Christian Pearce

District 9.... Things

2012-01-05T23:16:00.000-08:00

District 9?! What is this ancient junk? Stop living in the past Christian, it's 2001 already!
These are very early weapon and tool designs. You can see these and many more of the designs I contributed to the rubbish bin in our reasonably priced Art of District 9 book.

SalesBot

2011-12-15T04:02:00.001-08:00

Under The Mountain

2011-12-13T01:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple of early Wilberforce and environment concepts for Jonathon King's Under the Mountain from waaaay back in 2007. That's so last decade now!

Boneless!

2011-11-14T21:16:00.000-08:00

A doodle that got scanned. I coloured the pencil linework on this which was... refreshing! Then I coloured in the background like a big boy. Well how about that!

Esoterra Doodles

2011-11-09T02:17:00.000-08:00

I think this video is awesome, he invents more funny characters in that 3 minutes of miming than most funny character creators create in 5 minutes of funny character creation. I was all like "I must draw you, poorly". And so I did.

Motorbikes!

2011-10-26T05:58:00.000-07:00

Quick variations of the same basic engine and frame arrangement.
What was the line from George Orwell's classic allegorical tale, Automobile Farm... 'four wheels good, two wheels bad?' Especially when I draw 'em! As relevant today as when it was writ.

Mecha-Gojira!

2011-10-26T05:44:00.000-07:00

Emoticon Anatomy 1

2011-10-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

Dragster! I mean... Dragon!

2011-10-05T04:31:00.000-07:00

I musta started this drawing 4 years ago. I dug it up this evening and says to myself I says "you're not going to bed til you've finished colouring it in!"
Nah stuff it, I'm going to bed anyway. G'night!

Doodle Dump

2011-07-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

Damon Packard!

2011-07-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

A drawing of one of my favourite film makers as his character Bob in Reflections of Evil. I was pretty blown away when I first saw that film and the character really stuck with me.
This was my first attempt inking with the dip pens I'd seen my pal Matty using at work with great success . I had less success but I reckon if you could get the hang of 'em you could bust some pretty clean lines.

Sawmill Incident

2011-06-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

Peyow-Peyow!

2011-06-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick 'un I did for the far too talented Scott Spencer. He has a tutorial in the current issue of 3D World where he sculpts this sucker up in ZBrush

Make Tanks Not War

2011-05-31T06:21:00.000-07:00

Here's one I started 'ken ages back that I just finished painting about 54 seconds ago. I had this pencil sketch that I started dolloping virtual paint onto now and then, just kinda picking away at it over a few weeks.
The idea was that it was an umanned sentry that would be dropped into disaster areas to ward off looters or any invading forces. It has a real low level AI and a super slow hydrogen extraction system that draws energy from the atmosphere, you pretty much give it enough charge to toddle itself into a tactically sound position and forget about it.
"Unmanned eh? Why the hatch then dickhead?" - maintenance and for the off chance it may need to transport survivors. Yep, it makes heaps of sense. And take it easy with that dickhead stuff will you?
I had it deployed amongst all this rubble, collapsed buildings with a bunch of gruesome stuff going on and had it pretty much finished at the start of the year. Then Christchurch got decimated by quakes followed by Japan and I didn't want to look at it any more. I painted out all that stuff and parked him at the beach in the sun.

Oh yeah, those weird looking wheels are inspired by/burgled wholesale from those rad AIRTRAX forklifts

Bellflower

2011-04-27T03:13:00.000-07:00

I don't really know anything about this film but when I saw the car in the trailer I bugged out like crazy! That thing is badass! I did this little doodle of it and then I coloured it in. Cool story eh?
Check out the Bellflower website, looks like it's gonna be pretty cool and their custom cameras they shot it with are fascinating.

Anna Coddington's Album Cover!

