The Summoning Flame

Ullo! Not updated in ages, terrible! I've been kept busy at my new job and freelance, but I promise more updates in the new year. This is the summoning flame, a spell to wake creatures of the forest :)


As for games,I've been playing near enough everything! All except the mighty Skyrim, which I have reserved January for :P
Cheers!

Leo

Ullo! Teenage Mutant *Hero* Turtles, as the song went in the UK. Here's Leonardo, swords aflame, just cos...he seems confused too! (More just playing around drawing in Flash).



Batman, Arkham City is a lot of fun :D I want to do every side quest, is painful to ignore them! Then Uncharted 3 next week!!
Bai!

The cat in the tree

Evening image. A friend of mine was getting 2 cats tonight, which made me think of cats, which made me think of Superman the Movie where Superman lifts a cat down from a tree, which made me think of superheroes, which made me think of super cats, which led to a monster cat....which led to this ;)



Started on Arkham City! Not very far in - am already hooked on doing side quests. Will progress no further till I do them all - precisely why I can never play World of Warcraft!
Bai!

Final Fantasy IX!

Ullo! Some Final Fantasy IX artwork for a possible fanzine (plus I haven't drawn fanart in aaaages!). I remember this game coming out whilst I was working at Electronics Boutique, so was able to get the game *gasp* a day early! Steiner was by far my favourite, and I loved how there was a clanking sound with every step he took, his armour rattling and jangling. Vivi is not impressed.



I've started playing Space Marine - love the run animation. I can;t help but find them cute, with those stubby legs and rounded armour :D And all the Orks are Cockney, which makes me laugh, as they sound like my mates back home!
Bai!

Windy!

Greetings! It's been awhile, but much has been a-happening! The seasons are changing here in Vancouver - autumn approaches, the leaves change colour, and then they blow around everywhere. The fluff below is not amused.



I am now working at East Side Games in Gastown, a social gaming company :) It's a lot of fun, am highly enjoying it there so far!
Gears of War 3 came and went (oh how I love Horde mode!), Shadow of the Colossus HD is getting a good play, and we prepare for the onslaught of games coming this way!
Bai for now!

Hipster dinosaurs

Ullo! I love visiting cafes in Vancouver, and see many of the same types in them. So here they are....in dinosaur form (also messing around with Flash!):



Gears of War 3 out today! I've always liked Baird and Cole, and their first level together actually had me laughing :) A few 'jokingly sexist' comments in the banter though, not so impressed with that... Need to do co-op with my sister!
Bai!

Interior practice

Ullo! Felt the need to practice some interiors, especially as some freelance work now wants it (good timing!). No particular setting, just not my usual mountains ;) They were all pretty quick images, am trying to get faster!
In the first pic, I imagine the guy doesn't get out much, but is devoted to keeping alive his 2 plants.


Workers keeping watch of the Fanta machines (nah kidding!).


This pic originally had a floor, but it felt more interesting to take it all away. I think this guy's lost.


\o/


Child of Eden is finished, ready to start Space Marine. And if I can't get ahold of that, it'll be Gears of War 3 next week. 4 player co op!!

First ever Flash animations!

Hey all! Like my sister Asti, I've been practising a little in Flash! Here's my first (in a loooooong time) simple animations, just trying to get my head around it all again:






They *will* get better! So, I started (and have nearly finished) Child of Eden - what a gorgeous game! The colours are just so bright! Love how the controller vibrates in time with the music, is excellent :) Replaying through levels over and over to open up new ones not so much.
Bai for now!

K Naut's daily wardrobe

Ullo! Working on some more vector style art - K Naut and the layers he puts on to start the day!



I find Flash an absolute nightmare to use, even for drawing. Yes yes, I know you can blow up an image to ridiculous size and not lose quality, but when do you need to do that for iPhone games?? Can anyone enlighten me? Photoshop is far easier to use, and in general a much simpler program. *End rant*
I should properly start Child of Eden, but when the weather's so nice outside, it's hard :)
Bai for now!

Very Angry Birds

Ullo! Not sure why I drew this, but these are the Very Angry Birds!



Also playing around with vectoring here one evening:



My twin sister, Astrid and I were featured on Kotaku's main page today, which was nice :) All oooooooold Crysis 2 work, makes me cringe to look at it, but whacha gonna do!

http://kotaku.com/5837321/sisterthis-storyboard-artist-has-a-twin-sister/

Also, I finished Castlevania - Lord of Shadows, at last! Bizarre ending, not sure what to make of it - is there gonna be a sequel?
Bai for now!

