The Owl Princess

Another Art Challenge with friends. This time the topic was: The Owl. Mine is an Owl Princess as you can see.

close up:

I wanted to practice painting flowers. Which was stupid. I used lots of custom brushes for the foliage. I also used a ref for the owl and wings (random google image), as I never painted one. And a ref for flowers, of course (my own). Or actually a few. And I think I based initial tiara design on some photo, but I changed it so much, I'm not sure if it even resembles it. I still don't know what got into me that I decided to paint such complicated foliage.

I'm quite happy with her owl-face. And it was fun to do something more stylised and painterly this time :)

Demonic Circus

Another Art Challenge. This time I came up with the topic, got it from a game name generator and just loved it. I got kind of carried away with it. Had so much fun with the faces that when I finished them I needed to make all the rest more realistic than I intended to. Ah well. One day I'll learn ;)

The twins were inspired by the twins from The Shining, and I used some random still as a reference for their hands. Just the hands though. Clown's hands are referenced on my own. No faces were referenced which is perhaps why ringleader's smile is so weird. I learned painting teeth hurts. Other than that, just too much time in Photoshop and Painter. Here are some additional close ups.

Phantasmat

Phantasmat - a game I've been working on since a long time - is out! It's a casual horror adventure game with Hidden Object and Match-3 gameplay. Lot's of fun!

I'm responsible for all concept art, characters (including animations), puzzles, Match-3 graphics and touching up most of final locations (lights, details etc.). I even painted the bloody crow, all single frames of animation (swearing like hell during the process). So you gotta see it. You can download the demo and try it for yourself.

Official website: Phantasmat - including trailer, screenshots, wallpapers etc. The game is on BigFishGames as well (#2 one day after release!). Collector's Edition only at the moment, but Standard Edition (without extra content and gameplay, but cheaper) is coming soon :)

Some concept art:

Some in game locations with mostly my work:

More images on game's and my own websites. Hope you'll like it :)

Day and Night

Another Art Challenge piece with friends. "Day and Night", we were supposed to depict day and night as a man and woman. At first I wanted to go with the Sandman look for the Night, making him a guy (I just recently re-read the series again, love it as always), but thought it'd be too cliche. Then it turned out everybody else made Night a woman, which - I guess - makes me even more cliche. Oh, well ;)

I wanted to make a proper tutorial out of this one, but no time for that, hence just few wip shots in a gif file (a bit big, so wait for it to load):




What you can see here is my usual workflow: first a rushed, dirty sketch. Some flat colours to get a general colour scheme. Then detailing the faces too much, which I always do, even though I know it would be better to work on everything at once. But somehow if I don't get the faces right at first, I quickly lose the interest with the rest. And after that, it's just lots of regular brushwork. One thing you can see here that works wonders in pictures is: adding shadows. Even if the picture has a diffused light and no big contrasts, just small hints of shadows (see last steps) really add to the depth of the whole thing.

Evening Cat

All the best in New Year everyone!

Those following me on DA probably already saw that I joined an Art Challenge with friends. Thought it'll be a good idea to force myself to be challenged with varied themes more often. First submission was this one:

The topic was: something small, cute, snow, first star. Photoshop and Painter. I just learned I hate drawing cats ;)

Viper sketches

Some Street Fighter's Viper fanarts I just found. Although done few months back, when SFIV came out. Very quick pencil sketches, just for fun :)

Making of a face?

Just a small thingy I wanted to post few months ago. An animated gif showing the making of the face. Some things you can notice: at the end, when touching up the whole thing, I'm usually adjusting contrast and blocking in some bold shapes of colours. In this case it was blue on her cheeks (second light source) and some details in warm tones so the face seems more vivid. I do it, honestly, because when detailing I often lose the balance of colours, so whatever I had in mind at the beginning is usually lost at this point, and I have to fix it later anyway. I also repainted her eyes a few times, as at first the whole piece was supposed to be monochrome, but in the end I put more colour everywhere, so needed to adjust the face as well. Nothing that special but looks fun, I think :)



Final image still not finished. Oh, and this is not an animation, just WIP screenshots put together in one file, so don't tell me it looks like some frames are missing (I wouldn't write it if I didn't actually have people asking this before).

