Spaceships

I just realised I’m starting to lack some proper concept artwork in my portfolio so here’s some spaceships studies.
It’s not that Interesting Things can either be dragons or spaceship (well, it kind of is, actually).
But when you open Photoshop with the intent of drawing random stuff that’s pretty much what my brain picks first.
I don’t know if there’s a Concept Artist around who thinks “ah, this evening I’m so designing some bath room decorations, or maybe a nice sofa bed”.

Anyway.
As I said, I’m starting to have more illustrations and card-games related artwork than anything else on my website, hence the spaceships.
Not that I drew them intentionally to fill in some gaps, but I usually post the finished artwork and don’t bother saving the small thumbnails studies and scribbles.
However, they’re a good chunk of what we do at work, so why not?

There wasn’t a precise purpose in this, they were more something to keep my hands busy while watching Boardwalk Empire S03E08.
Generally these are supposed to be spaceships of human design. Individual transport have a more dynamic shape; fighters are even more dynamic with more aggressive angles; big trasport are more squared; rich people yachts have a silly expensive shape designed to compensate a small penis.

As a side note, the other day I was going through the Halo 4 Concept Art book with a friend (and colleague) of mine, and we noticed how the design for sci-fi human spaceships and architecture has become pretty much standardized. Despite how fricking cool the artwork might be, the visual language throughout many games and movies has become pretty much the same combinations of straight lines and corners.
So much so that you could have used concepts from Halo for Prometheus, for example, without risking to be too inconsistent.

I realized I did pretty much the same thing with this series of thumbs. Next time I’ll try to put some actual thought into them, and maybe come up with some original design.

by Paolo Puggioni

Undead Guy

Nothing particular, just a random Undead guy.
The relevant thing about this guy though, (relevant for me, at least), is that I sculpted his face in ZBrush first, and coloured it later in Photoshop.

It might seem nothing worth mentioning, but for someone 3D-resistant as I am this is no small achievement.
What’s the word for someone who kills potted plants just by sitting in the same room?
Whatever that is, I am the 3D-model equivalent of those people.
Everything I do on a 3D software seems to come out slightly wrong. After half an hour of work polygons start sticking out from unpredictable places, common commands give unexpected results, things go generally not the way I’d like.
But I’m stubborn, so every now and then I give it another try and slowly but steadily I’m also improving.
Plus, I hadn’t tried ZBrush on my Cintiq yet, hence this Undead Guy.

There are two main goals linked to all these efforts on ZBrush (did I already say the learning curve is STEEP?).
The first one is that the lighting of some complex scenes is difficult to figure out without a model of sorts.
Some people make maquettes, others hire models. People like me, who for some reason can’t do either, just mock things up on a 3D software and take that as a reference.

The second goal comes from a recent freelance misadventure, so to speak.
When I was working on this I sent out a first version to FFG‘s Art Director, confident I had done an amazing job, and she came back to me by saying “that’s nice, however I’ll need WAY more details on the guy’s face!”
Thing is, that was pretty much all the detail I could already thing of. Nonetheless I painted over the first version and submitted a much more refined one.
Long story short, I had to go through four revisions in total before the final was approved.
I’m just not THAT fiddly with details, and it’s a lot easier (at least for me) to come up with a convincing facial anatomy by sculpting it first and taking that as a reference, at least when lacking a live model.

I’m still not sure about it, I’m just considering whether I could use that in my pipeline when it comes to paint more realistic portraits and bodies. For a start, colouring over a greyscale image always give a dull result, at least colour wise. But it’s worth making some more experiments.

So, here’s the big ugly Undead. Kind of a shortcut really, sculpting a ravaged, old skin is easier than a smooth, young one.
And what is he thinking of? Is he looking at the moon after he just discovered his days as a living being are over? Is he romantically longing for some fresh brains to eat? Is he evoking the Dark Powers to fulfil some of his unholy dreams? Who cares.
He’s just some random undead guy.

Here’s the process. Not really interesting maybe, as I barely coloured a greyscale screenshot. Yet here it is.

by Paolo Puggioni

Some Early Morning Sketches

I’m enjoying my Cintiq so much that I started three illustrations at a time and I haven’t finished any yet, so I’ll post my warm-up sketches in the meantime.
These are more thumbnail-sized studies than sketches, to be honest.
I have this tendency to jump straight into the thick of things earlier than I should, so warming up on colour and composition first thing in the morning usually helps.

Now, the purpose of a sketch, or a study if you want, should be that of focusing only on the main, most important elements in a drawing: composition, value masses, balance of warm and cold colours and so on.
Most of the time this kind of sketches should be little more than abstract combinations of undefined blobs and smudges. If they don’t work well enough at thumbnail size, then nothing you do further down the line will ever fix that.

