Arnaud de Vallois - Art Blog

Tribute to Stephen Gammell

2012-01-01T23:23:00.000-08:00

Not sure what to title this one, but this is my attempt at the style of the awesome Stephen Gammell. His illustrations from the old Scary Stories series are just terrifyingly beautiful. I've been obsessed since I was a kid. If you don't already have the original books, do yourself a favor and get them.

Rag & Bone

2011-12-26T21:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays! Spent a bit more time than usual on this to try a little different style. Not entirely sold on the whole concept but I'm gonna call it anyways and get back to working on some other stuff.

I'm also very close to having a bunch of new prints done. Should have a link up for the online shop by early next week. In theory.

Phantom Ganon

2011-11-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

Based on this boss from Ocarina of Time.

"Phantom Ganon is a recurring antagonist in the Legend of Zelda series. He is an entity of pure evil, created by Ganondorf to be a perfect servant and, if need be, killing machine, who asks no questions and does what his master commands."

Art Show Nov. 1st

2011-10-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

Next Tuesday November 1st, in downtown San Diego.
Make it if you can! Going to be a crazy show with a crazy amount of awesome artists.

These are the three I got done for the show. I'll probably post the other three at some point when I finish them.

Poe

2011-10-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

Based on this awesome enemy from the Zelda series.

"Poes are recurring enemies in the Legend of Zelda series. They are ghost-like spirits of deceased beings who hold hatred towards the world and can be found in dark places such as graveyards, empty fields, plains, and caves."

Cruella de Vil

2011-10-03T23:52:00.000-07:00

Needs more polish/fixes but I'm done working on it for now. I do kinda like how the cigarette came out.

Maleficent

2011-09-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

On the Outs

2011-08-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

Resolve

2011-08-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

Cruella de Vil - WIP

2011-07-31T20:43:00.000-07:00

I like where this is going, but it needs more. More sass, more snarl. And maybe her hand with the cigarette holder, among other fixes. I'll come back to it.

Captain Hook - WIP

2011-07-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

Feels like a WIP so I'm probably going to come back to him.

The Buried Moon

2011-06-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

I'd never heard of this fairy tale, but I liked the name.
This went many different directions/ideas and I'm not a hundred percent sold on it yet.

The full tale here- http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/meft/meft24.htm

The Crooked Man

2011-06-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

Rhyme source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Was_a_Crooked_Man

There's room for improvement on this one but
I still kind of like it.
Very, very loosely based on the rhyme. Probably too loosely.

Little Red Wraith

2011-04-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

Deviled

2011-03-30T18:54:00.000-07:00

Corvin

2011-03-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

sketch/study

2011-02-09T19:45:00.000-08:00

Yeah I'm not really sure what this is.

color study - lighthouse

2011-02-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

38:50 poster art

2011-02-01T18:31:00.000-08:00

Recently got a chance to do poster art for the short film 38:50, directed by Dreamworks animator Chris Capel. These are a few of the rough concepts I had along the way; in the end he went with the top left piece. Great fun all the way through. The final version of the poster with title text is here.

And the trailer:
38:50 trailer

Mr. and Mrs.

2011-01-19T21:55:00.000-08:00

For the Love Show on Feb 15th. Make it if you can!

Glad Rags

2010-11-11T22:41:00.001-08:00

Headless Horseman

2010-11-08T22:23:00.000-08:00

Blots

2010-10-26T23:40:00.000-07:00

Dead Wringer

2010-09-06T20:44:00.000-07:00

Dedicated to Pumpkinrot, who I found out graciously featured my stuff on his blog a couple of times in the past. He's got a thing for scarecrows (and really, who doesn't? They're awesome.) Maker of bad ass Halloween props (and real scarecrows - they're fantastic), check out his work!

Pumpkinrot's official site

scoundrels - "Conniver"

2010-08-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

Malaise

2010-08-11T00:19:00.000-07:00

scoundrels - "Swindler"

2010-08-02T23:28:00.001-07:00

scoundrels - "Charlatan"

2010-07-29T23:27:00.000-07:00

The Final Slowdance

2010-06-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

Jack the Ripper

2010-04-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

31 August, 1888 - London

Been wanting to do a piece on Jack the Ripper for a while so this was a lot of fun. It has its fair share of problems, but I'm pretty happy with it overall.