Asian inspired.

As promised, some illustrations from my Master's Degree work. Some older, some just recently finished (well, today, first two). Many refs used, obviously. I studied lots of japanese patterns and ukiyo-e, also got inspired by some poses and photos (especially the girl with red and blue flowers in her hair, here's the link to this one, it's a really cool photo), though in the end nothing was referenced too direct anyway and most started as pencil sketches. Lots of fun with colours, that's for sure ;)

Oldest is at the bottom and it's also based on the Moleskine sketch I showed earlier. It's a fun experience (still ongoing, 3 or 4 more to come). I started with a more realistic approach to move towards something more graphic, flat, line based which is what I actually wanted in first place. I just never have the courage to just leave something flat and unpolished. I have to say newest two (at the top, brown and blue) are the ones I'm most fond of. At least for now.

Ah, a fun fact for those really into details - I'm a bit in a hurry with those, so I actually re-used lots of flowers and patterns I painted before. Or you can say I just got lazy. But I guess using my own art to create new one doesn't count as cheating, does it? ;)

a gift.

Busy as hell. As usual, I know. But thought I'll share a piece I painted for my Parents' 30th Anniversary. It was great fun to work on something personal and something, as it turned out, they liked a lot :) Hand painted in Photoshop CS4, it's actually a quick, unpolished work, but I like it that way.



Also it seems spring came. Kind of. Another year when it's cold as hell and I'm freezing all the time. But luckily I managed to have 3 days off in the woods with my friends and we even had some sun (the only sunny hours I seen last few weeks :/). We had lots of fun, spent one night sitting outside and another playing fun game inside (the one which was featured in Inglorious Basterds by Tarantino), sitting near fireplace. I forgot how much I needed such time and I miss it already.

By the way, some preview pieces from my Master's Degree coming soon, 'cause why not, some are ready since few months anyway. There'll be lots of geisha / japanese stuff there, I think I said a year ago or so that there'll be more coming ;)

Happy Christmas? And zombie apocalypse.

Happy Christmas to all of you :)

Here's a preview of recent 3 pieces I painted last two months on and off (meaning when I had some time after work and studies) for Taylor Holloway's "The Living Dead" story for Irregular Magazine, coming there soon (January, I think). I just wanted to share something new, as few people wondered if I'm still alive (although on deviantart, but I have no patience for writing journals there). Still not taking commissions though, it was just a favour for a very good, old friend :)

Anyway, it took me a long time to finish those (I'm still not sure if I won't touch them up a bit, though) and I learnt a lot during fighting with bits in it. I have many work in progress shots saved, but I need to organize it first a bit. Some refs used, though not very direct (mostly for hands, and quite a few various ones for backgrounds).

Photoshop CS4 - my first pics done in it and it rocks. Especially with Windows7 64bit, 6gb ram. First time ever I can paint on A3 file size, 300dpi, without having to wait for a single brush stroke to appear on screen, guessing how it will look in the end. Which directly reminds me that I recently managed to damage two hard disk drives during one week. Go, me. Well, kind of. One was working fine one day and the next day it was dead for no apparent reason. Which sucks a lot, because it was my disk at work and I have honestly no idea what went wrong with it.

But the second one was my backup drive with almost all my files archived since, like, 2005. And it's gone. Including many .psd files, work in progress shots not to mention just many random things, photos and music (my works) I had there. And no, I wasn't storing it all just in one place, I'm not that stupid, but I was just reinstalling system and formatting hard disk that day, so for few hours my backup drive was the only place I had those. And during this short time it fell down from the table. Ha. ha. ha. Bah. Anyway, luckily I still have some of those backed up on CDs and most of them in high-res with pencil sketches somewhere in my room, but well. It's a shame. I know I keep babbling how I hate my older pieces, but losing all of it is still a big sentimental loss for me. I'm waiting to learn how much would data recovery cost, but they said for that kind of damage (mechanical) it's a LOT of money. So for 99% it's lost for good. I just hope the second disk's recovery will be more managable, as it seems it's a digital failure.

As for some other news the current score of My Car versus Winter is 0:1. My car's battery is dead yet again. Every winter the same story (it has some failure since 7+ years I drive it, I have to change its battery every single year when the temperature drops down below -15 degrees). But right now with my 22km everyday route to work it's pretty irritating.

But well, Christmas is coming. Although I won't have much time to do anything special, I'm still happy I'll be able to cook something. I miss cooking. Sometimes I think I should actually start to share some recipes here. Not that I'm very good at it, but I certainly have some passion for it :) Just expect no salt or fat in it, I hate those. And for those just thinking to ask this question, yes, I like vinegar (even though this is not the origin of my silly nickname).

So, all the best to all of you who stopped by (and managed to read it up to this place)! And sorry for the long text, I guess I had the need to babble a bit ;)

Twilight.

No, not the movie ;) Just a pic. Meant to be a light practice and also a tribute to a forgotten polish XIXth century painter Siestrzencewicz. Not a very direct one though.


And a face close up (100%, so a huge one). A bit more painterly than most of my earlier pieces and I definitely prefer it this way. Seems more alive.


Here is original Siestrzencewicz's painting (crappy mobile photo of an album reproduction, sorry):

Albino kid

It was supposed to be a quickie, as lately I've been doing some quick face studies, mostly based on references to practice skintones and such, but I kinda got carried away in this case. So it's half quickie half finished I guess, too much fun experimenting with colours in this one. As for the ref, though it was more an inspiration as I didn't really follow it in the end, see here, don't know who the author is, I was just looking up albino people on Google. Don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I was always really interested in this topic. Anyway. As for tech info: few evenings in Photoshop CS2, basic hard brush, textured.


And a gif showing an animation of a progress from the very beginning as the concept changed a lot (I think I repainted her nose 3 or 4 times). Wait a bit for it to load, it's pretty big (500kb).

fevered.

I watch you create emotional landscapes with just one move of your hand
I watch you erase them just as easy
Fevered
Fevered inside I feel
Scared of thoughts that remain unspoken
Touched by ones that already crawled under my skin

No, it's not a cheap poem, just some random thoughts that went with this piece. A quickie, around 2 hours. Sort of a self portrait in a way. It was a crappy day.

insert creative title here.

Just two new pieces, one for a school project actually (geisha) and second just for practice. I'd call it a speedpainting, 'cause it's pretty messy and stuff, but I actually worked on it on and off for few months. Sick of it now anyway, so I doubt I'll ever finish it more. Though I did learn a lot on it. For example that patience is a virtue.


Also a new issue of .PSD Photoshop magazine (polish edition) is out, featuring a tutorial on Scent of Daffodils. Maybe someone will be interested in it :)

X-Men girls!

Just recently I re-read all issues of X-Men I have. And boy, it rocks. These comics were my life when I was a kid and Jim Lee, John Byrne and Mark Silvestri were my gods :) Right now I can't believe I used to hate Barry Windsor Smith (his Storm + Forge issue, when she lost her powers). I guess it wasn't a style easy for kids, but right now I just adore the way he draws. Anyway, that was just a cheap excuse for few quick (around 10-15mins each) pencil sketches, later quickly colored with a custom textured brush. Just for fun.



Actually I never, ever, posted a fanart online before.. And I probably never will in any place other than here. Especially on DeviantArt. Even though I do draw some once in a while. The thing is I see way too many "artists" getting instant 1000+ faves just because the really crappy pic they sent is a wanky fanart of Harry Potter, Naruto or something. And I don't want to know my art is liked just because it pictures something that is popular right now.

Although I am thinking of drawing few X-girls related pieces. As a tribute to my childhood, or something. I seriously wanted to be Storm when I was a kid. And I literally cried when they cut her hair into a mohawk. Funny how things change, as right now I think it was her best design. And I definitely hate the way new issues of X-Men look right now.

crap.

I'm done with two more of flower series. I think the daffodils one turned out pretty okay, can't say the same about dahlias. I mean I like the colours. I like the girl. I like all elements separately. But I don't like it as a whole. Maybe it's because it literally took me few hours, less than a day, from the very beginning to the end. And I really didn't think it over. So it sucks.

The daffodils one is going to be published as a tutorial in upcoming .PSD magazine (polish edition):


Anyway. I feel a bit crap about my online art galleries recently. It doesn't represent at all what I'm doing at the moment and seems like just some kiddie stuff. Definitely doesn't look as something I could call my portfolio or even art that seems mine. I've been thinking about deleting it all, but then again I hate when other people do this, so I guess I'll leave some. I can't publish yet what I'm fond of and don't have that much time to paint more personal pieces, so I guess it will take me some time to update it with more recent pieces, that feel more personal and are technically better.

So for a while if you think my gallery's crap and boring, believe me, I do agree with you.

As for other stuff, like health, well.. I keep fighting. It's not perfect. But I believe it goes in a good direction. Usually it's recently okay, with few minor breakdowns. I guess I just can't give up. And have faith it will all pass and be just fine. But most of it happens in my head and it's really hard to keep fighting with my own paranoid thoughts. I keep trying, though.

January bits.

Just two new quickies. Each took around 20-30mins, having fun with one brush in Photoshop and playing with lights a bit. I didn't really have time to paint anything except the work stuff. And as much as it's really exciting I can't show it for quite a long time.. So well, the quickies will do for now ;)


As for my new concept art job it's really challenging and fun. I get to work on many things which I rarely painted before and I can tell it teaches me a lot. Not to mention working in game dev is fun (except a really, really long commute I have - I spend around 11 hours outside home and it leaves almost no time for myself when I get back). If only my health would be all okay, I'd be really happy. It's just this, exam session and master's degree which I still have left that are bothering me at the moment..

end of 2008

So, Christmas has passed. It's been really nice. Except for the funeral of my aunt just two days before it. I hope, wherever she is, she'll find peace. Honestly I've never been to a wedding (really, never in my life), but attended too many funerals of people I cared for. Sometimes I wonder if this is a reason I prefer darker themes when painting. Somehow light, heartful ones just don't speak to me and, actually, they never did.

Anyway. I started a series on scents of flowers. Maybe because I needed to draw something simple and pretty. Or maybe because I fell in love with few smells and got inspired by it? I've also been doing lots of painterly sketches last days, so it felt good to do something more stylised. Here's first one:

Close up:

Also I promised some close ups for my recent piece, Misery. So here it is for those interested:

Close up:

Only few days till 2009 begins. I look forward to it, it's been a bad year and it's good it's going to end. Well, maybe not that bad, but last half of it turned my life upside down. Health related problems and such. It's still not great, but I really hope it'll get better and I'll be back in full shape, feeling strong and all that. The worst thing is uncertainty, even when I feel good I'm just afraid if it won't get worse. I'm just scared to be scared. And, believe me, it sucks. God, how I wish I was 21-23 again, these were years I was perfectly fine.

I'm also starting a new job (as a proper concept artist this time, before I worked as a general gaming graphic artist, doing lots of pixel art too) and as much as I'm excited about it I'm also afraid how I'll manage with getting up really early (long commute), writing my master's degree essay (history of art), finishing second master's course in another town (graphics) and finding time to work on my personal projects. It's going to be hard, but maybe all these chores will help me get better and forget about, well, other things. I hope so.

Anyway, wishing you all a happy new year :)

carnival.

A preview of the pic painted for .PSD magazine (polish edition). Will be printed with a tutorial, tips etc. around February, I think.

As for some other stuff - my birthday has recently passed. Meaning I'm 25. So it's safe to say I left my teen days for good and can't pretend I'm not a proper adult anymore. Lesson learnt hard way. I even have some grey hair already, heh.. So, here's to growing up, not doing (too) dangerous things and hoping last year's events won't happen again. Cheers! :)

quick landscape sketches

Photoshop CS2 + Painter X.