Another big advantage of thumbnails is that you literally have no chance to stick any fine detail in them to aid the drawing. Only the big, important things would fit.

Unfortunately, I am of a fiddly nature and I often fail at that.
Even at thumbnail size I struggle at detaching myself from the subject matter. I still have to force myself into thinking in terms of volumes interacting with each other instead of things happening and stories told. They are distracting at this stage.

So what usually happens is that I start with good intentions, then I go like “hey, this is obviously a rock, let’s put some cracks and wrinkles on it” and the entire purpose of sketching gets lost along the way.

But here you go. I should have called these “something between sketches and slightly more polished drawings”.
There’s another bunch of these sitting somewhere on my hard drive at home, I think I’ll post them shortly.
Because you know, I also started sorting out my brushes (too many of them I never use), so I’ll be busy being picky for another couple of days at least:(

by Paolo Puggioni

Good Morning Dragon

I just finished the dragon I started sketching not long ago.
It all went pretty smoothly, so I won’t go too much into the details of the process.

What I would rather talk about – or brag about, as we could also put it – is that I did it with the super fucking awesome Wacom Cintiq 24 HD Touch I got from my wife for my 40th birthday.
Thanks again, wife, for the awesome present!

To be honest my birthday would be in December, however, since it was delivered long before expected and she couldn’t find a way to hide the GINORMOUS BOX, I decided that having nothing to unwrap on my actual birthday was well worth the two months and a half of bonus usage.

I won’t write a review, since other people have done a much better and professional job at it than I would ever do.
I’d just say that, from an artist’s point of view, moving from a tablet to a Cintiq really does make a big difference.
As used to as you can get to the “obstacle” of moving your pen somewhere in space and seeing the outcome on a screen, it’s by no means the same as drawing directly on a bi-dimensional surface.

The process of drawing becomes (or better, it gets back to) being natural. Gestures are immediate, shapes come out easily, everything is just more fun.
You just have to avoid thinking of the price.

Anyway, here’s the dragon.

I ended up being a lot more fiddly than I intended to, but after all I had things to try out, so I indulged in some detailing.
I made most of the rim lights with the new CS6 Pencil Tool, and hell, on a Cintiq it really feels like you’re drawing with a pencil.

I’m still a big fan of natural media, but the added plus of moving things around with a finger, or bringing up colour palettes with a gesture makes me just think “to hell with paper”.

I have another dragon lined up, or maybe two. Then it might be a few months of drawing Sci-Fi for an undisclosed project, if everything goes to plan.

Oh, I forgot the usual gif, here it is.

by Paolo Puggioni

Lord of The Rings Artwork

Later last year I made some illustrations for Fantasy Flight Games’ Lord of The Rings Cards Game.
They were meant for The Long Dark Expansion Set, which FFG was kind enough to send me as soon as it was released.
So, last week I had the pleasure of opening a package and finding something I had made inside.
It never ceases to be an awesome feeling, I must confess. As fun as making videogames is, they don’t smell of print.
Here’s what they sent me, in all its glossy magnificence.

Of course I didn’t draw all the cards. The set was split amongst several artists, and since back then I was already working on Game of Thrones I was able to accept only a couple of illustrations.

The first card I completed is called Goblin Mine, and it went as smooth as it can go.
I made a greyscale sketch, it was approved, I coloured it in, it was sent over to Tolkien’s estate and green-lighted for release.
Here is the sketch and the final image.

The Warden of Healing, the second card, wasn’t as easy. In fact, it was a bitch.
First off, the chapter on the Houses of Healing is possibly the most boring of the entire trilogy, and I didn’t remember any of it. When I decided to read through it again, I found out that my copy of The Lord of The Rings had gone missing, possibly swallowed by a box during one of the many moves I went through during the years.

Google images seems to ignore the Wardens of Healing almost entirely, as well as the various Lord of The Rings forums I had the time to go through.
So, hoping I wouldn’t do anything too inconsistent with the lore, I set to draw a random ageing guy wearing a Minas Tirith attire. And fucked up.

Edge control was all off, details weren’t properly distributed, values were bad.
Fortunately the Art Director at Fantasy Flight Games knows her job (actually, ADs at FFG are possibly the most competent I happened to work with) and knew how to guide me to a more decent result.

The first versions (three of them, alas) are so ugly I think I deleted them, so here’s the one that got approved.

I made other illustrations for The Lord of The Rings, but considering how long it takes to publish them, I think I’ll be allowed to post them in 2013.

by Paolo Puggioni

Runescape Update – The Chaos Tunnels

Last Week we updated a pretty old Runescape area, the Chaos Tunnels.
The update also included the Brimhaven Dungeon, the Fremennik Slayer Dungeon and the Taverley Dungeon.

Beneath the southern areas of theWilderness, north of Varrock is a warren of caves, linked by mysterious portals. Delved from the rock by the power of chaotic magic, a strange enchantment holds sway over its tunnels and passages, drawing evil to it like a moth to a flame. For this reason, perhaps, the range of creatures within the Chaos Tunnels is far greater than you might expect.

Whatever its origin, it is certain that the caves are tainted by the dark hands of Zamorakian magic…

The Concept Artists Team worked on this whole bunch of environments (plus an awful amount of things yet to be released) pretty much at the same time, early this year.
Each one of us worked on a separate dungeon, so of course I’ll be posting only the artwork I’m responsible of. But you can find more in my friend and colleague’s website.

I was supposed to work on more underground areas as well, then I had to move to the Al Kharid rework, which took me quite some time.

Here’s a video of the environments in game.
Btw, No offence to the Runescape fan who posted it but I had to silence the music. Not my cup of tea:)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W_FZo1IjaA

The environments look nice in game. However, as you might have noticed I had designed the floors with a more irregular, uneven look.
I hate flat surfaces, If I could have things my own way I’d change Runescape into some kind of Roller Coaster.
However, steps and cracks on the floor are quite polygon expensive, and modellers often have to even things out to prevent the FPS from being unhappy.
This Dungeon is visited by many players at the same time, so I guess that was one of those cases.

The NPC are still quite dated. We’ll take care of them at some point!

by Paolo Puggioni

Another Dragon

Following my recent propositions, I started drawing some sketches for another dragon.
To be honest I had a pretty clear image in mind, so I haven’t really explored many different solutions with this first set of thumbnails.

The idea is that the dragon is resting at the top of a tall mountain, while the first lights of day wake her up.
She turns her head towards the sun (yes, she will have puffy morning eyes), the movement uncovering a litter (gosh, is a bunch of newborn dragons still called a litter?) of baby dragons peeking from behind one of her wings.

As you can see I just made a few experiments with the curve of her neck and how her right wing will partially unfold.
As for the hatchlings, I think they would just look like bird chicks, with big grey eyes and a small bill.

There are some things I still have to decide in terms of the internal logic I’d like to follow.
Is the dragon a cold climate creature? In that case, what physiologic traits would she have developed?
I figure a dragon living at high altitudes would have oversized wings, evolved to improve gliding.

At the same time, its wings should be thick and possibly hairy, to avoid losing heat through such a large area of skin.
I would have liked her tail to have a big bony end, like some kind of rudder to increase its manoeuvrability amongst strong winds.
Unfortunately to show the tail I would have to chose a completely different composition (I’m quite happy with this one already), or extend the canvas into an awkward vertical ratio.
I might make another drawing with a full figure, possibly flying.

I also thought a female dragon shouldn’t need conspicuous colours or shapes, whereas males would have oversized fangs and spikes to impress females during mating seasons, and of course flamboyant colours and markings.
Another idea for future dragons maybe.
The next one could be males mauling each other to impress a female, or maybe be a female and a male teaching their hatchlings how to fly.
Who knows.

by Paolo Puggioni

My Stuff of 2D Artist Magazine Again (woo hoo)

The big three-headed dog about to swallow an optimistic hero I drew a while ago made it to this month’s issue of 2D Artist Magazine.
Again, it’s a big honour, thanks again to the editors for selecting my work.

As always, 2D Artist Magazine is packed with really good artwork. I recommend spending those few quid and getting this month’s issue, it’s worth every penny.
In the meantime, my stuff is here:

In the October issue you’ll find, amongst other things:

– a nice article about designing weapons by John Park

– a wonderfully written tutorial by an artist I admire a lot, Tuomas Korpi

– a tutorial about custom brushes by another artist I’ve been following for a while, David Munos Velasquez

In this issue I’ve also found confirmation of a trend I noticed quite often amongst concept artists, which is about aiding illustrations with sculpting software like ZBrush or Mudbox.
I’ve already posted something about my attempts at sculpting a while ago, which eventually lead to a disappointing defeat when I tried to venture into something slightly more complicated than a dummy.
My efforts in sculpting a spacesuit were, well, not even worth showing around while begging for advice.

