more than he appears.

The face model for this one was Wanted actor James McAvoy.

Eliana Vasquez

Well it's about time that I started doing art for myself again, and it was well worth it. I've been reworking and rewriting parts of The Lord's Legacy © and really starting to flesh out some of the old characters. One of these was a woman who I had not quite settled on a name that I liked enough to make it official. But now, here she is in all of her splendor: Eliana Vasquez. Eliana comes from the Hebrew word meaning "God has answered," signifying her future role as wife to Michael when he pleaded for a partner. Vasquez is Spanish for "Shepherd," signifying her other role as one of God's shepherds in her position in the Sons of Light.

When she was still quite young, she was caught up in a demonic incident that merged her body with that of an owl. Before Satan could make much use of his newly created Harpy, she was captured and taken to a Father Andrea Colombrino, who exorcised the demon within her, but her bodily form was irreversible. She lived a life of secrecy, hiding her wings from public view until she was guided to joining the Sons of Light. It was only then that she could finally feel free and be herself once again.

This is also the first image I have rendered with the official Sons of Light uniform. The model for the face was based on Hispanic actress Catalina Sandino Moreno.

Wisconsin

So I finally completed my contribution to Ken Krekeler's graphic novel "Wisconsin," based off a short story that he wrote and won an award for. We agreed that the comic would be done in Ken's artistic style and that flashback and fantasy scenes would be done in my style. In order to speed the process up, after I finished the black and white, Ken took up the coloring of the frames. He was more suited to doing it anyways because he used to it and was able to finish all the coloring in a couple of days. Surprisingly, I was able to quickly adapt to Ken's comic book style fairly quickly and found the experience a good lesson. However, I have decided that I'm not really interested in continuing in the comic book genre. It is possible I may do a bit more in the future, but unlikely, mostly due to just how many pages must be completed quickly and efficiently. I find it more in my range to focus on fewer pieces at once and make each one a masterpiece.

Here is what I completed and sent off to Ken. He colored the remaining frames (looking similar in style to the first page) and added in the dialogue. If you want to see it completed, you can review and purchase a copy here.

San Diego Comic Con 2009

So it's been quite a while since I've posted, which is because I seem to have a way of distracting myself from doing one task by attempting to do a million others. Of course, I like to keep myself busy and productive, as I find sitting around doing nothing very depressing and pointless. So, although I've been getting pretty far with the 3D Enterprise, I suddenly decided to take a break from that and see if I couldn't make something of my own design. I began experimenting by creating a quick model of my Locust-class aircraft and a mechanical entity from The Lord's Legacy. Both of those only were started and put on hold until I finished some other things, like a comic I am working on for a friend and job searching.

But something else also came in the middle of all this, which I had been planning for some time. Last Wednesday, I left with my sister and her boyfriend to San Diego, California to attend the internationally famous Comic Con there. I was not prepared at all for the sheer scale of this event and unfortunately, I was only able to acquire tickets for two of the four days. Amidst the confusion, however, I made my way over to the fantasy artist section and was pleased to find some artwork I could relate to (unlike most of the comic-related stuff).

The first one I managed to talk to was Jerry Vanderstelt, known for his unbelievably detailed and realistic Lord of the Rings prints that have been used in all sorts of posters and merchandise. I honestly could not believe that these things were all done in paint on a canvas. They all looked like production-quality movie photos and stills arranged seamlessly in character montages. He was quite happy to look at my portfolio, even though he said he wasn't particularly familiar with digital mediums. He was very kind and offered lots of advice, telling me about his process.

I walked only a few feet before a nearly passed out upon seeing a nearby booth. It was Todd Lockwood, whose artwork I had been idolizing for the past year. His artwork is very well known in the fantasy genre in the Dungeons & Dragons handbooks and merchandise as well as Magic: The Gathering and many others. I was almost afraid to speak to him because I had such respect for his art and I felt like mine was like the filth under his shoe. Nonetheless, I nervously asked him if he would look at my stuff and give me some pointers. He was a bit more scrutinizing than Mr. Vanderstelt, pointing out things that I hadn't even considered before. He also immediately knew that I had used Poser for some of my figure reference and told me I should throw the program away and hire models. His favorite piece of mine was the Wrath of the Valar, since it seemed to have an excellent composition, had action, and a focal point.

On Sunday, I was lucky enough to arrive at the portfolio review tables just as soon as the woman from Wizards of the Coast was coming by to pick up the pile of dropped-off portfolios. She sat down with me and discussed my work for about fifteen minutes, where I recieved even more insight that was new to me. She suggested that I look into gaining a better understanding of various textures and apply them to my work. She also pointed out things about how certain things in my pieces made them look flat and uninteresting.

When I left that day, I realized that after all that was said, all three of these professionals agreed on one thing: "whatever you did on this dragon piece... keep doing it." My dragon piece, entitled Etherion the Dragon Slayer, was unique amongst my portfolio as being one of the very few to include linework. All my other ones have focused on simply rendering while avoiding line to attempt to recreate realism. However, now I see that the line, even if just very faint, in aesthetically pleasing to the eye and I feel it is necessary for my future art to possess this. I am now inspired by this information revealed to me and am starting to get excited about possible new drawings, since I have not done one in quite some time.

Oh, and on a side note, I saw David Tennant from Doctor Who there!

More Nacelles

I'm extremely pleased with the way the nacelles are looking. My learning of Maya seems to finally be showing and I'm getting a bit fast at working with it. I've had to do some major reshaping in order to get those dark blue strips on the sides (aka the Power-state Magnatomic Flux Chillers... try saying that five times as fast). On those flux chiller things, I've used my first bump map to make the ridges stick out just enough to be noticeable from close up. You can see this in the two second pictures.

Right now I'm trying to find accurate reference pictures that clearly show where the self-illuminating lights are located on the hull. As you can see, there are areas on the saucer section that project light onto the hull surface, which illuminates certain areas, usually any place on the hull where the ship's name and registration code (USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A) is written. I have several reference pictures already, some are screen shots from the movies and others are other 3D models people have made, but there are some general inconsistancies between them all, including the placement of these lights. Eventually I will make sure these lights are in the right place and will add the text and logos to the hull, which will definitely help the appearance.

Getting the hang of the Nacelles

I think I'm starting to figure out how those nacelles work. I found a website where a couple of model makers acquired a rare gigantic build-it-yourself model of the Enterprise A, measuring about 3 feet, 10 inches long! They did a lot more than just build it. They cut out all the little windows and anything that illuminated or projected light and filled the inside with electronics. They even made a miniature forested garden for the arboretum (seen through the large windows in the engineering section). Anyways, from looking at the images they posted of their incredibly detailed model, I've been able to figure out a lot of problems that simply using blueprints won't help you with.

Continuing on the Enterprise A

I'm still learning how to use Maya and creating a replica of the Enterprise featured in the first 6 Star Trek films as hands-on experience. Someone with some experience in 3D modeling could probably make this thing in a few days, but I am just beginning to grasp major concepts. Since the last post, I've greatly improved the saucer section, adding details to the bridge and navigational dome, and putting in the self-illuminating lights on the hull. I've also changed the awkwardly-made connecting dorsel and put in the basic shape of the torpedo bay. The nacelles, however, still look quite daunting of a task...