Devoid of Talent

Word Bearer WIP

2011-12-30T13:53:00.000-08:00

Based of off a painting by Karl Kopinski.

Very WIP

Spy Done

2011-11-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

Spy WIP

2011-11-15T20:16:00.000-08:00

Mini 3d contest on GameArtisans.

1250 tris, 512 diffuse texture only.

Polypainted the base colors and shading, now refining in Photoshop.

Something for Nothing

2011-11-09T22:00:00.000-08:00

Bad day all around today. Was in a miserable mood tonight, so decided to just draw something without it being for anything. Not for work, or as a study, or a contest. Just a drawing to get some of the blahs out.

Bela Lugosi's Dead

2011-10-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

Quick painting for a GameArtisans contest. Do a portrait of a horror character like an old fashioned portrait.

I did Bela in one of rembrandt's poses, I tried to do brushwork like Frans Hals, but don't think I nailed it.

Comicon 2011 DONE!

2011-10-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

Finished and submitted with half an hour to go. I'm pretty happy, think it's better than my last model, which is always my goal for these.

Comicon 2011 WIP

2011-09-25T19:12:00.001-07:00

Model and textures are pretty much finished. Made a background this weekend as well.

Next up is rig/pose, light and render.

Comicon 2011 WIP

2011-09-23T21:56:00.001-07:00

Testing out color variations.

Comicon 2011 WIP

2011-09-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

Some progress shots from the Mephisto I've been working on for the Gameartisans.org challenge. There's a week and a half left, I'm pretty much on target for finishing.

Face Details
Finished Sculpt
Low Poly with Normals
Starting texturing and placing alpha cards for hair.

CC2011 WIP

2011-08-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

Started this years Comicon Challenge over at GameArtisans.org

Check it out here: http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?t=25920 if you want to follow the progress.

Quick sculpt

2011-06-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

Playing around in zbrush, based off a little doodle from last year. About 2 hrs, recorded it in timelapse mode.

Untitled from Kevin Dobler on Vimeo.

New Personal Project Starting

2011-06-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

Warhammer 40k Chaos Space Marine.

Just did a real quick pass in zbruh to get heights and scale.

The guy all the way on the left is my height (5'6") the Marine is the 7'6" the various 40k forums seem to agree is the "official" height. He looks positively massive compared to a normal person.

Xoliul Shader test

2011-05-30T20:05:00.001-07:00

Late to the game on this one, great little viewport shader http://www.laurenscorijn.com/viewportshader

5 minutes of fiddling.

Default Max DirectX on left - Xoliul on right

Dominance War5 Finals

2011-05-23T18:04:00.000-07:00

For reals this time. I had to go chop down 2k tris after re-reading the rules. Also tweaked the main image some more.

Dominance War5 Finals

2011-05-22T22:08:00.001-07:00

Unless I see something I missed in the morning, these are what I will submit.

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-05-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

Working on the final shots. Just need to make the FX, then final renders and some serious Pshop work on the beauty shot.

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-05-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

Finished Skinning and started posing and lighting.

First pass:

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-05-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

Still plugging away. 6 days and counting....

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-05-15T10:30:00.001-07:00

With the one week extension I slowed down a bit. Working on textures now.

edit update.

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-05-09T18:19:00.001-07:00

Testing the normal bake, and roughing in my beauty shot.

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-05-08T16:44:00.001-07:00

Another sculpting pass now that I have the UV's done. Adding some small details, veins skin puckering around embedded gold. and asymmetry. Also threw on a scar from when the mask got wrecked. Not sure if I'm sold on it yet.

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-05-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

Low Poly and Unwraps done! Have around 200 tris for FX and maybe the arch.

Muppet Self Portrait

2011-05-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

Goofy little drawing topic at work. Everyone had fun. Here's mine:

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-05-03T21:44:00.000-07:00

Low Poly almost done

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-04-25T21:20:00.000-07:00

Slow week, only got in a handful of hours.

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-04-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-04-14T20:57:00.001-07:00

Need to find a way to add more hours to the night. The couple hours I have after work aren't enough. I don't want to stop.

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-04-13T20:13:00.001-07:00

Sculpty Sculpt. First night, 2hrs

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-04-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

Continuing with basemeshes

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-04-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

Started working on new basemeshes for sculpting now that the final concept is done. Going to try separating out the basemeshes in the body this time, to let me get some higher details going.

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-04-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

Still just refining the concept

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-03-30T20:47:00.001-07:00

Working on finalizing the design

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-03-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

Closing in on a final design.

Polycount Brawl WIP

2011-03-20T15:22:00.001-07:00

Polycount Brawl WIP

2011-03-19T19:50:00.001-07:00

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1312105#post1312105

No idea where I'm going to find the time....

Dominance War5 WIP

2011-03-17T20:14:00.001-07:00

Rough Sculpt.

Dominance War5 3D WIP

2011-03-17T16:22:00.001-07:00

yup. it finally started. Just working out some ideas.

Rear Admiral

2011-03-13T15:30:00.001-07:00

Drawing topic at work, just something silly.

Darksiders Samael WIP

2011-03-07T14:04:00.001-08:00

More Sculpting.

Rebuilt most of the armor based on the rough sculpting I did. Now I have a cleaner mesh to work from. Tedious but making everything much easier. Probably have to do the same with the wings next.

Dirk Speed Sculpt

2011-02-27T18:49:00.001-08:00

GA Sculpting Daily

2011-02-24T19:43:00.000-08:00

Only did 2 of the speed sculpts at GameArtisans this month but I had some fun. I'll probably go back and do some more later. Ogre was an hour the Demon was just under 3.

Darksiders Samael WIP

2011-02-17T19:11:00.001-08:00

Sculpting

Darksiders Samael WIP

2011-02-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

Finally had some time to start sculpting.

Darksiders Samael WIP

2011-02-06T11:20:00.001-08:00

More progress on base
Edit: added a turnaround video of the base just so i can see the form better.

Darksiders Samael WIP

2011-02-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

Continuing to work on the base meshes. Back and forth between zbrush and max for the body.

Darksiders Samael WIP

2011-01-30T14:09:00.001-08:00

Got my new computer up and running and this is the first thing I'm working on. Doing a model of Samael from Darksiders. I'm basing it off concept art by Paul Richards, that looks a bit different than the final game model.

Dom War 5 Mini WIP

2010-12-05T18:19:00.000-08:00

edit - Coming Closer..

Blocking in the design for the textures

Dom War 5 Mini WIP

2010-12-02T22:26:00.002-08:00

Was very unhappy with my model, so I decided to rework it. I lost 2 days on this and its not too different from the old one - but at least I'm happier.

Dom War 5 Mini WIP

2010-11-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

today's progress.

Dom War 5 Mini WIP

2010-11-28T10:07:00.000-08:00

Working on the Mini Dominance War 5 challenge. It's old school - 3k tris and no normal maps.

There's a week left.

Comicon 2010 finished

2010-10-15T18:34:00.001-07:00

Finished this year's GameArtisans.org Comicon Challenge. It came down to the wire but I got both this and a 2d concept entry done. These are the final images.

If you want to see the full WIP thread it is up Here

Comicon Challenge 2010

2010-09-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

This years comicon contest at GameArtisans.org has only a few weeks left. I'm working on a younger version of cyclops, and am planning on mutating him fairly harshly. No more prettyboy.

Getting Set for Printing, pt2

2010-06-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

Think this is the pose I'm going to go with. I need to pose the zbrush and then do a polish pass.

Getting set for printing, pt1

2010-06-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

I'm working on stetting up my Hunter Character to get him 3d printed. I'm trying to figure out posing now, playing with transpose master in zbrush for the first time.

Frazetta Tribute contest

2010-05-31T18:34:00.000-07:00

GA did a minicontest in memory of one of my favorite artists - Frank Frazetta. I met Frank twice visiting his museum, and both he and his wife were unbelievably nice. My painting doesn't hold a candle to any of his works, but it was nice to have the excuse to look through all my books again.

Dominance War 4.5 Finished

2010-05-23T23:48:00.000-07:00

Finished up - came down to the wire. Still some things I'd like to tweak, but I'm overall pleased.

Dominance War 4.5 WIP

2010-05-19T20:33:00.001-07:00

Low Poly, normals, Started the color map. No spec or gloss yet.

Dominance War 4.5 WIP

2010-05-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

Done w/ zbrush.

Dominance War 4.5 WIP

2010-05-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

Almost there with the sculpting. Few pieces left then some detail work.

DomWar 4.5 Zbrush WIP

2010-04-26T20:14:00.001-07:00

inch by inch...

