The Art of TJ Wright

Recent Works from the Depths of My Harddrive...

2017-07-03T16:10:00.000+09:00

Droid Samurai

2016-12-29T09:12:00.000+09:00

An updated painting of a 30 minute sketch from a while back... it was cool to revisit this piece and give it a (wait for it...) 'fresh coat of paint' (bad pun?)

Here's the original...

ILM Star Wars Art Challenge

2016-09-16T21:17:00.000+09:00

It's been a busy year and I have had much of a chance to post to my blog recently. Aside from doing some work on a independent Science Fiction film, I tried my hand at the ILM Star Wars Art Challenge over at ArtStation.com

I didn't win which was completely expected given my competition but I am extremely happy and proud to have made it through to the final stage after having my work approved during each section by the ILM Concept Leads themselves.

Here are some of the finals from throughout the 3 month challenge that took up the better part of my life outside of my already fulltime job:

Happy Star Wars Day!!!

2016-05-04T22:48:00.000+09:00

The Deal Has Been Altered

2015-11-22T20:55:00.000+09:00

The deal was supposed to go off without a hitch, the shipping schedule had been easy enough to remove from under the Hutt's nose and all he had to do was deliver it to Montross' goons in the Jundland Wastes. The young would-be smuggler swore at himself for not bringing back-up to the meeting. Maybe someday he would have to get himself a partner, someone big and intimidating... like a Wookiee!

How the painting evolved from it's initial sketch.

Sketch from a while back of Kylo Ren.

Robots

2015-03-27T22:31:00.000+09:00

Some stuff I've been working on sporadically for the past year or so, mostly just having fun and playing with different lighting set-ups, colors and composition.

History of the Old Republic

2015-02-10T21:16:00.000+09:00

Starting out 2015 with a bang by getting a gig doing Star Wars stuff for an upcoming book that will attempt to make sense of the Star Wars: Legends stuff that is no longer considered 'canon' by LucasFilm.

Here's some of the stuff I've done so far:

Deployment

2015-02-03T21:40:00.000+09:00

I could finally get back into some personal stuff this week. A nice quick one, right in the comfort zone to get started. :)

Star Wars VII - Warm-ups

2014-12-07T20:00:00.000+09:00

So excited!!!

Way Out World

2014-10-31T22:12:00.000+09:00

Cover for the book 'Way Out World' by Glen Held that I finished a couple of weeks ago.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Orc Samurai

2014-10-13T20:09:00.000+09:00

Something I quickly did tonight while waiting for feedback on another piece.

Lost

2014-08-31T11:00:00.000+09:00

More personal project stuff.

Beta Crow

2014-08-23T09:38:00.000+09:00

What's a story without a badass Bounty Hunter?

Personal project work.

New Version:

Original Version:

Outcasts of the Worlds

2014-08-15T10:56:00.000+09:00

I spent much of the first half of this year working on this project that started as just a book cover but then soon expanded into character and environment designs. Check out the Facebook page: Outcasts of the Worlds for the book's release date and more information.

HEY!

2014-07-20T23:58:00.000+09:00

Finally had some time again for personal work so I got around to finishing a Slig that I started a few years ago. :o I love the Oddworld games and am really excited for the re-release of Abe's Oddysee in HD later this week.

Mountain Stream - Wedding Board

2014-06-04T22:03:00.000+09:00

Painting I did for my Wedding Welcome Board based on a Jaime Jones painting I love - I got rid of the giant monster from the original... I didn't feel it was 'wedding appropriate'.

Rocketeer

2014-03-29T11:44:00.000+09:00

Any chance I had this past week (which wasn't much) I went back and cleaned up my Rocketeer sketch and brought it to a point that I felt was finished while still retaining the energy of the original rough.

With almost every painting I do, I like to try and experiment with something new and in the case of this piece it was all about lighting and lost edges. Lost edges are where elements fade into the shadows but your mind is still able to fills in the blanks.

Here I tried to make it prevalent in the top edge of Cliff's helmet rudder, his left arm and legs.

Rocketeer Sketch

2014-03-21T20:53:00.000+09:00

Rough sketch trying to figure out the lighting and composition for a Rocketeer painting I want to do.

Suggestions?

30 Minute Spitpaints

2014-03-09T19:11:00.000+09:00

I've been working on lots of cool stuff recently that I really want to show but I have to wait a few more months. :( In the meantime, any chance I can I've been trying the topics at the Daily Spitpaint group on Facebook. The rules are simple: 30mins or less, no photos, only painting.

These 3 are some of my favorites that I've done:

Cyborg Samurai, Bridge in the Fog and Noseless Face.

Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2014

2014-01-01T12:57:00.000+09:00

To bring in the new year, here is the final painting I did in 2013 - finished on December 31st as a freelance commission.

I hope everyone has a great year filled with inspiration, completed goals and random (but frequent) happy moments.

