MattO - Some of my work

I've thought a lot about how I can sum up my style. Despite being the wrong side of 25 I'm still experimenting with a few different mediums and and honing my use of line and colour. My pieces generally tend to be colourful and with a sense of quirkiness, (If that's the right word).

I'm very interested in pre-production and concept art and my work tends to me more illustrative than fine art based. Not all of these relate to a particular character or scene however and function as standalone pieces.

One of the biggest developments in my style of working came a few years ago when I began using digital art programs and a tablet PC. This gives me the freedom to experiment with colour as well as being able to draw and redraw in a way that emulates real paint but can be undone and layered as many time as I like. 

The image of the monkey below is the first one I created using a program called Artrage, It is drawn on only one layer and shows the kind of effects achievable.

Being able to blend and mix paint in a realistic way using the palette knife tool is great fun and pretty limitless. I used a combination of the pencil crayon and paint tools for this.

My next piece is a test in converting a sketch into a realised colour work. There's no story behind this one again, I simply began by creating the 50's inspired face and wanted to give it a creepy edge by making every part of it some kind of odd creature. 

The cards and cocktail class are drawing inspiration from 50's/60's art and I called it 'Debauchery'. It's almost has a seven deadly sins vibe to it with the character experiencing the dizzying mix of drink and gambling.

This piece is based on a photo of a friend of mine. I like her 80's themed costume she had in the picture and thought adding to it would make a good piece of work. I used the colours in the image and really just freestyled form there with the neon bolts of lighting and guitar fanning out from hand. This was another digital piece created in Artrage using the paint and pencil crayon effects.