Witnesstheabsurd

Commission - Backdoor Code "The Beast"

This one was special. The client gave me full control over every aspect of the piece, so long as the piece was itself a depiction of Evangelion Unit-02's "Beast Mode" from 2.0, the second film in the Evangelion Rebuild series. This design has lived in my brain for a long time and has had a profound influence on myself and many others (Much the way the original shots of Unit-01 in it's "feral" configuration, hunched over the corpse of Zeruel like a squalid animal did) . The Beast didn't have t...

Commission - Colossal Dreadmaw

The piece is awaiting final clearance by the client, so there's a chance minor changes may be made, but I was once again commissioned to produce an MTG proxy art for one of Ixalan's pseudo-tyrannosaurs - the infamous "Colossal Dreadmaw" in this instance. I'm beginning to really love this particular kind of wildly inaccurate and deliberately grotesque hypermuscularity on saurian bodies like this - there's a clear lineage here traceable to my fascination with Monster Hunter's "Deviljho" design,...

Commission - Client OC "Purity"

Commission of a client's Jojo OC named "Purity" - I appreciate the opportunity to design a character that doesn't have an established ref already - the level of trust shown by some clients in my own instinct is very gratifying. The specifics of the background and the colour of the text weren't set in stone either, and I decided to play off the solid red of the stand's looming manifestation with a deep blue and slightly acid yellow, creating a primary triad, a motif i'm becoming more and more ...

Commission - Beelzemon Blast Mode

With Beelzemon being already one of the most aggressively Chuuni designs of all time, his "Blast Mode" feels like gilding the lily, with the addition of both a set of mock-angelic wings and a spectacular maw-like rail gun barrel itself attached to the most bizarre melange of gun parts. Of course, it goes without saying that I adore this kind of indulgent elaboration, and I relished the opportunity to paint this as a Digimon TCG playmat for the client! 

WIP - Eight Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga

In the manga "Jujutsu Kaisen" from Gege Akutami, a work with a host of gorgeous creature and character design work somewhat in the vein of a Togashi, Fujimoto or any of their own respective influences, one specific design stood out to me to such a degree that I immediately knew I was going to have to get hands-on with it in some capacity, and i've been finding little moments between my client pieces and before work proper starts every morning to noodle at it. The design is, of course, Eight H...

Bust Commission - Trepang2

A bust commission of the final boss of the game "Trepang2" - "Subject 107", an experimental lifeform with the ability to move at supernatural speeds. This one was interesting because the client provided ingame "codex" art of the character (By David Romero/Cinemamind to boot, a very accomplished artist i'm proud to be acquaintances with) that differs from the actual model used in the boss encounter - I ended up deciding to average out the two designs to find a happy medium between the two. Wor...

Sketch Commission - "Cicada"

The premise of this sketch (And at this point the sketch tier essentially means "I have an excuse not to render the fiddly parts" and/or "I can do whatever I want without edits") was a request from the client to portray the "true" shape of a character of theirs who is essentially the dream of a slumbering nascent insect god. As the dreamer awakens, the character ceases to exist, and returns to the subconscious of the divine cicada.

With the roughness of the sketch tier in play I was abl...

Three Sacred Beasts - 三聖獣

Endless debate in the Western Pokemon community exists over whether these three are the "Legendary Dogs" or "Legendary Cats", and with no real formal title as a trio in the localized versions the debate will likely continue indefinitely, especially with their recent return to the spotlight via their Paradox form debuts in Scarlet/Violet

. In Japan though my understanding is that they're commonly known as the "三聖獣" - lit. Three Sacred Beasts, somewhat similar to the grouping of the...

Sketch Commission - Pinhead

Pinhead, as portrayed by Jamie Clayton in the new Hellraiser, for a client. I went back and forth on whether to bring in the piercing blue irises against the black sclera seen in the film, but ultimately decided the work was stronger without a clear directed gaze. The tilted black disc halo owes something to a specific kind of halo depiction seen in late middle ages/renaissance catholic work, where the halo is painted in perspective as a physical entity, rather than a wholly abstract aureole ...

