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AlexGarner — Bioshock Infinite

Published: 2012-01-23 18:50:36 +0000 UTC; Views: 287300; Favourites: 11853; Downloads: 16886
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Description I had such a fun experience with the Portal 2 fan piece, I decided to go further and paint a bigger one for the upcoming game BioShock Infinite. This game's set design and characters are amazingly well done, especially Elizabeth; she doesn't have that dead-eye lifeless look you seen in so many video game characters. To see what I'm talking about, do yourself a favor and check out the 15 minute gameplay trailer. The action is insane:

[link]

Anyway, because I'm a big JC Leyendecker fan and the game takes place during his legendary Saturday Evening Post cover stint, I decided it would be cool to do a parody issue on the city of Columbia with the two main characters as the center. But after drawing my layout, I discovered that the smart folks at Irrational Games had ALREADY done this concept with a few Post parody Game Informer covers. But to me they didn't look particularly like Leyendecker's art, who had such a distinctive style, so I said screw it and just moved forward with my original design. Now, my version doesn't necessarily look like Leyendecker's stuff either (i.e. no where near as good), but I did try make it recognizable as such in the very least while still throwing in my personal stylistic touches.

A few notes: The was only one piece of online reference for the main protagonist, Booker, so this is more my personal interpretation of him. As for Elizabeth, I wanted the paranoia of Songbird's pursuit to resonate in her pose so that's why she's looking skyward. Columbia was done in all-gold because I wanted the city to look like an idealized El Dorado floating in the sky which also accomplished having the character colors pop.

As for how long this took? No idea. I nibbled away on it for like an hour a day in between work projects. Total blast to do. Thinking of my next piece now...
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Comments: 609

warballoon [2012-01-25 05:36:29 +0000 UTC]

It's f'n brilliant! I like the paint style and how it still has some cool inking gestures in it.

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HeavenlyFiction In reply to ??? [2012-01-25 05:21:46 +0000 UTC]

This is so kickass. I love it!

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Rocketguy In reply to ??? [2012-01-25 05:05:53 +0000 UTC]

Absolutely fantastic!

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Wilyum101 In reply to ??? [2012-01-25 02:15:33 +0000 UTC]

Freakin' Awesome !

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YanickPaquette In reply to ??? [2012-01-25 01:49:50 +0000 UTC]

Bravo!

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AlexGarner In reply to YanickPaquette [2012-01-25 19:49:10 +0000 UTC]

Thanks Yanick!

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DriuMaitiu In reply to ??? [2012-01-25 01:05:57 +0000 UTC]

Absolutely fantastic work. Wonderful!

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Randomthug In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 23:15:52 +0000 UTC]

Just amazing Leyendecker himself would be impressed with this piece. Not much I can say that hasn't already been said in other comments already.

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gaurav-devian In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 23:01:04 +0000 UTC]

This is beautiful.......

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GravCat [2012-01-24 22:37:18 +0000 UTC]

This is awesome.

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Shariko In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 22:20:09 +0000 UTC]

Think you killed it.

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JustinRampage [2012-01-24 22:19:48 +0000 UTC]

Amazing job my friend. Welcome to Tumblr! [link]

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arturoanaya In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 22:13:23 +0000 UTC]

Oh I love this one! Fantastic work!!!

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Madjack0305 In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 19:55:25 +0000 UTC]

That looks amazing, especially the time you put in between your work schedule. The details on both the characters and the background go look like something out of the Saturday Evening Post. Booker and Elizabeth's expressions look just as impressive, especially how it adds such an implied sense of danger around Columbia. It's awesome that even Irrational Games featured this in their sites, including Twitter [link] . Well done!

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AlexGarner In reply to Madjack0305 [2012-01-25 19:49:53 +0000 UTC]

Thanks

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gdpr-4019580 In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 19:47:23 +0000 UTC]

Hopefully I'm beating the wave from kotaku (I saw this when you first posted but didn't have time to comment)

Anyhow, a relatively new fan of yours, and I love the way you stylize not only features/structure but also the way you stylize and separate your values. I'm still working hard on studies and trying to crack into... well any industry, and I'm wondering if you happen to have any links to your process and/or studies and practice (such as a blog etc). I love the nice sharp strokes you have and I often feel that near the end of a piece, all I'm doing is fighting against the squishy, blobby way I instinctively render.

Anyways to sum up, do you have any examples of your process, how much reference do you use/shoot for finished pieces, things like that (and only if you have time)

Thanks and awesome work

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AlexGarner In reply to gdpr-4019580 [2012-01-25 20:05:34 +0000 UTC]

I'll be doing an in-depth cover tutorial for ImagineFX magazine in the next few months. Hopefully you'll be able to glean some information from that.

