concept sketches

[wes9000]

hey guys!

I got the "okay" to show some of the freelance concept work I did over the summer, so heres some images...i'll put up a handful for now and add more later if people are interested. I had alot of fun doing these, and this was the first time that I've done concept work for anyone professionally...so this was all a new experience for me

They've said that I'm allowed to show the stuff but I can't say anything about them, so please dont ask for details... all I can say is that it is a prototyped game for a major publisher.


these are all rough concept sketches, no preliminaries done for any of them, just playing around with different ideas with each one .... pencil markers, and a couple with colors dropped in in photoshop

let me know what you guys think!

http://www.stormpages.com/wes9000/images/new/7-29a.txt

http://www.stormpages.com/wes9000/images/new/7-16h.txt

http://www.stormpages.com/wes9000/images/new/7-17d.txt

http://www.stormpages.com/wes9000/images/new/7-25g.txt

http://www.stormpages.com/wes9000/images/new/7-27b.txt

http://www.stormpages.com/wes9000/images/new/7-27c.txt

http://www.stormpages.com/wes9000/images/new/7-30c.txt

http://www.stormpages.com/wes9000/images/new/8-16g.txt

http://www.stormpages.com/wes9000/images/new/8-6b.txt

http://www.stormpages.com/wes9000/images/new/8-8a.txt

http://www.stormpages.com/wes9000/images/new/8-8c.txt

[mcotie]

friggin' cool. no I mean,, really friggin' cool.

Mitch

[Sketch]

Wow, great work. I had to hit reload a couple of times so that I could see all the images. Some of those pics really remind me of Last of The Mohicans. Defitenly post more!

[Hedrus]

Please post more. Great stuff! I'm a fan. What were these for? If you are allowed to reveal that... Thanks for posting.



Kenzie

[Smeagol71]

Everytime I'm on the boards I make it a point to search for work from you Wes and this time my search was successful!!! Now I can see that you've been quite busy and that's probably why we haven't seen much of you lately.

These sketches, paintings, masterpieces...man oh man! I love all of it. Your work is fantastic and so exciting to look at. I love all of the sketches but literally am drooling at your color work. Thanks again for posting! Very inspirational!!!

[Landmate]

:bash: DIE!!!!!



*sniff* :(


sigh....



good work. the last one is my favorite, it would make a great painting.

[whoreable]

FUCKING WOW WOW! I love your anatomy, you have a tutorial or type of tools that you use to color those pics? I would love to do something like that, do you use refrences? If so can you post some links!

[xen_q]

very nice, your drawing style and color work are inspirational.

[daarken]

very nice! its always a pleasure whenever you post anything. you always have good costume designs! cant wait to see more.

[Lono]

yah,, what they all said.... youuuuuu,, scumbag..

this is great.. ive been working with armor designs on a personal project for the last 5 or 6 months and im getting a bit burnt out.. this stuff is really inspiring, and will most deffinately get things mooving for me again...

in my pants.

thanks for posting this stuff man.

you just made my day.

-Lono

[morphine]

AMAZING!!! *drools*

A game, eh?
Bah, it's too bad they lose character and expressivity [sp?] when they're translated into 3D...

Luv'm all.

[killing.people]

you've been a busy little bee

do you always draw in this vien (warrior glatiator), are you studing sumthin with different types of warriors for school or a project, or has thunderdome affected your ego in such a way, that in defeating a great artist such as joshuathejames that you are stuck in the genre? okay then i read what your typed, sorry! your pictures are just so captivating you could have called me names and i would have never read it until after i had complimented you and haddent realized i was supposed to be mad.
i love the style you took with the very first piece, something about the structure of the subject is just so awesome! his agility, the relationship of everything is .. blah! i really really like the first one, and thank god you labled the face paint. ;)

wonderful artwork for fox sakes you rock.
-killing.people

[BomberMan]

Holly Crap !!!! WOW !!!!
More ! I am very interested, MORE MORE !!!
Great work

[stephen]

ah wes you son of a...
truely inspiring man, i love the colors on the black guy.
ugh!~

keep it up bro

[Deth Jester]

Looking Smooth Wes... I really enjoy the 8th and 9th from the top down.. Great pose and gesture coming from the 8th.. and the 9th one screams.. "Im a bad ass.. dont fuck with me"

Keep em coming .. I love your stuff..

peace

[khangle81]

really impressive sketches Wes, I especially love the fluidity of the line works, I just check out your site also and your stuff is amazing. Is your school a 4 years school?, do they have entertainment track or are u doing all this on personal motivation?

[TJ Verhagen]

Wow.. thats great!
Love those characters, and how each of them just radiates a distinct personality
(hmm.. that sounded good.. I should write that stuff down...)
:D
err.. anyway.. awesome!

[davi]

I'm in awe.. I must have spent 30 minutes just looking at these.

The first one i love so much because the colors have some sort of stone quality, and the one with the 7.27.02 date so reminds me of the big guy in bloodspot. OMG and the last 3 are so evil and awesome, i love the way the chick looks. I could go on and on, but I won't. Thank god you shared these. I was fiending for more wes' art.

[Mr_Joshua]

As always, great stuff. Very nice anatomy.

I'd still like to see more variety in your female faces though. :)

[Archangelus]

Some really Kick @$$ stuff Dread!

[Lono]

Your head must be about the size of a damned ripe watermellon by the time youve gotten to this post.

fat head. :p

BOW DOWN to the head!!!

:bow: :conehead;

[Blackarts]

those are pretty amazing....

excuse me while I go practice!

[McNallyism]

Whoah...I'm having flashbacks to the summer before last when I stood in the halls of LucasArts and drooled before a wall of James Zhang's art for Gladius. It's like deja vu. This is some impressive stuff, Wes. Great concepts with soul to match. It will be very interesting to see how your career progresses in the next few years. Especially since you're only in, like, sixth grade now!

-Sean

[gekitsu]

can you say ownage?

it's damn impressive... technique ise, anatomy, pose and of course: the designs!
cool mix of fictional and historical elements. the result has clearly identifyable roots but is new to the eyes.

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Nice poses and stuff. I especially like 'solid opaque coloring' like on the two negro faces. The first one is cool too. Gotta love that gladiator helmet.

I like how you gave the females a little natural looking fat. It makes them look more alive and plausible as fighters.

Thumbs up!

[JoshuaTheJames]

james!?! oops no its wes! ...

:D

i like the drawing ...


-Joshua

[taff]

yay or nay?

yay of course - pretty cool stuff. as always. :rolleyes:

[Horus]

Great stuff!

I must say right off, it has been a extreme pleasure to see such fresh and interesting figures with real anatomy and proportions (although very heroic, still). My compliments on them. The rendering and the subtle color are nice as well. Its a great finished/unfinished look that keeps them very dynamic.

The armor is for the most part very nice. The details and decoration are their strong points. However, I would pay closer attention to the substructure of the armor. On such realistic models bulky anime style (invented) armors can dissagree with the characters. You have some realy bulky thick shoulders that on a real figure look like paper mache'. Also, there is some gravity defying chainmail. Try not to solve every thing with extra straps and floating plates of metal. A little more reference will go along way, but be very carefull to not loose your GREAT deco and themed designs - just incorporate them onto a more real-world/practical substructure. If you need any title suggestions, my library on the subject is huge.

I hope I havent been overly critical, because I really do love these concepts - I just have a special place in my head for arms and armor.

I definately want to see more!

Billy

[Amadikus]

These are off the freakin' hook! All of them are 100%!
Congrats! That looks like it was a fun job!

:D :chug:

[keyth]

wes, these are REALLY nice man...really nice. i have a ? for you. while doing these, are you referencing from models or photos? or are you just freeballing it?

congradulations on the work. top-notch:chug:

[wes9000]

jeez... wow...im completely amazed by all the response! i just stopped in and thought there might be a handfull of replies, but i nevr thought there would be almost 30?!?

well, i only have a few minutes, but i'll try to answer some of the questions..

thanks to all of you for responding, im humbled!

mcotie, sketch- thanks guys!

Hedrus- sorry, cant say what there for at the moment...under contract

smeagol- heh yeah between doing this and being in school, im constantly working on something, thanks for all your compliments

whoreable- sorry man, no tutorials or anything...just based on my knowledge of the figure from lots and lots of life drawing. the two african fellows were slightly referenced from a book, but thats it.

landmate, xen q, daarken - thanks guys!

lono - hahaha youre too funny, thanks man

morphine- thanks, yeah its too bad alot of the character gets lost most of the time in the transfer process..

killing.people , bomberman, stephen , deth jester - thanks for for all the compliments

khangle- thanks man, i really like the work ive seen of yours too, and im quite jealous that you get to have ryan church as an instructor, hehe. my school is a 5 year school, and i just started my 4th year... we dont have an entertainment design thing...I just do concept art and stuff like that in my spare time. im a drawing major and mainly focus on more traditional drawing and painting. hope to see more of your work too!

TJ- thanks! sounds great! hehe

davi- thanks man, dont know what bloodspot is... do you mean bloodsport? isnt that some van damme movie...havent seen it..

josh- thanks man, will definitely try keep that in mind for future works

arhcangelus- thanks!

lono - hahah, those little animations are hilarious!

blackarts, gekitsu - thanks!

mcnally- thanks man, haha sixth grade....

prometheus - awesome, glad you noticed!

josh, taff- thanks guys!

horus - thanks for the tips! i used alot of reference for the armor... with the chainmail on the first guy, that was apparently possible according to things ive seen and read... held up by a strap at the top of the arm, but i dunno. i know what you mean, some of it doesnt seem quite feasible. thanks, ill post some more soon!

amadikus, keyth - thanks! i didnt reference the poses or figures at all, except for a little bit with the two african fellows...mainly just go with what i know about anatomy...some of them a re still a little wonky...small heads or strange proportions...



well, thanks again guys, im blown away by all the responses. I'll try to post a few more sketches tomorrow (i have a TON of them...) but for now, i gotta go work on stuff for class tommorow,
thanks
-wes

[jaymz]

Okay...might as well as make it 31.

Yes...great stuff, Wes. I could have used someone like you to help me out on Gladius. ;)

-J

(oh and good to see our ex-LucasArts interns kick'n ass on the boards...keep it up!)

[JoshuaTheJames]

i agree james!
you and wes would have worked well together on that project...

btw where have you been this is your first post in 80 years:D

ultimate frisbee + art = no time :D

-Joshua

[Jason Manley]

you forgot the other priorities of 1 video games 2 meeting the ladies 3 going to clubs 4 socializing 5 dragon boat 6 trying to meet ladies 7 madden 8 watching football 9 eating 10 looking for women

eheheh glad to see you back james

keep up the good works wes. wheres yer thunderdome entry???????


j

[swampbug]

Intern power!.. Really great stuff wes. thanks for showing what you've been working on. yeah id swear it was gladius concept art :)

Josh! ahhaha you play ultimate frizbee. I dont. WTF!..

My prioritys these days seam to be,,

1. Slacking
2. Taping He-man on fridays
3. Thinking / depressing myself about girls
4. Watching the history channel
5. Computer games
6. What mp3 I listen to next
7. Posting in messageboards
8. I forget the rest.. maybe school work.

Peace out..

[crazylegs]

Great Stuff!! I truly enjoy this site and all who post. Sketches just seem to have a certain life to them that doesn't always translate into a finished piece.

[Hudnut]

Holy Shiitake!

That's some really REALLY good character design. Simple, yet expressive. Unique personalities for all the characters. Great rendering, subtle values, strong anatomy, I love it!

Post more or I'll hunt you down and pry the rest of them from your cold dead----WAIT! I mean, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post some more! Please?

Dave

[.....]

laff

Nice work I guess, but I'm sure you're glad that DVD players have a pause button so you could just copy designs from Gladiator. Checked out your site and the same thing for your "Star Wars" biting and wow, you also happen to draw just like Ian McCaig too for those low-budget Star Wars character knock-offs. Interesting. I now deem you..


Biteimus Maximus


gg

[JoshuaTheJames]

http://jetli.com/phpBB/images/smiles//icon27.gif

http://jetli.com/phpBB/images/smiles//icon9.gif

[Lono]

Could anybody here obtain government clearance to 'Laze" this dickweed from space?

What a coward even... must have regestered a new handle just so he/she could make this worthless comment.

hey,, you know what terd lipps?? if i was hired to design gladiator characters, i do believe i would refference gladiator armor.. i bet youd probably refference Buck Rogers just to be "Origional".... am i right? or am i right? or am i right or am i right?

theres gotta be a relavent smiley for thisguy,,,hmmmm..

ahh heres one. :arrow: :chicken: bawk bawk

-Lono

[Dark_Crystal]

:confused:
I would imagine that the designs look the same because they are both based on historical data.

