These are Superheroes!

So these are Daredevil and Spider-man.

Ahab!

Well, here's a bunch of sketches of, weirdly enough, Captain Ahab. This isn't a story idea, rather a challenge for me to conceptualize characters in a similar universe. So, I decided to go after Moby Dick, and throw it in deep-space, starting with Ahab. I think I'm gonna go after Ahab, Moby Dick, Ishmael, and Queeqeq (I think that's how his name is spelt?) as my choice of characters, as well as Ahab's ship, the Pequod.

Anywho, Ahab's idea is that he's a species of creature that survives (or has adapted to) inhabiting mostly in deep-space, hunting the beasts that make up the deep-space seas. I decided to go with an idea that he has this organic body armor that also works as a containment suit, and when he steps out into space, it seals up tightly, preventing decompression death and allowing him to work in the near vacuum that is space. I'm still tinkering with ideas, but I want to bring some sea theme to him for sure, so I've been exploring conch shells and other sorts of shells/crustaceans as inspiration.

He's hardly finished, so there'll be more to come!

Aw Crap.

Well, here's a hellboy poster I just whipped up. I've been enamored by the idea of a graphicy way of presenting something, and this just seemed to be appropriate subject matter to do so. At the moment, I'm gonna consider it done, but I might revisit it and tweak mainly the lineart...

This is Batman.

Duh da da DA daaaa!


I saw Dark Knight today...and was very, VERY impressed. This is quite possibly the best comic book movie created yet. But hell, I'm sure everyone's saying that.

New Website!

That's right folks! I finally got my stuff together and cobbled it into a coherent website! It's a lot of the same stuff on here, just more professional looking.

You can check it out right over here: Art of Andrew Sides

Enjoy folks, and spread it around like some bad disease!

Hot Heat...

Well, here's the first of an environment paint-up! It's quick and rough, but I like the quality of it. I like it, considering it's my first tackle of an environment paint-up, but I'm going to shoot for a much better quality next time.

Space Color Comps

So, here are some color comps I did for one of the space suits. I'm going to go with the design that the color comps were used in, since I think it's the strongest out of all of them (coincidentally, it was the last of the three to be drawn as well.) These 8 (technically 7, last one is a bit of a joke, hehe) comps give me a base from which I can decide upon a final scheme and start to do a turnaround on, as well as more detailed paint-ups of both. A cool thing about this is if I want to, I can take a design scheme from one comp, and switch out the colors from another if I have to, so if I want to see what it might look like, I'd have no problem doing so. Well, enough talk, here's the art!

Development of the Space Thumbnails

Here's 3 more developed ideas based off the thumbnails. I took it off of the ol' Bubble-head suit, since I like the look of the bubble helmets, for some reason. They give off a pretty retro feel, and that's the look I'm going for: Retro sci-fi looking, but believable.

Space...

Here's some thumbnails of space suits. I think I'm going to take one of these to completion, but haven't decided which yet.

Roar!

Well, here's the Creature Spotlight: THE LIZARDMAN! I'm pretty happy with the turnout, but I think my colors are off on my monitor, since it looks a lot darker than when I was painting it. Also, here's some dinosaurs for your enjoyment.

Long Time...

Man, it's been awhile since I last posted. So what's happened? Well, I moved (which is partly to explain my absence,) been doing some artwork that will hopefully lead to a job, and I had to reformat my computer recently. Now that stuff has kinda settled down, I'm back on track with this again.

Here's some block studies of people that I've been doing lately. Usually if I hit a drawing funk or don't seem to be improving a whole lot I'll switch up my approach to keep it fresh. Lately my people have been loose and getting away from me, so I switched over to a method I learned in my drawing classes (I think it's derived from Glen Vilppu, but I'm not sure.) I like doing these, it's really clear and defined where the planes are and where everything in space is, but it can still be loose and energetic. Also, taking a cue from James Gurney, I used a water soluble pencil and one of my water brushes to lay down tone. I LOVE this method. I've never been a fan of smudging the pencil around, since it muddies up everything (at least when I do it), but this basically gives me the pros of smudging without the rest of the crap that goes with it. I'm still getting used to it, but it's been fun.

Also, as a sidenote, I haven't forgotten about my Creature Spotlight! Here's a sneak-peek at what's coming up. This little guy is gonna be fun to paint...

Graduation! And a Slug.

So I'm done with college! I guess it's a big step, but it hadn't really sunk in. So to comemorate the occasion (and because I'm busy with other stuff I can't show yet,) here's something I did about two weeks ago. It's a tossed Creature Spotlight concept, since I wanted to try a more centipede-like critter, but same idea. So here it is, the first version of the Lava Slug! I have no idea why this silly thing can't upload the right colors, but once I figure it out, I'll edit this post.

EDIT: Hey, I got the right colors up! Enjoy, new post will be coming soon.

