grafik danomatik

The Lord of the Frozen Land

2011-11-27T05:03:00.000-08:00

A passing mockingbird bows before him,
The sovereign of a land he once fought to gain.

His subjects now left him,
THe sovereign of a lonesome domain.

There he sits down,
His empty ambition left him now.

To the horizon, where the land meets the sky,
Places far off, he lifts his eyes,
To leave this place, to wander the world,
And seek a fortune,
...
Of a different kind.

The Postman

2011-11-27T04:54:00.001-08:00

Get on the greyhound one time, on a whim, to see a concert of a band you fell in love with many years back. There's something about taking the greyhound, the feeling of leaving everything behind and going to far off places, unknown experiences awaiting, colourful people, stories, lives coming together with yours for a while, crossing paths with you before you part ways. Thrill of the unknown, ecstasy! What does the future hold in store?

The bus stops at a small station somewhere on the road. You sit down for some tea in a diner next to the station and look off in the distance. <--------------- { ] A tall man about 6 feet walks through the door, wearing a leather trench coat that looks as if it gathered the dust and grime of countless experiences. His shirt, and pants look like the've not been changed in a while, surpassed in age and wear only by the boots that carry him.

His head level, hair long, dirty and unkempt, he walks to the bar and orders a plain Americano, strolls over to the table adjacent to yours at the far end of the diner next to the windows overlooking the highway and the last rays of the setting sun that just disappeared over the edge of the fields on the opposite side of the highway to the diner. As he sits down he pauses for a minute and takes a sip from the coffee. Your gaze can't help but turn his way, what kinda stuff has he been through, what's he seen, felt, how many brushes with death has he had.

You take a sip of your coffee as he pulls an envelope out of his coat. Its sealed with dark blue wax as if from a different time but the paper seems new. A lover...., a friend perhaps.... "Travel with the greyhound often?" you ask; he takes another sip of coffee and looks you in the eyes, .....

"I like it,... taking time to get from place to place, taking in the surroundings and journey to get there, not as fast as a skyliner or as slow as a horse coach, though even those are good sometimes." he says. "Sounds old fashioned." you reply. "Important delivery?" "Yeah..." And as you talk you begin to wonder how old this man is, you take a shot at some numbers, 20, 30,.... 40 maybe? Can't tell for sure, his face dirty with old bruises in areas, his gaze penetrating yours, the wisdom of ages in it. "... it's important." he says.

As you board the bus again you notice he sits down midway through in a free seat, people reposition themselves to avoid the smell of old sweat and trash permeating from him that you somehow were able to overlook before, and as the bus glides through the night you look out into the night and reminisce over the stories he told you in that short of a time you talked where time almost stopped, .... unable to fall asleep, .... the steel mass on wheels glides over the highway.

A few days pass on the journey and you continue to share stories with this man whose name you don't know. He listens intently, collecting them in his boundless jar where they become immortal for other ages to hear, and you do the same in yours.

The bus driver announces the arrival to New York, your destination is finally here. You rush through the Lincoln tunnel and stop at the Greyhound Lines station on 8th Avenue. "So where you off to now?" you ask, "Going to see an old friend." he replies. You're going to miss this man, and his stories...

...

But just for fun you decide to follow him! Concealed preferably, cause you're just dying of curiosity!

The concert is at Madison Square but you have several hours to kill before that. You follow him down the street away from the station, careful so he won't spot you, it's easy here since there are so many people to and fro, the streets alive with colour and lights, alive with each and every character they've held through time. ---->You follow him into central park, the cool evening air is refreshing on this July summer night. ..... Around,... you see in places, bums, artists, and couples drawn to this place sitting on benches. He sits down on a bench next to the Lake and lights one up. You sit down on another bench and pause for a while. What could be going through his mind? you ask yourself. He stares out into the city line over the lake. He seems at home here, how many times has he come here before?

After a few minutes a girl shows up from the pathway behind the benches. She sits next to him and he hands her the envelope. She stares at it and hold it to her chest. They talk for a while and you decide to leave them be, you want to get to Madison Square after all, still need to catch the concert, wouldn't miss it for the world. .......

......But Wait!

......Seems he's getting up, where could he be going? The lady is not going with him. And somehow the burning curiosity returns.

You follow him onward back into the city down through the streets into Hell's Kitchen. He looks around a few times as if to make sure no one's watching and disappears into an old forgotten alley, and you follow him. A stray black cat runs out the alley, something spooked it, and as you get closer you begin to see flashes of light emanating from somewhere between the buildings. You run over to the edge of one of the buildings and the light gets stronger and suddenly a deep earth shaking rumble is heard, it gets louder as you peer over the corner into the alley....

