http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/ nickillus's gallery of images en-us 120 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/827397

With ArtRage 3 just about to escape into the public arena, ImagineFX asked me to do a quick workshop with it while still in Beta - with Ambient's permission of course. As part of the beta testing team, I'm still not free to duscus all the features, but today Ambient put out a press release on their site naming new tools like the watercolour and inkline tools. That and issue 51 of ImagineFX is out now, so the cat is out of the bag.

I was going for a watercoloury, real media look. The bland area in the upper right was to allow for text to be overlaid.

The idea is about the 'Down in the Mouth' dentistry service, suitable for discomforted giants. They turn up, little knowing the dwarfs's secret agenda to mine their teeth for gold.

ArtRage 3
copyright future Publishing and Nick Harris 2009]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:20:38 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/824901

An illustration done for the Templar book - Drake's Comprehensive Compendium of Dragonology (A J Wood) - ISBN 978 1 84011 644 1 (http://www.templarco.co.uk/ologies/dragonology.html).

Templar control all copyright of course.

Illustrated with tons of excellent work by Douglas Carrel and Tomislav Tomic, I had to adapt my style to fit in with their established look. My contributions are all pretty small. Great fun to be a part of.

]]> Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:05:16 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/824110

An illustration done for the Templar book - Drake's Comprehensive Compendium of Dragonology (A J Wood) - ISBN 978 1 84011 644 1 (http://www.templarco.co.uk/ologies/dragonology.html).

Templar control all copyright of course.

Illustrated with tons of excellent work by Douglas Carrel and Tomislav Tomic, I had to adapt my style to fit in with their established look. All mine are pretty small. Great fun to be a part of.

Totally Sketchbook Pro 2010 ]]> Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:58:53 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/808512

ImagineFX magazine just closed a competition (midnight Sept 18th 2009) to come up with a possible image for the fromt cover of their forthcoming 50th issue. It's bound to draw a lot of great entries in an I just wanted to be a part of it. The teme was 'Celebration'. I turned this out in ArtRage, with a tiny bit of tweaking in Sketchbook Pro2010.
This actually a bit further on than my submiited piece for the challenge. Just ran out of time, juggling other work again.

Copyright Nick Harris 2009]]> Sat, 19 Sep 2009 09:50:39 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/795841

Begun for the Coneptart.org 'Newborn' challenge, but discarded because I lost interest in it. Went back to it and did some more on it when I needed an example of some Sketchbook Pro work in a bit of a hurry, taking it to this stage. Not as polished a I'd really like, but too many other things on the go to be able to justify spending any more time on it.

Copyright Nick Harris 2009]]> Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:26:14 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/791805

Just painted in ArtRage, with a bit of Sketchbook Pro for the Newborn cjallenge at Conceptart.org. Ended up being much more hurried than I intended because so muc other stuff got in the way - as usual.
Copyright Nick Harris 2009]]> Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:09:47 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/771031

Had to come up with a generic image of a dragon that would be suitable for kids. Didn't have long, so knocked this out in Sketchbook Pro. Could stand a deal more work, but there just wasn't time.
copyright Nick Harris June 2009]]> Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:30:35 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/710489

Just did this to accompany a small magazine piece due out in the New Year. Playing with textures and such. It was another chance to see how far I could push Sketchbook Pro, which is always an enjoyable task. Could stand a deal more work in the details, but I just haven't the time.

Totally Sketchbook Pro.

Copyright Nick Harris 2008 ]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:14:26 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/702952

Another ArtRage piece, done to support a small magazine article.
It is supposed to be about giving expression to creatures and breathing some life into them, but if I can inject any humour into something I nearly always try. Not saying I succeed, but I do try.

Full caption would be -
'With a whole new planet to choose from, do you have to do that there, Tinker?'

