Ken Capelli

Before the fade out…

(Source: msbojangles)

Recent (mis)fortune has led to my first portfolio and resume update/ redux in years… since 2004, actually. I have still to do a proper editing, description, tagging, and attribution pass but the framework and content is all up, live.

Teef’s evolution.

“Q“‘s sketch development. Prior to these stages shown here, “Q” went through a bunch of old-school tracing-paper overlay refinements before being scanned in for digital iteration and coloring.

The Killa Beez villain, Dr. Fuggbucker. His vague backstory is: bent on revenge due to horrendous disfigurement from a killer bee attack. I’m pretty sure he has an eastern European accent, and liked to think that under the mask he was just a meaty skull. Not very developed, we just needed a first-pass villain image.

The hot queen bee for Killa Beez, “Q”. Fun to draw, you know.

“Massiv” for Killa Beez. The tats were a late addition, done in the same pass as “Teef“‘s scumminess to give the big guy some distinction.

This is “Teef” for Killa Beez. He went through a few revisions (which I’ll put up soon) but hit his stride when he became seedier. It’s a bit overdone at this stage but makes the point.

Character sketch for another pitch, Killa Beez. Urban bees. You know. Anyway, a rhythm-based open-world flying game (we just can’t keep it simple, can we?) where you, the bee, are trying to cause as much choreographed Rube-Goldberg-like mayhem as possible in a suburban neighborhood.

The prior Art Director and Project Lead went through a few rounds of character designs with a variety of artists without quite hitting the right note. When I came on I got hands on and hit a lot closer to the mark. None of these designs were close to final and would have gone through revisions had the project continued past the early pitch/ prototype phase.

This one is (wait for it) “Ali Bee”.

Some of the first thumbnails for Killa Beez, starting with the original silhouette of a squat, stocky bee (upper left) who became Teef, with the musculature given solely to Massiv for silhouette differentiation.

Massiv’s progress.

Ali Bee’s progress.

For the heck of it, here’s three images uploaded as a tumblr filmstrip. I just like seeing them fade into each other :-)

The pencil sketch for the color image.

Now that I look at it, the right foreleg could have had more of an action bend to it, and the left side arms and legs should have come forward a bit more (for a clearer and more dynamic shape… like, the left foreleg could be extended forward, grabbing).

Color sketch for a one-page PSP game pitch, Dragon King, from a few years ago. Nothing fancy, just your garden vanilla variety fire dragon (with one-pages, it’s best to keep it simple and direct). It’s an okay scribble.

The pitch concept was fun: nominally a flying game (like our PSP After Burner: Black Falcon) but as a dragon, with the appropriate RPG meta-game wrapper… capturing princesses, eating errant knights, attacking castles, defending your lair, growing in power while spreading your range and progeny, all done with a bit of humor and a lot of AWESOME. I thought it would have been a lot of fun to make and play.

But then Lair came out on PS3, tanked, and killed the “genre” in the eyes of publishers (a craven, self-defeating lot) so the pitch never got much traction.