Art Of MaxGon

Day 29

2012-02-16T01:48:00.001-08:00

Day 28

2012-02-14T23:27:00.000-08:00

sum GF fan art <3check out hers here O3o

Day 27

2012-02-13T23:30:00.000-08:00

Day 26

2012-02-12T21:12:00.001-08:00

still noodlin away at this design

Day 25

2012-02-11T15:17:00.001-08:00

Lonewolf and Cub

Day 24

2012-02-10T01:40:00.001-08:00

Kambei Shimada from Seven Samurai .. BOOSH

day 23

2012-02-08T23:52:00.001-08:00

redone

Day 22

2012-02-07T23:56:00.001-08:00

Day 21

2012-02-07T02:57:00.001-08:00

design iteration. <3

Day 20

2012-02-06T22:13:00.001-08:00

my bro

Day 19

2012-02-05T01:58:00.001-08:00

Day 18

2012-02-04T23:44:00.001-08:00

Day 17

2012-02-03T01:45:00.001-08:00

Day 16

2012-02-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

Day 15

2012-01-31T23:55:00.001-08:00

still a ways to go lots of help from Mindy and Garret!

Day 14

2012-01-30T23:42:00.001-08:00

Day 13

2012-01-29T23:40:00.000-08:00

another xan update. lots of unwrapping on this. boring tedious work that you cant see. XP and some texture clean up

Day 12

2012-01-28T20:02:00.001-08:00

Day 11

2012-01-28T17:54:00.001-08:00

quick doodle of Robo from chrono trigger

Day 10

2012-01-26T23:11:00.001-08:00

Day 9

2012-01-26T23:09:00.001-08:00

day 8

2012-01-24T23:52:00.001-08:00

about an hour.

day 7

2012-01-23T23:47:00.001-08:00

a quick redrawing of and old character from college

day 6

2012-01-23T00:23:00.001-08:00

late on this entry -__- gonna do two for today

Day 5

2012-01-21T00:55:00.001-08:00

scribble

day 4

2012-01-20T01:54:00.001-08:00

this took way too long. bleh

Day 3

2012-01-19T01:38:00.001-08:00

Day 2

2012-01-18T02:01:00.001-08:00

alright so i did work on that last post more today during lunch and work, but i cant really show it -__- the clothing design on that post has to remain secret for now, but as soon as i can i will post it. heres some progress on Xan in 3D. ill work on him more during lunch tomorrow OR paint a female portrait.

L e t i t Rain

2012-01-17T03:04:00.000-08:00

just a little sumthin for a very cool opportunity. more details later. Lux Knows whats up. O3O

pink ladies n 2012

2012-01-01T22:38:00.001-08:00

Reworked a quick paint over i did late last year of the redesign of mary. name is tentative until i can think of something i like more. this is basically a kid version of a character i created in college. i used the same color scheme as the original concept. its pretty damn close. i might show you guys sometime.it was a quicky and had alot of issues that i just now go to. for one, i did not like how thin she looked. a lot of people have been telling me that Xan looks kind of girly. i didnt want to change him much so i figure introducing what a girl character looks like will help differentiate the two. i figured i should start the new year fixin some rushed mistakes! shes a princess but a tough cookie! lemme know whatcha think!

Big headed

2011-11-30T02:18:00.001-08:00

alrighteh. so im calin this face done for the time being. i feel that i stayed true to the original concept of the character. i did try to paint some more detail in the teeth but it jsut was not looking right. i will probably revist this after i get the rest of the character built. it took alot longer than i intended because i have been recording each session in Modo. I plan on editing the footage and creating a beginners course tut on how to use Modo. running camtasia while working in modo was screwing over my framerate in modo. luckily i just bought more Ram.... so i should be able to multitask bettererer.... theoretically.. expect my next update to have much more of this dood done. planning on dumpster diving my folders and frankensteining the rest of this character to completion. O__O

3d xan round 2

2011-11-06T23:19:00.000-08:00

just a little sneak peak to the tutorial im working on. i would have gotten more done on this today, but Modo 501 is running ridiculously slow when i paint. its pretty frustrating how much worse 501s painting seems to be in comparison to 302. im gonna chew someone out tomorrow over the phone about it. hopefully there is a solution... an intel core i7 3.07ghz 2.65 ghz processor and 6gbs of ram AND ab nvidia gtx 460 should be plenty to paint a 1024 map... i mean come on.. seriously luxulogy? shame. shame shame shame.

updated gal

2011-11-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

updated gal hero to fit the new style of xander. still havent thought of a new name for her. Mary is a cute name but iunno. WIP

Mary?

