Michael Doig Art ~ Journal

Portrait Commissions [OPEN]

2014-06-25T12:25:00.000+01:00

LIMITED PORTRAIT COMMISSION SLOTS AVAILABLE [1/20]

Referenced from photograph by Olivia Rose Edvalson

Referenced from photograph by Laura Makabresku

BUST

Shoulders and Up

£75-100

Referenced from photo by Sara El Beshbishi

TORSO

Waist and Up

£125

Referenced from photo by David Sams

FIGURE
Feet and Up

£200

REVIEW LIST

BUST - Shoulders and Up

£75-100

TORSO - Waist and up

£125

FIGURE

£200

To Add an ENVIRONMENT + £100

All prices cover digitally painted portraits which will be delivered as high resolution source files, ready to print.

To reserve your slot please contact me via Email/IM at michaeldoig@live.co.uk

Mutiny Announced

2014-03-03T14:24:00.000+00:00

Pitch concept for the Mutiny Game

Mutiny is a pirate themed action game for 1-4 players, where you battle enemy pirates intent on stealing your treasures and sinking your ship before you can reach your island paradise.

You must work with your crewmates to defend your ship and keep it afloat under the enemy barrage, repairing damage and collecting loot from enemies as you sail, but you’ll have to watch your back! Since the captain gets the biggest cut of the riches after the battle, everyone is aiming to become captain themselves, and you’ll be battling your crew as much as your enemies!

We're in the midst of setting up a presence for Hidden Armada on IndieDB

Hidden Armada

2014-03-03T11:59:00.000+00:00

We've counting down the days over on Hidden Armada until we announce our latest game. I've gone a bit mad with the tilt shift blur this last couple of weeks. So satisfying.

Some Art from this Month

2014-01-16T19:37:00.001+00:00

Frostblight

2013-12-14T02:27:00.001+00:00

Yo, for the past 13 days I have been working on a personal project known as Frostblight. India Swift and I challenged ourselves to tell a story visually through paintings.

Initially we'd thought to convey a story beat in a single image, however we soon found that we needed several panels to convey the message. We began using a flowing panel method which relied on scrolling through the image since we intended for these 'pages' to be viewed via browsers, and later potentially tablet devices.

I have collated the first 12 nights as we call them into a single flowing image stream.

You're welcome to follow the progress of the project on your preferred medium.

Frostblight on Facebook

Frostblight on Tumblr

Frostblight on Blogger

Frostblight on Deviantart

Frostblight on Imgur

Here's a time lapse painting of concept art for the project. :)

Portrait

2013-11-28T17:47:00.001+00:00

Timelapse Portrait Study

2013-11-27T19:48:00.000+00:00

2 HOURS STUDY PAINTING FROM PHOTO REFERENCE

I saw this photograph of a reconstructed sculpture of an Iceman, a 5,300-year-old mummy also called Ötzi discovered in the Alps and thought he had great character to attempt to capture. I failed on the likeness but it was great fun, and I tried to push the textures in my work a little more than usual.

I picked up a great brush from the Charlie Bowater Skillshare Class which is soft and chalky and great for blocking out loose shapes with softer edges.

TIMELAPSE CAPTURE OF THE PAINTING FROM START TO FINISH

2 hours distilled into 15 mins approx. I hope this is insightful to you. I'm hoping to document these to highlight my flaws and amend my workflow to address them.

Thinking Outside the Box

2013-11-23T16:15:00.003+00:00

The Doctor, rising from one storm to meet the next.

PRINTS AVAILABLE ON INPRNT

Available for commissions, contact me if you're interested in custom paintings, or art for your project!

Dragoon Commission, Dungeon Run Concepts, Portraits

2013-09-04T11:58:00.000+01:00

Recent work post

2013-08-27T21:14:00.003+01:00

Rough initial game character concept - plan to iterate and riff on this some more.

Supernatural Cinema Studies

2013-08-24T16:29:00.000+01:00

Recent work

2013-08-16T00:04:00.000+01:00

Dungeon Run

2013-08-13T16:58:00.000+01:00

I've been working for Proper on their latest title Dungeon Run, recently featured in the Guardian as 'highlight of the indie hall' at Dare's Indie Fest. Here's a selection of artwork from the project.

