Plan for Nauris Krauze

Indeed it is, most of the nice, crunchy cookies are behind thick glass and you are left outside with piece of dry bread.
Well, that sounds more depressing than i actually am. Yeah, I'm a bit sour that i couldnt make it this year to IGC. Crossing that damn pond would cost me more than I could afford. It also made me understand that the way I'm living now, one hit to vallet can ruin all the plans simply because i have no serious amortization account in the bank.
Its kinda silly, because I'm living pretty good, but always from month to month.

Anyway, IGC has put its stamp on my timetable anyway, as I'm doing some of visual stuff for Paul Dana's Bitshifter. I must say its shaping up really nicely and the crazy mix of arcade and strategy doesnt feel that crazy at all, its rather organic instead.
My part was mostly doing some concept art and creating narrative comic sequences between levels. I had hoped I'd finish more of them till the IGC, but unfortunately, I had to leave for Latvia for 3 weeks and it influenced my workflow quite a bit. First, I had to work on laptop which is the worst case scenario for graphic stuff, secondly, first weeks went mostly into finding the right feel and techniques of creating the sequences. I had not worked on sequentials before (apart from stuff in school when everyone is drawing comics:) so it took some researching into narrative techniques. Well, i must confess, in the end, i just simply let it go with the flow, because everytime i learned some rule, i also found brilliant examples on the net of how these rules can be broken. Funny that.

Collage of Bitshifter comic frames

Actually, the comics took some serious prep work, there was a lengthy collaboration with Kirk Alberts - the Bitshifter artist- geared towards the design of the main hero. I like it that Paul took such issues seriously and there was quite a brainstorming involved regarding visual design and story itself. Joe Maruschak gave us really valuable tips, and its been quite a learning experience for me.

I hope Paul and Company have good time in IGC, I take a pint for ya, guys :)))

On other battlefronts, I got contracted for an interesting remake/clone of a classic tank game and have a say about some art direction questions. We decided that that theming everything under old propoganda posters and giving it all a gritty-yet-a-bit-tongue-in-cheek feel would work the best. I've only just started the work, but the guys seem really cool, down to earth and creative. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about the game :)

The funny thing is that the following samples are not exactly how it'll be in the game, because i had miscalculated some things, however, i think it gives some idea about the process we are going through.

And finally, the work on Lore's RPG materials hasnt stopped for a minute. I must say that it must be the project I've worked on for the longest time and also one of the most satisfying. Maybe because the Lore team hasnt stopped in the middle and is working 24/7 all this time and they have stuff to show for their efforts.
It really makes one all warm and cozy inside :)

Some greyscale illos for Lore RPG materials.

Uff, I must have exceeded some "shiny pics limit per one .plan" or something. But then again, I dont post them that often so its probably not that bad :)