on a pale horse

Just a little work in progress shot from something i'm making for next week's Genghis Con Cleveland.

Outer Space Cheesecake!

The title pretty much says it all. "Spacey" here is a sticker that I made (sans background) for an upcoming show. I figured i'd throw on a background and show her off here.

-Tim

The creation of Ringworm: The Beckoning......

Howdy.

Rev here...

I've made it my goal to quit complaining about how I'm too busy to post to the blog...and start posting to the blog.
This is something I worked on for the Breakneck Gallery Rock N' Roll Show on Saturday November 8th. I had fun with this one...letting the pen and brush just wander around and play with textures.
I selected the band Ringworm...because...well...I like their music and the other was...I like the name. So I thought I'd post up some of the roughs and the progression of the work, along with the finished results.
Working on this I went into the bands past album covers for inspiration and listened to the music. As in some cases with metal music, the subject matter can be of questionable subject matter. I'm picky about my metal...I look for bands that have an unusual sound... out of the norm. One image in particular I came a cross was of a young woman...long flowing hair sporting horns. I didn't want to repeat the same image and I didn't necessarily want to use the all to familiar demonic symbols usually associated with some covers.
I began thinking of the the term "ringworm" or rather the skin decease. A disease of the flesh...of rot and decay. I also began thinking of what it must have been like many years ago when the world was much younger...and more naive. Superstition...monsters...demons and ghosts invaded the minds of humans to explain many things we see as a mere fact of science now a days.
So...I have this old deer skull that hangs in my garage. Coming from a family of hunters, but not one myself, I got it from one of my relatives. I was in the garage looking for Halloween decorations..and saw it hanging there, forgetting its there most of the time. And that's when the idea kind of took shape...This being the first rough..
As I said...I did want to incorporate the nubile young woman from one of the bands cover...just not in the same manner. And I also wanted to incorporate the worm shape...The name Ringworm taking on more of the name of an ancient  demon god...maybe the birthplace of the name for the disease.....instead of the disease itself.

The rough pencil sketch.

The inking in progress......

At this point I just started having fun going in and playing...adding textures....Paying a lot of attention to the texture of the trees. Allowing the texture lines to add depth, but also help and define shape and form of the tree bark. I paid attention to line direction so that most of the lines moved toward the shape of either the prone figure of the woman or the demon god Ringworm.   

Of extra note are the bell bracelets around each of his wrists. The night I was working on this...I was out back letting our dogs run in the backyard. As I stood on the back steps...the wind was blowing slightly and somewhere out there in the dark I could hear this small bell, like that on a cats collar, or maybe a chime on someones back porch...or maybe...just maybe, the bells placed on the wrists of some ancient demon god, placed there by an ancient race of people as a sign, a warning of the coming of the evil one. Yes...I do let my imagination run wild at times.

              

And this is the end results. Now...you all stay frosty...and listen for the sound of the small bells. You just never know....

Ben Emerges From The Shadows...with stuff.

Boy have I been neglectful.  Not because I wanted to be, but because nothing is finished.  So rather than give off the impression that I'm some lazy lump that rides on the coat tails of his fellow monsters, I thought I would share some Work In Progress stuff.  So let's get up to speed.

Post by Need Your Disease.

First up, I had grand plans for Halloween.  Namely, a quicky animated short to post on the site.  Turns out, animation takes longer than you would think (even limited animation).  So I missed my deadline.  

Luckily, it took the pressure off of me and I can toy with it more.  Even remaster the whole thing in 3D.  Apply your 3D glasses....now.

Next up: My superhero game!  Since I last showed it, I was in the process of revamping my animations and adding art.  Well, I have a couple new things to show you.  First, I was running into a problem where my stopping animations (character resets and cape falls to the side) was playing twice.  It was really bumming me out.  So after some coding wizardry and a healthy dose of luck, that has been corrected.  Now the animation plays beautifully.

Post by Need Your Disease.

The other addition...well, more of a test...is these speed trails I've developed for the game.  I wanted some kind of trails behind him when he flew and threw this together. 

Post by Need Your Disease.

And finally, I'll be on the C2 Podcast talking about my game and using Construct 2 this Friday.  More to come soon.