Son of Darkness

Ubiwork

2011-11-26T21:22:00.001-08:00

Finally I get around to showing some of my work from Ubisoft. These are sketches for ASSASSINS CREED - REVELATIONS banners. Thanks for looking.

Mech Urban Battle

2011-11-14T10:59:00.001-08:00

Here my latest illustration in the Mech series. Having fun with scale and putting some images from mind to pixel.

In other news project J.S.H is now complete and went live on the 11/08/2011.
Juliana is my second child next to Alexander or A.S.H. as I referred to him two years ago and they both give me motivation and inspiration every day.

Dragon Queen

2011-10-11T19:57:00.000-07:00

Indeed it has been long since my last post. A larger project consumed every minute of my time for a month but unfortunately I cannot show it until it is released a few months from now. But here is an illustration that I had been working on in my spare time.

The Standoff

2011-08-11T21:29:00.001-07:00

Futuristic "high-noon" scene.

Mech

2011-08-05T17:10:00.000-07:00

The latest offspring - A Mech strolling through the city. Am actually working on a series of these Mech illustrations so I'll update once I have them done.

Something Not Right

2011-07-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

A character from my sketchbook I decided to render out. Once in a while I'll see a homeless person on the street that will creep me out because you will know... something just isn't right about that one.

Is it snowing already

2011-06-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest I have been working on. As always I keep pushing myself to create mood and have a story within. Below is a detail shot. Enjoy

The Rise

2011-05-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

My latest piece was really a challenge. It all started with a simple sketch for a project. They ended up wanting me to execute another idea (the result you can see a few posts earlier), but I somehow kept looking back to that original idea. My good friend Tyler told me to just paint that one for myself and I decided to dive into it. Feeling the need to challenge myself I expanded the original sketch and really tried to push my own abilities.

The mood was key for me and really a journey to complete. Along the way I feel I learned a lot and won some battles while losing others.

As for the theme. Perhaps I have already exclaimed my love for H.P. Lovecraft yet I always felt so strange that there was so little really good artwork depicting his chilling tales or ancient gods. Thus, I named this piece the Rise - as in the rise of the old, resurfacing of the unknown, an ancient cult bringing forth Cthulhu from his long sleep in the depth of the ocean.

Mutant Beast

2011-04-05T20:34:00.001-07:00

I have a strange fascination with these kind of things. Ever since seeing the movie the THING I have seen visions of twisted human shapes. Enjoy the nightmare.

Desert City

2011-03-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

A traveler finally reaches the hidden city.

Lion-O redesign

2011-03-04T21:27:00.000-08:00

Yep, a popular thing to do, but fun non-the less. Decided to radically change the character while making him as much a bad-ass as possible.

Robot

2011-02-14T20:13:00.000-08:00

Having fun with some robot design.

Cthulhu

2011-02-01T21:22:00.000-08:00

This was a freelance project I completed months back but can finally show now as it's been released as a card game illustration. It was so much fun to do as I adore H.P. Lovecraft.
The image is actually not of Cthulhu himself but a bloodthirsty Starspawn, as he is described.
That is basically a little bit smaller version of Cthulhu.

Hawx 2 - Artwork

2011-01-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

Happy 2011 to those I haven't met in the new year.
Finally I can show something from Ubisoft that I've worked on. Creating the cover for Hawx 2 was a long process but what you see here is only a fraction of all the sketches I did for it. The way we worked (Art director and me) was collecting as many ideas for compositions and then using any means to make it look top notch even though they were only sketches. I began doing black/white sketches but later moved on to using 3d renders of the pilot and and photos for backgrounds with lots of Photoshop painting.

At the very bottom you can see the landscape version and then the final pack version that we ended up using.

As these would otherwise never see the light of day I thought I should share them with you.

