Nick Carver's Doodledump

Chocks Away!

2012-01-22T21:42:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

Right, let's get this blog going again. I've got a bunch of things in the works at the moment that I hope to share soon, but here are some aircraft designs for the project to keep things ticking over. I'm getting pretty quick at cranking these out now so I might do a bunch more at some point. I'll also do some finished (coloured) versions of a few of these too, I think.

More very soon.

Cheers!

The Ruler of Dustrum

2011-12-15T12:24:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,

Just a quick, flying update before heading back to the UK for a few weeks. I'll not be updating the blog until mid January, but I have tons of exciting things planned for the project in 2012, so watch this space!

Here's a quick bust sculpt of one of the major characters in the story, The Ruler of Dustrum:

Have a great Xmas and New Year everyone, and I'll see you next year!

Cheers,

Nick.

Wooden Soothsayers Line-up

2011-12-04T18:41:00.000-08:00

Here's the finished versions of those silhouettes from last week. I tried out a kind of graphic-y, cell-shaded look for this rendering, but I don't know how successful it was. I'll probably go for something more painterly/rendered for the next character line-up.

I'm working on another character bust for the project and planning to do some aircraft (dogfighting biplanes, fat bombers, crazy blimps etc.) thumbnails next weekend.

Cheers!

Silhouettes and Studies

2011-11-27T19:51:00.001-08:00

Hey there,

I didn't manage to get a great deal more done this weekend, but I did start to solidify the designs for the wooden elder/soothsayer characters who live at the oasis. I have the silhouettes pretty nailed down and I did some quick studies to get a better idea of how I want to handle the drapery and the different masks etc.

Hopefully I'll get the finished designs done next weekend.

Cheers!

Approaching the Fortified Oasis

2011-11-25T17:55:00.001-08:00

Hey there,

I'm working on that character line-up that I mentioned, but I feel like I need to do some more studies before I tackle the final designs. In the meantime here's a shot of Avery and his robot mechanic nearing the fort in the desert:

Also, here's a shot of me with my art director on the project. He keeps demanding that I add more bears to the story...

More soon!

Cheeyers!

Gadzooks! My brain!

2011-11-20T13:33:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

I've been playing around with Dynamesh in Zbrush and it's really a lot of fun. It makes concepting creatures in 3d really quick and intuitive. Here are a couple of giant insects for the project:

And here's how one such dreadful creature might attach itself to an unlucky host:

I'm planning to work on a finished character line-up for The Wooden Soothsayers next. Should be fun!

Cheers!

All Aboard!

2011-11-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

Hey there,

Here's an illustration featuring the train from the previous post. I still feel like there are a ton of errors with this so I'll no doubt go back and rework it once I have fresh perspective on it. This is where it is at the moment though:

CTN Expo next weekend (wooo!) so not sure if I'll have time for art. I hope to meet up with some of my fellow bloggers at the event though!

Cheers!

El Cisne: The World's Greatest Locomotive

2011-11-06T18:27:00.001-08:00

Here's a more resolved design for the trans-continental train I thumbnailed some time ago. I'm working on an image that features this train on a platform with lots of passengers boarding, but I wanted to get the shapes worked out in profile before I got too far into the piece.

I'll upload the finished illustration soon.

Cheers!

Welcome to Dustrum

2011-10-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

Here's an establishing shot for the city of Dustrum, where the story begins:

Had fun doing this one and learnt a couple of things (which is always good!).

More soon!

Blizzcon Sculpt Update.

2011-10-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

Just a quick BPR render in Zbrush after a little more polishing of this guy:

And here's a turntable of the full bust:

Cairne Bloodhoof Blizzcon Sculpt from Nick Carver on Vimeo.

Blizzcon Sculpt

2011-10-21T17:42:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Here's the sculpt of now-deceased Tauren leader Cairne Bloodhoof I made for the Blizzcon charity auction that I worked on during the artists' demo:

There's still some work to be done on it, but eventually this is going to be 3d printed and given to the highest bidder. I'll make sure to upload some pics of the actual printed sculpt.