2011-11-04T01:36:00.000-07:00

sketch night at paul richards! wee!possible that this will be the look for the chick character. was named Mary. might change the name to something with one syllable. oh and theres a big fat dood.

The Hero

2011-11-03T02:03:00.000-07:00

The hero. In his world.

2011-11-02T00:13:00.000-07:00

did some gal sketches tonight. was invited by Garret and Mindy to Barnes and Nobles so i picked me up some tat mags and went with it. finished up an old page and did a quicky. ill have a new post tomorrow related to my last post. :D

Krom's Past Life

2011-11-01T03:00:00.000-07:00

Sooooo this is my first daily post of this week. supposed to be for monday but i had a bit of a late start tonight. These are some more concepts for a story ill be working on for awhile. its a super fun world to concept for.First I have some sketches for baddies here. On the left is General Krom. He is King Krom when he was still alive as a human. His minions are on the right. the fat ones are called FooFoes and the skinniers ones are called NohFoes :DI started renderign out the FooFoe. might redesign a few elements about him but im satisfied with the overall idea and silhouette.

Xan Redone

2011-10-18T02:26:00.000-07:00

So recently i've been using all my time as wisely as possible. I know i have a tendency to jump around personal projects alot and i seem to never commit to one. This time however I have every intention on fleshing this out to the end. I tok some feedback on one of my favorite characters named Xan. Many friends were stating that he looked kind of hill billyish. With this in mind and some inspiration from Garret Hanna; I recreated the character to be more old school videogame oriented. This was ALOT of run to design and paint. Making this dood really sent me back to my childhood. Playing old school videogames for hours and hours. Enjoying the intricate 8bit melodies. The songs so catchy that you just couldnt stop humming them for days. Games that were fun to play, fun to explore, and sparked inspiration.
Turns out Garret and I out share a passion for old school games and music. We have been 8bit jamming for the past couple of weeks using various plugins and listening to alot of nindendo melodies. We have decided to join forces. I've made about 9 different 8bit beats and chose one to flesh out a bit to sort of tease those that are interested in what ive been doing with all my free time. Do have a listen and tell me what you think. thank you!

ps- sorry for all those people who i dissappeared from. ive been very busy doing what i love ;D
-Betel

2011-07-26T12:53:00.000-07:00

Isi namid. this is the pink haired girl minus pink hair. i felt she was more mysterious with platinum like in the original sculpt. maybe she dyes her hair different colors later on. went for a rough painted look on the render. i like where its going and will probably dabble with a similar vibe for 2 more characters in this story. the painted lines on her are tentative until i can think of some neater designs to be painted on her skin.
im really looking forward to Burning Man. aug 29th-september 5th. I will be camping with a group called the galactic jedis and the pyronauts. i thought that was kind of funny seeing how ive been working on a fire spinning fighter for the past month.
cant wait to see half naked babes runnin around lookin like this one :D

Isi Namid

2011-07-11T12:37:00.001-07:00

This is infact the same character from the previous post. Her tentative name means deer star dancer. visually i was going for a burning man mononoke vibe. her hair is going through some growing pains. thinking about having her wear some hair extensions or they might be natural dreads branching off of possible a faux hawk.
The outfit design is basically final. I will only make minor changes to it NEED TO MOVE ON lol. As you can see I did several different quick sketches of this character befoer coming to the final design at the top of the pages.
Also I would like to note that the masks were heavily inspired by Francisco Ruiz Velasco . I saw some sketches of mask concepts he did for hell boy 2 recently. I watched the movie JUST to see those masks... They were each in ONE scene for about 2 seconds... FAR in the background. I was very saddened by this and chose to create a clan of masked fire spinners to accompany Isi. The 3 other masks are roughs of what im thinking for em.

Isi Namid trains her fire spinning skills to mask her fighter spirit. Martial arts training is banned so she learns fighting in dance form. Her abilities have no connection to magic initially.... but she soon finds that her haunting past has the ability to evolve her technique into something else entirely. :P

Poe

2011-06-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

I nicknamed the Gal Poe after the ghosts in ocarina of time.
Experienting with my rendering style. Lots of lighting and surface tweaks. wanted a sexy greasy feel. but not too much. ill probably do a couple of different iterations for the rendering. some more painterly and loose than others. This will be going into zbrush as well. Ive already started fleshing out her story and got some great ideas from my friend Maddie. Check her work out here http://www.koko-san.blogspot.com/
Hint: itll have something to do with martial arts and demons

MegaMang

2011-06-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

Just a quick doodle at work.
We have photoshop friday art jams sometimes and the theme was megaman. i googled fat megaman and found a neat pic to base a sketch off of.
originally i only had 30 minutes to work on it and submit it. i spruced it up a bit. took another 20 minutes on it to clean up some edges and experiment with lighting.

Life Drawing at Carbine

2011-06-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

Organized by awesome Jon Jelinek. He got this cool old dood to pose for us for 2 hours. I was absolutely amazed bu his ability to return to his pose after 3 short 5 minute breaks. even the folds in his clothes remained in tact. skilllllllllz

Obsessed with this Haircut

2011-06-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

Ok LAST old work post. I promise.
I want to reshare this wip turnaround because
A. I will be doing a 2D concept of the full character in a much mroe inspired 2D style that you folks arent use to seeing from Ol Betel. Ive met alot of extreme talents at my new job and I have to anty up. Character design is my passion. So i gotta rep. woop woop!
B. I absolutely love this haircut. I draw it alot on random chick characters and I feel it needs a nice finished body to live on.
C. YOUR MOTHA FUCKIN FACE

this speed culpt was done in a little under 2 hours. the poly paint is what slowed me down honestly. Had to reintroduce myself with those Zbrush tools..
I really feel that polypainting is a bit aways from being finished.. there is no master opacity jitter for the color application. it really bugs me. I feel like im painting with mspaint on a 3d model. Its great for a basic base to start on. But im still loving 3D coat for more refined detail. and photoshop for touch ups.

I still dont know this girls name. I dont know where she lives. I dont know what she does. But I know she will have awesome hair. and awesome boots to stomp your face in. i might even mold her story into a past character. who fucking knows! You will in a couple of days!
check back soon
OOGA BOOGA
Betel

Favorite Fighter ever

2011-06-09T23:45:00.000-07:00

So right before moving to Cali, I was participating in Polycount's Brawl Challenge. The concept of this contest was to redesign entirely your favorite fighter character from any fighting game. I chose Yoshimitsu. He has always been a favorite of mine. I believe it is his eccentric nature, unique fighting style, and original design that compelled me to redesign him. Also... space ninja? come on.... bad ass.... and he stands up for all that is good in the world... while LOOKING like a demon. so cool...

So I didnt have time to flesh him out in 3D, but here is a semi rushed 2D concept. Someday I will poop this guy out in 3D... someday

steampunk yoshimistu GO!@
complete jimmy rigged lightsaber and steam powered giant fist of doomage

Xander From Zee

2011-06-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

So one of my biggest regrets at the moment is not being able to work on "Project Zee" an indie game that myself and several other artists have been developing under the name 13th skull productions over the past years. (right now 13thskull.com goes redirects to artofgon.com) i was told to change the name of my portfolio because it sounded like a virus
I am so satisfied with how the story and game play has fleshed, and will never let the concept truly die. I really believe that someday soon we will pick up production again.

Project Zee is based off of several characters that were originally created while I was in college. The game is loosely based within my favorite subject matter. Dreams.
It will be a homage to old school gaming with a new school graphic twist.
Some day folk. Some day.
The name "Project Zee" was inspired by a good ole friend Adrian Saylor. I believe if i do remember correctly, it was his idea to call the world Zee. I thought it was clever and very observant of him. I think it was him that pointed out that I used Zs alot as a tag in my work.

This is Xander. He is the highly imaginitive hero of the story. He is infact the main character, but not the character that is played throughtout the most of the game. He is the host that grounds the playable spirit of Gutter to the physical real world. Gutter travels through Zee. Battling the Anu space demons that enslave the minds of many.
Xander or Zan is a collector and a trickster at heart. He is guided by Amas in the teachings of their ancient ancestors. Lots of mayan influences there. Look for more later ;P

gonna paint some normal maps for this bad boy

Working in Richmond

2011-06-09T22:42:00.000-07:00

So right before moving to California to venture into the videogame industry, I was freelancing in Richmond, Va with several different clients. I did T shirts for Jinx clothing, did some low poly models/textures for Sparkplug Games, and I worked as a general production artist for a marketing firm called Eastwood media. While working with Eastwood, I was tasked with a wide range of work including, t shirt designs, flash adverts for website, comic book pages for a modern spin on Little Red Riding Hood, background and characters for an Ipad game marketed towards kids, character designs for the local Baseball team's comic starring their Mascot Nutzy the squirrel, and wallpapers for ipad/iphones.