Sketch Commission - "Spiked Orb"

Sketch for another client of their OC, a crimson saurian named "Spiked Orb". For this one I went back and found some favourite panels of Majira, the terrifying reptilian super-soldier from Kouya Ni Kemono Doukokusu, a manga adapted from a novel series about... terrifying animalistic super-soldiers. Majira specifically always stood out to me because of the incredible tension Itoh Sei imparts every depiction of him - taut muscles, lashing tail, the permanent rictus of the exposed fangs.  2023-08-05 04:08:50 +0000 UTC View Post

Sketch Commission - Magnapalace

Another sketch for the same client who requested the Zarathustra Apterbringer, the Magnapalace comes pre-equipped with eye decals on the pauldrons which made for an easy choice when translating it to biomechanoid stylings. This one was, despite being a "Sketch" eked out over the course of several days while adjusting to the tablet I use while abroad, since i'm currently in the states, having just attended Savannah Comicon as a member of Ghostfruits and now staying with in-laws. Recalibrating ...

Full Illustration Commission - Ramlethal Valentine

Guilty Gear's Ramlethal Valentine, as commissioned by a very patient and supportive client a little while back! Working with her swords, simultaneously my favourite and most frustrating aspect of her design was tricky. 

Getting a pose and composition that best showed off every element of her extremely dense costume/complex silhouette was a real challenge, and I included the thumbnails submitted to give an idea of how many ways I tried to rearrange all those moving parts until we se...

Sketch Commission - "An Arbiter"

A commission for a private client based on the appearance the character Binah from Lobotomy Corporation takes on when she undergoes her "meltdown" boss phase. I actually did two versions of this - the first one, the fullbody, while I like it more now, struck me as very static and I didn't feel like I had successfully "pushed" the design as much as I intended. In an unprecedented move, I started over again completely - the final result was much more satisfying to me, and that's the primary one...

Timelapse - Zarathustra Apterbringer

Music is 

Climb Imba by Pilotredsky 

Sentry 2 by Ootheca 

Sketch Commission: Zarathustra Apterbringer

Client commissioned me to paint a biomecha rendition of one of Nagano's more recent Five Star Stories designs- the Zarathustra Apterbringer, commonly abbreviated to the "ZAP" . Nagano's work is famously elaborate and ornate - I felt more than a little intimidated by the complexity of the ZAP, but restricting the composition to this bust/profile format made it a little more approachable. More than anything, looking at sperm whale skeletons informed the texture and morphology here.

Sapphire Weapon Sketch Timelapse

Featuring the Vs Typhon OST by Masaoyoshi Soken, from the new Final Fantasy XVI.

"Rough" Commissions

Stretching the definition of "sketch" with my cheaper sketch tier paintings lead to me coining the new term "Rough" for them, to better suit the idea of them as rough (obviously), but more developed and fully rendered than mere sketches. Working at this faster pace with more impressionistic and broad strokes has helped me relearn a lot of valuable and slightly dulled instincts for construction, speed and the hierarchy of composition. They are a little underdeveloped though - I would love to t...

Monster Reborn Timelapse

Timelapse footage of the painting of "Monster Reborn" set to Movement 6 from "Promises" by Floating Points

Monster Reborn

After feeling a little burnt out over the last few days I decided I had to recalibrate - doing that meant taking a day for myself instead of trying to struggle thru client work, and I decided to put out a call on twitter for recommended YGO magic/trap cards I could paint.

Monster Reborn won out - this is a fairly liberal reinterpretation, but given that the "original" was itself a heavily censored Ankh covered in meaningless fantasy ornament, I felt like I had a bit of leeway elaboratin...

Sketch Commission - Ultimecia

Ultimecia's final form in Final Fantasy 8 is easily one of Tetsuya Nomura's career gems - going on to influence and be echoed by Tetsu Tsukamoto in the series all-timer "Anima" design from Final Fantasy 10, and making an enormous impact on me when I first had the opportunity to see her take on this shape at the apex of her conflict with the party.

Ultimecia's declaration after she assumes this form (Notably now devoid of her mildly comic mock-germanic accent where she transposes Ks into...

Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Full Commission/Thumbnails

One of the larger client pieces in my queue, an enormous and complete redesign of the MTG card "Gishath, Sun's Avatar", usually depicted as a more realistic tyrannosaur/theropod, for the purpose of use as a "proxy" card (Where a player substitutes the original art for cosmetic purposes) by the client.

 I was given near total freedom on the terms of the redesign itself, outside of a request to echo some of the imagery from my depiction of 2023-06-01 11:10:43 +0000 UTC View Post

Twin Headed Thunder Dragon

[Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon]  

"Thunder Dragon" + "Thunder Dragon"  

The walls come down. I opened my mouth, and opened it again. The ozone sinks into my tongues. We won't ever be apart again.

I'm taking a great deal of pleasure in returning to these older, lesser known YGO cards, especially those that hail from the era of meaningless "Beatstick" fusions, with minimal utility outside of their raw strength, itself often outpaced by much more easily played a...

Anti-Raigeki

I forced myself to take a day off between ongoing client work and paint something for myself. I think I might be the only person to ever paint fanart of "Anti-Raigeki", one of the most specific and arguably useless, but potentially incredibly satisfying cards to exist. I can't imagine the rush of successfully proccing this thing against the omnipresent Raigeki usage in a modern competitive game - the vengeful phantom of a time when the game was young, simultaneously simpler and more arcane. 2023-05-05 01:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Commission - OC Fullbody

Another client piece - the client's original character was described by them as a "Bug Angel" and I think the description was apt. I *love* working with clients who are willing to let me tweak the design a little and work some of my own idiosyncrasies into the piece. The proportions were very interesting to work with as well - shorter legs, longer arms - I ended up looking at some of the Advance of Zeta mech designs like the Woundwort for inspiration on posing and general "attitude".

Bust Commission - Devilman

A bust commission for - the Devilman himself, Akira Fudo! 

Devilman is one of those designs that's received infinite reinterpretations - a lot of artists approach the surface of his body as almost metamorphic and in constant flux. Terada's Devilman portrayals have a kind of almost mineral or sedimentary accumulation of muscular and textural detail. I love reading simple forms and adding knotted muscle, hue variations across the surface of the skin coloration, all sorts of additiona...

C-Moon

Found a moment after some client work to pursue a personal favourite - "C-moon", the interstitial stand of Enrico Pucci in Stone Ocean. With it's skeletal motif and lush green hue C-moon always captured my attention, but lately, seeing it animated in the P6 finale revived my fixation. I'm fascinated by how the uncanny nature of C-moon's proportions helps communicate the idea of a kind of spiritual metamorphic instar - I always imagined C-moon as being this glimpse at a process you weren't sup...

Full Illustration Commission - Mothra

"If the world lives to see another century, please remember what Mothra did for you and the planet you live on"

Finally finished, my own version of Mothra - this specific commission represents the first full scale illus. i've been able to complete like this since the end of the game and it's an enormous relief. I'm hugely proud of this piece specifically and I feel like it represents something of a dam breaking - extremely excited to get to the rest of the queue now that I feel...

Bust Commission - Charlotte Katakuri

An opportunity to paint some more One Piece designs! Since I finished my read-through i've been alternately mired in game and now freelance work, so i'm ecstatic that a client offered me the opportunity to paint Katakuri on the clock. I love how Katakuri, as a more conventionally intimidating and "cool" design draws a contrast against most of OP's cast, but is in his most vulnerable moments equally weird and full of the same idiosyncrasies Oda displays in the Straw Hats and the rogue's galler...

Bust Commission - Governor

Another bust commish, of another client's OC. I had a lot of fun with face here - i'm increasingly enamoured as the years go on with "human" faces (this character is an alien as far as i'm aware) that have this kind of deep characterful creasing and depth to them. I love rendering eyebags, wrinkles, folds.

Bust Commission - GTA OC

A commission from the large queue I took on prior to the Japan trip i'm now working through. This character is, of all things, a GTA Online RP OC that belongs to the client. I was really grateful to them for giving me full creative leeway in reinterpreting the character's design, making their red dog mask of choice much more literal.

This piece is another example of something i've grown very fond of in the past few years, which is trying to find chromatic complexity and textural variati...