Elrae redesigned

Since I did a painting of this character over a year ago, Jim and I have decided it would be a shame to do an octopus character without doing an attempt at bioilluminescance. After doing some tests with a blacklight and phosphorescent clay, I decided it was time to do a redesign with the latest and greatest ideas. The final sculpture will have UV lights in the base shining directly on the character, which will illuminate the patterns that were previously invisible across her body and tentacles. This sculpture is so complicated it will likely take months to complete - but hopefully the end result will be worth the effort.

Wing Born

Hey all - here are some images from my new story: Wing Born. Haven't gotten past the introduction yet- but hopefully I'll have some more time for writing soon. Plans are to make the novel much shorter than my last, and to have more illustrations throughout. (semi-graphic novel - perhaps an illustration every few pages). As you can see I'm experimenting with different styles, some which take more patience than others (the last image was made in illustrator ... oooi.... took forever. Not doing that again...) The top is clearly just painting over a sketch, while the other two are a rough paint on top of the first method. Let me know what you think.

An'Rejeah

This is from the first scene in the intro of my book. This is (hopefully) the first of a series of illustrations for the book - I'm gonna try to develop a rough and yet appealing style, which you can see some attempt at here (its more loose than I typically leave a painting.)

Aryah's design...

So, I already know that I'm going to get a little backlash for how much leg she's showing in this one. Keep in mind that this character is a dancer-performer from a culture that falls somewhere between Gypsy and Polynesian. The costume is still in flux, somewhat - so I might post a few variants later on.

Sucker

This creepy little guy is a genetically engineered janitor.

Elren's Fight ... which layout?

So obviously I can't decide how to crop this one. I think the middle one is the best composition - but unfortunately I'm a little too much a fan of that cool stuff I worked so hard to paint at the top. Sigh. Here's the story excerpt from chapter 5 of part 5 of my story:

Elren stood in a pool of light. Bits of dust sparkled like infinitesimal snowflakes as they glided lazily through the air. There was no sound but her own steady breathing as she waited.
Three blades stood around her: stabbed into the sandy ground of the arena...
Suddenly the sand beyond each blade rose up into mounds. The mounds began to take rudimentary form, arms and heads appearing and stretching out into the air. Dark holes opened where eyes should have been, while fingers sprouted from their wrists to form hands...All three of the earthen creatures drew their blades from the ground.
Elren’s blood rushed hot through her veins. Her fury filled her and gave her focus. She drew power out of her own body, sweet life and essence flowing from her fingertips into the blades in her hands.

Akkadaren River Delta

This comes from Chapter 6 of part five of my book. You'll notice the b\w iteration has a rather confusing composition. There's no areas of rest, so I tried on the later version to compose it with some areas of simplicity to balance out the crazy details in the other areas. (thanks for the suggestions, Angie) The character you see in the B\W version would have been nice to include, but I couldn't find a way to have her there without ruining the composition. there's already too much to draw the eye.

Bug

This is Ziksht'ri, an Anetha'Ryah (insectoid race) from my story. I'm either going to start work on this character or Elrae (below) as a sculpture. I'd also like people's opinions on which one they'd rather see as a maquette (thanks for everyone's opinion on the last!!). This character and Elrae's heads are sculpted and you can see them on www.jonmaque.blogspot.com

Concept for next sculpture...

This is the same character as before, Elraeynn, only a full figure version as a concept piece for creating a sculpture (www.jonmaque.blogspot.com) I'd like to get anyone's vote on which of the two costumes you like better. The one on top I like because it shows her gills (which open up under her ribcage), but the bottom one is a bit more sophisticated, which kindof matches her character. So either one works, what I'd like for feedback is everyone's opinion on which is more visually appealing. In the sculpture one of her tentacles will be touching the rock in the background, which is how I'll support her in the air. The challenge will be getting her to look like she's flowing through water - it'll take a lot of wire in the hair, the tentacles, and even wire mesh in the cloth to get it to fold properly. I'll put LEDs in her dual lamp, of course.

Mirel Terasireon

I tried to leave detail out of the shadows for this one. You'll notice how in the middle version the character and the background were in direct conflict - so in the final version I've pushed things back and tried to keep attention on the character's face. This painting was a study for a recent maquette I created. Everyone go to my sculpture blog and check out the final sculpture! www.jonmaque.blogspot.com

Ashley the Elf

Demo Reel

So. Here's the demo reel I made for pixar

A younger Ursula...?

Actually this is a character from my story, named Elraeynn. So the one on the bottom is the original painting, while the one on the top has some photoshopping done. which do you like better?

trunk

and yet another trunk. hmm - not much to say about this one.

knarly

Yet another foreground (and distant background) element for the BYU film Lion and the Mouse. I like the shapes and curves of this trunk, and I approached it a little different than some of my other images

more lion mouse

I wanted to go for a half-eaten tree trunk. Guess I should have used some reference, but we're trying to get these images out as fast as possible. Let me know if you like it.

lion and the mouse

This is one of many images I'm going to be painting to help spruce up Lion and the Mouse, an in-process traditionally animated BYU student film.

Fresh from my fingers ... this was a sketch I did for Lion and the Mouse, and that I just painted to show my sister Corel Painter.

Hugo

This is concept art I've been doing for a sculpture - it's a character called 'Hugo' from the Fablehaven books.

Just for Brant-

Well, Miream went off her diet and packed some onto her thunderthighs for this fix. I'd like everyone's opinion on which 'funkaliscious' energy stream thing you like better- the more destructive bottom version or the more subtle one on top.

Miream

This is the central character in my story - even though she's not the protagonist. I'm planning on doing a maquette of this - just as soon as I'm done with all the other stuff I'm supposed to do - so maybe in five years or so.
This is one of those images that I love right now, but I'm sure I'll hate it in about two weeks. Since I didn't have any source for the figure and costume it's more stylized - which means trouble for me most of the time. Any suggestions on getting a stylized look while using source material?

Arthuriad

I think this is my best matte painting to date - it's a scene from my story (of course). The colors and the composition worked out pretty well I think - and it gave me a chance to noodle in tons of detail which I always love to do. The concept of this world is pretty fascinating - it was founded by a conclave of wealthy merchants who figured they could make themselves royalty and import their own working peasant class. They live in the upper crust of the planet (the city seen at the top) while the people they brought in from the prisons, orphanages, and poor houses of other worlds live on the surface below. Looming 'guardians' keep any thoughts of rebellion in check, and the peasantry keep themselves busy providing food and raw materials to the nobles above. When the main characters arrive on this world in my story, the planet has been populated for about 2500 years.

One of the characters from my story. This painting is definitely looser than what I typically do - and it looks a lot better than my typical figurative work because I actually had reference material for this one. (Thanks for taking the trek up the canyon to pose for this one, Britt )-

Old Allerion

This is a scene from my ever growing narrative - the planet is called "allerion" - it's a world that had in the past been catacombed by an alien race, and then abandoned at the end of a 20 year war. The old lifts leading to the vast undergound cities are still operational though - and at this point in the story someone has powered this particular lift up.