Thirty-One

I'm just going to ignore the fact the I disappeared for half a year from this blog! But I've been hard at work I can assure you. I'm not going to post all my work but some of the best bits and more recent stuff.

More recently trying to get back into drawing more character orientated bits and pieces because I've done a ton of environment stuff the past few months.

Here's an environment design that i'm actually currently working on as a level within UDK, I was taking this as a reference for the design and Gameplay flow but as it's progressed it's become a lot more Bladerunner-esque, which gives me more use of the editor and it's material tools. The general design is still similar what's shown in the painting below.

Really happy with how far i've come in the past year and a half and here's a little comparison, in fact you can just look back on this blog and see the improvement, it's really gratifying but i still have a long way to go! The painting at the bottom is for the level design shown above as you can see, it's evolved quite a bit!

These updates will become regular again! I know quite a few people have been missing them! 

-Matt

What do I want to do.

I feel like I've been slightly slacking recently on my normal art schedule, need to get working hard on my sketching, just been more motivated to learn and use 3D and game dev kits (UDK mainly). I feel like it would be more beneficial for me to work harder on this area whilst still improving my art work because overall i feel like being more realistic about a job out of uni i have a better chance of getting a job doing 3D modeling than concept art at this stage and within the next year or two. 

Anyway, here's a creature I've been working on for uni, the model is by someone whom uses the handle Bobotheseal. The texture is by me.

Don't ask me how the UV map works on this model because it's an absolute mess (sorry Bobo!) It took me around 15 hours to complete but it turned out pretty nice I'm pleased with it, first time doing a character and all.

Here's some more recent studies that I've done looking at some rock texture stuff.

That's it for this week whilst i get into the swing of things again anyway! Thanks for stopping by!

-Matt

Portraits and Hard Work

 Did quite a few portraits this week, trying to make my way into doing better likeness in my portraits. These are all taken from references. I'm so much more comfortable doing these in black and white but when i try colour they just seem to be awful!

Not terribly happy with these two that were done in colour but hey it'll show progression if i put them on here anyway!! 

Wanted to do an interior because thats another area that i tend to struggle with so i did a ghetto house. Also a quick environment piece because i'd had enough with the colour portrait seen above.

Thats it for this week check back next week for more work and more progression! :)

-Matt

Back! It's summer and time for more art! :)

Hey all, been on a slight hiatus but i'm back and hoping to work harder than ever! Got a ton of stuff to show i've been doing quite a bit recently.

Firstly some light studies from imagination, nothing complex but also practicing indoor stuff, also trying to work on texture a little bit. Also, a simple monochromatic cityscape, just playing about again with texture.

Need to practice some more indoor stuff and also working on texture oh and getting my shadows a bit better.

 

Some more of the normal landscape stuff! I really like Green :)

I need to do more indoor and more of people, i've been sat outside in the nice weather recently doing some nice pencil sketches of tree's and stuff so i might have a go at painting some trees :)

Hope you like this update will try to keep this updated more, so check back next week!

-Matt

Story

Been working on some university work this week. I was task with doing a story board in a group project so i spent a long while doing different parts of the story although admittedly i don't think the story was great my landscapes were kind of cool.

 

Really struggled doing interiors and this was the first time i've tried to make the focus of my landscapes characters so that was another aspect that i've struggled with. It's definitely given me something to focus on.

 

  A random concept and a very quick study from I am Legend nothing special. :)

  

Check back next week for another update 

-Matt

Take it slow

Been working hard on 3D stuff for some friends university work this week. Managed to fit in some quick studies in preparation for some pieces i will be doing for class. Japanese architecture is really quite complex! So i'm doing some story boards for a group project that is based in Japan so i decided to have a go at a few Japanese buildings and stuff just in case i decide to include that sort of stuff. I really like the colours they use in their designs.

This is the first part of my story board, spent about 4 or 5 hours total. Really need to work like this more often. I don't spend enough time on my studies sometimes need to work longer and harder! :)

Hope you like this new pieces, will post again next week!

-Matt

Photomash & Studies

Been working hard lately on 3D stuff and some other game related things. However, since the start of April had a bit of free time to catch up on my painting studies!

These first 3 were done with my usually techniques, nothing special really, just some nice colours of rocks and greenery!

Tried out a new brush for this study, i don't often do buildings and stuff. So this church was way more complex than any buildings i've done before, i think i came out not to badly! Need to keep practicing things like this because it is definitely a week point.

Now for something completely different! This image is a concept that was created through photo mashing techniques and painting over, but i think it definitely came out a treat! The only thing about doing things like this is that sometimes you lose some of your freedom when focusing on using photo textures.

Will update next tuesday if you want to look my thread over on Conceptart.org you might see some things that you haven't seen before http://www.conceptart.org/showthread.php?t=259655#.UWRjDpOyB8E

Hope you liked this blog update!

-Matt

Back to Painting

Had a rather large stint of only doing a hour or so of painting a day but i'm slowly working that back up to my usual standard! Gotta work hard for the payoff. I'll be doing less than i was in october/novemember/december last year because i have to do 3D work and i'm in dev with a couple of small IOS and Android games but i'll still keep it all up!

Anyway, that's all boring! You're here for the progress, been getting back into the swing of things, done a lot of quick paints and some more detailed ones!

I tried out some new techniques for these first two paintings, done using a photoshop tool called the custom shape tool inspired by how a friend does his amazing paintings (Jonathan Powell > http://www.facebook.com/jonathanp45?fref=ts) he's amazing like him on Facebook! :)

Did a study of a screen grab from the film drive in anticipation of a painting that im currently doing for my brother's birthday. Not really happy about how it turned out, used a messy brush for it and when i tried to rectify it by going over stuff it made it look so much worse. Although the neon likes don't look too bad i guess!

Going to be wapping out more and more of these environment photo studies again! 

Couple of random quick thumbnails, i'm working on the top one i might actually use it for something, a nice swamp area for my turtle dude to live in (thumb below it). We will see if anything comes of it!

Hope you liked this update be sure to stick around there will be more next week!

-Matt

Models Models Models!

Been working hard lately got multiple game's in development and plans for other things, busy making many props and stuff for them. Fitting in university work and painting in between! I'm still doing my life drawing and it's improving slowly i need to work more on anatomy again! :(

For university i have gotten an assignment to do props for a corner piece. I've done a quick concept sketch of what i want it to be like, but i've thought a bit about it i want it to be much more grotty looking than it is shown in my concept as you may be able to see below. 

Rendered in UDK this is my current situation with the corner, i need to finish my walls and change out the lighting a bit.

Improved my market scene a lot over past few weeks, improved the textures and the objects themselves went each through a few stages, learnt a lot over the way!

Couple of environment quickies to get myself back on track with my environments! Need to get back to work with painting spending a lot of time doing uni work and modeling though! Need more time in the day!!!
Come back next Tuesday for another update!

3D!

Been going indepth with Maya this week and working with creating 3D objects, below is a scene that i've been creating. I was tasked with simply making a barrel but i've completed that and now i'm going on and making a scene for it some sort of marked place stall. Something along those lines. Not textured the stall itself yet but i'll get round to it tomorrow!

Heres all the textures, which were painted within photoshop and wrapped around the objects. 3D is weird! Hard to work with but i'm sure i'll get the hang of it.

Some standard studies, still trying to get atmosphere and depth in my images. Oh and clouds definitely something i need to work on! Feel like im getting better still though. Lots of work to go to be as good as i want to be!

Hope you enjoyed this update, check back next Tuesday for my next update!
Thanks
-Matt

Busy busy busy! Sorry!

Hey readers!

Sorry this has been super late, i've not done a post in over two weeks but i promise to make it up to you! Gonna do some extra posts over next few weeks between the weeks, follow me on twitter and you'll see when i do these posts! (they'll be a little eratic!) @katastrophimatt https://twitter.com/katastrophimatt

Anyway here's a couple of things i've done past few weeks.

So firstly, i did a brief where i had to do level designs and other stuff that was for a live brief (reason i've missed posting) for a real company! It was really fun, i took a snapshot of part of the level i did and did a concept piece for it, which is the image below. Definitely enjoyed doing it will have to do more stuff like this!

Here's a couple more studies i've been doing, studying atmospheric perspective mostly and colour mostly, trying to paint things in their local value then do washes over the top to give the atmosphere and depth to the pieces.

I've been doing a ton of 3D work, which i'll post up next week (I promise this time!). Back on my normal scheduled now along with my extra posts to make up for missed time! Hope you enjoyed this post. 

-Matt