Saturday 29 January 2011

Super Mario Galaxy

This is my latest commission: Super Mario Galaxy, such a fun game! I have this on Wii, and play it with Lewie, or by taping the nunchuck to my leg, as I can't hold it and use it at the same time. When I play it with Lewie, my job is to collect the stars :(.


Anyway, here is the source image:




And here is the pencil outine:




I've had to extend the source image to fit on the canvas - otherwise it would have been letter boxed or stretched, with wrong proportions. I still don't have my camera, so I'm having to use my phone, I'll upload better images when Lewie gets back from World of Love.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

I've done another screen shot from the Curious Village, the same image as the one I did for Child's Play a couple of years ago. This one is for a friend's birthday, its his favourite image.


Source image:





Pencil outline:



Blocking in started:




Finished image:




I think I've made the clock tower too narrow - I've deliberately missed out the building in the distance, as my friend didn't like it. He's not a gamer, in fact I don't think he's ever played a video game, ever, he just liked my original painting. I'll be framing it in the morning - its on canvas board, not on stretched canvas, so really needs framing.

Thursday 27 January 2011

Link's Awakening finished

I'm not sleeping well at the moment, so I've been getting up and painting at about 5:00 am. This means that I've been painting this image at a cracking pace, and even though I only started it last week, its finished!


I've had to use my phone to take these shots, as Lewie is away, and I need access to his PC to upload from my camera, so when he returns on Sunday, I'll load some better pictures.


Here's the top:

Here's the bottom:




Here's the whole thing:




I have no idea why its on its side - I need Lewie's expertise, here, so it will have to wait til Sunday.


I'm waiting to hear from the next person on my list what they would like,I hope I hear in the next couple of days.

Wednesday 26 January 2011

Link's Awakening sky done

I've done a little more - completed the sky. I am loving painting this, tomorrow, I'll do the geese.



Friday 21 January 2011

Wind fish started

I've made a start on the wind fish, just blocking on the colours of the fish. I've decided to leave the details until the last, so I'll work on the sky tomorrow. 


This painting is growing much quicker than I expected it to - it has taken about 4 1/2 hours so far. I know I have to do loads of detail stuff on the fish, but its taken less time than I expected to get this far.


I really like the colours in this image.






It looks darker here than in real life, I'll take another picture in the morning, in natural light, and re-post it.

Wednesday 19 January 2011

Link's Awakening

My next picture is from a Zelda game; Link's Awakening. This style of art reminds me of the Terry Pratchet Discworld books, which I love.


Here is the source image:










I love the colours, so pretty and muted, I'm looking forward to starting this one.


Here is my pencil outline:






I think I'll probably start the painting in the next couple of days.

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Final Fantasy XI finally finished!

Whenever I start to get a bit full of myself, I just have to try to paint some faces. That brings me down to earth with a real bump. I have painted the faces here several times, now; I've drawn them on paper, painted over the drawn lines, tried all sorts of approaches - I think I just have to accept that faces are not my strong point, and that if anyone requests a painting with faces, then caveat emptor applies!




Here's the finished picture:





And a close-up of the left hand side:




The centre:




The right:



And the whole thing again, in case this picture is clearer:





I've taken all of these with my camera, instead of my phone, I hope they are clearer images!


The next painting I'm doing is one from Link's Awakening, I'll have the pencil sketch done in the next couple of days.

Sunday 16 January 2011

Final Fantasy XI minus the faces

Well, its almost finished. I did the face on the left, and really didn't like it, so I've painted over it, and I'll start again. I'm not great at faces, but I am slowly getting better. I think I'll have to practice more.



I know the quality of the photo isn't great, I've had to use my phone again, but when its completely finished, I'll take a picture of it with my camera.




World Bicycle Relief finished paintings

Here they are, taken with a proper camera, not my iPhone, and in the daytime, so hopefully they are better images.


Professor Layton and Luke:




Limbo with trees:




Super Meat Boy bleeding:




Super Meat Boy pile:





These are all on their way to Cardiff now, surrounded by acres of bubblewrap and cardboard to keep them safe.

Friday 14 January 2011

Professor Layton and Luke

This is the final painting for Josh, who is hosting a charity event in Cardiff for World Bicycle Relief (for information: www.worldbicyclerelief.org/about_us/index.php). His email for more information is josh@ampersandevents.eu .


I love the Professor Layton games, puzzle games are my favourite games, I think. Here's the source image and pencil outline:



There's something about the style of Professor Layton, its one of my favourite games to paint. The backgrounds can be quite complex, so for this, I decided just the figures of the Professor and Luke would work, as they are only postcard sized.




This painting grew quite quickly, I think it only took about an hour from start to finish to do.


Here it is complete except for the inking in of the character outlines, and whoops, a bit of finger and ring appeared, as well.





As I said earlier, I'm going to take another picture of all 4 paintings tomorrow, in natural light, as the flash was too bright. This has been taken without the flash, so appears slightly darker than it is. Inking in the characters really changes the image. I much prefer them inked in.


If you would like to bid on this painting, please email your bid to Josh.

Super Meat Boy

Well, red is my favourite colour, and I've been wanting an excuse to paint a Super Meat Boy picture for a while!


These are also for Josh who is hosting a charity event in Cardiff for World Bicycle Relief (for information: www.worldbicyclerelief.org/about_us/index.php), his email for more information is josh@ampersandevents.eu . Here's the second painting:



Here's the inked in outline of the first SMB painting, I've done 2, cos they're so pretty!









Then with the background started. I love the toothy grin on this one!






Starting to block in the red.




And the finished article, covered in gravitational blood droplets and medium velocity blood spatter (I knew watching CSI would come in handy some day)






I then did another SMB, outline plus source image:




Oh, those poor, suffering meat Boys, but the joy of the successful one!






Colour wash complete.




Shading started.




And the finished article, complete with groans and grimaces. Just like the Limbo painting, if anyone would like to make a bid, please email Josh.

Limbo with trees

My friend Josh is hosting a charity event in Cardiff for World Bicycle Relief (for information: www.worldbicyclerelief.org/about_us/index.php), and he asked me to do a couple of A8, postcard sized pictures for it. His email for more information is josh@ampersandevents.eu . Here's the first one. 


I love Limbo, and love painting images from it, as well. I've taken these with my camera, not phone, so the quality should be better. The only problem I had was the flash reflected too much, so the final shots are without flash. 






This is the source image, plus the pencil outline. My camera flash is far too bright!






The pencil outline, with the grass started.






The "trees" started, with flash






The grass started, and then again, without flash:








And the final picture complete, again without flash, as it was too bright. I think I'll take a picture of all 4 paintings tomorrow in daylight, and re-post them








if anyone is interested in bidding for any of these pictures, please email Josh with details of your bid.

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Final Fantasy XI background almost done

Like most of my family, I've been ill over Christmas, and am struggling to be better, so have rested quite a lot, with the resultant lack of painting. 

I've finally made some progress with this picture, enough to post a new image. I've been working on the background, finishing off the fountains and flagstones. I still have some work to do on both - the fountains need water, and the flagstones need grouting (!). but once that's done, I'll be starting on the avatars. I'm still continuing to post smaller step shots on the how do I do it page, but am aiming for the next image in this page to be the finished painting.



On an entirely separate note, someone on Tumblr picked up one of my Professor Layton images, and site traffic increased madly! Thank you!