Mike Mignola

Mike is a comic book artist and writer who best known for creating the Hellboy series for Dark Horse comics. Also took part in the animation projects such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire that I later recognised as it was also used for the animation adaption of Hellboy. He described his art style as "German Expressionism meets Jack Kirby by some artists he may have talked to about. I find his work in gothic horror really interesting in the way they are drawn and made expanded his imagination of the Hellboy universe of creatures, monsters and demons from folklore and legends.

http://www.artofmikemignola.com

RJ Palmer

RJ Palmer, is a freelance concept artist and illustrator who specialises in character and creature designs, and really incredible work and effort he put into his drawings. I really liked how amazing his artwork is and even make realistic pokemon that are my favourite of his illustration when I follow his work on Deviantart, morphing them into actual creatures that interact in the real world and write stories about them. I have been a fan of the series when I was a kid and still remember some of them when I watched the series, and also really been keen of seeing realistic pokemon by artists but hard to find until I found Palmer's as he goes by the name Arvalis.

He studied living and extinct animals to get the Pokemon to look with real world influence and separate them from the anime version which is a useful resource of making up a strange animal by looking at the skeleton, physical form and texture, but it does show he's been looking at prehistoric animals and dinosaurs. The colour work is really unique, really talented on the scales, skin and fur for the creatures, the characters are well thought out They are really unique and very original which I can't help but admire them and made me want to do more thought of ideas and looking at his work I can't help but look at their appearances and look at more unique animals in the natural world

http://rj-palmer.com
http://arvalis.deviantart.com
http://techgnotic.deviantart.com/journal/Jurassic-Pokemon-495463998

book series idea: New Genesis

As I have been doing many drawings of aliens, monsters and characters for ideas. I have been doing some rough ideas of how the series should take place and wanting to be a well and thought I let my fellow readers and friends know what it should be about. Holds many genres, cyberpunk, alternate history/universe and science fantasy.

New Genesis: Dance of Blades

About:
Starts out when in the mid-20th century humans discovered they were not the only sentient species living on Earth, three different races: Kronan Ree, Lemurian and Djinn approached them as the nations were still at each other's throats. Allowing their paranoia to overwhelm them, war lashed out on the three races despite the three grouped together to form peaceful relations with the majority of humans.

After nearly nearly several years the war came to an end by a neutral organisation known as the Society, dedicated to maintain the balance of power on Earth and an event which was known as New Genesis that changed nearly all life on the planet, causing mutations on some species and individuals by alien technology.

The four races now live in co-existence after many decades. But a threat lurking within the shadows from space and on Earth, leading the world into a new war unlike any other in history.

Characers:
coming soon...

DC Comics

DC comics has numerous stories about superheroes protecting the innocent from super villains and doing what is right. Forming crime fighting groups like the Justice League, Green Lantern Corps, Teen Titans and Young Justice. It is one of the most popular comic book series and has been published for nearly a century since the first issues of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman show ere the original and common members of the Justice League.

Many characters in the DC universe have super human abilities, wear fancy outfits and disguises to conceal their identities but the villains are well known in public when arrested. But not all characters are entirely human as the majority of them are mostly alien, supernatural entities, gods, mutants or meta-humans. Although not all of them have background histories to know how they received superpowers in the first place.

That wouldn't have been a problem in the past but over the years, fans want solid info on how the characters came to be as they are like Superman who was a baby being sent to Earth after Krypton blew up and recieved his powers under the exposure of a yellow sun.

Batman became a crime fighting vigilant after witnessing the death of his parents while under the impersonation of a multi millionaire Bruce Wayne.

The Green Lanterns use their rings made from an energy source made by an ancient race of small blue skinned humanoids known as the Guardians of the Universe and allow the users' will to manifest whatever they think off so long as they wear them. It is also same for the other power rings but are different by emotions and formed their own groups like the Sinestro Corps, Red Lanterns, Orange lanterns, the Black Lanterns, Indigo Tribe and Blue Lanterns.

