The Diary of Jean Pierre Piraneau, Gun Mage Captain of Cygnar

I know what I'm doing is wrong. I can't help it. I've got my eye on the prize and I'm not coming back without it. May the commander forgive me...

I've been separated from the main battlegroup for days. They're probably thinking that I'm lying in a ditch somewhere. I'm just hoping they won't get the chance to be right. The doe I've been hunting is much better at this than the last one. She knows the woods like no one else I've seen and she covers her tracks like a ghost. To make matters worse... this damned rain isn't helping!

Movement! Just at the edge of vision. She's curious. She stays just out of sight enough to watch but not be seen. If that weren't true I'd be dead already. Maybe.

I load my pistol. She sees me and she's winding her crossbow. I'm only going to have one chance at this. She doesn't seem like the type to miss. My vision blurs as I call on a different kind of sense... I can see her form, see her move with a cat like grace... aiming at me with steady hands. I face the other direction. Make her think I can't see her. Just one shot...

The bullet speeds past the trees, dodges around trees and cuts through corners. It finds it's mark and punches thru flesh with a muffled sound... like a pebble thrown in a pond.

I open my eyes and notice the bolt in the trunk beside me. The skill of it's maker would be an envy of cygnaran smiths. It looks sleek... well balanced but sharp enough that it can punch thru steel. If my shot came in a heart beat later that bolt would have gone thru my skull cleanly. Time to see the doe. Bring home the prize.

I walked over to where she was. The woman was lying on the ground face up... her eyes wide open in disbelief. Her chest was laboring heavily as blood went out of the entry wound. Her hand shook as she tried to cover the wound. She knows death comes for her but she can't accept it. I kneel beside her and I held her hand to steady it. I can see disgust in her eyes. Perhaps for me. Perhaps for her own failure. Or perhaps for both. She tries to say something but only a gurgling sound comes out. She's bleeding everywhere now. Inside and out.

I put my hand on her forehead. Tell her to keep still. Tell her that we're just soldiers fighting for our freedom. I tell her I know of the pouch she keeps on her right side. That she keeps a collection of tokens taken from our warcasters who never saw her coming. I tell her I understand. I tell her I don't hate her and in turn that she shouldn't hate me. This is what we do.

Tears well out of her eyes. Her chest heaves and she convulses. She lies in a pool of her own blood... looking at me with disbelief...

Painted Stuff

What can I say? I'm a fan of these dudes. Not only are they easy to paint but their abilities make them very flexible. They can take on both infantry and jacks/beasts. I'd consider these guys my staple grunts.

Managed to paint the Centurion last Sunday. I did a few sculpts. Not very cool but it works. Now if only I can keep these guys from chipping while playing. :(

I've been on a warmachine gaming mode lately. The guys at Fortress have been showing me the ropes. I'm learning the nasty stuff that other factions can do. Hopefully with enough experience I can formulate some strategies to counter the other factions. It's been a bit crazy at work. I've been running from building to building. lolz Fortunately the conference is ending this friday so I can resume my normal work. Lot's of things are starting to line up for me to do. gaah. Still, it's not so bad. Art life temporarily on hold. :)

Centurion, Power Extreme!!!

Just some quick pics of the newly acquired Centurion. I'm getting a nervous breakdown everytime I see the pinning job on the leg extensions. I hope they hold. :S

UFC with steam powered Robots!

The following pictures should all be clickable. Click em' an seem em' grow! :P

Meet Nemo. My favorite warcaster. lol He doesn't do much really, just a bunch of lightning tricks. I guess I like him more because he looks like a cute knock off of Albert Einstein. Who by the way was a Theist. His famous "God does not play dice!" quote says it all. OT: Sir Isaac Newton was also a firm believer in God. Just a lil trivia there. ;)

Extra spell caster and Jack handler. I like him more for the way he looks rather than what he does. Though he's pretty nifty as well. Reminds me of Galford!

Yet another fig bought for the looks. lol Yup I'm very consistent in that respect. Style before substance! It just so happened that after playing him the first time I realised how nice this solo is. hehe.

One of my fave warjacks. The armor piercing Gun he carries is very useful for taking out pesky mid sized models and ruining the day for Large based ones. Someone... *ahem* made a mistake of turning his back on the little geezer and tried to run away from combat. Mr. Hunter here whacked his predator knockoff in pieces. He maybe small but he carries a BIG gun... and an Axe! :P

I've yet to find good uses for this one. Right now he's there for the Arc Node. Didn't really get to bash someone's cortex with his shock shield thingamajig last time i played but it did a decent job of holding off a few units. My sacrificial model. *sigh*

Had the centurion been here this space would belong to him. Alas I have the unfortunate luck of having to wait for my order's arrival. Excited na ako!!! I wanna cut him up into itty bitty litew pwieces and put him back together again... like a surgeon. lol Oooh and Stormguards are a'comin. I love Cygnar. They're the only faction I can truly say is quite... Electric! ;)

Thought that was over huh? But wait! There's more! I have to tells you about the paintin! :P I decided to keep it blue but not so dark as the real Cygnaran colors. So I decided, Hey! let's neuter these overly saturated blues and so I got me some regal blue from GW and built it up to shadow grey (el progressibo le blending?) The result is what you see there. No the drab colors are not the result of photomanipulation (though I did fix this image and downed the contrasts to compensate for camera's value range). Everything else is pretty basic. Golds and stuff. As soon as I finish that Gunmage Cappy I'll proceed with the stormguard. Lastly I'm really torn on whether I should go do real OSL/NMM with the glows from the electric thingies. I'm afraid of ruining the paintjob. lol I guess we'll see in the coming days. :P

Shades of Gray

Finished the line drawing. Started doing the greyscale. I'm kinda experimenting with methods of coloring. Okay that's it for now. My eyeses hurts. X(

A librarian you say?

I finally got to do some work on this piece. You can see I cheated a little with the staff's pole. hehe. I just don't know how to do it otherwise. Though I've seen other artists who are far more talented draw a straight pole from their tablets... I'm not that kind of artist! :P Shoot... I can make a acceptable straight line with pencil and paper... but doing that on a wacom is a little hard.

I changed the position of the right hand so that the staff would slant a little. I thought making it straight would kill the pic. I might modify the left hand a bit. Make the fingers look more natural.

I'm still having problems with the robes... particularly in the creases and folds... so far I haven't had any references for this drawing other than the ram's skull of which I had no idea since I don't remember drawing one before. I'll definitely be using references once the background starts. There will be smoke, some fires and I have no idea how to do the ground. lol

-------------------Updated 7-21-07-------------------

Sketched in the Force Staff. Not much to say really. That's all I did. :)

Happy weekend everyone! ;)

The making of Chronos

Adding in some more details. Managed to find the shape of right shoulder pad, though I'm still not sure about the position. Changed the belt to resemble the miniature more. Which I find funny because this IS supposed to be the concept art! lol

I'm not too satisfied with the left chest cable. I'll try changing that this weekend. Maybe make it hug the shape of the chest more. I'm still torn on whether to correct the details so it sends the message that its moving along the planes but it's a minor thing so I might let it go altogether. I'm still blank about what to put on the stomach part. perhaps some cabling/actuators thingamajig.

Okay this is just a minor update before going into the weekend. I'm still a bit groggy from last night's gimick.

----------Updated 07-16-07----------

It's still pretty messy. I'm just cleaning it up as I go. This is basically how I work in the details. Mostly I just sketch things on top of another layer and clean it up if it looks good. This way if it doesn't suit the subject then I just erase it and sketch in a new one.

For the details I thought of putting some battle honors on him. You can see the typical deathwing feathers here and there plus librarian iconography. Some, like the medals on his waist and scrolls dangling at his side still have to be finalized. The ram skull sketches on the shoulders and chest plate I'll probably do later today. I didn't really get to work on it last weekend coz I had my brainz dripping thru my nose. :D I'm still stumped about how to do the folds on his robes. harumph!

