This is a recent portfolio study looking at ideas of beauty, age, vanity, and surgery. Partly inspired by the Bulwer-Lytton quote above.

I was also intrigued to see if viewcount on certain digital portfolio websites would be increased by the provocative nature of parts of the image. Over the course of two days at Cgtalk the painting has had over 1400 views compared to the average viewcount of around 300. I hope that the increase is due to the quality of concept rather than anything else…

Comments much appreciated!

Originally painted at 4872 x 2960 in Photoshop CS3 with a variety of custom brushes.

You can see a medium resolution version and some closeups below.

My Commander Norton project was recently featured in 3d Artist magazine. I’ve included a quick image of the article- apologies for the low quality, I’ll update it when I can get a scan (rather than a photograph).

All being well the magazine will feature the final Norton image as a follow up article over the next few months.

Thanks to Sarah Slee for spotting my work in progress thread over at CGTalk and getting in contact. If you’ve missed Commander Norton, I’ve included some images below:

I recently created a brand sting video for E4, an Esting.

I’ve included a couple of work in progress images below, and some high res versions.

I recently submitted an entry for the Creatures & Critters competition over at CgCoach.com. His name is Atlas.

“When the Island finally collapsed into the great sea over one hundred of the greatest minds were offered refuge upon the back of the turtles. Over three hundred years have passed since, and only two of the turtles remain. Atlas bears Palinor, the Island’s most powerful high sorcerer.”

Atlas is a giant sea turtle standing roughly fifty men tall. Now just under four hundred years old he travels the sea with his friend Palinor, who lives in his house on the back of Atlas’ shell. To aid Atlas’ terrible backache he has constructed two walking sticks, which help him to support the huge weight of his shell.

It’s been a fantastic competition with a great community spirit, I’ll definitely try to stay a regular of their forum and any future competitions.

You can find some concept sketches and a process sheet below.

I’m looking to texture and animate Atlas at some point in the near future, I’ll certainly post an update!

Here’s a turntable:

//slowgolde

I’ve just finished cutting together the latest version of my reel. It’s a broad range of my maya generalist and concept work. Please click on the image below or here to watch the reel.

This is my most recent character study that I initially started as a zsketch but decided to develop into a more finished piece. Facially he isn’t based on any one man, but I was inspired by aged leading actors that still have a physical presence and intensity (Eastwood, Patrick Stewart, late Paul Newman and a touch of Bruce Willis).

As the concept developed I was reminded of a series of books I read as a child- Rendezvous with Rama. Specifically I thought the role of commander Norton fitted the type of character I was trying to depict. Here’s a quick description of Billy Norton:

“Bill Norton is the 55-year-old commander of the spaceship Endeavour. He leads a mission whose task is to explore the alien spacecraft Rama. As a commander, he takes an active role in most of the missions. Just like a true captain, he is always the first one to go in and the last one to come out.

Norton has two wives, who live on different planets. He is traveling through space for most of the time, so he keeps in contact with his spouses by sending them near-carbon copies of his messages. His hero is Captain James Cook, a mythical explorer of the 18th century. He often relies on the imaginary advices of Captain Cook to make important decisions regarding his missions.”

Modelled in Maya and zbrush, rendered with mentalray. The background was made in post. Initially I was displacing the head but found it was killing render times, so I used a midlevel mesh with a 4k normalmap….an awful lot quicker. Rendered at 2800 x 2200, though the final image isn’t that aspect.

I’ve included a few work in progress images below. Commander Norton is due to be featured in the community section of next months 3d Artist magazine. I’ll probably post an update when that is released!

Three pieces of my artwork are featured on the FXpose DVD included with the August edition of Imagine Fx. The Wanderer was awarded image of the day over on their website so the disc editor got in contact and asked for another couple of pieces.

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I recently entered the Don’t Panic competition to create an image that summed up my vision of summer. The image needed to include the entire range of Vitamin Water bottles as well as their branding. On top of that it needed to be scaleable to over 10 metres across, as the winner was to be printed on the side of Cordy house in East London.

My entry was entirely vector based, created in illustrator- which is slightly different to how I usually like to work. There were just over 250 entries and my image finished 3rd in public voting. The final winner was chosen by Stuart Semple. Unfortunately my design wasn’t chosen to be printed on Cordy house…but Semple had this to say regarding my design:

 ”A great response to the brief, yummy vector skills. Light and playful, definitely one of my favorites. A lot of depth and I appreciate all the hard work that must have gone into this.”

I was also invited to the Vitamin Water launch night over at Cordy house- where the finalists (including myself)had their images exhibited. I’ve included a few snaps below.

Finally, thanks to everyone that voted for me

This is a recent image I was commissioned to paint based on La Roque Gageac in France. It is a slight departure from my usual subjects, but was very enjoyable none the less.

It was painted at around 6000 pixels wide as it was for a relatively large physical print. I had a lot of fun with the brush work, particularly on the foliage, so I’ve provided a few closeups.

Here is the wider crop, but I don’t feel the composition works as well as the portrait version.

Finally, the initial thumbnail sketch!

//slowgolde

A recent concept piece exploring themes of binge drinking and alcohol abuse.

It was awarded image of the week at It’s Art  Magazine and featured in their newsletter.

 You can find a medium resolution version here.

Here is the rough work in progress: