Mr Leon Taylor - Artist

My photo
Auckland, None, New Zealand
I am Mr Leon Taylor Artist/ Illustrator / Designer/ Character Animator / Musician . I work for myself as a freelance artist. I am open for commissions and collaborations, contact mrleontaylor@gmail.com I post my creation process and experience here. https://twitter.com/#!/mrleontaylor , http://www.soundcloud.com/mrleontaylor , http://www.tumblr.com/blog/mrleontaylor

Mr Leon Taylor's - Blog Archive

Monday 25 August 2014

DEADFLEASH CULT - It is armor, It gives them life, it gives them a face.


DEADFLEASH CULT - It is armor, It gives them life, it gives them a face.


This is a concept idea and exercise I made for myself based on a few areas I have wanted to work on over the past 12 months. Linework, keeping my clean lines with the pencil crisp and no compromise and time not taken to be happy, but happy with the speed and process I have made to suit me. It was mainly critiquing myself with the skills I had obtained and trusting my judgment. After studying Animation, Illustration, Design, Concept designs, Character and Background design and some storyboarding. These are the things I am most passionate about. I love concept and design. All of it. Pre-production is my jams, I dig it. I get excited. So...
This was for, four years you have many concepts and ideas busting in your skull but cultivating and brewing just enough. The members of  the DEADFLEASH CULT  live wrapped in flesh and it breaths around them it resembles tentacles with a fire like ripple. It is armor, It gives them life, it gives them a face.

Here is a poster I put together all five members.
(left to right, top to bottom)

Malice the Executioner
Arrow of Abboherence
The Ninja of Vehemence
Shinobi Assassin

The Puppet Sorcerer
(in background)




I rough out the pencil work and pose 3-4 time before I am 100% happy with :

1) The pose - A pose must tell a story, I love a good story. Mystery. Even in my sweetest of drawings
2) Overall clothing - What are they wearing? How and where will items sit?
3) Extra details of items - This is deciding the final destination of where a lot of things will sit
4) Clean up - It is challenging, but once in the right mind set its fun.

I do all these steps together to keep my energy up, with this last three.





Get a rough skin tone down. Then work on the texture to give it a skin, comic book easy colour.



Erase all that you don't need and add some more pigments. 



I like to then duplicate the layers and adjust the huyes so they all come out the same colour. Then like with the skin I erase what I don't need. Adding the orbs (single layer to get the light source in place.



Adjust colours using RGB colours to suit.

I started on Shinobi Assassin to get the overall feel. 




Posed in action below:





Thank you for checking out my art. I like to keep my journal of how I progress and am also writing these notes for myself. I am not the master. I am forever the student. Always learning. Always sharing.

Mr Leon Taylor




Sunday 3 August 2014

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Leatherface - 1974, Fan-art.


The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 1974, Fan-art.

I really love and enjoy a good horror movie. This was one of my favourites from the moment I saw it. Such great shots and at times still just terrifying with some of the chase scenes.

I roughed and cleaned the linework with pencil (2B) , colouring it in photoshop (CS6). I wanted to have my take on the iconic image. Having a comic book feel to the overall colour palate, but more bloody than the original.



The Slenderman / Slenderman - 2014


I have always had a fondness towards the internet boogieman, The Slenderman AKA Slenderman. So it was only a matter of time before I did some fan-art and my version of the iconic image. Slenderman lives.


Mr Leon Taylor

Exhumed in the pit of entrails and Martyrs - ALBUM ARTWORK - Brutal grind

Exhumed in the pit of entrails and Martyrs - CONCEPT, ALBUM ARTWORK - Brutal grind / Death Metal.

I am very keen to do album artwork for bands I love and enjoy. I thought it might be time to give an example of what I may be able to draw for you and your band. I have uploaded a finished result to gauge peoples thoughts on this style. I am unsure if this is appropriate for my Facebook art page, SO would love to hear your thoughts.

Exhumed in the pit of entrails and Martyrs:






SICKELODEON - Series one.


I love animation, still do a lot. But when I watched these older shows, they always looked much more disgusting than the original design. These characters are well designed. So upsizing them in the gross scale was going to be super fun. Introducing series one of my Nickelodeon based series, SICKELODEON ! Each installment is planning to be more putrid and hilarious than the last. I put it out to my Facebook followers who they might want to see. The response was large and I could then let my pencil do the talking. Based on the feedback these are the set of four with the first nine characters.

I have three of the four prints already lined up for series two! With seven exciting, gross characters so far.


The Angry Beavers  - Upsized to SICKELODEON - THE ANGRY AS BEAVERS.

 Upsized to SICKELODEON - DOGCAT

Aaaahhh Real Monsters  - Upsized to SICKELODEON - REAL MONSTERS AAAHHHH


Invader Zim - Upsized to SICKELODEON - INVADER INSANE