In my geometries polygons never behave. They stick out from unusual places, rearrange themselves into unexpected patterns, move when they’re suppose to stay, and stay when they’re supposed to do something else.
They are undisciplined, and they mock me.
As a 2D artist that’s what I expect of tridimensional objects. You can’t trust them, or rely on them. However, I can’t help seeing the appeal of having something as versatile as clay as an aid in building complex objects and scenes.

If anything, the excellent results of the artists featured in the Magazine, who are already including sculpting in their pipeline, are motivating me to practice more.
At some point in the future.

by Paolo Puggioni

Dragons

Fantasy artists draw dragons, this is just a fact of life, and as it happens a friend of mine asked me to draw one for him.
Not just a random dragon, this one specifically.

I’ve already said how rarely I accept assignments from friends. But he’s not picky, he didn’t give me any deadline and he has no requirements whatsoever, a part from the fact that he would like it to be painted in oils.

Now, this particular thing scares me a bit , I haven’t used oils in ages.
Also, I found out I’m probably allergic to most thinners, and after an hour of breathing that crap my face becomes all red and swollen. As a matter of fact, I kind of remember at some point I made a solemn oath that sounded like “fuck you oils, never again”.
However, the friend who asked is the kind of person you just want to do nice things for, so I was happy to say “yes, I’ll draw your dragon”.

Now, it’s not that I mind doing this thing. Dragons are amongst the most interesting things to draw. They’re full of spikes, and curves, and teeth. You can make them evil, or wise, or ancient, or vicious, or noble, and you never go wrong.
So, since I can take as long as two years to finish it, I decided to take my time and study the topic thoroughly, make sketches, practice on the subject and only eventually expose my face to the poisonous fumes of oil paints.
I’ve painted dragons before, but the deadline that time was so tight that I barely had any time to give it any thought.
Funnily enough, one of the blogs I follow most closely just finished a series of posts about anything dragon-y, so good thing someone else already did some of the research for me:)

Anyway, here are some sketches of dragons.
The dragon I mean to draw this time is not supposed to be magical at all, or particularly smart. More a big, vicious winged predator, more fond on swallowing sheep whole than amassing treasures in a cave.

I made a few thumbs just to figure out the right balance of shapes (top left on the following sketch).

For once I used REAL pencils instead of drawing directly on screen. Pencils on paper are my favourite media, hands down.
I also did some studies to work out the best way to position its head and neck. I went for the one at the bottom, I think it would make sense for him to tilt his head that way to pick up something so close to the ground at full speed. Plus, the other two heads were kind of dull.

I made another bunch of thumbnails to figure out the value masses, and whether to use a bright shape on a dark background or vice versa. I think the one in the middle would work best, the head is clearly the point of interest, and it leads the eyes to the bright shapes of the sheep. The wing should lead the eye back into the painting, creating a circular movement. Hopefully.

Then I made some other sketches to come up with a convincing head. Did I already say I love drawing with pencils?

Anyway, I haven’t decided yet which one I shall use, I might go on sketching before I make up my mind.
I’ve also already started with the proper painting, hopefully I will post it in a couple of days.

by Paolo Puggioni

Runescape Concepts: The Prince Palace

This is the last bunch of concepts I made for one of our latest update, the graphical improvement of AL Kharid (which we teased in a behind the scenes I posted a while ago).

There is also a new video on our website, showing a bit more in depth the two new quests set in the city. Have a look at it, lots of awesome stuff, plus a taste of the action taking place.

Anyway, the Palace of the Prince is at the centre of the city, which of course is the coolest place in the area.

Where the rest of the citizens won’t bother painting their walls or decorating the outside of their houses (sand and wind would make their efforts short-lived), the Prince can obviously have the means to maintain his possessions at a ruler’s standards.

The floor of his courtyard is decorated with precious tiles, and the fountain at its center is supposed to how off the Prince’s wealth to his visitors. Water is more precious than gold in the harsh desert Al Kharid is built upon.

There were many elements we had to consider while designing the Palace, as I mention in my last post this is an area in Runescape with quite a few things going on, and I couldn’t risk to change things too deeply not to break the old content.

Nonetheless, we managed to make it look grander, this by simply raising its walls and using a different colour palette.
Environment modellers had to do a lot of tweaking to prevent the city beneath to disappear beyond the drawing distance. They eventually found the right balance, and from the top of the Palace walls players will see the all the rooftops below, and the tents of the market hazy in the distance.
All in all I think the Palace will be quite a unique place in Runescape.

Despite the lack of time I had to illustrate in detail various parts of the palace, so I ended up painting the whole vista from the South side and a detail of the mosaic in one of the terraces.

by Paolo Puggioni