Mike's Stuff

MoreSketching

2011-08-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

And Another

Head study for David Honeyboy Edwards. Planning on doing full figure but wanted to get some head work done first. Honeyboy Edwards died recently at 96 years old!!! He was the oldest surviving member of the first generation Delta blues singers. Photo and quote from NYTimes.

"Over eight decades Mr. Edwards knew or played with virtually every major figure who worked in the idiom, including Charley Patton, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. He was probably best known, though, as the last living link to Robert Johnson, widely hailed as the King of the Delta Blues. The two traveled together, performing on street corners and at picnics, dances and fish fries during the 1930s."

A few more head studies and quicksketch stuff from various art books and reference materials. Some tweaked a bit with cheezy photoshop filters that I liked the look of.

OilSketching

2011-06-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

A few oil sketches done over the last month or so. Still not painting full time but trying to stay at it as best I can. The field and red flowers are 9 x 12 and the others are all 5 x 7. Not really taken to finish and some done on some pretty crappy canvas paper. Need to use more paint, plan better and on and on and on......

MoreDoodles

2011-04-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

Just messin around. The hillbilly guy is a real guy, not just bad drawrin:{)

What's New???

2010-11-25T08:14:00.001-08:00

So..... I been working at Killspace Entertainment on quite a few different projects but this is the one that has finally been announced by Atari with a release first quarter of 2011. I did the character model, the armor was done by another artist. Unfortunately I'm not sure who. Evan Cagle and David Liu did the rest with Nathan Fulton doing the character animation. I also did models for some of the dead stuff lying around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVijMCK37aw

GestureStuff

2010-03-23T14:20:00.001-07:00

Trying to loosen up and copying my way through "Drawn To Life" by Walt Stanchfield. He was a teacher at the old Disney studios. Copying is no doubt not the best way to go about this, sketching from life is the way to go, but I think it may still help.

StillTrying

2010-03-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

After the last "selfPortrait" I decided to try one using digital and color. I still can't get the hang of this digital painting shit. Oh well, here it is anyway.

QuickSketch

2010-03-19T22:44:00.001-07:00

Another cartoon head. Trying out Quicksketch. I like it. Simple to use and great pencil lines.

HeadDoodles

2010-03-13T11:03:00.000-08:00

Got a chance to see drawing DVD by Bob Kato. Lot's of stuff about edges and shadows so I tried a few quickies. He starts really loose and dials em in. I haven't taken these that far but they're all invented, no reference just messing around some more.

SelfPortrait

2010-03-10T12:16:00.001-08:00

Messing around.

QuickDraw

2009-12-28T13:33:00.000-08:00

This is my son Matt in charcoal. Not really trying to be perfect and spend hours correcting. Just what I got after about an hour or so. Not real subtle and tones are all over the place. Features aren't great either but it's just a sketch.

Veggies and a Lemon

2009-12-18T09:59:00.000-08:00

Three 6 x 9 quickpaints. At least quick for me. One hour each on these from photo reference. Actually from a basic painting instruction book. Not meant to be super good, just quick studies each with a dominant color.

Charcoal

2009-12-17T22:57:00.001-08:00

A drawing of Con. Took about 3 hours. Need to unify values more and get better......still haven't got the feel of it. I blame any problems on crinkly paper.

More Art???

2009-12-14T16:36:00.000-08:00

Here's a coupla more tries at oil painting. The old lady is 5 x 7 and the lady with the really long neck is 12 x 16. The old lady took a while and a lot of fussing. The other one took about 4 hours.
Trying to paint more stuff but do it quick. They both have lots of problems with structure , color and not modeling planes correctly, but I'm not quiting til I only suck about 50% instead of 85 - 90.

NewPaintings

2009-12-12T20:36:00.000-08:00

There is a great little art gallery in La Mesa Village owned by Shannon O'Dunn who, after looking at my blog, was kind enough to commission 3 flower paintings from me. Those flowers up there are what I painted. The theme was to do one in each of the primary colors.

The colors here are not 100% accurate but they're kinda close. If you are ever over there stop in and check them out. She has tons of really great stuff in there at very affordable prices.

If you wanna buy mine they're 250 each or 600 for all three including frames.

The other art in her gallery makes it very clear to me that I have a lot to learn and a long way to go but I intend to give it my best for the next 12 months and see how much I can improve.

Check out the art gallery here:
http://www.odunnfineart.com/

Sketchy At Best

2009-09-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

Some pages from various sketchbooks. Just keepin busy.

Coupla More

2009-09-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

A few more things I been working on. The pepper and tomatoes are done after 3 wipeoffs and restarts. The girl and the unhappy elephant are digital and are still needing work but here they go anyhow.

Lookalikes????