Alien Planet

2010-12-08T21:33:00.000-08:00

Predator

2010-11-16T22:29:00.000-08:00

After the Recent movie Predators my childhood enthusiasm for the hunter from outer space was rekindled. This one is dedicated to my friend Tyler who recently got married and who I know shares my fascination with the original movie.

Knight

2010-11-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

Decided to post this one even though I never got around to finishing it. Don't get much more than sketches done these days but oh well.

The Landing

2010-10-24T21:07:00.000-07:00

Quick sketches trying to capture mood and setting.

Alien

2010-10-19T22:56:00.000-07:00

A quick sketch done in one session (2h). Why he has an iPad I don't know...

The Arrival

2010-10-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

Yet another giant space ship.

Crushed

2010-10-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here something I did for fun.

Farcry 3 - character concept

2010-10-06T22:14:00.001-07:00

So it's been a while.
Here is a really fun project I got to work on at Ubisoft. I was approached to "pimp-up" the main character for FARCRY 3 while it was in development. They showed me how the developer was seeing him and to be honest...he looked like a slightly overweight alcoholic living in a van down by the river (chris farley quote). So I beefed him up slightly, made him more athletic and more handsome while keeping his rough look. His little finger was supposed to be missing and they needed a design for a tattoo.

I had one day to produce this, but it was really fun to do and they were really pleased with the result.

Bio-Hazard

2010-08-03T23:05:00.001-07:00

Here a piece I have been working on and off on in my spare time.

3d Sculpture

2010-07-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

My first attempt with ZBrush, a 3d sculpting program. Did it without reference so forgive the anatomical missteps. Hopefully after a little more practice I will have something more decent to show.

Galaxy Sailors

2010-07-08T19:16:00.000-07:00

Here are two space-ships that I had done along with the others but never got around posting. On the second one I wanted to do a ship with some sort of sails that could be opened and closed depending on the solar winds.

Dragon Rider

2010-06-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been a while. I am working on a few sketches but this is the first I was able to finish to some degree. This was fun to work on. Thought it would make a nice little twist to have the horizon turned upside down. It is also brighter and a little more saturated than my usual work so it's an attempt to explore a new direction.

Rider

2010-05-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

This started as a simple pencil scratch on paper. Now when I look at it I feel the Frazetta influence that must have come over me after reading about his passing away. Anyways, I see her as a hunter that has learned to control this big but simple minded creature.

quick sketch

2010-05-11T20:52:00.001-07:00

Work has kept me from posting more, so here a quick study. Never been good at painting people so I'm working on improving myself.
Have several painting in the works that I hope to be able to finish of soon and share.

- stay tuned

Mothership

2010-04-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

Ghost Recon - game covers

2010-04-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

A while back I did a lot of sketches pitching for the cover of the next Tom Clancy - Ghost Recon: Future Soldier game. It was one art director and me (with me doing all the sketches) competing against 4 studios that wanted the job. We ended up in the final round against one studio - but lost, as they had a perfect round presenting finished covers using photos of guys in rented gear with rented real weapons. Oh well, I gladly lose to somebody that better equipped. The cover that was finally picked was honestly very good.

But here I am showing a fragment of the many sketches I did for this. Most of them were not even presented but just for brainstorming concepts and ideas. I am glad to finally share some more of my work from Ubisoft.

Urban Warriors III

2010-04-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

More of my ordinary people studies. This time the Fund Manager and School Girl. All the weapons on my urban warriors are based of real weapons (more or less). I'm saving the best character for last... be prepared.

Knight

2010-03-31T21:11:00.001-07:00

My latest scribble.

More to come.

Urban Warriors II

2010-03-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

Second group of unlikely soldiers. Again based on people I see on the street or on the train. Can't remember if they were actually holding the weapons or if I added them later...

When I have done enough of them I'm holding a Beauty Pageant where you get to pick a fav. Aight, I'm outta here.

Urban Warriors

2010-03-02T21:26:00.000-08:00

Been sketching a lot of people on the train to work lately and had the idea, what if I give them a weapon. Suddenly they become warriors, have a unique story behind them.

