New Eight Bit Strange desktop wallpaper featuring Altair at http://www.8bitstrange.com/extras

Also Check out all first season episodes at http://www.8bitstrange.com/videos

I finally had a chance to paint a little today and I decided to step away from my usual conceptual sci-fi stuff and take  a stab at a Eight Bit Strange original. A lot of you have been asking me about figurines and toys but since Snake and the rest of the current cast are based on characters developed by Hidoe Kojima , I am unable to make any toys available without specifc permission which I do not have. But custom art on the other hand is fair game. I plan on making a few original paintings and eventually making them available for purchase in order to support the series. These will be original one of a kind paintings and will come with a certificate of authenticity … and hopefully a elegant frame.   (no prints will be made available to keep the collection truly unique)

I have decided to work in my favorite fine art medium which just so happens to be Gouache. I fell in love with gouache a few years back while studying the work of Erik Tiemens. It has a great matte finish and allows me to incorporate acrylics or even oils if I choose to.

Here’s a preview of one I just finished. Still drying and unframed

(Painted on a 9 x 12 in. 100% cotton , professional grade 140lb  arches paper)

Episode Update: Just wrapped up the modeling/set creation on episode 4 and animation begins tomorrow. If all goes well I should wrap up around the 15th.

We have a little thread going on the Animation Forum where someone posts a scribble and the rest of us see what we can make of it. This time around I saw a whale.

We’d love to have more people join in on the fun, if you want to practice some art join us at the What Do You See thread on the animationforum. The winner of each scribble gets to start the next one, so there is no end to the madness.

Got featured in .psdPhotoshop magazine this month. I have article on the creation of the image above. You can grab a free PDF version of the magazine from here http://download.psdmag.org/en/always_be_one_step_ahead_06_10.pdf

My article starts on page 40, enjoy.