Cover: Judge Dredd Megazine

Well, here's a piece I've been aching to talk about, and now it's in the shops... the cover for Judge Dredd Megazine #288!

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Judge Dredd Megazine#288:
Dredd looming over a troubled Mega City-1

After meeting the Mighty Tharg a couple of times at the Bristol Comic Expo, I'd put it to him about doing covers for 2000AD/ Megazine. After a few emails had been exchanged, I set about doing a couple of quick thumbnails:

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Thumbnail #1: Old Stoney Face above MC-1

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Thumbnail #2: More Dredd visible so you can see
all his cool bits, shoulder pads, badge and elbow pads

Of the two, Tharg preferred the mid-length body shot, so I took a quick reference photo and set about making Dredd in 3DSMax and ZBrush:

(Above)
Me attempting to strike a Dredd power pose.
We'd just moved in to our new house
so the studio was in a right old state!

The image was finished off in Photoshop, dropping in a red background, a few low-key lens flares to give it some kick and finally a few layers of colour correction and grain to tie it all together:

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"I AM THE LAW!"
The final piece sans logo and blurb.

I can't say how cool it is to see my artwork on the cover of the Megazine! Which I clearly remember reading during my lunch breaks when it first came out way back in 1990. To be on the cover of the self same comics I read as a youngster will always be a real buzz.

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The finished product in my local newsagents - Woohoo!

As for this cover, Tharg seems to have liked it and I've recently completed another cover, hopefully to be used some time soon - but I'll save that for another post.

Harrier Attack 1982

This piece is a quickie to try my hand at something else:

(Above) Harrier bombing run, May 1982

I'm a huge fan of aviation art, especially anything to do with Harriers and Spitfires - they are just beautiful machines! I was trying to get a real sense of energy in this one - hence the painted motion blur and low, dynamic angle. I'm aware the weapons payload probably isn't correct, if anyone wants to correct me - fire away, as they say.

I was going for an old-school Airfix vibe, some of my favourite kits were the Harrier, Spitfire, Lunar Landing Module and Messerschmitt ME 109 - aahh, the smell of glue and enamel paint... great days!

3D Logo: Privateer Press

Hello,

Well here's another piece I recently completed for Privateer Press, a 3D textured version of their Warmachine logo:

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The new Warmachine Logo for Privateer Press

It was a fairly straightforward task - the bulk of the work being the laying out of the pipes and grills - a 2D sketch being translated into a 3D scene will always require a certain amount of tweaking to compensate for perspective shifts.

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The different passes used to create the final logo.
From top to bottom: Beauty (with embedded Alpha channel), Ambient Occlusion, Mask 1 and Mask 2

I'm pleased with how the piece panned out - the texture and lighting required a lot of attention especially as the client had a definite idea of how things should look.

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The 3D scene - one directional light in a 'studio environment' to simulate product photography settings.

The final piece has since been used across the board on their website and print materials. It's great when a project is finished 'cos you get to see the artwork in a context other than the dull, hazy glow of my monitors. So, make sure to check Privateer Press out - the concept art and miniatures are amazing - plus the 3D logo is pretty cool too!