Stardust

If watchmen or X-men wanted to design/illustrate some new characters...

It was a good practice this one. I was trying to bring colour, texture and a touch of design, all together. I see a ton of influence too but was actually most influenced by my friend's photography work.

Puppy Character Bins

Cuboid characters... something that's caught the design trend I think? It was fun to create this little fella and it might even make it to print on London Southbank bins! (:] 

Mini & Mo

Some monkey business :] Fairly loose character drawings inspired by this amazing studio website, Deisign, character design advice.  I tried to pay more  attention to contrasting shapes this time.

A friend of mine gave life to his own version of these two guys, check it out at Tom's blog

Munis, a RoboPup

Recently I went to Spielwarenmesse a toy fair in Nuremberg.  I saw lots and lots of robot pets, they're definitely trending. Even the tamagotchi's making a return!  But one's I took a note of were, Teksta puppy and Zoomer pup, which won  the award for innovative toy. 

I thought I'd give it a go at designing a more articulated robot dog. And as for the name, it is given after my beloved dog Munis, who sadly passed away very recently.  It's in his image that I have based the character on: upbeat, bubbly and kiddy. Which he was to his very old days.  

P.S. a thanks goes to Tom for encouragement to revisit the design (:]

Sugar and Spice and all Things Nice

And that's what little girls are made of! A nice little old rhyme, which inspired this one.  I've been meaning for quite a while to attempt and design a fashion doll which was cuter  than Bratzillas and with a bit more spice than Kawaii Crush. (:]

Scorched Earth Saturnalia

This time it is  piece of work inspired by Secret Chiefs 3, Album Forms, Scorched Earth Saturnalia. I think the design feels grounded to that particular track, but let me know what you think if you give it a go:

Little Pet

A piece of old work I got permission to share very recently. Zombie pets. A project intended as an augmented reality game extension to physical pet figurine.

 I have taken one of the designs through 3D character pipeline: modeling, UV layout, texturing, skinning and rigging.

(press the image below to see the virtual model using your mouse)

The following short video shows the puppy animated. I have created various lengths animation cycles for each body part. Essentially it is a looped animation, but because cycles are offset it isn’t repeating itself identically.

Sketchbook update

Character sketches from a short while ago. I am exploring some themes as well as drawing techniques. Some might recognise some use of alchemy.

Unga-Jonga Street Girls

A little drawing with a nod to fashion illustration style .  I Have been exploring  Shoreditch, London lately. All the galleries,  markets,  vintage shops  in Brick Lane.  I guess that is where the inspiration comes from. It was fairly quick to finish this one because textures did a great portion of job for me. I referenced and used  Fabian Oefner's photography.

'Sound Attack' Character

A nice fresh drawing . It is a robot armed with speakers and sound woofers, controled by what looks like a rather mean bunny .   I drew 'Sound Attack' character  having in mind a sort of feel  bands like Deadmou5 have built in their branding.

The drawing started with use of Alchemy, software which is experimental in nature, which was great for a starting point.

Owl-cubes!

Flavoured Owl Ice-cubes! Just a random combination that popped in my head. A fun theme  and a little challenge there, to render a believable ice-cube looks. I hope they are still recognisable as cute little owl characters :] ( they go well with lemons! )

Here is a gif showing  how I've achieved stylised icy looks:

 

Blacksmithing God Telavelis

Telavelis is a Baltic god, a blacksmith who hammered the Sun and threw it into the sky. This makes him a heroic character. However, in Baltic folklore, blacksmithing is seen as a legacy from devil therefore he inherently shares some similarities with the portrayals of Devils . Telavelis is also the only god who is seen as always working.

 

Straight away, I imagined Telovelis being bulky, choppy, crude almost , wide and short god,  as if he is ‘flattened’ ad in such way related to his day-to-day act .I tried to bring heroic and supreme being qualities:  his strong-built body , runes and various symbols. Yet also suggesting clear relatedness with underworld creature, I think this is slightly suggested by stumpy posture, devilish moustache, mean face and some subtle details in his attire.

Some of the references include bodybuilders when off season, moustache competition winners ( that.. I enjoyed thoroughly! :D ), old men and various cultural sources for deco (such as symbols for sun and strength). 

 

Not really precise with my anatomy here, more interested, as always, with the general build and feel. All the details should fall into places when I take it into 3D. Yes, I think this one I should move along the pipeline , this time in 3D Max instead of Maya (god help me...) . 

Comments and critique very welcome (: ]

Tattoo Design

Couple of days ago my friend asked me to design him a tattoo. A half devil half angel . With some development I've finished the line work guide for the tattoo artist to work out the shading and match the style with already existing work on his arm. My friend really liked it and he is going to have it done soon (:] I am honoured!

 

Medeine, Baltic Goddess of the Forest

 Medeinė (derived from medis (tree) ), is one of the main deities in  Baltic mythology, She is a ruler of forests, trees and animals. Medeina is depicted as a young silver-haired woman and a she-wolf;  an unmarried beautiful huntress. Her duty is not to help the hunters, but to protect the forest.

For a long time I wanted to do a painting as resolved as this.Overall, I think it was an excellent exercise in illustration and not as much in character design. I paid particular attention to poses, composition and colour (a great challenge was to avoid  the generic blue-wash looks). Again, haven't used much reference here, only for the skin colour under moonlight.

Didn't have so much fun painting like this in ages! ((:]I hope next character from the Baltic Gods family, will be Telovelis...