The runes on the trim of his chest plate are readable. If it's hard to read ask me to post the close up. It should be easy enough to guess if you're a loyalist space marine. ;) (click the picture to enlarge)

For the Nth Time

Some People just don't know when to give up eh? lol

This is the concept art (which interestingly came after the miniature and not before. lol) for Chronos. (see Deathwing Chronicles Chapter 0 at the 101st galleria regulars blog)

Still using that first pose from the crappy sketch. No he won't be holding a matchstick on the finished product. that'll turn into a force staff. His face is supposed to be a bit old... maybe 40-60 ish... Chronos isn't really a combat oriented character. He's more of a seer/ advisor to Belial and the rest of the Deathwing. His main stregnth is his psyker abilities. Chronos was born blind but he percieves the world thru the warp. In Ryan's Deathwing Chronicles ( ;) ) he is a very powerful psyker. Hence the Choice to depict him igniting a small hellfire-ish thing.

I'm currently working on putting on the details. Don't try to make sense of his anatomy. It won't. lol Make sense that is. However I'm pleased with the overall bulk of the armor. That's the iconic appeal I was aiming for. Makes you feel the terminator armor is huge and heavy.

I'm off to work. Updates later. :D

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Here's a little write up. Maybe it'll give you an idea of what Chronos is like:

The lights flickered and for a few moments the room was lit by the bluish glow emanating from the staff and the sword. When the lights came back the young warrior was stooping, sweat trickled from his forehead. His face was to the floor and both his arms strained heavily on the hilt of the sword that kept him upright.

“Again!” Boomed the voice of the more senior Librarian.

“I can’t breathe.” The younger one muttered under his breath.

Chronos was a picture of disapproval. He knew he was pushing the young man very hard but that did not grant him the right to feel tired. They were nearing their destination and the time for training is drawing to a close. He saw how the young man held on to the sword and relaxed his own stance. He was the kindly teacher once again.

“Very well… you may rest. Return here to the training room after 2 hours. We will begin again.” He hated having to do that but the young man needed rest.

When Chronos was alone in the training room he proceeded to the center and sat facing towards Holy Terra. He didn’t need the starmap, nor did he need to touch the power of the warp to do that. It was just something he knew by instinct.

He could sense the flow and ebb of life onboard the Defiance. He could see the servitors as they mindlessly moved to perform their tasks and he could hear the crew in his mind. The air was rife with anticipation as the ship drew closer to its target star system. Even with all these distractions the meditative trance came effortless. The training room vanished before him and in place of it were the familiar dark room and the throne.

“I have to thank you for this company Chronos. It is not a comfortable one, this throne of mine.” Came the rickety voice of a compassionate man in his twilight years.

“I am your servant my lord. It is a privilege of mine to keep you company.” Said Chronos in a subservient tone.

“You found him correct?” the voice was coming from a figure that sat on the throne.

“Yes my lord. Ichor IV. He… has led the people there into rebellion.” Chronos could not bring himself to state the casualties.

“I weep for my people Chronos. Chained as I am to this eternal prison of mine, you and your brothers are my only arm in these trying times. With you I can reach them. With you I can purge their malignant influence. My people suffer and your strength is what gives them hope.” The voice was pained and heavy with remorse.

“We are en route my lord. Rest assured he will get his due and the people will be restored.” Chronos answered with conviction.

“Good. Good my son. Tell me… tell me of your apprentice. Will he be… ready?” The figure on the throne inquired with keen interest.

“I will see to it that he is my lord.” Chronos looked up and even in the dark he could almost see the smile on the figure’s lips.

A sound came at the edge of hearing… as though near yet distant and in an moment the dark room and the man on the throne fled farther and farther until they were once again separated from him by the great sea of stars.

The doors to the training room parted to reveal the young apprentice.

“I am ready, brother.” Said the young man and in Chronos’ mind was a single thought.