There are many characters who use magic from their and others from chemicals either from experiments or accidents which in real life would've been fatal but they're more popular in fiction in other comics also.

But what I can't stand is how too powerful some characters are like Superman who was the most powerful hero in his time, doing things impossible with super strength, incredible speed and flight to defend the world. But over the years the comic writers did seem to give him weaknesses like Kryptonite and knowing that there are other characters as strong as he is. It should be important for characters like DC not to have overpowered heroes and villains as they would have to learn to adapt their abilities.

New project Comic illustration

On to our next brief, we have been given multiple choices of what to do, it was a little hard for me to choose which one but felt like I wanted to do the Travelling Man brief where it has more freedom of ideas and imagination, the other comic brief was more towards social live which to be frank, didn't suite me at all so I thought I give this another go to make a comic but better then the first one I did. Those of you who don't know I did one two
30. years ago on a final major project in Graphics CCAD, looking back from my latest work it was not as good as I imagined but got the story good. It was meant to be a teaser for the series I'm dedicated to make become a series.

so for my idea, it possibly be some scifi fantasy, like an introduction to a series

Below: This was what I made and thought of using the same title but change it a little, something to recycle for future ideas. what I plan to do is by drawing the sketches of the pages and write down the transcript to plan out the page on the other using my sketchbook. Make advert pages related to the comic issue.

http://soulslayer317.deviantart.com/art/New-Genesis-comic-cover-376230862.

My evaluation on the album illustration

When we first received our first module to illustrate albums of our pick and create merchandises. I was having some hard time choosing which musician to work and research on but found a liking to Agnus Obel's classical and relaxing music, so I went for her and looked into her background, how she was inspired by other musicians and sought out how to make good merchandises. I drew a few sketches, researched on album illustrations and what I thought from my perspective.

The first one was working on the landscape poster, I thought that since her music was relaxing and soothing with her scandinavian heritage, why not make a natural landscape but a little more towards folklore/fantasy, it was easy working out how it would look but took a while to finish it off then the rest because of working on the texture, getting the trees right. What I liked about it is how it looked like a dreamscape with the night sky being purplish and the river containing the northern lights and stars rather than the sky. I really liked how it turned out and added the owls which were a nice touch to give it a more wildlife activity and unspoiled. Originally I was going to add a cabin in it but I thought it didn't work so I removed it. The annoying part was working on the title, wanted it to be original and wanting to have the italic style but so far that didn't work either and used other text and make sure it would fit in with the poster.

After completing the first one I now moved on to the rest and had this idea of making a flip book for the editorial, I know it won't be perfect but nothing wrong of trying it, so I decided what to animate and picked an owl since owls are in Europe and watched a few slow motions of owls flying. I used my sketchbook to practice and used each page on the bottom corner and made sure they were in the right place to make it work. After completing it in my spare time, I took each shot of them on the computer and used a page for eight shots, worked on the background and originally intended to leave the owl untouched but thought it would be nice to have some colour and did so. Had to trim them to be the same shape and tide them together. After completing it I felt it was really good for my first try and how it turned out. The hard part was getting them in the right place so it wouldn't be too messy and any mistakes on it.

Making a few prints wasn't easy, it was very difficult to know what sort of print I wanted and people gave me suggestions yet I still don't know how since it wasn't my strongest but wanting to give a go for a good grade. It was not easy finding iridescent paper, or holographic sheets as some prefer but finally found some and ordered them straight away on special order. I used some of my earlier sketches and used sheets to experiment before proceeding to use the sheets I've ordered and used different paints and had to have a little bit of help to make sure they were right at first until I understander how to print them properly. It was not easy spray painting outside when it was windy but I was helped out knowing where to find a room to do it inside without causing problems. What I liked about it was how I learnt new experiences and being careful of using paints and new techniques to try but not easy to remember but there's always experiences I can use in the near future.

