Preparing for the Con!

Hi Folks,

I have been preparing for an upcoming Comic Expo where I’ll be selling a few prints and for the first time.. buttons!

Below are a few of the designs I am using for the buttons I’ll be making.

I designed a mana potion, healing elixir and bottle of dragon’s breath for the buttons. I wanted to try something  a little than the typical vial of colored liquid and give them a unique look. The eye and the “happy fire” were quicker free style paintings.

Below are a couple of the prints I’ll be selling.

These are both iconic monsters from the pen and paper role playing game Dungeons & Dragons. The one above is the “Purple Worm”. I had a lot of fun working on this one. I wanted make the worm seem more solid than a lot of other renditions of it. I used the illustration from the 3.5 Monster Manual,  snakes and centipedes as a reference when designing the version of the creature.

Here is a link of a video of me painting it! HERE

The image below is of the “Gelatinous Cube”.
Here is a link of a video of me working on it! HERE

In other news.
For the time being the game is on hold while the bugs get worked out. :/

Games, Avatars and Characters

Hey Folks,

There has been a lot of progress on the Tengu game.

I’ve been cranking out art assets for that as well as learning how to animate for it.

Animation has been a bit of a struggle for me in the past, but with this project I feel as though I am getting the hang of it.

I was hoping to have a release of the game in time for this post, but we are just not at that point yet.  If we do I will add a link in this post to the game’s GameJolt page.

Below is a link to a video of me working on the game’s current end screen.

https://youtu.be/5PqQH-ldYLM

I was VERY recently commissioned to make a new avatar for my buddy from the UK, Vaguely Someone. None of these are the final design but they were fun to work on and I’d like to show them off.

A buddy of mine from Instant Replay Live created a character called “Time Christ”, I thought that the character was funny and might be fun to draw.

Making this was a fun way to practice some of my digital painting skills and try out some new stuff.

Below is a link to a video of my working on “Time Christ”.

https://youtu.be/T_kI0B-lcRU

You can check out the “Time Crisis Saga” in the link below.

https://youtu.be/D353-jkUOBA

You can check out my Portfolio HERE

You can reach me on Twitter HERE

The Zelda Show and our New Game

Last month I participated in a Zelda themed art show host in a local Bar-Cade, Arcadia National Bar . The opening night was on Portland’s 1st Friday Artwalk and the turn out was great.  I was really impressed by the other pieces that were there and it was an honor to be a part of first art show that Arcadia hosted.

I am please to say that many of the pieces have sold and for the first time my piece sold at a show.

Elise, Megan and myself have all been slowly chipping away at a game. This has been an interesting challenge for me working on a 2D game… but it’s been fun.  Hopefully by the end of the month we will have the Alpha uploaded on Gamejolt.  Below are a few of the assets I was recently working on.

You can check out my Portfolio HERE

You can reach me on Twitter HERE

You can check out Arcadia National Bar HERE

See you next month!

One down. Two to go.

Hi folks,

I spent much of last month heavily focused on the art for Instant Roleplay Live.

I made another magic item that a appears in the 3rd video as well the final piece in the series.  While it was fun to work on I am very much ready for something new.

Speaking of…

At the end of this month I’ll will be in a local art show themed on the Legend of Zelda. I am only in the early stages of my painting but I will post what I have got below.

Much to my shame I didn’t really play much of the Zelda franchise until my adulthood.

My piece is based on the game Majora’s Mask, which is one of the darkest in the series both in tone and in overall pallet. I enjoy how the game manages to be dark but also keeps a high level of whimsy and fun going the whole time.  Early in the game a little white dog tormented me to no end and that I what my piece is all about.

I am also working another game… yeah it’s been a while.

This time I am making pixel art. I haven’t touched this type of work in over ten years so this has been a big shift for me. The somewhat recent rise of retro style games has caused a resurgence of pixel art.

There are countless of new games using pixel artwork in them and that doesn’t really seem to be slowing down. Creating pixel art for games is a skill set I really should take the time to learn how to do in today’s gaming market.

For now I am not going to talk too much about the game itself because we are in the very early stages of development.

Thanks for checking this out!

You can check out my Portfolio HERE

You can reach me on Twitter HERE

You can check out Instant Roleplay Live HERE

See you next month!

Practice and Illustration

Hi Folks,

I spend much of April settling into my new home and practicing digital painting. I’ve been doing studies like the one below trying to familiarize myself with new methods and material types.

I played in the most recent series of Instant Roleplay Live and after the game I found myself wanting to make some artwork related to it. After hashing out the details with Nick (the guy who ran the game) my work will be featured in this current series of four Instant Roleplay Live episodes.

This project has been a nice challenge for me. Drawing multiple characters in a full scene is something I honestly haven’t done enough of. This has forced me to think about what I am doing on deeper level and do more planning before I start.

It’s actually been a little while since I have done any work on characters and I couldn’t be happier getting back into it. Not working on character has taken it’s toll though. I have been able to identify some problems such as anatomy and that will give me some to focus on correcting. It’s healthy to push your limits… it’s how you can grow as an artist.

I am having a blast working on this stuff. I love playing role playing games and I have found it to be a great source of inspiration.