....your blood starting to boil....

------------------> The postman his arm outstretched touching the building in front of him a bright glow where his hand touches, the wall beginning to disintegrate outwards from where his hand is touching it, breaking apart in ChUNkS of bricks sucked up into the light on the other side of the wall in what looks like a vortex. You begin to feel a pull of gravity and wind drawing you ever harder toward the man and his vortex

------------> ((((((((( O ))))))))) <-------------

The gravity pull grows viciously and discarded newspapers and posters in the alley fall into the light followed by larger debris! Suddenly you find your body being pulled like a hurricane has got a hold of you and you grab for the nearest wall pipe and hold on for dear life!

>>>>>>{{{[[[(((( ((O)) ))))]]]}}}<<<<<<<<

The man is somehow able to withstand the pull of the growing vortex, must be strong as hell!

>>>{{{{{{{[[[[(((( ((O)) ))))]]]]}}}}}}}}<<<

AT LAST the wall and most of the building DISSsinntegrrrrattesss completely ..............

VORTEX now in plain sight, you holding on to the pipe, and as you look inside the vortex which is now a round black portal formed into the light surrounding it, you see a boundless expanse on the other side and you make out little dots of light... stars maybe.

{[(((O)))]}

Your curiosity grows even more and you're close to let go of the pipe and dive into the portal, what could lie on the other side you wonder? How many worlds are there? Maybe a different time? You decide to let go but at that moment....

.....The postman turns round and looks you in the eye and you notice a slight smile on his face

;-) "YOU HAVE A CONCERT TO CATCH!" And with that he raises his left hand to his temple in a solute, the type comrades give to each other, "Who knows what time holds in store for us, that's the beauty of it, your time is yours alone and no one can change it! Use it to the fullest and live! Maybe we'll meet again! ;)"

....

Then he turns round and disappears into the expanse, the portal closing behind him in an implosion followed by a burst of energy so HUGE all the windows and crates and debris in the alley and surrounding area are blown to pieces.

<<<<<<<{{{{{{{((X))}}}}}}>>>>>>>>>

....

And there,

...

you lie down in the empty alley, smoke rising from the place where the vortex once was, body aching and shivering but somehow it doesn't matter to you that much. .....

....

You get up with a new found sense of hope and vision that you'll never forget for all time.

Ah the greyhound......

Time to head over to Madison Square Garden.

----------------->

The Witch in the Cave at the edge of the Forest

2011-11-27T04:35:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd do a progression of one of the approaches I use to paint.

Experimenting

2011-03-23T02:50:00.000-07:00

A bit of ancient symbology in the first one. The spade and hearts have an older meaning. The spade is a symbol for man, and vice verso the heart is a symbol for woman. The symbols on the modern deck of cards traces it's origin to Tarot. The spade is also known as the sword and the heart as a chalice, or grail. Or a symbol for the womb. Without getting into the Da Vinci code here guess I'd say the latter makes more sense.

Been gone for a few ages but decided I need to come pay my old blog some attention. There's a bit of Andrew Jones inspiration in here. He's got a very organic process of creating images, throwing random shapes on the canvas at will with very little idea of the final result. With me it's a bit different, I have a pretty good idea in my head to begin with, though not all the time. Gotta say though, this process of slapping shapes on a canvas is damned liberating!

Found inspiration from an art gallery at a hippie festival I've been to....

This last summer I found myself deep in the bowels of a hippie festival known to many as Shambhala or shambles for short, in the depths of the British Columbia-n jungle. A relentless rave raging on for 5 days straight. It was beautiful to say the least.

Shimmering City

2010-11-29T23:47:00.001-08:00

Ever walked through Tokyo and noticed how it shimmers?
The lights flood you and you're suddenly taken by the current of it,
almost intoxicating,
you stop to breathe it in and then keep going,
always on the move,
to the next temporary destination,
and inside you feel
like you belong nowhere but everywhere at once,
don't know what you're going to see or experience and all you've got is anticipation, it burns!

Travel with the train...

Temporary stop,
at a great station,
directions everywhere,
people to and fro,
alive,
and you in the midst,
find your way,
out of the bustling chaos,
take the automatic stairs and finally onto a platform.

Waiting for the train... breathe in,
waiting,
content,
a moment's rest before going into the chaos again.