Dominance War 4.5 Zbrush WIP

2010-04-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

yep

Dominance War 4.5 Concepts

2010-04-17T20:21:00.001-07:00

Not really enough time to do this, but I'm feeling the need to do something besides work.

Huge Tracts of Land!!!

2010-02-22T20:42:00.000-08:00

After seeing Brent do a painting of Christina Hendricks, I couldn't resist trying. Our Mrs. Reynold's is one of my favorite episodes of any show. But I think Brent might have missed some of her more well known features...
About an hour and 45 mins.
Painting Movie

Cyclops Base

2010-02-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

Just finished watching Scott Patton's 3d Character Design DVD from gnomon, and felt the need to start another personal project. Didn't want to completely rip off his giant, so I'm trying a cyclops. Did a quick modification of Zbrush's superaverageman, and then spent too long in max tweaking the geometry to get this basemesh.
I realized that this is the first time I've modeled "dangly bits". And by his pose he is quite happy to show them off.

Candyland

2010-02-07T19:51:00.001-08:00

Drawing and original colors by Tam, Brent did a colored version too so I thought I had to paint one too... 1 hr on the dot.

CHOW 187 - the Celt

2010-02-07T17:03:00.000-08:00

not much to say, was a long weekend to get this done.

anatomy study - skull

2010-02-06T20:37:00.001-08:00

Spent an hour each morning working on a skull sculpt.
Here is the breakdown...

Lifedrawing Jan

2010-02-05T21:22:00.001-08:00

Missed the first half of the last lifedrawing session- apparently good because there was problems with the heat. I prefer the "longer" poses anyway. 10 and 20 min drawings.

GA Post Apoc-Mutants

2010-02-01T17:41:00.001-08:00

GameArtisans.org sculpting mini contest.

Chow 186 part 2

2010-01-24T14:58:00.001-08:00

There was a one week extension on this deadline, so I took a couple more hours and cleaned it up to look more like a painting than a colored drawing.

Chow 186

2010-01-17T22:12:00.000-08:00

CHaracter Of the Week at conceptart.org.
An alien archeologist comes to earth after we've wiped ourselves out. These are one week little challanges and I had a lot of fun doing it. Hopefully, I will keep it up throughout the coming year.

I built the guy in max quickly to get the turnarounds and the pose. Helped, but not sure if it helped with the speed.

Vermeer Video

2010-01-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

I recorded the painting of the Vermeer study I did.

Watch it larger on Vimeo

Done and Done

2009-12-31T20:17:00.000-08:00

I promised myself I'd finish this master study before the end of the year.
Guess this counts.
Had a bit of a f-up on the final "save as" so I only have the small version left.

Lifedrawing 12-19-09

2009-12-22T11:38:00.001-08:00

Blah.
Model had great poses, and I enjoyed drawing - the results just weren't very good.
So much for the last life drawing of the year.

First try with Painter

2009-12-22T10:37:00.000-08:00

So I just installed Painter11, and gave it a whirl with the latest SuicideGirls.com image I drew.

Few things I noted as compared to Photoshop.
The redraw sucks - at certain zoom sizes everything gets very crunky. They still haven't fixed the crazy line issues when you move your image around from the border.
I'm going to have to completely re-hotkey everything since their ideas of hotkeys are a joke.
I need to buy a new wacom art pen - one of the chisel tips. Their brushes beg for it and I haven't found my PShop hack way of doing it.

Other than the fact that I'm slow as hell with it because its new I see a lot of potential.

Original Sketch. The model is Diaz from her "Passion" photoshoot.
Process. The sketch took about an hour. No idea how long the painting took - maybe three? I tried going straight to Painter but was getting terrible results, so I quickly laid in the colors with PShop.

quickie - Joan Jett

2009-12-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

All I ever see when I look at a picture of her is those eyes. Damn.

Master Study - the milkmaid

2009-11-22T19:34:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to do a master study for a while and the topic came up in a discussion at work. I saw this Vermeer while I was on vacation and was amazed at how vibrant the colors were. No reproduction can match the original oils (as with any painting). The detail on the bread alone held my attention for quite some time.
I'm trying to do this painting like digitally like a real painting, no transforms no undo's just paint. I'm also recording this one, so I'll probably post a process vid at some point.

