Mellowsmoothe Art - The Blog and Art of Eric Ryan

Movie Screenshot Studies

2012-01-30T00:34:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,
I am practicing my color with some movie screenshot studies. One is from Tudors and the other is from Spartacus. I guess they aren't movies, but you know what I mean :P The lower image (from Sparatus) started as a demo for my class at Gnomon.

CGMA WINTER CLASS!!!

2012-01-12T20:42:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,
Sorry it's been a while but I wanted to let you know that registration ends soon for my Winter Character and Creature Design class at CGMA. The deadline is Jan 21st, 2012. It should be a fun 8 weeks. Hope to see you there!

http://www.cgmwmasterclasses.com/intro-to-character-and-creature-design.html

ROBOCOP 2.0

2011-09-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

I was inspired by the great rendering in the Art of Ironman 2 book so I tried to take a crack at doing a new version of my favorite cop. It was fun excercise in doing hard surface rendering as well as seeing how close to the Ironman 2 book renderings I could get. Let me know what you think! Thanks!

Teaching at CGMA this fall!!!

2011-09-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to let you know that I will be teaching soon for CGMA! Hope you enjoy the classes!

Red Engine Studios Gallery Show Entry

2011-07-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

It's been a while! As usual I have been busy but I wanted to share what I have been working on for the past several weeks. This is for a friends gallery show, where the theme was a red train of some sort. Anyway hope you like it!

Thor Video Game Concept Art

2011-05-24T22:36:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
It's been a while. I have been busy as usual. Here is some work I can now release that was done well over a year ago for the Thor game recently released. Too bad the game didn't do better in the reviews :(

PS I'm going to post ALL of my Thor work on my regular site soon, http://www.mellowsmoothe.com/ !!!

Troll Demo

2011-04-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

I made a demo that I posted on YouTube for the first time. I wanted to go through the demo creation process and understand technically how it needed to work. I plan on doing more demos soon (some with voice overs and verbal instruction) so please comment. Thanks and enjoy!

Harpy/Siren Class Demo

2011-03-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

This initially was suppose to be a siren but it took on more harpy qualities. Anyway hope you like it!

More Oil Painting Practice

2011-03-20T22:41:00.001-07:00

Here is another painting I just did based off of a photo. A model would have been great but I will have to wait until I go to a class for that. Just trying to extend my knowledge of color and light using pigment. Hope you like it!

Oil Painting Practice

2011-03-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Sorry it's been so long. I have been trying to strengthen my fundamentals so I have been reading and watching DVD's on oil painting and color. This is my first finished oil painting piece ever (and I'm not counting the oil "sketches" on my site) and its been a great learning experience. Included as well is the underpainting, or "drawing". I am working on more as we speak. I hope you like it and if you don't, constructive crits are welcome! Thanks.

Finished Alien Sculpture

2010-11-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Here is the final painted alien sculpture. It was a lot of fun to do and my first final sculpture. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Alien Sculpture

2010-10-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Since I have been away for a while from my blog I thought I would post another set of images soon after my last post. I made this sculpture in Jordu Schell's Advanced Maquette Class. It's some random aquatic Alien, with a lot of inspiration from sharks. It still needs to be painted, and even now as I post I see things that could have been fine tuned. If you look close you can see some discoloration in the skin as well, due to trying to mix Sculpey to match my previous batch. Already baked, oh well. Anyway let me know your thoughts.

Hell Beast Class Demo

2010-10-05T21:13:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Sorry it's been a while. I have been settling in at my new home, SCEA in Santa Monica. It's been a great pleasure to start working there and work with such a talented team.

Here is what started out as demo for one of my past Gnomon classes. I decided to put a little more fine tuning into it afterwards and here is the result.

PS Good luck to all of my great students at Gnomon. Keep up the hard work!

John Carter of Mars/ A Princess of Mars

2010-08-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

Hey guys sorry for being MIA for a while. Been busy creating some new work after being inspired by the A Princess of Mars book series. The first couple of images are different takes on John in his first fight at the Martian "palace". Dejah Thoris is a work in progress but I was having fun with the design so I thought I would post it. I came across a photo of Adriana Lima in my search for an exotic looking Dejah, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to cast her in my image. :) I was going for strong but striking. Right now she looks evil with her black outfit but I was just trying to establish a tonal layout. Hope you enjoy.

Class Demos

2010-05-06T10:44:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, here are some quick demos I did in my class at Gnomon. The top image is a goofy alien with it's stomach on its back in the form of a transparent sack. The lower image is what my students and I have named the "Turtipede". It was a lesson in comparative anatomy, trying to merge two different species we know of (Turtle and Centipede) to form a new alien life form. Fun stuff.

