The Summoning - Guild Wars 2

I finished up a few tweaks to the previous Facebook cover photo and turned it into a Guild Wars 2 themed image - when the Al.chemy pieces started to come together yesterday, this is the result that formed in my mind.

In the game's mythology, the "Deep Sea Dragon" is a bit of a mystery, as it is the only Elder Dragon to not be named thus far.  Each dragon has a champion, and since increased activity of the enemy NPC race known as the Krait seems to be linked to this Dragon's activity, I thought this champion should certainly bear a similar appearance.

Guild Wars 2 comes out on the 28th of August, and it is going to be a long wait.  After playing in all three beta weekends and the two stress tests, I am already in love with the game.

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Facebook Cover Photo: The Summoning

An exercise using Alchemy and Photoshop.  There was no initial plan for this image, I just let the Alchemy shapes take over and I went along for the ride.  I'll put this in the "Facebook Cover Photo" category, since I started haphazardly with those dimensions when I was exporting shapes into Photoshop.

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Misc.: Dancer in London

A few weeks back I showed off a couple of rejected logo designs done for a dance studio based out of southern New Jersey.   I was happy to find out today that the owner used the central images (the dancers) as part of a banner for the studio's trip to the 2012 Olympics in London!  Take a look:

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There is still a bit of time before the studio changes names and is able to use the new logo, but it will still be cool to see a shot of the banner from one of the performance venues in London next month.

(Photo copyright of Artistry Academy of Performing Arts/Absecon Academy of Performing Arts)

Facebook Cover Photo: Mountains

Another Facebook cover photo image, this time taken from one of my old 3-panel comics and altered to match the proper dimensions.

Warm-Up Sketch: GenericHero001

A few weeks ago I got a copy of Sketchbook Pro.  Today, to go along with that, I managed to upgrade my pen tablet from a 4x5 Wacom Graphire to a 6x9 Wacom Intuos4.  After fooling around with random, scratch lines a bit, here is the first thing that fell out of quickly testing the two together: nothing grandiose, but good practice for getting used to the pressure sensitivity settings.  I am looking forward to testing out how the tablet handles in Photoshop as well.

I should note that the title "GenericHero001" is a nod to the game City of Heroes.
When people create characters that mimic copyrighted characters, their names would
eventually be changed to GenericHero and a number.