Xtina process video is up.

Go check it out. :)

Xtina

Christmas gift for my brother. He asked for a naked Christina Aguilera on his bed.
Sorry, bro! This is the best I can do!
About 8 hours, Corel Painter and Photoshop. I have a process video to go with it, but it's not done. :)
I'll let you guys know when I upload it.

WIP

I haven't been slacking off playing Destiny, I promise!
I'm almost done with this one. However, I can't show you the whole thing for fear of spoiling it. :)
This is my brother's Christmas gift. I'll let you guys see it once it's done. I'll even throw in a process video!

Thumbnails

Couple quick thumbnail ideas. Paladin vs. horde of Goblins

Clouds

How do they work!?
I started on the top right and worked my way to the bottom left. Can you tell?
I guess this is one of those instances in which it wouldn't kill me to use the soft brush a bit more...
Need more practice!

Monster Hunter Laele

Like most young artists, I started drawing with a heavy focus on anime. As time went on, I ditched the anime look and started dabbing heavily into realism.
Since I've been on a Monster Hunter kick lately, I decided to revisit my anime roots with a drawing of my wife's character, Laele (Gobul X/switch axe user, what what!).
Having been away from anime for a while, this took me longer than it should have. :|
Done in Painter.

Rock

Done for my Polykarbon challenge.

he ded

Laele - minimalistic

Decided to try a minimalistic approach to a sketch of my wife's character, Laele.
I rather like how it turned out. :)

Poses 5

More timed poses, as before, using OnAirVideo for reference, and FUNKYMONKEY1945 as inspiration/teacher. :)
As always, critique is very much appreciated.

Poison

Arrios, chilling, relaxing after doing who-knows-what one does in the desert.
Decided to be a bit more adventurous with the lighting this time around.
This is actually a remix of an old drawing. You can click here to see the old one, or you can see for yourself, below.

4 years later, I think I'm finally starting to get somewhere.

Vader

My challenge at Polykarbon this time was Star Wars, in black and white. I tried something different this time: I started with a black canvas in Photoshop, and then sorta "carved" the drawing with a white brush.
I made another one with a lightsaber, which you can see here.
So now, I ask you, dear viewer...
With or without? :)

More pose sketches

Been super busy at work (promotion, baby, yeah!)
Have some more timed figure sketches.
What am I learning from this? That non-static poses are a challenge for me, and that I need more practice.

Pose sketches

I forgot to post these last week.

These are done from Croquis Cafe's videos, using Bryan Lee's techniques.
Also, these are from this week.

Papi - Monster Musume

Papi from Monster Musume.
I am not familiar with the character or the series, but my Sister-in-Arms, Flare, asked me to draw her.
So here you go!

EDIT: I never noticed this before, but apparently, Blogspot makes the colors darker, so go check out the original!

Boss Fight - Me, Myself, and Them

Done with this one. :)
Very interesting idea and exercise.

Boss Fight - Mirror Knight

The Mirror Knight is the last boss, and is also above all three of the previous bosses, both in power, and in authority. The knight is clad head to toe in a suit of armor polished to a mirror sheen, and its mask is also of the same material. When one approaches the knight, one can become confused, as the closer they get to the knight, the more and more the knight begins to look like them. The knight fights with no visible weapon, relying only on its ability to reflect everything back at the attacker. The Mirror Knight is the most dangerous of all three foes, since it knows what the attacker's intentions are from the start, and due to its uncanny ability to mirror and reflect everything presented to it.

Okay, so, the reason the armor is unfinished is because I couldn't think of a good design for it, so I'm gonna have to improvise something for the final painting.

Boss Fight - Judgment

Judgment is the last of the three lesser bosses. It is depicted as a gaunt humanoid figure with pale skin and a mask made of solid gold. The mask's eyes are closed, for Judgment believes it doesn't need to see to make a call. The creature itself does not have ears, for it believes it needs to hear no counsel to judge. Judgment is garbed in fine purple velvet, and wears the powdered wig of Judges of old. It stands on stilts, as it believes itself to be above everything and everyone else. He swings his Sword of Judgment with implied impunity. Its wings are made of wax. Judgment foolishly believes itself to be above both Pride and Anger. In reality, Judgment is the weakest of the three.

