Today, I was really missing drawing, and saddened by the fact that I haven't done any personal work in a long time. So, I decided to take a break from Maya for a minute (or few... hours) to do a piece just for my own personal enjoyment..
Now, I don't claim to be a great vis devver or illustrator, and it takes me a long time to get a piece that I actually like, so to even attempt this was quite an experience for me. I started with a few thumbnails and then rested on a scene that I get stuck in my head sometimes. It's not an altogether original image, but it was really more an experiment in technique. I found an artist who I really like in the book I bought at wondercon last weekend (Zotho Lhun) and decided to try out his style... which, of course I failed at miserably, but I feel like I found a good middle ground between his style and my own, which pleases me :)
This is in no way complete, and if I feel like it's working out well enough, I may even hazard my way through a color pass.
So, I present to you the first pass of my little illustration (which has yet to be officially named)
I am wholly open to crit, and would love to get your opinions/suggestions!
(the first image is of two of my thumbs, the first which I continued, and the second which I may eventually play with (depending on time).





hmm... I also just realized that I rather like it cropped in a vertical format too... it might even be better this way. At least, it manages to balance the piece a bit more :)

Well, I think it's time to get some well-earned sleep. Tomorrow, it's all maya all day!

So, it has been a while since I last posted with any new work.. so, you may be asking if I have in fact done any work over the past few months? The quick answer: yes. The long answer: yes, but most of it is incomplete and unfit to "put out there".
Speaking of "out there", for my 129A class, we (the advanced students) are participating in Dominance War which is an online gaming competition. Unlike in the past where they've had only one main challenge, they have decided this year to introduce shorter mini-challenges. We were required to do the first which was due to be submitted by the end of monday.
The challenge was to take one of three pre-made poly meshes to work with, and create a character: a War General. The only real guidelines were that we could not change the maya mesh to break the silhouette and the character had to read as being a war general. The first rule wasn't so bad, it was making the guy look like a high ranking official that was the real challenge. I'm not sure I was successful in this, but I am somewhat happy with the results. I'm finally getting the hang of z-brush! Finally.
and so, I will present to you here, two versions of my war general. The first being the completed submission piece (which had to be rendered in maya on the original low-poly mesh) and the second is rendered straight from z-brush (3mill polys) with color map only.
Enjoy!