Right, back to The Race Project. What to do, what to do...

Shameless Self Promotion

2011-10-19T21:09:00.001-07:00

Hi there,

No new artwork from me just yet, but I wanted to let you know that I will be doing a Zbrush demo on the Artists' Stage at Blizzcon this Friday. So if anyone reading this is attending the con, then drop by and say hello. I will be demoing along with Arnold Tsang and Justin Kunz so it should be good fun! The Artists Stage was my favourite part of Blizzcon last year and I recommend checking it out. I promise actual new art next time I post.

Cheers!

100 Horsepower Racer

2011-10-08T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Here's a vehicle design for the Race Project that I thumbnailed out aaaaages ago. Hope you like it!

Cathedral of Industry: Story Frames

2011-10-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of sequential pictures for a particular part of the story. I'm planning to do a few more to try and see if I can get a feel for the action moving along between each cut.

I often do quick 3d blockouts for these images to find the most suitable camera positions and also to use as a rough basis for the painting. Here is an example of something I might start with:

More soon - cheers!

Wooden Acting and Best-Dressed Hero

2011-09-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

Here's a couple more pieces for the project. First is a sculpt of a wooden tribal
elder. I thought it would be cool to have some characters whose faces are reminiscent of African masks. I'm imaging that there would be the creaking and cracking of wood when their faces animated. I think this was partly inspired by the scene in Return to Oz with the animated rock faces!

Also, I thought it was time that I gave the hero a more varied wardrobe, so I made a bunch of costumes for Mr Avery Esq. that correspond to some different parts of the story.

More stuff soon - cheers!

Angry Monkey

2011-09-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Just a quickie - this is a design which I started with some doodles; blocked out in Maya and then painted over in Photoshop. I'm planning to sculpt and pose a bunch of these guys in Zbrush and make a little story diorama:

More soon - cheers!

Battling Brigands and Rough Stuff

2011-09-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

I've been a bit slow with my artwork the past couple of weeks for a number of reasons *cough*Deus Ex 3*cough*. Here's a character line-up I'm working on for a section of the story that takes place during a battle in a frozen wasteland. I'm hoping to finish this up soon and also maybe colour these guys properly.

And here's a grab bag of scraps that I scanned to show how my work often starts. This probably looks like filler, but I figured some people might be interested in my terrible little sketches. I know I like seeing this kind of crap!

I'm working on a sculpt of an evil, evil monkey at the moment and I'm planning to do some giant parasitic beetles soon too.

More stuff soon - cheers!

Jungle Clearing

2011-08-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Here's a environment piece for the project. I made some new foliage brushes from a bunch of brush silhouettes I found on Hans Bacher's fantabulous blog and while painting this I tried to use some things I learnt from some Oga Kazuo studies I did a while ago:

And here's a little panel from the same story sequence:

I'm thumbnailing a bunch of WW1-style characters at the moment so hopefully I'll be able to show those soon.

Cheers,

Nick.

Character Busts etc.

2011-08-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

Here's some more work I've done the past week or so:

I've been sculpting some busts for secondary story characters. I'm mainly focusing on other race drivers at the moment, but I'll evenutally broaden to more diverse character types.

Here's a story/mood piece. I'm trying to work on some scenes with less direct lighting:

I'm planning to make some 'Top Trumps' style trading cards (using character sculpts and vehicle designs) to go with the book (whenever it's finally done!). I want them to resemble old cigarette cards from the early 20th century. Here's a mockup of how one side of a card might look:

That's it for now - cheers!

Exoticism!

2011-08-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

These are some environment/lighting tests for the Race for the Globe project:

More stuff soon - Thanks for looking!

Excitement!

