Tag Archives: Character Design

Hilt – Fiona

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It’s been one year since I started this blog and I would like to say thank you to everyone who has viewed, shared and appreciated my artwork. I am pleased to be able to share with you all my lead character from my comic HILT, Fiona. Fiona is the heroine of the comic and, after some recent redesigns of the head, I can say I’m very pleased with the way she has turned out. To see more of her and her development, and to keep up with how the comic is progressing, head over to the HILT blog.

 

 

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HILT Blog Update

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I’ve been busy with my job lately, but have just got around to updating the HILT blog. Click on the above image to go to the HILT blog. I’m currently going through the comic and creating the final art, page by page, so stay tuned for samples.

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Borg Process

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Here’s a slide show of the process I went through to create the Borg Image.

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Borg

ArtNuggets-NickSmith-BorgHaving seen some of Ben Mauro‘s latest stuff, I felt I owed it to myself to get some Zbrushing done. I wanted to get something sculpted quickly out of Zbrush and then painted over in Photoshop. The sculpt turned out a little more tech and hard edged than I’d anticipated, which lead to a long paint over process than I was hoping for. The head, in particular, was pretty undefined and meant I had to go back into Zbrush to give it a bit of a kicking, and even then it took some serious paint over trial and error to get a result I was happy with.

Having said that, this experiment really showed me that I can go straight into Zbrush with nothing more than a vague idea in mind and come up with something interesting. Certain areas of this character I feel pretty confident in saying I would not have come up with if I’d started by sketching. I’m thinking of the ribcage stylings in particular. I’m keen to give it another crack soon.

 

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HILT Blog Update

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I’ve finally gotten around to updating the HILT comic blog. Click on the image above to go to the blog and take a look at the development sketches for the female protagonist of the story.

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Merry Xmas

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Merry Xmas to all you nuggets! Hope you have a fabulous New Year….

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Johnny Voodoo’s Barber Shop

ArtNuggets-NickSmith-JohnnyVoodooThis piece was commissioned by Johnny Voodoo’s Barber Shop in Camira, Queensland, the result of a chance meeting at Supanova. Really enjoyed working on this. One of those great commissions where the client just wants you to do your thing. Great fun.

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Pilot

ArtNuggets-NickSmith-PilotA quick concept of a pilot and her wings.

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Behold My Booty!

This weekend I will be in attendance at Supanova at the Brisbane RNA Showgrounds, so come on down if you’re in the area and pick up some of this sweet loot. I have postcards, prints, posters and t-shirts for sale, as well as the chance to win some of the more exclusive images.

I can be found, along with my cohort Pete Yong, at Pete & Nick’s Art Nuggets in Artist’s Alley, Booth L2. Below I have provided a helpful map, so as to remove all possible impediments to people attending. I’m excited to be taking part and hope to see many friendly faces as well as make new acquaintances. Should be fun.

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HILT

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A down on her luck warrior is out hunting when she crosses paths with a party of knights returning from battle. When the warrior decides on flight instead of fight the chase is on.
This is the premise for short comic that I am in the process of making. Having tried my hand with some of the OzComics.com Sequential Challenges I thought it time to put all I’ve learnt into a story of my own. It will be about 20 to 22 pages in length and will hopefully provide me a with a earning curve that will help me develop as a comic artist. I have started a blog to act as a development diary for the project where all the artwork and musings are collected in one place.
As to the artwork itself, I spent quite a bit of time getting the composition right. I had initially intended for a more straight on composition with the warrior at the bottom of the piece looking back at the avalanche of knights chasing her, but decided against this because you wouldn’t be able to see her face. As such I went for this more kinetic image. Having settled on a composition the next step was to do the pencils. I spent a lot of time on this step with the intention of skipping the inking stage and using the pencil scan as the inks. Unfortunately the scan I got was not suitable straight up for the final art and so a fair bit of tidying up was required. Once the ‘inks’ were done it was on to the colour and background. This part of the process is great fun as the image comes together. The final act was to increase the size of the warrior herself. This really helped make the image more immersive by exaggerating the depth. Finally, the arrow was added and puts the icing on the action.
This weekend I will be at the Brisbane Supanova at the RNA Showgrounds with posters promoting the comic. I will be at the Pete & Nick’s Art Nuggets booth (Booth L2) in Artist’s Alley. I hope to see you there!
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