"Height"

Goodness, I wish I had more time. This is only a partly finished piece, set a side for another day.

"Pigs in a Blanket"

This is a quick twenty minute sketch-n-paint for Doodle United's mini doodle contest. Something for the grandparents today. Enjoy!

Zombie Doodles

"Return"

I doubt he will ever return to his home...

"Swamp"

Here is my latest piece, and I can say that after three sleepless nights, I am really happy to have this finished, and how it turned out. I have continued to search out this "cut-out" illustration style and the more I play with it, the more I like it. This isn't entirely finished, so hopefully after the craziness stops I will be able to go back and touch it up. Hope you enjoy!

-Mike

"Shades"

This week I spent a decent amount of time on the line work, but even more on learning Corel Painter 12. This is my first work produced from Painter in a few years, and I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed it! I really want to continue to push the backgrounds and get a little bit more out of them. I am not crazy about this one just yet, but I will probably redo it at some point. Hope you enjoy it!!

Mike

Graphic Novel Update

I've been working on a graphic novel lately that is done completely in a scratchboard style. It's allowed be to experiment with different brushes and stroke styles to give me a look that I am getting more and more comfortable with. The theme of the short story is unlikely companions. My novel takes place in the early 1900's, during the beginning of the first zombie apocalypse. The young families robot butler is the last hope to save the one remaining family member. Unfortunately, the only shelter for them is the church up the hill...

"Intention"

Here is this weeks piece for Illustration Friday!

Viking Lovers

I've been doing a lot of my own work lately and I have a few pieces that I wanted to put up, this just being something I finished last night. Enjoy!

"Capable"

Here's a quick piece that I did for the Illustration Friday Blog. This has been an amazing opportunity for me to grow as an artist and be forced to be doing a lot of my own work outside of classes and work. Still have a lot to learn about painting water. Enjoy!

-Mike

"Fluid"

Here is the line work and color final for my most recent piece for Illustration Friday. This was a lot of fun and a first attempt to work with flat colors. I wanted this to have a bit of a cut-out feel and I think that this turned out pretty well. Looking forward to doing more work in this style. Enjoy!

The Undead

Here is my latest piece. I started on Friday, and expected to be done on Friday. However, I found that there was always something else to do on it. This was a wonderful experiment and it allowed me to branch out and try new styles and brushes in Photoshop. I also haven't posted in a while, and that's simply because this ate up all of my time. I hope you guys enjoy it, and let me know if there are things that I can change to make it a little better.

Lilith

Here is a piece that I finished up over J-Term here at Huntington. I took a wonderful class on the writings of George MacDonald, and this was inspired from the second book we read, Lilith.

Finished At Last

This has taken longer than I had anticipated, but it was worth it. I had fun, and I hope you enjoy it!

Peace Pig

Here is another Banjo Pig that I have sketched up, but I haven't gotten around to coloring. There are a few things I would like to clean up, but I will do that before I color it.

Reaper

Here is a sketch I did of one of the Magic: The Gathering cards that I really liked. I can't wait to find the time to color it.

Tyrael

Another piece inspired by Diablo 3... anyday now...

At The Back of the North Wind

This was a quick digital painting I did for my George Macdonald class that I took. Amazing author! I would highly recommend him to anyone!

Cyclops!!!

So, lately I've been in a weird mood, where I don't want to do anything other than sketch, which really seems to take away from all of my other work. I can't say I hate it, I just hope to be productive other places as well. This was inspired after watching the Lord of the Ring series in two days. Still working on shading and highlights. A work in progress.

Freud

So I happen to sometimes decide to sketch rather than take notes during psychology. However, I have learned some in the class. This is a sketch of Sigmund Freud, who was the first man to have someone lay down on a couch and ask about their feelings. He also believed that all of our problems stem from our mothers. Regardless, this is what most of my classroom "notebooks" look like. I hope theirs enough information in the drawings to pass the class..

Return of the King

Here is an updated version of The King. It's getting much closer to being finished, but I still want to add some minor detail changes, block in the final paint, and possibly some clouds in the background.

Banjo King

Banjo Pigs with Ballinger! Not quite done yet, but I wanted to share the progress. A class project, but something that I am having a lot of fun with!!! All Hail the King!

Alan Concepts

These are some of the character concept drawings of Alan before we decided upon the previous sketch's.

Common Ground

Here are my two characters for my Jr. Film, "Common Ground". The short fat character's name is Butch. He is a bum that lives outside Alan's (the taller, thinner character) apartment. Every day Alan walks past Butch without hardly noticing him. Once in a great while he'll toss him a penny, but even that's seldom. It's not until Alan loses his job and comes home to literally nothing after a fire destroys the apartment complex that he realizes that he will be learning more from Butch than he had anticipated. This piece is a Stop-Motion Animation. The final film will be up, closer to the end of May.

And....Colored!

This was a lot of fun. I spent a short time coloring it, mostly with textures, and was a good study.

Battles but Forgotten

This being the first post on my blog, I am really excited to see where this takes us! Since you know little about me, I will be happy to give a quick rundown of who I am. I was born in Pioneer, OH and raised there. It's in the middle of nowhere. I attend Huntington University and I am currently studying Animation under Steve Leeper, Bryan Ballinger, Shabaaz Shaw, and Phillip Hall. I hope you all enjoy this blog! 

To get us started, this was a quick sketch inspired by Diablo III. One of my favorite games of all time being Diablo 2, I, like thousands of others, impatiently wait for the sequel. Hopefully it will be released, well, at all. But until then, I will continue to doodle and day dream about it.

-Mike