Boss Fight - Pride

Pride is a monstrous amalgam of several creatures that are traditionally associated with pride, such as a bull, a lion, and man, with a horrendous face that shines like gold. It is unknown if this is its true face or simply a mask. Pride believes only in itself, and lives only for itself. It believes that it needs nothing from anything or anyone in order to survive. Pride is one of the hardest obstacles one faces, as Pride can ingrain itself to one's own psyche for so long, that the person it attaches to starts to believe that they, themselves, are Pride.

Boss Fight - Anger

Anger is depicted as a very tall, very powerful gorilla. Anger is made of darkness and shadow, with only its eyes glowing red, like two hot embers. His hands are powerful and they are used only for destruction. You cannot stop Anger, you cannot reason with it. Anger will destroy anything that gets in its way.

Boss fight - revamped

So I felt like the other concept wasn't really working, so I decided to switch gears.
This is a bit more of a personal project than the other, so stay tuned for more info as it develops!

Ezio

Old Ezio is best assassin.
About 45 minutes. Trying out the oil brushes on the Painter 2015 demo. :) Trying to rely less on line.

Ashley - PSO commission

As the name says, here's a quick commission of a HUnewearl from Phantasy Star Online, done for my buddy Ashley.
Now to get back to that Boss Fight thing.
Check out her Garage Kits at https://www.facebook.com/OfTheAshTree

Boss Fight - Romulus

This here jolly fella is Romulus, the final boss to Cassius' adventure. Romulus sought to bring Cassius to justice after the murder of his father, but ended up killing Cassius' son, Cirillo, in the confusion. Scared, he fled the scene, but he knows that Cassius is coming for him. He spends the remainder of his days training to bring down one of the most fabled and skilled Gladiators. He will avenge his father's death, or pay for his sin with his head.

I'm not so sure about this dude's outfit. Still trying to figure out what I want to do with him. The far right look the best, but it also feels a bit grand for him. Maybe I can combine two of them.

Boss Fight - Cassius

Here is another concept sketch of one of the main characters for the Boss Fight challenge. I decided on naming him Cassius, because it's a Greek name and that's about it.
He is sort of a legend amongst the local populace and Gladiators for having survived for so long. His arena name is The Black Stinger, and he wears a scorpion on his armor.
Despite being a slave, Cassius has fathered one son, Cirillo, whom he loves dearly.
Next, I will work on the other character. :)

Boss fight concept

Here is the first concept of one of the characters for the boss fight.
I don't know his name yet, but he is the older one. I imagine him as a gladiator/slave who has made it through countless battles, so now he's kinda regarded as a hero amongst the community. I went with the scorpion motif for his armor, because when I was researching Roman armors, I saw a similar one, and I thought it looked awesome.

Boss fight - initial concept

There's this contest going over at Polykarbon where we have to design a final boss of a hypothetical game. So I thought, what if the guy you're fighting, who you thought was the final boss, is on his own quest, and YOU'RE the final boss of his adventure?
There's more story to go with it, but I'll wait til I have it more fleshed out before I post it. :)

Snow White - Disney Princesses gang fight

Last of the bunch.

From an early age, Snow White has lived with her stepmother, who was vain and narcissistic, and would often neglect Snow as a result. Because of this, Snow White spent much of her childhood playing alone with wild animals, and now, she's extremely comfortable when surrounded by them. She is especially fond of birds.
When she came of age, she met Ariel and Tiana, and together they formed The Wonderlanders. Despite being extremely shy, Ariel and Tiana chose her as the leader of their gang.
Snow White has a gorgeous singing voice, though she rarely uses it. She seems to attract animals wherever she goes. Ariel jokes that she can communicate with the birds, but we all know that's silly.

Right?