2011-03-28T19:08:00.000-07:00

Alohahaha! I told Anna 'ken years ago that if she didn't let me do an album cover for her I was gonna give her a hiding. I guess she took me seriously cos she's mean as at karate now, also she let me do this one.
To start with we went through a bunch of images I put together and agreed that an Alphonse Mucha ~~ripoff~~ inspired piece might be a good starting point.
I wanted to make this painting as Nu Zillund as possible without putting Buzzy Bees/jandals/tomato sauce in it. The view is looking across from Manu Bay near her place in Raglan, a tui is hollerin' at her shoulder and that guy in the bottom left is my idiot cat Lando. The stars are loosely based on our view of the night sky and that bench she's chillin' on is supposed to be like that one you were chillin' on in the weekend eating that pie. You should ease up on those pies by the way.
All the patternwork is based on native plants - kowhai, pohutukawa and putaputaweta. I had a bunch more of that stuff going on for a while but it looked pretty manic.
AC wanted to have some scifi/space elements in there so those weird clouds and ringed planet are ~~ripping off~~ paying a respectful homage to the amazing end image from NZ's own Quiet Earth.
That female humanoid in the middle is meant to resemble Anna Coddington. I traced a photo of her face, so what? I aint trying to do no goddamn likenesses ever again! That was actually pretty challenging for me, painting a recognizable face even though I traced a pic. Fortunately Anna isn't very horrible to look at which made it a bit more bearable.
So that's that! The album's choice, Anna is choice, everything is choice. Wait - earthquakes are not choice.

Album on itunes

Anna's website

Crab Skeletons

2011-03-07T01:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a pretty cool little seaside casualty I found the other day. You see these guys pretty often at the beaches here but this one was a bit bigger than most so I cleaned him up and did these sketches.
I hadn't really looked too closely at crab skeletons before and it proved to be a real learning experience. It's cool seeing how these little mammals have adapted to life in the sea. As warm-blooded vertebrates they share a similar basic structure to us but with a few specialised modifications.
The metacarpals and phalanges have simplified and fused into a pair of opposing pincer-like shapes and with their thick epidermal layer they function as highly effective claws.
The wide scapula sits far down the ribcage and forms a strong foundation for anchoring the teres major.
Probably the component most far removed from our own frame is the pelvic girdle which has evolved into a six-socketed form almost unrecognisable to ours.
I painted up a skull study as well - what bizarre little craniums they have! The eye sockets are open with the zygomatic bone being wholly disconnected from the supraorbital foramen - I guess this is due to the stability offered by the hardened epidermis and to allow free movement of the eyestalks.
What appears to be a nasal cavity is actually a food filtering system - the "nasal concha" is in reality a gill-like arrangement for catching too-large fragments in the feeding process. It continues down behind the maxilla.
A remarkable free floating pre-maxilla carries the first battery of tiny teeth with the second, smaller set of mandibles hidden away below.
So there you have it! That was a pretty interesting process for me, learning about these dudes. I find it fascinating how mammals can adapt and transform to live in any environment yet still retain their inherent vertebrate humanity.

Stackbot - UPDATED

2011-02-21T03:09:00.000-08:00

Here's a painting that I worked a bit differently to usual on. I started this one as a pencil sketch drawing from life which I never really do anymore. I was at the Save Large™ supermarket here in Miramar where I'd seen this guy working stacking cans a few times over the last month or so and today I happened to have my sketchbook on me.
New Zealand's labour laws are still catching up with the rest of the world when it comes to regulating mechanical employees so we have this weird situation now where bots are forced to take 15 minute breaks three times a day just like their flesh and blood colleagues. This unit was standing totally still and alone waiting for his timer to run out the enforced rest period, a perfect sketcher's model!
Right, I'm gonna voice what is probably a pretty unpopular opinion: I don't like these guys. I am certainly not robophobic in the least but I am positive we will see an incident with these particular units in the near future. They are over-engineered, under-regulated and take voice commands way too literally. I hadn't finished my sketch when his break was over and unthinkingly I asked him to freeze - he over pressurized his coolant reservoir causing LN2 to flow over the articulated sections in his torso, seizing him up solid. I got the hell outta there before his supervisor came outso I don't know what sort of state he's in now, I'll check back in a few days.

28/02/2011 UPDATE

One of few instances where I hate being right all the time always about everything.

ContemplationBot

2011-01-27T03:28:00.000-08:00

Skinnybot

2011-01-24T21:02:00.001-08:00

Cryolophosaurus Tricyclus

2010-12-27T20:39:00.000-08:00

Continuing the exploration of theropods voyaging via velocipedes - a Cryolophosaur riding a tricycle. Heavy stuff. Oh! A making of!

