Environments & Characters

For those interested, here's a current incarnation of my character and environment design print portfolio, sans a page of work that is still under a NDA. Cheers!

-Mel

MST3K Meme (Part 1)

I needed something completely random, goofy-fun and utterly un-work-related to piddle with amidst my work madness for the sheer sake of giggles and much-needed stress relief. So, I found a random silly Mystery Science Theater 3000-related art meme on DA and decided to dig in. It's already unwound me tremendously - way fun! There'll (hopefully) be 15 quick n' fun little illustrated bits for it in the end - here's the first two!

 "Free drawing space below!"

*...Why yes, I totally did include the Giant Mutant Uterus as the Feature Presentation.

"Hello, I don't think we've met... Just who are you?"

*... Space background was a pre-existing digital fiddle, admittedly. But hey, I wasn't using it for anything else, so what the heck.

Blatant nerd-humor at your service,
Mel

Marthin Character Sheet for Marie

Hi everyone! This blog seems to have gained a couple of new followers in the past week - Just wanted to note a huge thank you to everyone for taking the time to check out my humble little art-spot on the net. I quite appreciate it :)

And now, onto the art! :) Amidst my endless job search and various other projects, I'm also having a great time cranking away at various commissions. Above is a second of three character sheet commissions for Marie, this time of her dashing fellow, brother Marthin Mephtes. Next in to be created line is Marthin and Tyra's accompanying compadre, Imren - I'm looking forward to that one indeed.

As always, I am currently open for multiple different types of commissions, including these basic full-color character reference sheets. Detailed commission information can be viewed here. Folks interested in commissioning me are welcome to contact me at melmillerartATgmailDOTcom. Thanks!

Cheers,
♥Mel

Tyra Model Sheet for Marie

A commission for Marie of her lovely original character, Tyra. I had a blast working on this, I must say. Thank you, Marie! Below is an example of the process these commissions go through. The first sketch, the roughest first pass is typically for my initial reference only. Both images with a "WIP" stamp are the phases at which the commissioner has the opportunity to request revisions - first to the drawing itself, and second to what colors are used and where. Commissioners who have requested color pieces also receive a crisp scan of the line art to their pieces as well.

I am currently open for multiple different types of commissions, including these basic full-color character reference sheets. Detailed commission information can be viewed here. Folks interested in commissioning me are welcome to contact me at melmillerartATgmailDOTcom.

Cheers,
♥Mel

MelMillerArt.com is Live!

Hi all! After much hard work, especially on the part of my good buddy Kate N.Y, my official website is now up and running! I absolutely could not be happier with the results. Please feel free to give it a test drive, and let us know if there are any glitches that need tweaking. Apart from the Commissions and Contact pages, which are still being coded, it should be smooth sailing, gallery and all.

Here are some banners for the site, if you'd like to link to it:

And now... back to commissions for me!
Cheers,
♥Mel

Colors for Kongou

Kongou the Mountain

Another contribution for ARMSmaster's concept art. Mike recently requested that I have a go at coloring his fantastic line-art of Kongou: I love the character, and was thrilled to have a go with it. Above is the final results. To check out Mike's original colors for the line art, wander over yonder.

♥Mel

Ketrina de Lioncourt and a DD.

Ketrina de Lioncourt - Model Sheet

Here's the completed Detailed Character Sheet commission for my dear buddy Kat or her swashbuckling original character, Ketrina de Lioncourt. I had a brilliant time with this, allowed to design the character basically from scratch from the original description of a blond-haired, green eyed lady pirate with a Victorian lion tattoo. Thank you. Kat, for giving me the opportunity to draw such a lovely character!

For anyone interested, I am open for Detailed Character Model Sheet commissions, among many others. For pricing, the process and what types of commissions are available, check out my commission info page.

In other news, I was rather surprised today that after tinkering around on DeviantART for the past 7 years for the sheer fun of it, I was given a "Daily Deviation" for my "TKP Leading Ladies: Colored" piece. I honestly couldn't be happier that the piece that was chosen is of characters that have been near and dear to me for so many years now, as well - making this DD quite the gift indeed. I wanted to say a tremendous thank you to ^mintyy for suggesting the piece, and ^Atramina for being so kind as to feature it. You guys are awesome!

Cheers,
Mel

Ketrina DeLioncourt - LineArt.