Totally ArtRage 2.5 software

copyright Nick Harris 2008 ]]> Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:36:55 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/695101

My response to a witch based Halloween challenge over at Pixelbrush.com. Totally painted in Artrage apart from a tiny bit of layer tweaking done in Painter to speed things up as the deadline approached.
ArtRAge 2.5
copyright Nick Harris 2008]]> Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:36:09 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/692377

A quick sketch of an elf and fairy done in Sketchbook Pro for a magazine article coming out soon. The background simply comprises some texture photos I took a while ago, overlaid and worked back into. Unifying shadow layers hold it together.

copyright Nick Harris 2008 ]]> Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:03:17 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/676821

A piece done to support an article in the current issue of Imaginefx magazine (issue 36). The text discusses budget and free software, so the image was done entirely in ArtRage to be in tune with it.
Copyright Nick Harris 2008]]> Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:45:17 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/672158

One of those unfinished challenge pics that was hanging around waiting to be forgotten. Work was going really badly, so I took a break and spent half an hour on this instead. Just about presentable. Better than ditching it anyhow.

Totally ArtRage2.5

copyright Nick Harris 2008
Comment]]> Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:27:28 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/645005

A piece from a forthcoming 'Fairy Bible' published by Hamlyn. These are according to their description of 'Gnomes'. Managed to get myself into all sorts of overdue deadline fun on the pieces for this project. Urgh! So many all nighters . . . . .

PainterX

Copyright Nick Harris and Hamlyn 2007 ]]> Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:27:16 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/634017

Just done for a challenge at Pixelbrush.com entitled Myth. Being rather undecisive and with o many wonderful myths to choose from, all with magical moments, I was spoiled for choice. So I went a different way and began to wonder if mythological beings would believe in each other and what if they didn't. So if the Grim Reaper doesn't believe in Faeries - does that kill them?

I also used this as an exerise to push ArtRage again. This is totally ArtRage 2.5. Only the text was added in Photoshop. I've even avoided colour adjustment etc, to see what happens.
Totally made up without reference as per usual.

Copyright Nick Harris 2008]]> Wed, 21 May 2008 12:58:02 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/626993

My entry for the Imaginefx Design a cover comp 2008. Even the winner won't be used, but you had to theme the piece as if the issue was about character creation. There have been some cracking entries, and well worth taking part in as a great exercise.

Not as finished as I'd like - (I could do with a key stroke to write that on every piece description!). Started in Sketchbook Pro and then taken to PainterX.

Copyright Nick Harris 2008 ]]> Thu, 01 May 2008 11:07:06 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/623980

Just submitted for the friendly 'Massive' themed challenge over at Pixelbrush.com. Not as finished as I'd like because of a chunk of time being taken up by a hardware failure, but never mind. Not totally serious like most of my work. Given more time, I fancied introducing a whole team of SWAT team helicopters buzzing around, and being able to call the piece 'Swatting' instead.

Had to stick the brown frame top and bottom to get CGSociety loader to take it. Never mind.]]> Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:15:40 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/614560

Concept work from a personal book project I'm working on with talented author and friend, Caroline Juskus. Unlikely to be used as is, because the story has evolved, but something along these lines may well end up being one of the illustrations. Sketchbook Pro (beta testing).

Copyright Nick Harris 2007 ]]> Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:56:41 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/572704

Done totally in Sketchbook Pro, it's a generic scene for the fairy tale 'Princess and the Goblins'. I just wanted to see how far I could take a piece in the software. I usually only use it on the early sketch work, for which it is outstanding.

Copyright Nick Harris 2007]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:53:40 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/578734

Entry for an informal challenge at Imaginefx.com themed 'Unlucky explorer'.
caption-
'Intrepid explorer Rugged Rabbit noticed a sharp downturn in his fortunes following the tragic loss of his foot in a freak accident involving a keyring.'

Totally Sketchbook Pro
copyright Nick Harris 2008]]> Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:15:29 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/554828

Another quickie done for one of the weekly challenges over at Imaginefx.com. The theme for this one was 'Tattoos', so I decided to keep the palette pretty muted and go for a more traditional pen and inky look.
All done in ArtRage 2.5 apart from the Type, done in Photoshop.

ArtRAge 2.5
copyright Nick Harris 2007]]> Sat, 27 Oct 2007 12:43:04 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/581226

Done for a challenge at Imaginefx.com, themed on a short story of the same name by Kay Inglis, on their staff. The tale tells of a UK council emloyee who is rather bad at his job of vampire hunting (humorously of course).
All Sketchbook Pro apart from some minor tonal tweaking in Photoshop.

copyright Nick Harris 2008]]> Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:54:29 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/554360

A piece done quickly over a few days for the 'Cuties Who Bite', Halloween Challenge at PixelBrush. Did what I could in the time, but it could stand a deal more work of course.
Did most of the donkey work in ArtRage, taking it cross to Painter and Photoshop for their better file handling when the lack of time demanded it.

