Some dark and "dog of War" characters...

[Aleksi]

Hi !!
I'm a newcomer in this terrific forum.
Here's some recent unpublished artpieces.
( The text is in french )


Arggh!!! I miss the 3rd thunderdome contest!!!
This two pieces had got a kind of "Dog of War" look however.
Too late, I'll send some stuff for the next one :)

http://walee.free.fr/temp/aleksi/Aleksi_Stimponkz.JPG http://walee.free.fr/temp/aleksi/Aleksi_Darkwolfen.JPG

[Batteram]

A pity you missed out on the Thunderdome contest because these concepts rock! And I totally dig the way you do the backgrounds, totally original and definately spruces up the pic. Did you use photos for the background of that metal cog for your first pic?
Anywayz, these concepts are very impressive and I want to see more of your work. Welcome to the forum!

[Mort]

wow this is amazing..thank u
a little critiq..the last picture ,
i thought i saw his back ..i didnt see his head at first..light needs adjusting..other than that..great work.:)

[Burn Things.]

woow nice work - crazy cool lighting and colors especially on the first- sorry you missed thunderdome- these would have been great - overall this is VERY nifty.

[Aleksi]

Batteram : This 2 pieces are a mix of pencil drawing, paintings effects ( not painter but acrylic splashs ) and actually some samples of photographs for metal effects.

Mort : maybe the head of the "wolf" is too similar to the background... I must have darken a little more the head or the brush stroke around. Thanx for the critic:)
it will be better if I use it for print.

here's 2 another illustrations for role playing games.
On the 1rst I push deeper my experimentation of mixing painting and photographs. I use almost 12 different pictures to create the background. And it was very funny posing with friends:)

http://walee.free.fr/temp/aleksi/Aleksi_Cendres.JPG
http://walee.free.fr/temp/aleksi/Aleski_Prophecy_couv.JPG

[shin]

wow~~~that's really cool!!I like thst dragon(?)~~~

[daarken]

man! that is some really amazing stuff!! you make me want to go and render out some creatures i have in mind!! post more!! ahhh!!!

[Lono]

Fuck!

amazing.

there sure are a lot of badass french artists on this board.

i love it. all of it. wish youdve made it in time for the t-dome.

-Lono

[stephen]

wow!
awesome work man.

[Jason Manley]

great work!

cant wait to see more


and yes...these would have been great in the thunderdome contest...we coulda used yer submissions for sure...would have helped us to win :)

but alas...the next contest will be announced shortly.

j

[SamusNeo]

Kick ass...especially the very first creature. I like the x-ray effect on the dragon too. My only comment would be that the second creature (dog warrior guy) seems to have a slightly off balance look, that is to say funky equalibrium. Hey...that would be a good band name... Anyways, this is some sweet shit. I look forward to seeing more. Oh yeah, just have to say it once more... the first guy rocks!

[Aleksi]

Thanks everybody !

this forum is a wonderful source of motivation...
But because of no personal ftp ( i use a friend one for the moment, thanx Walee :) ) I cannot post all I want :)
I still have a lot of personnal pictures, between videogames designs and roleplaying illustrations...

Daarken : Sure, I'll post a lot of new stuff soon !!! just give me the time to...
I'll try to do my website soon

Lono : it was in fact done in time for the T-dome but I cannot post it :(
For the next one, i wish i'll be ready :)

Jason : your own work is very impressive. make me happy to have your compliments

Samusneo : In fact, at the beginning, I didn't think I use the "wolf" drawing for a finished piece. I surely must have rework some things and be less hurried...
Funky equalibrium : what sort of music do they play ? Circus funk ?:D


some little samples of my work on some french websites :
lefantastique.net (http://www.lefantastique.net/peinture/imaginaire/aleksi/aleksi.htm)
Elegy (http://www.elegymag.com/articles/article.asp?id_art=2721)
I'm sorry the text is in french :( anyhow it would have been updated

[Darrell Bowman]

i like th e degrees of sharpness bringing the eye into focus on items.
leads my eyes right into the painting.

nice work.

[eggbeater]

I'll give you webspace. PM me.

[davi]

Geezus... You've just become like my favorite artist.

[xen_q]

Whoa, dude, that stuff is really nice. you've really pulled off the background in the first piece well by merging all the industrial imagery with the character.

[Aleksi]

According to the enthusiastic feedbacks on the 2 first illustrations, it's a paint approach that I must use more often :)

I have a try at using some different types of renderings, technics and tons connecting with the subject of the illustration.
"The form depend on the substance". As a graphist, it's one of my favorite "adage"

Eggbeater : Thank you very much for offering Webspace but it will be OK soon and I prefer not to disperse my stuff...

( excuse me in advance for being sometimes not easily understandable :) I've got a bad french accent :)

[Darrell Bowman]

yes i like to see what more you can do with realism fantasy.
be neat to see one illustration almost totally realism.
love the backgrounds, be great underneath painting technique.
but pushing the realism could be very profitable.