I turn my head round,
people, many people,
many directions.

--> On a bench close to the stair well,
two teenagers or maybe they are in their early twenties,
they sit down in the midst of the movement, they hold each other,
his head cradled in her lap,
her hands holding on to him for dear life,
two stray birds.

...

Realized I'm on the wrong platform, decide to move on,
back into the chaos of the station,
drop into a cafe for some coffee and a sandwich,
haven't eaten in a while.

That couple,
I wish I can see them again,
try to find that platform but there are many and I get lost, … but wait,
finally found it,
they're gone...

Board the train,
it rushes through the shimmering multicoloured city,
I get off,
back into the chaos.

Taken by Altus, here's his photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/altus/322152193/in/photostream/

the muse

2010-09-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

She lives beneath the waves among the reefs of bright coral and blue and green rays from above.
It's for a friend of mine based on her characters, took a while to get the color scheme right! I was really inspired by the art work I saw at Shambhala, its a big hippie festival with music playing 24/7 for 5 days! I loved it! Best wishes to Mandy sama and Sean san!

Birth of a Demon

2010-04-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

Took them to the comic con, the only ones I managed to finish from the roughs. My discipline still needs work. The one with the angel with the sword is called 'Birth of a Demon' He'll tear you apart! I changed his pose from the rough, now it's truer to what it's trying to express.
The other is Odin and Fenrir, all that wolf cares about is devouring everything in it's path, a force of nature all relentless and rapacious, his eyes tell you he has no conscious thought except to consume.

This year's comic con was one of the best I've ever been to and I'm really happy I was there, I miss it... I also met Brom there, he's one of my favorite artists! I remember his illustration for Heretic from my 1994 PC gamer magazine and the cover for Hexen and Doom 2. Back in grade 5 and 6 I copied his illustration for the cover of Doom 2 so that people would know what I desired for Christmas.
Hexen will always be my favorite computer game of all time.
Also Craig Elliott was there, just found out about him, regret not getting any of his prints when I was there, next con though!

Ravenous Beast

2010-01-06T17:09:00.000-08:00

Working on some pieces for the comic con, and an illustration portfolio as of late. I've been rather moody in the last months and I try to come to grips with my feelings through my work, I felt like I was about to lose myself on several occasions, not able to achieve a feeling of contentedness no matter how hard I tried and then there was the anxiety that came in like an unstoppable wave plowing this way and that with a relentless sadistic abandon, silencing me unable to speak out, like a drowning bird, .... then, I came to my senses and I felt alive again like I could do anything and say all that is in my heart and soul and I screamed and yelled with all I had in me and I finally felt content!
I can't no matter how hard I try to stay composed and behave normally because the more I try the more I feel like I bury myself in a deep hole and then everything feels like tearing itself out with all the more fury! Pot helped... booze helped as well!
I felt like I broke out of a hard encasing shell bent on containing all that was alive in me, but there are still many pieces to break away, I'll break it till I'm completely free. I feel more at ease now though... I feel like I can give in to any pleasure wherever I find it, I don't care.
But somehow... there is still something that shines, something worth holding on to.

Anyway, just some illustrations and sketches that I want to turn into illustrations, the one with the wolf is of Odin and Fenrir. I wanted to make the wolf into something elemental, a darkness that swallows everything greedily without mercy.

abandoned church

2009-11-06T00:13:00.000-08:00

I like the effect that you get from using textures. The rest of it was painted. Started out by painting a rough structure and then I started adding the textures.

smoke demon thing!

2009-07-30T23:14:00.000-07:00

The one on the right is a demon i drew at the comic con for Melissa. Did not have a clear picture in mind at first but i like the outcome. Melissa took it and drew it better. Its got more personality by far!

Here's her live journal blog:

seylyn.livejournal.com

airbikes and stuff

2009-07-12T22:36:00.001-07:00

Just some drawings

2009-06-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

I did this one at lunchtime at work. The theme was the easter bunny but I wanted to draw knights so i came up with this instead. The horned fighter reminds me of a movie I saw in high school...

This is a Lamia (half woman half centaur), a girl named Melissa comissioned me to draw it. Drawing the scales was my favorite part of this. Drew it at Drink and Draw.

This is an armor design for a medium armored trooper (air trooper, he is missing the jetpack), also drawn at drink and draw.

comic con 2009

2009-06-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

This is the first year i had a table at the comic con and it was a blast! Did not sell too many prints though !_! oh well, next time...

