Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Little Things On Their Own...


Continuing with a couple of updates to "Hinson Totoro"...  These bank notes are present in the website already, but here they are, presented without any background content...  Print them and use them in a transaction today!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Gigawatt!

Okay, so, way back in like, middle school (early 2000s) I got into doodlin' (as kids tend to do), and eventually drew myslef as a super hero (as kids tend to do).  Then today, I was sitting at work with nothing going on, so I got to doodlin' (as high-paid night shift pencil sharpeners do) and popped out a picture of Gigawatt, my electrically charged alter-ego.  Later, during class, I got to messin' around with a 3-D modeling program (as kids tend to do) and popped out the picture below...
I then brought that picture into Photoshop (as kids--okay, that's getting annoying) and layered the heck out of it, until I got the character demonstrating his powers in a very showy manner.  The little thing in the upper right-hand corner is his logo.  It's supposed to be a lightning bolt crossed with a 'G'.  It's.... a little abstract.  So!  3D done in Daz, using the Genesis figure and various add-ons.  Couldn't get him looking exactly as I wanted, but close enough.  2D done in Photoshop.  Fun fact: There are only 2 lightning bolts generated.  They were merely flipped, stretched, and rotated to create the ELECTRO-STORM!  Hope you enjoy....

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Agabis--Final?

So, a while back I posted a quick sketch for the Agabis, and said I would show more of the evolution later.  Well, I never really got around to that (though I still intend to)...  However, I recently knocked out a finished work (that I'm none to happy with) that I'll be using in a school project.  The Agabi you see are the final painted ones, composited into a partially painted scene, with a lot of Photoshop goodness thrown in for good measure.  Enjoy!

Sunday, November 11, 2012

The Lobby of the LeCroix Hotel

A picture from my latest project, a background from my upcoming web-game Hinson Totoro.  The game will consist of live-action footage composited over digital backgrounds.  this one is for the hub of the game, the Hotel Lobby.  Made entirely in Photoshop from sundry images found thru Google Images.  Must say, I quite like it.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

The Evening Report

I've been working on my senior project for college, and one of the requirements is the creation of "graphic stills."  So, this is a nice little picture I made up for a segment intro in my webseries "At the Cinema with Deadpool and Starscream" (atthecinema.us   coming soon!)  This here is Lentils the Wonderdog, the muppet host of The Evening Report, the totally serious, not-at-all-funny news segment of DP &SS.  He can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEdkgPy75PE   The dog is a photo, and everything else is Photoshop.  If anyone wants to recreate any of the effects seen in this image, drop a comment, and I'll help out...

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Bald, Bearded Man

Sketched out on August 12, 2012, at church.  Graphite on paper.  Its primary reason for upload?  I was playing with my new phone's camera.  Still, I like the picture...

Update: Pounded out a rough colorized version.  I didn't have access to my sketch tablet, so this was all mouse-work.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Armored Cleric

I was looking back through some pictures on my computer and found this.  It's something I doodled out in my free time; not really sure what it is though.  Still, I rather like it, so...  Yeah.  Painted with Photoshop.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Arcadia

Not an image this time, but a link to a series of images...  As the final project for a college course, we had to create an 'interactive'... project.  The majority of the class said "screw that" and made a film.  However, we also created an interactive website/ demi-game to appease the teacher.  That was my part.  Following this link will bring you to that site.  All of the collage images were created by yours truly using photoshop, Daz Studio, etc., etc.  Many hours went into making these beat-up, washed-out photos.  THe navigation scheme (such as it is) was also my work.  Hope you enjoy!

http://www.wix.com/aiclass/arcadia

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

In the Studio


I like movies. Most people do. I also like making movies. Again, many people can agree with that. But I look at movie making not as a hobby, but as a career. I've got two credits on IMDB already, and hope to add more. Ever since I was 5, I've wanted to be a film maker, and it looks like I might actually be able to some day.
A couple weeks ago, my mom showed me a scholarship opportunity entitled 'Frame Your Future." Basically, you make a piece of artwork showing what you hope to see in your future. So... I did that. I made a little film set, complete with crew. I used action figures from 6 different toylines*, four of which were heavily reworked/painted by yours truly (see Custom Figures by Hrothmeir to the left), photographed them separately on blue screens, and composited them in Photoshop. This was my first success with HDR photography (my older attempts were down without the aid of a tripod), and I really like the results. The background was made in blender, exported as multiple images, and then HDR'd in Photoshop. I then added shadows, lights, etc., etc. in, you guessed it, Photoshop.
Oh, and the camera was made with LEGO; I'm rather proud of it, actually.