Splitters

2010-12-21T01:58:00.000-08:00

Pencil doodles with high-end animation.

Why did they happen? I do not know.

A Hot Rod with Legs!

2010-11-28T02:10:00.000-08:00

Eyoop! Here's one of the pieces I contributed for Dwayne Vances's upcoming Masters of Chicken Scratch Vol 2. Pretty pleased to be involved!

Crab's Inhumanity to Crabs. I mean Robots.

2010-10-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

Holla! Here's a process gif of a piece I did for the White Cloud Worlds book.

I worked a bit differently for this and tried to imagine how a real artist makes a picture. I did a little thumbnail sketch first which I never ever do, there's never any planning stages usually and whatever first doodle I do ends up as the final image. For this one though there was two pencil stages before I started laying in the colour.

I tried to work with different colours in this piece too, sort of a warm yellow highlight, cool purple shadows and like a green mid tone. I am pretty colour-blind though so it's probably actually all in blorgentas™ and graghcillian™ hues.

I had an old sketch of a robot that I based the ones in the picture on, he pops up over on the right there. You can see a couple of photos I took for reference in one of the stages too. The idea was this was set in Wellington and the sea had reclaimed Lambton Quay and had brought a bunch of monster crabs with it. Obviously the only way to resolve this type of issue is to send in a bunch of human-shaped robots with guns and a futuristic tank.

WCW Signing at Unity Books!

2010-10-28T01:26:00.000-07:00

Yes! World Championship Wrestling will be signing at... what? You mean White Cloud Worlds? Ah well, come along anyway and get your stuff scribbled on - and maybe even a book while you're at it!

Art of District 9

2010-10-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

I'm pimping books like crazy! Here's our artbook for District 9. If you like that kind of stuff this book is pretty good, heaps of drawings that have never seen the light of day before - some of mine deservedly so! That's the cover and a couple of pages of early alien designs I did, you can see quite a few more pages from the book here.
If you buy it from the Weta Workshop store you get a stencil signed by Greggo, Dan, Leri, David and what?! Christian Pearce? I've heard of that guy!

White Cloud Worms! I mean Worlds

2010-10-19T01:01:00.000-07:00

Hey hey! Here's something pretty neat, this weirdo I work with put this book together that's just about to come out. I think he's just about to come out too but there's no book about that yet*. This book has lots of really nice art-drawings in it and also some by me! Christian Pearce!

You can mash these words to check out the website for a look at some of the art n' junk.

*Paul Tobin is neither a weirdo nor coming out, not that there's anything wrong with those things.

BMreX!

2010-08-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

A few dudes at work donated a piece each for this Plunket charity thing. The idea is that they were little doodles that people would stick on the fridge like something their dumb kids would do so I hand in a scrawl of a dinosaur riding a bike. Imagine my shame when my so-called "colleagues" deliver stuff like this and this! They're trying to get me fired you know.

Art for Ted Chiang's "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" - part four!

2010-08-07T04:20:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple of the finished illustrations along with the initial pencil sketches. Ted knew he wanted a watercolour look right from the start and I figured it would be fun to do these traditionally ie; real paint. That idea got the kibosh due to deadlines, the need for multiple variations, global warming and the fact that I am not very good at painting.
I ended up using Artrage to paint up my pencils. I had a pretty tough time with it - I find the interface a bit weird and it really seems to struggle with large images but boy it does some neat stuff! It's kinda cool not knowing how something works and just goofing around with it, sometimes stuff happens that is better than what your dumb brain would come up with. The tough bit is trying to make it happen again!

There's a demo of Artrage but the full version is only like a hundred bucks, well worth it in my most humblest of opinions.

Art for Ted Chiang's "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" - part three!

2010-08-05T04:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a few of the robot designs and painting styles I went through. Ted saw an old robot I had drawn (the blue one sitting at the bottom) and that ended up being the basis for the robot in the book.

These ones were all pencil sketches coloured up in photoshop but for the watercolour look we settled on I used Artrage, I'll tell you about my struggles with that in a minute!

