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Things have been busy lately, leaving me little time to produce any work for myself. I have  a few projects happening, all of which are unmentionable right now. I was recently asked by the crew over at Science…Sort of to design a shirt for their 52nd episode – their one year anniversary. The shirt features Peaches the Brachiolope, their mascot, in some party gear. Science…Sort Of interviewed me a while back about my project, The Morae River. Anyway, check out the show – it’s really interesting, awesome and hilarious. If you like science, beer, and all things geeky then it’s definitely the show for you!

You can see and buy the shirts –> Here.

I’ll be posting more personal work later.Aactually some sketches for The Morae River. The project has been suffering from neglect. It’s a matter of time and not having it lately. I’m adjusting to a new job and so things are sort of on hold.

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This was a sketch I did for a recent Creature Planets. It’s still rough and I probably won’t go with it but I thought I’d post it anyway…

- My work always starts out with a crappy sketch (above) Just to get an idea of what I want to put in the image.

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- With this piece, I flipped the image and worked out the pose a bit more until I liked it.

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- Then its on with the pencil drawing. I work with an irregular shaped brush on a normal setting with opacity at 100%. The brush works with the pressure sensitivity on my tablet so I can get dark and light without having to adjust anything. (the fact that I don’t know how to “talk” photoshop is showing…) I keep my sketch layer on a lower opacity than the final pencil layer so I can see my sketch while I’m drawing.

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- Now its time to add in some color. I’ve set my pencil layer to multiply (for now) and I have created layers for color – one for the rocks, one for BattleCat’s fur, and one for his armor. I like to use as few layers as possible when I work but in this case I needed to be able to edit the fur and armor separately. I’m adding in some modeling but not too much – just enough to get an idea of where I want my light-source to be.

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- If I were painting this traditionally I would have layed in the background first. However, with the magic of “layers” I can add in a background after I’ve painted most of BattleCat. For the background I used my “go-to” brush as well as a soft edges brush to make the clouds look softened here and there.

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-I’ve added in BattleCat’s stripes as well as add in some more shadows to his fur. I’ve done this on a layer above the fur but underneath the armor so I don’t have to worry about erasing too much.

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- Adding in some more shadows – this time to the armor.

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- Now I’m starting to add in some darker shadows over everything I’ve painted so far. These shadows are on their own layer and are a deep purple – as opposed to the darker greens and reds I was using for the armor and fur. I’ve also added in some whiskers at this point.

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- Highlights come in at this point as well as some cool reflective light to counteract the warmth in the piece. The highlights on BattleCat are a warmer, gold tone. While I’m painting all of this I will go back and forth in-between steps. I don’t paint the image completely step by step like this but this will give you an idea of how it all come together more easily.

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- Now I’m adding in some “ultra highlights”. Almost stark-white to give BattleCat some pop in his darker areas. I’ve also pushed back some of his limbs and his tail using a bit of atmosphere. This helps in giving the image a bit of depth.

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- Finally I’ve warmed up the piece by adding in a layer of gold tones on multiply. I set it to around 20% opacity. I’ve also added in some flecks of golds, reds and whites to the background along with some flags and things of the sort – keeping those on a lower opacity as well to keep them pushed back. At the end of the painting I’ll switch my pencil layer from “Multiply” to “Ghost”. “Ghost” is a filter by flaming pear that turns a line transparent. What I like about it is, that the line will become a darker version of whatever color is underneath it. The change is very slight, however if you scan in pencil drawings it will really come in handy. You can find that filter: Here. (It’s the download at the top titled: “Free Plugins”.

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All of the fur and texture on the saddle is created by my brush traveling back and froth on the wacom. I don’t use fur brushes or imported textures. This isn’t to say that they won’t save you lots of time and can’t look great – I just don’t know enough about them to use them confidently and I enjoy painting like I would be drawing in marker. Its just a preference for my personal work. For this image I used these brushes:

which you can download : Here. (That last brush, by the way, is my “go to” brush. I like the bristles and the slight texture it creates.

I also created a color palette to help with keeping the basic colors consistent. I don’t normally do this but it helps with something like this where color has to remain very vivid.