You have to be…

Gilding a turd

I was working on making concept art for my Dark Angel Librarian. The plan was to make a more anatomically viable terminator armor. As soon as i finished the armor however, I quickly realized that it lacks that "Terminator Iconic Look". I just opted to make it a little presentable and move on. You can't polish a turd afterall. :P

Apparently the appeal to terminator and space marine art comes from the overly exagerated mesomorph. Hence I have to work with the armor itself rather than make sense of the human inside. lol

Oh well it was an interesting excercise. I feel like I haven't painted in ages.

*I hardly use any reference for these pieces.

Fun in the sun!

I recently went on a team building session with the staff of Ateneo's School of Science and Engineering. We went on a 4 hour drive and settled in Coral View Resort for 1 and 1/2 days. It was refreshing to be able to get away from work, do a little bonding with the other staff members and enjoy the water! I won't be boring you with pictures of me and my herculean physique in swimming trunks though... These are what I have to show: :P

No pictures for the first day coz we mostly did the team building session but on the morning of the second day I woke up early and was treated to a view of the distant part of the coast covered in mist and the mountains on the horrizon was cool blue with the base ending in mist. So I grabbed my handy dandy sketch pad, sat in on of the cabanas and sketched on while drinking coffee... ah... my idea of a great morning. :D

Those were taken when we were preparing to leave the beach. Goodbye to the tiny crabs and sea urchins that made our stay so memorable. lolz Oh and let's not forget to mention the frogs that only came out at night and went diving into the pool where the crabs joined them afterwards. :D And Meann too who captured the heart of the guys who went on the trip. Sadly nobody wanted to go to prison so no one took pictures of her. hehe...

Office mate: "Ilang taon ka na ba?"
Answer: "17 po"
Office mate: "Anong trabaho nang tatay mo?"
Answer: "Pulis po"

Nuff said. lolz

After reaching home in semi conscious semi drunk on caffeine state I took one look at the Librarian in progress and well... 2 hours later this was what I had sitting on my desk:

I guess that's all for now folks. I've been getting enough inspiration lately that I think I'll be posting some more digital artworks pretty soon. ;)

Fan Art?

Dark Angels Librarian on teenie winie sketchpad.
Done with super cool rotring mechanical pencil contraption!

The last time I made fan art was in highschool, but I suppose this one falls in that category. I keep a handy dandy mini sketch pad in my bag and while waiting for La leona de los Velazcos last saturday, I decided to doodle an idea I had for a miniature. Its based on art from Codex: Dark Angels. I spotted a teenie tiny terminator standing in line behind Azrael and I thought: "What if I made my librarian look like that?" So it was that while I enjoyed a Latte at Coffee Bean Gateway last saturday that I began doodling my idea. No reference except what I remember of terminators (and I've done lots that I think if I suffered amnesia it's the last memory to go).

A funny thing happened once I reached makati(I stayed at coffee bean for 20 or so minutes). When I got tired of roaming around the mall I decided to sit down in one of those comfy benches and continued doodling. Before I knew it there were kids flocking behind me and some were calling their mom's to show my drawing. lol Prior to that some girl from across the bench was eyeing me with a wicked grin on her face. No I wasn't dreaming... that was my spidey senses warning me. Four years earlier I would have gotten off my seat, sat beside her and started making conversation but that day I was waiting for the woman who captured my heart, with a wicked cool gift in tow. It was a our 3rd year anniversary. :)

p.s. will post the miniature sculpt soon. it has a slight variation with the drawing. particularly the torso.

A second wind perhaps...

It's been awhile since my last post here. That's the newest fig I painted. I definitely have no future in photography. lol and apparently my future in miniature painting is becoming bleak as well. haha!

Anyway blame it all on the fantastic(i hear people gasping...) Dark Angels codex and the proposed system of codices coming out from GW. I'm in high spirits again about 40k. Local prices going down also helps. ;) I think GW is doing a good job of bringing the sales and the rules in line with each other. Not to mention the nice rumors I've been reading in forums lately about the cuts on chaos supposedly to make it more balanced and the upcoming rules patch for Blood Angels. There's definitely a lot of good stuff in the near future.