More to come.

Vehicles II

2010-02-09T19:19:00.000-08:00

Continuing some vehicle explorations. The left one is a light combat unit while the right one is more of an exploration unit that can drive through rough terrain.
More to come.

In Mutation we trust

2010-01-25T20:21:00.001-08:00

As sci-fi horror is one of my favorite subjects- here a mutant freak from the darkest corners of my subconscious. More to come.

Vehicles

2010-01-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

My latest sketch. Call this one the Predator.
Mo' to come.

Oldie

2010-01-16T12:57:00.000-08:00

This is something I did a while back but couldn't show either. Now it has been released so finally I can show it. The goal was to show a maelstrom and for scale I added the ship being sucked in. Below are two more sketches I did for it.

Avatar

2010-01-12T19:57:00.000-08:00

As Ubisoft has released the Avatar Game I can show some of my work that I did for it. My involvement was in the idea and sketch stage. I was not involved with creating the final art or how it ended up (so don't hold it against me). I was very excited to be involved although only for a brief period and you get to see some of my sketches here above.

I was asked to do an action oriented pack and had not seen the movie or any images of the real characters. I had only seen some concept art and the AMP suit. This is why the Na'vi in my sketches is not a perfect match to the one in the film. When the movie came out I was very happy to see the battle scene between the Na'vi and the General in the AMP suit as that had been one of my ideas for the cover as you can see above. The last colored sketch was where I was asked to integrate the face from the poster. That idea was finally chosen. The last two images are the actual released covers (perhaps there are more versions that I am not aware of). I am going to refrain from giving my opinion to the end result and let you make up your own mind...

A new beginning

2010-01-05T20:02:00.000-08:00

A Frankenstein type of character as I really like the tragic monster.

more to come.

iPAINTED

2010-01-01T18:14:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010 everyone.

One of the things I set myself for this year is to sketch more. Yes, I will post more so keep dropping by.

Here a sketch done entirely on the iPhone. Not much of a finger painter I realized but still fun practice while on the BART.

More to come.

Ramblings and Rough Women

2009-12-25T20:35:00.000-08:00

Wait, I have a blog? Time to post so here is a WIP of an old sketch. Never got it to where I wanted to so I shelved it for the time being. This was the second of my female Gladiators.

As the year comes to an end its time to reflect. Now I've been with Ubisoft six months and hopefully I can start showing some of my stuff soon. For example I got to do some quick sketches for the Avatar game cover which was loads of fun - which leads me to the movie itself. Decided to write a little review about it, since I am a movie fanatic.

My problem with most action - sci-fi - fantasy movies nowadays has been that they rely on awesome effects to occupy you for the length of the film so you won't notice what a crappy story it actually was. So I am a little ashamed to admit that.... this time it worked. I guess James Cameron's 500 mio payed off because it had me stunned from the very first opening scene. Here is how I justify my thumbs up: For me there has to be a purpose for the use of cgi in a movie. The reason for that is that nothing can replace real settings, actors or props. As soon as you use cgi you are taking the viewer one step further away from "reality" and people are less emotionally invested. Actors also come less sincere across if working in pure green-screen studios talking to tennis-balls on sticks; or so I feel. This is also the reason why they still build real sets and haven't replaced real actors yet - cgi just feels fake if over-used. Sometimes I have not been aware that something was cgi and not real. For me THAT is special effects! I don't want to be taken out of the moment by going: oh, that was cg...

The dilemma comes when doing sci-fi or fantasy. There you often can't get around it simply because the stories are about fantastic things that don't really exist. Mix-matching real actors with fake surroundings or fake characters is always really hard. This problem was something Cameron avoided pretty well. Apart from some minor scenes the "real" human actors never entered the cgi world and had so much interaction with the creatures or the Na'vi. For the most part the story was split from the moment the main character entered his Avatar. From there on it was pure cgi and somehow I had less problems with that. So for me the entire movie was more of a fairy tale than a sci-fi action movie. It was just that thing about leaving your body behind to go into that new-beautiful and vivid world. And man, they did a hell of a job creating that world.