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Anyway, if you still have questions, you can contact me via the contact page or comment on this post.

Thanks for reading!

I should also add that BattleCat is © Mattel

]]> http://www.fishhookstudio.com/2010/08/mean-kitty/feed/ 7 http://www.fishhookstudio.com/2010/08/885/ http://www.fishhookstudio.com/2010/08/885/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:58:38 +0000 Brynn Metheney http://www.fishhookstudio.com/?p=885

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Finished this, more coming later…

Pakasuchus kapilimai – the cat croc.

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Finished this one. I’m off to work on more. Although, this will be my only Tapir illustration for a while – sadly. They are awesome creatures. This little guy is next:

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Learn more about him, Here.

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This was done for Creature Planet’s Dead Flat-Footed Drizzler Topic over on CGHUB. This particular entry was late due to a very complicated day I had yesterday.No matter though, here is the final…

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Some monster fun. Trying to round out my portfolio a bit. I’d like to have three samples of the types of work I do and can do. Anyway, hopefully more of these guys to come. I do have other more pressing projects I need to be working on but these are fun to draw!

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Something new. Expect more of these two in the weeks to come…

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Something I forgot about and finished up.

I’d like to start using this blog for the other word that is listed in its description: “inspirations”. I’m on the internet way too much. One of the characteristics (and vices) of being a digital artist is that you have the entirety of the internet at your finger tips at all times. In any case, I see lots of weird, touching, fascinating and just plain hilarious videos, pictures, blogs and profiles scattered about the web. So I’d like to start sharing some of those things that I find inspiring and that end up touching in me in some way or another. Ill start with this: My Milk Toof.

Ickle and Lardee from: My Milk Toof

This adorable and endearing web-comic brightens my day every time I look through it. Inhae, creator, artist, and author has transformed her milk teeth (or baby teeth) into unforgettable characters, Ickle and Lardee. The two teeth embark on epic adventures and hilarious skits around the house and out in the yard. Its a beautiful combination of sculpture, photography, and comics. These are some of my favorite strips but be sure to look through all of them.

Heavy for the Holidays . Up and Away . Bed Buddies

enjoy!

Another dino piece in the works. Other pieces coming soon – Troodons wearing vests, and human character studies. Stay tuned!

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…and then it got out.

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Some shots on progress of two pieces I’m working in-between right now. One is a mock Conan cover, the other is a mutant animal. both will be done by this weekend…

On a side note – R.I.P. Dio – this is the month is for the passing of gods…

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Here is a progress shot of a drawing I started yesterday. I’m hoping to get it finished this week along with one other. Trying to get a lot done before I go an vacation. Me and my partner John Mathis are off to The Mission today to do some research for a project he’s working on. Can’t say much about it yet until it goes live.

In other news we’ve also decided to create a small company for our website and graphic design. This is the sketch for the logo but we hope to have it up soon. It says specializing in artists websites but we do other stuff too – this logo will change a bit. Anyway, I’ll post more about Oranda later. I’m off to S.F.

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Another fantasy piece for fun…

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I’ll be displaying a piece from the Morae River (the image above) in the Baccalaureate Exhibition at CCA in San Francisco. If you’re in the area, you should come check it out. Here is the link to the website for more information. The opening is May 6th at 6pm. The show will then run from the 7th to the 11th. Hope to see you there!

click banner for more info.

]]> http://www.fishhookstudio.com/2010/04/baccalaureate-exhibition/feed/ 2 http://www.fishhookstudio.com/2010/04/a-new-kind-of-predator/ http://www.fishhookstudio.com/2010/04/a-new-kind-of-predator/#comments Wed, 28 Apr 2010 04:30:36 +0000 Brynn Metheney http://www.fishhookstudio.com/?p=644

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New piece in response to this : Link. I thought I’d upload the pencil along with this one…

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these images are big, I’m working on making my blog a little wider… hehe

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Haggis are omnivorous mammals that roam the Scottish Highlands. They grow to the roughly the size of a small dog and are almost hairless. They live in burrows in large family groups. Haggis  spend their days searching for roots, grasses, and insects to feed on underground and have even been spotted consuming carrion. Male haggis have large, bulbous crests on top of their heads with which they use to attract females. Males also have a pair of tusks which they use in combat with other males during the breeding season.

