"The Beast and His Beauty" Revised

So here's a revised version of my recent picture "The Beast and His Beauty". Once again a special thanks to Derek Herring
for helping me along with this and giving me great suggestions. It's due to his suggestions that I decided to move that strand of hair from her mouth and I think it really helped alot! Hope you guys enjoy!

"The Beast and his Beauty" WIPs

Here are some WIPs of my latest piece "The Beast and His Beauty". Hope you enjoy!

The Beast and His Beauty

Here's a little video I made for the "Reel Thing", a student art competition at the Art Institute of Colorado. Hope you enjoy!

TMNT vs Zombies Video

Here's a little video I made for the "Reel Thing", a student art competition at the Art Institute of Colorado. Hope you enjoy!

Skeletor

Here's a little video I made for the "Reel Thing", a student art competition at the Art Institute of Colorado. Hope you enjoy!

The Beauty and His Beast

It's finally finished!!!!!

So for those of you that like to keep up on this sort of stuff I finally finished my "A Taste of Things to Come" picture!This is without a doubt the most intense piece of art, digital or traditional, that I've ever done in my life!

This was a great learning exercise and I have to thank the amazing Derek Herring


for pushing me to go beyond my typical paintings and really render this thing out as tight as I possibly could!

Sadly this piece took forever to complete, mainly because of school work (oh Maya and 3ds max, you do take up so much of my time don't you, oh and then there was the TMNT vs Zombies storyboard). Nevertheless I finally finished it after a month and 50 hours to work!

One of the main problems I had for completing this was that I redid the dragon's head 3 times! yet it was good and it worked out to the best of my abilities in the end.

As far as the picture goes, I had this idea that this warrior night elf was rescuing her imprisoned dragon. I envisioned the dragon as being a lich dragon and having a rock like quality to his scales, not the typical lizard scales you normally see. I wanted it to be very large textured protrusions so I hope I nailed it

I'm still nowhere near where I want to be but I feel like this is the first piece that I've attempted where I've gotten close. There's a lot more to do but I'll get there eventually!

Hope you enjoy!

Created in Photoshop CS4 from start to finish.


This image is copyrighted to Blake Henriksen and may not be copied, reproduced, or transmitted in any way without my express written consent.

School Storyboards

Just some rough storyboards i did for my story-boarding class a couple of months back. We were working with inks and copic markers, a change from my normally digital work flow.

3D Maya Interior

Here's an assignment I recently completed for my first Maya class, it's nothing spectacular but, eh, it's work so I'll post it :)

As you can tell from this scene I'm not much of a modeler (or texture artist, or lighter LOL)! I definitely have no idea how to light realistically without Mental Ray and since my instructor didn't want us to use it....voila, crappy lighting...and textures too but I guess i can't blame that on Mental Ray now can I :)

Anyways, next quarter I've got a class on texturing and lighting so I think I'll be able to make some major and much needed improvements there. I'm also shooting to learn a lot over Christmas break, so while I'm not really a modeler, texture artist, or lighter hopefully I'll get a little closer to being those in the upcoming year :)

TMNT Page 1 Process

So if you're interested I put together a quick little piece showcasing my process for creating Page 1 of TMNT vs Zombies.

After the initial thumbnail stage (which is not shown) I went into Photoshop to do my rough layout. I found it to be really helpful because I could use the line tool to set up my perspective grid, something that is oh so tedious and ever boring done tradtionally.

I then used a light box with my rough layout to complete the finished pencils.

The next step involved scanning my finished pencils into Photoshop at 360 pixels/inch. From there I separated the line art and then began painting on a layer beneath the line art as well as above it. This helps to give a unique painterly colored look to it and a fun hybrid of traditional and digital art.

Finally I used Photoshop's shape tools to create the boxes and lettered them accordingly.

Hope you enjoyed looking at the process :)

TMNT Page 1 Colored and Text

As promised, I'm posting my final page that I created for TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...As if you didn't know) vs Zombies.

Here's the lettered version, hope you enjoy

If you're curious, it took me a total of about 30 hours to complete, from thumbnails, rough layout, pencils, digital paint, and lettering.

All work besides traditional pencils was completed in Photoshop CS4.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are Copyrighted to Mirage Studios and their respective owners.

TMNT Page 1 Colored

As promised, I'm posting my final page that I created for TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...As if you didn't know) vs Zombies.

This was a project for my storyboarding class, specifically our graphic novel project. Sadly I did not get to complete more than one page. However, since I wrote, illustrated, digitally painted, and lettered the story I think I'll be able to get away with the one page ;)

I was going for the feel that Christian Lichtner had in Ultimates Volume 3 when he colored Joe Madureira's work with a little bit of a blend of Danimation's work in Iron and the Maiden. While they inspired me I think I was able to bring my own feel to this project and I must admit I had a blast! Though I definitely admire all you people out there that do comics entirely by yourself! Man, it's a lotta work!

In the end I'd say this was crazy fun and if I could control a comic from the beginning to end like this, man it would be fun and rewarding! I gotta say too, just adding color totally takes some basic line work and brings it to the next level!

If you're curious, it took me a total of about 30 hours to complete, from thumbnails, rough layout, pencils, digital paint, and lettering.

All work besides traditional pencils was completed in Photoshop CS4.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are Copyrighted to Mirage Studios and their respective owners.

A Taste of Things to Come II

So what's been holding me up from finishing my first "A Taste of Things to Come"? Well, since the quarters coming to a close I've been swamped with Homework, especially since I'm learning Maya. Also Thanksgiving didn't help out much either since I visited family and didn't have a chance to get any work done, since I was without a computer . Mainly though it's been this piece for my story boarding class.

I've already posted the pencils and I'm almost finished with the colors. It's kind of my attempt at reproducing what Christian Lichtner did in Ultimates volume 3 and what Danimation did in Aspen's Iron and the Maiden.

Anyways, between homework for other classes, penciling this project, and painting it, I'm sadly only going to be able to one page for class. However, my teacher said I could go as detailed as I want So I figure between layouts, penciling, painting, and adding letters this one page will have taken me a total of 28-30 hours. So yeah, I don't think anyone else took that long so I should be able to get a good grade

I'll post the final tomorrow in all it's glory! Until then, I hope you enjoy this small little taste!

A Taste of Things to Come

Here's just a small taste of something that I'm working on, a little WIP, more to come soon....

TMNT vs Zombies Page 1

So here's a little something that's been taking up my time for the past two days. It's a homework assignment for my story boarding class, which obviously is a comic book page. I figured what would be cooler than to mix TMNT and Zombies! So I'm gonna color it up (thing Joe Madureira and Christian Lichtners style on the 3rd volume of Ultimates), and then add some word balloons and what not. Hopefully I'll be able to do 2 pages but we'll see; I'm outta town for Thanksgiving so sadly I won't have access to Photoshop Anyways, It's kinda weird to be drawing with a pencil again, I'm usually all digital now, but it's nostaligic. It reminds me of when all I wanted to be was a comic artist We'll I'll have the color posted up next week!

Skeletor WIP's

So here's my WIPs for Skeletor. Hopefully this will help some beginning digital painters as they can see the process I use for digital painting in Photoshop.

Skeletor-With Eyes

I wasn't sure which one I liked better, though I lean towards no eyes, so I thought I'd post both.

Skeletor- No Eyes

So I've had the urge lately to reminisce on my childhood and since He-man was such a big part of that part of my life I thought it would be fun to do something from that era, hence the totally evil Skeletor.

I thought it would be fun to do something in a film aspect ratio and I've been trying to work on more dynamic lighting as well. Hopefully the colors show up decent as it's hard to know how other people's monitors are calibrated. I also thought it would be fun to make it look like a movie poster as well, a fun little touch :)

I really wanted it to be like Skeletor was in deep contemplation, perhaps after just being defeated yet again by He-man.

One thing that I've recently thought is funny about Skeletor is that he's really an eternal optimist, always believing that he's one battle away from reaching his life goals (something positive that we can learn from him LOL)!

This took around 10 hours to complete from start to finish in Photoshop CS4, hope you enjoy!

Jack O Lantern WIPs

This piece shows my process through digital painting from rough line art sketch in Photoshop to final piece. Hopefully this might give some beginners out there one way that you can tackle digital painting, though there are certainly many ways and no one correct way out there. Hope you enjoy!

Witch WIPs

This piece shows my process through digital painting from rough line art sketch in Photoshop to final piece. Hopefully this might give some beginners out there one way that you can tackle digital painting, though there are certainly many ways and no one correct way out there. Hope you enjoy!

Heavy Metal Jack O Lantern

So here's a pick I felt inspired to do because of Halloween. I felt like doing a monster pic would be fun since I haven't done one in a while. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Halloween 2

So I felt inspired to do something that would capture the spirit of the season, hence a witch Hope you all like. I couldn't figure out if I wanted her with glasses or not, so you can compare and tell me what you think. Also, working with some different brushes as I've been trying to get more texture into my pictures. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween

So I felt inspired to do something that would capture the spirit of the season, hence a witch Hope you all like. I couldn't figure out if I wanted her with glasses or not, so you can compare and tell me what you think. Also, working with some different brushes as I've been trying to get more texture into my pictures. Enjoy!

3d Animation Final

This is my final for my first 3D animation Class. The specs for the final assignment were for it to be 20 seconds long, rendered to frames and tell some sort of a story. Since I'm not a master by any means yet with 3D I chose to animate two swords fighting.

Created in 3ds max, rendered with Mental Ray and com posited in Adobe Premiere CS4. Sound FX courtesy of Hollywoood Edge Sound FX. Music copyrighted to Nickelback.

Hulk Zbrush Sculpt

Woohoo! This is my 2nd Zbrush sculpt ever which I turned in as my final for my Hard Surface and Organic modeling class. I sculpted it entirely from Z Spheres too

It's definitely closer to what I was envisioning though certainly not what I wanted. Still, I learned a lot through the process and I look forward to continuing to build on my sculpting skills. Zbrush definitely makes 3D fun

Hulk is copyrighted to Marvel...hmmm, or is it Disney. Oh well either way it's theirs not mine

This Little Piggie Character Designs

These are some character designs that I'm doing for my next and final animation of this quarter. The assignment is to do an animation based on a nursery rhyme.

Ninja Character Designs

This is an old character mock-up that I did for my ninja animation. As you can see I was debating about which color palette to go with.

Fish Love

An animation that I created for school, my first attempt at lip syncing.

Beans Animation

This is something that I did for one of my animation classes, completed in Photoshop CS4 and After Effects CS4. Obviously the audio is not mine and is copyrighted to it's respected owners, as stated at the end of the animation.

Mr Quinn, I'm here for Harley

Here's a little something I whipped up while at a student to student learning seminar at school. It was fun to do while I listened. I kind of imagined the Joker coming to pick Harley Quinn up for a date. A fun little experiment. Hop you enjoy

5 hours in Photoshop CS4

Joker copyright DC Comics

Jawa Sandcrawler

An assignment for Hard Surface and Organic Modeling, the topic human transport vehicle. I chose the Jawa Sandcrawler from Star Wars A New Hope. About 20 Hours to model and render in 3ds Max with ambient occlusion. Once again, you just gotta love those render times at 300 dpi :(

Kitchen Interior

Here's a little something that I did for Hard Surface and Organic Modeling class. About 20 hours total in 3ds Max .(Rendering at 8.5"x11" and 300 dpi is a real pain :)

Ninja Animation

Here's my midterm for my animation class. Just something fun using a combination of Photoshop CS4, After Effects CS4 and Toon Boom 4.5. Sound effects courtesy of Hollywood Edge Sound FX. Music "Der Meister" by Rammstein.

Sketchin

I rarely do traditional sketching anymore thanks to my healthy obsession with Photoshop Here's a little doodle I did last weekend, just playing around with a concept and some new texture brushes that I created.

About 30 minutes in Photoshop CS4. Hope you enjoy !

Psycho Prom Queen

So here's my submission for the Psycho Prom Queen Character of the Week over at Conceptart.org. Sadly I didn't have time to work on the coloring but it was pretty fun and I learned a lot while experimenting with some new texture brushes.

12 hours in Photoshop CS4

Lich Dragon Boss Monster

So I just started up an account on Conceptart.org since I really want to take part in their weekly challenges. Here's my first attempt, a Litch Dragon Boss Monster. It was really fun to do and I was glad that I finished it in 10 hours. I keep trying to get faster and faster so it's paying off Hope you enjoy!

10 hours from start to finish in Photoshop CS4

Copyright Blake Henriksen