http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/ rebelakemi's gallery of images en-us 120 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/812094

This is a painting of the French Muse, Drakaina, for her new 2010 art book, Drakaina Masters, published by SQP. I was studying retro future artwork and movie memorabilia recently. Movies such as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon really inspired me. I thought it would be fun to depict her on a rocket pack shooting at assailants. The dog on the jet pack is actually her Shibu Inu, Beltrane. Drakaina was tickled pink when I included her faithful canine in the painting. It was the first time anyone rendered her dog. But for me, a dog lover, it was second nature.
Closeups:
]]> Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:21:32 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/812093

Here is a painting for my friend's New Music CD "World of Forever". His band is called "Metal Knights" and they just got signed with Ratpack records. You can check out his music on http://www.myspace.com/metalknightsmusic
He wanted a dark blue toned painting with the band's mascot, Sir Godfrey, on a evil looking horse. He thought I captured what he had in his mind and loved the piece.]]> Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:16:41 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/731566

This is my entry for the Steam Punk Myth/Legend Challenge. I went through the whole gamut of ideas before I chose Alice. I considered King Arthur and Lancelot, Lady of Shalott, and Joan of Arc. In the end I decided a huge mechanical caterpillar populated with characters would be more fun. I really enjoyed doing this piece and I tried to pay careful attention to the lighting and color. Here are some closeups:

]]> Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:22:22 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/713362

I had some more landscape studies that needed to be refined. My friend said the brush work was too similar. So I revisited it and painted a faerie on an unicorn. I always wanted to paint this subject matter after seeing a Hong Kong fantasy movie with a beautiful woman sleeping on a horse. I don't think that would be comfortable and feasible, but the idea is alluring. Half way through, I got bored, so I added my husband as the voyeur and both of my dogs. Hope you like it. Comments are welcome.]]> Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:11:53 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/674485

I originally painted a study of the ocean shore by sunset. I used reference from several photos I downloaded from stock photography. I thought I'd spice it up by adding a knight and mermaid encounter. I prefer musketeers, so I added D'Artagnan instead. She's entreating him because in her world, mermaids are sterile and have to mate with mortals. So somewhere, the famous Dumas character has finned progeny!]]> Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:41:17 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/663937

This is another submission for Exotique 4. I thought it would be funny to have a mermaid playing video games under water. Unfortunately her controller is broken, so her friends humor her by pretending to be the game. One annoying fish tells her how to play while the other points to the correct buttons. I thought painting her tail like latex would make her sexy. My husband came up with the title for the painting, being an avid gamer, he was very proud of the name. Looking back at this piece I probably should have painted some air bubbles, maybe some light rays and make her skin tone cooler.
]]> Thu, 14 Aug 2008 05:40:32 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/662771

I painted this as a submission for the Exotique 4 book. I used my husband's likeness for the warrior. I thought a night scene with water splashing would be dramatic. This is my rendition of the classic knight battling the dragon theme.
]]> Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:48:02 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/662770

Done for White Wolf's Vampire of the Eternal Struggle CCG card game. Will be published at 2.5" high. The subservient vampire feeds off the wrist of her sire. White Wolf had an interesting fact in their Vampire of the Masquerade universe. If a vampire drinks blood three times from one vampire, he/she will fall hopelessly in love with the sire. Of course it's a love based on deceit.
]]> Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:45:38 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/662767

Done for White Wolf's Vampire of the Eternal Struggle CCG card game. Remember it will be shrunk to 2.5" high. I hope it comes out okay. I like the fact that the vampire in this piece is ambiguous, is it the man or the woman?]]> Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:41:04 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/662766

Again, I did this for the Imagine FX cover challenge. This is the back. I like the lighting on the girl, but I ran out of time on both pieces of work. I don't think I want to come back and finish it.
]]> Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:38:12 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/662765

This was done for the Imagine FX Cover Challenge. I painted this and the back cover in less than 3 days. I ran out of time in the end. I thought about fixing these paintings, but I decided to move on.]]> Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:35:50 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/613706

This is the last in my series of Faeries for a greeting card submission. I thought this would be a nice tribute to those classical paintings where a young man is sleeping in the forest and lit by moon night. Of course in my version, the faerie is up to no good. The faithful dog is based on my Miniature Australian Shepherd, Freckles, who is a pretty good watch dog. Comments are welcome.]]> Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:09:00 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/604952

This is the second to last faerie painting I intend to paint for my greeting card submission. It's one of those attempts to create a market for myself. This is more whimsical than my previous pieces. I still have problems with converting a file created in Painter into Photoshop (so I can use my custom brushes). I get weird posterization. Someone on the PixelBrush.net forum mentioned that it's because Photoshop doesn't know how to interpret the specialized layers in Painter (like watercolors). I made sure that my file was flattened, but I still had problems. I had to airbrush over areas to fix the blends. Does anyone else get this undesirable effect? If you do, I appreciate any suggestions on how to fix it. Other comments are welcome. Thanks for stopping by.]]> Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:56:21 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/565537

This painting is of the French playmate model, Drakaina, for her upcoming pin-up art book, "Drakaina: Fantasy of Desires. Drakaina's likeness is on the left, the right model is her friend Lillith and the center is Ariock, the artist. I used Painter and Photoshop as the medium and the artwork was inspired by one of Drakaina's poems, Blood Sisters. I hope you like it.

Blood sisters

During a close and chaotic encounter
These two have become Blood sisters
Sharing much more that morality would have approved
Threading a bond that could not be removed

Both of them representing the full circle of witchery
One child of Samhain with it's darkness and mayhem
The other carved at Beltane's image: bold and fiery
Their alliance sealed with a bloody kiss and no shame

At one point they despised each others
all for the lonely heart of a shared lover
the very one that brought them together
but even then their connection grew even stronger

A relationship of love and hate
or was it just a question of fate
and although they both tried to break away
They never really could..much to the world dismay

As, you see, these two together are dangerous
Raising Hell and inflicting the sweetest pleasures
Deadly indeed or forbiddhen even but Oh! so delicious
Mix of sweet innocence and raw hunger offered as a treasure

That's the story of an unlikely friendship
of which the roots have grown way deep
between two lost souls very much alike
In which hearts sisterhood decided to strike

]]> Mon, 26 Nov 2007 03:25:38 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/548703

I painted this for an article for Inside Kung Fu Magazine. I kept the blends rough and pasted some paper textures on overlapping layers with different degrees of opacity to give it an oil painterly effect. At first I was going to paint some guys wrestling with Ju Jitsu submission holds on the the ground but I thought a flying back kick would look more dynamic. The defending guy is about to block the kick with his arm so it would actually be a draw. I actually broke my right ankle when my instructor did a scissor take down on me. He was more than twice my body weight and my shoes got stuck on the mat. It's been 4 months since my surgery and I estimate it will be 2 more months till I can resume training again. Painting martial arts is not as fun as doing it.]]> Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:32:25 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/539390

I painted this for the 2nd Annual Erotic Signature Book. The subject matter is a little tame. It took me a while to paint, on and off for over a month, I used a lot of reference material for all the coral and sea life and posed my husband and myself for the characters. In the end, I'm pretty happy. I used Painter 9 for the majority of this artwork and depicted the hair in Photoshop. I noticed that importing this piece back and forth has caused some posterization (especially in the dark areas). I don't know if this is a common problem. Comments are welcome. ]]> Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:57:27 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/524473

I orginally created this faerie in Painter last March. I decided to paint a background for her like I did for the Green Faerie piece. I tried to add some lighting to her, but since I didn't conceive of the composition all at once, I had difficulty. I spent many hours just staring at the background, wondering how to depict the foilage. The end result departed from the minute details of my reference and I used a lot of custom brushes in Photoshop. I think it has a etheral overall look to the piece, but honestly, I was trying for more realism.]]> Wed, 01 Aug 2007 01:14:52 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/520613

A geisha faerie was one of the ideas floating in my head for faeries. I plan to do a variety of different races for my portfolio series. Orson is named after my favorite director! This is the first time I actually tried to put a pattern on clothing. I used stencils in Photoshop. It was a lot easier than I anticipated. Next time I will try an actual material texture. Most of the painting was done in Painter. Comments are welcome!]]> Fri, 20 Jul 2007 23:55:12 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/518746

I painted this faerie originally without a background in Painter and I decided that she needed to be in an environment. My background painting has always been weak, so after reading an Imagine FX article on custom brushes in Photoshop, I tried to tackle this problem. I've always been confused about defining brushes, so I experimented with this technique. The result is something that looks a little more impressionistic than actual matte painting like. I would appreciated any suggestions on how to improve my background depiction. Thanks!]]> Mon, 16 Jul 2007 07:22:29 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/518741