Based off of the traditional Scottish dish for this

just for fun

Go check it out at: http://www.brynnart.com

I’ve been working recently on improving my drawing in the computer and I have been experimenting with The Morae River in this…This image below is of the updated fugamus.

Because I’ve switched to a digital pencil I am able to work much larger than I was able to before. This drawing here is 16X12 and will make a nice print one day. No to mention the detail is very, very clean. The effect is basically the same, minus the step of scanning it into the computer. While I do still draw with an analogue pencil for myself, I imagine The Morae River and my concept art work will all be digital very soon. I’m finding I make better choices in the computer and I am more willing to push things. I was at first apprehensive of moving into the computer, especially for work pertaining to The Morae River. I’m finding that I had way too much fun drawing this male fugamus out…

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Finished “Dinner with Gnolls: The Alpha Females Table”. Now I’m working on a tree sprite for my next piece. I’m enjoying these fantasy pieces but I’m wanting to get more detailed in them from now on. I’m hoping I can capture more detail in this sprite image than the prior two.

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Expect more soon….

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So after my ridiculous post last night (which I’ve edited) I decided to put that thought on hold and get some work done! Right now – Fantasy!

“Wyvern Rider” and soon to be finished “Dinner with Gnolls”

more fantasy fun coming soon along with some sci-fi happiness!

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Two Lycaenops rest together in the heat of the afternoon…

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Two new pieces on BrynnArt.com, more dinosaurs (and more for The Morae River) coming soon!

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This was for CG hub Creature Challenge – “Dazzling Prancer”. I included a small run-cycle so the creature could be seen from a side view as well.

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Then I got distracted and tried to animate it. I’s not complete (you can see how rough it is and its stops half way through) but I thought it was fun.

prance cycle animation

More work coming soon in the human category…

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This is Peaches, the Brachiolopette that represents “Science Sort Of…” – the folks that interviewed me about The Morae River. You can listen to my interview about the project –> here.

More work coming soon along with a new (and late) website for The Morae River.

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New piece on BrynnArt.com

Look out for a new one – “Flight” coming soon…. As well as pencils for my up and coming comic “A Social Dispute”

The New Year has been really great so far. Im currently working toward exploring the Shenzabi Plains for the Morae River project and its turning out to be a very interesting biome thus far. I’ll be posting new spceis as well as updates for the older ones in the months to come. (click these for larger views)

Trying to produce new work that isn’t related to the Morae River project as well. The images up top were for a community activity at CGhub.com. It was lots of fun and I’m hoping to get some more finished illustration like this one out soon. I thought I’d include the pencil with the finish. I will also be dabbling in humanoids a bit here and there to keep things balanced. Looking through my website I’ve realized its all animals

EDIT* Another piece new to BrynnArt.com – “Expedition”

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Expect more updates soon.

Here is another image of a small side project I’ve gotten into – putting moss into glass containers.

New work up on brynnart.com today. I found out it went “live” this morning. You can see all of the images at Wired Magazine. click on these for larger views…

I’m still working on some new renditions for the Morae River blog. I’m hoping to have the Black Mardik up soon. I’m hitting some snags here and there though. I thought perhaps I’d show a Black Mardik with prey, but of course I have to design the prey and all that goes with it; thus the process gets longer…

Anyway, Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you enjoy your New Year too!

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I’ll be posting the finish of this along with others on the new and improved brynnart.com soon!

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Haven’t painted (traditionally) in a while…so I did a little something in gouache and acrylic…I was inspired by a recent demo

no photoshop this time… well, except “levels”…

Two commissions for St. Mary’s Magazine to accompany an excerpt from the short story by Lysley Tenorio, associate professor of English and winner of a prestigious 2008 Whiting Writers’ Award. The story was called Monstress. Look for them on the website too. I’ll post the link later…