Matt Rhodes

Scarlet

2012-01-18T16:41:00.000-08:00

Our little girl, Scarlet, was born last week. She's happy and healthy with a dark head of hair. I painted this image for her and will be putting it up in her room. I've had the name Scarlet in mind for years and it comes from the Bible, Proverbs 31 (A Wife of Noble Character). In describing this incredible woman of great character and quality, this one verse in particular caught my eye:

"She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet."

Digging into the research, the use of "scarlet" refers to scarlet dyed wool, as it is double dyed to get the intense color. It seems to be a poetic way of saying her household is clothed doubly, layered against the cold. Regardless, the imagery of a family walking through snow in bright scarlet cloth became firmly lodged in my head. So, Scarlet is a name that is both visually striking and nods to a beautiful book in the Bible, Proverbs 31.

...waiting...

2012-01-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

any day now

Fantasy reference fiesta

2011-12-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness for dedicated nerds and their glorious costume galleries.

Skyrim

2011-11-21T20:39:00.001-08:00

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I had this much fun with a videogame.

Vacation in Italy

2011-10-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

It's been wonderful.

My Lord of the Rings

2011-09-07T15:31:00.001-07:00

I hadn't fully mourned the loss of MY Lord of the Rings until now.

Peter Jackson's films were amazing and definitive and I love them, however it wasn't until I tried to read through the books again that I fully understood how definitive they were. Millions of dollars and hundreds of talented artists fleshed out Tolkien's world in a way my imagination never could. As I read I found that every character and location had been replaced by actors, Weta's sculptures, New Zealand's beautiful landscapes. It's all great, but it broke my heart to realize that mine was gone.

This image is one last hurrah. One last artistic foray into my own vision of the story when Middle Earth was the Canadian Rockies I grew up by, the soundtrack was by Loreena Mckennitt and the players were all made up.

It was funny and sad to see that even this attempt to recreate my image of the characters was tinted by the films. Oh well, I'll always have them tucked away on a shelf in my mind.

Assassin

2011-09-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

Just a bit of exploration. I've been enjoying these hoods lately.

We are NOT taking the wizard.

2011-09-05T17:12:00.001-07:00

Sitting around a camp fire, my friends and I talked about wizards. Wizards, if they were real, would be the worst people. Dabbling in all sorts of grim abominations for dubious ends. They'd be the last people you'd ever hire for a quest, and then only in utter desperation.

MDK

2011-08-31T15:05:00.001-07:00

Galactus, Eater of Worlds

2011-08-24T11:56:00.001-07:00

A quicky based on a conversation Tom and I had a year ago.

Galactus is a problem. In comics he's fantasic, a giant purple techno-demi-god that stands around vaguely menacing planets. When it comes to translating him into movie form, or even movie-caliber comic form (Ultimate: Galactus) he's been turned into a space-dust-storm and swarm of giant metal bugs respectively.

Tom suggested I read up on his backstory, and it turns out that Galactus is the only living creature to have lived before our universe and survive the big bang.

We may have been a little hopped up on Hellboy, but we started thinking it would be great if Galactus looked alien, ancient, and gargantuan. He could be loosely human shaped, enough that legends of him could have mistaken him for a massive man.

Sister

2011-08-20T11:58:00.001-07:00

My sister came by for a visit, and it's her birthday, so she got drew'd.

Sean Beaner

2011-08-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

Pirate

2011-08-19T10:58:00.001-07:00

Okay, so the Tablet I picked up is the ASUS Eee Slate EP121. I've been loving the mobility. It works like a charm, it's got the blue tooth key board so I don't get slowed down trying to work around all my hotkeys and shortcuts.

For this one, I think there's a spectrum of complexity when it comes studies and I wanted to try something more complex. This is trying to translate reference material into my typical concept art "blueprint" style instead of a quicker traditional painting approach.

studizing

2011-08-19T07:27:00.001-07:00

In order to familiarize myself with the new tablet I've been doing some photo-reference work. New medium = time to do some life drawing. Observational drawing forces you to really open up on a new medium, giving you challenges you wouldn't have chosen for yourself.

Anyway, here:

Courtyard

2011-08-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

I love the way the light hits our building. It bounces around and creates these fantastic graphic shapes everywhere.

