The Continuum - Digital Artwork

Blast Corps

October 1, 1997

Inspired by the video game Blast Corps, where you go around blowing up buildings. This image is basically a bunch of Photoshopped stock art. Very early work.

Starfox

April 26, 1998

This is another of my very early works made from stock photos. This was inspired by the 'Macbeth' level in Starfox 64. Big explosion.

Alien Lighthouse

June 1, 1998

The original Alien Lighthouse.

Mario

July 1, 1998

I didn't put most of my old Nintendo pictures on the new site since they weren't very good, but this one is different. Nintendo Power magazine had an envelope art section each month where readers would draw Nintendo characters on an envelope when they sent in a letter. I did this in Paint/Photodeluxe and printed it on an envelope. It was published in NP issue #100.

Reflections

July 24, 1998

I liked to play around with the ripple filters in Photoshop a lot back when I first started using it.

Life on Mars?

October 5, 1998

I did this around the time scientists were claiming to have found a meteorite from Mars that had possible proof of life. I figured that if aliens were on Mars, they would probably be playing Nintendo. I think I did the original of this in MS Paint, then updated it in Photodeluxe and Photoshop.

Celtic Castle

November 4, 1998

A very early image of a castle on a cliff.

Autumn Forest

November 11, 1998

A stream flowing through the woods in the fall. Photoshop 4.

Bean, Mister Bean

May 27, 1999

Mr. Bean in a James Bond intro.

Solar Spaceship

June 21, 1999

This was one of the first things I did in Bryce (I think it was actually the demo version), hence the crappy spaceship model. The spaceship was an afterthought, really. I needed something to go along with the sun, which I did in Photoshop.

Desert Road

July 3, 1999

This was somewhat inspired by a level in the N64 racing game Extreme-G, although the game actually looks better... Photoshop 4 and Bryce for the rocks.

Kakariko at Night

October 15, 1999

This was inspired by Kakariko Village in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. One of my early Photoshop/Bryce pics.

Curvy Thing

March 3, 2000

Don't remember exactly what I was thinking when I came up with this, but I was probably trying to emulate the weaving style of celtic knotwork.

Golfball

April 18, 2000

This is an interesting one. It was done entirely with Photoshop lighting effects. A grand experiment in 'bumpmapping'. I think it has a few too many dimples, but I was still pleased with how it turned out.

Primary Stuff

June 4, 2000

An abstract piece where I was mainly just playing around with different effects in Photoshop. Based on the primary colors, hence the name.

Compass

June 18, 2000

An odd compass-looking thing.

Storm

August 2, 2000

A floating island. In the rain. Not my best...

The Barn is on Fire, Maw

August 2, 2000

This was an experiment with fire/smoke. I needed something to burn up, so I added the barn.

Ultimate Basketball

August 2, 2000

This one is REALLY early. One of the better ones I did in MS Paint. Updated in Photodeluxe/Photoshop.

Waterfall

August 2, 2000

Another early Bryce/Photoshop/Water pic.

Whatever

August 2, 2000

Should have been called 'Fun with Filters'. An early Photodeluxe/Photoshop work. Pointless and abstract.

Whatever 2

August 2, 2000

Even weirder and more abstract than the first one.

Winter

August 2, 2000

Very unimpressive snow, and another reflection.

Dark Skies

August 3, 2000

This was mainly an experiment with clouds/fog in Photoshop 4. And of course, as most of my early images, it had to have water and a reflection.

Blue Star

October 9, 2000

The original Blue Star image. Looks more like a planet than a star, but whatever. Photoshop 4.

Saved by Grace!

October 25, 2000

Not by Works! This was an idea I had for a T-shirt one time. I may actually do it through Cafepress at some point.

Through Samus' Eyes

February 17, 2001

This was made back when it was announced that the GameCube Metroid game would be a first-person adventure. Many thought that would ruin the game, but Metroid Prime turned out to be one of the greatest games this generation. This is Samus in her ship looking out at Zebes.

F-Zero concept

July 24, 2001

This was an early Bryce image I did based on the F-Zero video game. Just Bryce primitives, so it's not that impressive.

Alien Lighthouse 2001

August 13, 2001

This was one of my earlier Bryce renders, and was based on an image I had previously done only in Adobe Photodeluxe. This version is of course much better, and still looks pretty good. It's a good example of how you can get a pretty good looking picture out of Bryce without *too* much experience.

The Rescue - Cliff

August 13, 2001

This is a frame from my short animated film, 'The Rescue'. It's where the ship flies over the cliff.

Not Quite Infinite

October 6, 2001

I was playing around in Bryce trying to come up with an idea for a new wallpaper. At some point, I put two mirrored spheres in front of each other and the camera in the middle. Looked pretty interesting so I put a mirror on the ground plane as well. The sky is a Bryce default. The name comes from the fact that Bryce will only reflect a ray so many times, so that it won't get stuck in an infinite loop and take forever to render. Hence the title, not quite infinite.

