Ashes of Hemna

The Ashes of Hemna is a mercenary guild that has its roots in ancient kayeni history. All its members have the distinctive coal-black tattoo blanketing their face (upon which their tribal tattoos are typically overlaid), and shockingly bright hair colors. Because of this, they earned the rather derogatory nickname "cinderheads". Most of the Ashes of Hemna are simply guns for hire these days, rather than anything resembling the revered assassins of old.

Ifgrid and Py are two such members of the Ashes: simply bounty hunters and fortune seekers.

Animus Yonder

And here's a teaser for the comic.

The Portal

This is me shooting myself in the foot. I'm really happy with the way this concept turned out, but I'm going to resent myself for setting the bar this high for all my future space-chitecture. Anyway, this this is the earth-side "folding" gate that bridges to the space station Nexus.

Ataraxi - Concepting

Finally got some good concepting time in on the ataraxi. The sketch of Nolnevus on the right is pretty much the final design for the ataraxi. Then ended up looking a little more draconic than I'd originally envisioned, but I like the direction they took.

Voren

Been playing around with some ideas for one of Nexus' protagonists/antiheroes, Voren. This is the closest I've come to settling on a design I like.

Berserk

Jordan initiating operational procedure "bring the noise".



Or maybe he's just really serious about prancing.

Oratos

Blah. Just some real rough sketches tonight. The creature featured on the left is a member of the species oratos (ohr-AY-tahss). These guys have mutated a good deal since my original design. They were originally intended to be a sort of elegant, haughty bipedal race. They were supposed to sort of resemble the Kamino cloners from Star Wars, Episode II. However, as I developed the plot, the look just didn't fit, and all my races were sort of becoming a little too similar in appearance, which would have just been boring and confusing. So, I've been retooling appearances, and I decided to push the oratos toward something a little freakier looking. I picture these guys moving/behaving a lot like the Geth creepers from Mass Effect.

The smug looking guy on the right is Wolfgang, one of the protagonists from Nexus, and a loveably arrogant smartass.

Rise and Shine

Just another random sketch of Tessida for your enjoyment. I must've yawned 20-30 times while sketching this thing. Damn mimetics.

Gesture Drawings - Combat

Full body dynamic poses have always been one of my (many) weaknesses when it comes to drawing. As such, I spent a little time today knocking out some combat type poses from various references.

Sedune

Sedune is a kayeni, much like Tessida. One of the interesting items of note about kayeni is that they possess an epidermal layer just below their very thin melanin layer that is highly reactive to adrenaline, seratonin, and various endorphins. In a nutshell, kayeni skin color changes with their mood. Sedune is an activist singer/beat poet, and when she gets fired up while reciting her poems or singing, her skin undergoes impressive hue shifts. To enhance the effect for her audience, she has gotten geometric designs tattooed across her entire body to mask and accentuate the changes. The result ends up being a scintillating kaleidoscope effect dancing across her skin.

On a technical note, this image demonstrates why I really should have taken a color theory course at some point. Also, sticking to a particular style likely would have been helpful.

Jordan

This is Jordan, one of the protagonists for Nexus. Of all my characters, Jordan has given me the most trouble in locking down his appearance.

Vertijar

Still doing a lot of sketching, though with very little in any state to be displayed. Been doing some revisioning of the vertijar race. Some of the original head sketches i did a long time ago weren't doing it for me anymore. Since that sketch, I've kinda pushed the vertijar toward more of a matriarchal amazon-esque race. The women of their species tend to follow a sort of Bushidō code and see themselves as the liberators of the races that have fallen under the thumb of the Ataraxi empire. Also, I'm pretty sure that a race that doesn't have mouths probably wouldn't have evolved boobs, so I've still got some redesigning to do. Expect further iterations in the future.

Cast

Just some quick head sketches of the protagonists for Nexus.

Tessida - Color

In the interest of producing the Nexus strips in any kind of reasonable time frame, I'll likely be angling toward a very sparing use of shading. Here's a sample of what you're likely to see.

Tessida

Women with horns are awesome. That is all.

Torcrist

Meet the torcrist. It is basically biological power armor for the much smaller invertebrates known as torcrid. Technically alive, it has no higher brain functions, and requires the symbiotic bonding with the torcrid to survive. While technically eyeless, most of its epidermis is photoreceptive, and the torcrid symbiote is able to process the massive amount of visual data this yields, essentually granting omnidirectional vision. Another fascinating aspect of supporting a torcrid host is its ability to rapidly alter its host's body structure to suit its needs. The detail and aesthetics of such transformations will vary from torcrid to torcrid, depending on their own artistic talents and preferences.

Space Marine!

Just breaking in my new cintiq. It takes a little getting used to, but on the whole it feels a lot more natural than working with a tablet. I just need to work out a better method for reaching my hotkeys.

Numb

Some days you're just going through the motions.

Piper Lockhart

This is Piper doing what Piper does best: being incredibly confrontational. Piper is a pirate, born and raised to take what she wants. Her loyalty is only to her crew, and anyone not a part is liable to be met with extreme hostility. A lifetime on the run from the ataraxi will make anyone edgy, but Piper has a habit of making everything personal.

The Ataraxi

Just a couple head studies for nexus tonight. The dude on the left is a refinement of my original concept for the ataraxi. The ataraxi are the sinister reptilian conquest-driven overlords of most of the known galaxies. Their tyrannical reign is all carried out in the name of Yoki, their undead goddess, drifting through space on her tombship, accompanied by her elite dreadnaut caretakers. She's a spooky bitch. The face on the right is, for the time being nothing in particular, although I like the way it turned out.

07-09-09 Sketch

Meet the nolnidine ravener. Check it. These guys hurtle through space in a crysalis form known as the nolnidine harbinger. They're big. Like a kilometer long or so. When the harbinger impacts something large enough to stop its momentum (generally a planet or moon, though the occasional space station has fallen victim), it sets down roots and burrows in, injecting the fetal stage of the nolnidine into the core of the planet. After a certain amount of time, the juvenile or ravener form emerges from the core and terrorizes the planet surface, sort of godzilla-style. but everywhere he goes he's secreting these spores, coating everything he doesn't eat with 'em. once done, the ravener retreats back into the core of the planet and dies. as his body decomposes, the chemical breakdown becomes massively unstable, and eventually, the giant creature's corpse detonates, typically blowing the planet or moon apart. the spores on the surface have been maturing into these harbinger/chrysalis forms in the mean time, and they all drift off into space to repeat the process like cosmic dandelion fluff.

07-08-09 Sketches

Playing around with some vector style stuff from photographs. Got bored with it pretty quickly and spent a little time sketching for Nexus.

07-07-09

Some quick hard and soft brush sketches.

Inaugural Post

Just a couple pieces to kick this thing off. Two images from two unrelated projects.