2011-07-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

Here's an image from my Race for the Globe project showing some death-defying stuntery in the city of Dustrum:

And here are the trams themselves. I kitbashed some photos together and painted over the top for these:

More soon - cheers!

A Baby and a Bot

2011-07-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

I've been super busy lately with a project my wife and I had in the works for nine months or so that has recently been released:

The past couple of weeks has been amazing, but mainly taken up with changing diapers, cooking meals, doing housework, gawping adoringly at the little fella etc. As a result, there's not been much time for art of course, but I did managed to finish this robot mechanic design for my Race for the Globe project. Hope you like it!

More stuff soon hopefully.

Cheers!

Showdown at Gelada Temple

2011-07-07T22:39:00.001-07:00

Hey there Blogwatchers,

A couple more thingies from me. These are some practice environment/storytelling shots from my Race project. I watched a documentary which had a segment about Gelada monkeys stealing crops from villagers in Ethiopia. I thought they were so cool/evil-looking that I had to have a sequence in a Ta Prohm-like temple where the hero's attacked by EVIL MONKEYS. I really want to do a stylised sculpt of one of these guys too!

I also worked a bit more on the leaf-blowin' heavy. I need to get some better poses going on and tidy up some sculpting too:

This is probably my last post for a while, so I'll catch you guys again soon!

Cheers!

Society of the Grotesque

2011-07-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

Here's some new bits from this week. I'm trying to get back into drawing with a good 'ol Colerase pencil again. Things were a bit wobbly at first, but once I got into it I really enjoyed myself. I always seem to go a month or two between drawing traditionally and every time I remember just how fun it is. Anyhoo, these are some secondary characters from my Race For The Globe project (remember that thing?):

I had fun doing the sculpt of the leaf blower guy and thought I might make a little buddy for him. This is a rough sculpt and paintover to see if the idea's worth continuing with:

More animals for the nursery:

I should have some environment pics for The Race thingy soon.

Cheers,

Nick.

Dygun, Old Sculpt, Walrus Love

2011-06-19T18:51:00.001-07:00

Hello. Here are some things I done.

What better way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon than by kit-bashing some photos of Dyson products together and creating THE FUTURE OF BALLISTIC ARMAMENTS:

I was rooting through my external hard drive and I found some pics of a sculpt I did a few years ago. The character went unused, but I thought some of the drapery was pretty good:

I told my wife I'd do some pieces that we could put up in our nursery and seeing as the sprog could drop any day now I thought I better start practicing doing some cute stuff:

Grunt Sheet and Studies

2011-06-05T17:14:00.000-07:00

Haro!

Here's a design for a character I'm planning to work up in Zbrush over the next few evenings. Most urban vinyl/animation maquette-style figures you see tend to be contemporary or futuristic and I wanted to do something medieval/fantasy based. It should be fun to sculpt this guy, I reckon:

Also, here are a couple of quick studies I did today. I wanted to concentrate on lighting and colour and not have to stress my poor little brain out with composition, so I found some layout drawings by God of Vis Dev, MARCELO VIGNALI and painted on top of them. So yeah, I felt like a cheat doing these, but hopefully I learnt something from it.

Bye!

Practising Vehicles

2011-05-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Hello there,

I decided to practice some vehicle concepting this weekend. I wanted to try and create some designs that were a little more refined and believable-looking, rather than the simplified forms that I naturally gravitate towards. I still find it hard to achieve sophistication, but I feel like I learnt a thing or two in doing these.

Building Blocks

2011-05-20T08:25:00.000-07:00

Some style tests for that Robo Rejects idea:

Should have some new things this weekend if I can tear myself away from LA Noire...

Riveting!

2011-04-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a vehicle design related to my 'Race' story idea. I've been tinkering with this for the past few evenings:

And a close-up of the little guy:

Here's a colour study for the story. I based the lighting on a frame from True Grit.

More soon.

Cheers!

