NeecHMonkeYing Around ...

**NeecHMonkeY** · January 6th, 2011, 09:23 AM

My name is Travis, I'm an Aussie living in Japan (since 2005) and I started taking my art seriously back in 2008 (April, I think). From around 2009, I've had fairly steady freelance or part-time work on video games, a card game, a toy/model range and even a couple of movies that are now in pre-production.

I consider myself blessed to have stumbled into the odd jobs I've been offered over the past 2 years and though I've learned a lot on these projects and from my fellow artists who I was working with, I've always pushed myself to learn more with every piece of work I do. I still have so much to learn and challenge myself with.

I was thinking 2011 would be a good time to start myself a sketchbook on CA.org to post all my practice work, quick sketches, wips and whatever else.

- First up is a quick one I did for the 2010 holidays - mostly for the fun of it but I also wanted to play with colors and values. About 4hrs work.

- Next is an environment I was messing around with. Not really sure what I was trying to accomplish and I think that's it's biggest problem... it doesn't tell any kind of story. It was fun to paint though and it got me in the mood to do more work.

- Last up is my most recent, a Huron Scout very much inspired by Wes Studi's Magua in Last of the Mohicans. I used a reference pic I found of Magua for the lighting and form but changed the image and pose to tell my own story. I don't mind using reference but I try not to become a slave to it.

**Nubian_Greene** · January 6th, 2011, 10:34 AM

great start,hah,i really like the way you have depicted santa! hope japan is working out!

**Jansi** · January 6th, 2011, 10:43 AM

Hi there!

What a great story and what a great style! Well done for starting up the sketchbook and hope that many more paintings and practices will follow. My only critique so far is that the sky in the second painting doesn't look overly convincing, but I am really scraping the bottom of the barrel here - good work! Oh, and I've just noticed - perhaps Magua's left hand is a tad too small?

Best wishes,

Ana

**~KJK~** · January 6th, 2011, 01:35 PM

great quality of work, looking forward for more!

**NickyBeats** · January 6th, 2011, 02:16 PM

hey Travis! yea dude, you finally started another sketchbook!! great! now i can stalk you hehe. awesome work on that native american! im part mohawk (pronounced Mo-Wah), my grandfather was half. cool stuff!

**NeecHMonkeY** · January 9th, 2011, 05:57 AM

Nubian_Greene - Thanks and yes, Japan and I are getting along fine... mostly.

Jansi - Yeah, there's so much about that piece that I'm not happy with, sky included. As for the Huron Scout, I've got an update version on my blog where I re-sized both his left hand and the tomahawk.

Parsakoira - Thanks. Love that piece you did with the monster in the FF Section.

NickyBeats - Feel free to stalk, you won't find much.

Not much of an update, I've just been using my free time this weekend to do some quick studies on my weaker areas. Each done in pencil, scanned and then redone digitally as the repetition helps me remember.

Simple Head Studies

Simple Gesture Studies

EDIT: I also did a quick screencap study - for shits and giggles.

Original shot from Kingdom of Heaven

**NeecHMonkeY** · January 9th, 2011, 08:06 AM

Nude Figure Study - about 2hrs work from photo reference:

**Jasper_** · January 9th, 2011, 12:46 PM

Niiice, this looks like it could turn out to be a very promising sketchbook. Love the native american piece. One thing, this latest female study looks a little like she is floating rather than sitting, by the way you've positioned the cast shadow I think. Good work man, excited to see what kind of things you'll be bringing to CA!

**Dana_T** · January 9th, 2011, 12:49 PM

Great sb, can't wait to see this thread fill up

**teapo** · January 9th, 2011, 12:53 PM

wow. awesome start here my friend! i particularly am drawn to the Wes Studi-inspired paint

i agree with jasper on your last female study. perhaps rendering out all that 'gray' matter just below her and adding the surface she's sitting on will ground it~ but of course, you probably know all that and was just paying attention for the anatomy and values ^^

really promising start i must say~ post again!

**hücumkedi** · January 9th, 2011, 01:10 PM

nice colors studies

**RandAlThor** · January 9th, 2011, 04:41 PM

Looks promising, I'll be sure to follow along, keep posting..

**NeecHMonkeY** · January 10th, 2011, 08:00 AM

Jasper_ & teapo - Thanks a lot guys. You both caught me being a little too lazy which is a bad habit I get into when I'm nearing the end of a painting.