Watching a movie

2011-08-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

Picked up a Tablet PC (ASUS 121 something or other) and to break it in I started doing some painting from life. This is a portrait of my wife watching Weird Science for the first time.

Doodles

2011-05-24T14:28:00.001-07:00

Some of my latest doodles. Really trying to work on anatomy, foreshortening and action. Concept art can rarely be dynamic so it's easy to lose touch with drawing characters in motion.

Birth of Athena

2011-03-31T15:11:00.001-07:00

This started as a figure drawing, but once it became Athena I couldn't help but polish it up a bit.

some practice

2011-03-31T09:27:00.000-07:00

trying to get back to the basics

Disneypocalypse

2011-03-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

So, here's the weirdest thing I've drawn in a while. My wife and I have been watching some classic Disney movies and it got me thinking about the short-lived gigantic final forms some of the villains take. Maleficent, Jafar and Ursula in particular spend seconds as massively destructive titans. It got me thinking about what would happen if they were able to spend days, even weeks as apocalyptic monsters. Then I started to wonder what would happen if you had to deal with all three at once. You'd probably want to limp away and wait until they finished one another off.

Cheetara

2011-02-25T14:26:00.001-08:00

I was never really into Thundercats as a kid and there are dozens of amazing redesigns of these characters. Despite both of these solid reasons, I sketched this up anyway. The only purpose it served was to experiment with some exaggerated anatomy.

Some of the cast of Dragon Age II

2011-02-22T17:47:00.001-08:00

Big Version

From left to right:
Varric, Cassandra, Anders, Aveline, Sebastian, Fenris, Bethany (with her early short blond hair), Merrill, Isabela and Flemeth.
This isn't the full cast, just a selection of characters I was involved in concepting. Thankfully, at Bioware the spirit of collaboration is a cultural norm. It can often be tricky to tell where one artist's work ends and another begins. I wanted to call out the Dragon Age II concept art team, a group of incredibly talented bastards:
Ben Huen
Casper Konefal
Ville Kinnunen
Steve Klit
Ramil Sunga
Nick Thornborrow
Also awesome but no longer at Bioware:
Joy Ang
Sung Kim

Medusa

2011-01-28T13:53:00.002-08:00

My brother's friend suggested we "draw Medusa as the protagonist"

Why?

2011-01-04T15:49:00.001-08:00

If you have a moment, i'm curious to hear your opinion.

Why do you make art? Why do you CONTINUE to make art? What keeps you going?

Tapestry of Fail

2010-12-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

For the sake of artistic therapy i'm uploading some of the illustrative failures of 2010. It feels cathartic to air out this dirty laundry. These images fell appart on my, or just didn't excite me enough to continue them.
*sigh*
It actually feels good to get them out. It's like purging.

Portrait

2010-12-04T10:53:00.000-08:00

Hibernating on a cold December morning, drawing my wife as we watch Kids in the Hall.

Uh...Earl? You okay, Earl?

2010-12-03T12:09:00.001-08:00

...Why are you looking at me like that, Earl?

Date Night

2010-12-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

Coming back after a fun night out.

Fireside chat

2010-11-03T14:19:00.001-07:00

Something random, drawn for fun as I listened to a Tolkien lecture series. The lady is based on my wife and the wolf is probably just a result of wanting a dog.

Northerner

2010-10-26T19:09:00.001-07:00

My favorite graphic novel of all time is Mike Mignola's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. I love the big, red headed northerner, Fafhrd. This isn't specifically him, but I was definitely thinking of him as I drew it. Experimenting with simplicity. I keep flipping between two mindsets. I want to create a million quick images, then I want to creat a handful of super-rendered images. In the end i'm sure i'll settle on the million and quick end of the spectrum.

Batman and Ivy

2010-09-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

This was really nothing more than a figure drawing exercise that got WAY out of control. Now it's Batman and Poison Ivy. Batman is wearing a modified balistics mask and S.A.S. style gear.

Country Walk

2010-09-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

A Lord and his Lady go for a long walk through their valley. I love drawing bullshit fantasy characters. It's so liberating to make everything up.

Reboot continued

2010-08-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

Dragon Age II

2010-07-08T07:59:00.000-07:00

This image was just posted, so I figured I'd put it up here as well. It's the first concept of mine from Dragon Age II to be released. There a lot of incredibly talented people working on this project, and I think everyone is going to be impressed.

