Character Design - Character #8

Character Design

Artemus © Corey Breen

Pencil

Finally we have our last team member of Starlanders ©, named Artemus ©. He is the field leader of the team, only answering to the man in charge of Starlanders, yet to be unveiled (or designed, for that matter, lol). Much like Cyclops is to Professor X, Artemus is to General Snyder ©. His is very intelligent, very quick, mainly because he and his species have two brains.

Ok, so that is the first batch of designs, the basic first wave strike team, called Starlanders. Next I will be showing you the "bad guys". I currently have about 6 or 7 of them designed to show you. Then we'll wrap it up with some simple ships I am going to design, and I'll talk about what my next steps will be in this whole project, for example, doing landscapes, and environments. So stay tuned!

CjB

PS- Also, right now, I am finishing up my last Game of Thrones piece, Jon Snow with Ghost. I am digitally inking it today, and should be done with the colors by Thursday! Can't wait to show it, it's gonna be my best one yet!

Character Design - Character #7

Character Design - Byron © Corey Breen

Pencil

BACK WITH MORE STARLANDERS CHARACTERS DESIGNS!

Here is the REAL bruiser of the team, the BIG heavy hitter of Starlanders ©, Byron ©!

He is a real dangerous threat, but actually the nicer member of the team. He is kind to all living creatures and has a real Zen like vibe to him. He wouldn't hurt a fly... UNLESS that fly threatens ANY other flies or creatures! Then, look out, because you will NOT stand a chance.

He is also a chameleon of sorts where he can practically blend in by changing colors to his environment, which is a huge plus, because how else could you hide his enormous size? His armor is functional too, giving off light, and energy, where he amazingly fast and agile for his size too. A huge threat all around, with an innocent baby face and personality!

OK! ONE last member to team Starlanders to come! And the most important. The leader of the team. You'll find out who that is tomorrow!

CjB

Game of Thrones - Tyrion Lannister Pin-Up

Tyrion Lannister © George R.R. Martin

By Corey Breen

Photoshop

In celebration of the release of George R.R. Martin's next novel in the saga of the Song of Ice and Fire, A Dance with Dragons, released TODAY, 7/12, here is my Tyrion Lannister pin-up!

I can't WAIT to go home and start reading the new book, and the next chapter in the saga! I'm so frakin' PSYCHED! I want to enjoy every SECOND of reading the new book, for this series has become my obession and now rivals my love for Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Mass Effect, and Final Fantasy itself! Hard to believe, but it is now that beloved to me!

I hope you like my version of Tyrion before he gets a little more scared up, let's say... for he is one of the BEST characters EVER created in fiction! AND, I can't even explain how much Peter Dinklage does him justice on the HBO show as well! He WILL win the Emmy for the role, and I can't WAIT to see how him play Tyrion in season 2, when he is basically the MAIN character of a Clash of Kings! He is gonna rock the boat (literally)!

Below is the process that I used for this piece, which turned out to be REALLY complex, unfortunitly, lol. I basically just drew the character first before any kind of background was thought of, and that got me in trouble right from the start. That's why it is NOT recommended to do that. To not even at LEAST think of the background you will do while you are drawing is a bad idea. If you do it separately, it will most surely not match the figu re you did separately. In my earlier versions of this piece, you will see how it made it a bitch to figure out how make a background work for the Tyrion figure I drew first.

So I had to redo the background, three times! Finally I nailed it in the finis hed piece, but you can see below what it was going to be, which obviously was a failure. The floating rock idea was just... well, DUMB! But I am so glad I went through the process, for it got me to where I was so happy with the finished piece.

To be able to critique yourself and admitt when you suck, is a BIG part of getting to a really good finished piece. I'm glad I was able to step back from it and fix what needed to be fixed, until I was finally really happy with the piece as a whole!

Hope you agree!

Enjoy the piece and ENJOY reading A Dance with Dragons!

CjB

The Process:

Pencil study for likeness

First pencil sketch of Tyrion

First pencil sketch of background

Pencil sketch of background revised

Finished pencil drawing of Tyrion

Pencil drawing combined in Photoshop - figure & background

Photoshop Digital Inks

Photoshop Digital Inks Final

More Starlanders © character designs coming this week, after this

SPECIAL BREAK!