Dana_T, hücumkedi, RandAlThor - Thanks guys, glad to have a few followers of my work.

I really want to challenge myself with perspective this year as my compositions recently have been (to me at least) boring. I've been watching Feng Zhu's perspective tutorial from Gnomon to help inspire me and knocked out a few 20min practices:

**Verehin** · January 10th, 2011, 08:16 AM

Nice stuff

**Quigleyer** · January 10th, 2011, 10:54 AM

Nice thumbnails you've created there. I think you could stand to use some more lower-end values. You've got yourself one or two dark spots in there, try for a few more, closer to the viewer.

Keep going- good start. I really love those blues you used in the first post.

**NeecHMonkeY** · January 13th, 2011, 10:02 AM

Verehin - Thanks, your work is amazing.

Quigleyer - Cheers, it was more about the perspective study but I'll keep that in mind for the future.

Here's a quickie for fun:

**NickyBeats** · January 13th, 2011, 12:07 PM

nice updates man! love that latest enviro.

**NeecHMonkeY** · January 17th, 2011, 10:09 AM

Thanks Nick.

Here's another quick one from this evening - about 2hrs:

**Danny_K** · January 17th, 2011, 12:31 PM

nice vehicle! be careful not to over saturate your pieces, bring in some more.

**MarcSampson** · January 17th, 2011, 01:13 PM

very nice

**Kalin** · January 17th, 2011, 02:51 PM

Very nice colors in your enviro studies..the santa one looks great especially!

**NeecHMonkeY** · January 17th, 2011, 08:32 PM

MarcSampson, Kalin - Thanks guys.

Danny K - When you say 'over-saturate', are you talking about the color intensity? The majority of my preferred palette is within the mid to low chroma range so I'm not sure I understand what you mean - can you give me a little more info on what you're saying?

**FAST ART** · January 21st, 2011, 08:30 AM

Nice Si-fi designs.. but most i like that indian..

Keep comin this great stuff

**NyeAlexandaFrayne** · January 21st, 2011, 09:55 AM

really like your work man, defo one to watch

**NeecHMonkeY** · January 27th, 2011, 01:48 AM

FAST ART & nyje - Thanks guys.

Here's some work I've recently done in my spare time for a friend's Star Wars fan film; Armies of the Fallen. I love having a chance to design some 'Star Wars' characters even if it's not official.

Here are the initial roughs for the first character - I was asked to include specific things and there's a limited budget so I couldn't go absolutely nuts:

Here's the final design:

Still working through the other characters and will upload those soon.

**NyeAlexandaFrayne** · January 28th, 2011, 06:28 PM

pretty darn cool man, and id say it fits in with the star wars universe completely, win win

**Teundeboer** · January 28th, 2011, 06:37 PM

Cool stuff so far, nice studies. Watch the arms on this last star wars guy tho.
His lower right arm (our left) seems to be bent in an awkward shape. And I think his left arm (our right) is longer than his right arm.

P.S. May the force be with you.

**NeecHMonkeY** · February 16th, 2011, 03:50 AM

nyje - Thanks again, I'm glad it looks like it fits into the Star Wars universe.

Teundeboer - Thanks for pointing that one out. I've uploaded my updated version.

I haven't had much time recently for practice, I've had my hands full with a number of projects so I'll upload some of the completed work from those:

This one is my 4th piece of Promo art for InterWave Studio's Nuclear Dawn which should be released on PC and Mac sometime this year. I had less than a week to get this done (which isn't much when you also have a full-time business to run

) and I was sick for most of the week too. Please check my blog for the previous 3 promo images or the game's Facebook page.

All in all, I think it turned out pretty well and I'm happy enough with the end result:

Prior to that, I was still doing some additional costume design for the Star Wars fan film 'Armies of the Fallen'. This time for a character referred to as 'The General'.

Initial thumbnail roughs:

Final design:

**Neferinn** · February 16th, 2011, 04:44 AM

Your paintings in the first post are really awesome! but for some reason your later character designs are a little flat colouring wise. Maybe a little more darker tones? really really nice stuff though!

**Moonrage** · February 16th, 2011, 05:20 AM

Very strong concepts and environments. I agree with neferinn about value - extend your range with a little bit darker and lighter areas, and you'll be better off. And something else - try to emphasize something on your characters - make them have something that is very distinct. Talking of the last one - you could work some more on the shoulderplates, figure them out in depth and this way you'd have a focus and a characteristic trait.