Here is my knight piece. My friend joked that I represent men in armor the way most guys paint women, with a few pieces of shoulder pads and a thong...ha ha ha! It's a shame to cover up that six-pack! Of course, he is so skilled at kung fu, he doesn't need a lot of protective, cumbersome armor! Or maybe he has mithril (LOTR) in that blue spandex thing...Girls can look tough and sexy, but it's always difficult to do the same treatment on men. I'm always open to suggestions on how to make the armor look more imaginative, cover less skin, but not make him look like he stepped out of an S & M club.]]> Mon, 16 Jul 2007 07:02:01 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/425419

I drew this direcly onto my Wacom Cintiq Tablet instead of scanning in a drawing. I was inspired by Linda Bergkvist's Master/Slave painting. I wanted to create something very beautiful but also funny in a subtle way. The model is based on Veronika, "the Perfect Muse". I tried to use a variety of texture brushes for the background. I am trying to get away from the airbrushy look of Photshop and I think this painting looks as if it was done in traditional oils.]]> Sun, 05 Nov 2006 07:01:47 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/425418

This was originally created as a submission to the Ballistic Publishing Exotique 2 book but it was not finished in time. I didn't have the wings and the background painted. It didn't make the grade, so I finished it anyway. I noticed that the blends would turn "hard edged" even though I blended them smoothly. I think maybe it's because I used the watercolor simple color bursh. To bypass this, I had to create a top layer and do the blends there. I made the warrior have 2 color eyes like the dog I just adopted. I thought that look was cool.]]> Sun, 05 Nov 2006 06:55:59 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/328802

I was trying to create a Children's Fairy Tale portfolio and I thought it would be fun to depict the Hans Christian Anderson's story. She ended up looking a lot older than the preteen I first envisioned and I have to add that the Prince looks pretty mature as well. It was funny that when I first started coloring the mermaid, her hair was red and her tail was aqua. I didn't realize that the Disney movie was engrained in my subconscious. I looked at a lot of reference for the sea creatures (from a undersea photo CD at work) and at a lot of pics I took while on visit to an aquarium in Hawaii during my honeymoon.]]> Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:08:42 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/328807

This is a piece I did for Inside Kung Fu Magazine to illustrate an article on Chi. I always get the intangible, metaphysical articles that I have no ideal how to illustrate. I chose the straight forward depiction of fighting on plum blossom poles. Of course it has less to do with Chi, but more about the physicallity of combat, but to me it was more fun to draw that instead. This took me about 2 days to do in Photoshop.]]> Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:37:54 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/328811

Sexy Girll with Guns, need I say more? This was a fast 3 day painting which I probably should have spent more time on.]]> Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:50:29 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/328803

I tried to paint Icarus in a futuristic setting. I like the colors, but looking back at this piece after studying the brillant matte paintings at this CG site, I realize that I'm missing atmosphere in the piece, not to mention my unnaturally forced perspective. I thought about fixing this piece, but I think moving forward would be better. This site is so cool, I'm glad I joined, because it exposes you to the wonderful talent in the CG community and helps you open your mind and your imagination.]]> Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:15:01 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/328808

This is an illustration about the Teacher/Student relationship in Inside Kung Fu Magazine. I bought a copy of Painter finally after being a stout user of Photoshop. Unfortunately, my mac was too old to run the software, so I had to borrow one of my husband's PCs. Not being very wary of the PC, the file became hung up during a save and I did an "end program now" which made me lose my file. Luckily I had a really old version on my mac which I was able to rebuild. Boy was I mad. Never the less, I had a lot of fun experimenting with the brushes in Painter. It probably took me a lot longer to paint than Photoshop but well worth the experience. The characters are a homage to Pai Mei from "Kill Bill" and a Chinese comic I used to collect when I was young. I couldn't decipher the Chinese, but loved the art.]]> Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:44:50 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/328805

This is my comic book character, Akemi. I never finished the comic, I drew 2 issues, but only published one. Someday, I plan to rework the story and paint a graphic novel. You can see the comic book influence in my work and the forced perspective and lack of atmosphere in the backround. I'm also trying to get away from this airbrushy look. I like this piece, but my husband pointed out that the heroine isn't in control of the situation and appears to be more of a victim. I'm an advocate of females in a dominant and heroic position, (hence my study of the martial arts).]]> Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:22:59 +0000 http://rebelakemi.cgsociety.org/gallery/328806

This is an older piece that I did when Lord of the Rings' Two Towers came out. Yes, I love the trilogy, although Two Towers is my favorite. Although I love action/fantasy/sci-fi movies, I wouldn't want to be in the midst of this battle, those Uruk-hai look pretty strong and much bigger than me. Maybe I can challenge one of those smaller Orcs!]]> Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:29:52 +0000