An Alien and His Pet

2010-04-04T21:51:00.001-07:00

Here is something a little different that I wanted to try. I wanted to do something a bit more in the realm of a PG animation flick. It's always fun to exaggerate shapes and trying a new lighting approach.

Quad Beast

2010-03-31T08:20:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I have been having issues with my computer recently and had to reformat my hard drive. As a result my rough Zbrush files were accidentally erased and this is all I have of this particular creature I started. This is done with ZSketch. Thanks.

Teaching at Gnomon

2010-03-23T12:47:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I will be teaching at Gnomon starting April 6th, 2010. It should be fun, especially at such a well known establishment. Hope to see you there.

Angry Monster

2010-01-28T08:36:00.000-08:00

This is the type of character I live for designing... a monster! Hope you like it.

Work in Progress ZBrush Sculpt

2010-01-26T07:35:00.000-08:00

Here is my first ZBrush sculpt. I just wanted to use it as a way to teach myself ZBrush. I soon found that I wanted to start a new sculpt that really had some design thought into it. Anyway here it is.

Quick Alien Sketch

2010-01-25T23:25:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick sketch. I didn't find it provocative enough to finish it but it has some fun elements.

Deep Sea Creature Rising

2010-01-09T21:13:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I'm trying to be very productive this month. I have always had a fascination for the creepy look of deep sea creatures so I decided to make a sailors nightmare. I hope you like it.

Alien Head Concept

2010-01-03T20:29:00.000-08:00

Some fun with an alien idea I wanted to explore. Enjoy!

Masters of the Universe

2009-12-18T13:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a few weeks but here is my version of production illustration for a final showdown between the protagonist and antagonist at the end of a He-Man movie. I have always been a He-Man fan and heard that they were going to do a film so I started on my own idea. Anyway let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!

Hell Boy 2 Scene Adaptation

2009-10-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

Hello. I am taking a Gnomon class with Hugo Martin and decided to do my own adaptation of a Hell Boy 2 scene. I'm trying to focus on making better production images that kind of sell the key scenes of a movie/game. This scene was kind of short but it was artistically one of my favorite from the movie.

I have to apologize too if it seems too dark. My monitor at home displays things brighter and inevitably this will look different on someone's machine. Lame.

Alien Bust

2009-09-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

Here is my second Mudbox sculpt ever. Actually this is my second digitial 3D sculpt ever, period. The first one I did was an experiment for a concept I did for work so I can't show it. I was inspired by Jordu Schell's creatures and decided to do something of a similar style and subject matter. Eventually I might convince myself to do a full body but these are so much fun and fairly quick to knock out. :P

Alien Savage Concept

2009-09-05T23:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a tutorial I decided to do for the heck of it to show my process. This tutorial shows how to go from a sketch you might like to a final render. Keep in mind that one step missing might be the very first step which is thumbnail ideation and experimentation.

A. Here is a messy rough image I made, originally on the fly for my sculpture. I liked it enough to go with it, and skipping having to create several thumbnails and choosing between them. The idea usually should be suppliment the needs of a story but in this case I just needed to create a cool creature. What is going through my head is that I want something original in anatomy and provocative. I want it to feel plausible but very strange, and somewhat relatable. I gave him an upright posture to make him feel relatable and added a weapon. In the end I think I want this guy to feel savage and semi-intelligent.

B. After messing around (and I do mean "messy") to find a good sketch, I begin to clean it up a bit and figure out how exactly I want the pose and anatomy to work together. I don't care for the arm on the right bent up and the hand on the left limply holding the stick/weapon. I also fixed the shoulders to give him more perspective and the illusion of contraposto.

C. I add a midtone overlay layer, underneath the drawing which is a multiply layer. This is to give me some range in the higher keys and lower keys. This will allow me to push and pull forms with lighting. I adjust the pose.

D. Here is some more clean up, this time of the overlay midtone layer. I'm probably looking at the general silhouette alot to see if it's worth moving to the next step. This overlay midtone layer also acts as a great way to "ctrl select" your silhoutte to paint within the boundaries and make a clean painting.

E. I establish the lighting direction and begin to bring out the forms based on that direction. I mainly use a source light and some kind of rim. This allows me to drop off detail in the less important areas like the feet and lower body. This is called "vignetting".

F. I push back some forms with shadows and experiment a little with a crest on the creature's chest. I did something similar already on Posiedon so I ditch it later. These steps are my "sculpting" steps, becauseI am focusing on making this creature feel dimensional and real. I usually use some relevant anatomical reference to remind myself of how certain body part should fit together.

