Our Finest Hour

"Our Finest Hour" was one of the images that tackled when I was first learning digital painting that I always knew could be really cool looking if only I knew enough about Photoshop to make it really cool looking. I left it unfinished for the longest time out of frustration but then recently decided to give it another try after having a couple years of digital painting experience under my belt. The second image is what it used to look like and the top image is what it looks like now and I'm really pleased with the result.

Forest Fight

This is a commissioned piece for a writer who needed a cover for one of his books. It's a traditional fantasy style cover that I had a lot of fun working where I got the chance to play around with some very dramatic lighting.

An Island Unto Myself

One of the aspects of dragon folklore that always fascinates me is the belief that dragons have the ability to hide in plain sight as either trees, rocks or even mountains. Here is my take on a very skilled dragon, taken from the line art found in LEATHER WINGS SEMBLANCE, who's claimed her hiding place in the form of an island.

Elements Workshop - Setting a Mood

A new workshop, graphically designed in the Imagine FX Style, is complete and ready to download in the WORKSHOPS section on www.laminmartin.com. In this workshop I go through the thoughts and processes behind "Message in a Bullet", a full colour rendering of a line illustration found in the pages APOCRYPHA, where I explain the importance of establishing a mood, dramatizing the environment and adding the right accesories to a character to take it from an illustration to a concept design. You can download the free PDF HERE or by clicking the image below.

Message in a Bullet

When I think of angels I've always envisioned them as an army. Each soldier has their own specialized skill set complete with their tools of the trade. The soldier that I came up with, found in the pages of APOCRYPHA, is one who's passion in service to God is to hunt and kill demons with his weapon of choice being a long range double-barreled breech-loading rifle.

Let There Be Dragons

I love to play around with combining different design elements to come up with dragons that are more conceptual than some of the traditional dragon designs that are present in fantasy illustration. Below are a batch that I recently painted that were once line drawings found in the pages of LEATHER WINGS SEMBLANCE but have now been brought to life in full colour. Poster available HERE

Lamin


Xenomporph Dracus is my interpretaion of how an Alien, designed by my hero H.R. Giger, would look if it mated with a dragon. An Alien with wings would be a dream come true for me.

Shadow of the Colossus was one of my favourite games on the PS2. The art direction and character design of the colossi was absolutely beautiful so in honour of a game that is more art than escapist entertainment I created a dragon that is modelled after a colossus.

Jewel of the North is a step away from the bulky and heavier looking dragons that I usually draw by combining the softer qualities of unicorns and the majestic qualities of dragons to come up with a delicate yet regal dragon design.

In Succession

Here is an image that was originally line art found in the pages of SOLSTICE. I don't know how or if I'll ever get over the love I have for the look of Victorian clothing so I'm always playing around with fashion elements from that time period. Here is another example of how I took bits and pieces from that fashion movement and threw them into a fantasy setting to illustrate the fact that this character is a citiizen in a decadent hybrid dragon society who is next in line to take her positon of authority in the royal family.