And Lono's right, hiding your face isn't the best way to make an argument :rolleyes:

[Archangelus]

Lono, man, I totally agree with you!
People like this gg piss me off!
Wes? Pay no attention to this "gg" and his piece-o-coward-crap comments.
I am an avid fan of the movie Gladiator. One of my favorite all-time films. I would know if you had taken a scene from the damn movie. And I know you didn't! Your work is fantastic. Small pinhead, pot-shot comments from idiots like that are just so tired. And to Mr.GG? Oops! I mean Mr.pencil-dick? Be a real man, grow a set and put up or shut up! Post something yourself if your so damn good! By the way Wes, keep on Kickin' @$$! Cheers Buddy. You rock.;):chug:

[Jezebel]

This makes me want to get back into sketching... not too much stuff does that for me. Excellent work. I love the diversity amongst the characters.

[ODIN SIX]

AWSOME stuff man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love everytinhg on here...

[feeb]

Really inspiring...

you know, like everyone else said.

Just wanted to make sure and leave my kudos too.

[J.Peckham]

hey Wes, did your new company spring for a drawing tablet? your figures piss me off, they're so natural. damn you. whats your favorite drawing book?
-J

[wes9000]

thanks again guys

jaymz, josh- thanks! yeah that would have been really cool to work together. good to see you back posting again james!

jason, swampbug, crazylegs- thanks!

hudnut - thanks, was just browsing through your site, really great work! hope to see more. and yes ill post some more of these sketches soon

"gg"- whatever. your comment about pausing a dvd of gladiator is complete bullshit. apparently you've never taken a history course or looked at historical reference books before.
now for the "star wars biting" comments...say what you will. i pretty much did all of those almost 2 years ago when i first discovered the world of concept art. i was inspired by what i saw and decided to do some doodles based on that pre-existing "universe". so what? look at it as nothing more than fan art.
its not something I'd do now, i know more and have my own ideas that id like to do. those are examples of the first stuff i did in coming up with characters or whatever. but dont worry, that stuff wont be there when i get my new site up and running, i have all sorts of other things to show.
"you also happen to draw just like Iain McCaig"- okay whatever. ill take that as a compliment because he is an incredible draftsman and a very inspiring artist. ive been told i draw like him before, so what? ive never intentionally tried to copy or draw like him, some people just have similar styles. look at alot of car designers or ID guys, youll find lots of them who have similar styles. youll find that in alot of different fields. would it be wrong if i tried to draw like degas? ive had people tell me that some of my life sketches look like his too. if you didnt know, its quite custom to look at old masters and do work from them when youre still beginning as an artist. im 21 and still in school, i still have alot to learn, and one way to learn is to look at those who inspire you. am i "biting" then when i do studies from a Gerome or Sorolla painting?
its pretty obvious you wanted to make these comments annonymously. so anyways, if you choose to reply again, why dont you just use your real identity? i have no problem with you stating your opinion

lono- heheh thanks man, that chicken is hilarious

darkcrystal- well said, thanks

archangelus- heh thanks

jezebel, odin six- thanks guys

feeb- thanks, youre quite inspiring yourself

-wes

[fell]

Oh, I really envy your skills! It’s always nice to see new works from you Wes, and those ARE amazing. The concept design Art has no secrets for you now, and all your knowledge in history seems to help a lot too. Keep up with the hard work! Cheers mate.

PS: *copy – past* (future reference material you know ;) )

[N D Hill]

It's not often I get time to actually sit down and coment on peoples work. In fact, I should probably be finishing up on my essay for tomorrow morning instead of browsing here. I had to tell you that you did on awesome job, though. Really great stuff. I especially like how it's not too embelished with visual doo-dads that serve no purpose. That's a real temptation for anyone tackeling this kind of subject matter. The rendering is great as well. I especially like the faces.

Again, awesome work.

Hey Ponte, is it possible do an IP trace on that "gg" person. We should blow his cover. That'd be hilarious.

[bOne]

I think we all copy somebody's work, or be inspired by it.

This is not a crime !! All classic artists learned their art by copying other masterpiece...

The important thing is to find its own way.

There is an exposition in Paris where you can see Picasso and
Matisse, and you can see that a lot of their work comibne each influence.

[Svanur]

That's a lot of some inspiring work there. More I say more!!!

[nardfrog]

Increadible stuff wes. You will go far. I also think you style somewhat resemnles McCraigs and thats a GOOD thing. You should get a job with Lucas and then get me hired. Great stuff.