While watching the movie I never stopped staring, trying to take in all the details, colors and shapes they put in it. It was playful and took your imagination for a ride. The world they created was breath-taking to me and the 3d enhanced the experience by bringing you closer to it (or right in the center of it!) I for one was sucked in by the simple scale of things (the trees, the human digging machine)

But enough of the cgi. Now to the design.
I have to agree with people that have said that the design of many things could have been better. The creatures all had that extra set of limbs (two more legs, two more wings) but then resembled a lot the animal world of earth (the horse, the rhino, the wolf). Somehow I felt they could have taken it further being that you have a new planet and within that a whole lot of room to play with.
The human tech was not really innovative either - resembling so many things that one has seen before. And as simple and sturdy the AMP suit was it reminded me a lot of the suit Ripley used in Aliens to fight the Alien Queen --also a Cameron movie surprise.
And I had the feeling they deliberately kept the suit rather sturdy and less streamlined or sophisticated as to make it not too unrealistic. But when I then saw how it moved, ran(!) and even jumped(!!!) out of an exploding airplane without the guy controlling it looking like he was shaken at all.....!!!! I felt they could have designed it more high end.

The Na'vi were well done in detail and character expressions. But it was still a cat-human hybrid and not so unfamiliar to those kind of fantasy characters.

And that leads me to the story. After 5 min I already knew how the movie would play out and the trailer had also given you a pretty good summary of it. There were absolutely no surprises or plot twists... or even character reveals or developments that didn't meld perfectly with the set direction. This made me wonder - if you have 500 mio budget.... you should be able to hire someone talented to write you a little more sophisticated story, or not?
Personally I really didn't like the native American analogies they put in there. It felt like taking the values of a pretty much extinct people and going - oh its kinda cute, lets put it in the story. They could have for example had similar values - and not EXACTLY the same ones.... the whole praying for the animals as they take their lives...

Again, for me this was thus a very naive, simple story and more of a fairy tale that anything else. I do think that Cameron has set a new standard for the use of cgi and as sad as it makes me saying this - I think simply for the effects its worth watching.

Hey, Johannes....less talking and more drawing...

ok ok!

DistortioN

2009-11-26T13:14:00.000-08:00

Yep, it's been too long. Time flies when you're...extremely busy. Got a lot of stuff done at work but will have to wait to show it as the games won't be released yet.
This time it's a mutated accountant. Always have fun distorting the human shape and I draw deep inspiration from the classic movie "the Thing". I will be doing more of these that I have already sketched :P
Also a quick face study I did from a frame capture...

Outer Space IV

2009-10-18T20:52:00.001-07:00

Guess what...more ships. This time a space station and a cargo vessel. More to come.

Outer Space - Mothership

2009-10-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

Pushing the scale - yet another ship scribble.

Outer Space III

2009-10-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

Size DOES matter - Continuing my space explorations with some gigantic vessels. More to come.

Outer Space II

2009-09-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

Newest addition to my ongoing space explorations.

Space Control to Major Tom

2009-09-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

Some Space Ship designs that I've been playing around with. It's my first attempt but I'm really having fun with it. More to come.

Putting your Mind to the Pixels

2009-09-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

Time to post some of the things I've been playing around with. Finished the Giants adding some details as to how they would be outfitted for battle. Next is the camouflaged defense system. Having fun with putting to pixel whatever comes to my mind these days. Hope you enjoy!

WIP

2009-09-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

this is work in progress on some creature designs. Wanted to do some Giants to go with my medieval fantasy fling and have a few more ideas for them that I will be posting.

bike madness

2009-08-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

some quick explorations on the same subject - futuristic bike.

bubble bike

2009-08-13T20:17:00.000-07:00

futuristic motorcycle design. more to follow.

