Well I’m posting quite a bit more now and I think that’ll increase even more soon! New projects are starting and I’m even getting the chance to rework and old one which I’m pretty excited about.

Guardians of Atlas is finally going to be open to the public, it’s where 90% of my time has been spent artistically since 2014 and I’m so excited for friends, family, and everyone to get a chance to see what our small team has been working so hard on.

Check back soon to see some new stuff! There are already a few new pieces in my gallery, check them out!

For the past year and a half I’ve been doing SERIOUS work on developing my hand painted styles over at artillery. I have to say the result is incredibly pleasing, I put 100% of my focus on it for so long and now I feel really comfortable with the style, and LOVE doing it. Something I don’t wanna lose is my knowledge of the table top gaming industry that I’ve worked so hard to earn and learn about over the past 3 years.

I’m interested in freelance work again because to move forward I need to keep sculpting so if you have a job toss me an email!

hugarue@gmail.com   <—-

Well, I’ve been working incredibly hard on a game with an amazing team in Palo Alto, we’re not by any means done but we’ve finished a first, huge push that was months long. I’m feeling an itch to get back our there and sculpt some miniatures because I spend most of my time painting instead of sculpting so I’m going to try to find one, great client that I can work with on the weekends to help keep my skills sharp! And to contribute to a community I love!

https://www.artillery.com/ is the amazing company I work for if you are interested!

Since leaving my freelance career behind for work at a studio I haven’t been posting on my website, facebook, or any social media that often. I realized that I should at least be writing about my thesis so that I can look back at my process and learn from my mistakes.

I’m first posting the finished sculpts of my first 2 heros, Bubba and Jack Sampson. Everyone could say something that I could have done better, or that I should continue refining the clothing folds etc etc but when you have limited time you need to commit to something being done.

After finishing their sculpts I immediately began retopologizing Sampson. I took care of the more annoying areas so the rest should be extremely easy. Just have his weapons, pants, shoes and things of that nature. All cake compared to face, hands, and his weird gunbelt.

As many of you know I’m a fully employed at the moment and in the last semester of my masters degree. The timeline of my thesis project is pretty intense from here on out and on top of that I’m working very hard down at Artillery games and between the two I’m finding it increasingly difficult to work on any other work… personal or otherwise.

From here on out and until further notice I’m not taking anymore freelance clients, I’ll try my best to finish projects that I’m currently on but their timelines will be drastically reduced because honestly I’m starting to crack at the seams. I’ve worked 6-7 day weeks for 3 years now and my wrist, eyes, and brain are all pushed to the breaking point.

I apologize for any in convenience this will cause my clients in the short and long term for your projects.

Today marks my last class on campus at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. It’s with mixed feelings that I’m leaving the campus I was so excited to be a part of a year ago. Things change quickly and so do priorities, when I started this semester I never thought I’d be employed at a fantastic company that is teaching me more than I imagined I could in a few months of work.

Now onto my thesis… something that needs to be done by next semester but after this class ends today will be the last thing on my mind until all of my clients are extremely happy. I have been sculpting as quickly as I can on the pieces but I didn’t quite hit my mark this semester. I’ll finish it during the break and begin the long process of bringing these guys to life inside of Marmoset.

Renders below, back to work I go! (After this class)

My thesis is at a point where the Zbrush phase needs to end. I’m resculpting them all into the same style and focusing on some forms and uniting them with clothing folds that are sculpted in the same manner.

I’m beginning to work on a color palette for the characters, but seeing as how many of their clothes are taken directly from the real world their palettes are picked for me but I plan to unite them through saturation and value. I’ll be following the Dota 2 art guide to texture them for the most part and keeping it simple and painterly is key for me on this project.

My thesis is starting to drag on, I see so many amazing personal projects out there and I’m getting extremely jealous of other artists who have time to pursue them. I’m currently working on finalizing the sculpts of my 3 thesis characters and once they are finished this thing is going to take off like a rocket. Using new techniques I’ve developed mixed with the use of Ndo and Ddo I’m going to texture these characters extremely face and in a very fun stylized way.

Freelance is going as well as I expect it to, some days are extremely productive while others I’m sculpting myself into circles. I work on my off days and weekends and attempt to crank out work before I go to Palo Alto each morning. This weekend I was able to start and finish a miniature and it came out pretty well. Check out the Jaded Noble!

Hoping to finish up everyone’s projects in the coming month, sorry for any delays everyone! I’m unfortunately very bogged down at the moment.

This week I worked on Sarah Carver, I’m attempting to finish her sculpt before I move onto the other characters so they aren’t all hanging at 80% completion. I’m a bit stuck here right now so I need to push past it.

Below is a shot of her, there is so much to polish that it becomes intimidating. Every subtool needs polish and balance against the others.

Today’s focus is Freelance though, thesis work is such a Wednesday thinggggg lol. To work!

During the past few weeks of my thesis work  I’ve been focusing on the third character, Sarah Carver. I’ve changed a bit of her clothing around and in general I’m just building up her character over all instead of focusing on one thing and then moving on. I’m liking this organic feel to creating her, it’s leading me to build interesting shapes that flow throughout her character.

The first shot is of a progress shot of her hair sculpt. I’m building overlapping sections and on top of it I’ll add in strands of hair to increase it’s continuity. I’ve also been slowly detailing her face and modifying it.

This is a shot of her entire character so far, she’s still feeling bare in a few areas. over the coming weeks she’ll be flooded with small details including clothing tears, buttons… straps.. grime… things of that nature. She’s coming out well, just need to keep working on her.