Here is my favorite piece that I did for them.
Its Santa and Nutzy kickin some Grinch ass... normally I would be rooting for the grinches. BAH HUMBUG.

Part Deux

2011-06-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

Eve- Done for an open house gallery event called Artists of Eden in Baltimore. Very much inspired by the artists audrey kawasaki, stunt kid, and the model/erotic dancer sara ecks. A very good friend of mine named Jessica Esper
invited me to showcase/sell some digital works at a semi urban open house gallery setting. Had loads of fun talking first hand with some fans and even opened up to break dance a bit. Thanks Navix for the dance moves ;D
and thanks Jess for the invite. Miss ya

Art DUMPZ

2011-06-09T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hey there ghouls n gals. Hows eternal life treatin ya?
Im back from the dead and ready to ooga booga boogey woogie. call me crazy legs.

Ive been quite negligent of this blog for some time, but now I see this is a much quicker way to be a tad informal/slightly more informative. Not as many people follow my blog, so I am more comfortable sharing a little more of whats in my head on some of these designs.
Please excuse the art dump of a few old ghosts. These demons just wont rest. They claim they'll liven up the room, so ill give em the chance to shine again.

I hand picked some of my favorite old works from my new portfolio and will spit a bit of fire on the hot topics.

Speaking of spitting hot magma.
Heres a pic Spitfire. An old concept for a personal project code named "P13"
She's a engineer bar brawling engineer tattoo artist that hangs out at the infamous "Bad Apple" outside of the core in the Lost Sandz. A dessert world that doubles as graveyard/ dumping zone for the ashes of the fallen city citizens.

She can normally be spotted talking to Whowolves in scatter junkyards, asking about airplane engine scraps, or tattoo the toughest lost sanderz at the bad apple. for a hefty price.

3D

2009-09-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

damn 3d is FUN! really gettin the hang of it. want to build a few more character busts for the portfolio. then maybe some full character turnarounds.

GDC in Austin

2009-09-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

Well just got back from GDC , and i have to say i had a great time in Austin. Gotta thank Ralph Pacheco for helping me out and telling me about this event. He even gave me a grand tour of the city. Austin is a kick ass place. I would be very comfortable living there. I must have walked through the city streets for 5 hours at a time just feelin at peace and digging something new. Talked to a good number of artists in the industry. Showed some work to Mario Piedra; art director at Cartoon Network, and got some great feedback. Also got some excellent advice from Peter Konig from Valve. My favorite dudes to talk to was probably the guys at FrozenCode Base. they were pretty damn cool, and had some really funny vid up of this bunny drummer dude. a local legend in Wisconsin. pretty much everyone tells me to stick with what i do best; which is the more exaggerated cartoony character work. This doesn't mean i wont be doing other styles and environments, just means a majority of my work will be in that realm. i need to develop a style of backgrounds for the exaggerated characters i develop. Ill be taking my friend's advice using less texture and refining the forms of the objects in the environment to create a clear render. its tough to adapt sometimes... but i gotta lay off the damn texture.

Gotta alot of work to do and jobs to apply to. wish me luck.

heres some work i did to show at GDC

Giving Tree

2009-05-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

my own version of a giving tree.

Mmmmm grasss.......brushes. yeah. grass brushes.

2009-04-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

Experimenting with some new brushes i made. was tired of using m@t brushes. now makin brushes is kind of a past time. ive been making at least two a day. want to make some rock, cloud, and painterly brushes next.

laddiiiiezzzz

2009-04-05T02:00:00.000-07:00

femalez. yum. practicin linework. and a new drafting pencil. keepin it clean. learning the benefits of using different pencils for different reasons. uber fun. YAY! omGZ!

Howdy Ghouls N Gals

2009-03-09T15:38:00.000-07:00

Well. I've decided that a blog would be a nice way to post unfinished concepts/ pencil sketches. things of that sort. I have a lot of fun going to my friend's blogs, and readin up on what they've been up to. I've included a few recent works and a couple illustrations from my Senior yeah At the Art Institute. I promise to be more descriptive of my posts in future. I just have a lot to do at the moment.
thanks for stoppin by
-Lou