Character Design - Character #6

Character Design - Gunner © Corey Breen

Pencil

Gunner © is one of the two brute force characters I did for my Starlanders © character designs. He is also the weapons expert for the team. He doesn't do any of the tech involved, but he handles all the equipment and ammo and such. He is the main human character of the team besides Aster ©, yet nothing ever comes close to taking place on Earth (if there even is a Earth in Starlanders). Trying to stay as far away from Earth as we know it, in the future or not. He is just a human, much like Han Solo is human. Humanoid, let's say.

Stayed tuned for more Starlanders character designs and we round out the full team this week, and go into the villains!

Let me know what you think so far of the characters you've seen!

CjB

Character Design - Character #5

Character Design - Garnett © Corey Breen
Pencil

To close out the week, here is character #5 of Starlanders ©, named Garnett ©. She has almost like a skeletal body and looks very mech, but she is not a robot. She is just a very weird looking synthetic being who is very deadly, yet also very regal and proper. She is royalty amongst her alien race, and is their top enforcer, hence why she qualified for the Starlanders team. She is very protective of her team mates, and teams them as if they were her own children.

A little break for Sunday, no character tomorrow. But more characters ALL next week, so tune in every day starting Monday.

I also finished injing and coloring my Tyrion piece, so I have that to post as well. Was going to post it this weekend, but I think I'll wait a bit so I can put more effort into hyping that one up, and promoting it all the web when I do, considering how much press I've gotten for the other Game of Thrones pieces I have done so far.

Now it's off to continue work on my next Game of Thrones piece, Jon Snow & his Direworlf, Ghost!

See you Monday!

CjB

Character Design - Character #4

Character Design - Varrick © Corey Breen

Pencil

Day four, character #4! This character is the joker of the team, if you will. Very skilled, very tech savy, he is fast and elusive. He talks really fast, and creates all the real alien gadgets, knowing almost every alien tongue and language in the galaxy.

Tomorrow, character #5 who is the brute force of the strike team, Starlanders ©.

CjB

Character Design - Character #3

Character Design - Daylum © Corey Breen

Pencil

Here is character #3 that I created. Her name is Daylum ©. I made her out to be elf-like in appearance to give off this aura of magic about her. I LOVE that hair style on female characters. Trying not to over use it, but it just really works for this character. I try to stay away from too much symmetry in the costumes, because I'm trying to be as original as possible with these designs. Hope you like it.

Another character tomorrow!

CjB

Character Design - Character #2

Character Design - Zephyr © Corey Breen

Pencil

Character Design - Enk © Corey Breen

Pencil

Day two my character concept art. This character is named Zephyr ©, along with his pet, named Enk ©. Two for one deal today, lol. Zephyr is like the stealth, silent, "ninja" part of the Starlanders © strike team.

Character #3 tomorrow!

CjB

Character Design - Character #I

Character Design - Aster © Corey Breen

Pencils

Here is the first character I'm introducing for Starlanders ©. Her name is Aster ©.

Next character tomorrow, and one to follow every day of this week and next week.

CjB

Introducing - Starlanders

Starlanders © Corey Breen

Logo Design By Corey Breen

Illustrator & Photoshop

Starlanders © Corey Breen

Logo Design By Corey Breen

Illustrator & Photoshop

Starlanders © Corey Breen

Logo Design By Corey Breen

Illustrator & Photoshop

Starlanders © Corey Breen

Logo Design By Corey Breen

Illustrator & Photoshop

For the last month or so I've been working on my Concept Art Portfolio. I've been talking about it for a while online now, and I'm finally ready to start sharing what I've been working on. My idea for the portfolio is to basically create a video game as if I was hired to be the concept artist. I set out to create an original world with characters, environments, vehicles, weapons, logos and world maps.

I decided on a basic premise of a combination of Mass Effect mixed with GI Joe. The pitch is basically GI Joe in outer space! A strike team is formed of the best military aliens in the galaxy to quell a rising secret terrorist organization who is looking to usurp the allied planets government (that has been seeing more and more corruption in recent times).

The General of the coalition's armies decides he needs a covert team to take out the growing fraction of government rebels. It is done in secret so as not to tip off the ever increasingly corrupting allied government and the terrorist organization itself. The best military aliens are put together on a team to destroy this new organization as it gains steam throughout the galaxy.