Angel

2009-08-05T20:14:00.001-07:00

My latest lunch break creation. 'An angel answered my prayer' has a whole new meaning with this one...

Magical Forest

2009-07-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

the forest saga continues...

Gladiators, I salute you.

2009-07-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

Character design of a female gladiator. More to follow.

Land of Fantasy

2009-07-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

Here finally my first new piece in a while. Decided to do an environment piece that later turned more into a scene. I'm actually quite fond of it and am turning from sci-fi to medieval fantasy. Also I have a sketchbook full of ideas that are just waiting to be painted.

Project A.S.H.

2009-07-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

After a long break some news:

A long-term project finally saw the light of day - Alexander Seojin Holm was born on the 30th of June. I am proud to have accomplished in great team work with my beautiful wife Mino such a perfect artwork.

In other news, I was recently contacted by a sculptor from Brazil who wanted to sculpt one of my creature designs - the Sea Rex. He does online tutorials and this project will be featured in a book he will be publishing. For those interested, below is a link to his website where you can see the process of this sculpture.

http://www.mundogump.com.br/

my design:

MALFUNCTION - project completed

2009-05-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

The final pieces for my visual development project MALFUNCTION. Last pieces include additional environment detail variations, character variations and some cinematic illustrations. - it's a wrap!

Suckerpunched

2009-03-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

The first in a series of promotional artwork for my project. The goal was to create a dynamic action piece as a poster or cover artwork.

It's all going under..water!

2009-02-26T22:57:00.000-08:00

The latest environment. Some of the machine city is flooded giving our hero the chance to escape the killer machines....or so he thinks (giggle). Trying to bring variety into the world so why not water. Bring out them speedos

Raging Orc

2009-02-24T19:05:00.000-08:00

Waarg ...or something like that is probably what this one is saying. Just a random sketch I felt like doing (40 min). I guess an ORC was overdue.

Machine City

2009-02-19T13:34:00.000-08:00

Finally the internal view of the machine city. Here I just wanted it to look crazy, massive and fantastic. Although I still need to work on the machinery making it a bit less organic in look I felt this one turned out quite well.

The Structure

2009-02-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

My third environment piece. This one shows a wider view of the "lost city". Here we see the scale of this menacing structure that the machines have built. Sketches show development but I ended up with this octopus-like thing. Somebody also described it as a skeleton which I liked. Wanted the atmosphere to be beautiful but creepy.

Land of Pipes

2009-02-05T21:45:00.000-08:00

Second environment. One of my ideas was that the machines use water to produce energy. So at one point our hero travels through this landscape of huge pipes. As before I have a enlarged part of the image to show the details.

Lost City

2009-02-01T13:52:00.000-08:00

My first environment. Wanted to show the empty abandoned city and the towering robot structure. It spreads over the city so I decided to have it slightly shaped like an octopus. The lonely hero walking on the street below gives a sense of scale.

Refined Hybrid

2009-01-25T23:43:00.001-08:00

worked a little more on the hybrid. voila.

Battle moves

2009-01-25T23:33:00.000-08:00

Time for an update! This one was really fun. Decided to explore some of the fight moves of my main character. He has different weapons, but I like him also to just rip those blasted toasters apart with his bare hands. Btw am I the only one who makes sound effects while drawing these kind of things?

2008-12-16T20:27:00.000-08:00

Some sketches of hybrid models. The machines are trying to integrate humans into the machines and these are twisted versions of such experiments. Work in progress..

en couleur

2008-12-12T23:09:00.000-08:00

Reworked some of my illustrations and colored them. enjoy

cinematics II

2008-12-07T17:31:00.000-08:00

two more cinematic moments from the story. Both are work-in-progress. "reactivating the past" when our hero discovers and reactivates EDA who will reveal the truth about the past to him. decided to go with it though one might ask himself...where exactly is he activating her? "Unnatural selection" shows the world the hero lives in and the enslaved humans when the weaker ones are being...removed.

cinematics

2008-11-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

A few new moments from my story. Especially like the last one. EDA's last moments. Her battery has run out and her body is shutting down. 723 must enter his hard earned freedom without her.

