Toys & Gaming Illustration
Do you need to present your products in a special, idealized situation or create a special effects type of reality in which to position them? Illustration is the way to create the perfect presentation artwork for toys, games, magazine ads, packaging and product literature. Give us a call to discuss your products and what you have in mind.
Dragon Bowl Game Board Characters
Chronomancer Xan TenPin
The sixth and final character which Brad created for the
“Dragon Bowl” board game for Scarb Enterprises in Feb 2021.
Brad photographed a very muscular body builder clothed in a pair of
judo pants, home made ankle wraps, and sandals. Most of the upper body
garb were then added over the shirtless torso and fine details were painted in
place. The blue stain on the arms and hands were created by using a very soft edge
selection and applying a blue coloration from the color balance tool. Finally the yellow
finger symbols were added and warped into place so that they would follow the contours of the fingers and hands.
Omara Stoneight
To wrap up 2020, Brad created a fifth character for the "Dragon Bowl" board game for Scarb Enterprises. To create what appeared to be a full suit of body armor Brad hired an actress, who modeled in a simple metallic body suit. First all wrinkles in the suit had to be painted out so they they looked smooth. Next, each individual piece of armor was painstakingly repainted piece by piece. Red coloration was added to specific areas of the suit, and the face was altered to have negroid features.
Ro’Allay Dawnstrike
An Elven spell caster with magical powers that exude from her pores like wisps of energy.
Brad first purchased a floral, sleeveless party dress which was slightly translucent. Brad photographed a model with an intense backlight directly behind the dress, and then photographed various parts of the dress as they were held up in front of the light, to appear as though they were billowing or fluttering in the wind. The dress was then composited together to make a whole using many different photos of the various dress segments. The dress was warped and extended in the computer to further enhance the feeling that it was floating or billowing in the wind. Finally, the floral pattern was retouched to remove it from the dress, and the dress was recolorized to appear almost iridescent with multicolored reds, blues and greens.
Meganna Sparemore
A half human, half orc ranger who knows the lay of the land and is fierce in battle.
Brad hired an actress for a photoshoot in a studio lighting setup. He had the model wear some basic articles of clothing. From there he recolored the skin color to appear greenish, and digitally painted in every detail of the character down to little cuts and scrapes on the skin. The details included wolf’s fur on the garments, war paint on the forehead and shoulder, long dreadlocks, and bone daggers strapped to each thigh.
Baroden Pincrusher
Dwarf king warrior.
Brad hired a very well muscled bodybuilder and photographed him in a studio lighting set up. Brad then warped the body proportions to dramatically thicken the arms and legs, widen the body, and to make the body appear short and stout. Most all of the costume details including beard, shield, axe, mace and tabard were painted in by hand on the computer.
Prince Corwin Waunabole
A nobleman who was unfortunate as a child to have lost the use of his hands, but trains himself in the art of knife throwing and makes up his inadequacies through magical hand braces which can read his thoughts.
Brad first purchased some essential costume parts — a medieval jerkin (leather vest), and shirt, as well as leather pants. Brad then photographed the model at close range to enhance the perspective, and to give detail to the frontal hand. The majority of the details were painted in by hand such as the brace of knives across the chest, the hair, the mechanical hand devices, leg daggers, leather skirt, boots and throwing knife. Also the face was totally reconstructed and repainted to look youthful and handsome.
Dragon Bowl Board Game Artwork
In 2019 Brad was commissioned by Scott Eder, owner of Scarb Enterprises, to create a board game. This was Brad’s first game board design. The premise was a classically original idea to integrate the sport of bowling with a fantasy board game designed for people of all ages. To create a logo design showing a dragon perched on a bowling ball, Brad sculpted a detailed model in 3-D. Next, he photographed the sculpture and finally the skin coloration along with the flame effects were painted in digitally in the computer.
Bartini A-57 Soviet Bomber
Another in a series of box cover illustrations created for Fantastic Plastic Models, LLC. The Bartini A-57 Bomber - a Soviet, Cold War-Era concept aircraft designed by Italian engineer Robert Bartini for the Soviet Union in the mid 1950s.
Brad received the fully assembled and painted model which he photographed using a simple window light. The underside of the model was lit with a small pen light. Then the background was digitally painted using a variety of reference cloud images, and a fleet of soviet ships.
"Rocinante" spaceship from TV's "The Expanse"
In 2018 Brad was commissioned by Fantastic Plastic Models, to do the packaging illustration for the toy model of the “Rocinante”, the hero ship from the Sci-Fi TV series “The Expanse” (2015). Working with a highly detailed model Brad photographed the ship using an intense backlight near the rear of the craft to simulate the glaring light from a nearby star. Brad hand-created the surrounding asteroid field by sculpting about a dozen mini meteorites in clay and suspending them on tiny threads. He then photographed them from multiple angles. Then, in the computer, these photographs were then duplicated, resized, refined and scattered all around the ship so that they looked like hundreds.”
Mars Ascent Vehicle illustration for Fantastic Plastic Model Kit
In 2017 Brad was commissioned by Fantastic Plastic Models company to do the box cover illustration for a highly detailed toy model of the MAV landing vehicle that was featured in the 2015 film “The Martian”. The toy model was so detailed - down to the tiniest, almost microscopic, decals on the legs - that there was very little digital painting that was needed on the toy model itself.
Brad Photographed the model using studio lighting to match the harsh, reddish sunlight of the red planet. The clouds and landscape were digitally painted in using reference images from the Jordan Valley near Israel.
Illustration for WWII Model Plane Kit
This is the second in a series of continuing illustrations created as a packaging design for Fantastic Plastic Models, LLC. The Vickers Type C Giant Bomber was a concept aircraft from WWII. It had 6 sets of twin counter-rotating propellers and an unusual rear-mounted wing design and a set of smaller wings (canards) set closer to the cockpit. Brad was directed to portray an air battle between the giant bomber and the German jet fighter plane known as the Messerschmitt ME 262 that came into limited service near the end of the war.
The illustration was made by first suspending the model by fine thread and lighting it from below using an intense incandescent light to simulate the warm glow of the setting sun in the background. A blue gelled light from above the model simulated the light from the open sky. Using several reference cloud and sky photos, Brad digitally painted the background, including the anti-aircraft fire and flak explosion clouds.
Illustration for Model Spaceship Kit
In 2017 Brad linked up with a toy manufacturer called “Fantastic Plastic Models”, a company offering model kits of striking and unusual aircraft from the World War II era all the way through the latest Science Fiction concepts out of major motion pictures such as "Star Trek", and the "Avengers”.
The model he was to illustrate was called the NX-Alpha / NX-Beta Warp Ship from the film “Star Trek: Enterprise — First Flight” (2003). The owner shipped the assembled model to Brad who photographed it suspended from threads. Brad lit the ship with one strong main light, to simulate the light from the sun, and a blueish fill light from underneath to add extra detail to the underside of the craft. Color and texture details were painted in as well as the background image of the Earth.
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