For the meantime I'm hitting the painting table again. I figure it's time to get some work done on the Deathwing and Ravenwing... not to mention my painting commission backlog. In the middle of all these though... I've been missing the wacom... I'll get to see about posting some new works soon and maybe finish some old ones.

Summer is almost over... I'm coming out of hiatus. :D

la leona de los velazcos

I stood in the middle of a busy alley, a corner of the mall lined with home made soaps, expensive jewelry and signature clothing. I looked left and right for a certain someone, worried that she could be bored waiting. A woman in the crowd caught my eye. Tall and slender, fair and graceful. She saw me and she waved with familiarity. I froze where I stood. My heart skipped a beat from time to time. When she stood inches from me, I knew then. She's the one. The one I've been looking for. The woman I love who loves me back. I must've done something good in the past to deserve someone like her.

Signs of Life

It's been about a year since I've gone back to painting after a really long hiatus. For the greater part of the previous months I've been considering carefuly if I should finally switch carreers to start doing something I truly loved doing. It wasn't until I spoke to an old friend that my decision was finalized. I will no longer be going to Art School to study Fine Arts. I think that I've spent the greater part of my years after college in Systems and Network Administration that it would be a waste of time and resources to switch carreers at this point. So instead of going full on FA I will instead reinforce my I.T. knowledge to hopefully fetch a better wage... and with that decision I finally put the final nail to my romantic self and embrace the pragmatic. A soldier of life can not, afterall, win his battles if all he has is heart and passion. What good is the brain in your head if you ain't gonna use it eh? hehe... This of course does not mean that I will abandon art and painting. No sirreee... not to be arrogant but I think I can learn what I need to learn without having to go to school. So with that said here's a quick update on the current piece:

Very messy. This is as close as it's going to get in terms of the likeness. I've yet to work on the hair. I'll definitely make it and the skin a little darker. The good news is she already likes it and it definitely looks like one of her one hundred faces. :P

On another note, I've been a little preoccupied playing Super Powers 2. It's nice to see your country get out of foreign debt even if it's just a game. Being able to modernize the AFP and create a few nuclear ICBMs (for protection!) was definitely a plus too! ;)

I also made a few updates on the links section. Check it out sometime.

Hello Mr. Tree. Will you pose for me?

I've been working on the background of this piece. I've left the girl untouched so she's pretty messy. I've also painted and repainted the tree leaves about a hundred times and took several reference pictures while walking around ateneo. lol it's a nice place for doing tree studies. :D

I'm seeing anatomy issues. grr...

click the picture to enlarge

************updated February 6, 2007************

Dump and Run!

here's some progress on the current piece...

here's a lil speed paint. forgot to put in a few things. maybe no one will notice. :D all in all it's about 30-45 minutes :

Wacom in Sick Bay

I've been in sick bay for 2 days. I had a serious case of the shakes last monday morning so I went on leave. lolz

I managed to get some painting done but not much progress. I know I shouldn't be going down into the details yet but I wanted to get the face presentable before I proceed with everything else. I'm working on getting the likeness back as I think I'm losing it a bit. The painting needs more contrasts too.

++++++Updated January 18, 2007++++++

Quickie updated. I'm trying to get the likeness more. Still have to stregnthen the colors. Someone noted that it's becoming abit classical in approach. Maybe I should nudge it in that direction... hmm...

++++++updated january 19, 2007++++++

Fixed a ton of things. I am now getting complaints that she's too beautiful. Can I help it if I see what they can't see when I look at that young woman who calls herself my "girlfriend"? Is it my malfunction if I see beauty wherever I look? :P I did a portrait of my father when i was 14 and everyone said he was too handsome in the painting. I kept thinking to myself... "Have you people seen my father?" lol

Yes. My eyes were made for beauty...