While some of my recently completed commissions are under non-disclosure agreements and therefore cannot see the light of day online - I'm excited to be able to share those which are not. Here's linework for the character sheet commission I'm currently working on for my buddy Kat, of her main pirate character. This will be one of the full-color detailed character sheets I offer for commissions, and will also include a head shot of Ket here, close-ups of some of her more important attributes, as well as text descriptions in a professional, cohesive layout. I'm just particularly fond of the way the line art for the orthographic poses turned out - I've been familiar with this particular character for years - can't help but love her. While the chracter is Kat's, the outfit itself was of my own devises... which I have to tell you, was ridiculously fun to do. There's just something about pirates...

♥Mel

Web Site In-Progress

The Future Home of Mel Miller Art Dot Com

After many years without, a profound need for, and the gracious offering of time and web-coding talent from my good buddy Kate NY, I'm on my way to having an official webspace on the 'net. I'm incredibly excited to be able to get this web presence underway to, with any luck, help aid my ability to find work, both now and in the future. Above is the mock-up created for the home page by myself - layout conceptualized by Kate herself, as derived by the concept image I did of Trias during my time at CCS. Thank you, again, Kate!

♥Mel

ARMSmasters Second Edit Complete!

ARMSmasters Second Edit - Complete from Michael Winn on Vimeo.

And we're soaring right along! Here's the second compilation of the ARMmaster's trailer currently in production. My roles in the above this far have been copious amounts of clean-up animation as well as a wee bit of color. I also got my first glimpse of the Pitch Bible today for the first time, and let me tell you, that thing looks stellar. I literally got chills seeing it, it's so exciting and ridiculously cool. What a pleasure it's been to be a part of this project - I'm looking forward to anywhere and everywhere it may take us.

Here's a word from our fearless leader, mister Mike Winn, on the above video and the current state of the Project as a whole:

And here we have the ARMSmasters second edit!

This edit features heavy duty After Effects post-production work by Niles Bontrager - and it is awesome.

I would say more here but I'm actually utterly exhausted and declaring that to the world. Those with access to the production blog will get a full play by play of events because I'm just detailed like that :)

More seriously, I'm incredibly proud of the work that our production partners and fellow artists have produced for the development of this property. From the second clean up passes to the treatment in After Effects and even the brainstorming and creative sessions of developing the world into something that has a true life of its own, I am truly, sincerely blessed by this effort and the contributions of everyone's talents and support.

The Pitch Bible is done as well and we're moving ahead. The /Third/ edit of this trailer will involve the addition of the light and shadows and finished clean up and at the same time we'll be moving ahead towards finishing the longer trailer and getting the missing animation in and having a more complete 'Demo'. Still a lot of work to do but I'm thrilled to have hit this milestone - on time!

-Mel

Colette, Sekaida and the Bounty Hunter

Here's some design work stemming from ARMSmasters over the past 2 days. The top image is my design for a member of the main character line-up, Colette. The second is an OC I've been pitching the idea of for a potential secondary character for the series - a female Sky Pirate captain by the name of Sekaida. Last but not least is my clean-up lineart and color flats of my buddy Patrick Stannard's lovely rough drawing of a character design of his for a bounty hunter for the series.

Colette.

Sekaida.

The Bounty Hunter.

♥Mel

Mia in Motion and Commissions

Mia in Motion

I'm currently working on cobbling together animation and storyboard portfolios to go along with my illustration portfolio. Thought I'd share what may very well become a part of the prior - Caravan's Mia Talbert, from shot 6 of the film.

Also, I will begin taking commissions soon, for anyone interested. I'll likely open for them this upcoming week, and start them the week following, once everything is in order. More info on that soon!

♥Mel

Mutant Uterus ATAAACK.

Mutant Uterus ATAAACK!

What was initially a silly, random doodle that got completely out of hand ;) Based on a tweet I made a few days ago:

My life is currently subtitled, "Attack of the Killer Uterus." Which, sadly, sounds way more exciting than it actually is.

Well, some prompts are just too ridiculous to resist. Fueled for the utmost hatred of said unavoidable monthly evil, copious caffiene, and an incurable addiction to Robot Unicorn Attack. Textures from Mayang and a handful of photos from my own personal photo collection.

♥Mel

Beansprout

A quick, random sketchbook doodle that I enjoy for a whole host of silly reasons.
This is Beansprout.

She makes me smile - Had to share ;)

Cheers,
♥Mel

TKP's Leading Ladies - Complete!

Raven, Remedy and Akinah.

I'm currently amidst re-compiling my portfolio - completing this image for it was a must in mind! I had a blast coloring this - it was challenging, yet utterly therapeutic. Colored in Photoshop CS3 utilizing the lasso and gradient tool shown in my recent "OZzy" color demo video. It is also wonderful to see these particular gals together in color. You can view the original line art in this previous post. Cheers.

♥Mel