Time for freelance!

After three years working in the games industry at Eurocom games I have decided to take the dive into the freelance life! For better or worse? Well, only time will tell! It's something I have wanted to try for a long time now but before I never felt like I was good enough, and now 'hope' I am! :)

It should be fun, either way it goes it's all a learning experience for me so will be interesting none the less. As I have been away from the blog for a while here are some pieces of artwork I have had the time to do in the past couple of months or so. Hopefully this blog should take off now as I should have more studies posted very soon. :) Thanks for looking!

Self Portrait Oil Painting

Finally got around to painting a self portrait, took long enough! haha!

This oil painting took four and a half hours to create, and was such a pain, mainly because of the mirror being slightly distorted in some places and the sun setting about half way through, but it was a great learning experience and taught me just how tough it is to paint from life! The painting might look distorted throughout the video but this is because the camera is at an angle, so at the end I straighten it out slightly so you can see it better. Anyway enjoy! :)

Music by the brilliant Mind.In.A.Box

Cheers for checking it out!

Portrait of my fiancee

Spent the afternoon painting a portrait of my fiancee and also recorded the entire thing! Thanks for looking!

Lunchbreak Doodles

I do some quick work at lunch, which is both great fun and utter frustration sometimes lol! The time you get to work on something over lunch is so limited so you either bang something out which is pretty decent for 10mins and could be worked on in the future -WIN-, or you really get into a piece and just as your getting into it lunch break has ended -LOSE!- Oh well, here are some of those quick doodles!

 20 minute reference study

Rest are all 10mins or so

Shivering Void

Here is a quick look at a few paragraphs from a story I am working on :

THE SHIVERING VOID

'' Something somewhere came to be, in line you belong, astray you became...we are the shivering, reigning it all back, beginning with the sound of your name. ''

CHAPTER 1

Tidane

Feeling hollow and empty, A man stares at himself in the mirror of his quarters. The light bathing his body in it's all showing power, revealing every imperfection. A fresh spatter of scars pock marks his stomach, bringing back faint memories of losing someone close to him, only he hasn't been able to recall the face or name... It must have been a traumatic experience for his memories to lock and bar themselves from his subconscious, and is probably for the best he thinks to himself.

His head throbs from the exhaustive mental feeling of recalling what happened ''Why? Why can't I remember her damn face!?'' he demands from his mirror image. His empty numb self staring back at him feeling as if it holds the answers to the question he seeks. Maybe there was no one his thoughts ponder, and it's just the aftershock of being wounded like this. Then why do these feeling of loss and heartache pain his emotions! leaning against the mirror in frustration, his head pressing against the cold glass staring point blank into his eyes,he tries once more to recall what his mind has sealed staring into himself.

The lighting fixture suddenly makes a searing electrical noise as voltage super powers its way into it's wiring, causing the whole room to suddenly blast itself in blinding white light before a loud electrical sound can be heard throughout the building and the light blasts the room in an almost otherworldly vivid green light. Snapping out of his inner debate he stares up at the lighting fixture, half covering his eyes as he confusedly tries to make out what's going on, not sure what to make of the strange light and noises coming from within the light fixture. Like the electric currents are singing to him in an eerie melodic way which somehow feel comforting to him at this alarming time. The feeling is stunted by the sliding sound of the heavy electronic doors whipping open revealing an out of breath woman awkwardly tightening her belt dressing into her military uniform hurriedly. '' Tidane! It's another fuck'n bio blast!'' she shouts half to him and half to herself.

.............T I D a n e

''It feels like only yesterday when we were last hit with one of them fuckers!'' she sighs, ''There goes my beauty sleep for the night!''. She finishes tacking on her militant belts before realizing Tidane has been staring up at the light fixture this whole time. ''Dane? You even listening to me!''...He shakes his head ''can you hear that song?'' he asks her, his eyes still focused on the glowing light fixture before it suddenly dissipates into darkness and the song with it. Tidane snaps out of it and looks over to the woman standing by the light switch with an impatient on her face ''Lets go already!''. He nods before grabbing a vest and weapon from the locker ready to face the attacking force above the base.

Following the woman in a worried panic Tidane makes his way through the weaves of corridors and closed doors all of which have an occupied interface barred across the mid sections. ''where is everyone and why are all the doors shut!?'' he shouts towards her as another jolt of energy shakes the foundations of the base in a deep roar of heavy electrical currents that vibrates his skull and leaves an almost shivering sensation to his organs. Losing his footing Tidane regains his balance by pushing himself off one of the doors. Every time one of the blasts hits the base all light fixtures surge brightly then shut off into blackness while the doors occupied signs flash to a bright green ERROR sign before the lights flash back on and the doors remain occupied once again.

