Gamehouse Casino: Captain Nemo Tiles

We've had the pleasure of creating a wide variety of art for Gamehouse Casino's slot machines.  With every project we do it seems that each theme presents it own set of challenges.  Every theme has been a tircky when trying to create a different feel when it relates to a popular story that's been made into a well known film, animation or storybook.  It can be tricky to wipe your mind clean of using any imagery from previously established versions of characters and places.  I think we've been able to create new art that is not only immediately recognizable to the story it belongs to, but also unique in it's take and presentation.

This tile set is for a Captain Nemo themed slot game.  This one may be one of my favorite dealing with the themes of sea life, steampunk, fantasy, adventure and mystery.  With the helpful direction from Dan Kristjanson and Brett Clarke, I think this machine and it's tiles stand out.  Please check out this awesome machine and it's amazing backgrounds painted by the very talented Justin Nieuwland and Min Zhou on facebook.

enjoy!

Drawn to the Sea: Rum Jetty 2013

Last week we went on vacation, and I don't think we have had a getaway vacation like this in quite a few years.  We were very fortunate to be invited to join our good friends (and their new family addition) to stay at Rum Jetty once again.  Having been there once before I have to admit not even my memories can seem to accurately portray just how beautiful this spot is.  With every turn of your head and blink of the eye lies a perfect post card photo for the mind.  From the smell of the sea, to the sights of wildlife, Jamaica possess endless beauty.  I managed to squeeze in this single pen and marker drawing in the time we were there.  I long for the chance of being able to do this for a much longer extended period of time someday.  I'd love to do oil paintings to capture the rich palette of colours you just don't see here in the north.  It's safe to say this place will always have a place in my mind as one of the most beautiful spots on the planet.

One day I hope that I'll be able to say I lived in this climate so I can scratch it off my bucket list.....and may be forget what winter is in the process.

Gamehouse Casino: Robin Hood Tiles

Here's another Gamehouse Casino tile set we created in a Robin Hood theme.  These were also done in Flash like the previous sets.  The tiles I enjoyed the most, involved the Nottingham soldiers.  The initial idea was generic soldiers in each specific location and it evolved into each group appearing to be bumbling dim-witted soldiers. We also decided to make them distinct in uniform face and body for the type of area they would be patrolling.


If you haven't visited the Gamehouse Casino on Facebook yet please do!

You can find more of our works here.
http://easyarthouse.com/

Gamehouse Casino: African Safari Tiles

Here's another set of tiles we did for Gamehouse Casino in a safari theme featuring some iconic animals from the savannah.  These were a lot of fun to work on, I only wish we were able to add more animals!  Like the rest of my work these were illustrated in flash.

If you haven't yet, play this game by going to the Gamehouse Casino on Facebook.

You can find more of our works here.
http://easyarthouse.com/

Bioshock Infinite: The Murder of a Crow

Here's a piece I created using Flash that's a variation of another image I submitted hosted by contest by Dark Horse and Irrational Games for Bioshock Infinite fan art.  I was inspired by the imagery in the trailers for the game and a particular mood setting moment experienced in Bioshock. Specifically, when you arrive at Neptune's Bounty.  If you've played the game you likely remember the treatment a resident of Rapture received for being a smuggler.

Gamehouse Sherlock Tiles

We've been pretty busy making graphics for Gamehouse Casino this past year and started doing their premium games at the end of last fall.  They've been a tonne of fun to work on, experience building and challenging given they're made entirely in flash.  This is one of those slot tile sets with the theme of Sherlock Holmes.  Above is the range of suspects and below a variety of weapons that the player goes through to solve the crime.  You can play the game today on facebook on Gamehouse Casino.

You can find more of our works here.
http://easyarthouse.com/

Bilbo Baggins

St. Patrick's day will be here soon and what better way to celebrate it than enjoying a nice mug of Black Orc Stout alongside a bit of Ol' Toby.

Here's my take on Bilbo Baggin's which will be assembled in a scene with the other 3 wizards posted below in the coming weeks.

Cheers!

Saruman The White

Here's my 3rd and final Wizard for this piece I'm working on.  I wanted to depict Saruman the White and his costume to be as miserable and tainted as he is in the films.  Using drab colors, dirty whites and a bit more grey in his hair.  Ive also added more straight lines and angular shapes to make him more serrated to contrast againts the organic curves of Gandalf and Radagast.

Next inline, will involve a Hobbit and his home.

Radagast The Brown

Here's my take on one of my favorite characters featured in the Hobbit, Radagast the Brown.  I think the costume design and playfulness of the character really caught my attention as a viewer.  Absurd, and crazy, his garb and use of wildlife for transportation just adds to the richness of Peter Jacksons films.  You may not like the films but the work involved is very inspiring to any artist who appreciates hard work and a vivid imagination.  The crew at WETA digital is very talented.

I'll be posting the last wizard in the trifecta soon.

Cheers!

