MORE ANKI OVERDRIVE......

A couple months ago I posted some character design/illustration work I had done for the Supertruck expansion to the racing game Anki Overdrive.... and I recently received permission to post some more of this work. So I've added an Anki Overdrive section to my website. You can check it out here.

Thanks to Eddie Visser!

DYSTOPIC & EK_02 RESTOCKING / PRE_ORDER

My 2 most popular EK Model Kits, Dystopic and EK Cosmonaut 02 are in the process of restocking over at Industria Mechanika. They are available for preorder now and they should be shipping around late January 2017. 

Plus, Industria Mechanika is now selling copies of my book, Born In Concrete: The EK Series in their shop. They are currently offering it at a discounted price, so you can pick one up while ordering your model kit! 

Here's the link to the IMech Shop!

SPECTRUM 23

I have a small piece in the latest edition of the annual fantastic art compendium, Spectrum. As always the book is full of incredible art from comics, games, book and editorial illustration, and more. Plus this year they honoured one of my favourite artists, Mike Mignola, with the grand master award. Well worth picking up! 

Thanks to the all judges for including me in the book! Spectrum 23 cover art by Android Jones.

SHOP!

I have re-opened the shop on my website borninconcrete.com....just in time for the holidays....because nothing says "Merry Christmas" quite like a bunch of gnarled old cosmonauts! Some prints, t-shirts, and signed copies of my art book are available in the shop now, and I'll be introducing some new items in the future. Here's the link!

For those interested in the Industria Mechanika kits based on my work they can be purchased at the IMech store here.

Unsigned copies of my art book can be purchased on Amazon, at Design Studio Press and at other fine book dealers.

BOOTLEGGER

It appears that some bootlegged versions of the EK Series Model Kits have been surfacing on Ebay lately, so buyers beware! If you purchase a kit from a re-distributor (that is to say, someone other than Industria Mechanika), please look for evidence of recasting and make sure the kit contains all the original, authentic pieces. 

Industria Mechanika has shut down a few of these clowns before, at least temporarily anyways, as it is easy for the bootleggers to just change their online store handle and start selling them again.

The easiest way to avoid this is to purchase your EK kits directly from Industria Mechanika on their website. Here's the link!

PENCIL KINGS INTERVIEW

Here is a link to an interview I did with educational/inspirational art site Pencil Kings. We talk about freelancing, working while traveling, a few other topics....and if you listen carefully you can hear my wife messing around in the kitchen! 

Check it out here.

Thanks to Mitch Bowler at Pencil Kings.

ANKI OVERDRIVE - SUPERTRUCKS

Here is some character art I did for the new Anki Overdrive expansion "SuperTrucks". Supertrucks introduces 2 new large trucks to Overdrive along with new game modes and new commanders. These commanders are a group of misfits and outlaws from an area of the  Overdrive universe known as the Badlands. They were super fun to design and paint up.....with their more random, rougher design. My son and I can't wait to get one of these trucks to see how they mix things up on the track! 

Thanks to Eddie Visser! 

HG WELLS - IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF LONDON

Here is a graphic I created a while back for the Imperial College of London that celebrates the connections that the school has with English writer H.G. Wells. Wells was an alumni of the Imperial College of London (then called the Royal College of Science) and wrote an early version of his novel The Time Machine (the Chronic Argonauts) while attending school there. 

Given the schools focus on science, medicine and engineering, the graphic features elements from four of Well's best known science fiction novels: The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds. 

I'm not a big fiction reader, so I admit that most of the visual inspiration for this came more from the old film adaptations of these stories....the Invisible Man and that old school time machine in particular. I took a few more liberties with my alien walkers from War of the Worlds, and Hyena Man from the Island of Dr. Moreau (which was much more scary in my original version, and I had to dial him back a bit), but both are still very familiar in design. As a nod to Wells I used him as a model for the time traveller, with his big moustache and his somewhat droopy eyes.

The graphic is being used for a t-shirt that is being offered as a prize for alumni and staff that write in to the Imperial Magazine describing what they would do if they had access to Wells-like time machine. 

Thanks to Beth Elzer and the Imperial College of London.

OZONE LATE NIGHT INTERVIEW Prt. 2

Here is the second part of the interview I did with Ozone Late Night. In this segment we discuss inspiration, EK model kits, geek out on Jack Kirby and talk about some other stuff.....

Here's the link.

Enjoy!

OZONE LATE NIGHT PODCAST Prt.1

I recently did an interview on Ozone Late Night, a podcast done by The Ozone Nightmare. The host, Joe, picked up a copy of my book and was impressed/intrigued enough to ask me to come on his show.......so I did.

This is the first of two parts, and on this segment we discuss my book, the Entartete Kunst project and  a few other art related topics.

You can listen to it here.

Thanks to Joe and Lando at the The Ozone Nightmare!

EK.01 & EK.02 SHIPPING

EK Cosmonaut kits EK.01 and EK.02 are packed up and shipping from Industria Mechanika. Thanks to everyone that picked one up!

EK.03 will be shipping out soon, once Industria receives the laser cut bases for the kits.

There are still a few kits available for in-stock orders as well. Available here.

Thanks again.

DYSTOPIC KIT RESTOCK / PRE-ORDER

In addition to the new EK Cosmonaut kit being released, Industria Mechanika is restocking the 1/6th scale Dystopic model kit as well. These kits are now available for pre-order over at Industria Mechanika and the ETA for shipping is early June 2016. 

Go here to pick one up!

EK COSMONAUT #1 PRE-ORDER

The final figure in the 1/8th scale EK Cosmonaut Series is now available for pre-orders over at Industria Mechanika. The ETA for shipping is late May 2016.

Order yours at the IMech Shop here.

As with the other kits this sculpt was done by the talented Gene Campbell and features the same high quality production and materials.

The other two kits in the series have also restocked at Industria Mechanika....so if you missed them before, you can pick up the whole series! 

THE ROOKIES

I've been asked to be part of the judging panel for this year's edition of The Rookies. The Rookies is an international awards program for artists, designers, animators and creators. Every year they hand out a bunch of great prizes and paid internships to some of the top studios in the field.

The Rookies is open for artists that are, or have been students in 2015/16, and entries have to be submitted by May 29th, 2016. Winners will be announced in mid-July.

You can check out the current entries at The Rookies, and the judging panel here.

COSMONAUT .02 & .03 RESTOCK PREORDER

The 1/8 scale EK Cosmonaut .02 and .03 resin model kits are restocking at Industria Mechanika and are available for pre-order now. The ETA for the shipping of these kits is the first of May 2016. 

Order them here.

EK Cosmonaut  .01 is coming... but unfortunately it won't be ready for orders until May, and will ship after that.  Also around the same time Industria Mechanika is planning on have another round of 1/6th scale Dystopic kits ready for orders as well.

I will post again when these are kits are ready. Thanks! 

FLASHBACK: 2D ARTIST INTERVIEW

A blast from the past.....2D Artist Magazine published an old interview I did with them on their website.......so if you didn't pick up a copy of the magazine back then, here is a chance to read it!

Check it out here. 

Cheers.

REBELS

Here is a cover illustration I did for Rebels, the follow up book to Randoms, David Liss's young reader, sci-fi, action-adventure epic. As with the first book, the illustration is a full cover wrap, including the inner flaps, and features the protagonist Zeke Reynolds and portraits of the other main characters from the story. The graphic line elements were retained from the first cover, although in a more aggressive way, and again I created the logo for the book.

Randoms was well received, and this sequel shares the same level of humour, action, and drama as the first book. Those who liked Randoms won't be disappointed. 

Rebels is due for release late summer 2016 by Simon & Schuster......and hopefully a third instalment will follow! 

Thanks to Lizzy Bromley at Simon & Schuster.

ELI & TORK

Here is an oldie......but in my opinion, a goodie. I usually spend some of my downtime over the holidays cleaning out old files, unused .psd's, etc. from my computer. While doing this I came across these character designs for an old pitch done years ago with Next Level Games. 

The pitch was for a fun, colourful, but somewhat violent co-operative rail shooter called Eli & Tork: Escape From Paranoid City. The story took place in a dystopic future, and was centred around these two toughs, Eli and Tork,  and their cat Mr. Whitepants. When Mr. Whitepants disappears into a crack in the walls of Paranoid City, a massive walled prison complex (think Escape From New York), Eli and Tork have to break into the prison, find Mr. Whitepants, and then battle their way out again. The game's tagline pretty much sums it up: Breaking in to Paranoid City was easy. Getting out is another story. 

The design was fairly well received, and the mechanics of the design were used as a basis for two different projects developed at Next Level Games. Unfortunately the publishers of these projects eventually decided to graft their own IP's onto the design...being more comfortable going with something established instead of taking the risk of developing something new (these projects didn't turn out very well....but that is another story), and Eli and Tork were left to gather dust in the dark recesses of my hard drive.

There were a few more concepts created for this pitch....screen shots and a couple promo pieces, but these haven't faired as well against the test of time. While this material is old it still has for me a  charm, a sense of nostalgia, and the thoughts of what could have been. Anyways, since these guys got the shaft twice, I figured they at least deserved a blog post!

Happy New Year. Enjoy!