Copyright Nick Harris 2007]]> Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:04:48 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/524689

An illustration comissioned as part of a workshop for the ImagineFX magazine, hitting the stands now. I was asked to discuss the considerations when tailoring a piece for the children's book market. There was no specific art brief, so I concocted a story about a goddess of the day and god of the night squabbling about who should reign in the twlight hours on a remote island.
Painted in PainterX totally without reference.
copyright Nick Harris 2007
Uploaded August 1st 2007]]> Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:57:32 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/548937

Another artwork done for the monthly challenge over at Imaginefx.com. The theme for this one was Steam Punk, and I chose to use it as an exercise to see how far I could push ArtRage2.5 software. Apart form a tiny bit of postwork in Photoshop 7, that's where I did all the painting.

It's not as finished as I'd like with unresolved bits left, right and centre. I'll go back and polish it off properly one day, but it's going in a very large pile of artworks that need that! Ah well.

copyright Nick Harris 2007
ArtRage 2.5]]> Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:25:24 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/546574

A painting done for a weekly challenge over at Imaginexf.com, themed 'Twilight'. Painted totally in ArtRage 2.5, exploring the ability to make custom stencils, that you can transform as you wish. I'm a newbie to the software and wanted to take it out for a spin and see what it can do.

Sofware - ARTRAGE 2.5
copyright Nick Harris 2007]]> Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:42:59 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/525457

Another piece done for a challenge at the Imaginefx website, The given theme for this one was Sea-Fi (how cool is that?). I elected to have some murderous robotic types give mermaid kind a hard time. Not as finished as I'd like, but I just ran out of time.
Painted without reference in PainterX

Copyright Nick Harris 2007
Submitted Aug 3rd 2007]]> Fri, 03 Aug 2007 16:54:56 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/487098

Another painting done wthout reference for one of the challlenges over at the InagineFX website. The theme was 'Mythical Creatures' and gave us pretty free reign. I thought I'd go for a not so nice mermaid type. I failed to finish in time for the competition itself because of actual deadlines, but thought I'd carry on anyway.

Copyright Nick Harris 2007
Submitted 18th April 2007]]> Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:03:13 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/482851

An effort for a Manga art competition over at Imaginefx, that I finished too late because of other deadlines. Not awfully manga, I admit

Copyright Nick Harris 2007
Submitted 6th April 2007.]]> Fri, 06 Apr 2007 11:08:19 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/542250

Done for another of the weekly challenges at Imaginefx.com. The theme was Autumn, and I had to turn this around in about a day. Most of the donkey work was done in ArtRage, before moving to Painter for some fine tuning, and then Photoshop to play with the colours.

Copyright Nick Harris 2007]]> Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:37:35 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/502628

Another image done quickly for the weekly challenge over at Imaginefx.com. The theme was given as 'Wake', and interpretation is up to you after that. Mainly PainterIX.5, using the soft oil pastel variant. Could stand a whole lot more work, but will have to go in the 'one day, when I have more time' pile.

Submitted 1st June 2007
Copyright Nick Harris 2007

]]> Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:59:01 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/474642

Entry for the weekly sketch challenge over at Imaginefx. The theme this week was 'Charge'. All done in PainterX demo, whithout reference. A lot of playing with the large chalk brush variant and a number of paper textures.

Submitted March 5th 2007
Copyright Nick Harris]]> Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:44:17 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/464437

Daft entry for the weekly challenge over a Imaginefx, themed 'Assassin'. The number of bad puns it elicited from the other entrants was frightening. Double Barreled Snot Gun was my favourite of them.

All Painter ix.5 without reference.

Submitted Feb 16th 2007
Copyright Nick Harris 2007]]> Fri, 16 Feb 2007 17:09:16 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/458361

Entry for the monthly Challenge competition over at ImagineFX. This month the theme given was 'Monster in the Closet'. I just wanted to raise a smile if possible. All Painter ix.5 for the painting, with, then prepared in Photoshop 7 for the web.]]> Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:45:16 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/455948

Entry for the the weekly challenge over at Imaginefx, based around the given theme 'Enchanting'. Just for fun, and as far as I could get in the time. Could do with a deal more tinkering. No reference used.

