Craftmen Race

Back with another custom Pathfinder race for the game I'm currently a part of. These guys are called the Craftmen. Unlike the previous race sketch I posted, this race is very much tied to the GM's lore of the world. Every year a varying amount of Craftmen just appear on the new year and while they have different appearences, they all have looks that are tied to a calendar theme prediction created by a wizard far in the past. Other than their yearly specific traits, they are made from metals, stones, wood, and gems. The Craftmen (Craftman?) I drew was one born during a year of great forest and natural growth. I have some other ideas I'd like to try, because the look of this race can very so much.

Created in Photoshop.

The Elkin

I'm back with another quick sketch. This one explores the facial design of a custom race called the "Elkin" created by the GM of a Pathfinder game I'm playing in right now.

I have to say, the eyes were the hardest part to work with, because my first instinct was to go with a very humanistic look. That looked incredibly creepy. Anyway, it was fun to make the distinction between the two genders of the race as well.

Done in Photoshop.

Character with all the hair.

Just a quick and random character doodle who has entirely too much hair:

Created in Photoshop.

Syndral Final and WIPs

First off, here is the final illustration for the Syndral creature created for HeroCraft:

Here are the progress shorts I saved out while I was rendering the creature.

 Lineart

 Basic Light

Texturizing

This process was done in Photoshop. I think the final time on this was around 7-9 hours.

Syndral Sketches

A couple weeks ago I finished another card illustration for HeroCraft. This monster, the Syndral, was slightly more alien and strange. The core anatomical components I had to keep in mind while designing it were it's hard top shell, a softer or jelly-like underbelly, and long tentacles. Functionally, the Syndral is docile and floats around absorbing magic from the world around it. Here is my first set of concepts:

Design 4 ended up being the best overall embodiment of the creature, as it looked the least intimidating and was generally more passive. There were a few components from 3 and 5 that we wanted to include still, enter design set number two:

I usually don't like to make such differing designs in my second round...because I should be narrowing down our options rather than making the decision process more difficult! Either way, it was narrowed down to 1 and 4 as the main source for the final design, with the included tentacles from 2.

These were all created in Sketchbook Pro 12.
Collectively these probably took around 3 hours.

Varg Final Illustration

Following up on the last post with the final illustration of the Varg for HeroCraft.

This piece was done in Photoshop and I'd estimate the time at around 10 hours.

Varg Sketches

It's been too long since my last post. I've been working on numerous illustrations lately, so I have concept/design sketches and WIPs I want to show! Below are some design process sketches for a wolf-like monster illustration I recently completed for my friend's, Andrew Maul, board game. This, and future illustrations I'll be posting about, will be displayed on the cards in his game. He's been doing some fantastic work that you should check out on his Design Blog!

The look we were going for with the Varg was decidedly canine but with a higher intelligence and a definite evil. In my first set of sketches, the overall look of #3 ended up embodying those traits the best, but there were still elements from other designs we wanted to experiment with. Enter sketch set two - I took the vanilla #3 almost directly into the first sketch, but then gave the second design the elements we really liked from #1 out of my first set, and a more demonic look for the third.

With some slight alterations, we chose design #2 from my second set. Here is a WIP of the Varg illustration:

My concept sketches were created in Sketchbook Pro '12, and the illustration in Photoshop.

I will post the final illustration soon!

Hand Practice

Just a couple of quick sketches to practice the persistently difficult subject of hands.

Done in Photoshop.
I didn't keep track of my references or time on this one...

Leopard Sketch

Just a quick little life sketching of a leopard because I like them.

Done in Photoshop in less than 30min, but I wasn't keeping good track.
Reference: Here

Spring Time Bear

Hey there, back with another t-shirt design for the Spring 2013 Woot Derby! I was rather wishy-washy about whether I would enter this one or not, but right before I went to bed last night I came up with this idea and had to sketch it immediately! [Derby Voting Page]

The final was done in Illustrator, but the initial sketch was created in Photoshop. 

In the first or second week of April I will have a bunch of sketches and illustrations to post that I'm working on for a project.