The Cookie Jar

December 9, 2001

This was originally used as a banner for a section of BibleChristian.com called 'The Cookie Jar'. I liked the image, so this year I updated it by adding the milk glass, and adding some more lights. The jar was modelled in Blender. Everything else was done in Bryce except the cookie texture in Photoshop.

Speed Limit Infinity

February 18, 2002

This was actually part of a short F-Zero animation I did for fun. I turned this frame into a wallpaper and people seemed to like it. It's a pretty simple scene, all Bryce except for the sign and road textures, which I did in Photoshop.

Skystation 72

March 29, 2002

I liked this one a lot. Don't really remember where I came up with the idea, but it turned out well. This was probably one of my first projects using Blender as a modeller, so the objects are pretty simple and symmetrical. Still, a big step up from what I was doing before (Bryce Primitives). The mountains, water, etc. were done in Bryce. This is a slightly updated version. I added some glow to the engines and energy pillars.

Reactor Room

May 24, 2002

An engine room of a starship or something. I put a LOT of lights in this scene, probably too many as it took a very long time to render. Did make for some interesting shadows, though. Blender/Bryce/Photoshop.

Concentric³

July 4, 2002

Another cubic abstract piece. This was probably more of an experiment with materials than anything. I was going for kind of a fake 'cel-shading' effect with the blue cube. The hardest part of this one was probably getting everything rotated right so that I liked how it looked. Cube modelled in Blender, rendered in Bryce.

Future Moon Base

August 27, 2002

This one didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I think I made the rock material too dark and too solid. Also, the glass tunnel (which took an extremely long time to render) didn't show up that well. I did like how the other planet and moon turned out. Not my best, but good experience I suppose. Blender/Bryce/Photoshop.

CubedCubes

September 28, 2002

This is one of my better and more popular images. Simple and somewhat abstract, it makes an excellent desktop wallpaper. Original cube modelled in Blender, rendered in Bryce. In this updated version, I added a blue tint which I think looks better than the original gray.

Fireplace (with animation)

December 3, 2002

A friend of mine asked me to do this one as an animation. It was an interesting idea, and turned out quite well. You can download the animated versions here:
800x600 1024x768

BOOM	January 26, 2003

I've always liked space/sci-fi/action stuff, so I did a nice little space battle scene. Modelled in Blender. The ship is probably one of the better models I've done. Rendered in Bryce 4. Added the lasers and starfield in Photoshop. The lasers are actually from an action I wrote for lightsabers.

Desktop Metaphor

April 26, 2003

This was an interesting one. The 'Newton's Cradle' came first. I thought I would be able to model one that was fairly realistic. That turned out VERY well. Then I wanted to make a scene to go around it. I wasn't completely happy with it at first, but the more I looked at it, the more it grew on me. Now, it's probably one of my favorites. The lighting is key here. I used clusters of lights for more realistic shadowing than you get out of Bryce 4 by default. Modelled in Blender, rendered in Bryce. I painted the picture of the girl in Photoshop. I'm not very good at realistic painting, so I went for more of a cartoonish look.

Blue Star (2003)

July 12, 2003

An update to the original Blue Star. I had seen some really cool space artwork and I was trying to copy that style. It turned out quite different, but I was still happy with it. Much more 'star-like' than the previous version. Done in Photoshop 7.

Continuum AIRBLADE (Product shot)

August 13, 2003

This was my entry for a contest on the IGN message boards to design a ship like in the F-Zero video game series. I didn't win. Which was somewhat disappointing because I was really pleased with how it turned out. This is the "Product shot", like an advertisement for the ship. This was 100% Photoshop 7.

Continuum AIRBLADE

August 13, 2003

The Princess of Daingean na Dideana

November 21, 2003

This is sort of an update to the old Celtic Castle image, but a lot better. I wanted to try something with a person in the image. I don't do as many people because my drawing style tends to be more cartoony than realistic when it comes to people. Nevertheless, the princess turned out fairly well. And since you're probably wondering, Daingean na Dideana is Irish Gaelic for 'The Fortress of Shelter'. I wanted an interesting name, so I got the translation on an Irish language forum.

Wormhole

February 8, 2004

I hadn't done an image in a while, and I wanted to do SOMETHING, so I came up with the idea for another space scene. This is a wormhole/nebula. It actually ended up looking a bit like the Continuum logo, but that was not my original intent. I was just trying to make it NOT look too much like the wormhole from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Photoshop 7.

Malformation

March 1, 2004

An attempt at abstract geometric art. I made this by playing around in various programs: Wings3D, Bryce, Photoshop. It's a bit different, but I had fun making it.

