Went from Cyberpunk to steampunk. But also preparing to set my focus on an old love. Will get to that later! But first…the Flight of Icuras!
I love playing around on Photoshop. No pressure from commissions or anything, just good old fashion messing around to learn new techniques. It’s also nice when an inspiration hits. So while listening to hours of cyberpunk music, I finished a few things…and started some more.
So I got to playing around with an additional background, all from the thanks of Martin Chan. He is the amazing photographer for the main two images used while Chrystal Hughes is the beautiful model. :)
Been playing around with some cyberpunk photo manipulation. This is just me playing around.
At Petco, we are doing secret Santa and I got my coworker, Ray, who is our Dog Trainer and all around sweet heart. I hope she enjoys this!
So one of my best friends is having a birthday soon and I wanted to surprise him with some art, maybe something he can hang up in his new room set up. The idea came with…well…us playing Cyberpunk 2077. I’ve always loved the genre and I know he’s been big into Star Wars, Star Trek, and even got him into Bladerunner. I’m getting him into those sci-fi goodies. Now to use an image of him and make him into something sci-fi!
What can I say? I like morbid things. This was from an old skull study I did in charcoal and later digitized so I could one day make lovely digital images like these. Enjoy! :)
Been going through some of my old work and one of the things I love doing is to work on outdated styles. If I can find old files, I like reworking with the new techniques and styles I have taught myself. I recently did such a thing for my Dr. Doom piece.
On my free time, I enjoy to write. Been doing it since I was 17 years old and though I have some professional training, my writing will always be freeform. I can’t help it though that doesn’t give away that I have always looked up some of the great authors of the world.
As it is though, a lot of my creativity comes from these stories I make. Again, been doing it for decades now. But the one thing I do know that it has given me, the inspiration and drive to learn more.
Now enjoy a small snippet of a story I’ve had the pleasure of writing over the years about Gerallt Myrddin. Be mindful though, it is purely fanfiction. I’m a RPG White Wolf nerd. >,>
There was no manner to hide his feelings, that of his curiosity or his irritation, when he saw no reason behind disguising such a thing. He was honest about it, if only for that moment, knowing there was little honesty for a Tremere to hold. There was no false illusion that he wasn’t to be trusted simply for the society of kindred which gave him his unlife. But there was no trick for the Tremere to play, no alternative motive to hide, where truth had already been shown in the short moments of the masquerade. She had the right thought. Why? Why had he dared so much to keep her from harm?
Never had he cared before when he had always been indifferent to all but that of his own goals. Selfish to his own means but there was no denying that the Tremere was the puppet to the agenda that was all Tremere. Clan first, Camarilla second - wasn’t it always to be? But everyone was a liar; him the most of all.
His attention, like a sharp knife, seemed to cut the room the moment she spoke up about the help of hypothesis. There was a slight give of surprise there, one answered with the intrigued arch of his brow as he listened to her. She was playing a dangerous game and she didn’t even realize it when, for that moment, she was to have the Tremere's true and honest attention.
“One must weed out falsehood from truth but must also ward himself from the obvious fact. There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.” A statement he lived by and given there more honestly than he offered most. And why offer anything to this strange fae?
She had surprised him and very few have the luxury of that.
Surprise indeed when he straightened with Mrs. Potts’s voice, feeling his fingers stiffen at the ghoul’s interruption as he glanced towards her. Would it not be better to have the elderly woman within that presence than to be away? Yet, he seemed bothered by it. And certainly so when both fae and ghoul was to converse. He became their subject.
“Yolanda.” He spoke the ghoul’s name with every intention of seeing her silenced. The conversation continued. “Yolanda.” Her name again, more firmly, when it was a face of near disbelief that found a hand coming down onto the table top. “Mrs. Potts, that is quite enough.” And found the room, for that quick moment, at an utter silence until the caretaker and ghoul’s departure. He would speak to Yolanda at another point about, but this wasn’t that time. Not when that direct gaze turned back to his guest and found the clatter of broken porcelain.
He went to speak, the knot of annoyance there in his brow and forehead, when it was the fae’s apology and claim of that shattered piece which saw the Tremere silenced. Not once did he allow his eyes to leave the motion of her fingers but without blinking, he found his tea cup with no damage. He had that tea set for nearly three centuries now. But his concern wasn’t the chipped porcelain in the manner he watched which mended the damage. So intently so that it was only with her comment and the sound of that chair moving in her means to stand which drew his attention away, even when a part of his mind remained in wanting to study the ability she had shown.
“I am quite…”, well. The sentence didn’t finish though, not in the backstep he did in the turn of his body that found the collision of the top of his thighs against the table as he realized her intention too late. He found himself trapped, even there as he went to claim her wrists. It did nothing for the manner his muscles reacted to the light touches and the brush of skin. His stomach muscles tightened under the dance of her touch, bared there for all the see in what was the small story of his flesh. He needed no fire to experience Rötschreck when the touch of a woman had him near fleeing that very spot. If he could. The slight skip of his weight to the table was truth enough to his comfort level to being so intimately close with this woman.