Art for Ted Chiang's "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" - part two!

2010-08-03T02:32:00.000-07:00

Here's some of the stages the Fetal Bot image went through from the original pencil sketch to the final painting. I did quite a few variations for Ted while finding the right rendering style, this was only like half 'em!

Art for Ted Chiang's "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" - part one!

2010-07-31T16:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a project I recently completed that was pretty interesting for me, the illustrations for Ted Chiang's new novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects". I had read a couple of Ted's stories before he had contacted me so I was pretty stoked to be involved and jumped at the chance, I think his stuff is terrific. You can listen to his Hugo Award nominated story Exhalation here!
This illustration was the first one I completed and became the cover image. We went through quite a lot of different illustrative styles before getting to this one and I'll show some of those and a few of the other paintings in more blog posts.

Jaundice vs the Bench

2010-07-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

Jaundice is my character in Skate 3. This is a video I made of his exploits:

Superman Returns!

2010-07-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

I really like Superman and was pretty stoked to design the sculptures for Superman Returns. I even got to go on set and meet the team and see a couple scenes getting shot! We meet all kinds of people at work and have had some pretty remarkable characters come through the workshop but being on set and seeing Superman in that beautiful suit really was something else.

AKIRA - Kaneda's Bike part two!

2010-07-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

Well, that's as finished as that's gonna get! Didn't really turn out how I'd like but it was a lot of fun to paint. I'd imagined something lightweight looking and kinda less clunky but...eh.
The idea with this bike is that it's two-wheel drive with electric motors mounted within each wheel. The batteries are carried at the bottom of the central monocoque to give a low centre of gravity with a portion of the battery compartment in a quick-release cylinder (in yellow by his knee). I figure it's a stolen race prototype and that part of the battery would be able to be changed very quickly in race conditions, like refueling pit-stops. It would steer with both wheels at low speeds (less than 30km/h) and has huge aerated ceramic discs running around the wheel's circumference for braking. Or something!
I don't think Kaneda's outfit looks better in blue, he was just disappearing into the bike a bit when I painted him in his red get-ups. I also changed his riding position from feet-forward to a more traditional racer-style - not because I think it's cooler, just to try something different.
Anyway! Massif respec' to Katsuhiro Otomo, the absolute motherflippin' man!

Ray Harryhausen!

2010-06-29T18:52:00.000-07:00

Today is Ray Harryhausen's 90th birthday! I assume he visits this blog regularly so I'll take this opportunity to say "have a good 'un mate!"
I'm a big fan of his films and this auspicious day reminded me of this fun piece I was asked to do for a Cinefex ad a few years ago. It was to celebrate Mr Harryhausen receiving a lifetime achievement award, I never saw the finished ad and don't know if this was even used. Still, it was fun to draw Ray getting pushed around by his own creation!

AKIRA - Kaneda's Bike part one!

2010-06-28T04:49:00.000-07:00

For me Akira is pretty much it, the most mind-boggling combination of design, story, action and gob-smacking illustrative genius ever. To think that it all came from one dude is both incredibly inspiring and totally 100% infinitely demoralizing!
I read the manga about once a year I guess and pick up on more things each time. One element that is as striking now as when I first saw it is Kaneda's bike. Otomo-san first drew that thing nearly thirty years ago! What!
I had done a whole bunch of mindless sketches of it over the last few months, probably a couple dozen of them. Some of 'em are up there ^^^
The colour ones were quick sketches I did on my DS with Colors! and the pencil-looking ones were...um... pencil! I didn't draw that one at the top - that's from the anime, silly! I grabbed that pic from BlueBladeAkira, heaps of good stuff there.
I started painting one of the sketches up, I'll post it in a bit.

Deadly Sleds Yet Again

2010-06-16T00:09:00.000-07:00

OLD.

CARcharodon!

2010-04-21T05:32:00.000-07:00

It's a hammerhead shark driving a car. I know, I know... a hammerhead is not a carcharodon but I couldn't think up any hilarious vehicular puns for hammerhead. Oh, you don't think I did for carcharodon either eh? Well!