G. I play with a duotone color arrangement, similar to something you might find on a colorful amphibian.

H. I don't like the weapon because it doesn't say much about the character's savage quality so I go with something closer to a spear. I also play with interesting ways to break up the monotony of his silhouette. The spines are too long and distracting. I want the attention to be primarily around the head area. I spend a litte more time punching up the lighting in subtle ways with shines and shadows.

I. I experiment with a different spear shape, but this one feels too metallic, regal and well-engineered. I add chest gills that speak to his somewhat amphibious nature.

J. I push back the further extremities with "fog" to give a little depth. I change the materials of the spear to be wood, leather, and bone to make it feel more savage. The minimal storytelling I do with the spear is to make parts of it look like it could be made from a spine, broken ribcage, and a larger bone sliver. I could have added some costuming to the creature but I decide that I like him more as a creature showcase than creating him for a specific story. Voila!

Poseidon Revealed!

2009-07-19T00:56:00.000-07:00

I believe it is ok to show this now. I had to wait 6 months but here it is. Admittedly I could have taken this further but it was done several nights in a row while trying to compose and edit the tutorial video, which were gruelling to do due to my slow computer. The process was fun, despite the fact and I got great comments on this. I would liked to have shown how photo-textures could have been integrated and how to better develop the composition of his environment but I had to speed through this and do this in a quick, streamlined fashion. One thing that would have been great is to explore more poses and lighting but oh well.

P.S. My favorite animal is an octopus that's why I chose this design. :P

Old Work-in-Progress Creature scuplture

2009-07-19T00:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a rare Eric Ryan scuplture! I started this during a class I was taking with the master sculputor Jordu Schell. Yeah it needs lots of work and I was really excited to finish detailing this and cook it and put in up in my house somewhere to admire but unfortunately it will forever remain a WIP. The reason for this is that half way through I realized that the underlying armature was too thick and I couldn't carve away the detail I needed without revealing it. I definitely didn't want to add more Sculpey to compensate for this because it would take away from the thin lankiness of the creature I originally designed. UGH! Oh well. I wasn't even going to show this but after over a year's time I will put my pride away and show this WIP.

I am eventually going to redeem myself somewhat by doing a color version of the 2D concept. I wish I had the patience to sit down and remake this guy in Sculpey.

Abom Revision...

2009-07-19T00:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I have posted and I appreciate all of the feedback thus far. Here is a revision I made a while ago that came from people telling me this Abom was too thin on the lower area to believably support his upper torso weight. I finally saw the light and here are the results.

The Abominable Snowman!

2008-07-23T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello... I've been pretty busy but here is a new one that I used a different technique to accomplish this with. It was fun to finally get out of my head what I always thought this guy might look like if he were real.

Time Machine

2007-12-09T15:18:00.000-08:00

Here is one I did for a group blog. It came from an abstract shape that I transformed into a time vehicle. I tried to hint at the old style Jules Verne clocks as it's main centerpiece for the "wings". One of my first "final" quality vehicles. Enjoy.

Strange Forest

2007-12-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

This one I did for, well... another mysterious reason, but I needed to expand my concept vocabulary to environments (being the secondary reason). I need a reason to practice depth and composition anyway.

Mad Minotaur - Color

2007-12-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

Here he is in all of his glory...

Oldy, but goody... the Mad Minotaur!!!

2007-12-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

This one was fun. I was really inspired by Carlos Huante at the time (not to say I'm not now), and this picture was a turning point for me rendering-wise. I put alot more thought and time into how realistic characters were made... and I think, I showed alot of improvement.

Here is my black prismacolor scan, with the final photoshop coloration. The guys from D'Artiste contacted me when I was on vacation in London, and asked to use this as their cover. I was elated but they did want me to alter the background color to give it more contrast and punch... eh, I guess it worked. :P

Kala - Indonesian Harvester of Angry Spirits

2007-12-09T14:24:00.000-08:00

Welcome. I'm proud to say that this is my first post, but I'm going to toss a lot of pieces out there at once to get my gallery here going. Anyway please leave comments, even if you just want to say hi. Thank you and I hope you enjoy.

This here is a piece I did for... well I can't say right now, but it was fun and I had to quickly do it in a week while preparing to go to Italy and holding up a full-time job (that's why its's rough and the turnarounds are not well rendered). It's suppose to be an asian-inspired grim reaper. Please enjoy Kala, the harvester of angry spirits.