Mike King

Mistborn fan art

I just finished reading the last book in the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson and got inspired to do a quick painting of Vin, one of the main characters. I can see so many things I’d like to fix with this painting, but I’ve got to get back to writing Lirielle. Still, I guess it’s not too bad for just a few hours of work.

a sketch

A sketch for my Lirielle project. Not sure if this is the main character or maybe a secondary character. But it was fun trying to change up my usual drawing style. The short film work has hit a time conflict. Trying to do some extra stuff at work. So not a lot of free time anymore. 

Serenity color sketch

Made a quick study of a frame from Serenity to practice painting. Perspective is off and the character isn’t a good likeness. But it turned out decent enough, I think.

Grit Teaser Poster

I made this teaser poster for an indie feature that my brother is making.

Melody sketch

The Skillfull Hunstman

I found this concept art book at Vroman’s over the weekend. Click on the picture for the publisher’s site.

It documents the visual development of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale at Art Center College of Design by three of their advanced students. I’ve found it to be inspiring and insightful. It’s stuff like this that makes me wish I were less technical and more artistic so I could do stuff like this more often. Or at least be better at drawing than I am.
Here’s the blurb from the site:

Entertainment Design Director at the Art Center College of Design, Scott Robertson said, “Several years ago it struck me that people would be interested to witness the creative visualization process we undertake within the entertainment design discipline.” His interest in education and his desire to share the amazing things that were occurring in his studio classes at Art Center led him to the creation of this magnificent book.

A tale from the Brothers Grimm provides inspiration for three gifted students from the world-renowned Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. For fourteen weeks, Khang Le, Mike Yamada, and Felix Yoon were guided by their instructor, Scott Robertson, to create original design solutions for the environments, characters, props, and vehicles found within The Skillful Huntsman The trio’s sketches and full-color renderings thoroughly document the creative process of concept design, revealing a host of intriguing places ”from sci-fi cities to castles” and people from giants to royalty. A running dialogue between Robertson and his students also lets readers in on the behind-the-scenes action of one of the world’s leading entertainment design schools, as they discuss the ideas and techniques used to create this stunning collection of artwork. This exciting book surpasses the typical story-art book in that it takes the reader on a step-by-step journey in the creation of a fully realized vision. Using digital and traditional media, the artists and Robertson reveal some of their visual tricks of the trade. A must for artists, aspiring entertainment designers, comic aficionados, and anyone interested in the creative process, The Skillful Huntsman. offers insight into the mysterious world of the imagination.

selena revised

Turned out a little more anime-styled than I’d intended. Maybe it’s the big eyes. I was going for a sketchier concept-arty look to fit with the Forge sketch from earlier. Oh, well. I’m kind of a hit-or-miss artist when it comes to my hands producing the image I can see in my head.

I did a cartoony character sketch for a friend who’s working on a pitch for a short film. It turned out okay, but it was a struggle. He gave my sketch to an animator here and the animator banged out something much better in a matter of minutes. Sigh. I have such a long way to go.

selena sketch

Made sketch of a character for one of the other players in the game group. Got some feedback and this take isn’t quite right. Will do another take soon.

Tuul sketches

The Amber campaign is over and we’ve moved on to a new fantasy world. Here are some character concept sketches I’ve been doing for the game over this past week. I think I’ve got Forge down pretty well. The one with the blue-gray background is the final design. Jayce’s costume is still pretty bare bones and I’m not happy with the face yet. I think I’ll tone down the anime hair too.

The last image is a comic book page. I’m going to try to tell a little bit of Jayce’s backstory in graphic form. It’s quite a lot of work, so I hope I see it all the way through. It’s frustrating when my drawing skills aren’t up to the task and I can’t get out on the page what I see in my head. I’m also struggling to figure out how to tell a story in different panels. I’m winging it a bit. I’ve just a rough idea of where the story should go and then drawing out the pages. Probably not the most efficient way to tell the tale, but it’s the most creatively fun way for me.

Anyway, it’s all much-needed art therapy. I’m stressed enough as it is right now. This stuff seems to be helping. Otherwise all that negative energy would probably give me an ulcer or something.

New drawings

Updated the gallery with a couple of new images. A painting of Adam Warlock for a friend and an attempt at Kim Possible that doesn’t really look like her, but I got some good practice at figuring out how to do inking in Photoshop.