Shiny Objects and Nice Sprite(s)

An observational study on painting different, reflective, hard surface materials.

A little test for SkriRex's idle animation. ;)

"Pikachu Used Thundershock" 4

EDM Arena character batch 4 is finally complete! To check out the previous batches, here's one, two, and three.

Shout outs to people on deviantArt who helped motivate me and inspired some of these ideas! Here's each character's design process:

D3S-DROID (derives from Destroid. Info on this character can be found here.)

Silence (Kill the Noise)
     - One of the simplest designs, the challenge here was to make the rest of his body more interesting, as his head is really the only point of interest. I also wanted to keep this one simple because I wanted to make a plushie out of him.

Klaymor (Klaypex)
     - Klaymor had been around since batch 3 but was never released due to colour scheme issues. Originally, the character was half red, half blue, but no matter what orientation or texture I applied to these split colours, Klaymor looked like an airline mascot. It wasn't until this week when I figured the Klaypex red and blue colours should go to the swords and not the character's body.
     - His limbs float and can extend great distances, similar to Rayman.

Vicious Infectious (Infected Mushroom)
     - Vicious Infectious' cap was originally your typical red toadstool, but I really wanted it to be the bleeding tooth fungus because that's my favourite fungi. I based its design around the giant, mushroom character statue the band has on stage when they play live sometimes.
     - Figuring out this character's name was the most difficult. It relates to one of Infected Mushroom's albums, Vicious Delicious.

Don Haus (Swedish House Mafia)
     - Thanks to a fellow deviant on dA, I was able to figure out a design for a Swedish House Mafia character. I initially thought of depicting three mafia-esque characters together (like the three members of the SHM group), but the idea of just one head-honcho that could send in other members of his mafia to attack an opponent seemed better.
     - Don Haus' head came from one of the designs of the three dots that are often affiliated with SHM. His scarf design is the Swedish flag.


Now for a break from EDM Arena, back to updating the portfolios. Stay tuned for more characters in the future! ;)

The Muses: C, D, W

In between portfolio and work, I came up with an on-going challenge called "The Muses", which is a series of triptych portraits of personified songs where the goal is to practice different brushes, lighting, colours, and special effects in Photoshop. Each portrait of a triptych must be complete in no more than 2 hours. Here are the first three that I've done:

The Muses are mysterious beings that are the embodiment of their respective song. The names of each "Muse" are song titles:

Clarity (by Zedd ft. Foxes)
Curiosity (Genki Rockets)
Crush (Pendulum)

Days [to Come] (Seven Lions ft. Fiora)
Dead Star (Muse)
Diamond Eyes (Deftones)

Watercolour (Pendulum)
Walking On Air (Kerli)
Witchcraft (Pendulum)

Most of these portraits are based on their respective song's album art or music video (for instance, Clarity, Curiosity, Crush, and Days are based on their album art whereas the rest are inspired from their music videos).
Another reason I came up with this exercise was to draw faces faster and (hopefully) stray away from a style that is too anime. I still have anime roots in my line art... I wanted to break away from it a bit.

EDM Arena Character Reveal 2

Character batch 4 for EDM Arena is now underway. Here's the first sneak peak:

D3S-DROID (derives from Destroid)
     - Based on Destroid's heavy sound, the first idea that came to mind for this character was "giant, brutal robot". I went through 4 different sketches until this final one was chosen. At first, I thought about giving it huge Gatling or rail guns (either mounted onto its back or carrying in its arms), but then the idea of a giant robot that just beats the shit out of anything felt more suitable. It also uses the chains on its shackles as whips.

Stay tuned for the final four of batch 4...

KP Skin Illustrations

First completed paintings of the New Year! :'D These illustrations are based off of Knife Party's EPs (with the exception of the Haunted skin, which was a poster) and are also influenced by League of Legends' splash screen arts' compositions. Enjoy! :)

Electric Skin (100% No Modern Talking)

Rage Skin (Rage Valley)

Haunted Skin (Haunted House Tour)

Here's a preview image of all three skins with their respective album arts: