Archive for October, 2011

Call of Duty Elite commission

A few months back, while on my honeymoon in fact, I was contacted by Activision. They wondered if I might be interested in creating some artwork for Call of Duty Elite. Naturally I had to think about this for all of two seconds. If you’re not familiar with it, Elite is Activision’s new social gaming network built around the hugely popular Call of Duty games, ‘offering players the ability to compete for real prizes and digital trophies in official operations, leagues, and events’. My brief was to create a collage of characters from the upcoming Modern Warfare 3 and integrate some type into it (I think the two main pieces they referenced were my Big Lebowski poster and my Death Wish flyer, but basically I had full creative freedom). I got right to it, and a couple of weeks later, the artwork was complete.

For a while now I’ve been waiting for official clearance on the project, and I’m really pleased to be able to share the work with you now. I strived to instil as much energy into the artwork as possible, playing with the positive and negative space, contrasting angular cuts with flowing brush-strokes, and creating a sense of movement and dynamism throughout the composition. I’m not exactly sure where the piece will be used just yet, but my understanding is that it will feature on merchandise which will be used as Elite prizes. Needless to say, I’ll share information about this when I know more. In the meantime, enjoy!

Call of Duty elite illustration copyright Sam Gilbey
Call of Duty elite illustration copyright Sam Gilbey
Call of Duty elite illustration copyright Sam Gilbey
Call of Duty elite illustration copyright Sam Gilbey
Call of Duty elite illustration copyright Sam Gilbey
Call of Duty elite illustration copyright Sam Gilbey
Call of Duty elite illustration copyright Sam Gilbey

Uncharted 3

Another big game on the horizon is Uncharted 3 (the 2nd game was truly excellent overall and still one of the few exclusive titles to make it worth owning a PS3 in my humble opinion), so I thought I’d add Nathan Drake to my growing collection, following in the virtual footsteps of Adam Jensen and Marcus Fenix.

Uncharted 3 illustration  copyright Sam Gilbey
Uncharted 3 Revolution illustration  copyright Sam Gilbey

Now Tumbling

Yeah, I’m jumping on this bandwagon pretty late I know, but for a long time, samgilbey.com has just been a holding page with links out to my design and illustration portfolios. I figured that updating it to a Tumblr would be a good way to post updates across my illustration and design projects, as well as showcasing my photographs too. So if that’s of interest to you, why not check it out, and follow my Tumblr if you’re also on there.

And in other exciting housekeeping news, eagle-eyed pedants may notice that I now have Facebook and Twitter share buttons next to the titles of my blog and portfolio pages. Thumbs up if you like it!

Tumblr copyright Sam Gilbey

Deus Ex inspired artwork

Next in my series of illustrations by video game characters in current or upcoming games (Gears of War came first) is Adam Jensen from Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Deus Ex Human Revolution illustration  copyright Sam Gilbey
Deus Ex Human Revolution illustration  copyright Sam Gilbey

Drawing Gears 3 when I should be playing

For various reasons, over the last couple of years I’ve ended up with quite a lot of movie-based work in my portfolio. This is all fine of course (feel free to commission some more folks!), but for a while I’ve been meaning to redress the balance somewhat. So here’s my first videogame inspired piece for some time: Marcus Fenix from Gears of War 3. I’m hoping to do a few more of these over the next little while, seeing as now’s when the majority of the big game releases start to come out in time for Christmas.

Gears of War 3 illustration  copyright Sam Gilbey
Gears of War 3 illustration  copyright Sam Gilbey

Yangtze Cruise

Seeing as I took a few thousand photos in China in June, naturally a few of them were bound to make their way into my illustrations at some point. This study was inspired by a snap I took on our cruise of the Yangtze, travelling through the magnificent gorges. You may have seen the work in progress version I shared recently on Instagram. I thought it would be interesting to take such a sedate image, but then by enhancing the diagonal composition (which comes from the mountains, the boat railings and the legs) along with lots of loose marks and texture, to really give it lots of energy. If you’re interested, I’ve made this available as a print here.


Yangtze Cruise illustration  copyright Sam Gilbey
Yangtze Cruise illustration  copyright Sam Gilbey