Back to Nothing

2010-04-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do something with this old sketch for a while. I probably should've spent more time on refining the anatomy and lighting. Now I'm wanting to do a companion piece; probably some kind of devil.

For Better, For Worse

2010-02-22T21:58:00.000-08:00

Longing

2010-01-26T20:43:00.001-08:00

Murder!

2009-12-04T21:21:00.000-08:00

old update

2009-11-15T22:22:00.000-08:00

Added some color to an old pencil sketch I posted a while back.

2009-10-31T23:13:00.000-07:00

Though a little rushed and a little rough..

Red End

2009-10-18T22:48:00.000-07:00

New stuff

2009-10-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

So after too long a time without a wacom I finally just got an intuos4 and I very highly recommend it.

These concepts were done while playing with different brush variations.

Don your 3d glasses!

2009-06-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

You need a pair of these!
My first pass at stereoscopic imagery. Not the greatest images, but at least the effect is working.

The Very Bad Wolf

2009-06-13T03:08:00.000-07:00

My version of the big bad wolf. I went through a couple different concepts before settling on this one. Though I'm still not 100% sold on him yet; I do like the sort of rough/sketchy Stephen Gammel look the overall image has.

Headless Horseman

2009-06-09T01:22:00.000-07:00

Concept piece for one of the 3d projects that'll be keeping me busy this summer.

Demo Reel

2009-06-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

more PDF stuff

2009-06-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

Some of the sketches and ideas I did for the cabin scene.

More breaking.

2009-05-30T01:33:00.000-07:00

I've started to try and do some mood/abstract paintings in an attempt to branch out and keep from drawing the same stuff over and over. Not sure if it helps but it's definitely fun.

Break time 2

2009-05-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

I may have gone too far with the "water" and some areas are a little ambiguous, overall composition needs work too. Though this isn't exactly the most original piece to begin with.

Webs

2009-05-10T03:46:00.000-07:00

I took an old, pretty boring project I did for class a while ago and tried to bring it back to life using a spider and some webs. Because spiders and webs can make anything look cool. But then I realized I had never actually tried doing webs. Much testing/cursing ensued, and here's the first pass.
Each web in the shot has its own shader as I'm trying to figure out which is heading in the right direction...but they're all a bit cartoony right now. . And I need to show those roots some more love as they're a little on the plastic side.

Done! ...sort of

2009-05-04T02:53:00.001-07:00

-Based on the badass painting "Dirt and Blood" by Brom. bromart.com

Done for now, anyway. There's a couple of things that I feel need to be fixed before I can call it.
But for where it's at now I'm pretty happy with the results. The colors are pretty off right now, though. Can't wait to do a real render with mental ray; til then Zbrush screenshots and turntables will do.

Different update

2009-04-30T23:19:00.000-07:00

An update on a different project. A few posts down I showed some shots of this street scene and said I would completely re-work the lighting, and here's what I have so far. I basically deleted every single light in the original scene and just started from scratch. I'm also playing with glow effects and some depth of field on the camera to help add to the soft, sort of dreamy-ish look I'm going for.

Color pass...and dirty shoes

2009-04-28T23:55:00.001-07:00

First pass of color/texture for the body. It all still needs work, but the shoes are getting close.

Progress

2009-04-21T00:54:00.001-07:00

He's finally starting to come together. Next is the grass, falling leaves and a bit more tweaking. Then it's coloring time!

Coat and hands start

2009-04-09T23:38:00.001-07:00

So when I started sculpting the hand I realized that this dude has impossibly long fingers. I debated whether or not I should make them more anatomically correct, but decided that I should just remain faithful to the original painting and keep the stylization; I mean a floating vampire isn't exactly realistic to begin with. And if Brom painted it that way, then dammit that's good enough for me.

Sculpting start

2009-04-05T01:45:00.000-07:00

First ZBrush update; I figured I'd start with the head and work my way down. About 60% done, need to refine some shapes and pop some eyes in there tomorrow.

