odd yet symmetrical dragon

I was playing with the new symmetry feature in Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 and this dragon was the result.  I posted a video with screen-grabs of the process on Instagram.  @MarcusHadlock

revisiting an old robot friend

In 2010 I posted this robot after I first drew it-  today I saw it and thought I could make it pop a bit more with a few things ive learned.  I didnt spend much time on it- just messed with it while I was on a conference call.  It was kind of fun to re-visit something from so long ago.  I think I could have improved it further but the conference call ended and I needed to move on

2 More because these are fun!

Last two.  I messed up the second one a little and accidentally merged layers and painted past the history mark where i merged them s I couldn't go back and fix it.  The result is really dark under the skin- gave him an odd zombie look.

I was pretty pleased with the first guy though! Except when I finished my son asked if it was me...  Haha I didnt think I was that overweight... but I guess he thinks it looks just like me.  I have a little more hair than he does as well...

More great practice- Im getting excited about what the future holds!

here are the final 6 together with their initial sketch

2 More Character Concepts

As a continuation of fleshing out the sketches I did yesterday, here are 2 more rendered into drooling monstrosities.  The first one was not intended to be a black guy until I started playing with colors.  I then thought it would be a good challenge as I dont normally draw black guys.  All of the skin pigments are different.  I think he turned out ok... but I could probably use some improvement.  I gave him cornrolls to make his race a little more obvious.

The next one is a witch doctor type.  Hes got a skull on his head and chicken foot around his neck, with some interesting face / body paint.  I like how his teeth turned out.  I feel like I get a little better with each one I do.  Excited to see how the last 2 turn out tomorrow. 

2 Character Concepts

Today I sketched out a couple of faces.  These are the first 2 I painted.  The first one is a little Piratey but not...  his mustache and gotee were a bit of a poorly rendered afterthought  but i like the warmth of him.  He looks more like a teddy bear- gentle soul than a typical mean ol' boy.  Ive been playing a little "Sea of Thieves" so Im sure that was a little of an inspiration for him.  Hes got that stereotypical eye-slash scar.

The next guy is a drooling fool... red mohawk... looks a little post-apocalyptic or maybe just a fantasy type character.  I like how he turned out... except his eyes ended up a little small and too sunken into his head.  

I spent about an hour on each of these.  Ill be posting 2 more tomorrow 

Capitalist Goblin

I put a few more hours into this guy and am going to call him done.

I still might throw him in a quick environment to finish it up- but i think I have learned from it and am ready to move on.  I think I put way too much detail in- I spent 3 whole hours just working on one leg for example... and the only way you would ever notice is if you zoomed up into it like I was... and MOST people are not going to do that.  As long as it looks good at the main view point it is going to look good-  over-detailing Im learning is just a taxing thing on the artist and often times can deter from the main focal point of the piece.

My main focal points are the face of the bull character, and the goblin.  Everything else just needs to support them.

Overall this was a fun character to do and I am pleased with it.  My favorite elements ended up being the armor, belt, and sword on the bull characters chest.  

capitalist Goblin sneak peek

Today I continued working on the same illustration... focusing on the goblin character riding on top.  Here is my progress on the greedy little critter! Starting to all come together-  hopefully I finish in another day or two!

Todays progress on the pack-mule mercenary

A lot of progress today... I go from loving it to hating it to not sure if I wanna finish...

But its good practice! I hope I can tie it all together at the end and make it look like a nice finished piece.  

Pack Mule Bull-Man head Paint

Coloring the whole drawing from yesterday was pretty optimistic...  at least at the rate I am going...

This is several hours of work... but hey, its something!  All I was able to do today was the Bull characters head... and even thats not finished.  Still need to touch up his hair and clean up a few other spots... like his lip looks like the same color as his teeth etc.  But not bad for a days work!