The best villain ever

2010-06-11T14:29:00.001-07:00

Maleficent from Disney's Sleeping Beauty is the best villain ever. She's deadly, cruel and beautiful (without dressing like a tart, so you can take her seriously). I've always been a little fascinated by her so for fun I thought i'd explore some ideas about her past. Her 16th birthday, and overlooking her freshly conquored territory.

Sauron

2010-05-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

My brother suggested I read the full history of Sauron. It was fascinating, his story is so complex and tragic. I wanted to draw a version of him in his mostly-human form, forging the One Ring. I wanted to making him look like an angel or demi-god in human form, beautiful but scary. His costume is meant to reflect elements of his full armor in the movie (that design was just too awesome to ignore). It's also meant to be somewhat androgynous, as it's a handy way to show that a character is beyond human gender considerations. His arms are coated in ash from the forging process, but that's also a nod to his admiration of Morgoth, who's hands were permanently burnt when he stole the Silmarils. His eyes are like the Great Eye, to keep this design connected to his final form on Middle Earth.

reboot reboot

2010-04-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

We watched Reboot religiously when we were kids. We recorded episodes and watched them over and over again. I was recently reminded of the series, so I went back and watched through all of it again. Say what you will about the dated graphics, they knew how to tell a story.

Maybe the third beer was having an effect, or maybe I was just hit with a wave of sentimentality, but I started drawing my versions of these now iconic characters. I got so into it I stayed up scrawling under a single lamp until I crashed at 3am.

What I wanted to do was draw the characters using some of the knowledge I’ve gained over the years as a concept artist. I’ve noticed some unfortunate trends in the industry that I feel are my duty to oppose. Reboot is an excellent subject for study because they had some very strong designs to start with. They knew they were working within certain technical limitations and they found a design language that suited it perfectly. Bold graphic shapes, appealing material contrast, etc... We no longer face many of those limitations. My major concept was:

Redesign the characters to enhance their role in the narrative, while maintaining the strong, simple graphic language.

My goals for each were as follows (from left to right):

Enzo – Chaotic good. He’s young, energetic, and undisciplined. Shirt un-tucked, hair a mess. He was raised by his sister after his scientist-father died (he still refuses to take off his father’s lab coat). He craves action and adventure, and rarely touches the ground. The kneepads come in handy frequently.

Mouse – Chaotic neutral. She’s a mercenary with special talents. She’s a hacker, an escape artist, an infiltrator. While she’s learned to look out for number one, Bob’s natural charisma is making it hard for her to resist caring for his cause. I made her smaller, like a mouse. The hood helps her seem more guarded, more thief-like. She’s a little harder to trust. In the show she has vibrant orange hair. Since I don’t know why the did that (stylistic whim?) I decided to make it a darker version of her skin like Dot and Enzo. I put the orange in her hoodie instead.

Bob – Chaotic good. Guardians are like a military organization. Bob is a young member, spontaneous, reckless, and a radical thinker. His charm has been his best asset, though his guardian key tool “Glitch” comes in at a close second. I put him in a uniform, but he’s not too particular about regulation. I made Glitch a full glove because in tough situations it is Bob’s right hand. Literal, thy name is Matt.

Dot – Lawful good. She’s an intelligent, ambitious woman. A business owner, forced to step into the role of mother to her younger brother Enzo. Ever since she saw her father die in a lab accident, she has tried to control as many aspects of life as possible. She’s always three steps ahead of everyone else, which makes her a brilliant strategist, but she is definitely at odds with
Bob’s seemingly careless attitude. I wanted her to dress as cleanly and sharply as possible. Her hair is pressed down. She’s trying to keep everything in order.

Megabyte – Lawful evil. The viral strategist. He plots, he schemes, he watches his diabolical plans unfold from his tower fortress. While he is physically capable, he prefers not to get his hands dirty. He’s still an imposing figure, but I toned his bulk down a little, gave him a regal (rather than animalistic) pose. I love the hip-sphere, and his head fins. Those two elements were too good to loose. Megabyte has always been a favorite of mine so I couldn’t change those elements. For him and Hexadecimal I came up with a reverse fade color scheme. Blue and red, but inverted for each. They share the same genes, but they are worlds apart. Again, literal, but to me those designs end up giving the most payoff.