The woman leading him completely ignores his question and begins to take up a faster pace, jogging around the bends of the corridors and up some stairs where shouting and firing of guns can be heard. Reaching the top of the stairs reveals a large violent looking opening on one side of the wall, created by one of the explosions he thinks to himself. The woman is standing on one side of the makeshift exit preparing herself for combat. Outside the gaping hole a valley of sand and a village can be seen in the distance, shrouded in smoke and flashes of gunfire. In the very far distance a silhouette of a pyramid can be seen ominously dominating the landscape looking almost as dangerous as the war zone they are about to sprawl into.

''At least give me your name!?'' Tidane demands of the impatient woman. A sharp look of pain floods across her face as she looks into his eyes for a second before facing back to her gun, slamming a clip of ammunition into it... ''Lauran''.

Mass Effect Madness!

I love Mass Effect, its no secret, the game gives me hope for the future of gaming as does it's developer Bioware. For the past 7 months or so I have been practicing using oil paints and what better topic than Mass Effect! My goal is to have an entire wall dedicated to the game in my soon to be cinema/game/awesome room of badassery.

Speaking of Bioware, they recently held a competition for best fan art held at this years ComicCon which I happily came a close first! :) I was over the moon! The Garrus oil painting took the N7 award for best overall Mass Effect fan art. Wow, seriously was amazing! Here is the video!

Watch live streaming video from biowaretv at livestream.com

I was blown away by how many comments and likes it got on the facebook page for Mass Effect 2! :O

If that werent good enough, I also came 2nd in the Fan Favourite section of the competition the following week! Kind of dumbfounded by all this good luck and winning streak! :)

Anyway thought I would share some good news on my end, and as always thankyou to all of you who take the time out your day to read this blog and follows/supports my work, it means the world to me! Here are the Mass Effect Oil Painting series so far! Stay tuned for the rest!

A super 'High Rez' version of Garrus oil painting! Click it for the full painterly gloopiness.

 

And the collection so far!  (not including scraped ones lol!)

Here is a video of me working on the Legion oil painting from start to finish. It took just over 2 hours and I am very sorry about the camera wrestling halfway through, I need a tripod! The music is the amazing Jack Wall and Sam Hulik who composed all the music for the game, this track was dedicated to Legion.

           

My Dad Rob Donaldson

As some of you know by now my father Rob Donaldson recently passed away to cancer. Most of you probably don't know this but he was one of the reasons I started my career as an artist as he was one too so this post is for sharing some of his work with you.

 One of my favourite pieces my dad sculpted, the powerful Leo!

I used to watch my dad work on his artwork all day and night, which obviously started me off in my own art endeavours. I have memories of him working on life size waxwork figures which always amazed me by how lifelike he made them, which was kind of freaky at the time but also inspiring and what got me interested in special effects for horror films.

Scary stuff! Love it!

Dad never really 'taught' me how to draw or paint but suggested new ways of thinking when putting pencil to paper. Don't think of the object as a 'thing' but a series of shapes, draw around the object and not on the object. Negative spaces etc etc, which made me try and think of new ways to approach things, and thinking as out of the box as I could to create something different.

He loved to draw from mother nature, always saying there is nothing better to draw as it is as perfect as can be. Every day he went out for long walks across the countryside, to draw and get away from the noisy life. His room has two massive boxes full up to the brim of sketchbooks that he has completed over the last ten years or so, which was great to look through and read his comments as it brought him back in a way.It definitely made me think I should begin to fill up some sketchbooks of my own and keep them somewhere safe so my relatives or soon to be son's or daughters can read through them.

Here are a few pages from his sketchbooks

He was never really an 'artist' looking type but preferred it that way, proving that you cant go by looks alone in this life, to really get to know someone you need to talk to them. One thing that also surprised me time and time again was his ability to adapt to any situation, artistically and with life in general, moving from sculpting a horse for the Queen of England, to tattooing for the general public he was always trying new things to make ends meet and generally just for fun!

 

Onwards and Upwards!

He loved to pose! haha!

The past year or so he came to writing his biography, and here are a few poems taken from it. Eventually I will be getting it published as a whole book with a lot of his artwork filling the pages. 

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“OPEN YOUR MIND”

Open your eyes----before you shut them, don’t shut your minds, before you know them, give them a chance…you know?  to know them! …so open your eyes and minds before you shut them.

“FRIENDS”

Don’t be lonely, don’t be scared, life is sharing, love and caring. Though we stand, alone in being, we are one, in thoughts of friendship, our thoughts are bonding in strength as one, for on our own, the voice is gone----but with our friends, the voice is strong.

