Art and Illustration of Christian Hammer

Alien Bust – Sketch

hammer — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:04:59 +0000

Just a quick painting sketch of an alien bust

Had a few hours after work where I was just doodling and produced this little alien bust sketch, speed paint or whatever you want to call it.

(no title)

hammer — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:02:40 +0000

Arm Concepts for the Boticus Game I am developing

: Concept Sketches of The Legs for the Boticus Game

These are a few sketches I created for my Boticus Game. Trying to define the core component concepts for the modular characters players can create.

Captain Cool and the Therminator – Concept Sketch

hammer — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 23:12:08 +0000

Sadly this concept was not accepted by the client. they decided that their customers are too stodgy to enjoy the cheeky sensation that is Captain Cool.

This pair are opposites, where Captain Cool is human the therminator is a machine. Where Cool is Cheeky, therminator is serious, diametrically apposed beings who are constantly in conflict. the die was for them to be used first in a series of paintings to be used in adverts, then later videos etc.

This was all done in a few hours on my iPad using the new pressure sensitive stylus from a Kickstarter campaign I backed.

Demon Quick Paint

hammer — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 07:37:39 +0000

This was a quick paint up. sort of sketch I did for an indie game company a couple of years ago. This specific concept art was of a desert demon and was/is just a quick attempt to get ideas on the page, npt meant to be a finished design at all.

Icons, a Whole Slew of Them | Icon Set Game Site

hammer — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 03:50:10 +0000

So the site I mentioned in the Ippy Cartoon Character post had a great deal more artwork needed. And as you can see from this sheet the sites name was to be IPlayedThat. This sheet contains the majority of icons, characters and the logo that I created for the site.

So the icons can be broken up into three distinct categories

Achievements – These are are then also divided into levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Each of the types is given to achieving a goal, such as posting a certain number of posts. Each level was achieved at progressively higher numbers.
Rank – Everything you did on the site, gave the user points. These points determined the users rank within the community.
Awards – These were to be given for special events, for example being in the Beta would give the user the Marine award. The Dragons Heart was to be awarded to users who reported a bug, or suggested a feature that we decided to act upon.

Enough about the purpose. It was a blast coming up with all of these tiny page elements, and making each one distinct and identifiable.

Ippy The One Eyed Troll… Monster… Thing

hammer — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 09:29:52 +0000

This cartoon character was created for a website that, sadly, never ended up going anywhere. His name is Ippy and he was an accident that occurred while I was trying to come up with a logo icon for the website.

In this first image you see him beset by slings and arrows, ducking down behind his meager shield reaching for a sword with a defiant expression. This image was meant for the 404 error page of the site and fast became my favorite rendition of Ippy. It is surprising how difficult it is to give facial expressions to a character with only one centered eye. It took me quite a while to come up with a solution that worked for frowny eyes as this version of him has.

This second image was actually the first time I drew him out in any sort of pose, and was meant to be nothing more than a reference image of the character in a fairly neutral pose. Someone pointed out that it looked like Ippy was going to give us a hug. So it was re-purposed as the welcome to the site image once a user had decided to join the community.

Due to the fact that the site was never realized, there are only a few other images I ever did of this character, which is sad as I really enjoy his personality, and form. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll incorporate him into a game or some other project.

Troll Toon – Smell Bad

hammer — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 03:19:08 +0000

This is a paint-up I did of the troll cartoon sketch I created while bored in a meeting at work. Just thought I’d share him here to go along with the sketch post I already made. I played with making him look more like an old water-color on the parchment, but decided against it, as in the end it just looked messy.

I’ve started playing with more of the cartoon drawings I have laying around. I just need more free time to work on fun stuff like this, rather than coding projects, someday maybe, but alas not today. For now, I will just take the time where I can and play.

Logo Collection | logo design

hammer — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:09:49 +0000

I have created more than a few logos over the years .Recently it came to my attention that I haven’t really placed those icons anywhere online. In an attempt to rectify that situation, I submit for your perusal a small sampling of that vast collection.I created the Success-U logo for the podcast and blog of the same name that my friend and business partner, Ben, and I started a few years ago.I really wanted to have the negative space create the $ and spent many iterations. This one is the final product. The U itself is the singular icon used more often than the entire logo. It might not look like that much, but a considerable amount of thought went into every aspect including the smile/arrow and choice of colors.

Another self project, in this case the logo was created for the business Ben and I own that does online development/design and marketing. Again this logo went through a long series of revisions and ultimately it was me just not being happy with the message implied by the logo. This one on the other hand works fairly well in that regard. The name is the combination of the words Innovation and Focus. I spent a series of revisions on turning the V into the arrow cursor icon. But realized that the “i” gave me the opportunity to user 2 different icons that are used on the web widely(RSS, Podcast), and gave me a standalone icon, which is often my goal from the outset.

I love the Ippy character I created for the IPlayedThat logo. I have drawn him in a wide number of poses and action shots. Sadly this project never came to fruition, but alas the character may live on in some other fashion.

Created the Technoloft logo for a local startup, I rather like where it went even though I was trying to include all of the requested elements. Each part has a significant tech geek meaning and as such they were important to the parties involved. Most of the time I spent on this one was trying to come up with a cloud shape and gears that didn’t seem in constant conflict with one another.

This logo was created for my previous employer. They have gone through a few version over their 10+ year history and this was the last. I very much enjoy how the 9 is the base of birds shape, and it is a wonderful little icon of it’s own. The letter work is weak at best, but alas it is what the owners wanted and loved.

Aren’t I just super clever? Incorporating a controller and chord into the first letter of each word of the name for this website.

There is a mountain more logos I have created over the years, this just represents the ones that I have created in the last couple of years, and probably doesn’t even show the majority of those. It feels to be something I do at most occasionally but over time it still adds up.

Horseman of the Apocalypse | Digital Painting

hammer — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:30:43 +0000

Another entry for Gnomon monthly theme, this time with the topic of Horseman of the Apocalypse. This is one of the rare painting that I made myself stop early so as to capture the emotive paint strokes. Compositionally it could use a little work and there are things here and there that distract me about it, however all in all it captures the mood and character as I wanted to show him.

Game Art – Human Captain

hammer — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:18:20 +0000

The game is not yet released but take a few minutes and check out “StarDrive” and the StarDrive kickstarter page. I am creating many of the aliens and human characters for the game. only the 2d, no 3d. Though some day I should get back to doing some 3d work. This illustration is just the first of the characters and creatures I am creating for this wonderful indie game.

Edit:

They ended up using a different artist.