Digital Painting Study #1: Arwen

April 6, 2004

Realistic painting has never really been my forte. Although I've been gradually improving over the past few years, most of my work, especially drawings of people, end up looking kind of cartoony and fake. However, after seeing some very impressive photorealistic artwork on the web, I REALLY wanted to be able to do the same. I read some tutorials, and didn't think I would ever be able to do it, but I decided to give it a shot.
As a first step, I knew I would have to copy some existing images, to study all the details, etc. before trying to create my own. I needed a subject, and since I was going for sort of a fantasy style anyway, I decided on this screen capture from The Fellowship of the Ring. This is Arwen, as played by Liv Tyler. It turned out to be a good starting point, as it's just her eyes, nose and hair, all of which can be challenging for a n00b to paint.
So after a LOT of work in Photoshop over the past 4 days, here is the final product, which I am VERY happy with. While I relied heavily on the original image for color samples, the bottom image IS 100% Photoshop 7. The painting (done with a Wacom Graphire, as almost all of my work is) was a bit different than what I'm used to, but what's awesome about Photoshop is that you're not limited to what you paint. You can move stuff around, resize, distort, add noise, make textures, etc...
Anyway, I've gone a bit long in this explanation, but this is quite a departure from my normal method. I hope to do more of these studies in the future, and eventually original work in the same style.

Digital Painting Study #2: Becky Banks

May 9, 2004

This is Becky Banks. She is a fictional character in an upcoming project that Mr. Hodges and I are working on. We're not quite ready to discuss the details yet, but watch the site for more info. Nonetheless, I liked how this turned out, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it.

Unlike 'Arwen', this was not an attempt to copy an existing image perfectly, so it doesn't look quite as realistic. However, I did use several pictures of different news reporters as a reference. While not photorealistic, it still turned out quite well, and is more detailed than a lot of my previous work.

Rings of the Lord

August 24, 2004

Another abstract piece. They're easy and fun to make, so I like doing them. I also get to make up interesting titles. :-) There's no hidden spiritual meaning in the picture. Just giving the glory to God.
Buy this as a poster at Zazzle.com

Entranced

November 9, 2004

I actually did this a few months ago as part of a cover art contest for Project Majestic Mix. Another abstract piece, as the theme for the contest/album was 'trance'. Blender/Bryce/Photoshop.

Virus

January 6, 2005

I just got over the flu, and I had been playing around in Blender. Somehow between those two things I got the idea to do this. It probably doesn't look much like a virus, it actually looks more like Metroid Prime. But anyway, this is my version of some type of microscopic parasite. Blender/Photoshop.

Snow Angel

January 8, 2005

OK, before anyone sends me email, yes, I KNOW female angels are not Biblical. This is fantasy art, and in my fantasy world there are female angels. OK, so with that out of the way...
This was fun. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, a vast improvement over from the stuff I was doing just over a year ago. There's actually a lot more detail there than you can see in the wallpaper sized versions, partially because I had to shrink it so much because it's a vertical image. So I'm thinking about making a poster out of this, and maybe some of my other pictures as well. I'll make a post if I do.This is 100% Photoshop except for the big snowflake, which was a 3D model made in Blender.
Interesting factoids: #1. I started working on this image on Christmas Day. #2. All the little snowflakes are actually mini-versions of the big snowflake. Photoshop brush engine = good stuff. #3. Even though I'm making a snow image, it's actually been unseasonably warm for the past week or so.

Solar Flare

June 4, 2005

My attempt at a solar flare. I did one render in Bryce, but this is almost entirely Photoshop.

Master of the Sea

September 10, 2005

Well, this one has been a LONG time in the making. I actually started it probably a year or so ago. I drew the boat and just wasn't really motivated to continue. Anyway, one day I was going back to work on it again, and the entire directory it was in had disappeared. Now, I'm a computer guy, and I don't usually LOSE entire directories. I looked for it, tried to recover it, no sign of the folder anywhere. So I thought, OH WELL.

Fast forward to a couple months ago, and I really felt led to start it again. Every time I heard the song 'Master of the Sea' sung at church, something told me, 'You need to do that picture', because I'd had the idea for quite a while. SO, I started the long process of making this picture. I started in late July, and have been working off and on since then, mainly on weekends.

I'm extremely happy with the result, it's probably the most complex thing I've painted. Three people in one picture, plus the environment. Figured out a way to make the clouds more realistic, and figured out how to do the rough waves, which is something I was stuck on for a while.

So it was a good experience, and I hope this picture will be a blessing to many people.

Audio Visual

January 5, 2006

No, I'm not a hippie, nor do I have any desire to be one. But I do like bright swirly colors. Actually, I didn't know how this was going to turn out, it was really a 'technical concept' piece. Here's the 'secret': The waveform is an actual waveform of the word 'audio' being spoken (or at least generated by a text-to-speech converter...) Although the part you can actually see is the "Au-", the rest of it fades into the distance. And the background trippy colors are actually derived from a spectrum analysis of the same wave. Put it all together and it's an "Audio"-visual (HAHAHA!) Yeah, so maybe you have to be a geek to appreciate that humor, but it does look cool. So if you don't get it, just stare at it enjoy the trippy colors.