Retro tech

2008-11-14T23:10:00.000-08:00

Have come to call the design of my futuristic story retro tech since it combines medieval weapons and retro ideas with science fiction. Rusty is a sentinel robot whom the main character 723 personizes and names Rusty. He is a personification of the heartless machine that will not hesitate to end a human life if it doesn't obey their command.
Also included is the final image of EDA - the female robot and a detail image of 723.

Greek mythology

2008-11-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

The story of Medusa and Perseus the bastard who viciously killed that poor woman. He later used her head (since her gaze turned anyone into stone) to save Andromeda aka the Babe from a gigantic sea monster...named Bubbles.

Birth of 723

2008-11-02T10:45:00.000-08:00

the heroic slave - futuristic spartacus - man against machine. He is the symbol for the triumph of the human spirit over the machine. And he kicks robo ass like no other...

Colored scenes

2008-10-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

Futuristic Spartacus

2008-10-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

Here are the turnaround and face for my main hero character. His name is 723, since he was born in a machine ruled world. He was a tough challenge since I wanted to have elements of his slavery as well as the hero. Strength and weakness at the same time. I began looking at him as a futuristic Spartacus which helped. He is strong yet has signs of his torments. As a means of controlling the humans further I had the idea of the Spinal Parasite. A lot of ideas have already been done like the explosive collar or magnetic boots but I haven't seen this one done.

cinematic moment

2008-10-06T15:31:00.000-07:00

took one of my thumbs to a closer finish. Tried to keep the moment dramatic but next I´ll be adding some colors fleshing it out a little further.

Thumbs

2008-10-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

Trying to come up with interesting moments from my thesis story using strong perspectives. Somehow it helps me to work very small when doing thumbs. Guess I get a better feeling for the composition.

Color me blindly

2008-09-30T17:28:00.000-07:00

Color variations for the final character illustration. Since her face is a monitor i wanted it to stand out with a different illumination. This would also help bring the focus to her face. This means soon I´ll be posting the final version of this lady...drumroll please.

EDA - breaking the beautiful

2008-09-20T20:57:00.000-07:00

Designing this old, broken female robot was a fun challenge. Somehow I wanted to show her past beauty yet give her visible damage. So the question was how much can I break her while maintaining her feminine shape? I ended up with an unusual silhouette that I´m rather pleased with. And thus EDA was born.

EDA - Evolutionary Data Automaton

2008-09-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

A promo piece for my project that currently runs under the title RESURRECTION. Decided to go with the monitor face for the female robot character EDA.

Female Robots

2008-08-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

For my thesis project I have a female robot character that plays a mayor role. Designing her has been a challenge but fun. Got the idea to make her face a display that shows a real female face. That way she can show all range of emotions without looking to static or dead. I really want her to be a strong character. On top the display can show other things like status reports or maps and could even be a touch screen.

Mr Bubbles

2008-08-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a battlesuit concept. Since I would think that even in the future ground combat would always be necessary the question is how would it evolve. Would there even be humans inside these suits?

future fashion

2008-07-29T18:16:00.000-07:00

Wanted to do some interesting costume sketches so here you go. Fashion from the Future!

In the beginn there was...

2008-07-28T22:04:00.000-07:00

My first blog. Jeez, guess it was just a matter of time before I lost my blog virginity. This blog will be my outlet on these discoveries and visual thoughts. Anybody who doesn´t have anything better to do than reading this is welcome to comment on the work, in fact I very much encourage it. Oh, and if you have a job for me...then you are MORE than welcome to contact me !

So here are the first sketches. My favorite genres are science fiction and fantasy as may be noticeable.