Lifedrawing 11-14-09

2009-11-19T19:12:00.000-08:00

So it's been a few months since I've been to a lifedrawing session. Work's been taking up my weekends lately, so I was happy when I went to this one. I only got to attend half of it though.
The first one was about 10 mins the others were 20. The last one I had a rather unfortunate seat, but thought it would be a bit obvious if I moved.

Muffins?

2009-11-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

Over a week with no posts? Ah well. been doing a lot of 3d, think I might start something like the daily sketches but w/ zbrush. Have to see what my time is like.

I saw this on Tam's blog and felt like painting it. So I did.

Daily Sketch - 31

2009-10-31T15:25:00.000-07:00

Was supposed to be a cute zombie dressed up for Halloween. The cuteness got lost from the original sketch. oh well... im just glad its over.

Daily Sketch -30

2009-10-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

Once more unto the.... nevermind.
Color study from a SG photo.

Daily Sketch -29

2009-10-29T20:31:00.001-07:00

A quick color rough from one of my photos of my trip to Amsterdam.

Daily Sketches 27,28 NSFW

2009-10-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

Don't look mom.
Blame these two on a conversation at work about Paul (autodestruct) Richards and how damn awesome he is. I believe the conversation went something like - I'll draw porn if it will make me as good as him.
So I did the first sketch, and I was pretty annoyed that I pulled back. So I went a bit more.... racy with the second.

Daily Sketch - 26

2009-10-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

Daily Sketch - 24,25

2009-10-25T20:54:00.000-07:00

Another 2 - parter thats going to turn into 3. Ended up doing a lot of rework to the sketch on the after the scan, small things but they took me too long to finish the painting today. Trying to get a bit more realism into comic book character costume design here.

Daily Sketch - 22

2009-10-22T20:06:00.001-07:00

Daily Sketch -21

2009-10-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterdays. Keeping with the work's Halloween theme. Pretty much a blatant Paul Richard's rip, but no where near as good.

Daily Sketch - 20

2009-10-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

Daily Sketch - 19

2009-10-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

Another 2 parter, colors tomorrow. I'm digging this splitting it up, makes it easier for me to just relax during the sketching and the painting. At work we are doing a Halloween theme, and while I really don't dig the holiday - I don't want to be a total curmudgeon.

Daily Sketches -18

2009-10-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

Reading the Child Thief by Brom. Really enjoying it, so today I sketched out one of the characters. I haven't gotten to a point where he drew this guy, so I don't have to deal with trying to match him.

Daily Sketches 7-10

2009-10-18T13:08:00.001-07:00

Found my sketchbook. Not the best stuff, but proof I wasn't slacking

Daily Sketch - 17

2009-10-17T19:30:00.001-07:00

Had a lot of fun drawing in a style not my own. Go Read Girls With Slingshots already!!!

Daily Sketch - 16

2009-10-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Girls With Slingshots for years, it is hands down my favorite webcomic and I've been wanting to draw these characters for a while. Danielle Corsetto has developed a fantastic art style over the years, and I had such a blast with the sketch that I've had to take it farther. Here's the sketch... Tomorrow will be the finished piece.

Daily Sketch -15

2009-10-15T21:28:00.001-07:00

C*@&Sucker!!!
One of the best characters ever.

Daily Sketch -11

2009-10-14T23:31:00.000-07:00

Sketch for an Ultramarine Flag for a 40k model I've started.

Daily Sketch -14

2009-10-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

Hello....
Watched it while working today, and it leapt out when I was thinking of a subject for the sketch. I'm trying to keep these simple sketches but its so hard not to add in tones.

Daily Sketch -12

2009-10-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

Had a bit of a setback this past weekend with these daily sketches. I'd been doing a few on good ol' paper as I was out of town for a couple of days. But I misplaced the sketchbook before I could scan in the last batch. Hopefully, it turn up in someones car... or not.
So here's a Spidey I did yesterday.

Daily Sketch - 6

2009-10-06T20:46:00.001-07:00

Reading the Dresden Files again.

Daily Sketch -5

2009-10-05T23:31:00.000-07:00

Well, since I haven't gone to sleep yet I'm saying its still officially yesterday... today. Or something. So some kind of undead elf necromancer thing.

Daily Sketch -4

2009-10-04T21:08:00.000-07:00

Been listening to audiobook of The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks while working so figured I'd try a sketch of one of the characters - Durzo Blint, an assassin with magical powers.