ARMS, Eden and a Fluffy Fellow

Happy Halloween, Everyone! Have some artwork :)

The above line was created by my good friend and talented artist, Mr. Mike Winn.

Characters are (L-R): Rune, Tug, Aeslyn, and Inari.

A recent flux in production efforts, as well as improvements in the story's plot (And the creation of a script, no less) has prompted the need for revisited, finalized looks for the main ARMSmasters Project character line-up. So, while Mike (The series' creator) is compiling his drawings of these final designs, it's been up to me to solidify their color designs. Hence, the above line-art is his, while the color and final shading/lighting are my own.

This is only a portion of the cast however - more will be coming soon!

 

Above is a birthday present for my good buddy Kate NY, of her lovely original character, Eden. This was a fun bit of practice - created start to finish digitally, as opposed to my usual hand-drawn-lines method. Again, Happy Birthday, Kate! :)

Here's the current state of line art for my current commission from a fellow from FA, Collin, whose character I'm helping him design. In the end, the commission will contain a front and back pose in simple flat, digital color. Most of the time spent has been/will be in the creation process itself, establishing the character's physical appearance and markings. While these lines may be tweaked a little in the upcoming week, I rather enjoy how they look at current, so I thought I'd share. 

Cheers,

Mel

Devil's Night Discovery

So, this one ended up being a doozie, albeit a really entertaining one - one of those projects where Photoshop decided to crash a couple of times at really inopportune moments (While saving, no less) and hours of progress were lost and re-done thereafter. As a matter of fact, I was literally on my last save for this one, and Cayla, one member of our triforce of cats, took that exact moment as a cue to come running into the room like a spaz, leaping up onto the trunk beside my desk, missing her footing fantastically, and dropping like a dead weight... onto my surge protector, turning of my computer. Felt a bit like a bad sitcom, actually.

Occasional comedic tragedy set aside, this image was great fun - I tried a number of new things, and learned quite a bit in the process as well - including textures I'd not attempted prior, some new fun lighting angles, and creating/using a depth map for a lens blur effect on the bottom portion, helping it to look like the rather dazed flashback it should be. :) I also saved progression stills of the coloration of Jay (The crouched gal)'s face lighting/coloration, specifically, as folks have recently been quite kind to request more step-by-step progress of my work. (Will be putting that presentation together tonight, after I've updated my commission list here on the blog.)

Anyhow, all that said, here's my buddy Trisha's awesome characters, Rick and Jay, stumbling across a murder weapon in an old dingy Victorian home's abandoned sun-room, amidst their investigation of a Devil's Night killing. Jay has the ability to sense the history of an object with the slightest touch - the scene below her erupts into the sight she glimpses when making contact with the knife. Their creepy killer has struck again.

Last but surely not least - I'm not certain at what point I went from 90 or so followers here to 145, but I am truly grateful and very humbled for the interest. Thanks so much for following, guys. I appreciate the support!

Cheers all!

Mel

Preposterous Penguins

When work permits, my roommate, fiance and I try to hold to a weekly Wednesday sketchbook meetup, for doodles, hotwings, and other such general silliness. This evening's get-together was spent watching the wide array of often humorous reactions sports fans have to watching their games in progress, which in turn, for whatever reason, spawned a half-page full of silly Penguin sketches. I enjoyed this lot too much not to share.

More soon,

Mel

Spooks and Doodles

Above are the flat colors of the Halloween-themed commission I'm currently working on for a great gal and long-time buddy, Trish, of her characters Ric and Jay. It also dawned on me that I really posted no proper process for "The Snazzy Shapiros" previously, and since the bare bones of images are always fun to seen, here's the main sequence of steps that went into that particular image:

 Last but not least, since my Fiance and I's recent engagement, I've been musing over the idea of going by simple "Mel B" online. A as result, a silly little character "Mel Bee" was born, a quick doodle of which is below. Expect more of her :)

Cheers,
Mel

The Snazzy Shapiros

Was sitting on this one for a few days, as it was a birthday present for my commissioner Andrea's other half. Once again, Happy Birthday! This commission was a fun one, surrounding their two original role play characters - Fia and Marvin Shapiro, 30's con artists who managed to get themselves 'time machined' back to the Renaissance. I had a great deal of fun researching, referencing and combining clothing and color styles from both periods. Thanks again for the commission, Andrea!

Having just completed another commercial freelance blitzkrieg this past weekend (Getting allot of those lately, it has been wonderful!) I'm moving on to Trish's commission next - a big one, as a two-character full-body illustration, background, full color at all. Should be fun!

Cheers,

Mel

Engaged!

It's official! As of yesterday evening, my wonderful boyfriend of over 3 and a half years, Niles, and I are engaged.  Niles popped the question at our favorite restaurant, sneaking a beautiful white-gold heart-shaped-diamond engagement ring to our host without me knowing, to have it delivered atop our chocolate espresso desert. (I have officially dubbed him The Desert Ninja. It was brilliantly well timed.) Our excited host was kind enough to serve us champagne on the house immediately thereafter, which I'm told was excellent (I don't drink, but Niles made sure not a drop went to waste, of course.) 

The whole thing was picture-perfect, and an neither of us could be happier.We are both positively elated, looking forward to bringing our wonderful families together, and spending the rest of our years with each other in all of our artsy, nerdy love.

-Mel