navate's CGPortoflio Gallery

Carnivorous Heron

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:42:35 +0000

Tastes like fairy!

Been in such a do-nothing mood lately. I�m trying to get my groove back. So here�s something quick and different. Hopefully I�ll be back up to par soon and finish a good chunk of my WIP folder before the summer�s out.

Painter 8, Photoshop 7.0. References of a few different herons used. Thanks for looking.

Omhi

Wed, 21 May 2008 09:03:25 +0000

Omhi of the Dhuriiehm.

Sorry it�s another portrait. I�m trying to knock out a bunch of WIPs I�ve had lying around for ages. Used Painter a lot more than I have been for this one, too. I�m getting more comfortable with achieving details and such in the program. (Of course, I spent hours painting the chains and they're barely visible at this resolution... bugger.)

Painter and Photoshop. Crits welcome. Thanks for looking.

Her Wound

Sat, 03 May 2008 19:51:25 +0000

Hi everyone.

This started as a speedpaint, but I decided to finish it because I sketch these types of designs a lot and have never brought them into my digital work before.

Done in Photoshop 7. and Painter 8. Crits welcome. Thanks for looking.

Original speedpaint can be seen here: http://www.navate.com/images/speed/masked.jpg

Khuiia

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:26:32 +0000

The devil.

I painted this character last year and hated how it turned out. So I redesigned him, and I'm much much much more satisfied with the result this time around.

Painter 8 and PS 7.0. I went crazy with the details with this one... I tried to create a realistic amount of depth and texture, but offset it with a few things that give the image a subtle horror undertone.

A closer look at his eye, perhaps?

Thanks for looking. And as always, crits are welcomed.

Isskataa

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 04:50:18 +0000

One of the nae�shaar�.an ancient and powerful race that dwells under the waters. It is she who gives dreams to men.

With every new image I get more comfortable using Painter� before I was having a lot of trouble blending and detailing in the program, but something�s clicked. This was done using a combination of Painter and Photoshop, but I think I used Painter a tiny bit more than PS. I�m simply addicted to those artist oils.

All textures are done by hand. I made an effort to make the scales look a part of her skin, not flat or pasted on like I see in so many mermaid images (though, she isn�t a mermaid�she�s more reptilian than fish.) And speaking of fish, they were nearly the death of me. I lost count because I moved them around so much, but I think there are over 50.

Critique welcomed. Thanks for looking!

The Painted Man

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 10:41:47 +0000

A commission done for Peter V. Brett. (petervbrett.com) This is the main character in his fantasy trilogy that will be published by Del Rey. The first book will be out later in the year.

Painted in Photoshop 7 and Painter 8.

Iiahto

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 12:31:57 +0000

No beauty in her face
No kindness in her eyes
_

Iiahto of the Kabulkai� a rather despicable character: cowardly, weak, and wrathful; ugly inside and out.

Done in Photoshop 7.0, and Painter 8. Crits welcomed. Thanks for looking.

The Wild

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 18:59:39 +0000

I started this back in the summer as a �learning experience� piece for Painter�then I overloaded myself with so much work that I had no time to sit down and finish it until now. It was designed to be more expressive so I could explore the different brush options that Painter has and learn how to mix those tools with Photoshop to my advantage. I wish I�d done this sooner; I adore how the two programs complement each other and my process has been sped up considerably.

The colors are a bit bolder than I normally go for. Trying to expand my horizons and all that. I had a blast with those skintones. :]

Crits are welcome and as always, thank you for looking.

Shiio'aa

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:47:16 +0000

Just a little character portrait� I needed to wind down and do something simple. You people must be bored to death of seeing portraits from me. Wanted to submit this to Exotique but I lost track of the date and finished it a day too late. Oops.

I�ve tried to paint this character a few times before but I could never do her justice. She is perhaps my most genuinely beautiful character, and that is a challenging thing to capture. I was lucky this time; this started as a simple doodle but somewhere along the way her features emerged. It was one of those images that almost painted itself, and the process suited her. She�s just the type to let me chase her around for months and then present herself without warning, as though she�d been there all along.

Photoshop 7.0; crits welcome

Heaven Slain

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:05:49 +0000

If the clouds are your embrace, then I shall fall into your arms
and rip your heart from the sky
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Ihkhoshjaa of the Khua'thr, who aimed to dethrone the gods.
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Well, this took me entirely too long to finish. First all sorts of nonsense kept popping up, and then my hard drive imploded. I saved everything I really needed to save and finally had an excuse to get a better machine, but still. What a headache.
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Photoshop 7.0�and a slight touch of Painter in the sky, but I painted over most of it back in Photoshop, so I'm not sure it counts� the program is still too foreign to me. I can�t handle anything polished in it yet.
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The palette is one I have never attempted before, and her skin was particularly challenging. It is remarkable how much more complex dark skin is to paint than light skin. The treatment of highlights and shadows is completely different.
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Early sketch stages of this image are featured in this month�s IFX cover article, �100 New Ways to Paint�, which I helped co-author.
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Critiques are welcomed. Thanks for looking!

