Matte Painting Challenge-The Predator Temple

I created this piece for this month's matte painting challenge on CGtantra.com. It's a great site and I've learned a lot by being a member, as well as by working on this matte painting. The challenge guidelines for this month were to create an ancient temple, with hyper realistic colors. I decided to improve upon some of the ideas presented in the first Alien vs Predator movie, and this piece was the result.

The Same Point in Time

After 10 years making games, I realize that I haven't had the time or passion to make my own art. I vowed to change that, and the past few months have been about rediscovery. Art is fun again. This piece is how I like to draw, really just pulling the lights out of the dark, highlights out of the shadows, probably the opposite of how people usually think of creating a sketch. An observation drawing, this is just a white prismacolor pencil on black paper.

Shifting gears

I've spent the better part of 20 years working in the professional art industry, first in fine art, then graphics. The last 10 have been digital, mainly in video games. I'm now very focused on matte paintings and concepts. This is my first official matte painting. It's based on a level design I created years ago, a mission to an alien world to destroy a doomsday type weapon. Normally a lens flare is a kiss of death, but I was referred to the machine in the movie Contact, and found that it was a good look for what I was going for.

Welcome to my humble life of disarray..

Ok, I've finally done it! After spending the past week or so updating my website, I realized it's a lot more economical, time and money wise, just to set up this blog. So here it is, a place where I can show you my goods, err, art wise, that is. Enjoy!