ON my final merchandise was making the cd cover, all I had to do was make it different but used one of the owls from my poster so that it had connections. Giving it a winter background, a blueish moon and an owl flying in the night. I figured the background looked too plain so I added some snow for the final touch and to be honest it was just a random idea but really liked how it turned out, find it funny how ideas just come and not knowing they would be good.

What I liked about the module was getting new ideas, experimenting with tools in digital, printing and paints to build the ideas. I actually enjoyed doing the flip book and glad everyone liked the idea, the poster is my favoured work since it had a lot of landscape and wanting it to be a digital painting and offered suggestions that I took and used.

The things I didn't enjoy were trying to find the sheets needed for editorial and went to many shops looking for them. sent emails to shops but never on time before the deadline. And always worrying that I keep forgetting something that was important which usually happens when focusing on my work but it turned out good in the end and hopefully doesn't happen too often in the future. I did enjoy this module and glad its completed.

Agnes Obel Poster

1. So I wanted to have a natural landscape, something to fight in with Agnus' music and make it look natural and relaxing to look at. Drawn a few sketches and found this much more worth to work on for one of my projects for the module. All it needed were trees, unspoiled landscape and mountains. I wasn't so sure about eh cabin really, so I decided to remove that to make it truly untouched by human beings.

2.Making a river with bright colours and reflecting the northern lights wasn't entirely easy so I took some moment to think how they would look and find a few pics of other Northern Lights seen at night. Knowing full well they don't go in a full stream as some tend to fade out then the rest and flow like wind or water. Gone for the purplish colour for the night sky and wanting the lights to flow like an actual river, gave one side a more brighter pink to blend with the darker colours as it reflects the sunset from the sky.

3.I focused on the green light and added more brighter green to some areas where they be more concentrated then the rest, used the smudge tool to pull the mist about to make it thinner. The black line had to go as I didn't want them to be seen in the river, otherwise it could ruin the moment replace them with ripple lining to replace them, making sure they interact with the sides and go along with the river. 

4. Giving it a more light pinkish sunset on one side to cast the reflection of the sky instead of a normal black sky. Adding stars to go with lights, some small light dots and the larger ones with twinkling sparkle to make it more of a night sky, I wanted the river to have a natural ripple, not a solid line to show how they interact with rocks, shores and land.

5. Going for the dawn/sunset theme I used the purple and pink colors to be in place of the orange and dark, blend them together to make a natural change of color in the direction of the sun would be. The mountains I was working on had to have a dark grey color and dark areas for the shadow 

6. Adding more shading and texture to the snow but what I was starting to dislike were the trees, they don't have the natural formation like real life trees have. The green leafs were not so good and decided to restart on the forest, looked into a few photos on winter trees and sketched a few sketches of trees in my sketchbook. 

7. needing texture which is more important for the landscape, like the snow, wood and sand, especially the rocks, tried out different tools to make a few patterns. The mountains needed a little more work before I do more on the trees. The orange line demonstrates how they will appear before drawing them.

8. Following the designs of my sketches of the trees, I made the closest trees bigger then the rest for the distance rather then being the same size. Giving them an earthly brown color and lighter brown/red for the texture.

9. I now moved on to adding some owls to make the landscape more of an unspoiled natural landscape with wildlife, so I scanned in the sketches of two owls and used them to find a few places before I draw them. Wanting them to look lively and interact with the landscape.

10. Went back to finishing off the river and give it a better look with a group of stars, some that are bigger then the rest would have a twinkling look and stretched them on four sides,  giving a more starlight impression.

11. I went back to the page where the owls are and decided to look at some natural colours owls normally have, each one be different to the other. one yellow/brown and the second grey and black.

12. Now that I got the two owls complete, I moved them into a few places to find where they are more comfortable at, making sure they don't fill one side or leave too much space in the landscape. SO I moved the one on the right by the river so it would appear to be soaring over the river and the one on the left clinging on to a branch. 

13. Intended to make an original design for the title, make it bold but italic to fit in with the poster, however it didn't seem to work, so I experimented with the text until I found a better one such as the pic below and thus completes my poster.