“POWER”

The stupidity of power amazes me! Their pomposity astounds and niggles me, they run around like jester clowns, they lift their noses up and down, they speak!---but they do not hear----their thoughts are for them, and how they appear, they live for themselves, they let no one in, for they hate you “little man” for you are a “thing”.

“ETERNITY”

Time is to be natures gain, and again, till time has gained, and gained again, till the blossoms fall no more, and the seas stand still, with the light-----till the light goes out.

By Rob Donaldson

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We will be holding an exhibition of his work soon to come, which is something he asked of me shortly before he died. Here are a few pieces of his work:

 

One thing he loved was people, and being a tattooist brought him to many people through his later years. As long as you were nice to him, he was nice to you, as it should be! One thing he hated more than anything was people's views on tattooing and how it can't be art, or you cant be a real artist because your just a 'tattooist'.

I think it was mainly the whole stereotype thing that society seems to hold close to its heart these days. It takes someone to raise there voice to be heard or your just what they think you are based on looks and a title as my dad used to say. He said time and time again that he felt like a psychiatrist helping his customers not just with there tattoo but there life problems, and usually with good effect! They walked away with a different outlook on life as they used to say after speaking with my dad.

It was great to see a tattoo look like something out of a sketchbook and not just a traced pattern!

Near the end he did curse the arts a few times, mainly for all the time it 'stole' away from him which was strange considering how passionate he was about it all though I am not sure he really meant it. He was watching a program on holidays and said he should have been spending a lot of his time traveling and experiencing places like that instead of painting. I think we will all be like that in the end, thinking about the what ifs. I guess there really isn't enough time for anyone on this planet to experience everything they want to do, but one thing I am certain of is that my dad definitely made an impact on a lot of people and will live on through them and through everything he achieved with his art.

 This was one of his last pieces of sculpture dad made showing Christ, which he found strange as he was in no way a religious man and I found notes to himself in his sketchbook asking himself why he even did it in the first place. I think it was his mind trying to tell him something was wrong.

The last piece of work he did was of this sleeping chimp which he found completely ironic feeling as worn out as he did near the end. It's definitely strange these last two sculpts of his and makes you wonder.

Reminders to myself that my dad used to always say to me...

ANATOMY SEAN! Study more anatomy! :)
Don't draw something for no reason, make sure there is a point to something you are drawing.
Always carry a sketchbook!

Shortly after his death I decided to paint a portrait of him to have at the funeral. All of his self portraits were always showing him in a more moody light which he really wasn't most of the time! So this is how we all remember him...smiling and upbeat.

Conan The Barbarian! Raw!

Well, I spent a good 6 hours(ish) on this painting. It's for a competition held at Empire Magazine to create a Conan poster ready for the next film coming out in August. Stupidly I got the time wrong for submission and thought it was meant to be in for the 2nd of August so rushed it in places! Doh! It's actually for the 5th so still have a week to work on it in Photoshop. I did tweak some of the lighting and blurring in Photoshop for now and will add some more nice detailes throughout the week on my lunchbreaks.

Anyway, it was a fun one to work on while listening to some epic music! I kinda felt like Conan smashing the paint at the canvas in a mad rush to finish haha! Will update it with some Photoshop magic by Friday next week. Cheers for looking!

Clyde The Obese Evil Cat

Meet Clyde...

He has an eating disorder which is dispicably evil, as he is. Clyde devours all in his way leaving behind mass kitty food destruction! His evil slobbingness must be put to an end and Epic Fish knows it.

The last straw for Epic Fish was when Clyde ate one of his many long term goldfish girlfriends Blee.

Epic Fish is mad...

Really mad...

Grrr

*insert epic music here*

-made in photoshop over many hours between work-

Projects make the mind go round

I’m a project kind of guy in that I like to have some focus and an end point for the artwork I produce. Some of my nights are spent typing on the computer, thinking up big ideas that may or may not come to fruition… though hopefully a couple will!

The Epic fish project is just one of these projects, while one of the others is much more horror themed; my favourite genre mixed slightly with sci fi aspects.

The other project will be focussing on a much more futuristic setting, but playing out like an old school fantasy adventure, think future spec ops but character classes being much more fantasy genred; Rogue, warrior, wizard, elf, dwarf.

Why not just start one poject and stick with it? Diversity. I could just keep painting cartoon stylistic paintings all day every day but I could see myself gradually wanting to try something different. So that’s the reason for a few different projects to keep me busy with. The Epic Fish project is most definetely a much easier  project to work on with the scope of what needs to be visualized, so expect quite a few paintings from that series coming soon. Not sure if anyone really reads these blogs, but it’s nice to remind myself of the plan either way.