2009-08-19T23:26:00.000-07:00

Well, they say that dogs and their owners start to resemble each other. My son Matt and my dog Minnie are living proof. Sorry Matt, I had to do it.

AndroidsQuickyConceptTechnique

2009-08-19T22:46:00.000-07:00

OK. Today I watched a video I downloaded from Massive Black by Android Jones wherein he demonstrates how to do a bunch of quick "concepts" using ZBrush, Maya and Painter. His look way better than mine, but they were fun and the whole idea for me right now is 'LOOSEN UP DUMB ASS'!!!! So these are OK. His look like robots and mechs and mine look like amusement park rides but that's OK. I had some fun doin' em.

A Few More

2009-08-02T11:43:00.000-07:00

Three 5 x 7 each done in a day... plus a tad. The flat apple thing was just real quick from paint left over after the landscape one.
The dog is "Max" the love dog.
Had to lay off for a bit now to do some other non-paying work. Oh, by the way, if anybody wants to hire me to do games I have 11 years Maya experience. My website is here: http://members.cox.net/myke1749/Main.html

MorePaintingAttempts

2009-07-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more attempts at oil painting. These are each 11 x 14 and each was done in a day. Actually about 5 hours each. I'm gonna start working smaller (5 x 7) to force me to just see the big shapes, and I'm gonna try to tone down my colors.
I start off organized but by the time I'm done, my colors are all over the place. I gotta stop doin that shit.

BadPaintings

2009-07-15T17:47:00.001-07:00

OK. So I tried to put color on the value painting of the lighthouse below and it came out like crap as did the painting of the leafy stuff. I ain't happy about it but at least I give myself a few points for trying. Each has about 6 - 8 hours in em. Too overworked, not know how to use brushes, bad color choices.....basically all the usual errors.
I'm gonna get better though.

QuickyConcept

2009-06-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

Quick "for me" concept done in about 3 hours. Head took 2, only spent about an hour on the body.
It shows. No hands, wonky pose, really rough but..... good enough to get a go ahead on completion of a model.

LightHouse

2009-06-13T16:48:00.001-07:00

This is a sepia pickout of a lighthouse from a photo.
I'm scared to put color on it, but I will someday soon.

PortraitPainting???

2009-06-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

Later on I took a portrait painting class with Ron's wife Vanessa who is also a great teacher and pretty funny too. I have never taken a portrait painting class and haven't put oil on a canvas in at least 14 years so gimme a break. The pictures are kinda blurry but I don't think it matters too much.

I wish I had continued taking the classes I started 10 years ago.
Drawing and painting don't seem to hold true to the bike riding story (You never forget how). It seems that you do forget how. Or at least you get really rusty and have to relearn all your stuff. You can't practice consistently for 2 years and layoff for 4 and expect to go back to where you were.

That sucks, but...... here I am, trying again.

ColorTheory

2009-06-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

One of the first classes I took at Studio2ndStreet this time around was Color Theory with Ron.
It's a great class and I learned stuff I didn't even know I didn't know.

So here's my color wheel. A knife with peanut butter on it in my kitchen sink and some objects done in value only, hi key, mid key and lo key.

I have a loooooooooooonnnnnnngggggg way to go.

ElfyDude

2009-04-17T17:09:00.002-07:00

This guy is still in sketch mode. 4color to come at some point.

AfroGuys

2009-04-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

I guess this guy was just made the king or something. Anyway, another so so attempt at digital painting. Getting a little more used to brushes and trying to experiment a bit. This was done from photo reference with no predraw. Just straight into painting. No color sampling from photo so I could try to find colors better on my own.

Bullman

2009-04-10T21:34:00.001-07:00

This is me trying to do digital art. It took me awhile and I don't think it sucks 100% but it still has a long way to go. I'm gonna keep at it and see if I can get better.

HeadStudies

2009-02-03T11:02:00.001-08:00

Here's a few head drawings done in graphite. I'll be posting more of these as I continue studying at 2ndStreet.

NBA Game Heads

2009-02-03T10:19:00.000-08:00

Here are a coupla heads I did for the NBA game I worked on. The same base model was used for 350 heads but each one was reshaped and detailed in ZBrush.

Character Ideas

2009-02-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

These are 2 character ideas I drew up for possible game concepts. Never took to 3d but here they are.

Doodles

2009-02-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a few doodles I've done over time. Just scratching around while on the phone or whatever.

Introduction

2009-02-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Mike Bolger. I have been a game artist for over 11 years. During that time I worked almost solely on an NBA Basketball title. I started this blog as a place to post my pretty rusty 2d art skills along with some 3d stuff. My intention is to use it to help motivate me to continue improving. I am currently enrolled in some traditional art classes at 2nd street studio in Encinitas and hope that over time I will be able to chronicle some serious improvement.

Thanks for stopping by.