fcomin's Portfolio

Oasis

fcomin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:17:50 GMT

Oasis

Personal project. This started out as a custom brush test, on a rock texture brush that evolved as I kept adding to it. Total working time was around 2.5-3 hours.

Adultery

fcomin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:11:02 GMT

Adultery

The aftermath of an adulterous encounter, I’ll leave it up to the viewer to decide who the guilty parties are.

Its been some time since I painted the human figure as anything other than a silhouette for scale in a landscape. I thought I’d refresh my skills with a piece that dealt with figures and anatomy over design and landscape. Painted in Photoshop, total working time was a little over 15 hours.

Utopian Plaza

fcomin — Thu, 29 May 2008 05:57:11 GMT

Utopian Plaza

Utopian Plaza is a book cover illustration. I was asked by the author to visualize a futuristic city that should convey a sense of opportunity and vast possibility. Diverging from my usual dystopian style I chose to render the city as a construct of bright, polished alloys with carefully landscaped areas of foliage to contrast the regimented structure of the buildings, and large open areas of space despite the height of the buildings. I wanted to convey a sense of newness, as though the city had only been built up recently of entirely new materials. It was painted entirely in Photoshop using a number of custom brushes. Total working time was approximately 6 hours.

Shore Leave

fcomin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:45:08 GMT

Shore Leave

A floating cargo junk prepares to dock at a seedy port. Here the crew will take their leave before setting out for their next port of call. Those unwise enough to drink with the crew may wake up to find themselves aboard the ship as conscripts. Painted in Photoshop, total working time was about 6.5 hours.

Helipad Station

fcomin — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:53:34 GMT

Helipad Station

Passengers awaiting transit via lifter relax in a nearby lounge. The lifter platform and the access ramp to it are patrolled by armed guards to discourage fare jumpers and hijackings. Done as a speed paint exercise, painted in Photoshop. Originally painted as a black and white study, the color was overlaid after the composition was finalized. Total working time was 2.5 hours. Comments and critiques welcome.

Ancient Temple

fcomin — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:02:45 GMT

Ancient Temple

An abandoned temple from an ancient pre-human world, it lies forgotten in a dusty corner of the world. Painted in Photoshop, by blending texture elements and overlays to build up shapes and forms. This is a book cover for an upcoming horror novel by author Ria Kennedy. Total working time 6 hours.

Sunset in the Sprawl

fcomin — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:01:42 GMT

Sunset in the Sprawl

A Lockheed SCS-9600 shuttle and its interceptor escort flies past a traffic control tower on its way to landing at one of the corporate arcologies that dot the landscape of the urban sprawl. Painted in Photoshop, with a focus on the use of texture elements and overlays. Total working time 8 hours.

Abomination

fcomin — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:14:07 GMT

Abomination

Photo collage. This was done as the cover art for a book of horror stories. The various elements and subject matter were specified by the author. A number of images were used by desaturating the color, then blending and cloning elements into the final image. Once the final collage was assembled, a color and texture overlay were added and then text was superimposed over that. Total working time 6 hours.

Suborbital Shuttle

fcomin — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:36:40 GMT

Suborbital Shuttle

A Riake Aerospace Corp HPS-33 suborbital passenger shuttle in the primary boost phase of its ascent. Once it reaches its cruising altitude of 59,000 feet, it will engage its scramjets and attain cruising velocity in excess of Mach 6 prior to beginning its descent phase. I wanted this to look like an old aerospace aircraft proposal concept. Painted in Photoshop, total working time was 3 hours. Comments and critiques welcome.

Hydrofoil Station

fcomin — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:35:01 GMT

Hydrofoil Station

Passengers await hydrofoil transport across the bay to Reinhardt International Spaceport. This was painted as an exercise in basic shapes and simple painting techniques, use of custom brushes was kept to a minimum. Painted entirely in Photoshop, total working time was around 4 hours. Comments and critiques welcome.

Night in Mead Plaza

fcomin — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:51:33 GMT

Night in Mead Plaza

The Uber-Body dealership in Mead Plaza. Uber-Body is the premier manufacturer of synthetic and prosthetic bodies, a luxury available to the elite.

Painted entirely in Photoshop, I wanted to get back to basics, as I found myself relying far too much on custom brushes lately. This was all done using basic brushes, with the only use of custom brushes being the sculpture in the water feature. The palette was sampled from a Syd Mead painting by applying a mosaic filter to the Mead painting. The resulting color palette was then used to paint this scene. Total working time was around 4.5 hours. Comments and critiques welcome.