Fluid Chaotic

January 6, 2006

This is sort of a quickie weird one. Hadn't done anything new in a while and I was just playing around with the new fluid simulation features of Blender 2.4, and I came up with this. You might see some type of 'alien head' looking thing in there... That was completely unintentional. I moved a light a certain way, and the specular reflections ended up looking like eyes... This probably isn't my best, and I didn't put a lot of time into it, but it's good enough for a wallpaper. And I wanted to do something sort of abstract and chaotic, because that's how my life has felt lately......

In the Morning Light (close up)

January 7, 2006

Whew... This has been another long one. I can't believe I worked on it as long as I did, but I guess I'm just crazy like that. It's probably been about 2 months since I started.

So, the process... First I started in Blender. This was the first time I had used Yafray as a renderer, so a lot of time was spent experimenting with global illumination settings. And since the full size, full quality render took about 24 hours, that's took up a lot of time. But I was determined to make it work, because I wanted the light quality in the room, and it turned out extremely well...

Then to the girl. She probably took less 'time', but a lot more work on my part. This is of course, a continuation of my effort to paint realistic people, and I'm pleased with the results. The wallpaper version with the room doesn't show much detail, so I'm doing another wallpaper of just a closeup of the girl. I'll also release a poster. Anyway, all that was in Photoshop of course, except the coffee cup, which was blender, and the mountains, which I did in Bryce.

Inspiration? I don't know... I wanted to do another 'girl' painting, and I wasn't sure which direction I was going with it for a long time. At one point I thought maybe a 'princess' type picture with a more flowing dress, but I've sort of done that before (snow angel), and I also had to find a pose that made sense. Eventually I settled on the idea that it's early morning, she just got up, and she's just going to get her cup of coffee, lean against the door, and enjoy the sunrise.

Hope you like it.

In the Morning Light

January 7, 2006

A Series of Tubes

August 26, 2006

Another quick abstract for the sake of doing something new. Bryce/Photoshop.

Born the King of Angels

November 13, 2006

So... this is the Christmas project. This has been in the works for over a year. I had the concept and started on it last year, but got distracted by certain things that were going on in my life at the time, and didn't really have the time or desire to finish it. Until a couple months ago...

I don't know where I got the original concept for this, but I had it labeled in my sketchbook as 'Angels Bow'. It was supposed give a glimpse into what might have been going on in the spiritual realm at Christ's birth. That concept sort of evolved as I worked on it. I was originally going to have 2 more angels, seraphim, bowing on the ground, but I ran out of space and really just wanted to finish the picture, so I left them out. And I had a really awesome idea for the cherubims up top... See if you catch the symbolism ;) (read Exodus 25:18-22 for a clue). The title of course comes from the song "O Come All Ye Faithful".

Anyway, another picture I'm glad to finally finish. Expect to see a lot of this one. I'm going to publish it as a Christmas card on Zazzle, and try to promote it pretty heavily. And in case I don't post anything else before then, Merry Christmas.

Alive Forevermore

January 7, 2007

This is a very quick one. I hadn't done anything new in a while, and somebody on myspace had suggested a resurrection picture, and Easter is tomorrow, so I threw this together. Not a lot of detail in this one obviously, but it makes the point.

Collide

December 14, 2010

Entry for cover art contest for Andy Hunter's album, Collide.

Digital Continuum

October 30, 2011

An abstract for the sake of doing something new. Bryce/Photoshop.

Nebulous I: The Father of Lights

May 31, 2012

God is a much better artist than I am. This much should be obvious, He is the Father of Lights, the creator of all vision, color, and pattern. So taking a sliver of creation and manipulating it produces far better art than I can come up with on my own.

I've wanted to do a nebula piece for quite a while, but every time I've started, it never turns out the way I want. I can't find the shape, light and shadow to make it look right, so eventually I give up. Recently, I've been interested in doing more photography, especially of clouds, storm clouds in particular. Well, I always like to play around with images looking for inspiration. So when I took some cloud pictures and blew out the levels in photoshop... hey, that looks like a nebula, and a really good one at that. Do that about 6 times, edit them together, add a starfield, tweak some colors and you have this. I was surprised how well and how quickly this turned out. I may turn this into a series, it just depends on what new pictures I find and if time permits. Hope you enjoy.

The Set of All Possible Hierarchies

August 11, 2018

I've become a fan of Dr. Peterson as of late, and so I started a new venture to make new works based on his ideas and other current event memes. As a result, a new abstract. Enjoy.