Some Fings

2011-04-12T21:24:00.001-07:00

Here's a few things I've been tinkering with. Another foray into the unforgiving world of colour. The car doesn't look like it'll make it:

Drawing hands is most hard. I thought I better do a few studies to try and be less awful at 'em.

BLORP! BLLLOORRRRRP!!!!

This a photo of a ship breaking yard that I tweaked and painted into:

Cheers!

Leaf Blower Vinyl Pipedream

2011-04-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Got around to finishing this sculpt of a fella with a leaf blower machine. It'd be cool to get this 3d printed - hmm... More stuff soon.

Cheers!

Stuff and Nonsense!

2011-03-14T22:23:00.000-07:00

Some more bits. A bit more progress on that sculpt for the comp at CGFeedback. I've got an assignment to do for a Nathan Fowkes workshop I'm doing at CDA so I don't know if I'll get to finish:

Some little tribal dwellings for part of the story in my Race project. Maybe a little too twee, but the tonal practice was much needed:

The original pencils:

I'm working on some characters for that Robo Rejects idea as well. Will post them soon. Cheers!

More Bits and Pieces

2011-03-08T22:27:00.000-08:00

Last week I spent most of my free time moving apartments, but here's a couple of things I managed to get done:

A little screen mockup for a game idea I'm tinkering with. It combines elements of Lemmings and Tetris with some funny little robots thrown in as well:

A bit of sculpting for that Clement Sauve comp. I'm not sure I have the patience to take this through to completion, but it was good to mess around in Zbrush for a bit:

I've been looking at a lot of Soviet Propaganda posters/cartoons recently, as well as Samurai Jack/Scott Wills' work. I wanted to try out some graphic looking little characters in that kind of style:

Early Birthday Gift

2011-02-28T18:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a fantastic picture that friend and Blizzard cohort Paul Richards drew for me as a birthday present. He's totally captured me in every respect in this piece - my penchant for tea and Victorian contraptions; my oblivious, smug expression; the spectre of death looming just behind... It was a real surprise to get such a cool gift - it's up there with the Lego castle I got for Christmas when I was 7 in the Pantheon of awesome presents.

Cheers muchly Paul!

My smug face for comparison:

Clement Sauve comp doodle etc.

2011-02-25T21:22:00.000-08:00

Haro,

This is a sketch I did for a mini comp over at cgfeedback. The contest is a tribute to a fantastically talented concept and comic artist named Clement Sauve who passed away at the age of 33 a few weeks ago. I only just discovered his work and I'm gutted that we'll never get to see all the incredible art he would have produced in the future. Try as I might this sketch didn't really turn out that close to his work stylistically, but I might plow on with it regardless and turn it into a Zbrush sculpt. To explain, I see all these migrant workers cutting grass on the side of the road as I walk to work (pretty much the only pedestrian in Irvine!). I think leaf blowers and strimmers look pretty neat so I thought it would be cool to do a stylized version of one of these guys and pose them up like an action hero (in the sculpt, not this sketch!) with all their hardware and accessories.

And more weapons from a few years back, apologies for the turquoise glow - we've all been there:

More Randoms

2011-02-23T22:42:00.000-08:00

Here's some stuff. Some little silhouettes of freewheeling monkeys. I got a sense of deja-vu doodling these and remembered that I once had to spend a month modelling a monkey in a Halo outfit called 'Master Chimp'. Those were the days...

Some weapon concepts I did for a freelance gig a few years ago. I have a bunch of these somewhere...

Drapery studies. Just trying to accentuate and stylize here and there.

Speedpaints!

2011-02-18T19:52:00.000-08:00

Some guys at work have started doing speedpaints at lunchtimes. This one was 'steampunk velociraptor' so I did a little tribute to my favourite game of last year, Limbo:

And the topic for this was 'powerful frog' or something...

I've also been trying to do regular 10 minute studies from films:

More 'Race' stuff soon, cheers!

