Art and Updates!

I have such a backlog of things to show but every time I make something new I find myself showing it first... I'm sure you don't mind as long as you see the progress. Now I've been doing a lot of thinking (the kind done in images) and I found myself trying out a new style which takes a huge amount of time out of the artwork. It's important because as I'm the only one working on this project between real work and other commitments I have to find a way of producing art at a high standard without taking a decade over it. There is a lot of art to go in and getting the style right isn’t just a matter of aesthetics but also a matter of practicality. The following is an unfinished concept for the Kingdom of Codes and I've done it completely different from my usual as you can see...

Kingdom of Codes Concept for Hadron Gateway

It's not a watertight image, with little mistakes and inconsistencies here and there but I don’t mind because it’s been more of an exercise than anything and if I use it in the final game then I can always tidy it up. So if it’s quicker to do and looks good why not just go with it? Well... I would like to keep the playful cartoon feel that the art has had up till now for various reasons, however, I see no reason that I couldn't marry the two styles together with a little experimentation. I'll really have to think about it.

Moving swiftly on...

3D Code-Spawn for Hadron Gateway

As you can see it’s a Code-Spawn! It’s very strange to see it looking so lifelike. This is my very first go at 3D sculpting (now that I finally have a laptop capable of running the software) and I'm pretty pleased with it. There’s the odd bump here and there but I'm not going to be too fussy since this is just for my own reference. I gave one screenshot a very quick scribble with colour to give you a better idea of how it might look.

3D Laythan for Hadron Gateway

3D Laythan for Hadron Gateway

My second attempt was Laythan. He didn't go quite as well but he still came pretty close. I can see what I would like to change but I am having troubles dealing with the limitations of Sculptris so I've settled with it. Obviously I didn't spend time on the hair and neck but they are just there for reference. I would like to have sculpts that closely resemble the three main characters to aid my drawing so it definitely serves a good purpose!
So how do you feel seeing them 3D?

I haven’t written anything since early January because I'm suffering a bit of the dreaded writers block and unfortunately it’s not something that can be forced. So I've been working on the designs for the peripheral characters and really trying to get the feel for all the different races. I won’t be completing them in colour for a while but I might upload the sketches at some point if you request them.