Initial mockups, 3D environment supplied by fellow team mate.

Sprite animation

Concept Development

Moleskin Sketchbooks are Awesome

2013-08-13T16:14:00.000+01:00

While attending the London Workshop, we ventured to the gallery at Trifalgar and stocked up on some supplies. I bought my first ever Moleskin and I'm an immediate convert. I've been travelling alot on trains, and its a great way to pass the time.

Conceptart Workshop London

2013-08-13T16:06:00.001+01:00

Where to begin - I've not been putting off writing this. Time has simply been occupied with Life. So much life.

I travelled by train from Dundee to London with my good friend Will Wright. I'm really thankful trains provide a socket for laptops, as I doodled in photoshop for the majority of the journey. Some reference landscapes as they slipped by and the world turned.

Arrival in London was triumphant and it was my first experience of King's Cross which I think was somewhat mixed due to the vast changes the station is under going. I'm very thankful to those whom allowed me to stay in their flat for my time in London, and their enthusiastic dogs.

Left waiting knicked some confidence but to enter the hall and witness everyone sitting in darkness watched Kekai do this thing. 'When in doubt, dragons.' A real tactile sense of creative energy and hush in the room, so many minds ticking away. Learning, watching, inspiration transference all actively happening between Pro and peers. I knew I had made the right decision. I knew I was meant to be here.

"I can draw a fucking cat..."

I received my one and only paintover from the wonderful Shay Hulbert who revealed my distinct lack of unicorns. Crisis averted!

The quest for self improvement begins by holding yourself accountable. Make it real, exclaim your intentions. Your hopes and fears so you can act on them.

I received a number of folio reviews from a great array of professionals, insanely useful. Here's a snapshot of some notes I took from a particular two. Thank you to the others who offered their time and experience to help push me further.

KEKAI KOTAKI

The following are notes I made in earnest while showing my folio to Kekai.

Bring the piece together more, add some interests and get the read. Mark making is splotchy. It seems as though I'm uncertain in use of which brushes correctly, to use for certain things.

Where's the focus?

Look at master paintings, move forward and iterate, slow and steady and get the job done. Don't rush.

BJORN HURRI

For design. Think in shapes, separate these out by their areas of major value. Design is about creating these strong shapes. Can it read from a distance?

Napkin test, can you draft the design on a napkin easily, does it read?

Vilppu - constrution of figures - worry about the read

Draw figures every fucking day.

Fix poses, make them more dynamic in a setting.

What do the shapes communicate? How the character will move, what will make it look like it moves quick, sluggish?

Jason Felix presenting, photo by Jamie Wong

I found a spirit both beautiful and terrifying in passing my collection of work over for a folio review to those I hold in awe. That moment while place it in their hands and you hold your breath in anticipation.

Very similar to carrying a shield into battle, and during every fray a small crack appears across the surface. Again and again. It breaks under the weight of all of the advice until you're left holding what is to you a broken instrument. Trust that it will hold, remain calm, and step forward for the next review, each time summing up the courage to acknowledge the mistakes, and delve deeper.

You carry all of the advice forward, and your collection of work reveals its true nature of flaws, but the cracks offer handholds for improvement.

I attained a wonderful sense of calm after London where nervousness burned itself out, as though it cauterized the nerves endings themselves. An opportune moment for amazing things to happen.

Recent News

2013-05-10T17:49:00.002+01:00

In recent news; HOBO gets taste of VICTORY.

Bouncing onward from my recent Daily Deviation, the Skywhale piece soared ever onward into the hearts and minds of Tumblrites and has currently amassed 16,000 notes, full of likes and reblogs. Thankfully this has seen a bleeding effect on my other tumblr offerings and recent posts.

To all my new followers on Tumblr - F--K YES I luff all of you. I hope to fill your tumblr feeds with more awesome in our futures together.