B.R. Avery in: The Race for the Globe

2011-02-12T17:35:00.000-08:00

Wow - apologies for not having posted in a long, long time. To blow the cobwebs off this blog here's a whole load of work for a project I'm working on. It's an idea for a story set in an alternate early 20th century and it uses a global race as the jumping off point to tell a tale full of adventure, double-crossing, intrigue, death-defying feats - all that good stuff! I hope to keep updating this with lots more images - I feel like I'm just scratching the surface with it at the moment. I'm planning to publish a small 'art of' book for a film that doesn't exist, so only another couple of hundred images needed to turn that idea into reality! I'll try not to leave it too long before I update again. Hope you guys like this stuff.

Cheers!

2011-02-12T16:44:00.000-08:00

New Year's Doodles

2010-01-02T23:10:00.001-08:00

A New Year and I'm turning over a new leaf. I'm definitely going to be concentrating on my personal artistic development this year with a heavy emphasis on studies and improving my skill-set. I think it's going to be a lot of fun!

Bits o' stuff

2009-10-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

Apologies for not posting for a while - I've relocated to sunny California to work at Blizzard and I've had very little time for personal work recently. The job's going great so far and hopefully once I've settled into a routine I'll start cranking out some work of my own again. Here's some random stuff for now:

Recent Stuffs

2009-07-26T01:19:00.001-07:00

Some recent bits and pieces:

Jekyll and Hyde

2009-07-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a Zbrush sculpt I've been working on the past few evenings. It was great fun to sculpt something in a dramatic pose. I'd love to get this 3d printed!

You can download a turnaround movie of the piece here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/b71kl6

2009-06-15T15:02:00.001-07:00

Some doodles for a little project I'm working on called 'VTV':

2009-06-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

A few recent doodlings.

Recent Doodlings

2009-03-15T10:54:00.001-07:00

I've been very busy with one thing and another lately, but here's a few bits and pieces I've managed to doodle lately:

2009-02-03T23:47:00.000-08:00

Hello there. Apologies for not updating in a long, long time. The studio I worked at went into administration just before Xmas (yay!) and so the time since then has been a bit of a blur. It looks like it's all going to work out ok for me, but I've not had a great deal of time for personal work as a result. Here's some of the stuff I was working on at my previous gig:

Free Radical No More

2009-02-03T23:32:00.000-08:00

Recent activity

2008-11-29T02:43:00.000-08:00

Some bits and pieces I've done recently. Cheers!

Industrial Design Work

2008-11-01T02:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a selection of ID work I've done in the past six months or so. I love finding interesting silhouettes and then solving the problem of making each design plausible but cool-looking at the same time. I think all those countless hours as a kid spent making up my own Lego models is the reason I enjoy this type of work so much.

Deep stuff

2008-10-31T16:49:00.000-07:00

Pencil Doodles

2008-10-31T16:38:00.001-07:00

I'm a big fan of mindless doodling. These are all done with a Prismacolour Erasable blue pencil which I desaturate in Photoshop. I have to up the contrast quite a bit to make it read ok so that's why the scans look pretty crappy.

Sargent Studies

2008-10-31T16:34:00.000-07:00

John Singer was a dab hand with the ol' oil paints and no mistake. Here's a few studies I did from some of his portraits:

2008-10-31T16:30:00.000-07:00

I'd love to get into the whole urban vinyl/designer toy thing as either a sculptor or a designer. Here's a few concepts with that in mind:

2008-10-31T16:24:00.000-07:00

Some quick character/costume designs:

2008-10-31T16:19:00.000-07:00

Observational studies done in Photoshop:

2008-10-31T16:13:00.000-07:00

A selection of sculpts done in Zbrush.

Film Studies

2008-10-31T16:06:00.001-07:00

A selection from a bunch of studies I've done from films that I think have great cinematography. In doing these I'm hoping to improve my eye for composition as well as colour and tone: