Futurepoly Week 1

As I mentioned in my previous post I've been doing the Futurepoly online course. The first week was with Horia Dociu and was about silhouette thumbs and character design.

The first two images below are my first batch of thumbs of a fantasy warrior character based around the theme of a beast

These next two images are my second pass after some pointers and paintovers from Horia about pushing the design and turning them from guys wearing clothes to characters in their own right.

Adventures with Futurepoly

I've said before and I'll it again "Learning is fun!"

I've always got time to learn and try something new as the journey is always the most fun for me, so recently I signed myself up for a futurepoly course which is run by a bunch of very talented artist from ArenaNet. It's made me try a lot of different approaches to my work, and experiment so my next few post are going to be homework from the previous weeks classes. I would post it now but I've got homework to do.....I haven't had to say that for a long time :D

Sofa sketches

Sometimes its nice to kickback and relax on the sofa with my Modbook and Sketchbook Pro and just doodle, here are some some of the random but fun results.

Here's a modbook sketch I did a while ago and every time I see it I think I really should work it up one of these days...its a guy with a big robot arm...and everyone likes a guy with a big robot arm don't they?

What I've Been Up To, Part 2...or BAFTAs and Books

So where was I? oh yes Kinect Sports....so just how well did Kinect Sports do? Amazingly!!!

The sales have been great and we're the number one Kinect title! We also won a Bafta!.....so not to shabby at all

but look there is a hoodie nicking it!.......yes it me :)

Probably the most exciting thing to happen over the last few months, yes more exciting than a bafta....don't tell the organizers...is that Gorillaartfare have got a book coming out soon and I'm in it. With so may talented artists in the group its an honor to be part of it.

Heres the blurb from gorillaartfare

We have the most exciting news today! Gorilla Artfare and CFSL Ink have joined forces to bring you a wonderful collection of artwork: Gorilla Artbook Vol 1!

The book is hardcover, sized 24×28 cm (9.4×11 inches approximately) and it holds 250+ pages of stunning images by more than 70 of our artists. It will be available for preorder on April 7th and released on April 14th!

We will share more info on pricing and where you can buy it real soon! Update: Some more info + a small preview of the interiors here! For now, feast your eyes on these previews of the cover (illustrated by Clo, Devin Platts & Tom Scholes, designed by Victoria Maderna & Federico Piatti):

Now thats just what I call a top post :)

What I've Been Up To, Part 1

So its been a while since my last update and boy i've been busy, lots of things have happened some good some sad but all adventures, the next few post from me are going to be some of the highlights.

The first thing was the game i've currently been working on came out, Kinect Sports for the Xbox 360. I worked with the talented Ryan Firchau (yes another Ryan, and we shared an office so it got a bit confusing) crafting sports venues and sport related odds and ends, in the end we got pretty good at it if I do say so myself, it's a shame London 2012 is already sorted or we could have stepped in to create some crazy constructions.

Here's some of my concepts from the project

How well has it done? I'll come to that tomorrow :)

Modbook Fun

I've been really enjoying my modbook recently, combined with Sketchbook Pro it becomes a great digital sketch book. Here's some sheets of heads and pose maniac studies using the setup.

I've had a few people ask me about the modbook so if I get time and people are interested I'll do a little review.

Modbook life drawing

More Life drawing using my Modbook, I think its one of my favorite uses of it...though there is one problem, last life drawing session I forgot to take a my Wacom pen ...Doh...I think I need to order a spare pen.