The Piano - cover

Release date for 'The Piano' is  - 3 March 2013. Here is the cover illustration for the Graphic Novel.
Everything ready to roll. It will be released exclusively on kindle first, followed by dead tree copies soon. Please get yourself a copy on the 3rd, I'll be posting up links to the book on the third.

Late for Halloween...

Pencil drawings and digital work collide. This is one of my charming (cough) children's story about a bug's revenge over Halloween. Beelzebug's speech to the other bugs about how they can take back the season. (Did I mention it's unpublished... any publishers interested? *wink*)

Weep

New Illustration, keep your eyes posted to this blog for a demonstration tutorial where I cover the whole process from expanding the initial thumbnail, rough sketch, color planning to final painting. My aim with the demonstration is to help others as much as I can. Its a love gift to anyone who wants to learn more from the universe through me... so I hope it does help. I'm editing and 'voice overing' so I'm hoping to get it up here within the next week. I'm doing it in between writing my next book (due early next year) and illustrating my first comic book (also due very early next year preview of page 23 ). If you like contemporary fantasy please consider buying my debut novel: The Snickitysnatcher HERE

ciro correia

Faerie - sketch more, paint more, do more!

The more we do, the more we fail, the faster we grow.... I'm trying to up my productivity and to let go of pieces instead of trying to polish them up. I think that you get to a point when work on an image will not add anything to the viewers experience of the image. That is probably when you should stop - that is probably 'the finish line'. Here is something I'm letting go, though I'm not promising I won't come back to it ;)

I wanted to create a fairy of a different kind, something mystical and away from what one would normally expect a fairy to look like.

updated 25th July,'12 - Just in case anyone thinks I'm advocating not finishing work here is a post that I agree with completely about starting and finishing (Thanks to Scott Johnson who reposted it on google+). What I am talking about is when to declare a picture finished, I've previously leaned towards polishing every inch of the canvas but that is not finishing. Finishing is a difficult line to draw especially if you obsess and desire perfection (I'm a perfectionist and constantly deal with my ideal versus my 'at that moment skill level' issues). PLEASE FINISH your work but finishing something is a personal line you have to draw and sometimes you have to cut the lines and send your boat out to sea... even if you end up drawing it back to the shore later.  THE FINISH LINE

Character concept - action

This was another one of the pieces I submitted, the pose is in a state of movement. Now that I have some extra time coming up, I succumbed to the temptation to do some work on this. So, this post will carry a few updates as work progresses. I'll leave you with a low res of the original for now. It was done in a rough in style. I decided to hint at villainy in the character. I imagined him standing in from of some peasants house while it burnt down. (que-in evil laughter)

'Catgirl' Compositional re-sketch v2 screen-capture PART 2

Here's the link to Part 1:Compositional re-sketch Part 1 . At the moment I'm sketching over the previous sketch but as I progress I redo the sketch completely at times. My main aim in these re-sketches is to fine tune compositional elements and to finalize the design. From here I could go anywhere I choose. I could redraw it and clean it up as a line sketch... or turn it into a watercolor painting or fully render it. It is always a temptation to settle for the first sketch you do. I'll always remember hearing Iain McCaigh say that if he enjoyed drawing it the first time he'd enjoy drawing it again. He was commenting on redoing something you've done. It is all too easy for us to settle for the first sketch we do, re-sketching and thumb-nailing stops that very human tendency to stop at status quo and push onward for a better design or sketch.

Below: 2nd re-sketch

Below is the final version of this rough compositional sketch - ready for painting or another re-sketch

Below: This is the 2nd rough thumb-sketch. I expanded it a little from the thumb. This is the first iteration. 

Below: 2nd version of thumb 2. Loads of problems with figure still but those I'll fix later as I am mainly looking at composition here and as I progress with my sketches.

Mejuthaarge the messenger - Character Illustration

I'm hoping to put up two more of this character soon. Mejuthaarge was, and still kind of is, a god; but he made the others angry by tricking them and trying to eat up the earth so they demoted him to being their messenger. They changed his form, I'm going to post up his original form later, to having one of his original heads and a body of a man. I son doing forcing him to feel the limits of humanity. As the messenger of the gods he still comes up with mischief and even though his power is limited compared to what he had he is still very much capable of creating chaos. 

 So this is one of my Ideation methods I call 'populating'. I use populating when I first get a brief and have no visual language to readily apply to the idea.  I begin by furnishing myself with the basic language I'll be using, quick ideas and sketches. This stage can take on the form of various exercises. Line ups and variations are one of them. Of course if I have a visual language already the process will usually go straight to thumbs. 

Below I included the rough idea I took to the level of the sketch above. 

Updated: 20 November 2011 - The God Mejuthaarge

Before his fall.

Mr. Casau - Character sketch

So I'm trying out different styles and trying to show versatility. I know I can do anything, but my portfolio has to show it or no one else will know. Just wish I had the time do all the things I want in one fell sweep! I'm planning to post some 'machines' soon. More characters - not so stylized - serious villains and more technical stuff. I love painting fantasy and sci-fi subject matter but that's not all I can do.

 The original rough sketch - doodle mode :) 

Line drawing complete:

Alternate 1:

Alternate 2 (shadow added):

Dwyn the bear - Character Sketch

 Sometimes when 'thumb-nailing' I go through a 'progression' where I choose a particular pose or aspect and re-sketch it as much as I can. I find that the iterations get better as I go and I come up with great ideas as I go. Above is one such progression - looking for what I wanted the character to be. Below is the finished sketch, done in a simplified cartoonish style.

Doughy and shlumphy - Dwyn the bear

Ichabod D'Amarelo - Character Illustration (stylised and rough version)

The slightly insane and strategically brilliant Captain of 'The Frolicking Jade Empress' from 'Tales from the Sunless Sea'.  This is the rough sketch that I neatened up a bit, it actually goes with other sketches of the character. This one is the most stylized of the bunch. I'm working on putting a variation of styles into this blog and ultimately my portfolio. My preferred style of painting is representational and realism but as a professional I want my work to reflect the fact that I can do anything from ultra stylized work to ultra realism. Watch this space.  

(Sorry, if you're using an older browser this .png image might not display correctly, time to upgrade :))

Hippolyta - character illustration

This was done as an art test for Gameloft. 


 This is a character illustration of an amazon warrior. I gave her the name Hippolyta, though 'Amazon Warrior' works just as good as a title. Hippolyta, according to legend, was their queen. I took way to long on this, mostly because I was nursing a head cold and partly because I was obsessing about it's importance. No excuses, it is what it is. Below this post is my screen capture for this, you'll probably  notice I painted the figure nude and then overlaid clothes. I want to do some variations on her clothing and 'make up/war paint'. Perhaps a resketch, if a have some time too. Below is a portion from wikipedia about Hippolyta.

"Heracles' ninth labor:Hippolyta appears in the myth of Heracles. It was her girdle that Heracles was sent to retrieve for Admeta, the daughter of king Eurystheus, as his ninth labor.When Heracles landed the Amazons received him warmly and Hippolyta came to his ship to greet him. Upon hearing his request, she agreed to let him take the girdle. Hera, however, was not pleased, as was often the case with Heracles. To stop him, Hera came down to the Amazons disguised as one of their own and ran through the land, crying that Heracles meant to kidnap their queen. Probably remembering all too well what Theseus had done, the Amazons charged toward the ship to save Hippolyta. Fearing that Hippolyta had betrayed him, Heracles kissed her briefly then hastily killed her, ripped the girdle from her lifeless body, and set sail, narrowly escaping the raging warriors." - according to wikipedia