"I'm awfully sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. But you don't know what I've been through."

Ariel - Disney Princesses Gang Fight

Fifth one of the bunch.
Ariel grew up in a nicer part of town than her friends. However, in typical teenager fashion, she never got along with her father. From a young age, Ariel has been fascinated with collecting random knick knacks, and never throws anything away.
As soon as she was able, she got a job down at the docks, helping to load and offload cargo. This helped her develop massive strength. Hanging out at the docks all the time, she quickly befriended the sailors that come to port, and is now considered one of them. She got her first tattoo at age 16, the second one at 17, and the latest one, a mermaid, when she turned 18.
She is quite proud of her impressive physique; so much so that she asked the tattoo artist to model the mermaid after her.

"You're not getting cold fins now, are you?"

Tiana - Disney Princesses Gang Fight

Fourth one of the bunch.
Tiana was born in poverty. From a young age, her father taught her that hard work and perseverance always pay out. After watching him work himself to death, she decided she would find an alternate method of making it big. Tiana is very persistent and sometimes reckless, but when she makes her mind about something, she doesn't give up until she achieves it. Not a particularly violent person, she uses an assortment of makeshift weapons to intimidate others. Tiana is very fond of frogs.
"You can't get what you want just by wishing for it."
Aurora
Belle
Rapunzel

Monkquat

Me: "What should I draw tonight?"
Wife: "Draw a kumquat with monkey legs and a tail."

Aurora - Disney Princesses Gang Fight

Third of the bunch.
Aurora was born into a wealthy, upper class family, who was fond of arranged marriages. Upon turning sixteen, and meeting the man she was to marry, she decided she did not like him and ran away to live with her grandmother and her two sisters, out in the country. A couple years later, she returned to the city, with a very cynical view of the world, and a very charming personality. It was due to her charm that she was able to convince Belle and Rapunzel to join her gang, the Forever Afters. Being that she is the oldest, Belle and Rapunzel see her as the definite leader of their group.
"Oh, dear, why do they still treat me like a child?"

Rapunzel
Belle 
Tiana

Belle - Disney Princesses Gang Fight

Second one of the bunch.
Belle grew up in a small French village, nestled in the mountains. She never really got along with any of the kids her age, but she's always had a fondness for animals, especially her German Shepherd/Chow Chow mix, Adam. Adam is very protective of his master, and doesn't let anyone come near her, and Belle uses the fear Adam strikes in people to her advantage to get what she wants.
"Adam is so sweet. He's my friend. Adam is no monster, you are!"
Bonus quote!
"If you'd hold still, it wouldn't hurt as much!"

Aurora
Rapunzel
Tiana

Medea birthday sketch

Still working on the princesses, but took a quick break to do a quick birthday sketch for a friend of mine.
My character Medea, beating a very dead horse.
About 30 minutes in Painter.

Rapunzel - Disney Princesses Gang Fight

First one of the bunch.
Coming from a very strict household, Rapunzel acted out as soon as she was able. She figured, since her hair was one of her more defining features, that she would shave half of her head in order to really get on her mom's nerves. She went out and got her nose pierced, too! And she's resorting to vandalism!
She enjoys Punk music, torn stockings, and Vans high tops.
"Mother knows best, my ass!"

Aurora
Belle
Tiana

Disney Princesses Gang Fight

You guys sick of Disney princesses yet? No? Good!
This is a prelim sketch, based on an idea that my wife's friend's mom had, where several Disney princesses would form gangs and fight each other.
I don't know! She had the idea, and I ran with it.
I'm gonna clean them up later. This is to help me see the personality/dress of each.

Ruins concept

Some quick concept art for my wife of the ruins that feature heavily in one of her books. :)
Trying to be more explorative of landscapes, since I have little experience/success with anything non-person.
On the other hand, check out that badass gesture on the left, there!

Part of my Polykarbon art challenge.
I tried to make him look like Aaron Eckhart, but I think he looks like Harrison Ford!
Pencil and paper, about 20 minutes.
Sorry about the quality; can't scan this sketchbook, so I have to take a picture.

