Naughtily Portfolioman

[Jeremy Ray]

Worst thread title ever.  Did you look?

Here's what I've got.  I went through the exercises in the first stage of Concept Art.org's Level Up, and it's gotten me to the point where I feel confident I can consistently produce good images.  There's room for growth, but I don't feel like I suck anymore.  



A cover idea for a comic I might try to make.  I've not had much luck with webcomics in the past, but I'd rather develop an idea than paint unrelated individual images.  So it's practice, if nothing else.



I did these as samples for a mobile art job which I applied for.  I normally wouldn't paint with so much saturation, so it was an interesting challenge.

Looking for work anywhere this can be used  .  .  .

[Jeremy Ray]

The background in the cover is painted.

I definitely feel the need to work on anatomy, and lighting.

[Jeremy Ray]

Newest comic page as of today.

[Adam Lina]

Woah, that comic looks cool af! Have you seen Wayne Barlowe's Inferno?

[Jeremy Ray]

I believe I've seen most of Wayne Barlowe's stuff.  Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, Expedition, Inferno, and the stuff in Avatar and Pacific Rim.  I really like his Expedition creatures, but he's not an intentional influence.  I'm more influenced by aircraft.  For example, Ulupi's legs appear to be related to the stub wings and rocket pods on the OV-10 Bronco -

[Jeremy Ray]

[Jeremy Ray]

[Jeremy Ray]

[Adam Lina]

Dude, this is a really interesting story so far. Seriously, how hard were you trippin when you thought it up? XD Its great though. Its got a cool esoteric vibe to it.

[Jeremy Ray]

So I had this plan to update individual panels instead of pages, and what happens next - a single panel page.  It was originally going to have multiple panels, but it came out too crammed and had to be split in two.  This is going to be one of the more important reveals in the entire story, no matter how long it runs.  Ulupi's ship needed room to breathe on the page.  The good news is, the next page is written and lettered, which usually takes a couple days in and of itself.

Adam Lina - Thanks, I've been talking with a guy on another forum about how bad he thinks my writing is, so it's relieving to see somebody likes it.  I can't change my writing style because it actually is what I would want it to be.  If it only works for five guys and myself, then that's just the way it's going to be.  

I'm a straight edge kind of guy.  If the U.S. developed a sane drug policy, I might try a few things.  Joe Rogan is doing a good job of selling the virtues of psychadelics on his podcast.  As it is now, I'd say one of the worst things a man could do is to interact with law enforcement and the legal system in any way at all.  I wouldn't touch any kind of illegal drug, or have it around me.  

XTIN is the result of thinking about this stuff over a long period of time, of research, and serendipity.  Sometimes things just fall into place.  When I finished the first GN, I made a couple stabs at a sequel, but the stuff I was coming up with wasn't worth doing.  After the better part of a year I looked into a certain something that became the basis of this story.  It was completely insane, but it fit.  I think I've found a way to approach it that knocks the insanity down to reasonable levels.  If I were a man of means though I would have went for full insanity.  It only takes the possibility of being sued by PayPal once however to realize the necessity of keeping things more general audience.

[Adam Lina]

I was being a bit tongue in cheek about the drug thing. I dont believe using drugs to fuel creativity is a good idea in the long run in most cases. I know a guy who tried using a ton of acid so he could get inspired to write his novel. It didnt work at all for him. He just went off the deep end and messed up his life. I think certain drugs can be used to enhance your life but not if you're expecting it to fix your already messed up life. Its all about how you view yourself and your place in the world. If its unhealthy you cant expect external things to fix your fucked up inner state. You gotta work on yourself from the inside out.

Personally I've been getting inspiration from lucid dreaming. Combined with mindfulness meditation I think Im working out a lot of that unhealthy views I mentioned before. It takes a very centered person to be creative consistently and not lose the fire.

As far as dealing with harsh critics of your writing, I like how Steven Pressfield puts it in his book The War of Art. Critics are creatives that have been beaten down by resistance. They want to drag down other people that they see overcoming resistance. Resistance being the forces in your head/life that prevent you from doing your work.

Just keep honing your writing skill by writing more and dont stop!

[Jeremy Ray]

First single panel update.  This is going to be the norm from here on out.

Lots of good religious babble in this update.  As a writer I may not be big on plot structure or witty dialogue, but I love world building and mythology.  I'd like to think I've done something original here, but realistically, so much media is being produced, it's just as likely that I've randomly duplicated an earlier work I've never heard of.  

Adam Lina - George Carlin thought marijuana was good, and it didn't compel him to constantlly take more of it.  I feel like I'm doing fine without it, but when I hit my geriatric years I may want it for other reasons.

I've not had much luck with lucid dreaming.  I'll get one every now and then, but I can't make it happen.

[Jeremy Ray]

I believe the main thing left is to get better shadows.  The colors aren't too bad here.

[Jeremy Ray]

It's feeling like the main issue left with my painting is how much time I want to put into it.  I could go over this again and again and again or I could paint the next panel.  I'd rather have more story than have each panel look like the best piece of concept art ever, at the expense of story.

I'm having second thoughts about using the word "God" on this page.  The meaning is a little off, and I've already used "Devil," "Demoness," and "Dragoness," to refer to Taonui.  Poetically though, "God" fits better, so that's what I'm going with.  XTIN is kind of like a spoken word heavy metal poem.  Maybe I should form a band at some point and tour.  That would be kind of awesome, wouldn't it?  

I'd also like to defend the guru's speaking style by comparing him to Stefan Molyneux, who creates the most grandiose freestyle word salads.  If anything I'd say Stefan blows the guru away.  So, this isn't unrealistic, it's out there in real-people land.

[Adam Lina]

Yea definitely keep moving. That panel looks fine to me. As far as religious references. Have you looked into older names for God? Yahweh is the original name for the Christian god. I've read hes a derivative of a Sumerian god of blood sacrifice. Also theres the Zoroastrian which I believe greatly influenced Christianity. It has 2 "gods" Angra Mainyu the "destructive spirit" and Spenta Mainyu the "bouteous spirit".

[Jeremy Ray]

Been watching a bunch of prepper stuff while I work - what am I painting for?!

Adam - I had another project based on Christian mythology, and came up with a couple dozen different names for Christian names for God. I'm mainly going with "God" for the alliteration.

[Jeremy Ray]

I meant to get this up yesterday, but wanted to make a few more passes on the colors. It took a few more hours, but I believe I've made an important gain. This image actually has a complimentary color palette (blue/orange). I haven't managed to work in much color movement or vibration or circulation, but I did try. It didn't work very well, but that doesn't mean I won't pull it off in the future.

BTW these images are coming out too pixelated and sharpened when I scale them down for the web. They're supposed to be smoother.

[Jeremy Ray]