A fairy

Tue, 22 May 2007 22:31:19 +0000

I <3 disgruntled toads.

The initial sketch was another color experiment, using bolder colors in general and deep blues to shade with as I would if I were using acrylics, where I mix pthalo blue with burnt umber to make black. I was curious how the style would work digitally. Then halfway through, I decided that I would tinker with it a bit in Painter. I've had Painter 8 for a long time but I'venever used it much because I hate the interface. But I'm interested in ways to add more painterly textures to my work, so I decided to play around and see what happened. I still hate the interface�I could never imagine sketching in that program, or detailing for that matter�but I think I'm going to experiment with it a bit for that middle stage. I'm not sure how well it will work with more polished/involved pieces� but I feel bored/limited with my style right now, so I'm going to muck around and see what comes of it.

Ref used for the anatomy, since I am not well-versed in amphibians: http://www.navate.com/images/photos/fairy_ref.jpg

Photoshop 7.0 and a touch of Painter 8. Crits welcome. Thanks for looking.

Khuiia

Sun, 20 May 2007 00:51:38 +0000

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Khuiia� his name means "devil", and that is what many believe him to be. A supernatural spirit bound in a human body, bent on the destruction of the world around him.
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The moon is based off of Callisto, one of Jupiter�s moons. I just finished up an astronomy class this semester, so space-related things have been inspiring me lately.
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I'm not entirely happy with how this turned out� something about it bothers me. But I'm tired of working on it, so I'm calling it finished. It's another one of my lighting and color experiments from March. Everything is getting finished at the same time, it seems. It's making me look a lot more productive than I actually am, haha.
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Photoshop 7.0. Crits welcome. :] Thanks for looking.

Siirae

Thu, 10 May 2007 03:57:35 +0000

It�s very simple, I know� partly a character study, partly a lighting study. :] My mood has been extremely erratic over the past few months. This is one of many, many projects I�ve been working on to experiment with lighting and color.

He is one of the Dhuriiehm, and Mhiet�e�s brother. Not a terribly pleasant fellow.

Photoshop 7.0. I studied a lot of different photos of Asians and myself under similar lighting circumstances to get the features correct. Crits welcome. Thanks for looking.

Rhumii

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 15:48:52 +0000

Character portrait: Rhumii of the Dhuriiehm.

I've been very distracted lately. It's been hard to focus on anything. Been working on this on and off for the past couple of weeks, mucking around with color and detailing. It started out as a doodle but I liked the orange and white combination so much that I've gone and redesigned one of my races to fit it.

All textures on the skin are hand painted. The background is a combination of custom texture brushes and hand-painting.

Photoshop 7.0. Crits welcomed. Thanks for looking!

Detail:

Fathom

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 17:29:16 +0000

I am buried beyond the sight of heaven, beneath the very marrow of the sea.
I am buried beyond the grasp of dreams, beneath the fathoms of eternity.
I am buried beyond the reach of monsters, beyond the nightmare�s hand�
I am buried beyond escape, and they shall find me, and I shall drown.
I am buried.
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No story behind this one. Just a feeling.
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I tried a lot of new things� been wanting to do a blue and orange color scheme for a while now. The lighting drove me mad. So did all those suckers on the tentacles.

It�s funny--the concept came to me while I was watching Disney�s The Little Mermaid. Ursula scared the bejeezus out of me when I was little.

Photoshop 7.0. Critiques encouraged. Thanks for looking!

Bloodstone

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 20:53:04 +0000

The prophet Ilijaa

This was a very spontaneous idea I decided to run with. It ended up taking far too long to finish, though�one distraction after another pulled me away. I also nearly killed myself taking the reference photos. :P Hopefully she looks balanced. I sure wasn't.

I sketch those giant skull helmets constantly. This summer I plan to build a real one.

PS 7.0. Crits welcome, as always. :] Thanks for looking!

The Strawberry Patch

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:10:17 +0000

Mr. Tallyhiggs has lost his spectacles�he must have, because there is no other excuse to be trouncing through the strawberry patch with such a terrible scowl on his face.
_

Sometimes I worry that people might take me too seriously. :P

This character goes back a few years, to highschool. First he was a sketch then I turned him into a giant cardboard sculpture, and I�ve always thought he was funny looking so I decided to make a proper painting. It didn�t take long; three days of working here and there between classes, homework, and everything else.

