Viewing entries tagged
Tribute art

I can finally show 'Retrocave', my illustration for art book #EVERYDAYISPLAY by @Gamepaused

Retrocave

Super proud to have this painting included in the stunning coffee table art book "Every Day is Play", now available on Gamepaused.net.

From an early age I've been pretty obsessed with video games, and this painting has several meanings (as well as a bunch of game references - can you spot them all?);

1, It depicts how a single controller (in my case my first time was with a NES) can be a gateway into another world for a highly imaginative kid.

2, It shows how often, when we revisit the things we remember fondly from our past (especially old games), they haven't aged too well and don't live up to the amazing memories we have of them.

The kid dangling from the wire is me in the early 90's at the height of my obsession - a simpler time when games were 2D, all multiplayer was local and the most important thing in a game was how 'cool' the mascot was.  Ahh, good times!

Below are some shots of the book itself;





You can order your own copy from www.gamepaused.net/books/everydayisplay and it's well worth the money.



Shane
www.ShaneMadeArt.com



Skylanders elements digital painting #skylanders


Sometimes it's good to leave characters behind and experiment with painting different materials.  This piece was great practice as the different elements allowed for a broad range of subjects to cover.  Plus it allowed me to learn more about the game my Nephews are obsessed with!

This was originally painted for an internal presentation about the Skylanders brand for the company I work for.


Shane
www.ShaneMadeArt.com

Woody and Buzz watercolour


I painted this a few months ago for a very poorly little boy who loves Toy Story.  His favourite character is Woody, and his twin brother's is Buzz.  The final version included both of their names side by side on the soles of the character's touching feet.  I didn't think it was appropriate to post that version online but it does add some context to the poses if you visualise it.

As cheesy as it sounds, the original Toy Story means a lot to me.  Along with it's influence on my artistic development (which you can read about here), I used to watch it with my little brother when he was a toddler and the soundtrack as much as the visuals bring back a lot of great memories of time spent with him.  Now thirteen years later I plan on watching it all over again with my own little boy.

I can't imagine how it must feel to watch your child suffer and not be able to do anything to help, and that's what made this so heartbreaking to paint as a new parent myself.  Toy Story also has a pretty emotional soundtrack, unfortunately listening to it while trying to paint wasn't very productive - it was hard to see the details through teary eyes.


Shane

Baby Pooh watercolour



Watercolour and coloured pencil illustration for a buddy of mine.  To see baby Eeyore painted in this style check out this post, and here for Baby Tigger.

To see some preliminary sketches check out this post.

Shane S

Baby Pooh and friends sketches



A couple of sketches for a buddy of mine that recently became a Daddy (congrats!).  He then chose one of each character to be painted in watercolour for his Daughter's nursery wall.

The designs he chose all painted up;
Pooh
Tigger
Eeyore

Which sketches are your favourite?

Shane

Creative influence map


Loads more I wanted to include but decided to stick with the grid ‘rules’ on the bottom of the template instead.

I mainly included artists that have influenced my work and technique directly rather than just a bunch that I loved but didn’t consciously take anything from, hence no James Jean, Da Vinci or Watterson.

I'm always interested to find out the creative origins of artists I admire, so have been checking out a whole bunch of these things online lately.  A few highlights are those of Sam Nielson (surprising how similar my own influences are to his, unfortunately I left off Monkey Island but I haven't been able to draw clouds without including a spiral since playing MI3!), and Sebastien gallego.

Download the template file from the creator's DeviantArt page at http://fav.me/d2vx881 and create your own.

Shane S



Happy Rex-mas!


Apologies for the terrible pun.

Once I unknowingly ate reindeer and it's actually pretty good.

Have a good one!


Shane S

Happy Halloween!

Halloween seems to be getting bigger every year here in the UK, so I thought I'd get involved for a change and discovered that pumpkin carving is much harder than it looks;

Monsters Inc's Mike carved pumpkin;






Plus a figurine I designed a few years ago - it's bones glow in the dark!;

 




 Shane S

Simon's Cat (sort of in real life)

So now I'm finally settling into Fatherhood I actually have some time to scratch the good old artistic itch again.

One of my favourite things to do is to interpret existing characters in a different style, (check out my Toy Story little green man and Guyver paintings for other examples) so I thought I'd have a go at painting Simon's Cat as he might appear in CG animated form.

He looked strange with white eyes in this style hence the addition of green.

If you haven't done so already, go and check out the Simon's Cat animated shorts at www.simonscat.com.

Shane S

Guyver!!!!!!!!



Guyvaaaahhhh!

I was dead set on not painting anymore fanart, but this was for a competition so I think I can just about get away with it ;P

Plus I loved that show.  To me it was kind of like an ultra-violent animated Power Rangers; very cool to a thirteen year old.

I've recently been rewatching the original 12 part anime, and apart from the terrible voice over I think the action scenes still hold up.

See below for some detail shots;



For a process/tutorial on how I painted this image click here.

Shane S

"The Claw chooses who will go and who will stay..."


I'll start this, my first image post, by stating one simple fact. I love Pixar movies.

Now let me explain; When was a kid I decided that I didn't want to be a zoo-keeper, archeologist or dolphin trainer, figuring that I'd become an artist instead. But what does an artist really do? How do they do it as a job? My pre-teen brain couldn't quite figure those parts out, so I just carried on drawing dinosaurs and Ninja Turtles (actually is was 'Hero Turtles' here in Blighty) assuming things would work themselves out.

Fast-forward a few years to 1996 when I first saw Toy Story, and when my mind was completely blown.

Suddenly it all clicked into place. I wanted to make films like this, no matter what small part I had in the process, I wanted to do that. I wanted to draw those characters, design their world, their lives, their friends, foes and families - everything.

Fourteen years later and Toy Story is still possibly my favourite movie (fighting with Jurassic Park for the top spot!) and remains the only film I've seen multiple times at the cinema. I've owned it on VHS, DVD, and now blu-ray and it continues to inspire me with every viewing.

So what's all this got to do with the odd little creature depicted in the picture above? Well in case you didn't realise, it's actually one of the little green men from the afformentioned movie with a little stylistic twist of my own.

Wouldn't it be cool if those little guys got thier own spin-off? I'll let you figure out the story...

So consider this my tribute to Pixar - keep up the amazing work.

Until next time, To Infinity, and Beyond!


Shane S