Color Comps

So here is a set of color comps for some animation backgrounds I'm doing for my personal project, "The Tower Troll." The kid's head on a plaque is part of the project too, but I'm not going to spoil why! These were done in watercolor, by the way, with micron inks over 'em.

Of torsos and men...

Another day, another page in the ol' sketchbook. This one actually had me figure out something pretty interesting really. Something I honestly never gave much thought to.Rib cages tilt forward when someone leans! To be perfectly truthful, this little nougat of info HAS been in my head before, but it's one of those things when you just throw a pose out onto the paper, if your head isn't in the game, it doesn't surface.

This actually got me to thinking about a couple of little things. First, I I thought about the fact that I always start my drawings with the head. Then I kinda came to the realization that a LOT of artists do this. I know of a lot of pals who start with a gesture of the head, then find the spine and line of action through that, which lead me onto another train of though...

Burne Hogarth.

Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy or Dynamic Figure Drawing (if you ever read these books) don't actually prescribe to this following. Instead Hogarth stresses the rib cage as the first object to draw, as everything originates from there: The orientation of the head does not dictate the pose, but the orientation of the rib cage might.

While I think this is a nifty idea, I don't know how well it could actually work. The problem lies in the flow of the pose. It's far easier for me to find the LoA (Line of Action) from the head than it is from the rib cage. If the rib cage dictates the pose, don't I already have this set in stone then?

Anyway, I've just provided a look into the mad ramblings of a lone artist, so feel free to leave any thought pertaining (or not) on the comment board.

Baby Snatcher lineart

Here's a quick preview of an upcoming paint-up I'm doing. I guess it'll fall under the next creature spotlight, so all the background for it will be explained then. In the meantime, I present to you, the Babysnatcher!

Sketches!

Just a recent sketchpage.

Creature Spotlight: The Red-Billed Tuskeater!

...Or as some may call it, the blue-balled doombird. Here's our next installment in the Creature Spotlight, this time it's the predator of the Garret's Tuskrunner (hence the tuskeater name.) This reptavian lives primarily along the belt of forest/plains area that dot its planet, which gives it it's darker coloration. Males are identified with the vibrant colors lining their faces, while females have a more subdued palette. The two large, long claws on each forelimb are used for gripping prey, but also for digging out holes to form nests for their broods. Oddly enough, the cheek sacks that adorn their faces have a dual function: They're can be puffed up to appear aggressive, or they can be used to store food. Since Tuskrunner's tend to stay away from the forest or closed areas, it becomes problematic for the female tuskeater, who stays with her young until they're hatched. Evolution's solution? Equip the birds with cheeks so the male can carry back extra food from a kill. This also works out for when the Tuskeaters make long treks or migrations, since they can feed on a kill, then store any extra in their pouches and swallow it down as they continue to move.

I included in this post a version that still has the lineart, and a version without the lineart. As a shout-out to anyone that's listening, which one do you all prefer?

Sneak Peek at next Creature Spotlight...

Well, not so much a "sneak" peek, but ya get the idea. Once I finish doing the paint-up on it, I'll be showing the whole critter.

In other news, I'm cleaning up the Tower Troll and polishing him more. I'm basically going back with a rake (using a new one this time, something I fashioned outta a saw blade, ha ha!) and gonna really rake the hell outta him. I'll show pics of that once he's all done up nicely.

In other other news, I've been looking at a DS homebrew program called "colors" which is apparantly a painting program. Anyone out there use it and love it? Just curious to hear some first-hand accounts of it.

Have You Seen the Tower Troll?

Here's a sculpt I've been working on for my senior project class. He's a maquette based off the main character design in a short animation I'm doing. I'm fairly happy with him, I think if I started him a little earlier I could have worked out some of the issues and kinks I have with it a lot more. I might go back and tweak him later, once I have more time available to me.

Here's a full shot of him, and some WIPs as well.

Creature Spotlight: Garret's Tuskrunner

So I decided on doing a concept exercise for myself to just keep my imagination going and just be sure to have some sort of drawing done, and this is all based on that last post! I got the idea of choosing an ecosystem(plains, volcanoe, forest, freshwater, etc.) and each week or so, do 3 drawings, consisting of a main food source (plant or something similar), a prey animal (thing that eats food source), and a predator animal (thing that eats prey animal.) It'd start with the main food source, but since I started with that weird lil' alien earlier, I present to you...

Prey Animal: Garret's Tuskrunner!

For now here's a colored schematic of the lil' guy, and since I already threw up some sketches of him previously, you can just scroll down to see 'em. Anywho, onto a bit of fluff facts:

Garret's Tuskrunner (named for Arthur D. Garret, the astrozoologist that discovered this species) is a plain-dwelling creature that inhabits the arid planet designated DX723. Unlike most animals, its designed to graze the bushes that inhabit its world, using a swooping action with the lower jaws to scoop, pinch, and pull the leaves off of the plant. It's long legs allow it to quickly gallop away, while the bony spike protrusions on the tail aid in balance and self-defense.

So that's it for now, tune in soon for the main food source!