That's Quite a Tall Hot Rod

2010-03-24T02:41:00.000-07:00

Phew! Been flat out lately! Hardly done any scribblin' for myself/nobody for a while so I thought I'd paint up this old doodle as quick as I could. I did it in Artrage, a painting app I've been using at work lately and just starting to get the hang of. Check it out, it takes a bit of getting used to but I think it's pretty choice. If you click on these words you I'll hook you up with a free demo. Don't mention it!

It's Ping, the Table Tennis Robot!

2010-02-01T01:33:00.000-08:00

Bambina Goes Bam-boosh!

2010-01-13T18:46:00.000-08:00

Hi! It's 2010 for flip's sake!
Here is a Fiat 500 getting all roly-poly. I think they're great looking cars and I reckon that 2007 Nuova 500 version is one of the very few classic updates that really works. Says me anyway.
I got a little model that I posed for some sketches and then I got out the ol' tracing paper to neaten 'em up. I haven't done that in ages - actually put a little bit of effort into a drawing! What a wild and crazy decade this is turning out to be!

He's Riding a Skateboard!

2009-11-23T03:02:00.000-08:00

Well would you look at that. I chucked the pencil sketch on there not cos I think it's any good but because I'm always interested in seeing that progression-type stuff and I says to myself I says "maybe other dudes are too".
This fulla could probably do with a bit more progressing, but what's done is done.

Roller Derby - the Big One!

2009-10-26T01:20:00.000-07:00

Ahoy-hoy! One last roller derby poster. Ummm... yeah! Take that you dumb skull!

Civil Offence!

2009-09-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

Second roller derby poster re-posted cos the venue changed!
First one was choice fun so I can only assume this one will be too. Girls were violent to each other while I drank beer!

It's the Avengers!

2009-09-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

I drew these heroic louts on my DS using Colors, I hope you can recognise 'em.

DeadlySleds.com

2009-09-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

It's up! It's alive! It's working! At least it was the last time I looked.
99 Deadly Sleds, 99 Deadlier Sleds and 99 Deadliest Sleds - that's a lot of sleds! Except of course they're not sleds, they're little doodles of hot rods and stuff. It's really quite deceptive.
You could even get a poster!
www.deadlysleds.com

It's the Justice League!

2009-09-03T03:32:00.000-07:00

The Justice League drawn on my Nintendo DS using Colors.
I did 'em all in a bunch last night except for Green Lantern who I just did about 10 minutes ago.
How does Superman smell without a nose? Probably terrible.

Ghost in the Shell pt 2

2009-08-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here's the finished picture. Some scum-bag blur and other shortcuts in there, I don't like that stuff but it does speed things up a lot.

Ghost in the Shell

2009-08-28T01:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a little bit of work-in-progress fan art stuff. It's from a sequence in the Ghost in the Shell manga that's a bit different in the anime. Remember that bit in the film where Togusa and Batou are tracking that garbage-truck guy who's had his brain haxored? Course you do! In the comic they got a fuchikoma backing 'em up that I thought was pretty cool. Everyone likes fuchikomas, right?
I painted in an environment behind these guys that I'll post here soon.

I Like ASIMO

2009-08-25T01:22:00.000-07:00

ASIMO is rad. There's a bunch of humanoid robots around now and although they're all choice I still think he's my favourite. You seen those vids where he falls down the stairs? Boy that stuff makes me wince! I really feel for the lil' dude. The way he waits at the bottom of the steps building up his courage before his ill-fated ascent I find quite endearing. It's cool how he eyeballs the crowd as he's ambling up there too.
What is it that makes ASIMO so appealing, to me at least? He has none of the elements that film-makers and designers slap on anything that needs to emote. There's no giant pupil puppy-dog eyes or over-animated eyebrows or colossal head, just that cold-ass glossy black visor. But he steals hearts like crazy!
I reckon, and this sounds pretty weird, is that the secret is in the hips. That nervous side-to-side weight shifting and the cautious little steps, organic cues that we see every day in lower forms of bipedal locomotion, i.e. us, tricks us into reading life in that bevel-edged body. What a bizarre ramble this turned out to be.
I did these sketches in about 20 mins while looking at this cool little ASIMO poseable figure I bought off the internets. Cheers world wide web!