So that's the pitch, and this past month or so, I have been exclusively working on character design first. I have designed about 17 all new, completely original characters for the strike team, code-named, Starlanders, and the terrorist organization, who call themselves the RukRym. I have just done pencils for them right now, and that's hat I'll be sharing first. I mean to ink and digitally color or tone some of them too before I start on doing landscape design next.

So for the next two weeks or so, I will be posting each character design I have done so far.

I hope you like it, and I hope to get your feedback on the characters, and my progress so far, so I can continue to make this a true concept art portfolio that I can really show off! What you are going to see is what I really love to do above and beyond all other things. I LOVE to come up with ideas, plots, characters, designs, fashions, and costumes. I am REALLY proud of how this is all coming together so far. Starting to really fall in love with this idea, and the characters I have created so far.

SO, get ready for a lot of character drawings coming up for the next two weeks or so!

I need a cool tag-line or the concept... I'll try to come up with something. It's gonna be a very political "game"/ concept, much like the politics in Star Wars or Game of Thrones. It'd have a LOT of backstabbing and betraying, where you have no idea what aliens are vying for power or REALLY actually belong to the terrorist organization or not. This game (if it was real and ever made) would be full of not being able to trust anyone, especially the character you would be controlling at any given time, which you would be able to choose or a specific mission.

I want a game where you have an RPG like system, but no one main character. You form your team VERY early on for the most part, but as you go on missions you get to choose what main character you want for that mission. As you play you make decisions and fight in battles that effects people deflecting to the other side, or coming over to your side, or dying, even. That's why I wanted to design a majority of the characters as "shady" looking, where you think they may be a good guy or bad guy, but really, you have no idea. So keep that in mind as I unveil the characters. All are suspect as to their true intentions. Are they working for their own race, are they infiltrating the government by being on the strike team. Or are they legit enforcers who will stop at nothing to stop anyone from exciting anarchy in the galaxy?

I'll explain more as the weeks go on!

CjB

Game of Thrones Facebook Fan Page Props

HUGE shout out to the people at HBO and The Game of Thrones Facebook page for posting my pin-up of Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen! I can not thank you enough, the response has been AMAZING and I am very grateful for the exposure!

Thank you to ALL the fans who "liked" it and all the fans who commented on it!

Corey Breen

Game of Thrones Season Finale!

Khal Drogo & Daenerys Targaryen

Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin

By Corey Breen

Photoshop Colors

So here is my next piece in my series of Game of Thrones pin-ups. I got such AMAZING feedback and compliments from my Eddard Stark drawing on the Official Game of Thrones Facebook Page and the makinggameofthrones.com Blog, including the requests by many to do a version of Drogo and Dany! I thank everyone, especially everyone at HBO and @GameOfThrones on Twitter for them featuring my drawing on their sites, and linking to my Blog. I thank everyone who commented on the piece and for your suggestions on who to draw next from the series. Everyone wanted me to draw the Khal & Khalessi, and Tyrion. I decided to do the former first. I have a drawing done of Tyrion, so that one will be next.

I hope you like, and below is the process of the piece. I first did separate sketches of Drogo and Daenerys. Then I scanned those in, and combined them in Photoshop on how I wanted the final piece to be drawn. When I was happy with that, I printed that out on 11 x 17 paper. Then I put it on a light-box and did the finished pencils on my favorite paper, Letraset Marker Paper. Then I scanned that in and did the inks digitally. Then I went straight to colors in Photoshop.

Hope you like it, and next week, Tyrion Lannister!

Enjoy the season finale this Sunday on HBO and HBOGO.com!

Can't WAIT to hear everyone's reaction to the fate of Drogo and what happens to Daenerys at the end! People are gonna go NUTS who haven't read the book!

Until next time,

Corey Breen

Khal Drogo & Daenerys Targaryen

Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin

By Corey Breen

Pencil Sketch

Khal Drogo & Daenerys Targaryen

Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin

By Corey Breen

Pencil Sketch

Khal Drogo & Daenerys Targaryen

Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin

By Corey Breen

Pencil Sketch Layout Done in Photoshop

Khal Drogo & Daenerys Targaryen

Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin

By Corey Breen

Pencil Drawing on Letraset 11 x 17 Marker Paper

Khal Drogo & Daenerys Targaryen

Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin

By Corey Breen

Digital Inks in Photoshop

Khal Drogo & Daenerys Targaryen

Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin

By Corey Breen

Final Digital Inks in Photoshop

My Eddard Stark Drawing Featured on HBO-Making Game of Thrones!