Hexadecimal – Chaotic evil. Megabyte’s viral sister. She represents destruction, havoc, anarchy. Life and death are just as good, as far as she’s concerned. I made her crown more twisted, and gave her some of Megabyte’s anatomy (they are related, after all).

exhilaration experiment

2010-04-07T13:17:00.001-07:00

I saw "how to train your dragon" and loved it. Some of the flight scenes were exhilarating, like those all-too-rare flying dreams. This is an attempt to get some of that feeling of vertigo and exhilaration in an image. Might try a few more versions later.

Deja Thoris and John Carter

2010-03-03T09:35:00.000-08:00

I used to draw Lord of the Rings characters a lot. Then the movies came out and fullfilled every artistic question I had. I haven't drawn anything from it since. Knowing that a Pixar version of John Carter of Mars is coming, I figure I might as well get my drawings out now.

Lord Time

2010-03-01T13:22:00.000-08:00

Just having fun. Spending every day running between fantasy and sci-fi, steampunk feels like a nice vacation genre.

Mass Effect 2 concept art

2010-02-05T13:41:00.001-08:00

Here is some of the concept art I did for Mass Effect 2. I'm so proud of the entire team, and very thankful to have been involved in such an awesome game.

There will be snacks

2010-01-14T17:41:00.001-08:00

Matt - "what should I draw?"
Kate - "draw me as a little girl eating a doughnut with sprinkles."

made up landscape practice

2009-12-16T12:43:00.000-08:00

Trying to practice painting a sense of scale. It's something i've been missing. I feel like if I post embarrassing attempts like this, it will force me to develop faster.

end of the day sketch

2009-12-10T15:44:00.000-08:00

I ran out of steam, but still wanted to make something. it's ridiculously simple, but i'm okay with that right now.

Crap!

2009-11-02T15:56:00.001-08:00

While flipping through my old art folder, I realized that for every drawing I put up there are about 20 that never quite make it. Sometimes they were just stupid ideas I wanted to remember, other times something stopped me half-way and I never picked them up again.
Here are some of the poor little guys that never went anywhere.

Escapism

2009-10-14T18:26:00.000-07:00

When I was younger there were places in my dreams I would return to again and again. These days I remember them in small flashes, so i've been trying to record them somehow.

The music that goes with it (I fixed the link, and YES, I know this comes from the Twilight soundtrack, but that's not the music's fault):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pbGdE43ns8

Comic!

2009-10-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

I've made a 17 page comic for the upcoming Anthology Project. There are some incredible artists involved, so it's awesome to be a part of it.

Here are the first 3 pages.

2009-09-10T09:38:00.001-07:00

Some photos from my recent trip to Jasper. This is the stuff that inspires me the most.

Some life drawings with a brush pen. I've been using my standard pencil for too long, needed to mix it up. I'm not used to ink, let alone a brush, so this was a valuable exercise for me.

First life drawings of the fall

2009-09-03T07:50:00.001-07:00

summer life drawing

2009-08-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

I'm done

2009-08-05T13:29:00.001-07:00

Useless Armor

2009-07-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

Just one of those images that comes out when you're listening to the right music.

for those who may be curious, this was the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmrgN4FuOGQ

How do I get out of this swamp?

2009-04-28T17:12:00.001-07:00

That Insidious Beast

2009-04-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

At the website SomethingAwful.com there's a story being written by Zack Parsons called That Insidious Beast:
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/insidious-fall-sweeps.php.
I got inspired.

I've really got to start doing more than just life drawing

2009-04-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

i'm starting to bore myself

another figure session

2009-03-19T09:03:00.000-07:00

this is starting to feel like a workout

weiners!

2009-03-12T09:09:00.001-07:00

some figure studies

2009-03-11T15:37:00.001-07:00

Bat Sloth Octopus

2009-01-30T16:13:00.001-08:00

Tom started playing a game. Combine 3 animals, and make it terrible.

John Carter of Mars

2009-01-27T15:15:00.001-08:00

The lead characters from the incredible adventure story by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Knowing there's a John Carter pixar movie coming out makes me more excited than i can stand.