Skate of Emergency!

2009-08-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a poster I just finished for an upcoming roller derby series. The brief was post-apocalyptic Wellington with tough chicks on rollerskates. I was gonna draw that anyway!
I did it originally in black and white and tried to do it real Akira-style. I quickly realised I was no Otomo-san and reverted to my olde wobbly hand technique. I still snuck Kaneda's bike in there amongst the rubble though. I got lil' CJ from District 9 in there too but you probably can't see him at this resolution.
Once it was finished I got word that they wanted it in colour so I did this quick hack-job. Should be a fun show, chicks in skirts roughing each other up while dudes holler and drink beer? I'll see you there!

Richard Scarry - Part Two!

2009-08-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

Well that took a bit longer to get to than I thought!
I'd nearly finished it when I says to myself I says "that Dingo looks like a drive-it-like-you-stole-it kind of guy". I scuffed up all the shiny paint and added paint chips and cracked glass.
I assume Mr Scarry was inspired by the E-type Jaguar in the design of this car so I brought in a few details from that too, not because I think it improves it but just because I like drawing that stuff.
So! I really don't know why I did this one. It was fun and I guess I just wanted to pay a little respec' to one of my earliest inspirations. That's a plenty good reason I guess!

Richard Scarry - Part One!

2009-08-04T01:08:00.000-07:00

I think it's safe to say Richard Scarry's books have had a very long term affect on me. Man I used to read the hell out of 'em! The detail and manic energy of of his illustrations have stuck with me all these years and still have an influence on my work/scribbles. All those cars with their tiny wheels that never seem to touch the ground, crashing into everything and always involved in chases and hijinx... great stuff!
I couldn't find that much info about the guy, strangely rotten.com has the best stuff I came across. It's an interesting read!
The car I liked best of all was Dingo Dog's red roadster with it's hungry looking grille. Today I did this little doodle of it that I'm about to paint up real quick-like, I'll put the finished version up tomorrow if I get a chance to do it tonight.

A Pair of Two Couple of Both Robots

2009-07-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

Just doodlin' in meetings.

BirdRat

2009-07-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Resembles a Robot

2009-06-02T04:11:00.000-07:00

Here's one. I did this lil' scribble on my DS using Colors that vaguely resembled a robot. I opened it in photoshop and coloured it as quick as I could in one sitting - no toilet break, Simpsons, videogames, competitive gymnastics, l33t haxoring, nothing! Surely that counts for something? "Nah dick, do a good drawing next time". What!

99 (even) Deadlier Sleds - The Motion Picture!

2009-05-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

Eey-oop, here's some from the new bunch growing right before your four-eyes. Assuming you wear glasses of course. Now, I had to rush this out so it would avoid going head-to-head with AVATAR at the box office and in doing so I lazily snuck one in from the old bunch. For shame Pearcey, for shame!
Check out Broadmore's paintings also happening. I like to watch them and drag a pencil around on my screen. Totally ruins the monitor but it's worth it to pretend I was the one drawing 'em.

...did them with Colors yada yada 99DS.net blah blargh....

99 (even) Deadlier Sleds!

2009-04-27T01:05:00.000-07:00

Whew! I got my next 99 hot rods/muscle cars/street-tards all done. Did 'em the same way as the last bunch, on my DS using Colors. I don't think there'll be an exhibition for these fullas but I will be doing another limited edition book of them. I'll hafta get my man Holloway to put these up on the 99DS site soon.
I'm about halfway through the next 99 too, you'll never guess what it's gonna be called - 99 DEADLIEST SL.... what? You did guess? Jeez, way to steal my thunder...

What?! Even More Demonz?!!

2009-04-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

That's the last of 'em, I swear! Well to be honest there is more of them but they are too rubbish, even for this blog. "What? Even worse than these?!" you say? Bite your tongue smart guy! I have feelings you know.

More Demonz!

2009-04-23T23:31:00.000-07:00

More demons! This is like a poor man's exorcism. Out! Out you little bastards and never darken my HD again!

Demonz!

