Portfolio

Thanks for taking a look at my portfolio! Please feel free to follow or contact me at the links below.

Online Store Open for Business!

I opened up a shop at maxbarrow.storenvy.com so I can sell the buttons, prints, and stickers I've only previously made for San Diego Comic-Con all year 'round! I went with Storenvy because I've got limited stock that isn't necessarily hand-made. The process of setting up the shop was really easy and I used it as an opportunity to spruce up my website a little bit behind the scenes as well (been there lately?). Although I'm learning a lot of new stuff and have a lot more to learn in managing something like this, I'm really looking forward to getting into it. Please give it a looksee!

Blog Update Notes + Art Dump

The updating of this blog is sporadic at best, so I'm going ahead and making that the plan! For the most up to date feeds of my work, please follow me at the new links to the right. My tumblr and ArtStation will have my finished work and my Twitter, through my Instagram, will have a mix of sketches and finished work. I'll continue to use this blog for when I have more to say about a given image I've made, give insight into processes, things like that.

So, in the meantime, here's a little art dump. Be sure to check out the links for more. Thanks for reading!

OctoberSketch 2014: Day 06

Day 06: Insolent Warrior

Dark Souls fan art! Finally! I referenced the Insolent Set because I love this idea of the old clerics being a bunch of grave-flipping a-holes. I really want to keep developing this style that's somewhere between Mike Mignola (Hellboy) and Takeshi Koike (Dead Leaves, Redline) as well. I think it would look really good for s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g e-l-s-e I like quite a lot, that I will hopefully be getting to in the very near future. Keep an eye out!

Check out the rest of the OctoberSketchers: octobersketch.blogspot.com

OctoberSketch 2014: Day 05

Day 05: Starfall

Was wandering a bit with this one. Ended up stylizing it after Steven Universe (a very good looking show!),

Check out the rest of the OctoberSketches: octobersketch.blogspot.com

OctoberSketch 2014: Day 04

Day 04: Traveling Merchant

Thought up a merchant character to go with my Days 01 and 02. He's a traveling merchant who gets his wares by looting the corpses of fallen adventurers. A distasteful practice to some but certainly a profitable one for him. He has an eye for rare items and will pay a high price for any you find. Be wary, if he fancies something you wish to keep, that high price might be yours to pay.

Keep up with the rest at: octobersketch.blogspot.com!

OctoberSketch 2014: Day 3

I started to sketch this out in purple and just ran with it. Been listening to a lot of synthwave music lately, so my brain is a bit neon soaked!

Check out the rest!: octobersketch.blogspot.com/

OctoberSketch 2014: Days 1 & 2

It's already October again, so it's a drawing a day until Halloween! I'm gonna say it's more like 30 drawings over 30 days since I'm already doubling up here. Look forward to a lot more!

Since last year I have played so very much Dark Souls and watched Beserk for the first time. This guy and gal are coming from that. I wanted to try out a more animation-like style as well.

Be sure to check out all of the returning and new contributing artists to the main blog here!: octobersketch.blogspot.com

Environment Design Class Work

I recently finished a course on environment design at the Concept Design Academy taught by Bruno Werneck. I learned a lot, and I wanted to share some of the work I did!

We started out designing a sleek and high tech spaceship meant for research. A good design should scale to any size, so we were then tasked with using the ship in creating our first environment.

I decided to go back to a different thumbnail and use the same approach using the actual spaceship less. The last image is what I ended up with after a paintover and some feedback from Bruno.

 

Next we were instructed on how bring more epic-ness to our paintings and were tasked with applying this to one of our old environments. The only kind of fully realized environments I had were the ones from my Airborne project, and I thought those were a bit too similar to what I just did. So I went way back to an environment I did in one of my first concept art classes. It was a part of a series of environments based on The Odyssey. I wanted to depict the island of the Sirens as a trap for any ships that sailed too close to the island.

Finally, we went over using SketchUp to create 3d renders that we could then composite in Photoshop as a base for the environment. I hadn't used SketchUp before so it was slow going at first. I really wanted to try and take advantage of the 3d aspect by having a lot more buildings in this environment as opposed to a lot of natural formations. I also wanted to try the backlit lighting scheme that we were seeing in a lot of the matte paintings we were being shown as examples in class. I learned a lot on this one. It ended up being our final assignment, so it was good practice trying to implement everything we had learned up to that point.

Thanks for scrolling through!

Ninja Art Show + Tumblr

Long time no post! I recently did a piece for a ninja themed art show. I'd imagine shadow warriors grow up just like the rest of us. They might spend more time covered in the blood of their enemies, but they go through the same milestones in life. First steps, first words, first kill. This kunoichi cutie just achieved the latter! She makes her parents so proud!

I also started a tumblr to throw up artwork like this and my OctoberSketches:

Art of Max Barrow

Speaking of OctoberSketch, I threw all of my art from that month onto a separate page on the tumblr. That will make for easier viewing since I intend to bury that stuff on my tumblr feed with lots of new art!

OctoberSketch: Day 30!

30 days of OctoberSketch! I finished this a couple days ago but I'm just posting it now. This was a lot of fun and a fantastic exercise in productivity. Look out for more stuff soon!

OctoberSketch: Day 29

I was listening to a bunch of Adventure Time music today, so I did a picture of Marceline for a little Fan Art Friday!

Process gif:

OctoberSketch!

OctoberSketch: Days 27 & 28

Well! October has officially passed but I'm still going to complete the run, Cool Runnings style. ;D So tonight I've got for you in the spirit of Halloween a creepy lady, as well as a rainbow space abomination I'm calling Lazer Viking. You will party or fall under his hot-stepping boots!

Day 27

Day 28

I didn't make any process gifs but I did want to see how the Lazer Viking would look in action. Choose your beat. DANCE DANCE DANCE!

Check out all the rest of the work at the main OctoberSketch blog!

OctoberSketch: Days 24, 25, & 26

Sprint to the finish! Today I have a generic soldier guy with a "What's that smell?" face, a little darker take on the Lady in the Lake, and a steampunk styled woman with a Tesla-inspired lightning cannon. It was fun to get into the steampunk a bit, I'll have to try some more stuff in that style soon.

Day 24

Day 25

Day 26

And I did a quick process gif for her:

Check out everyone else at the main OctoberSketch Blog!