Copyrght Nick Harris 2007
Uploaded Jan 25th 2007]]> Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:51:34 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/435962

Sketch for a planned series of Faery and Elf prints, harking back to a more classical style. No reference used.

Painted in Painter ix and processed through Photoshop 7.

Submitted Novenber 30th 2006.
Copyright Nick Harris 2006]]> Thu, 30 Nov 2006 23:34:55 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/453292

My entry for the second weekly challenge at Imaginefx.com, which runs in an informal sketching forum, whose theme this week was 'Grave Consequences'
Played around with the papers in Painter ix.5, using the large chalk brush variant and round tip oen mostly.

Painter ix.5
Photoshop7
Copyright Nick Harris 2007
Submitted 19th Jan 2007]]> Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:05:47 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/436952

Another idea to maybe be worked up for a print in a series about the real lives of elves and faeries.
Painted in Painter ix without reference.
Processed through Photoshop 7

Submitted December 3rd 2006
Copyright Nick Harris 2006]]> Sun, 03 Dec 2006 22:06:45 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/434211

An ongoing personal dabble on a pet theme from 'that book'. Something I keep coming back to, if ever I get some of that rare free time we all crave.

Submitted 25th November 2006
Copyright Nick Harris 2006]]> Sun, 26 Nov 2006 18:34:30 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/434214

Totally non digital I'm afraid.
Watercolour and ink from a few years back, from an activity book for children about insects, with an adventure theme underpinning it.


Submitted 25th November 2006
Copyright Nick Harris 2006]]> Sun, 26 Nov 2006 18:43:37 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/434178

Artist Oil brush (Painter ix) sketch portrait for some prospective promo work, that looks like it could be a lot of fun to be a part of.

Submitted November 26th 2006
Copyright Nick Harris 2006]]> Sun, 26 Nov 2006 15:45:16 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/434260

Traditional watercolour, totally non digital - sorry.
A throwback to my past real media life.

A proposed cover for a project that never took off.

Submitted 25th November 2006
Coopyright Nick Harris 2006]]> Sun, 26 Nov 2006 21:29:57 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/420258

One of a series of illustrations for a chilren's history book about Vikings. Hence the mostly bland upper half of the composition, because it's where the text plates go. In this case, the text boxes are shown.

Submitted October 22nd 2006
Copyright Nick Harris]]> Sun, 22 Oct 2006 13:00:06 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/420250

One of a series of illustrations for a chilren's history book about Vikings. Hence the mostly bland upper half of the composition, because it's where the text plates go.

Submitted October 22nd 2006
Copyright Nick Harris]]> Sun, 22 Oct 2006 12:45:39 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/420248

One of a series of illustrations for a chilren's history book about Vikings. Hence the mostly bland upper half of the composition, because it's where the text plates go.

Submitted October 22nd 2006
Copyright Nick Harris]]> Sun, 22 Oct 2006 12:38:33 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/420247

One of a series of illustrations for a chilren's history book about Vikings. Hence the mostly bland upper half of the composition, because it's where the text plates go.

Submitted October 22nd 2006
Copyright Nick Harris]]> Sun, 22 Oct 2006 12:35:43 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/420246

One of a series of illustrations for a chilren's history book about Vikings. Hence the mostly bland upper half of the composition, because it's where the text plates go.

Submitted October 22nd 2006
Copyright Nick Harris]]> Sun, 22 Oct 2006 12:32:57 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/366759

'Arnold just couldn't think outside the box, before his first, strong cup of coffee'

Done for a competition a while ago.
Not a statement about the dangers of smoking, as has been suggested to me. Or at least wasn't meant to be.


Copyright Nick Harris 2005]]> Tue, 06 Jun 2006 10:27:51 +0000 http://nickillus.cgsociety.org/gallery/355190

I'm more of a watercolour guy in real media terms, but I have to say the the oils in Painter IX have got me hooked. Definitely worth a look if you haven't already.

Processed through Photoshop 7

Copyright Nick Harris
Submitted May 8th 2006]]> Mon, 08 May 2006 15:39:23 +0000