Tumblr is a seriously powerful force to be reckoned with, I would reblog more stuff on there but I want to keep my main account purely my own stuff as an interactive ever changing gallery. I'm hoping to set up an inspiration tumblr in the near future, but there's so many on there already

I feel really humbled to be able to quantify that I have touched the minds / vision of almost 200,000 people through Imgur. That's amazing. I did some terrible math, and discovered that if each of those viewers offered up £1 each (I'm British), I'd be able to work for the next 10 years and produce roughly 4000+ paintings (of that quality)..... @_@

INPRNT

I submitted 3 pieces to INPRNT for review and I was thankfully successful. I now have the power to offer up high quality prints of my artwork for those of you who expressed interest.

PRINTS AVAILABLE HERE :D

"This is an gallery-quality giclée print on 100% cotton rag archival paper, printed with archival inks."

I reported myself to the Grumpy Cat owners for copyright violation, in the hopes they'll see it sooner and grant me permission to sell it as a print. :3 Paws crossed.

I will be offering up more artwork in the near future as and when I have prepared them for print. I'll post up details and updates as and when they turn up.

STUDIES

Gotta keep sharp with the studies! Push it push it push it!

May 4th

2013-05-05T06:27:00.001+01:00

This image made it to the front page of IMGUR today which is a pretty cool honour, glad the image was well received and had me super pumped to create its counterpart artwork.

Artwork in tribute for May 4th, Free Comics Day. Hope you dig :D

I was listening to a lot of Judas Priest earlier in preparation for the next Crimson Bloodsports Challenge and the music got me super pumped that it will forever populate my working hour playlists. I've heard JP songs in the past, but it felt like today, I truly listened.

Studies

2013-05-01T00:51:00.003+01:00

Easing myself back into studies, here's a 1 hour warm up from this morning. Extra brownie points if you can guess where this fellow is from. You can find references from films here too!

Daily Deviation Attained!

2013-04-29T11:07:00.000+01:00

Woke up to find that I'd been given the honour of a Daily Deviation on Deviantart. A community I have frequented for years but never truly embraced to its' full potential until this year, and it is great to see that attitude reflected back. Thanks so much to annelienvdb for recommending, and Thiefoworld for awarding it :)

I look forward to my inbox swelling with the new watchers, comments and favourites, pushing me to create new work to share with you all. Thank you for taking the time to view, and express your support for my art.

It means the world. Thank you.

To adventure!

Background Environments with Asian Twist

2013-04-18T16:44:00.000+01:00

Environment backgrounds

What I have learned

In this series I tried to maintain a colourful / slightly animated looking approach - struggled to maintain the values, focusing on the lighting and emotive feeling.

From this I can see that I need to study I'd like to learn how to render wood / stone / ground textures to a more believable degree. So more environment studies are on the cards.

Its fun an useful to thumbnail out compositions in value first to establish some ideas.

I created a specific brush for this kind of work which you can see being predominantly used in the monochromatic rough thumbnails. Great for blocking in major shapes.

Mugiwara No Luffy

2013-04-17T11:57:00.001+01:00

Fanart of Monkey D. Luffy from Eiichiro Oda's ONE PIECE manga/anime

Had a ton of fun creating this image and would like to paint more of the fantastic characters from the series. Slightly rushed I think I'd amend the framing and use of Luffy's Gomu Gomu attacks better either an update or in a new piece.

DOJ-CON Experience

2013-04-16T18:27:00.001+01:00

Exhibiting at DOJ-CON

I've been attending D-CON/DOJ-CON for all of the years it has been in operation and each year I've thought, or have been explicitly told, 'You should have a table here!' So this year marks a notch in my belt, and I decided to book the table before I was even ready for it. No matter what, BE THERE. Be present.

"Eighty percent of success is showing up. " ~ Woody Allen

Surprising and quite relieving to find I wasn't as nervous as I expected while I was setting up my table, but I was still full of jittery energy without the sinking feeling. My mouth kept going uber-dry as I tried to settle into my 'totally needs a cushion' chair.

