[jerO]

I'm trying to pick up some freelance work for the upcoming 40k CCG.

This was my current submission, and will be showing some more stuff at the San Diego Comic Con.

Just seeing if this gives the right information or anything.

I gave hardcopy to the Designer at Games Day in Baltimore, but haven't heard back from the Art Director, who will be in San Diego.

In the meantime, i'm trying to get some more quick pieces done, and will put them in here as they progress.

Anyone here done card art?

thanks,
jerO

[Ken McCracken]

These cards look pretty damn good to me. Hope you get some work.

[Dryfire]

cool cool cool

[kaylon]

Don't wanna get ya down..But I worked for Games Workshop for 3 years...started actually in the Retail side a store manager here in the UK and was lucky enough to be able to do some work for warhammer fantasy 3rd edition just before I left.

Now..GW...they don't actually do freelance much anymore...not for the last 4 or 5 years, The only chap still on a freelance basis Is Kev...Kevin Walker.

So you would have to be VERY good...not saying your work is not good ..But you would have to be to par with Kev to be considered.

Now I'm only saying this from the UKside of things...but as GW is a UK company I would assume that it would also apply anywhere else.

So...you'd be best to maybe try for Fulltime work..not freelance if you wanna get into GW. But again, they do have a very High spec for submissions.

Keep at it.

Kay .

[jerO]

Ken and Dryfire, thanks guys.

Kaylon. Cool man... or... uncool depending on your experience with them i guess.

Sorry i guess i wasn't clear before.
This isn't actually _for_ GW, it's for Sabertooth Games. A bunch of guys split off
from Wizards of the Coast and got the rights from GW to do a Collectible Card Game.
here's a link: i'm not greedy.
here's Sabertooth's site

Currently they're also doing a lot of outsourcing though their new publishing arm The Black Library too.
But yeah, i'm not on par for anything like that yet, gotta get more "proper illustration" samples under my belt.
I talked to Marc Gascione a lot when i was in Baltimore and got a lot of good info though.

Bleachh, sorry about that ramble.

So, given the current set of samples i've got on there, do you think there's any way to improve presentation in general?
I'll be adding more color stuff soon, should i make another set of pages,
or try to rework the current set and keep it short?

thanks,
jerO

[ July 15, 2001: Message edited by: jerO ]

[ChaosArk]

I vote for more pages - focus on different things for the different pages; initial sketches through finished piece (pick your fav/best) for one sheet. Sketches on another. And colored work on the next, etc, blah, blah...

Lookin good bro.

[kaylon]

As far as submissions go...get some variation in there..the sample above is just Eldar and Orcs...Now..if this is the focus of the card game GREAT!...if not do some focused work around what the need.

Sketches are one thing, development pics are nice, but you need some fully rendered individual peaces either B&W or colour.

One other word of advice and its something im trying to do myself atm, but HARDEN up...your color rendering is very soft and blurry...not a bad technique for fairytale stuff...but for 40K it needs to be hard and gritty...try and find some samples done by Kevin Walker, maybe look at his ABC warrior stuff fot Titan books and 2000AD. Also have a look for illustrations done by Mark Gibbons...of Games workshop.

[jerO]

ChaosArk. Cool, currently that image is actually a front/back piece in a mylar sleeve.
I'll try and get enough done to fill another then so it's 2 pages front/back.

Kaylon: Thanks for sticking with me here.
I am currently working on some more Ork stuff because that's what Ryan
said they were having trouble getting past GW (kept kicking work becaus the orks didn't look "right").
So i was trying to get them down.
I see your point though, and i'll make sure to get some Tyranid/Guard stuff in there,
since those are the next expansions.

You're right about rendering quality.
that's one of the reasons i'm so stoked about this thread:
Tutorial Info (techno assassin)
Since he's got a fully rendered B&Wimage as his key...
haven't really thought about doing that before, just stuck with contours.
So i'm going to try that, and have been looking at a lot of Adrian Smith's work re: crispness.

Actually, Mark Gibbon's style of doing stuff fits in very well with the above technique, i think.
Any idea what that guy's doing now? Haven't seen him in forever, he's not at GW anymore.

BTW, i picked up the Jes Goodwin sketchbook at Games Day, it's awesome.
-jerO

[ July 17, 2001: Message edited by: jerO ]

[ July 17, 2001: Message edited by: jerO ]

[jerO]

I sketched out some more stuff tonight, and i think i'll work on the Tyranid Warrior (big guy in the middle) traditionally, maybe do some ink washes on it or something after i clean it up.

I'll post that when i get it inked.