[Nordstrand, T]

Great work, Aleksi! I love the handling, effects and energy, especially in "Darkwolfen", but the illustration I like the best is the Dragon. I think it is the most easy to look at. In some of these I have a hard time feeling the subject, it's somewhat lost in lighting, contrasts and equal saturation. Your painting sense is astonishingly brave, though. Tip of the hat to you, sir! :)

[Aleksi]

Cool !!
No more ftp's problems, I can post new things !!

Darrell : I think I wouldn't like tending too much to photorealism, if the purpose is to create a picture looking like a real photograph.
In this case I'll prefer using directly photographs and doing what we call "PhotoGraphism".
It's subjective. Don't know exactly, it's quite paradoxal because i always do very detailled pictures and I like realism.
But what I like most are images mixing pictural effects ( we can see brush strokes, splashs, the energy and the hand behind ) and some realistic renderings...
Don't know...
Huge question..
I spend too much time finding the good words to explain my point of view :(

Tornstein : thanks:)


Here are 2 other pieces made of photographs ( more than 10 different sources for each illustration ), drawing, pencil, burn areas, sellotapes and collages...
I still used my friends as models:)

This is for a french postapocalyptic roleplaying game called "Cendres". it's mean "Ashes".
I'll ty to render picture like old photographs ( the kind of which have passed some years buried ). i also do the graphism ( title... )

The wide one is a rolemaster screen ( width : 80 cm ).
my aim was to create a "cinemascope" picture reminding of Sergio leone's movies atmospheres...

http://aleksi.aleksi.free.fr/Workforweb/Frontiere.jpg

http://aleksi.aleksi.free.fr/Workforweb/Cendres_ecran.jpg

I'll post some completely different pictures in another topic

[Darrell Bowman]

I see. Okay!

[Aleksi]

Darrell : I hope I wasn't incisive with my answer or something like that...
it wasn't my will.
i like this kind of debate.
i was just trying to say I've got some difficulties to write and even more when it's about precise points and big questions about art..;
I often use a dictionary...:)

I post some other stuff in another thread, maybe more about fantasy realism. Tell me if it's this kind of renderings you were talking about...

[Mr.Magnetichead]

Fucking amazing :eek:

And i see the Static X Logo on that guys coat :D

[Darrell Bowman]

it okay really.
im 48 yrs old and been a artist all my life.
but in our day they called it photo montage.
but you are constructing a image.
i rarely use a lucy but that doesnt mean i dont
copy, i just use my eyes to transfer.

great stuff looks wonderful.

guess the question is how did you get the
first two monsters guys, if you use your
technique on the last photos.

sorry i had no sleep.

but your cool.

we use to get into talks like this over mark english
and hiendel in detroit doing cars.

[Aleksi]

Mr.MagneticHead : I was surely listening to this band doing this piece.
I spend sometimes hours trying to put "wink" and references especially for my friends in my stuff.
For exemple in the same illustration, i wrote Poli 30 in the shed in the background. It is a friend ( a very good artist )and I went to his birthday :)
I put some other graffitis on the tank too but I recover it then when the final result became more important than my private-jokes
:D

Darrell : Damn !! I'm only 24 and I could have been your son:)
I love old paintings, new photoGraphism and some contemporary art too.
My opinion about Art and more specifically illustration is that you have something to express and you have to choose the better way to do it...
it's the best way to create original things.
it doesn't mean forgotten and don't be intersted in all that was made before. Not at all.
The form depends on the substance...
I'm not always working like that but I think it's a good thing to have in mind.
Another french illustrator said : some photographers are like illustrator and some illustrators are like photographers.
It depends on the imagination of the artist.... ( Thanks M.Carré "Ornicar" :D )

And in fact, there was no photographs for the 2 creatures I have posted first ( except metal elements in the background on the 1rst ).
Pencil drawings, paintings and photoshop

[Darrell Bowman]

that why i said.

i see
meaning i understand all that you have explayed.

then okay!

meaning fine with me.

i have a 20yr old.

great stuff.

i guess canada has alot of alex colville's
danby, loates alot of realism painters
inspired by andrew wyth.

i thought perhaps seeing the first too monsters
that the other human figues were drawn thusly.

[morphine]

I FOUND SOMETHING I DON'T LIKE!!
And boy, it was hard to find anything like this on your pics. hehe

Anyways, I don't like the use of (i'm guessing it, but it seems obvious) motion blur on your typography in the first two pics. I *think* that *maybe* enlarged text with gaussian blur would look much better. Or some other kind of distortion. "manual blurring" with the smudge tool, or with the liquify effect.

In fact I don't remember seeing motion blur well used anywhere.

Great pics!

[el coro]

dope work man!

[Aleksi]

morphine :
I don't know...
Maybe do you think it's a too much photoshop gimmick ?

I tried to render a kind of movement ( motion ! ), like movies credits, when titles and types appear and disappear.
I don't think gaussian blur or another would have create this effect, too smooth or too "evanescent".

Anyway, I'm very happy if this is the only thing you don't like in my pictures. It's not my case, always a lot of things I'm not totally happy with...:)