The Bombay Royale

      Back in 2014 was when I first heard about the Australian cult band The Bombay Royale. Several of their hit songs were featured in a video game called Far Cry 4. From there I wanted to learn more about this mysterious band and check out some of their other songs. I then found this video of The Bombay Royale preforming live (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkQewE-tFuA). To my pleasant surprise I thoroughly enjoyed all of the songs (a blend of funk, disco and Bollywood). I was also intrigued by their code names and costumes (everyone wears domino masks).  
       Fast-forward a few years and during some free time I decided to create a fan-art album cover. I initially wanted to emulate the art styles of old Bollywood movie posters. Some items I wanted to feature in the art were all 11 members of the band, a starry sky (inspired by the bands’ most recent album cover), the colors of the Tibetan Prayer Flags (inspired by Far Cry 4), and the city of Melbourne (where the band was formed).

 

 

The Bombay Royale is easily one of the most unique and exciting bands creating music today. I hope this fan-art has inspired you to check out their music.

 

5th LRS Military Patch

At the beginning of June a friend of mine, who is in the US Air Force, contacted me and asked if I could design a patch for the 5^th Logistics Readiness Squadron. His only request was for the design to include a knight on a horse and have it be a frontal or profile view. Immediately an idea for this patch came to mind.

I chose to base some of the design elements and colors off of a tapestry by artist Alexander Kishchenko, specifically his piece entitled ‘Chernobyl’ a tapestry currently hanging at the United Nations in New York. It should also be noted that I decided to go with a smoother style of shading (not as geometrically ridged as you can see in Mr. Kishchenko’s tapestry).

           When it came to picking colors I didn’t want to stray too far from the original 5^th LRS logo (blue and black) and I also wanted to include the reds, yellows and grays from the Chernobyl tapestry. In the end I am very satisfied with how this project turned out.

 

Human Figure Study #1

Proportions, human figures, shading, and perspective are all important art skills that I continually try to improve upon as an artist. I know that the only way to get better is to practice, practice, practice. So for the past three months I’ve spent approximately two hours each night drawing human figures. As I don’t have access to nude models I instead used a program call Poser 7. 

With Poser 7 you can create human models and then animate or photograph them in any position you want. You have 360 degrees of camera angles and various types of lighting. Due to my limited knowledge with the program, I am using pre-made models that came with the program.

Aside from practicing the skills I wanted to improve, I also wanted to try out different shading techniques and use tools, such as markers, which I haven’t used in a long time. I plan on doing more in the future so stay tuned!
 

Mother’s Day

For the past three years I’ve been making my own Mother’s Day cards. I started doing this after our local Hallmark stores went out of business. I also figured that a hand made card would be more personal than a store bought one. I’ve posted the covers of each card below.  

 2016

  

 2017

 2018

 

Military Patch

Approximately a month ago a friend of mine, who is in the US Air Force, contacted me and asked if I could design a patch for his squadron. A few things he requested for the design was to include a grim reaper, a B-52 Stratofortress and a few other details.  Almost immediately the idea for this design below came to mind.  I wanted to create something you might see on a heavy metal album cover.  This patch went through a number of changes before I achieved the final design.  Initially I had bombs dropping from the plane but decided that visually it was too busy, and the lightning enhances the impression of a heavy metal motif.  A few constraints I had were the final size of the physical patch, 4” round, and the level of detail the stitching machines can achieve.  Overall I am satisfied with how my first commission turned out.

Update: Well, it turns out my friend’s squadron never had the patches produced. However it’s not all bad news. My friend went to a store on the base and had them produce a single patch. The patch you see below is made by hand. The colors are different from the original design because the shop had limited color options. Honestly, I think it turned out really good all things considered.