The Original Character Needs To Die

I am sure you are no stranger to the “Original Character.” You may even have a few yourself; I know I do. Several, in fact.
However, I feel compelled to call for the death of the Original Character as we know, or at very least, the identifier of Original Character.
The reason for this is that I have found the moniker “original character” or OC to have lost almost all of its meaning. It is now an empty shell of what it used to be, replaced by recolors and rebrandings of other people’s creations.

Now, I want you to know that I, too, have gone down this path. When I was 10, Dragon Ball was extremely popular in Mexico. This was around the mid-90s. It was one of my favorite shows, and a pretty big player in my decision to become an artist. So, because I was a kid and that’s the kinda things kids do, I created a brother for Goku (this was before they started airing Dragon Ball Z). Goku’s name was Rex, and because he was my own creation (and I didn’t think a tail was cool enough), I gave him bat wings, because of course I did. Not content with a brother, I said ‘what the hell?’ and created a father for Goku, as well (this was also before finding out Goku had a real father. Who knew!?) His name was Retrax, I believe. It’s been a long time. Retrax had a tail, like Goku, but no wings. Also he wore a helmet all the time. Several helmets. I designed like twelve helmets, all of them obscured his face, all of them terrible. I was 10.
Rex and Retrax didn’t see much use, save for me drawing them over and over and showing them to my friends and then having to explain, no, these are not ACTUALLY Goku’s brother and father. They’re my own creation, you see. They don’t exist, save for in my own head, and they have awesome adventures with and without Goku. Really, they do. You should totally hear about them, but not right now. But I made them, so they were mine, right?

Sorry, didn’t mean to go off on a tangent, there. Point is, I’m familiar with this type of character, cuz I’ve been there, and I know a lot of you have been there, which is why I keep seeing the dreaded “Original Character” all over the place, and why I am now calling for its demise.
The thing is, when you come up with a character based on someone else’s idea and concept, how original can the character be? I mean, sure, your character is a specially unique and beautiful snowflake, and they have all these qualities that set them apart from all the other characters in this existing world (…right?), but without the context of this pre-made world, how do they fare? Do you have to create a new story or a completely new world so that they don’t simply wither and die (if you do, then awesome!)? Or is their existence completely limited by the world they’re in? Someone else’s world, mind you.
If you created your own world from start and then plopped your characters in, then this doesn’t apply to you. I’m talking about taking an existing, established franchise or fandom (Star Wars, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, Sonic, Naruto, The Smurfs, you name it!) and plopping a character in the thick of it. This character is most of the time a Frankenstein’s monster of every other character in the already-existing lore. Sometimes, they’re self-insertion characters (“He’s a Paladin named JOSEPH and he’s super cool and strong and everybody loves him and wants to be friend with him! Also, he’s a dragon! And everybody loves him, even the villains. And the hot chicks. ESPECIALLY the hot chicks.”) Sometimes they’re a random assortment of concepts, simply because the author wanted an OC themselves (“Lord of the Rings? Okay, my character is a future version of Wolverine and he has laser eyes and cybernetic enhancements! And he’s a half dragon!”)
I ran into one of these Original Characters a while back. Her name was Maelerys Targaryen. Fifty cool points if you can guess what fandom she came from. She was everything Daenerys was (a princess in exile, mother of dragons, trying to take over Westeros, etc) and more (a LESBIAN princess in exile). If the creator of the character is reading this, more power to you. I don’t presume to tell you what you can and cannot do, but at that point, how original is your character? If you take an existing character, change two letters in her name, and leave everything else intact, is the character truly “original”?
What about recolors? Take an existing character, give them a new wardrobe, bam! Instant new character that you, yourself, ‘created’ and now own. This would be like me taking the Mona Lisa, changing her eye color, and claiming the whole painting as my own. Can you name a character “original” when they’re a palette swap from someone else’s creation? (I’m looking at you, Sonic Original Characters!)
Even without swapping out the name or changing their colors, can you truly create an original character when everything else is already laid out and plotted for you by someone else?
What about canon? If you create a character who is Kakashi’s old master, what does that do to continuity? Headcanon doesn’t count, as what you’re doing is simply taking the existing storyline and twisting it at your whim. Of course we have to create characters that are important to the plot, otherwise no one would want to read about them, but why try to shoehorn them like so? What happens when you try to make your shiny new character be Lord Aizen’s secret lover? Look how well shoehorning worked for George Lucas (yeah, I went there).
Now, let me clarify, that I am not asking you to stop creating characters, as that would be a dumbass thing to do. I consider myself a concept artist, so creating characters is all I do. What kind of artist asks other artists to stop creating? By all means, continue to create your fan characters and have a blast. If it makes you happy, more power to you. But can we agree to change the name? I’ve come to despise the term “Original Character” because, nine times out of ten, it refers to these fandom characters that have nothing to offer in regards to originality. I find myself cringing when I refer to my own characters as ‘original’, because people automatically assume they’re from some fandom.
So, can we rename these characters “fan characters” or “fandom characters” and rebrand the original character “personal character?”
I think it’s time to retire the Original Character, as it has become a shadow of itself (right up there with “epic” and “literally”). Continue to create characters based on an existing property and fandom. Go forth, have fun and let your DC X-Men Avenger have babies with Jon Snow on top of the Enterprise on the way to blow up the third Death Star piloted by Naruto (and then tell me about, because I would read the hell out of that!).
But, please, let’s not call them “original”, for that word seems to have thrown in the towel.
By the way, wondering what happened to Rex and Retrax? They were crappy characters, so I decided to retire them. And by retire them, I mean they died.
TL;DR: Retire “original character”, replace with “personal character” and “fan or fandom character”, accordingly.
I would like to hear some thoughts on this, but please, let’s keep the discussion civil.

Huitzilopochtli

Done.
The Mexican God of War and Sacrifice, Huitzilopochtli.

Huitzilopochtli WIP 3

One more pass, I think.
This far along and I still don't know where I'm going with this...
Fail.

Huitzilopochtli

Still working on this guy. Trying to simplify my values a bit and not worry too much with the rendering until all the planning is done.
This is why it's important to have a plan before you jump in, so you don't spend all your time going back and fixing mistakes over and over.
Plan your drawings, kids!

Black Bishop

An Animal Crossing joke, what?
I know Dr. King wasn't a bishop, that's part of the joke.
"...this isn't a bishop.."
HAHA DO YOU GET IT

Dark Souls 2 speed paint

30 minutes in Photoshop CS5.
I really like the Faraam armor.

...ho, damn, there's a video for it!?
http://youtu.be/p_ThNLdy2qw

The Undertaker - Backwater Gospel

The Undertaker, from The Backwater Gospel short film.
Really cool film. If you haven't seen it, go watch it. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkDrIacHJM
Done for my challenge over at Polykarbon.
Painter X3. About an hour total.

Laocoon

I wanted to give this statue a try because the pose is so interesting and dynamic, but it proved too much for me (which is why I left out his sons!)
Painter and Photoshop.
Reference http://www.digitalsculpture.org/laocoon/chronology/chronology-figure10.jpg

Landscape

So, I'm still here, and I decided I would try my hand at landscape. Well, after messing with it, I'm thinking I should stick to figure drawing.

Meth

An 'after' portrait of a lady on meth, from here.
My challenge from Polykarbon.
Photoshop, about 3 hours, I think. I lost count.

Imperial Dalek

One of my challenges in PK this time was to draw a Dalek as a human, or
humanoid. I'm not a fan of Doctor Who, but I though this was an
interesting idea. :)
Here
is the Imperial Dalek. I imagine it as a humanoid-looking android, so I
tried to give it a bit of Uncanny Valley for good measure. :D
Photoshop CS5

Head study 3

Week three of my apprenticeship under Bryan Lee.