Illustration - "It's Not Easy Being Green"

Thomas Gomes "It's Not Easy Being Green" 2013

I've been watching a lot of movies and games recently that revolve around zombies or infected.  I couldn't help but do a small illustration of zombies!  As with most of my drawings it started off as a sketch which I then developed into a final drawing. 

The tag line "It's Not Easy Being Green" was added in later, after I had finished the initial drawing.  As usual I am sticking to a certain style of illustration which I'm finding more and more uses for.  I'm interested in any comments that people have on this illustration and particularly the style of illustration that I'm employing here.

Sci Fi "Seeker Drone" Texturing

Been a while since I've made an update on my Sci Fi drone project.  Over the passed couple of weeks I've been slowly editing and polishing up the textures and materials of my drone.  The first image is the basic material, a brushed chrome with some scratches here and there.  You will notice the photo background behind the drone which I'm using to create HDR lighting, this helps to give a realistic look to my drone.  I have finished with the eye lens which is looking really nice with the lighting but the main body of the drone is still incomplete, I haven't decided what I want to do with it and how I want to texture it. 

From my previous post on colour variations (which can be found here) I have decided to go with the bronze, brown colour design, although I still think that the drone would be designed to have different paint jobs depending on the environment it will be working in, however, for now I like the bronze effect.  The scratches are far more noticeable now that I've added a different colour and the drone has a nice weathered effect.  I'm still not sure what I will do with the body, but I'll think of something eventually!

I'm very interested to see what people think so far.  I'm particularly interested if you have any suggestions on what I should do with the body.  Leave comments below and consider sharing this post on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

US Spying on EU - Editorial Illustration

----- Based on this news article from the BBC News website -----

After listening to the news and reading the above article I decided to do an editorial illustration based on the allegations that the US has been spying on the EU.  In the article it talks about how trade talks with the US has helped to soften the anger that the EU is feeling.

Thomas Gomes "US Spying on EU" (Editorial) 2013

So here is the illustration.  As you can see the American (Uncle Sam) and member of the EU (The old, bald man in grey) are at a poker table.  Uncle Sam is pushing money toward the EU (representing the trade talks) and is using a mirror to see what cards the EU member is holding (representing the NSA spying on the EU).  It's quite a simple illustration but I think it works well.  I find that the most important thing about an editorial illustration is to show a story visually but not make the article redundant.  I'm hoping that it's not immediately obvious what the drawing is about, particularly the imagery of the mirror and the money being moved.  I want the audience to use their prior knowledge and the information in the article to understand the illustration and give it some context.

Sci Fi "Seeker Drone" 3D model

Using my Orthographic illustration of my "Seeker Drone" I have completed the 3D CGI modeling stage of my Sci Fi drone.  The first image included in this post is a screenshot of my workspace on my computer.  I have a dual screen set up which I use for modeling and reference.  As you can see from this screenshot I have used
one screen for the orthographic illustration and another screen to work in Blender 3D on the modeling of the drone. 

As I have modeled the drone I have rigged it for animation, something that I'm quite keen to produce and post here at a later date.

The final image in this post is an Orthographic representation of my 3D CGI "Seeker Drone".  Each part of this image is an individual render of the drone before any materials or textures have been added, except the glowing light to represent the eye lens.

It is worth mentioning that the drone is not finished yet.  The modeling is complete but I want to add textures and materials to the drone to make it look more realistic and give it some personality.  This is where my previous post on colour variations will help me to develop the textures and the finish of the drone.

From Illustration to Game development

Just listening to a very interesting podcast on the "Mature Gamer Podcast" website.  The game developer that they are interviewing is called Ben Rivers who made the horror game "Home".  The reason I am making a post on this blog is because Ben Rivers' education is in graphic design and illustration.  Having this education background has enabled him to do several jobs, however the most recent job is developing a game.  This really shows how broad illustration and graphic design can be, and how easy it is to apply your skills to any job!  Anyway here is a link to the podcast itself.

It's worth checking out Ben Rivers website and having a look at his illustration work as well as his game development work.