Dominance War vs. Top Chef

It's tough to find a good restaurant in hell these days.

But before you go running off to one of the major family-style chains or (God forbid) McDonalds, why not see if you can book a reservation at the original Hell's Kitchen? It's the 500 story mecha-lossus with the rotating observation deck on its head.

sketchnotes :


I was originally going to submit the mechanical, soul-driven "Hell's Kitchen" and its demented pilot/chef "Necronomicook" as my Dominance War IV entry, but found this annoying little warning while re-skimming the rules...

"Races and Character Classes: (choose only one. No combinations of any sort are allowed.)

Boo.

Well, anyone who knows me knows what I think of rules. So, as I did last year, I think I'll do my own version of Dominance War, where it's more like Top Chef* and warring factions fight for supremacy in the field of ghoulish gastronomy. That'll show 'em!

...Or I could just do Necronomicook a standalone, organic character, with pots, pans, ovens and chimneys jammed into him where horns should be.

* My wife watches Top Chef, not me.

brainstorming + doodles

The drawing at the bottom left springboarded from an idea I had for a giant Nazi mecha that's basically a mobile concentration camp. I immediately realized how offensive this was, so now it's a hell-mech with a weary procession of the damned weaving its way into an enormous internal combustion engine. Wonder if they'd let me do this for Dominance War...

lifedrawing log - 03.16.09

Back at it like a ravenous dog...tried pushing the pose of the far right one -- a nice way to fill the time if you happen to finish up early.

Far left drawing has a little thumbnail of something I picked up from Michael Mentler at The Society of Figurative Arts -- that it's bad to shade in the negative area on the side the light is coming from. Creates two competing patches of dark that flattens out the picture. I'd been carelessly doing this for years, and am glad someone finally corrected me.

lifedrawing log - 03.15.09

Attended Massive Black's South by Southwest party last night. Concept art + beer + dubstep = win! Some figure drawing I did before coming out to mingle...

Great advice from my crazy-skilled cousin Becky :

"...you might want to try forcing your shadows/values darker as you lay in the drawing...Having the front edge of your shadow shapes darker will help make your shadows more developed."

honker - color

lifedrawing log - 03.14.09

Ugh...I'm having an easier time laying down simple, decisive value treatments in my thumbnails (page, midtone, dark), but for whatever reason can't bring myself to press down as hard on the larger drawings. Perhaps it's because I spend more time laying in features and then don't want to risk demolishing them. In any case, today was a successful exercise in planning, but a failure in execution. Next time I'll take a bigger risk.

Thanks Miss Monster!!!!

Ah wuvs mah new t-shirt!
Visit missmonster.com to buy yourself one of these necro-delic badboys!!!

topsy turvy

another non-Darksiders doodle from the drafting table here at work

lifedrawing log - 03.10.09

Took a proportions class at The Society of Figurative Arts, and followed it up with a couple lifedrawing sessions. Big thanks to Michael Mentler for his many insights and crits.

honker

Waitin' for the game to load...

Dante's Inferno

Looked at the Dante's Inferno promotion and tried to ape a Barlowe concept...forgot the neck labia and eye-mouths! Seriously, Wayne Barlowe is the master of whacked out shit you'd never, ever think of combining. "Sure, put some frog arms on him. And stubble."

Today's speed painting...

I'm not exactly a wizard at these...more of a line whore. But people demand color! It's what plants crave!

The small version I up-resed to work on is actually a better design than what I wound up with (even if everything looks cooler in magenta). That's what I get for listening to my officemate Phu and making his cannon smaller! Lesson learned : when it doubt, stick with your thumbnail!

Paintings : easy to start, hard to finish.

Insane props to Robogabo for being so damned good at this kind of stuff.