I used an A3 sketchbook to prop up my folio display in a stroke of last minute improvisation and Ak secured it to the table via gorilla tape. I was ready. Slight delay in the doors being opened, but holy shit when they finally did. The glacier of people sliding past the table, in assorted eccentric dress was amazing.

Brilliant fun followed while painting live, and while I've not livestreamed much in the past its a pretty solitary experience compared to being able to look up and into the eyes of people watching the monitor. Audience interaction became tactile as I could respond to comments/reactions in realtime, often I was inspired also by the amazing soundtracks being played by the organisers.

I began to settle after I'd sold some prints - my first one being Selling a Luffy print to a Luffy cosplayer. Easy sale!

My aim was to cover costs so I wasn't losing vital income, and to gain some new audience and in this I feel fulfilled. I spent my profits feeding my friends :D I retain a folio full of prints to use in the future which are available to buy for £5, and I carry with me the experience of the event itself.

What I've learned

I need a larger selection of prints for people to 'browse'. 7 is too low a number. People want moar.
People like to watch digital art being created when they don't especially understand the medium.
The most commonly asked question of the day was 'What sort of tablet is that? :D'
1 day is not long enough, bring back the weekend event
Always bring along a monitor / laptop. It kicks ass!

Thanks to those who purchased prints and showed their enthusiasm, its a bolster to my ambitions to succeed as a freelancing ~~hero~~ artist, and to any new followers of mine online Harro! and I was super pumped that the best sellers were my original paintings over fanart.

Many thanks to my visiting friends from Edinburgh who helped keep my company, and made the evening following the event a pleasure.

PS.

Gryffindor woolen sweater for the win!

Doj-Con Artist's Alley

2013-04-10T00:01:00.001+01:00

Hey folks,

I'll be exhibiting some artwork at Dundee's DOJ-CON manga and anime festival this weekend on the 13th of April, on the basement level of Dundee Union. I'll be on one of the Tables in the Artist's Alley alongside my friends from Lefay Engraving.

I'll be selling prints of digital paintings, while giving LIVE painting demos, answering questions and fulfilling commission requests. Come by and say Hi.

I'm working on some ONE PIECE artwork at the moment and you can see some of my work posted in my gallery here

Hope to see you all there!

Freelance Work for Proper Games

2013-04-04T15:31:00.000+01:00

New work update with some recent artwork for Proper Games' mobile title in development. Here's a selection of WIP environment concepts showing a variety of potential locations.

I've been working on them in batches like this as it helps me keep the scenes in context with the others.

Map / Level Select Layout Concepts showing a path through single player.

Perspective in environments is something I'm stumbling over, I found a useful vanishing point brush which has assisted me as I've yet to get to grips with photoshops' grid system. Hope you dig :3

Learning some graphic novels

2013-03-19T15:25:00.004+00:00

Visual storytelling is amazing, I always get fired up when there's narrative involved in the creation of an image. I love delving into the histories of things. I've not really been an avid reader of comics growing up, mostly due to finances and a childhood of gaming instead however I love them. With the advent of webcomics I was able to consume the media at a staggering rate. I tend to dive head first into narratives like this and binge on them, reading everything available in near to as one sitting as I can manage.

Some that I've read in the past include Demonology 101 by Faith Erin Hicks and Hanna is Not a Boy's Name by Tessa Stone. Check them out! Recently I was linked to reMind by Erik Ly, and I was hooked instantly. Beautiful visuals, and mystery to boot. I luffs mystery.

I've been reading the short speed stories 'Lust' by Will Wright, and got super pumped. The whole comic page arrived in my head all at once around midnight and in my stubbornness I wouldn't let myself sleep til I got all the foundation elements in place. 2 hours later I arrived at this -

There's a ton of things I would amend, change or redo in this but I'm so glad it exists. Get it down on paper, and then you can assess where to go from there. I get hung up on the fact that I don't know all the grammatical rules that have developed around serial artwork / graphic novels but the best way to learn them is by doing them, as I was advised by Thomas Foster recently, '... it's the only way to learm. The more resistant you are to something like that, the bigger a hole it is in your knowledge.'

learn by doing.