Progress

2009-04-03T01:47:00.001-07:00

Almost ready for ZBrush tomorrow.

and more projects

2009-03-20T23:48:00.000-07:00

Someone wanted to see some closer-up shots of the cabin scene.

Still needs work, but I'm letting it sit for now while I spend more time on these other projects..

Modeling/texturing done by yours truly with lighting courtesy of my friend Brian. Though I definitely think his lighting is awesome, I'll be re-working it and taking it in a slightly different direction in order to show more of the models I'll be adding.

In the meantime, I'm also chippin away at a character model.

Based on this fantastic painting by Brom called "Dirt and Blood".

I'm working on recreating this entire piece in 3d, down to the falling leaves. So far I've got an almost sort-of-completed base mesh.

His coat still needs a top collar as well as buttons, and his pants, hands and shoes need more work. And then he needs a face, which I may just completely end up doing in Zbrush.

More progress

2009-03-14T22:57:00.000-07:00

I'll hopefully be adding more details and tweaking the lights/shadows before the deadline on Monday.

Progress

2009-03-10T00:41:00.001-07:00

So instead of creating an entire environment for this scene, I decided to just slap it on a turntable and call it a "set piece" for now. I'll be adding some low-lying fog and little details and things to the ground to break up the vanilla, as well as adding some more final lighting in here soon.

First CG update

2009-02-28T21:42:00.000-08:00

My first 3d post for this blog is a couple of early renders of a stylized cabin scene I'm currently working on. Modeling is about 75% done, with a lot more BG trees/scenery to be added. No real textures/lights yet.
I tried to create a tree that had some life/character to it, like it's sort of sizing up the cabin ready to pounce...which it will if I get time to animate this scene (the tree is rigged.)

Charcoal Angel

2009-02-23T23:36:00.000-08:00

This was originally a study for a larger oil painting I wanted to do...but never did.

Descartes a la charcoal

2009-02-16T23:43:00.000-08:00

Another piece that I'll never see again thanks to that flooding incident I mentioned in the last post. Although I'm not 100% sure it was part of the big, wet stack of work I had to throw away, I have no idea where else it could've ended up since I haven't been able to find it anywhere.

I gave him a slightly different expression than what he has in the reference I used.

His hair looks too rushed and glumpy, his nose too flat and his eyes are little floaty, but I'm alright with it.

Old vue de Paris

2009-02-10T23:49:00.000-08:00

These were done in my last trip to France about four years ago now. The top one was done at Pont Neuf adjacent to Notre Dame Cathedral. Everyone and their mother was sketching the cathedral so I figured I'd try its surroundings instead. It came out a little more wobbly than I wanted.
The second one was done at the Musee d'Orsay.
They're part of a pretty full sketchbook I'm trying to salvage from a flooding incident at my place last year. They're in the first couple of pages of the book so they didn't get as wet/soggy as the rest.

More nightmare forest concepts

2009-01-27T23:01:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to come up with different styles for the sort of "creepy forest atmosphere" that we're going for in the 2D Studio project. This one being simple and completely void of any kind of obvious "evil face" indication...

...and the second being the complete opposite. Though I guess there's really only one clear face in that one; there's a hell of a lot more I put in, but I ended up knocking them back a bit so it didn't look too corny.

Nightmare concept - take 2

2009-01-23T21:52:00.000-08:00

Tried a different, minimal color scheme and I think I'm liking it better...though that's probably because I'm so damn tired of looking at the first one.

Nightmare concept

2009-01-21T23:20:00.000-08:00

So this thing started off as a concept piece for a project, then turned into something that's probably way too saturated. The project is for my 2D Studio class. Each group was told to come up with a ghost story set in the woods. So the first week each person in the group was to just come up with concepts for the look - backgrounds, color schemes, etc.

I did a few different looking pieces and here's the first one so far. It's a healthy mix of smudged painting and photo manip.

I know there's no real light source. It originally was coming out of that central hollow with some additional atmospheric light, but that looked...assy. I'll come up with something eventually, but for now it'll just have to remain a nonsensical glow.