Back to the Art... BATTLESUIT

2013-11-05T06:59:00.002+09:00

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for their support on my last blog entry. It means a lot to have the support of so many great people. :) I understand that not everyone will agree with the action I took making it public but I felt that this kind of situation is kept quiet and swept under the rug far too much. Maybe my actions have closed a couple of doors for me but that's something I'm willing to live with in order to share my experience.

No one can stop me from painting (short of cutting off my hands and feet and sewing my mouth shut). Speaking of which...

This latest painting is something that I started working on at the beginning of October for a personal project. The idea is that this suit was once used for heavy-lifting and demolition but once Earth was invaded, was re-purposed into a fighting suit. This one is an early model that hasn't been repainted yet and so, is still bright construction machinery yellow.

Will have a edited video of the process for this guy uploaded soon.

Artists Beware! Ad Agency Paying in Exposure

2013-11-02T10:22:00.000+09:00

"If we had money for this, we'd be going after real artists…who paint on real canvases. Not the digital fake stuff."

When I received the original Email from Roy Torres of a famous New York Advertising Agency asking me to work for 'exposure' for one of his multimillion dollar clients, I was going to just let it go and chalk it up to another day, another non-paying offer in the life of an artist. We get this kind of nonsense all the time. That doesn't make it right but there isn't much we can do to stop this kind of thinking and behavior from the people that wish to use our very specialized set of skills… right?

After considering it for a couple of days, I decided that I didn't have to just accept this. No artist should… ever! You would never ask a Doctor to give you free treatment for good word of mouth. You would never tell a Coffee shop that in lieu of payment, you're going to tell everyone how great the coffee you just bought is.

I decided to reply to Mr. Creative Director and say pretty much that! Here is his original Email to me (I've removed his client name to protect them for the time being);

Hey Travis,

My name is Roy Torres and I'm an Associate Creative Director at a respected global ad agency in New York called Grey. I'm personally reaching out to you to see if you would be interested in working on a proactive print campaign for ****.

I really love your work and believe you would be perfect for this assignment, the only downfall is that because it is proactive, our budget is very slim to none. The idea and campaign would have the backings of a global agency, who would submit your illustration into multiple awards shows and publications getting you global exposure; and the high chance of winning some awards.

If you are interested in the project, please let me know and I'll send you a PDF of the idea.

Hope to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Roy Torres

And, my reply;

Hey Roy,

Thank you for the Email and interest in my work.

While I appreciate your offer, I find it difficult to believe that a high-profile and international Ad agency like Grey who is working with a multimillion dollar company like **** has slim to no budget for promotional material and artwork that will be shown globally.

I'm sure you wouldn't be willing to work for free yourself, right? You've probably studied and worked hard to get your current position and maybe you even enjoy what you do and that shouldn't mean you don't get paid for the work you do.

I'm no different.

Thank you once again for the Email and offer, I do appreciate the interest in my work and considering you found me to contact me personally I would say I already have great exposure to my work in this modern age of the internet.

Best regards,

Travis

I wanted to remain polite while also showing him just how rude and ignorant it is to approach an artist in this way.

Here is his response to me;

If we had money for this, we'd be going after real artists…who paint on real canvases. Not the digital fake stuff.

And going onto Behance, searching for "Digital Sci-Fi Artist" took about 3 minutes. Not as much exposure as you think.

But good luck, I'm sure you're having a blast in Tokyo. It's a brilliant city.

Personally, I would say that only 3 minutes of searching before I popped up is great exposure to my work!

Seriously though, this response was so unprofessional and disrespectful that I was left dumbfounded. Any Creative Director who would reply to an artist in this way has absolutely no respect for any artist, whether they work digitally or otherwise.

Could I just let this go and chalk it up to another day for any artist?

Not this time. This time I'm sharing my experience with other artists, warning them to stay away from any offer made by people likes this.

People like Roy need to learn to respect artists in this day and age and fear how easy it is for us to give them exposure when they treat us poorly.

Chaos

2013-10-03T07:07:00.000+09:00

Promo art for Star Wars: Squadrons - Go check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Star-Wars-Squadrons/432094530223026?ref=br_tf

Master Skywalker

2013-09-01T22:27:00.000+09:00

"The Jundland Wastes are not to be traveled lightly."

This is based only on the original films and my interpretation of who Luke might become and where he might be after the events of Return of the Jedi.

I think he would be drawn back to Tatooine and take up residence in Obi-Wan Kenobi's hut, where he was first introduced to the ways of the force and later built his own lightsaber. He would live alone, much like Yoda on Dagobah and wait for potential Jedi Knights to seek him out.

He wears Vader's glove, sleeve and shoulder armor on his right (robotic) hand and arm to honor the man that his father once was and finally became again but also to remind him of the dangers of the dark side.

Tree

2013-08-13T23:14:00.000+09:00

Trees seem to be my theme of the week. This was just a really quick practice, trying out some new stuff and breaking out of my comfort zone a little.