Portrait of my daughters

Another portrait! :)
I`ve not drawn one of my daughters together so I thought I`d produce one as a present for my wife this Christmas.
Painted in Photoshop and took about 5 hours to complete.

Laila Portrait

I`ve been busy drawing a few portraits recently. This one was of my sister-in-law's friend's daughter, Laila.
Painted entirely in Photoshop and took about 3 and a half hours to complete.

50s model

I found a brand new pack of pastels in my cupboard and thought I`d use them to produce a portrait.
I really enjoy portrait drawing. I find it a good way to relax and give the old creative grey matter a bit of a rest.

Sophie

I`ve finally got around to doing a portrait of my youngest daughter, Sophie.
This is the first family portrait I`ve painted in Photoshop and it took, roughly, 3/4 hours to paint.

The City

I enjoyed painting the last picture so much that I thought I`d have a go at another.
Using the same principles I set out to create a picture that conveyed the mood of the scene and suggestive of the details.

Venice-like Fantasy picture

Bit of a departure from my usual style. I wanted to concentrate on the overall atmosphere of the scene.
Usually I`d work in a lot of detail but I held back this time.
The resulting picture took about an hour to paint in Photoshop.

Journey Through Life - FourteenNights challenge

A take on my journey though life so far. I wanted to put in the two most important aspects which are my family and my love of computer games - especially the 8 bit era which is where the retro game cassette box art style comes from.

The Dark Seas of Europa - Finished Picture

Here's the final picture. The Hydrobot was first modelled in 3dsmax and then overpainted in Photoshop.
The water particles were produce by overlaying a photo of a star-filled night sky.
Finally I produced three duplicates of the image and progressively blurred them. Using the eraser I then removed areas of the blurred image to make the creature and hydrobot appear our of focus.

The Dark Seas of Europa - WIP

At the moment tests are being performed on a submarine that is planned to be sent to Saturn's moon Europa where it will penetrate the icy crust to explore the oceans below.
Here's a link describing it in more detail;

http://seamus136.blogspot.com/2008/02/scientists-hope-to-send-robotic.html

There's always a slim chance that these oceans could be teeming with life which is where the picture inspiration came from.

A little unlikely that a marine creature of this size is down there but wouldn't it be cool if there was!

Below is a description of the steps taken so far. New ones will be added as the picture progresses;

First Stage
This is the initial colour rough. First pass to plan out the mood and rough composition.

Second Stage
The details are now starting to take shape. The focal area is the alien creature's head which looms into view from the murky waters.

Third Stage
First pass on the body shape. Definitely going to knock it out of focus like I`ve done on this stage. The flow of the body looks a little broken at the moment which is making the alien creature look a little stiff. Still need to inject a bit more of the original picture's atmosphere back into it.

Grannie's Birthday

I`ve been producing a few cards for family members and friends recently and have really enjoyed doing them.
This is the latest one which I created for my dear old Grannie for her birthday.
She's just got herself a mobility scooter. That's just too good a comedy prop to ignore :)

Easter Card

Here's another easter card I`ve produced for my wife's card business.
I drew the picture four times to create the final image style.
Coloured in Photoshop using a very low opacity to the brush which gives a watercolour-like look.

'Genetics Gone Wrong' challenge - Asylum

A genetically experimental 'creature' lost and forgotten in a padded cell deep in an underground government-run asylum.

Update: This is the final colour version.

'Rubbish Super Power' Challenge - Ultra Weed

Ultra Weed has the feeble strength of a thousand wimps but that's not going to stop him donning a customised suit and taking on the Mighty Crunch - luckily he finds it all a bit funny as does his victims.

Video Meanies

This is a screenshot I created for an update to a game I used to play as a kid.
The game is called 'Video Meanies' and it was the first game on the first computer I owned.
Here's a link to the original screenshot;

http://www.richmace.co.uk/c64/images/video_meanies_screenshot.jpg

Genetics Gone Wrong

A genetic experiment gone wrong. Drawn using a pencil, scanned and then the hi-lights were painted in using photoshop.

Fourteen Nights

Thought I go with a Tim Burton-esque children's book illustration.
Story, in short, revolves around a boy who is visited by the Shadow Monster for fourteen nights.
Over this period the boy is set 14 riddles. If he gets any of them right he'll dream sweet dreams. Getting any of them wrong, on the other hand, and he'll fall into the darkest of nightmares.

Aztec backdrop

This is a WIP image using old traditional pixel techniques where each individual pixel is manually plotted.
I`ve made a start on cleaning up a very small section of it but there's still plenty to do. This image only uses 16 colours.

Dr Timmy's Time Quest

Ah, this threw back some memories from my childhood when I was painting this picture.
It's a tape cover for a mock £1.99 budget game that would of been around when the Spectrum and Commodore 64 computers were king.
For some reason these games were sold in all sorts of shops. Strangest I remember was our local drugs store?!

Valentines card

Valentines card I produced for my wife. Drawn in pencil and then painted in Photoshop.

My Grandparents

Pastel pencil portrait of my grandparents. This was one of the longest portraits I`ve drawn. I think it took little over 24 hours to complete. It was produced for my Gran's 80th birthday and
was presented to her in front of my whole family which was pretty scarey.

Slotz game

Another colourful game design. This time it's a game based on an old computer game that my brother and I produced in our teens. Mike did the foreground sprites and I drew and coloured the backdrop.

Christmas Dizzy

A colourful festive sketch for a game idea I was designing.

The troll with a quiff

Photoshop painting of a troll sporting an impressive Elvis quiff. Not sure why but it made me laugh when I put it on his head so it stayed.

Wondering

Drawn in Photoshop using photo reference.

The Easter Bonnet Parade

One of five easter cards created for my wife's card business.
Each character was sketched at least three times. The final version was drawn to a much larger scale and then reduced to fit on the card.
Finally the colour was applied using Photoshop using a very low brush opacity to give it a unique watercolour finish.

The Commuting Accountant

My take on an accountant commuting on the train to London.

Molly

Pastel portrait of my Daughter, Molly.