Arrival of the CyberPope

fcomin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 23:46:47 GMT

Arrival of the CyberPope

The Popemobile of CyberPope John v.6.7. The Supreme Digital Pontiff arrives via his custom grav-lifter. It is fully armored against small arms fire, and can even withstand a direct hit from a railgun. The vehicle includes a high fidelity wireless cyber-interface network so that the CyberPope can remain connected to the faithful even while in transit to far away locations.

Speed paint exercise done in Photoshop using custom brushes. Total working time is around 4 hours.

Hades Refinery

fcomin — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:06:18 GMT

Hades Refinery

A Lockwood DC-96 cargo lifter transits the Hades Refinery installation on its way to offload its cargo. The refinery is a mega structure that processes vast amounts of raw petrochemicals into fuels and plastics for export. This is a refinery world, aside from the installation staff there are no permanent colonists here, the environment is a haze of petrochemical smog and toxins.

This was painted entirely in Photoshop over the course of 12 hours, working 3-4 hours at a time. Custom brushes were used to create the refinery plant structures and the cargo lifter. The color palette was sampled from a photograph of the refineries in Southern California. Comments and critiques welcome.

Diplomatic Platform

fcomin — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:11:13 GMT

Diplomatic Platform

The floating transport platform of the Borosian ambassadorial commission as it prepares to cross the open desert. Its passage is watched solemnly by a small group of nomadic salvagers that are currently in the area.

Another speed paint exercise, this time the initial focus was on developing the vehicle as opposed to the environment. The background was added later to give the vehicle a sense of scale and an environment to inhabit. Painted entirely in Photoshop using custom brushes. Total working time 5 hours 20 minutes. Comments and critiques welcome.

Sky Patrol

fcomin — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:09:51 GMT

Sky Patrol

A modified SRP-97 Mako patrol cutter flying over the high desert regions of Osmarius IX. Its markings identify it as a member of a local House Militia, and not part of the national airforce. A speed paint exercise done using custom brushes. Painted in Photoshop, with some effects added in Painter IX. Total working time 4 hours. Comments and critiques welcome.

Jungle Hunter

fcomin — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 02:15:39 GMT

Jungle Hunter

I was trying out the brushes that came with Vyle's DVD. I don't usually do renderings of established characters, but I couldn't resist dropping the Predator into the scene. This was painted mostly in Painter, with the custom brush work being added in Photoshop before finishing it in Painter. Total working time was around 3-4 hours. Comments and Critiques welcome.

Soft Landing

fcomin — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 06:59:50 GMT

Soft Landing

"The ship, if it was a ship, had soft landed in the deep desert of Molossus, but all who saw it could not say whether it was digging itself into the ground, or digging its way out." -Excerpt from the journal of explorer Idalgo Cortel.
Done using Painter IX. I began this painting by experimenting with Painter's palette knife brushes, and just let the forms and shapes evolve as the painting progressed. Total working time 8 hours 10 minutes. Comments welcome.

Waystation Corridor

fcomin — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 06:58:15 GMT

Waystation Corridor

Two nomad scouts take shelter from a dust storm in the abandoned remains of a waystation terminal. Painted in Photoshop using custom brushes, this is an environment study for a graphic novel I have been considering doing. Total working time 2 hours 45 minutes. Comments welcome.

Intrusion Zone

fcomin — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 06:53:51 GMT

Intrusion Zone

USSC Fireteam Pale Rider comes under fire while patrolling an Intrusion Zone on the Trinity Moon. The ambient radiation and low visibility make the Intrusion Zone popular with raiders looking to avoid detection by USSC patrols. Fire fights between USSC forces and fringe elements are a common occurrence in the Intrusion Zone.

Painted in Photoshop, with some FX elements added in using Painter IX. This piece began as a casual sketch that took on a life of its own. Comments and critiques welcome.

Mining Oupost #31

fcomin — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 22:30:08 GMT

Mining Oupost #31

Richter Industrial Dynamics mining installation No. 31 on Anuarias VI. Despite the size of the facility it is largely automated and can be operated by a skeleton crew. When the ore deposits are played out, the entire facility will be sold as scrap.

Painted in Photoshop as a study in rapid visualization techniques. It was done using custom brushes for the repeating elements such as the cranes and the refinery towers. After the primary speed paint was done, detail FX elements such as the glows were done in Painter IX, as I can't seem to get a decent glow brush to come off in Photoshop. Total working time 1 hour 26 minutes. Comments welcome.