Photoshop 7.0. Crits welcome despite the silliness. It�s my first try at painting with a cartoonish style, so I could use some pointers.

Unfallen

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:53:50 +0000

Suuhr'mha, the final Dhuriiehm. Created to surpass all others, intended never to fail and never to fall. She was a figure of legend, mammoth and invincible. But there came a day when everything she fought for was destroyed� and on that day, everything she was became obsolete. Left without a purpose, she vanished and slowly faded from the world�unfallen, but forgotten. None know what became of her. Not even the legends remember her name.
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I've had the sketch for this picture lying around for months. It started out completely different, but I couldn�t get the original composition to work so I took a second round of reference photos and started over (very, very glad I did, too. This version is far more dramatic than the original would have been). Then it got shoved aside, still in sketch-form, back in November. I didn�t get the chance to pick it up again until after Christmas.
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All I can say is that I knew there was a good, good reason I prefer painting hilly landscapes. D:
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Photoshop 7.0. Critique encouraged. Thanks for looking!

Mhiet'e

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 23:36:29 +0000

Mhiet'e of the Dhuriiehm.

Just a character study, really, but I needed something to help de-stress from college finals. I tried to balance the simplicity of the portrait by working very hard on the details and lighting. Mhiet'e is one of my most interesting looking characters. I had a lot of fun playing with her design. She has a very mysterious, quiet countenance that goes deeper than her outward look, so I tried to capture that in her face.

My productivity has been lacking because of schoolwork, but now I have a month off between semesters. I'm going to do my best to make good use of it, so expect more paintings very soon! :]

Photoshop 7.0. Feedback appreciated! Thanks for looking.

The Gate of Slaughter

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 00:02:07 +0000

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This is the path to Eden
This is the heaven's stair
Beyond the fleeting veil of glory:
This is the gate of slaughter
_
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She is Ahsdri'ehl, ruler of the Ahn; a mythological figurehead of greed and corruption. It is told that she stands on a ruined staircase beyond the wastelands, enticing men to cross into the storm beyond. She promises wealth, power, glory�but all who follow her find nothing but their own doom.
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I did this concept last year with acrylics, but it looked more like a Snow White takeoff and was really static and boring. So I gave it another try. I�m much, much happier with this version. It was such a challenge to paint�I wanted everything to look very chaotic without being senseless, and the figure was to be still, like the eye of a storm� it took a lot of thought to work it. The sky is the most complicated sky I�ve ever painted, and it took me ages to figure out how to get the water to look right.
Critiques are welcome!
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Photoshop 7.0. Thanks for looking. :]
(And here's the first version, if you want a good laugh: http://navate.com/images/ahsdriehl_old.jpg )

Summon Infinity

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 12:06:12 +0000

This was inspired by and partially referenced (just the head) from a photoshoot of the vocalist of Rentrer en Soi, one of my favorite bands, found in a fashion magazine. I've had the photo on my desktop for ages, and I kept thinking how I wanted to transform the character in the photo into my own image. Did a lot of experimentation with color, light, and depth with this one.

Photoshop 7.0. Critiques appreciated. Thanks for looking!

Head reference

Aa'gho

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:42:41 +0000

Hi everyone.

I've been trying to reach a higher level of detail in my paintings. I spent a very long time texturing the rock and working on the braiding detail on her outfit. I wanted to have this done several days ago, but a very bad headache got in the way. It was a pain to finish since I was interrupted so close to the end, but here it is.

Photoshop 7.0. Crits appreciated. :] Thanks for looking!

Mhoiishi

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 00:34:24 +0000

I burned out for a few months, so I painted this to get my inspiration back. It's not really a "serious" painting�more of an experiment. I always get stuck on my faces, so doing a character portrait where the face was hidden made me really pay attention to the rest of the canvas, how all the other elements interacted. The painting didn�t take a terribly long time, but I learned a lot.

Photoshop 7.0

Some close-ups:

Thanks for looking! <3 Criticism is always welcome. :]

Masquerade

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:17:42 +0000

Portrait of Katherine Dinger, a lovely lady I've known online for a few years now. She's a brilliant photographer on top of being a good painter. This is referenced directly from one of her self portrait photos... practicing colors and textures, and paying a tribute to her photography that has inspired me for so long.

Reference photo

Absolution

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 21:19:21 +0000

Like most of my digital work, this is a character portrait. His name is Jiirahk'aa.

I suppose this is the picture which defines what I'd like my art to look like. It was an attempt to loosen up and explore color and atmosphere, and I'm not sure how I did it or even what I did, but something about this piece really strikes a chord with me. The subtle, lush colors and brooding atmosphere is exactly what I'm after in my pictures. It's not the best thing I've done technically speaking, but it's the best representation of what I want to do in the future.