Monday, November 09, 2009
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Mech

Bit of fun experimenting on this one. That blur was achieved using a hand-painted depth map, which is a concept I 'borrowed' from 3D. A depth map is a grayscale image that represents the depth information in a still picture. Black represents short distance, white represents far distance (and everything in between). After I painted the depth map on a separate layer, I fed it into Photoshop's Lens Blur filter and dialed in the amount of blur I wanted.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Iron Giant

My friends at The Labyrinth Book Store asked me to contribute a piece to their Iron Giant Project. Anything goes, as long as it somehow relates to the film. I decided to pretend like the events of the film actually happened, and this is a vintage photograph signed by an adult Hogarth Hughes.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
More Matte Painting

This is part of a personal matte shot I'm working on. I had a still plate to start with, which required some set-extention to fill out the city, and of course the sky scrapers are added with a combination of 3D and painting. This entire scene also exists as simple 3D geometry to facilitate a camera move (there's like a million little cubes representing most of those buildings).
I'll get back to regular painting soon, I promise!
Saturday, October 03, 2009
3D Matte Painting

Been buuussyy lately. The above image is part of a 3D matte painting. A familiar process to matte artists out there. I created a quick, 1 minute overview video of the process. A 10mb download.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Castle Interior

Just when you thought I was done with castles...
This one will most likely make it into my book that I'm still hard at work on. In related news, I was hanging out with Jason Seiler while he was here for the Toronto Fan Expo. He saw this painting while it was in progress, and suggested putting those chains on the wall. Thanks buddy!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Prints for Sale at Little City!
Little City is a local online art community co-owned by one of my very good friends, Alyssa Bistonath. Basically, they host a small roster of artists and sell high-quality, archival prints. I have a couple of pieces available there, and will probably have different pieces every few months. Let me know if you order something, and I'll be sure to sign it for you before they send it off!
http://www.littlecityandhow.com
http://www.littlecityandhow.com
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Again With The Castles

You may have noticed that I latch onto certain subject matter for a few paintings in a row. Right now it's definitely castles. This was a sketch I pecked away at whenever I had a free moment, either at work or home. I've noticed that I tend to get better results when I let my sketches sit for a few days before coming back to finish them.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Castle Walls - Matte Painting

This started as a digital matte painting demo I gave to some co-workers. The demo only lasted an hour, but I liked the direction the painting was headed, so I dumped another 3 days into it. It's rare, but sometimes I do enjoy dealing with lots of detail and layers.
(For those who are unaware, digital matte painting is a combination of painting/photo manipulation/photoshop trickery. It's like a street fight - anything goes!)
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Wanna Be Sargent!



Usually my portrait paintings have a lot of 'patchy' brushwork, which is one of the ways I like to approach oil painting. But this time, I wanted to try to be more like Sargent, using broad, sweeping brushstrokes, and trying to make a statement in the fewest possible marks. In the areas where I got it right, I think it makes for a more powerful impact.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Thumbs
Did I ever post this? Three of these sketches were in that YouTube video I did a few months back. This is as far as I got with this particular environment.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Ambush

I have a friend who teaches grade 5. For her students' writing class, she has them write stories based on some of their favourite paintings of mine (which is a huge honour for me!)
I told her that the class could write a story of their own, and I would take a section and illustrate it for them. This was a point in their story where the protagonists are prematurely celebrating their conquest, unaware of a pending ambush.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Working On A Book!

I've been looking forward to announcing this! I'm in the early stages of putting together a book. The book will be a collection of personal illustrations (like this one, and this one). I want the book to be comprised mostly of new images, so for that reason my updates here might be a little slow, as a lot of my efforts will wind up going into the book. Maybe I'll leak a painting or two every now and then...like the WIP above. I currently have no estimated publication date, but I'll keep everyone posted!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Portrait Commission


A recent commission. Oil on board, 18x24". The lower image is an extreme closeup of the head.
My goal with this one (other than capturing the girl) was to play with various levels of finish. The head being at the highest level of finish, and everything else tapering off according to how far away they are.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Character Art for the Film
This is a colour key/concept rendering for a character in the short film. This started as a 3D model (which I did not do). I did a quick lighting pass in Maya, and then painted right over top of it in Photoshop.And yes, I am aware that Pixar did a monster with blue fur as well. The similarity ends there, I assure you.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Environment Test for the Short

Threw a quick test together on the weekend to see how the hand-painted environments might look with the 3D treatment. The top image is the original colour key, and below it is the 3D set. The painting gets 'projected' right into the 3D scene, and the result is the ability to move the camera around the painting in actual 3D space. The quicktime video is just a simple camera move to demonstrate the effect.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Side Project
A couple work friends and I got together and decided to start a small side project! We're currently in the exciting early stages. The cool thing is that each person is a one-man department. I am the color/background department. Here's some keys that I've done, exploring various lighting and color design.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Gabriel
This is the 2-year-old son of my friend and former co-worker, Colin Jack. In fact, some of you may know him from his awesome blog. Easily one of the coolest and best guys I've worked with. I have about 30 of his post-it note drawings of Batman in rehab cluttering up my desk at work.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Big Bridge...and New Website Launch!
The more I paint, the more I seem to appreciate the appeal of a limited palette.New Website Announcement!
I've been working on a brand new site for the past few months with a really skilled kid named Taher Ali (he's only 17!). His cousin, Danial Jaffry did the coding. Both did excellent work, and the site was launched today. Take a look!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Dragon?
This one was for last week's DrawerGeeks. The topic was 'Dragon', but my illustration ended up being more about the environment than the creature. I don't even know if that's a dragon, really. I guess it could be a baby Dragon?
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sarah


Sarah is someone I've fortunately come to know over the past two years, and it was my pleasure to have her pose for this painting. Having done a number of portrait commissions where I'm basically painting the person straight-on, I felt the personal need to do something a little more interesting, but still with a strong focus on capturing Sarah as accurately as possible.This is oil on board, 18x24".
Sunday, March 22, 2009
West Coast Painting & Rest In Peace Aunt Paulette

Just got back from a short trip to beautiful Vancouver Island, Canada (the northern neighbor of Washington, to place it on a map for you). It wasn't a painting trip. My family and I went to visit my Aunt, who was sick with lung cancer. Tragically, my Aunt, still in her 60s, passed away before my family and I arrived at her house. She was an incredible person, and played a profound role in my own life. My Uncle asked me if I'd like to put one of the above paintings in my Aunt's coffin, to be cremated with her. I chose the boat painting, because it's probably the best of the three, and I think best relates to her. The painting now exists amongst the ashes of my Aunt. It's doubtful that I'll ever do another painting that will reach that level of personal significance.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Joker

Somebody asked me to paint the Joker for them. This is oil wash on masonite board.
Also, Whohub e-mailed and asked me to do an interview with them, which you can read here. In fact...after I answered their questions, I realized anybody can go there and be "interviewed". So, you should do it too!
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Again with the Nintendo DS
Still haven't put it down! Sketches from this past week.Once again, I uploaded a few of the playbacks.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Nintendo DS: Reloaded
I have a weird relationship with this thing. I will go months without using it, then I find myself not being able to put it down for a few weeks. Right now I am in the latter mode.Update: You can view playbacks of some of these paintings here.



