Speedies

Ullo! 2 speedy pics for this update. The samurai lion - will he destroy the last flower?


And a blorange waterfall!


I haven't touched Castlevania in a week. Why? It's just got so tough, so frustrating :/
I have a new photo blog for random stuff I see around Vancouver on my day to day life, so here it is:

http://ladytvancouver.blogspot.com/

Nothing spectacular, is more for my mum ;)
Cheers!

Emoticon ghosts

Ullo! These are the emoticon ghosts! I was originally drawing an environment with some ghosts (which I still plan on doing), and somehow these figures came from it :)



Castlevania: Lord of Shadows is soooooooo hard! And the checkpoint placement *tugs at hair*. I should be playing Deus Ex right now, but I'm trying to do catch up, which I may in fact be doing forever ;)
Cheers!

K Naut Triumphant!

Ullo! Though it was a long and tiring battle, K Naut came out on top, the serpent defeated, and all in time for an afternoon coffee :)



Need some new shows to watch. Am caught up on the crazy True Blood, tried an episode of Psychoville, but am not sure if it's too disturbing for me ;)
Cheers!

Troll dreams

Heya! This pic is inspired by my recent dream activity in Vancouver - I could never recall them at all in Germany, but here nearly every night!



Still playing through Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - damn that game is hard!! Frustratingly hard, screaming at the TV hard. Or maybe I'm playing it wrong, ahem ;) The art is gorgeous though, the mood, tone, setting, music, love it. Saw Conan the Barbarian on the weekend, was unimpressed. You know when it's going bad when you look at your watch and there's still 45 minutes to go!
Bai for now!

Golf!

Ullo! Felt the need to use some of my reference taken from on holiday down in Devon (in England) and this is the resulting picture!



"OUCH!" Am just about to start playing the latest Castlevania game, wish me luck! Also, I tried bubble tea (strawberry) for the first time ever tonight....and I hated it :( So absolutely artificial, and those pearls at the bottom, YUCK. I feel like I'm really missing out here, seems like everyone loves it....Guh.
Cheers!

iPad/iPhone work!

Heya! It's been awhile! Was working at Compass Engine on the following games :) I have permission to show some of the art from them, so here goes (bearing in mind we had 2 weeks for all of it!):

Splash screens:



Assets:


Tiled levels:



Background image:


Game over:


Icons:

Visited England for just over a week - really miss my family and friends :/ When are transporters going to be invented? As I am pretty scared of flying (and there was turbulence!!). Currently playing Ghost Trick on the DS, but what with the big price drop of the 3DS, I'm soooooo close to buying one! About to play Child of Eden, looks trippy :D
Cheers!

Eunaborb!

Ullo! I've managed to squeeze in a little update! I was asked by the wonderfully creative Nick Yonge of Nyan Cat FLY! at KrangGAMES to do some promotional art for his new game, Eunaborb. It's still in the creative process, but you check out the music for the game, HERE (it's excellent!).
First we have the surreal image:



And action!

My first week at Compass Engine has been great! iPad development is a hell of a lotta fun! I may have found my true calling :D Great team, great times, loving Vancouver!
Cheers!

Cast of characters plus Crysis 2 sprites

Hiya! Something a little different this time - felt like doing some sharp, clean work. All these little characters have appeared in mine of my sister Asti's work at various points over the years. Thought I'd have the young version and the adult of each character :)




Found these little sprites of 2 aliens from Crysis 2 I must have made at some point whilst still at Crytek (the Pinger and the Heavy) :)



I'm contracting onsite for the next 2 weeks at Compass Engine down in Gastown, should be fun! Oh and I saw the last Harry Potter - I was left tearful at quite a few scenes, thankfully it's dark in there ay? Haha!
Cheers!

Rock gang

Ullo! Back to updating this blog again! This popped into my head whilst having a coffee in a cafe - no idea what it's about, but I had to draw it out ;)



Deeply excited to see the last Harry Potter film tomorrow!!!
Cheers!

Halo and LOTR, together at last!

