Here is my submission for the Project Rooftop Fantastic Four redesign.

Battle Tech

General Baxter: House of Liao

Xenephobia

 

Drop Ship

Here are some pieces that I completed for a Battletech RPG recently.

Eclipse Phase: Gate Crashing

I got the opportunity to work with Rob Boyle on Eclipse Phase again.. I did three images for their first book, but only one chapter opening this time around.

It was a fun assignment, an I tried a new approach this time around.. One of my first commissions when I did everything digitally.. I got to spend some time on a friend's Cintiq, so I went from concept to final all in Photoshop.

Here's a quick overview of the plot of this RPG,

Gatecrashing takes you through the mysterious Pandora Gates:
* The 5 solar system gates and the factions that control them
* 30 extrasolar locations of interest to Firewall
* Exploration operations and hazards
* New morphs, new gear, and rules for gate use

Learn more here on the Eclipse Phase blog

here are some of my steps thru the process:

Here are the thumb nails that I sent out to the Art Director. I had more, but I felt these two were the
strongest. And unless I got direction to do something different, I wanted to go with these.

After the initial concepts were approved with some small notes on compotion, I started with a BW tonal painting.. I pushed and pulled the forms and toyed with the composition until I came to a final image that I liked.

This is on the way to the final image.. I played with the "Pandora's Gate" ( depicted at the bottom of the composition) I had it on a separate layer, so I could push pull and stretch it until I got a composition that I liked.

DinoGRRRL!

I did this image to go into the Emerald City Con Monsters and Dames artbook.

I had to knock this one out pretty quickly.. I took about 5 hours to draw and paint the base color and another 5 hours to add some highlight and texture, and then I've been noodling at it on the computer for the past 2 days.

Boondock Saints.

Finally back from the holidays.. Actually I did quite a bit of work over the holidays.

But I did this before the festivities began, but didn't have time to post.

This is for something that I will remain "mum" about until further notice.. Hope you can enjoy the art without much background..

ArtOrder B&W Vampires

Done for the weekly sketch contest over at ArtOrder. This weeks theme was as you can guess, a pen and ink image of two D&D vampires..

It's much too early in the morn for too much exposition, so I'll keep it short and sweet.. Maybe I'll add some colorful exposition after I arise.

OKAY... Got some sleep, and so far I'm starting off this week on a great foot.. Only good new trickling in right now..

How about some insight on this piece.. I feel like talking about it because it was a pretty long journey from conception to finish.. Time-wise I only took a day from idea to finish, but I went to a lot of different places creatively to get to the end goal.

I started with visions of Franklin Booth and Charles Dana Gibson, and even a little Heirich Kley. I knew that I wanted it to look real and very tangible, but from the beginning I knew I wouldn't be able to get a lotof good ref, even if shot some- which I did..

The thing with armor is that no matter what ref you shoot, you won't see most of th body and you're always making up stuff with armour, so you're aways creating without a safety net.

I thought about getting some scratchboard so I could do this right, but I didn't want to have to learn a new technique when the subject was already kicking my but.. So I started with just straight pen and ink .. And at first I started doing the "comic think" just tracing the outlines and adding shadows.. But I reminded myself that didn't want any outlines, and to just paint the shadows with the black.

Note that I did do a prelim thumbnail, but veeeeeery rough, of the shadow play.. While it didn't help with details, it helped me balance the distribution of light and dark.. I tried to match it with the thumbnail, because I could make out the thmbnail fairly easily, and I knew if the final matched, the composition would at least be taken care of.

At a point I was finished laying down the black, but I was very disappointed with the picture at this stage.. So i grabbed some Titanium White acrylic and started re-establishing some positive, white, areas.. The picture felt better, but the white was just too white.. So then i went back over it with some black lines, but much more delicate than before. BTW, painting on the acrylic white was easier than painting on the paper..

And for the rest of the illustration process I went back and forth between white and black.. sometimes painting over an area two or three times..

I made a mistake and overlooked the size specifications in the original assignment, so I had to add some background to the top and bottom.

Well. That's that.. hope this might help you if you try this technique.. I'm very interested in trying out scratchboard now.. But I have to say this process was pretty fun and organic.. I'd just like to find a more opaque paint other than acrylic.. I had to put down two or three layers to really cover up the black ink.( if anyone has some ideas, hit me up.)

ArtOrder : Exchange Challenge

Done for the weekly sketch competition over at ArtOrder. This week I had to choose a silhoutte, not done by myself, from the competition two weeks ago, and fully flesh it out..

I chose the silhoutte by Dana Henderson. I really liked the gesture and movement of the figure I chose.. It was fun figuring out what should go where and trying to make everything come together.

So.. How do you vote?

1. Check out my illustration over at ArtOrder(this links to the exact page you need to go to).

2. Scroll to be bottom of the thread and post a comment something like this text " I'm ( your name) and I think Tariq did a bang-up job for this competition. I think he's a great guy and I vote for him hands down.".

4. Sit back and enjoy the euphoria of helping out a friend in need.

5. Repeat next week.

ArtOrder: Way Back Machine

Sorry I've been away for a week.. Just been getting things done.. I hope to get back on a semi daily schedule now. on to the weekly sketch challenget.

This weeks ArtOrder Challege was to imagine that you took a time Machine way, way back into the future.. What would you find.. Specifically, focusing on the Gnome, what you their distant, far back cousins look like.

Go over to ArtOrder and vote for my entry. It's not perse a contest of whose is better.. It more about who can get the most people to clap for them. Kinda like some "idol show" many people look at every year.

Here's my interpretation:

Garreth for ArtOrder

Another weekly sketch for Jon over at www.ArtOrder.blogspot.com

I put this on in late, so we'll see if it's included in the round-up.

I was working on this one, and kinda just kept moving.. I like how it was developing, and it would be a great comp for a final pic now.

Here is the original descriptions:
Everyone knows the standard fantasy races - elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. Few people are aware of the Garreth - a race of tiny humanoids that populate the desolate region around red dragon lairs. They live off the charred remains of unfortunate adventurers, stealing away with trinkets that are too small for the notice of the mighty red dragon. These trinkets are used for trade, and to fashion their clothing, armor, and weapons. The Garreth have also been known to barter services with the red for higher end trinkets... such as scratching that annoying itch the red can't reach, organizing the gems and coins, or tricking adventurers into rushing after the Garreths - into the lair.
What do they look like, how do they live, what is the latest fashions around the lair? No one has survived to tell. Help me flesh out the details, and have a little fun in the process.


And here is my interpretation:

My Garreth:

These Garreth reside directly below the Dragon's Den.. They are gatherers and collectors.. They take the weapons and armour of toasted adventurers. They all have collections of trinkets, and they keep their bling on necklaces tied around their necks mainly, but they will affix them to anything that will show off their collections. They are vain, and as a society elevate the possession of these trinkets to a religious level.. They believe you have to purchase your way into a prosperous afterlife. They are buried with their collections.

Hierarchy in the society is dependent upon the amount of bling that you have, kinda like rappers. The more trinkets and jewelry, they more important you are. You get more by catering to the dragon more- They highest level of the clan would be the one that can best interact and bargain with the dragon, without getting fried to a crisp.

They also do the service of keeping watch for the dragon, alerting him/her to would be warriors in search of fame and glory.

More Character designs

These next two flush out the main characters for this project.

Character designs

More from the same project.