A part of his mind fought against another. It was cold logic, however, which won out. His hold about her wrists ceased, settling there - however rigidly - against the table with the turn of his gaze over her shoulder.
He wasn’t to block her out though, not in the whisper of her voice nor the warmth of her breath that had him attempting to shut her out visibly. He closed his eyes as his palms curled over the edge of the table and found himself thankful for the lack of oxygen needed within his lungs. There was no rapid rise and fall to his chest as one would find in his state, fighting that which tempted and pained him at once. It was that song, however, which found the slow ebb of that stiffness. It was that enchanting tune which found his attention open to her. The melody danced across the air but he could not deny the manner it flowed through him, ringing of familiarity. He was bewitched by it. So much that he never realized the manner those canines retracted in the way he relaxed there against the table and her.
Opening his eyes, he turned in time to the gift of a feathered kiss across his jaw. What tension there had been, it had momentarily ghosted away, leaving him merely staring in the awe and soft gratification of her words. It humbled him.
“You’re welcome.” He said deep and true, the weight of those words more than she might realize. But such a moment wasn’t to remain when attention turned to the ever growing sound there in his ears. Her heart beat.
Some technique studies and playing around with different setting on Photoshop. Sometimes I grab whatever image that will inspire me, but there are times when I like studying animals. I love animals, so I never hesitate to learn more about them.
“Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore —
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." “ - The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe
When given the chance and motivation, I enjoy playing around with Photoshop without the weight of needing to be professional. Aka - I get to play and create. What comes out of those moments always reminds me to never stop learning, especially when I like to turn a moment of play into ‘I want to learn a new technique’. .
A amazing Real Estate company I’ve done some work for. If you are in the Atlanta area and need a reliable realtor, Earth to Atlanta with Palmer House Properties, is the place to see! www.earthtoatlanta.com
One of the most enjoyable commissions I’ve done, I was asked to make an image that would be the face of a mystery room’s theme. The Mummy’s Escape! With the lovely help of Michael Rivera and his gorgeous wife and model, Gina Rivera, I was able to set up the foundation of this piece. From photoshoot shot to digital manipulation. Photo done with a Nikon D500 (I miss that camera so much) before bringing it into Adobe Photoshop. Enjoy!
I enjoyed working for 101 Bagel down by downtown Duluth, GA. The place has delicious bagels, sandwiches, and coffee! This is also some work I did for them over the months last year. Here are some website headers (the photography for each image and setting them up like this was interesting), their menus, and ads. Enjoy!
So I never really go over my work or the process unless you’re working around me. Then I bug you a whole bunch. But beyond that! I never talk about my art. I figured I can try to use this blog thinger and try to do that.
As for the fact I never talk about my work, it is generally due to the fact I taught myself with images that aren’t always free to sell. I pretty much taught myself digital manipulation through my love of roleplaying. Yes, you read that correctly. Roleplaying. That nerd stuff. Been doing it since I was seventeen and it pretty much jump started my love and enjoyment of storytelling. With a story though, you need faces. I used faces of people/characters that inspired - movies, shows, books, anime, what have you. I saw movie posters and was like ‘I want to do that’. I would see fan made digital art of shows I liked, I would see it and be like ‘I want to do that’. So I taught myself how to do that. (And, of course, what I learned at SCAD helped. lol)
Here is a small collection of stuff I’ve made over the years. Other those in my small writing circle, most haven’t seen these. Enjoy.
(Side note: this is a small portion since I’m still working from my laptop and need to archive my work again. But this is just a start!)
Was playing around with an image of Jason Momoa (aka, was using his face for a character study) and playing around with different techniques.
I do a lot of signatures and avatars for forums. This is one of them for a character of mine, Waryk Vaskaris.
A character that was based off a guilty pleasure and turned into its own sort of story. Still love this character in all the forms he’s become.
A vampire character of mine that I made through the White Wolf: Vampire the Masquerade system. Love this character so much!
Another Myrddin piece, given I will do a score of images when I feel inspired with writing and creating. Also the model is easy on the eyes. If you are interested in the model, his name is Sean O’Pry.
Another vampire like character I made that I have a deep fascination with. Also the actor for the face is amazing. Zach McGowan, got the pleasure of meeting him during DragonCon and talked about pirates. The research he did for his role in Black Sails is so cool!
So I took a character’s face and changed the character. I do that sometimes. This was to be an forum’s avatar.
I loved his story so much. So tragic and beautiful. When a vampire serial killer that is the boogeyman of the supernatural…tries to protect someone he cares for.
I love it when a story speaks to me through an image.
After a grueling battle over domains, my new website domain is up. I shake my fist at the person that bought my domain, what they want me to pay is extortion. lol But one closed door will open up another!
On a different note, will be taking the time to slowly update and change my website. There are still plenty of things I want to do with this thing. Change is always upon us!