Gandalf The Grey

Well instead of griping about not being able to create or post any personal work, I decided I'd just start somewhere and progressively finish an illustration.  In the past two years I've found new ways of getting what I want out of flash without ever really having to use Photoshop.  I'm compelled to use these techniques now on my spare time to fire out some of the many ideas that linger in my head from one day to the next.   A part of me is stubborn perhaps knowing that by using Flash's vector art I can eliminates the set boundaries in Photoshop when committing to specific sizes of documents.  Plus, Flash is clean and very precise and I can get pretty sloppy if I am presented the option.

On that note, this image is one of several to come this year.  I have illustrated several rough drawings I will likely post later (or you can find on my facebook) that together will complete a spot illustration.  As of late I've been re-inspired by the beautiful work and characterization presented in Peter Jackson's  Lord of the Rings films and of course his latest, the Hobbit. My idea involves a few familiar Wizards and a hypothetical scene that could explain the onset of certain perceived events in the films.

This post in particular, is my nearly finished vector art of Gandalf the Grey contently smoking some Ol'Toby.  I'm eager to reveal the rest and will do so as I complete one character and setting at a time.

Cheers!

Gamehouse Casino Work

Most people have probably been wondering what I've been up to at Easy Art House, and as of this week I can finally show you what our team and I has been up to for the better part of a year.  We've been creating artwork for the Gamehouse Casino on facebook, we've been making a lot of the artwork for there Casino games that range from Slots, poker and bingo.

I've posted two tiles sets I had the pleasure of working on from concept to finish done entirely in flash.  The framed tiles mean they're tiles that possess animation.  So if you play the game you'll also see the animations (if you're lucky enough to get 3 in a row).  Our goal with the tiles is to make artwork that could appear to be done in photoshop and work with the backgrounds, but in actuality be done in flash.  I think the end result has been pretty successful and with each new set the results seem to be getting better.  We have more in the works and a few more that are pending release which I'm quite excited to share.


If you enjoy casino games or just want to see what we've done you can play and see more of our work using this link.

http://apps.facebook.com/gamehousecasino/

If you'd like to see more work we've done at Easy Art House feel free to visit our site.

http://easyarthouse.com/

Merry Christmas 2012

                                     

I haven't update this blog in ages it seems and it's not from a lack of desire to do so.  I've had tonnes of ideas but life seems to be very busy for us these days.  I would be very upset with myself if I didn't get a Christmas  card made, I can at least say I did that in 2012!

Here is our Christmas card for 2012, made in flash.  I was much later getting it out the door than in previous years, but I think it turned out okay?  It was a few moments shy of never being made. I wish I had more time on it, but then again I say that for most artwork! 

Merry Christmas everyone and a happy New year!

Enjoy!

Size relationship

Here's the size relationship between Goblin and man assuming the human is 6 feet or so.
This image is another rough drawing of Paragon Greystone thats baesd off an older post. I've revised the character a bit and will do more digital revisions. I'm doing the linear drawings of these 2 character in flash and then adding colour through photoshop to see how the characters look a finished pieces. I've been debating inking them traditionally but I think that may prove to make more lengthy process for colouring. Unless anyone out there knows a more efficient way? Please share!!!

Commander Ocrit

Here's a sketch I've done for a character I've been developing (along with many others!) for The Hands of Doom. I hope to have a character line up done sometime this year along with a logo and map to boot!

Enjoy!

Goblin Commander

Here is a concept I've created for the Hands of Doom. This fellow is a prestigious warrior and once a leader to the Goblin army of the North land.

Merry Christmas 2011

Every year I try to get one of these out in time for print, process and mail. It seems like a task when everything else in the mix like Christmas shopping and working around our daughters schedule limit the time. Despite all that it's a fun project to partake in and one I always feel satisfied doing annually. I think if I didn't I'd feel more guilty than not! Well enough of me griping, here's our annual family Christmas card featuring our new addition in the company of our two feathered friends, furry feline-son Le Roy and us of course. I hope you enjoy it!

Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year!

the Paragon

Here's a sketch of the main character to my story that Ive been working on. It's my first pass on the character and I can already see a lot I'd like to improve on. Overall the concept is there and I'll be sure to post more of my development as I continue on.

Enjoy!

the Hands of Doom

Thanks to the Pitt pens and a nice moleskine A4 sketchbook I've been able to press my ideas out faster with more detail than previous sketch books. Here are some sketches for a personal project that's been brewing for a long time. I've found on my commute home or in between programs crashing at work my mind will wonder to this imaginary world I've been creating. The premise is centered around the return of 5 demonic gods in another world not unlike our own. So you can see the reason for the horrific imagery. I look forward to posting more development sketches as I progress. I hope to have a nice package of design work to start sketching out some book pages in the near future.

May the 4th

Here's my little contribution to celebrate May 4th. It was a last minute idea but I managed to squeeze it out tonight. Cheers!

Darth Sidious' Secret order 56 close up

I accidentally deleted this post when uploading the full illustration. Here's a close up on the work I did on Darth Sidious on his deathstar speeder.

Order 56

Here's an idea I've been wanting to illustrate for a while. Being a big Star Wars fan I've always wanted to draw my own rendition of Darth Sidious/Emperor. The idea came to me one day at work while on lunch and like many other ideas, I sketched it out as a thumbnail and tossed it into my personal concept morgue. I also wanted to get this done before May 4th as it's international Star Wars day as well as our first born's due date! So here's to Star Wars and to a new generation I'll be passing on a piece of nostalgia to. May the 4th be with you!

