Book covers

Sci-fi novels with my covers <3

Books by Kenneth Buff

Phidelphius Is Here

Phidelphius is here.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1534760601

Cover process:
http://wojtala.blogspot.com/2016/06/phidelphius.html

Phidelphius unboxing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzctlhh2FnY

Space Station Exploration

Today's Daily Deviation on DeviantArt:

http://m-wojtala.deviantart.com/art/Space-Station-Exploration-537019528

Phidelphius

Cover for "Phidelphius" - a sci-fi novel by Kenneth Buff.  www.kennethbuff.com/

Small work in progress steps tutorial:

1) Final sketch in sync with the script. I tend to be fast and bold here with opaque brushes. At this point I work with a few layers and in black and white. I add colors on adjustment layers few add/darken/lighten layer options and this time it is the best way to be able to easily change form and colors fast. Composition, size of elements and mood is most important here.

2) I separate the layers, create precise silhouettes and forms. I have the coloring layers available at any time. I decided to work on this in black and white for a longer time then usual.

3) Rendering, effects and post process. Some smaller changes, few iterations and you can see final artwork above.

Fortress Defense - step by step

Since most of my work now is NDA I wanted to share one of my older artworks (2014). I wanted to create an oldschool illustration, inspired by tech dwarfs idea. At that time I was mostly developing my workflow, let me tell you about it.

During one of short polish interviews after Gears of War: Judgment I was asked to draw a speed paint of a dwarf. The idea of tech dwarfs, interstellar miners stuck with me and I painted this quick artwork.

After some time I decided to develop the tech dwarf idea a little bit further. I did a round of sketches. I wanted it to be some kind of troop drop at first, but after a while I decided to make it a defense of a dwarf mining colony. Defense against bug's invasion. I can sketches in color but I do prefer black and white, I do love to work in grayscale.

After setting up composition I like to develop a basic color palette. I use adjustment layers and simply go where I feel is right. Also from time to time I do use a palette from (I recommend that - helps me to go out from my comfort zone): http://moviesincolor.com/

Also I remember I did a lot of sketches as a child. I found a few and one had a fortress defense with lasers piercing flying enemies. I was happy to use the idea after many years.

At that point I was learning Modo, and wanted to use it for base geometry. It was not very useful to be honest. I told you I was working on workflow?

It was time for rendering. I worked on design of the tank and dwarfs. I decided to make it a litlle bit cartoony and over the top. This one was for me so why not? I was not perfectly happy with but I wanted to end make it work. Main idea behind this was to develop tech dwarfs idea and workflow.

Fortress Defense -Tech Dwarfs, many hours later. At some point it is time to stop working one piece and start something new. Not super happy with this one but I have learned few things here.

If you have any feedback regarding this artwork or this small small tutorial please write here or directly to me.

Thanks, hope you like this.

MW

Evil Fortress - Tutorial

A few words more about Evil Fortress.

I wanted to paint a snowy environment. At that point I was doing a lot of 20-50 minutes sketches. The majestic fortress sketch was my favorite. You can see some arrows and lines - I was thinking about focal points and path leading your eye, I had a plan.

At this early phase I still add elements and modify composition when I see fit. I used a lot of custom brushes and photo textures. It was something I was training at that point in time. I liked the environment getting more dark and moody.

I did like composition and overall feeling but I felt I can put more love in colors. I did a few color balance iterations, but the brightest idea was painting quickly the changing snowy evening outside my window. It helped me a lot to get the colors right. Plain air can be very useful.

After that it was just simple rendering. I used few new custom brushes, just to learn something new. Also I ended up with overpainting most of photo textures but I did like that. At some point I just stopped painting this Evil Fortress and decided to show it to the world.
I hope you liked this step by step. More to come soon.
Peace!

Gala Collider kickstarter

Some of my artworks will be used in Gala Collider universe. The game is a combination of a card game and a 4X game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate). Looks cool! Kickstarter campaign has just begun.


https://youtu.be/EIHdZgEPTG8

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1806523158/galacollider-master-your-strategy-conquer-the-gala?ref=video

Flying Wild Hog retrofuturism

A few months ago I created some retrofuturistic concepts at Flying Wild Hog. The art depicted a vast space station with a unique art style. Here are a few concepts that were created.

Sunborn

Cover for the latest science fiction novel by Kenneth Buff. www.kennethbuff.com/

Dick and Henry

Retro sci-fi cover for a science fiction short story collection by Kenneth Buff. www.kennethbuff.com/

Buy it on Amazon.

UE4 sample game concept art

 Few concepts I did for Unreal Engine 4 sample game in early 2013.

Fortress Defense

Interstellar miners - the tech dwarfs- defending their factory fortress. Had this idea for a while and finally managed to visualized it. Also trying out some new brushes and technics.

Inspired by the laser battles I used to draw when I was a kid ;)

 Hope you dig, cheers!

Judgment Concepts

I can start showing few more concepts from Gear of War Judgment. Mood and architecture ideas for the team for different locations in the game. It was really fun working with those Gears of War environments.

Sketch

A quick warm up, hope you dig.

Colony

Fast generic sci-fi practise sketch...

Sketches

Few fast personal sketches I have been doing lately.

The Last Resort

Personal work