CHECK IT OUT HERE:

http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/

Such an honor!

Thank you HBO, and Making Game of Thrones! Thank you especially to @gameofthrones over on Twitter, and to everyone who commented on the piece and "LIKED" it over on the Game of Thrones Facebook Fan Page!

Now, just wait until you see my Khal Drogo & Daenerys Targaryen Pin-up, coming

THIS WEEK!

Until then,

Corey Breen

UPDATED Eddard Stark Upon Fan Request!

Eddard Stark - UPDATED

Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin

By Corey Breen
Photoshop

Eddard Stark - Game of Thrones - SPOLIER EDITION!

Eddard Stark
Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin

By Corey Breen
Photoshop

Once I heard about HBO adapting Game of Thrones for TV, I was like, "cool, but what's Game of Thrones?" I did some research, and was told by a good friend of mine from college (thanks Ryan!) that is one of the BEST fantasy series ever written! That it was four books, soon to be a fifth this summer. So, seeing some commercials on HBO about the show, that it looked like a Lord of the Rings for adults, I ran out and picked up the novel, Game of Thrones. I had thought that the book as thick as it was, contained ALL four of the novels to date. Lo and behold, it was ONLY the first book of the series, which is called A Song of Ice & Fire. I was like, "whoa, this is gonna be daunting." The book is HUGE, and then they're are four more! But I was determined to give it a shot.

Well, fast forward about 3 weeks now, and I'm well into the second novel, A Clash of Kings! Suffice to say, I am in LOVE! Game of Thrones was the BEST book I have EVER read, period. HANDS DOWN! I'm not kidding! I flew through it. And now I can't get ENOUGH of it! The show, the novels, anything! It's actually been REALLY cool too, watching the show, because it's like it's been INSTANTLY adapted as I read it. It was great to read the book and just tune in every week and watch it unfold in live action, all over again, just like it was in my head.

It's so GOOD too! The casting is SUPERB, especially Eddard Stark and Tyrion Lannister! WOW! They are BRILLIANT! But... now I am ahead of the show by FAR! So I know what's gonna happen on the show, since it's been pretty much word for word the same. Some parts have been added that weren't in the book (which have been great), and some parts kind of rushed on the show, that were longer in the book (as with any adaptation). But all in all, I think the rest of the show is gonna play out exactly like the book did. So in that sense, I know whats coming up, and that's why this is a COMPLETE SPOILER for anyone who has not read the books and is just watching the HBO show. Yes, Eddard Stark is not long for Westeros.

This was a tough call. Should I post this or not? I decided that the books have been out there for like over 10 years, so it's not REALLY a spoiler. I'm sorry if this ruins the show for some of you, but real fans of the show should read the books first. Seriously, READ more. Reading is AWESOME! LOL Anyway, if you want the spoiler, highlight the above paragraph and the below paragraph! Anyway, Eddard Stark is doomed. Now he is gone. And I am so UPSET about that! Eddard Stark has now become one of my FAVORITE all time characters, right up there with Snake-Eyes, Batman, Blacksad, Starman, The Rocketeer, Luke Skywalker, Hunter Rose and Cerebus. So I wanted to do a drawing of him, in honor of him, one that I felt was good enough to do him justice. For if ANYTHING, he deserves JUSTICE! Let me tell you, when his fate played out in the book, I had to put the book down, and take a moment to compose myself, I'm not kidding. It was THAT powerful to me. I don't know HOW I'm going to face watching it adapted on the screen this weekend. Although, who knows, maybe it's not even this upcoming episode titled "The Pointy End". What if they decide to CHANGE the book completely and keep Eddard Stark on the show, because they love what the actor, Sean Bean is doing with him. COULD THAT BE?! Highly doubt it, because so much is predicated on his death, but I guess we will find out together this Sunday or next!