2009-04-23T03:59:00.000-07:00

I always keep my DS next to the bed. It's cool waking up the next day to find drawings I don't really remember doing. Recently I discovered I'd done all these crude demon scrawls, I guess it's cos I've been watching a lot of horror movies before hitting the hay lately. What's up with demons anyway? What are they doing when they're not jumping out of old books or terrorizing space-hulks? Do they hang out being evil to each other or do they have jobs?
I took the lines I had drawn and painted 'em up in photoshop real rough-like.

They Will Not Do What We Tell Them!

2009-04-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry to your eyeballs, that's pretty hard to look at.

Deadly Sleds Animations

2009-03-06T17:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a few of the Deadly Sleds happening right before your eyes!
You might wanna turn your speakers down.

99DS is happening RIGHT NOW!

2009-02-16T01:49:00.000-08:00

You shouldah been there man! Dudes was going ape-crap! Flipping out! "Where's the booze?" "Why is there no booze?" "Please give me some booze" - just loving the art drawings!
Thanks heaps to every human that turned up, and massive pre-thanks to the thousands who are just about to. You still got ten days if you wanna get your oggle on - behind the Wellington City Library under that levitating fernball.
These aren't drawings but are actually photographs taken by my friend and foe Steve Unwin, the Man of Many Cameras.

You can look at all the drawings Greg and I did for this exhibition here - 99DS.net

The Tower of the Last Baron

2009-02-01T00:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a cover I drew for the Tower of the Last Baron. Thanks Paizo!

Oh my goodness, it's 99DS!

2008-12-20T01:16:00.001-08:00

Me and my ol' pal Greg Broadmore are having an exhibition here in Wellington starting 1st February. I drew 99 hotrods (scroll down to see a couple of 'em) and Greg drew 99 nudey girls falling on banana peels. In other words - something for everyone!
99DS - Dodgy Slips and Deadly Sleds has been a long time coming. I guess I gotta credit GB for coming up with the idea of drawing one thing ninety-nine times on a Nintendo DS. We used the awesome homebrew app Colors to churn 'em out.
The whole 99DS thing was just this goofy little project until we were lucky enough to have Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger take an interest and make it into something much bigger and pretty cool. We're even getting posters made!
If you're in our windy-ass capital during February, stop by Civic Square and check it out. We'd appreciate it!
99DS.net is up and at them! Our mate Brian made that site, I think he did a great job.
Thanks B!

Perilous Parkour!

2008-12-01T02:09:00.000-08:00

I've been doing these crappy, crappy animations of le parkour going wrong. How crappy? This crappy:

Instead of cluttering up this blog with 'em I started a whole new one! How wasteful!
PERILOUS PARKOUR!

Scraps!

2008-10-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

Two things that should probably have ended up in the bin. Superman punching a ghost and a lil ye olde robot. Look at him go! He never stops!

The Red Shift

2008-10-29T02:44:00.000-07:00

Ahoy-hoy!
This is a drawing. It is of a truck and I did it for the Red Shift, New Zealand's meke-ist tv show about muscle cars, hotrods and everything in between. Check 'em out here. What?! This drawing aint there you say? You think I'm pretending they wanted it? Why, I'd have to be totally crazy to pretend that! A real nut-job!
UPDATE - oh, it is actually there. It's on the show even!

RocketRod

2008-08-16T03:49:00.000-07:00

It's a rocket-powered hotrod. It's also on a skateboard! I was totally obsessed with skateboarding for about 10 or 15 years so it's cool to actually have a drawing on one. I always sucked but I was crazy about it! I still roll around now and then but I'm even worse now than I ever was, and that's really saying something. I watched Santa Cruz's "Streets on Fire" again last night, man, what a choice movie! So much great music and Natas' sections in there still rule.
My ol' pal Wojciech has this one and a bunch of other kick-arse boards here. You can even buy this one here if you were so inclined.

Ghidoraagh!!

2008-08-09T17:22:00.001-07:00

Here is a drawing of a three-headed dragon driving a hotrod. It's for my old band. I know, I know... let it go man! It wasn't that good to start with!