[ July 19, 2001: Message edited by: jerO ]

[jerO]

cool, i finished something.
Well, a phase anyway.
Here's the cleaned-up Warrior:

I ended up just tracing the original onto a sheet of comic book board and shading it a bit there.
Blah Blah, i'll edit it later.
Time to start working on color.

[ChaosArk]

lookin sweet man. Only one crit - I think he just broke his left ankle...

[Molotov]

Oh! Cool! Looks familiar! Is this a next level of zerg mutation? I would like to call it a "protozerg", some hybrid of zerg and protoss hehe
Keep it up, i like it.

[jerO]

CArk: Okay you're driving ALL THE WAY down to SD buddy, and i'm sleepin' hehe.

Molotov: err.. umm... there's this tenuous visual relationship between Games Workshop and Blizzard that i dont want to approach here. hehe.

Okay here's the first pass color on him
(you say it's dark ark, and i'm gonna eat powdered donuts in your Jetta)

[ChaosArk]

NOOO!!!! Not powdered donuts!! It's not dark - I SWEAR!!! it's blinding me. BLINDING ME, I say!!



Finish it chumpie.

[ July 19, 2001: Message edited by: ChaosArk ]

[Molotov]

Nice, very nice. I like these colors.
I expect you to place some highlights on his armor, huh?

[jerO]

hehe and the "what was he thinking?" award goes to:
ME!


It's late, i'm not thinking clearly, and i can't paint fire to save my life.
Good thing i'm not currently in danger.

I'll try to do a better job of marrying him with the background tomorrow.
Could be a completely different background.
Should be a completely different background.
heh.
nytol

[tone]

AWESOME CREATURE. When I first saw it my jaw hit the floor.

[kaylon]

Looking nice jerO . Tyranids suit you heheh.

Kay .

[jerO]

*wipes the sleep out of his eyes*

Molotov: hehe i think the highlights got lost in all the crappy fire LOL

tone: Wish i could take credit for the core design.
Jes Goodwin is the man. (arm configuration and pose are mine though)

Kaylon: you mean because i'm Big&Ugly and can't stop eating?
hahahaha. Thanks. It's definately easier to do this
than it is to get an Ork head "right".
I'm actually ver suprised how easily the pencil rendering ended up being.

No more changes until tonight i think, but i'll keep yammerin' about it
if you guys will keep hitting me with Crit.

So i guess i'm off to Craig's site to "borrow" some fire techniques.

[jerO]

I'm a big slacker and i never made it to craig's page so i just faked it again as usual.
Here's the third page of samples now:



and... ummm... fire away.
hehe fire.
fire FIRE.

[jerO]

Better, Worse?

based on more feedback, some more tweakage:

starting to feel like i'm spinning my wheels.
Wonder if i'll ever "get it".

[m703-324]

nice character... really
but
no forground, no background
no perspective, no clear shapes
no clear lightsource

sorry, you have to work on it for some more...maybe if you're trying to get job as an character designer... you should do more stuff without background adn with very well defined and clear shapes

the drawing part is pretty good.. i like that left huge "claw-wing-whatever" .. it has perspective

[leat hacksaw]

i think forget the whole 'dark woods' theme - go for a lighter backgound, to bring out the warrior a bit - it just cos hes darker coloured, and so its hard to distinguish him from the background....

oh, and btw, split blue armour and bright red blood goes very well with snow and tyranids (hint hint )

[jerO]

m703- Thanks man... really.
Doing background stuff and making
the whole image work is what i'm having
the most trouble with (as you can see).
That and lighting.
Do you think the character is just "too flat"
to actually ever even work in a fully rendered painting?
The problem i'm running into here is that i'm trying to make some stuff that works as a "here's this kind of creature" sample, yet try and fit it in a valid environment.
Somewhere between the top two color pieces in my first post and the bottom one on the same image.

Lighting.. ehh... yeah. i'm having issues there too.

Leat- I've given that some thought as well.
This background kinda just gre outta some random brushstrokes and was never really desingned (and it shows i guess).
Having some fallen ultras would probably help the piece. Guess i should do some quick Macragge research. I like your snow idea, and since i've got almost all this stuff on layers still it should be that hard to make a variant.
I'll give that a shot.

I'm sitting here looking at my Tyranid Codex cover going "how did he pull that off?". Hadn't even thought of it, but it's kind of a similar lighting setufp.
oh well...

[jerO]

Hey Leat, i'm taking your advice and starting over in the snow.

I started a new WIP thread because this is going very wide of the topic.


Big Bug in the Snow thread is here

[ August 01, 2001: Message edited by: jerO ]