*Star Wars (30th Anniversary), G.I. Joe (Rise of Cobra, 30th Anniversary), Indiana Jones, Avatar, Iron Man 2, Prince of Persia

Friday, March 2, 2012

'Pockett' Captain


If you peruse the links along the side of this page, you'll notice a webcomic entitled 'Pockett.' And.. that's my webcomic. Originally done in a traditional/ digital 2D style, I've been trying to transition to 3D, and actually have two different storylines going, distinguished by 2D/ 3D styles. The eventual plan is to turn it into a more realistic style, as seen by the Captain above. The captain is, well... the Captain of the Pockett, the greatest starship in the night sky! He's not yet rigged, or fully finished, but I think he's done enough to show off. Made in Blender.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Minotaur


Wow, digging way back into my sketchbooks here... A minotaur. Can't remember much about this, but based on the date, I'd say it was drawn shortly after seeing the first theatrical Narnia film... Definitely one of my 'early' works, shortly after I got into art. Pencil, with ball-point overlay.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Agabis--Initial Sketch


The Agabis... Undoubtedly the best work I've ever done. Also one of my first forays into digital painting. Just what is the Agabis? Look up. You see that bizarre winged creature at the top of the page? That is the Agabis. It is a creature, mechanical in nature, that I sadly have no backstory for. It is an image, wholly unconnected to any fictional world I have created. As I said, it is one of my earliest digital creations, and one that I am still working on. I occasionally doodle out other pictures, different versions, etc. I'm also still at work on a city-scape for it to dwell in that I am wholly satisfied with. Ah, well.
The Agabis started innocently enough. Following the release of the second Transformers film in 2007, I found myself drawing a lot of rather strange mechanical creatures very much in the style of Mr. Bay's behemoths. Sometime late in the year I was in church, drawing one such creature (Sadly, I can't remember which), when the man sitting behind me noticed my work and asked if I could design a tattoo for him: a bio-mechanical angel. I quickly roughed out the image above, with the intent of scanning it in, detailing it, and mirroring it for a final image. To simplify the story I did so, then proceeded to paint that sucker.
I intend to show many more derivations and permutations of the Agabis, including the computer line work and rough paints, but those will all have to wait for another time...

Darth Vader


This is the companion piece to my previous post featuring my Obi-Wan redesign; in fact, both were originally drawn on the same page. This design change falls a bit more into the story-changing category I alluded to in the last post: this is not merely a more armored Anakin Skywalker, this is an injured and partially cybernetic Darth Vader shortly before the climactic battle with Obi-Wan that robs him of his humanity and leaves him as the black-clad villian we all love to fear.


Again, just like Obi-Wan, the design made the jump to 3D.

Come to think of it, the figures may have actually come first, followed by the sketches; it's rather hard to remember...

Obi-Wan


One of my early inspirations in art (and narrative, and life in general) were the Star Wars films. They... moved me. As these films were such an important part of my life, I was profoundly displeased with the last two films in the series. Due to this, I spent a bit of time redesigning the series in my head, rehashing the story and redesigning some of the characters.
One of the characters was Obi-Wan Kenobi. I felt that, as a Jedi Master and a general in the Grand Army of the Republic, he should look more like a medieval warrior rather than a medieval priest. I drew up the sketch for this sometime in late 2006 (I think) and later scanned it in and colorized it in Photoshop.

I later took this design and launched it into the 3rd dimension by way of a rather basic custom action figure. More information can be found on the figure's entry in the link "Custom Figures by Hrothmeir" found in the links section on the left-hand side of this page.

Flannel


Hello, and welcome to the Art of Hez; I'm Hezekiah Bennetts. The purpose of this site is to provide a repository for my art, as well as some insight into the creations. Now, I will freely admit that I'm no great artist, but I hope that having this public record of my art will push me to better myself and improve further.

I'll be starting this blog with a personal favorite of mine, a 3D living room created with the program Blender. Made in early 2011 for a college video project, it was used as a chroma-keyed background in a faux kid's show. It is meant to evoke a flannelgraph, similar to the backgrounds found in shows such as "Blue's Clues."