But I did meet a bunch of people and some from the years past. Met Dario Carrasco and we traded prints. I still owe you a drawing of a sexy woman Dario! He is a comic book artist with an awesome graphic style. He works on a series called Marlow. Here is his site:

http://www.pandaystudio.com/

Metal Sorcerer

2009-04-24T00:36:00.001-07:00

Hey all, after long ive managed to get it rendered enough... its ready for the comic con, but I still want to render it further after the con, though I like the way it turned out sofar!

and heres some process

a small distraction

2009-03-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

Did this on Friday and I hope to have it done for the comic con as well. Have to keep focus on the illo down below though. Its my main piece at the comic con.

comic con illo rough

2009-02-24T23:17:00.000-08:00

This is what Im working on now. Its for the comic con here in calgary on the 29th of April so I'm going to concentrate on rendering this madness.

A metal clad sorcerer that can control metal and bend it to his will. His body can discharge massive amounts of electricity which he sends out to obliterate foes. Approximately 20 000 000 volts of megaseizureous voltage...

back from the dead

2009-02-24T23:15:00.000-08:00

Ive been rather absent lately so I'm not going to make any excuses. But Ive decided to update my blogasaurus more often. If not with images then with stuff I think about every day. But fear not because there'll be images too.

Ever since a while ago I found myself coming back to look at Yoshitaka Amano and John Howe's work. I loved their work in high school and they inspired me to take illustration but during the time I was in art school I gradually grew apart from their work. I look at their illos now and they're just as brilliant as before. I'm so happy because I can feel the same emotion that I felt looking at their stuff in high school. I remember in grade 11 when I came across Amano's work for the first time because of his illos for final fantasy 2. Look at this ...

www.amanosworld.com/html/work/rampo/rampo20.html

I just started watching an old film that he worked on "Angel's Egg"...

www.amanosworld.com/html/work/egg.html

and here's the film...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCUJ-LLcE_0

... hope you like it...

some temporary images (not for the same story)

2008-11-19T19:30:00.000-08:00

YO, these are the images I made for an art test to get a job. I completed them a while ago but had to hold off for some time before posting!!

Environments are on the way!!

2008-08-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

Right now im focusing on environment work to balance out my character design, so expect environments in the following weeks!!
All of the enviros are for one single story however, so ill post them as I complete them.

2008-08-14T01:18:00.001-07:00

2008-06-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

battle scenario finally finished. This was for a concept art test for Bizzare Creations.

2008-06-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

the final draft preceding the final paint phase

some head studies for a mannequin head design contest

for Big Smile Mannequins:

http://www.bigsmile.ca/

battle scenario progress ----> 91%

2008-06-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

my progress on the battle scenario so far...

still have to finish the last details including the head of the alien on the left, the right hand of the alien on the right and the lightning bolt emenating from the left hand of the alien on the left , etc.

Ill post the final friday night so stay tuned!!!

2008-06-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

preliminary drawing for a photoshop painting which i am working on right now for a concept art test ... the figures in the background are going to be painted in and there will be lightining coming out of the big alien's left hand which creates an explosion in the background

the scene is cold and gritty and there will be snow falling. This will better contrast with the fires from the firefights. Terra is being invaded by aliens and the player takes control of an alien squad and has to fight the humans,... hence the title "Against all Terrans"

gladiator

2008-05-15T13:54:00.001-07:00

My apologies for the lack of updates... I am really busy applying to places right now, hopefully something comes up soon!
Ive got about 13 concept pieces that i am working on right now simultaneously to keep in shape, late in the evenings. Its the only time i get right now... good thing there are no set deadlines on them, although i try more or less to set my own deadlines...

a concept drawing of a gladiator.
going to turn into a photoshop painting... the head might need a bit of shrinking to emphasize the body more, all thoughts are welcome ofcourse

2008-04-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

illustrations

inspired from The 7th Seal... this is death

and the crusader, defiant of his impending dooooom

and process

2008-04-30T19:54:00.001-07:00

environments and vehicles

star fighter designs based on the process thumbs

and some process

2008-04-30T19:42:00.001-07:00

life drawings

2008-04-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

my character development

2008-04-30T19:03:00.001-07:00

Greetings to all who happen on my newly created blog!

This place is meant for all to come and look at my images and to leave any coment they see fit...

be it good or bad, in other words tell me exactly what you think even if its loaded with criticism. One has to be open to it in order to grow in this proffession.

Try to keep the criticism constructive though.

Here are the images from my graduation folio...

these are not all the images-----> continue to the other sections to see the rest