So, as for the piece itself, I can't tell you how HAPPY I am with it. I think it's one of my BEST pieces yet, and I'll tell you why. Firstly, it's because I really feel I nailed the character, the pose, the posture, the mood, the Throne of Swords, the blacks, the colors, and the textures. I really think it just all comes together as one, when sometimes my pieces wind up becoming very flat with inks, then just cartoony and too colorful with colors thrown on top not really matching the style. I think this piece really captures what my art can be.

But mainly, why I'm so happy with this piece is because I feel I have now really nailed down my process. My favorite process, I should say. First, I sketch out the piece on 8.5 x 11 laser color copy paper (it's real slick like heavy duty copy paper). I like real slick surfaces to draw on where the mechanical pencil just glides like ice onto the smooth surface. When I'm happy with that, with usually means I have to add on other pieces with tape if I go outside the size constraints of 8.5 x 11. So I wind up with this piece meal poster, all taped together. It looks pretty pathetic actually, but it's just how I do it. Everyone who see's it, is like "why don't you just draw on bigger paper?" Because this is hoe I freakin' work, ok?! So sue me! LOL

Then I throw that on a lightbox and draw a very detailed, very TIGHT line drawing onto Letraset Marker Paper. This paper is AMAZING! It is so SUPER thin, that you have to be careful, but it's like the most AMAZING paper I've ever drawn on. It was like MADE for me, that's how much I LOVE it! I'm doing ALL my concept art portfolio work on it, by the way. After I do a complete line drawing, I scan that in at 600 dpi. I mess wit the threshold and levels, getting the pencils to be a nice darkness, where I can finally bitmap the image. That is the start of my "digital inks". Then I zoom in, clean up all the line work, making sure nothing closed up on me, and I didn't lose anything like line weight when I played with the values of the grayscale image. Then I start filled in blacks, and redraw things and lines, getting nice crisp lines and fills. After that, I begin to color it. I LOVE to just use the pencil, at a opacity of 55%, on multiply. This let's me give a flat color off the bat, but when I go over, it darkens that color EACH time. SO it starts to look layered like I was painting. I LOVE this look. You just have to be careful it doesn't get muddy, especially reds.

Then I clean up those colors, making sure I didn't color out of the lines, as they say, and TA-DA! My finished piece! I am REALLY happy with this process, and I think it shows in this piece. But as always, let me know what you think! PLEASE! And do yourself a favor and go read Game of Thrones, and then the other books in the series like I am. Don't just watch the show. I am SO happy I'm reading them all now. I'm sure I will be drawing more characters from the books and show in the future.

Here is the process of the above piece, step by step:

Eddard Stark
Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin
By Corey Breen
Pencil Sketch 8.5 x 11

Eddard Stark
Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin
By Corey Breen
Pencil Sketch 11 x 17 cleaned up in Photoshop
Pieced together by four 8.5 x 11 Laser Color Copy Paper

Eddard Stark
Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin
By Corey Breen
Finished Pencils on 11 x 17 Letraset Marker Paper

Eddard Stark
Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin
By Corey Breen
Digital Inks Line Work

Eddard Stark
Game of Thrones © George R.R. Martin
By Corey Breen
Digital Inks Final

PS- I LOVE stories where the hero dies, and dies early. I don't know why, I just do. Makes them a martyr I guess. Proves that the story is SO serious, and that ANYTHING can happen. That there is a lineage and a progression. It establishes a history, and a time line, that it's not just a story of the month, like, "this month, Spider-Man fights Doc Oct." I really like when you get SO invested in the characters, especially who you THINK is the main character (who can NEVER die, right?!), and then all the sudden, they DIE! FOR GOOD! And then you get this progression of who the next hero is, but you're weary because now you know they can die at any time! Hey, just like life, unfortunately. That's just good writing, if you ask me!

Now, off to continue reading A Song of Ice & Fire!

CjB

PPS- One of the GREAT things about working digitally, is you can quickly tweak ANYTHING! For example, if you notice, in the digital inks stage, I actually moved some of the skulls downward, and then extended his right boot, for it looked way too short in the pencil stage. Looks much better now, right? Also, in the final color stage, I felt I drew the piece a little thin. As in, the chair and Stark himself were kinda skinny looking. So I just free transformed and stretched the piece just a TAD to give it more girth. I think that really helped too. GOTTA love using the digital aspects as just another drawing tool! The amount of work it would've taken to fix stuff like that before? Unimaginable!