Finally doing some life drawing

2009-01-22T09:03:00.000-08:00

It's been WAY too long since i've done this. A few of us from work went the other night. These are my favorites from the batch.

Getting back into it

2009-01-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

This was a quick warmup image. After a 2 week break, getting the artistic engines re-started can be rough. Was listening to the Transformers soundtrack by Steve Jablonsky.

Make it out alive.

2008-12-10T14:46:00.000-08:00

I've been experimenting with painting techniques, trying to vary it every time. Hoping to find the right feel that says exactly what I want.

Places to go

2008-12-08T18:14:00.000-08:00

Art is great for sorting out all the complicated clutter in your head. It makes sense that all the classic artists filled their paintings with deep personal meaning. They had just as much to work through back then.

But, since i'm never going to tell anyone why I painted this:

Here's a painting of a knight ridding off on some quest.

Dream Monster

2008-12-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

Had a dream about a battle last night. I was an archer, and the hordes we were fighting got more and more challenging (yeah, just like a videogame). Wanted to paint this character up before I forgot about it. Most of them were just people with varying degrees of stone armor, but these ones were special. Stone skin except for their belly's, which was more like elephant/rhino skin.

Vampire

2008-12-02T18:25:00.000-08:00

Based on a description my brother Tom gave me.

A Present for my brother

2008-11-26T18:13:00.001-08:00

one of the best things about being an artist is how much fun you can have with inside jokes.

more studying

2008-11-26T13:05:00.001-08:00

More practice.

quick figure paintings

2008-11-21T20:29:00.001-08:00

practice practice practice. I've been working with flat color for so long, it's time to start rendering again.

Snow fight

2008-11-11T20:38:00.000-08:00

With every new image I create, either for myself, or for work, it's become more clear that I really like the moments before or after the action. Action scenes are great and all, but there's something i can personally enjoy much more in a moment that's about to explode, or in putting the pieces together from something that already has exploded. This is a very simple form of the latter.

Ruined City take 2

2008-10-28T21:38:00.003-07:00

Getting back into art-shape is taking a while. here's another crack at the ruined city.

Night walk

2008-10-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

Our hero tries in vain to capture the romantic attention of the lovely leading lady. However, she's a girl of action, and with danger afoot he'll be able to woo her with more than mere words.

Girl at the campfire

2008-10-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

Thinking of the moment our hero notices the girl for the first time. I really bounced around with technique on this one. I need to find a new way of working, so I think i'll experiment for a while.

Medieval characters

2008-10-22T19:53:00.001-07:00

I wanted to draw a few loose characters with the lassoo tool.

Cold call

2008-10-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to capture certain specific atmospheres, while working on story stuff. This one is dusk, late fall.

I used to love this stuff

2008-10-15T11:49:00.001-07:00

And now that steampunk is more known, I thought i'd take another swing at it.

DS sketches

2008-09-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

I would never have guessed that the nintendo DS could become so dear to my heart. It's great to be able to sketch color, rather than line. Definitely been good practice. Here are some of those color studies.

Bow falls in Banff

Looking at some of Bosch's paintings of hell, he made some awesome color choices, and I think they hold up to modernity really well.

These were from a walk in the park. I really wasn't able to get much more than just color dabs here, and discovered it's tough to paint outside (from reflections in the screen). I found it easiest to find a shady tree to hide under.

I came back to this one at home and added the red....thing...because I want to be cool.

On a drive with my sister, I sat in the passenger seat drawing things as they passed.

Drawing the ocean to relax.

A little guy fighting the 90's

A creature that eats trees and poops bricks. They slowly turn forests into bricked wastelands. Believe it.

Just a big cube tank in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Space Girl

2008-09-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

This one is a little older, but she's never seen the light of day so I thought i'd give her a shot. I wanted to try coloring the lines a bit, see how that works.

Exoskeleton

2008-09-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

A quick one done to the theme of "exoskeleton". I was trying to get a particular mood with the colors, and this about 80% there.

Hellboy

2008-09-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

taking a crack at big red. I love his jaw/chin/mouth, and i was trying to add something without taking away from his character.

A place to put a few things

2008-09-06T14:57:00.001-07:00

I'll be able to throw up sketches, and anything i'm able to do during my spare time.

This is a lunch quicky done to the theme of "artificial sacrifice".