For reference, I usually take photos of my face (even for women characters) to help out with complex lighting. But I've drawn enough people by now that I don't need it too much anymore (difficult foreshortening and expressions notwithstanding). Most of the reference I use is costume-oriented and found online.

Thanks!

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gdpr-4019580 In reply to AlexGarner [2012-01-25 22:07:03 +0000 UTC]

Beautiful, thanks for the reply (I'll have to break down and finally get an issue of ImagineFX). Keep up the amazing work

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wes-rast In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 19:11:07 +0000 UTC]

That's an amazing work. I hope the Bioshock team picks that piece up from you!

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UseTheBrakes In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 19:09:46 +0000 UTC]

And then GI goes on to say that if they could go back in time, this would be their fourth cover...awesome job, man! Gets me even more pumped for this game!

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Kanyn In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 19:07:57 +0000 UTC]

This is now the greatest thing on the entire internet.

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reddawn18 In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 18:48:33 +0000 UTC]

I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS GAME

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Whispering-Road In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 18:47:33 +0000 UTC]

Gratz! And it looks amazing!

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ctrlaltvamp In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 18:46:19 +0000 UTC]

I can haz print please?

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PrimeShift01 In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 18:36:19 +0000 UTC]

just plain WOW!!!

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GCARTIST85 In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 18:30:50 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for letting us add your Amazing work to our gallery!

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nolife-hack In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 18:28:14 +0000 UTC]

Wow! It's a really great picture. You think there's any chance you could do a wallpaper version? I would like it a lot to have it as a wallpaper, but I dare not ruin such a great art

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AlexGarner In reply to nolife-hack [2012-01-24 18:36:10 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! I'd love to post a higher-res version but a small group of unscrupulous types on the interwebs would try to illegally sell prints. It's happened to me before unfortunately.

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nolife-hack In reply to AlexGarner [2012-01-25 14:30:10 +0000 UTC]

That's bad... Artists should have their credit due. It just amazes me how well done it is and I thought it would look good on my mobile screen
Still, it really is a great piece of art, and the whole style reflects the feel of what will probably be one of the greatest games in the year!

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Red-Flare In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 18:20:14 +0000 UTC]

AMAZING work! I'm so excited for this game. XD

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Core-Point In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 18:19:43 +0000 UTC]

This is an awesome illustration.

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theedge92 In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 17:38:36 +0000 UTC]

Amazing artwork!

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gliitchlord In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 17:14:01 +0000 UTC]

This piece redeems Bioshock: Inifinite's terrible stylistic choices.

Brilliant work.

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Ambience19 In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 16:55:39 +0000 UTC]

I really hope that's how Booker looks in game, you made him a bad-ass ^^

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Morthak In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 16:15:26 +0000 UTC]

That's just amazing.

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GoGlhEaD In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 15:54:02 +0000 UTC]

amazing

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Fenrir-7 In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 15:01:33 +0000 UTC]

I think it's simply astonishing!
Also, Irrational Games' facebook profile shared a link, so I guess they liked it too.
Once again, it's just excellent.

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AlexGarner In reply to Fenrir-7 [2012-01-24 18:28:45 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! And thanks for the heads-up!

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Tench In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 14:37:56 +0000 UTC]

I just love that he looks like young Charlie Sheen

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AlexGarner In reply to Tench [2012-01-24 18:31:17 +0000 UTC]

Ha! Somebody else made that comment. Wasn't my intent to make him look like a young Sheen but so be it!

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Tench In reply to AlexGarner [2012-01-24 19:23:36 +0000 UTC]

haha, sorry if it bothered you, i had no intend to! It just a funny coincidence Anyway it's just glorious

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AlexGarner In reply to Tench [2012-01-24 19:25:47 +0000 UTC]

Didn't bother me at all! Thanks again!

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Tench In reply to AlexGarner [2012-01-24 19:45:43 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!

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crisurdiales In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 14:12:18 +0000 UTC]

Superb! I don't think anything Bioshock comes up with for the cover will be better

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Harmpie In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 13:59:59 +0000 UTC]

Fav! Thanks to Kotaku - [link]

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A-R-Q In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 13:53:07 +0000 UTC]

Oh this is a rather nice looking piece, I really love the texture and brush strokes, also making me really excited for the game! Seriously skyrail fights are going to be so epic!

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Trisio In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 13:52:14 +0000 UTC]

awsome!!!!!

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MottledSoul In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 13:42:39 +0000 UTC]

Never played the game (not even sure if it's out yet), but I love your style here!

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Archon706 In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 12:35:05 +0000 UTC]

I think it turned out wonder, insta-fav

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The-Real-Seamus In reply to ??? [2012-01-24 12:02:10 +0000 UTC]

Very awesome artwork! I love her expression as well as the thoughness of the main character!

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