The Warlock

Here's another PITT pen sketch of an evil sorceror or Warlock.

Fire Drake Colour

Here's my first pass on the colour version of this illustration as vector art. I'm tempted to paint it in photoshop however, I have too many other ideas to flush out in the meantime. So here it is for now.

Robyn's 30th Birthday

My wife just turned the big 30 and we held a surprise party for her at one of her favorite restaurants, the Keg. Here's an image I made that was later printed as a card that everyone in attendance signed. You'll notice the cake is rittled with little icing icons that represent milestones and roles she's had through these past 30 years.

Goblin Sentry

Here's another piece from my sketchbook I've been meaning to post.

enjoy!

Sketchbook work

Here's a page of some recent dabbling from ideas for a story I'm calling "The Realm Of Fire". Can you guess what the circular structure is supposed to be?

Fire Drake Ink

Here's the linear work from flash. Next step, colour!

Fyre Draek Rough II

Here's a more resolved col erase pencil rough of the Fyre Draek. In retrospect I've decided that I may keep the screen left hand and human as they were in the initial pen sketch. I think it makes for a better pose and composition. I'm currently doing the linnear work in flash and once thats done I'll be rendering it in Photoshop.

Enjoy!

Fyre Draek Sketch I

Another rough sketch done with pen and ink. This one is of a Fire Drake I plan to tighten up and colour render in photoshop.

2011 Pitt pens

I've been pretty impressed so far with the results I can get using PITT artist pens. I've been enjoying sketch book work moreso than usual since it doesn't require me to be throwing down a bunch of lines to get the tones I want. I sketched this page over a day or so of dabbling. I've been flushing out a bunch of ideas for a story I have that seems to be filled with endless possibilities.

enjoy!

Christmas card 2010

With one new furry addition to our family this year it seems we'll be adding another member in the year to come. It will be our first born scheduled to arrive in May (May the 4th be with you actually!). We're both very excited and are anxiously awaiting this tiny person who's currently a float in my beautiful wife's belly. This years card was one I personally like over the previous years since it features so many of our companions at home, I had more time and also because it captures us best, I think. Although, I may have been too generous on the amount of hair I drew for myself....

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, New Year!

Evil Snowmen II

I think that if Evil snowmen gangsters existed they'd likely "off" one another with hot dog urine. Like this...

The Rewind Boys

Here's a pic I've been working on for a while that's for Paul Stachniak and his online radio show called the Rewind. It features the four hosts in a pose some fans of the movie Anchor Man might recognize. From the left we have Ryan, Paul, Steve and Nathan. This was a fun project but always challenging when you don't know some of the people being caricatured. Knowing someones personality changes a drawing as many can attest to. Thank goodness for facebook, without it getting the likeness would be based on the bias of 2 photos. Feel free to check out the site and also the podcasts available on iTunes at the link below.

http://www.theoffline.com/

Zombie

Here's a Zombie I've been working on for Art Jumble's topic of the week..it also doubles as a nice profile pic too.

Flying demon

Just trying to get some ideas going for a Halloween post. Here's one pen sketch so far.

Wedding gift #2

Here's a picture we had framed for a wedding gift for our good friends Brad & Erin's . It depicts a very cool landmark in downtown Toronto that timeless and always a easy on the eyes. The picture took a good length of time to draw and required a lot of strokes to get any kind of mid tone. Next time I'll have to use a wash to save my wrist from strain and speed up the process.

Milk My Unicorn

After two rejections we finally won on the 3rd try with the magic of a unicorn replacing our former star "Simianne" the chimp. Here's my final rendered Unicorn for newly released, playable and fully available iPhone game Milk My Unicorn. Only $1 at the app store. Brought to you by the wonderful people at Splashworks.com.

Enjoy!

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/milk-my-unicorn/id363150243?mt=8

the Bradchelor

Here's an illustrated graphic I created for a friends weekend Bachelor party to Cleveland this past weekend. We had a blast and I must say Progressive stadium has the best hot dogs and mustard I've ever had. Cleveland has a very nice clean downtown area, I look forward to going back and hopefully can do the rock n roll marathon in May 2011.

The Wheel at Rum Jetty

Here is a pen illustration I did for two friends that just got married in July. The image is based off a photo I took in Jamaica of a wheel once used for a sugar mill that resides in garden. It took a while to finish but I'm pleased with it and look forward to the next pen drawing ahead.

Milk My Monkey

After perhaps a year's work or more of development at http://www.splashworks.com/ we have completed and released Milk My Monkey for the iPhone. I've decided to post a few of the many images for Milk My Monkey that I had the pleasure to work on. Despite the app being rejected on it's first pass I think it may resurface with some censorship.

Our goal with these characters was to capture a similar feel to the artwork by Spumco (Ren & Stimpy) and I really hope that comes across. It's definitely a deviation from my personal style and comfort zone but it had most certainly provided a good challenge.

Enjoy!

http://www.milkmymonkey.com/