Transformers Sketches - IDW Pitch 05

Okay, so I decided to go back and add in Laserbeak and Ravage, above are the thumbnail sketches...

..and here they are comped into the colored sketch.

I think I'm going to start off with this Soundwave one...

Transformers Sketches - IDW Pitch 04

And the colored Decepticons...Megatron in his dark and evil glory. Not sure what kind of destruction is going on behind him...either Cybertron or Earth, we'll see.

Starscream up in the sky. This one needs some more composition work, but it's coming along. I'm not still stuck on the original pose I wanted to do, at least.

I'm excited for this one, but...yeah. Laserbeak and Ravage are going in there. LB on the shoulder, and Ravage in the bottom left corner.

Transformers Sketches - IDW Pitch 03

And now...Decepticons! Here's Megatron, just standing. All badass and whatnot. I think this will be a dark and moody one, lots of shadows, with glaring, glowy eyes.

Starscream...transformed and flying with jet mode(d) Thundercracker and Skywarp. I did a million sketches for this. I had a real specific idea of Starscream standing and laughing with his hands on his hips as his minions did a flyby, but I couldn't fit a satisfying pose in the frame. So I scrapped it and came up with this, which for this pitch, I should have a more action-y shots anyway.

And this is my boy Soundwave. In classic about-to-unleash-hell pose. I'll do the color pass first, but I might end up adding Ravage and maybe Laserbeak in as well...

Transformers Sketches - IDW Pitch 02

Some quick color passes over the thumbs to help me get started...

Prime on what I guess will be some hot lava in the cratered ground. We'll see if that sticks around...

Spike and Bumblebee. That BB head is all wrong...course it's just a thumb, but I gotta be on the lookout for that when I do the drawing...

And Jazz. I guess I might do some Ark flooring/environment for the background.

Tomorrow - Decepticons!

Transformers Sketches - IDW Pitch 01

So I've worked a lot on Transformers over the last 2-3 years. As of May '09 I will have created and published 20 characters for the movie universe. It's been awesome to see toys in stores, and read comics with my guys a part of the stories. My credits are buried as a contracted concept artist, so I'm going to try to push myself a bit more to the forefront. Not really so much to be famous, but to get more work, more easily. I've been able to work in my PJ's for four years now, and it's been great, but I need to expand out of video games.

I've been URGED by a friend of mine to submit stuff to IDW, so now that I have some time coming up, and I'm in the zone on this particular style, I'm going to try to crank out some cover illustrations in the G1 style...I decided to do three each of Autobots and Decepticons. Nothing too obscure, just the top three, Prime, Bumblebee, and Jazz. Then Megatron, Soundwave, and Starscream.

Here are some sketched out thumbnails of the Autobots...

Our manbot Prime, standing amidst a cratered battlefield.

Bumblebee and Spike. Mostly to get the bad taste of Shia LaDouche out of my mouth. Think that wimp could pull off a hardhat?


Jazz. More bad taste...his characterization in the movie was an embarassment to all. And to take a character from a Porsche to a $15K POS Solstice? Jazz, I will make you cool again.

Not an MTV Cliche.

Gunslinger '77 05

And here is the value drawing...

I just like this one, my props were pretty cool. The cards are replicas of an Old West style, the guns are replica 1880 era, same with the shot glasses. I got the gears in a lot from an estate sale from some dude who worked on clocks in his retirement. I hope they're not haunted.

Now I have TWO value drawing ready to go (including Oz) to final drawings on the painting surface...soon. Soon.

*Update 01/26 - No, of course I didn't get to the transfer, I had to work all weekend...

Gunslinger '77 04

All right, this is looking way better. I didn't really need that second holster in the drawing, it's empty anyways...and all those elements don't need to be on full display, indications are all that's needed.

Yes. This is coming out nicely, on to the value drawing...

Gunslinger '77 03

Here's a much tighter composition. I also flipped it, because the flow worked better. I wanted to avoid this, because the inspiration for this was a Drew Struzan illustration for an Aces & Eights box set, and now it looks more like that piece. But...if anything, that guy knows what he's doing, so I can't whine about it too much!

I'm going to do another pass, with some adjustments in the cropping, and sketch in a logo for placement. So one more sketch, then on to the value drawing.

Gunslinger '77 02

Here's another pass at the framing. This one encompasses most of the photograph. There's so many elements to the composition, I think a zoom is in order.

The conceit here is that our robot cowboys gamble with spare gears; in the drawing they're too small and don't stand out. I need to take another pass at it and feature them a bit more. It's really the whole point to the illustration, a relatively normal setup with something out of place to catch attention.

The reason to do a sketch at more open framing was to leave ample space for a title logo, but it hurts the piece more than anything - so another sketch it is.

Gunslinger '77 01

So my two big side projects are in submissions with a publisher, it's time to move on to the next 'Big Idea' on my to-do list. It's simple. Cyborg/Robot/Cowboys. Before I start writing, I do some inspirational pieces to get the ideas flowing.

I have a few drawings and sketches that are old, and need an update. But I'm starting with a faux cover piece to get started. I took some pictures of props, and I'm starting to work out the framing...

Sanjuro!

I love this shot from Sanjuro...I've been wanting to sketch it for years. And after the kerfuffel of yesterday's disappointing work day, I need to scribble out something, with a real pen on real paper. A badass pic of Toshiro Mifune. He's got the angry eyes!
And since the movie is black and white, I de-colored it.

I hope this removes the sugary blitz of HM aftertaste.

Hannah Montana Game? 09

So the horror ends, fans. These are pre and post level bumpers to add a little more content to the game. And they kinda suck. Some were pretty good, some were ok, and some were bad.

For whatever reasons, when I was asked to do these, it took about two months to get the scripts and thumbnails approved, and by that time I was DEEP into TF2, and I was reduced to about 2 hours a night to get these (I think around 40 images) done.

By the time I could get started, I just had to limit the time spent on each one just to have them all completed by the end date.

I held back a Saturday to do revisions, and that was about it. Fast and furious, but there just wasn't enough time to make really nice pieces.

Along with the time constraints, I had to match what the levels and characters looked like in-game...which was NOT pretty even at this point. Her face is fugly, but I had to use the game models' face, and mimic game geometry.

So all those factored into a very piecemealed look to my contributions, I wasn't controlling the direction, and after so many changes over the course of six months it was all over the place. Now apply just my contributions to the entire production, and I guess you can see why it never got released.

Not that I was unhappy to work on a Hannah Montana property, I had just come off TF1, and was really into doing some lighter fare, and using pinks and purples. I really liked the developers I worked with, they were really cool guys, and I know just as frusterated with lack of strong leadership and direction from the Diz.

So that's it for Hannah, I'll resume death and destruction artwork post-haste!

Hannah Montana Game? 08

Some character development, just some simple poses and facial expressions.

And this is Hannah's sidekick, called Lola. And this was all there was to it, this set of sketches, and then this final. I guess no cares what Lola looks like.

Which is too bad, because the girl is WAY cuter than Hannah.

Who looks like this. It may be slightly exaggerated...but really. She's a little fugly.

Hannah Montana Game? 07

Character design - my favorite thing to do. Some sketches to get started, with the idea of her being in an animated style, they then signed off to do what is becoming a house style for me.
After those were submitted to the Diz, they came back with wanting a more realistic looking character. For a DS game. Okay. So these were done, and finally one was selected.
So I did this cleanup, and they finally realized how idiotic they were, and we went back to more animated style.

And here is what I submitted for final...there were a few more revisions, but they were needless in my opinion, so they will never be shown by me. It just gets worse as it the model gets developed, you'll see in a couple days...!

Hannah Montana Game? 06

Some more backgrounds created over rough geometry. Hannah's suite for hanging out. All those elements had to manipulated to make the little princess happy.


Here you had to take shots of her racing around on a snowmobile.

This was a restaurant environment, and I quite can't remember what you were supposed to do here. I did some storyboards for the activities, but I remember it being kind of a head scratcher, and I know parts of this level got cut early. This is one of the levels I saw in the game. And it was horrible looking. I don't know if it was a work in progress or final. but if it was for final, no wonder the game got canceled.

And a red carpet level, I did more shots of other areas, but why bother? You get the idea. I guess I didn't go back and finish those blocked in side windows in those back buildings...but I don't think it would have been visible in -game anyways...

Hannah Montana Game? 05

And now some backgrounds...much like the Bond project, I was given block-in geometry to paint over, and create an overall look to each level. Our hero Hannah goes to Hawaii, for a concert and a tennis match.

Or maybe a fashion show...or both? I can't remember, just needed to make a stage.

Now this is a catwalk for a Paris fashion show...

...and the following concert. Because she's an 'entertainer.'

Hannah Montana Game? 04

So after I got back from break, and was the actual designer for the graphics style, here's another pass at the title screens for final.

There was a messenger feature that told Hannah where to go, what to do. It floated over the screen, that why it's not contained in a frame. Good back and forth between the designer and I to get the look.


There was a feature where you put the photos you took into a layout, pick pictures and place text headlines...



Here's a couple options for background design, the headlines are supposed to be...ironic.

Hannah dress-up level! Yay...the layout is correct, but I just threw in some of the icons I made for the clothes, so I'm not sure what all the spaces are supposed to contain. It was set up to be used for multiple elements, but I think this is the page that holds the most empty boxes just to define the maximum space that needed to be used.