Ullo all! Wow, been a bit of awhile since my last update! Life has been kinda hectic since the big old move to Canada. I got to do some work on Halo Anniversary, which I'm super excited about, as I'm a HUGE Halo fan :D Look for it in stores in November *plug plug*. I also have done some artwork for Fantasy Flight Games for the Lord of the Rings card game. Hopefully I can show this artwork at some stage, as I'm quite proud of it :)

For now, here are my guardians of the cliff:


And a random Roman soldier :)


I was rather gutted at the Green Lantern movie, I had such high hopes! I actually felt myself cringing at points, no good :/ But this week it's the last Harry Potter movie! Will go along with my Slytherin scarf on despite the heat, cannot wait!
Cheers!

Coffee Cthulhu and the ill hill

Ullo! Whilst sitting in a coffee shop on Saturday, I wondered what it would be like if they gave me my latte with a monster lurking inside, so here ya go!



Here's the sketches I did for it whilst in there (VERY simple :P)




And then an evening speedy! I kinda imagine this large rock/hill staggering around, and then collapsing to throw up.....and it's lava ;)



I seem to be thinking about coffee and food a lot recently! You can never have enough.
Cheers!

Sketches

Ullo!
Just some quick sketches really. First is K Naut, who I haven't drawn in quite some time. A few people have remarked he looks quite a bit older here. I think maybe he's just annoyed, and is battling that with coffee ;)




Next is a viking chef. Always ready for fighting, but also cooking (he's still youngish, so has to stick on a false beard)!



I totally thought the new X Men film was out this weekend, was totally hyped for it... But no! How?! Why? ;)
Cheers!

Under the bridge

Ullo!
Bit of a speedy this one. Had a walk around Stanley Park, and it got me inspired! Imagine you're walking along, and suddenly you see these ominous figures blocking the way. Do you go back, or push on? Reminds me of those old adventure books: 'Turn to page 52 if you approach the guard'!



Other than that, played some LA Noire - I get worked up into a sweat if my interrogation is going wrong, so much so that I'll restart the entire mission :P I'm sure it's not meant to be played this way.
Cheers!

3 Lions

Ullo! Just playing around with 1 idea in 3 styles. I think I'd like a combo of the 1st and 2nd:



Loving Vancouver. So much amazing food here (hence I'm gymming nearly every day, haha!). Great being able to see movies when they actually come out, not a month or so down the line...And am about to start LA Noire! Everyone's raving about it - I hope it's a little something like the Phoenix Wright series (but more violent) ;D
Cheers!

Waterfall city speedy

Ullo! Waterfall city speedy! This would be a pain in the arse to get around - luckily there are bridges.



Finished Portal 2.....great game! Except one third of it. I can't even really say as it's kinda spoilery and it's still too soon. But guh! Cool sequence right near the end!!
Cheers!

Confrontation

Ullo! 2nd pic drawn in Vancouver :) 2 young boys pluck up the courage to confront the beast, which isn't as aggressive as the stories they were told...



Vancouver comic con today! HAVE to go see Nate Simpson who did the amaaazing Nonplayer!! Go check it out :)
http://natesonofsimp.deviantart.com/
Bai for now!

First pic in Vancouver!

Hiya! Here's my first pic drawn in Vancouver :) Was inspired by the fantastic landscape here, especially heading towards Whistler:



The job I nearly had fell through at the last minute, so am currently seeking employment! If anyone knows of any concept/storyboard jobs going, please let me know :)
Well, at least my Cintiq arrived! Bike next. And I've started on Portal 2 - few things make me actually laugh out loud, but this game has :) And first film in the city was Thor - as good as Iron Man I'm saying, very enjoyable.
I'll sign out with GO CANUCKS! (Loving ice hockey!)

Crysis 2 taster

Hey hey! I've finally been allowed to show a little of the work done I did for Crysis 2! I mainly did storyboards, and some concepts. It was done a few years ago so is looking a little old, but whacha gonna do. Here's a taster:







To view the rest, please check out my website page which has a load more on it:

http://www.artcastles.com/trudi/commerical.html

And in other news, I am moving to Vancouver this Thursday!!! It's a huge step, a really big challenge, but I am lookinging forward to it. I have nothing concrete there yet, but hey, if anyone's looking for a concept/storyboard artist, I'm more than able :D My twin sister stays in Germany at Crytek for now, but hopefully one day...!
Bye for now, see you in Vancouver! Tschussy Deutschland!

P.S. Gotta try and find time to play Portal 2, it's killing meeee!