------Updated January 24, 2007------

I'm such a loser. lolz

hmm... gawa kaya ako nang isa pang portrait... kaso wala namang picture na maganda na nasakin... hmm...

Okay so it really doesn't look like her. What the hell... I'll finish it anyways. Hmm... I'm renaming this piece "The Nobleman's Daughter". There! That seems appropriate. :D

Sunday Shmunday

I woke up unusually early on a sunday. I got to do my laundry, had breakfast then cleaned my room. By the time I got to work on this my hands were hurting a bit from the laundry ->

Still some minor issue with the arms and hands... also quite possibly the legs. I'm learning new stuff as I go and the humongous collection of reference photos I've acquired last year are proving useful. They will be my crotch till I learn to do figure drawing with my eyes closed. Figuratively speaking :P. I'm still thinking if the pose is enough or if I need to fix it some more. I had to stop before detailing the hands last night coz my right arm was hurting so bad. I won't be posting this piece on cgtalk till I'm done and it's printed. Yeah! No criticism on this one. Atleast not before I'm done. ;) I want to do this on my own to see where my skills are and what needs more practice.

So all that's left is to check the arms, hands and legs plus see if the pose evokes what I want it to evoke then see if the anatomy works. When all that's done I can get to the painting part. I think I'll skip turning this into a grey scale work and get right to painting. Maybe I'll just do a tiny tonal study.

********************Updated January 11, 2007********************

Okay here is where I'm at right now. I am the embodiment of "slow". :P I've put in the background though that might change later. I've half a mind to let go of the hands and run with what's here... unless I find a way to correct her left arm and hand. Other than that it's mostly just the creases on the dress ... and the dress itself.

Dropped by Fully Booked yesterday looking for a good book on figure drawing. I ended up examining two books. The first one had a more illustrationish appeal. His figures were loose and his lines were really flowing beautifully. The second one centered more on drawing live and extreme realism. I ended up buying a TV tuner for my personal computer instead. lol

I don't know... I just couldn't find what I was looking for. I just want to achieve a good balance between painterish and realistic appearance in my paintings. I guess developing your own style is something you come across on your own.

That's it for now. Next post will be in colors! :D

Greeting the Year with a Complete Set of Fingers!

I had a close call this new year. Fearing for the safety of our hands and everything else my family including myself refrained from purchasing fireworks. So we spent new year watching everyone else waste their money on flashing lights that last for a few seconds. At some point during new year's eve one of the neighbors' fireworks went flying in the wrong direction. It zoomed past my dad's shoulder,grazed our servant's knee and whized past my shoulder to explode about 5 ft away from me. whew! Next year I'll watch the fireworks from my bedroom window. lol

So this year's Christmas break turned into a real vacation. I ended up sleeping, resting, eating, playing on the computer, reading books and somewhere in between I got to work on a little something I promised I would give to this nice lovely lady who calls herself my girlfriend. :D

There she is. After working on and off for the whole vacation apparently I did catch her likeness. It was pretty frustrating at times since I have to work from several references which didn't really do well as reference. Most of them were too small. Also none of the pictures had this pose. Anyways I sent it to her yesterday to have the likeness approved before continuing and she was pretty pleased with it. This morning she asked if she could have this picture here so she could place it in their living room. :D So now I'm giving her this and the finished painting too.

The portrait I'm making is somewhat based on William Bougereau's "Reflexion". I'll just try and make things look more up to date if not modern. Below is a picture of the dress I'm planning to use for this piece.

Yes I'm straight! Straight! Straight! Straight! And No I'm not a fashion designer obviously! :P I'm leaning towards a dark blue for the bottom and a light blue-grey for the top... maybe the belt should be some complementary of the main colors. That's not fur you see on the top of it. It's this transparent material I saw Karel Marquez wearing in her FHM spread. I hope I pull it off coz that fabric looks really cool. :P The dress is still on the drawing board and may change... I'm partial to ancient greek designs. hmm...

Okay. Enough for now. I'm hungry. XD