I did something a little different this time and I recorded myself working on one of the illustrations for Instant Roleplay Live.

You watch watch the video HERE

Thanks for checking this out!

You can check out my Portfolio HERE

You can reach me on Twitter HERE

You can check out Instant Roleplay Live HERE

See you next month!

Keep Going. (Perseverance)

Hey Folks,

March was quite a crazy month. I spent much of the time moving into my new place and getting settled… which I am still not done with. I was a little worried that I might not get much artwork done.

Thankfully I did manage to get some practice in and work on a few things, including a digital painting of a D&D character of mine Tayla. I’ve made work of her before, she is just fun to draw. She is a regular character in my D&D games so I enjoy tinkering with her design based on what’s going on in the game at the time.

While working on this I remembered that I had some older drawings of the character. I ended up digging through my folders to take a look at them. After looking at the drawing from 2014 I realized how much progress I have made.

Sometimes I get too focused on the flaws in my work and forget that even though my work has its problems I am still making progress. Being able to look at both my 2014 and 2016 drawings and know solidly that I am making progress is very validating.

 

Continued practice, even if it’s only five minutes at a time, it is so worth it.

I know my work is far from perfect… I think there is a TON I can improve on, but I work very hard to not let that deter me from trying. Taking a single step will get you closer to your goal than never taking any. I sometimes catch myself saying “when my work is better I’ll be able to do X” in reality I just need to do it and not worry about being perfect at it.

In the cartoon Adventure Time, Jake the dog says it perfectly. “Sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something”.  It’s an important lesson and I know not a whole lot of people will read this, but if you do and you are learning a skill; art or otherwise… keep going. If you don’t like the way your work is coming out or you aren’t that good at it just keep doing it, you will get better at it.

I am adding a link HERE to a video that my friend Nick made with this very subject in mind. Feel free to check it out. It’s a great reminder when you find your self in a slump.

Thanks for checking this out!

You can check out my Portfolio HERE

You can reach me on Twitter HERE

See you next month!

 

 

 

Getting back into Practice

I have been continuing to practice drawing/Photoshop painting and it has been a very rewarding experience.

I finished the last two characters left for my friend Nick’s project. You can check his videos out HERE.

I intended for these characters to be quick projects because I didn’t want to spend too much time on any one piece. Being able to quickly move from piece to piece forced me to trying different techniques and colors pallets in a short amount of time. I’ve found that working on smaller, shorter projects enable me to learn more than if I dig into a year long project.

Below are the Paintings of the characters from Nick’s Instant Roleplay Live project.

One of the side effects of doing art work for by buddy Nick is that I caught the eye of a YouTuber named Beardy (you can check out his channel HERE) He hired me to make some art work for him. The timeline was tight so I teamed up the my friend and fellow artist Zac Perkins, you can check him out on twitter HERE

We had week to finish to illustrations for a D&D game that Beardy was going to run.
Below are the results.

I am very happy with the way these came out and I am looking forward to doing more work like this in the future.

 

See you next month!

Re-Starting

It’s been a long time since I have touched this blog.

I intend to change that.
I’ll be posting sometime within the first week of each month starting… Now.

This will continue to be my little art blog and I’ll be posting what I am working on at the time.

There will be work on here at various stages of completion, so maybe things of this as sketch book of sorts?

 

First thing is first, I injured my hand roughly four months back.
I have only recently been able even hold a pen let alone work with a tablet.

It has been a rough few months having to shelve many projects that I had my heart set on working on. Thankfully, I am on the mend and I am getting back into the swing of things with some drawing. It feels so good to make work again.

Below was the first thing I drew (Kylo Ren) after such a long time not drawing anything.
I just needed to make something… It was driving me batty.

My hand hurt for hours afterward, but in another sense I feel better than I had for months.

After taking another shorter break I decided I needed to get back in there and practice more.

So I found another project to work on.

Below are a handful of drawings I made in support of a friends project.
You checkout his project on his youtube channel Instant Replay Live HERE

I still have a couple more characters to draw for it but this has been a great series of short projects for me to work on.

 

My work on Centerpoint came to an end in October 2015; Shorty after that my doctor told me to take a break from art making.

Below are some of the last things I worked on for that game.

You can stay up to date on the game HERE and on their Twitter HERE.

 

Thanks for checking this out!

You can check out my Portfolio HERE

See you next month!

Hey Folks,

I have not been keeping up with this blog.

I may come back to it in the future but for now, please just head over to my portfolio site.

https://alecadams.wordpress.com/

Cheers,

-Alec

Centerpoint Concept Art and Flora

Hey Folks,

WOW, it has been a busy few days.. weeks?? uhh… however long its been, I’ve been crazy busy.

Anyway here are few things I have been working on for Centerpoint.

I have add some flora to the world of Centerpoint based some much earlier concept art I made. >View here<

I was recently given the chance to design the basic pistol for the game and boy-howdy was that fun to draw. I really feel good about this one.

ALSO, something I forgot to post was this energy blade that I am make for the game as well!

It was time for another splash page for this new version. The new one will end up being a animated 3D version of the concept above.

Catch me again on Wednesday the 20th.

You can catch me on Twitter  >here<

You can visit my main Portfolio site >here<

You can Download Centerpoint >here<