Sardonyx

Fairly quick image of Nyx done last night in the early AM, meant to be a better reference of the patterning for her motley hair. I also finished coloring her full-body ref yesterday, posted below.

Nyx (based on the Sardonyx gemstone) at age 10, is a pick-pocketing street rat who has proved utterly untamable and impossible to hold within the Nadir orphanage. She's been a run away since the age of 6 and while she's been captured and detained on numerous occasions for theft or simply to attempt to hold her long enough to put her back into the safe confines of the orphanage, she's renown for managing to either escape (Often with the help of other street-rats she has befriended over time, Willem especially) or simply run off again the moment the time is right. She currently resides safely, and quite sneakily, in a little living space she's made for herself amidst the gears of the massive clock in a tower built into a stone precipice near the center of Nadir. (She gains access to it interior through the tunnels beneath the city streets used for plumbing, so no one sees her going in or out of the building). At present the only people who know about her little home abode in the timemaster, Sid, who does routine maintenance on the massive clock, and Sid's good friend Celeste - neither of whom are talking, as they are both rather fond of the spunky squirt. As a whole, Nyx is brazen, ballsie, spitfire, and fun. She tends to be a leader to other streetrats, while looking up to and rather idolizing the ever-capable Willem, who has been living life as a pickpocket and rebel rouser far longer then she.
-Mel

Unavisi: Exchange for Brianne

My latest Unavisi community art exchange image - this time, for my buddy Brianne! (My character) Bumble gives the surly BeeEater (Brie's Character), her big brother, a snug, whilst Otter (Also Brie's character) gets a giggle out of catching a glimpse of Bee's illusive "Inner Softy".

Unavisi Exchange: Agave for Ems

A multitude of life-events have kept me away from my art so far this summer, sadly. I've been suffering from a horrible art block for well over a month now... or at least, I was up until this exchange. Leave it up to an Unavisi Community art exchange to wrangle my inspiration into something productive ;) Anyhow! I got Emma (Tephers) which excites me to no end - she's such a sweetie! She wanted her character Agave drawn. (I also made a couple of icons out of the resulting image, as a little extra "Welcome!" gift to her, as one of our newest members.)

I pictured Agave resting late one night in one of the hot springs alcoves previously owned by her life mate, at peace, but undoubtedly still grieving over his loss internally, and longing for his presence. Image is inspired by "Where the Ghosts Are" by Klaus Badelt

Much thanks to Kate, Sufi, and Niles for checking out my bombardments of WIP's, and giving so many wonderful tips and suggestions!

♥Mel

Raven - Playing with Prismas

My classmate Sufi got me to sit down and have a first go at using color Prismacolor markers. I decided to use an older inked drawing of my character Raven as the guinea pig - here's the result.

Summer at the Creeds

A little bit of silly fanart to kick off the summer. "Summer at the Creeds" - My take on Marvel's Sabretooth, along with my characters Kayo and Riley Cole, and my buddy Carl and I's character, Minx, roughing it somewhere about the vast woodlands of the Creed Estates.
Also, a little bit of sketchbook character drivel. Line art for Cali "Minx" Creed, (an XMen fan character created by myself an my buddy, Carl Owens, many years back) which I hope to color soon. Hope everyone is doing well!

Cheers,
Mel



-Mel

Spring 2008 Demo Reel

I put this together yesterday for my End of the Year Review tomorrow.... and now that I've gotten sleep, I figured out how to size is small enough for 'net posting. Thanks to my babe Niles for the help on that ;)

For anyone curious, songs used herein are "Delicate" by Damien Rice, "The Inlaw Josie Wales" by Phish, and "Bron Y Aur" by Led Zeppelin.

More Work for 'The Defiance'

A new set of concept images I've amassed for a SciFi project I've been milling over recently, The Defiance. This particular trio were for my Finals project for Characters and Environments at CCS - a class which has given me a fantastic opportunity to develop the series off and on for the duration of the semester. Image titles, in order of appearance: Sadiha Model Sheet, Alexis Model Sheet, and The Bridge (Environment Study).

Drako Maquette Complete

Here is the finished product of my third and final character maquette sculpture of Drako from Larry Larson's class this semester. Larry was kind enough to take a myriad of nicely lit portfolio shots of the project for me, so I though I would share. More detail shots of the sculpture are below.

-Mel

Stu "Rotgut" Bogey Walk

I know, I've been pretty much non-existent the past few weeks. I do apologize - I got sucked into the life-eating vortex that is finals at CCS. I'm nearly past the brunt of it though, thank goodness, and will be updating in mass soon enough. (And throughout the summer, at that) This here is actually my final assignment for Traditional Tech 1 for the year.... and boy do I like it a great deal better then the walk cycle we were assigned at the beginning of the semester! It feels so good to know that I really have improved looking from then to now. Huzzah for hard work (and an awesome professor's guidance) paying off.

My concept-in-training Caravan's Stu "Rotgut" Bogey, in all of his jaunty, slightly inebriated glory ;)

Drako Maquette WIP

Here's a preview of the third and final maquette I'm working on for this semester's character maquette sculpting class. It's of Drako, a long-standing original character of mine. I'll post the results as soon as he's done. :D Thanks to Tavis for snapping the photo!

Penguin Slip & Fall Test

A quick test for Tech 1. Steve wanted us to create a rough animation where a character walks in, slips on something, and falls, within the timespan of exactly 2 seconds. Poor 'Guin got to play guinea pig again. I really do need to give the poor little guy a cookie for his troubles.

Zensei "Bank" Coloration

The "Bank" half of my latest Environments and Characters assignment. The Zensei tribe in this series live and die by the drive to accumulate wealth and profit. They maintain a stronghold on their society's core trading market as a result - often seen as the inevitable go to guys needed to get whatever one needs.... particularly where gold, or less 'proper' acquisitions are concerned. Amidst the nomadic tribes' perpetually moving tent towns, large tents are set up and used for the sole purpose of presenting, storing and swapping various forms of fortune.

Zensei "Bus Stop" Coloration

So this particular project for Environments and Characters called for us to draw a bus stop and a bank environment, both having a joining theme. I decided to use the Zensei clan from a prehistoric plotline personal project of mine - the nomadic tribe of their people, who utilize massive, rather beastly mammals as their mode of transportation. Seen here, early in the morning, the clan pack up and gear to move on from their over night encampment.

Now on to coloring the "bank". After I hit up some chinese food, that is. Also! Many thanks to folks who have been dropping by and commenting on my art blog here. I really do appreciate it!

Zensei Environment Lines

Will be coloring these up in the next two days. More to come!

Kayo Expressions

Facial expressions for Characters and Environments. I really enjoyed doing this one quite a bit - it gave me the opportunity to draw Kayo once again; one of my oldest and most favored original characters. Above, the finished sheet. Below, the rough sketch and clean line art stages for some of the busts, to give you an look at my process of working.