Check it here

Blackspot

2008-07-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a poster I did for my friend's film, and a blimmin' gem it is too. The film I mean, not the poster.
Check it out at www.blackspot.co.nz

Stool Pigeon and a Crash

2008-07-14T00:30:00.001-07:00

This is what happens when you rat out the Mafia! And also what happens when someone puts a telephone pole in front of your jump ramp. More goofing with that Animanatee app.

Wellington Apocalyptified!

2008-07-08T03:55:00.000-07:00

You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! And then you put it on a t-shirt!

I did this drawing a few weeks ago and had a plan to do a bunch of 'em, a series if you will. I was gonna do apocalyptic cityscapes of progressively more obscure New Zealand towns, culminating in a horrifically hammered Horotiu!

If you wanted to you could buy a shirt with this on it at the Weta Workshop-shop. It's kiwi made!

Animanatee!

2008-06-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

The Nintendo DS currently my fourth favourite thing in this universe. Homebrew apps like Colors, Protein DScratch and this one I just found called Animanatee utilize the system to a greater degree than any first party title I can think of.

Here is my first attempt at creating an animation with it, pretty stink I know. Bit of the old squash and stretch so frowned on by high society.

Download this killah app here:

http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?t=14116

What is that Robot doing?!

2008-06-14T01:38:00.001-07:00

When I first scribbled this guy he was being arrested by a bunch of cops. But then I thought "why draw a bunch of things when you could just draw one thing?" So that was it for the po-po!

But what's he doing now? Shooting a free-throw? Basking in the sun? Praising Lord Jebus? A one man Mexican Wave? Only time will tell!

Because no-one asked for it! A tutorial!

2008-06-14T01:14:00.000-07:00

Here is a run-through of how this drawing happened.

Stage one is the pencil. Rough as guts and done in about 5 minutes. I love drawing stuff but it's rare that I spend much time on the pencils anymore. I'm always thinking about how much quicker and easier it will be to fix it in Photoshop than actually do the hard stuff in the real world. That's terrible advice! Spend more time drawing!

Stage two is after scanning it and opening photoshop. I keep my files pretty small so I can work quickly on 'em, usually the size they were drawn and at 300 dpi. A multiply layer over the top and very loose general colours and maybe first thoughts of how I want to light it.

Stage three is a new normal layer where I start trying to neaten it up. I work with opaque brushes from here, and dead simple ones they are too. I know people who do amazing things with custom brushes but I'm too dumb/lazy/old for much of that carry on. My main brush, and the only one I used for this piece, is a simple round soft brush with pressure controlling size and opacity.

Stage four I chucked a bit of text on there and bent it up with the warp tool. Put some shadows on there with another multiply layer and then a bit of dodge to finish, my secret shame...

There you go, what not to wear.

Drawings for that Narnia film

2008-05-16T18:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of drawings I did for the first Narnia film. I guess these are about six years old now! Crazy! The Weta website has them up so I'm assuming it's okay to show 'em.

Mongol of the Moon

2008-05-11T02:28:00.001-07:00

That's a wonky looking spacesuit right there...

HOTRODS!

2008-05-11T02:16:00.000-07:00

Here's some hot rods I've been drawing for an exhibiton I'm planning on doing this year. It's gonna be ninety-nine hotrods drawn on my Nintendo DS using a fantastic piece of software that turns a DS into a mini-sketchbook. It's free software and it rules! Check it out here- http://www.collectingsmiles.com/colors/
My ol' pal Greg came up with the 99 pics DS exhibition idea and he has his drawings all done and ready to go. I guess that makes me even more of a dead-beat.

BoozeBat

2008-05-11T01:59:00.000-07:00

Batman is having a pint.

A Car is Crashing!

2008-05-11T01:50:00.000-07:00

A pencil drawing I inked in Photoshop. An unfortunate piece of parking. This one was for an exhibition my friend Wojciech produced by laserifying line art onto skateboards

Iron Man!

2008-05-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

Quite fitting that the first post I have ever made on a blog is one of Epic Fail. This is a really quick bit o' painting I did for Project Rooftop, a choice and well-worth-a-look site that hosts redesigns of superhero costumes. Not this one though! They have a bunch of cool stuff and I've found heaps of interesting artists from there. Ch-check it out- http://www.tencentticker.com/projectrooftop/