Chuck Lukacs's Blog

The last months have been the object of another rather horrible life change for me, Folks.  One I'd never thought to endure again if I'm honest.  ..but all the same, new Change brings with it new Opportunity!  So, with the help of a brilliant outpouring in Genesis Generator born Creature & Character contributions from this host of Professional Creatives..  I've made my way through a bit of the storm to at least ease up breathin' in staccato just to simply keep the pilot light lit!  =)  I just can't thank everyone enough, and here's some of the highlights in Genesis Generator Creations throughout these last months !!
 I recorded a video with the help of Alper Markov of Concepts & Legends, and his Magic the Gathering themed Podcast.  Which a truncated version exists on his YouTube Channel.  Wherein lies a timelapse vid of the demo in the Conceptual Process that I gave and the birthplace of "Floppy & Flappy Bolas" =}..  Hahahahaha!!!  Check it out, it's good fun, watch for the awesome 8bit creations of Ryan Gomez, like and subscribe, but also -- Keep your peepers peeled for more upcoming news about an 8 Week Mentorship program I've been cooking up !!  It may be open to anyone online, it may be dedicated to a more exclusive 4-5 folks who are here in Portland area and can meet up physically? --  However it may manifest, it will contain all of the lectures from my Character Design course of 10 years, along with all the tips and tricks I've developed over those years to help anyone, more effectively and inventively, conjure up Creatures and Characters the likes the Sphere has never seen before !!  Stay Tuned !!
    Kathryn has always had the editorial ability to capture a character for whatever the article or show requests into wonderfully economic marks.  I can still remember an Illo involving a Tiger filled with water.. wickedly inventive!  Here the Genesis Generator prompted associations from Cactus forms with a similar membranous Wave.  Check her work out at - https://kniftykat.com/ - Dani on the other hand couldn't be more of a gaming illustrator conceptual artist !!  So happy with this Zebra Moray/Caterpillar combo!!  The shape language and it's brilliant mixings of patterns and realism!?  Absolutely fascinating to see Dani earn these kind of conceptual chops over the years.  Check her work out - https://www.dasconceptart.com/ - you'll thank me!
Dmitry Burmak and his Wife Kate are a Power Couple to be reckoned with !!  Such amazing work they both do for Magic and a host of other clients. ..but this combo of Dmitry's is something I rarely see done so well, and it speaks to his years of being a quick and effective Conceptual Designer.  He took on more than three variables in terms of Content, they all can be recognized and they all have brought a brand new association to the world that no one has ever seen before !! Amazing !! 

 
 Tony has always been skilled with his Characters!  This Aztec Froggy Dr. sorta reminds me ofsomeone from Guardians of the Galaxy.  Although, where Tony really shines is with his Environments and Interiors!  Check out his work on ArtStation - https://www.artstation.com/tonyzhang _
 David created a whole Demon Librarian scene from the Occupation Game andthere's some really nice storytelling going on in this sketch !  Thank you both !    I went to college with Eric Rossbach at CCS in Detroit, MI.  Eric does the most wickedly fun sculptures and this Genesis Generator born creation is no different !!  I'm getting a kind of brilliantly R.Crumb / Wolverton 70's - 80's counter culture vibe with this illustration that Eric is so very good at.
Don Higgins created a character from the CuteBrüt Game, which finds it's origins in the Archetypes - Adult-like Child & Child-like Adult - Of which we have the later here with a seemingly "rough" characterization depicted as cutting the strings of his more Puppet-like cuteness.. =)  Don did a vid of this process and does a Podcast on FasaGames twitch stream!  Check him on out !! https://www.twitch.tv/fasagamesofficial - https://donhigginsillustration.com 






        

I liked one of Scott Okumura's recent drawings so much (a haunting picture of an Owl) that we exchanged Genesis Generator born drawings for it!  OMG, I think Scott did such an inventive mixing in that blunderbuss weapon, and I could see that same concept playing out in a 90's MarioCart style platform.. Peas rolling across the screen, weapon smoking through the pod !!  If one can tap into that same kind of creative flow when associating with the randomized words, it can be truly Magical !!

Steven Millage used a lot of words here with his contribution, but I think it worked out great in it's complexity !!  Gives me 80's Metal vibes.. or perhaps a movie poster for a Kaiju Film.  So, cool !!

 

Sydney has been one of my most skilled former students in her Creature Design ! She's studied with Terryl Whitlach before her time at the PNCA, and her mixing here of a hooved mammalian and feathery owl is nothing short of genius!!  You can tell the transitions in surface anatomy, and that extra step of realism can often make or break any concept..  Do yourself a favor and check Sydney's work out at her Artstation - https://sydneykattine.artstation.com/

Last but certainly not least, Comic artist now Magic the Gathering compadre' Michael Walsh agreed to contribute this awesomely hilarious Rocket Riding Astro-Froggy!!  Excellent pairing and making multiple elements of Content play out in a splendidly serendipitous Design!!  Thank you, Michael !!

As did former Student and incredibly skilled Comics and Editorial illustrator, Character designer, Nicole Sagal contribute.  I love when things come full circle, so I included Nicole's first Challenge from class along with this awesome From the very beginning Nicole has had a very distinct combo of expressive character techniques, including a digital line quality that has grown so very nicely over the years. - https://www.qiorno.com/

Thank you all for your continued support and thank you even more for all the brilliant contributions to my madcap adventures in serendipitous Character Creation and Word Association via The Genesis Generator !! Please keep in touch, especially if you have a couple Genesis Generator born Creations to share, and I'll keep posting them here when time allows.  Now that the Generator looks up Photos while the wig bubbler is bubbling, there's all sorts of new and inventive imagery that can form !!

Over the years, there's been quite a few fans of the original Fantasy Genesis book who've contributed their creations in some way via the Social Networks.  So, here's the first part in a showcasing of some of those great Folks.  The Folks who've by and large been using the original dice rolling lists and their very own D20s, D8s, D6s & 4s!

On Apr 14, 2010, CalmLlama was nice enough to create the Fantasy Genesis Deviant Art page.  It's mostly devoted to Creations born through the initial Humanoid Game, but went on to be a brilliant grouping of conceptual work!  I'll eventually start a Character Genesis blog on Artstation in the months to come, but I'd like to share and remember the DA concepts and creations, as there's just some wonderfully inventive things there.  Flaming Caterpillars, Natasha Moore's brilliant Giraffe Gull and I can't forget, Owlflies! (If there were Owlflies in this reality, would you want an infestation? =)

 

One of the best things about this book duo spanning a decade, is that we can all see just how far we've come along as Artists, Conceptual Designers, Technicians in whatever our media is!  

This seems specifically true with the student work I'll be showing more of, but also in the DA work.  Looking at some of these Artists' work nowadays, is almost like looking at another person completely?  After that span of time they've made such advances, and equally as important, never Stopped making art!

Stay tuned !!
Chuck

Hempto takes her time when in the mountainous areas.  The Cactabex herd given to her for the sporing season, they don't know any other speed and there's plenty of Spitpines in the plains to the north that could notice the duo moving at a faster clip.  The next few weeks will prove to the Council her skills with the beasts and supply Hempto plenty of sporlings for the Union.

With all the wonderful picture reference available, the new version of my Humanoid game can be a mini botany lesson with every search.  I'd not known about half the varieties of Desert Cacti there are on this spinnin' Sphere, but the beginnings of the Cactabex were filled with them!  The words that sparked my wig bubbler into this little story came up as; Mountain Ibex - Desert Cacti - Ant.

 

  

Hope you dig Hempto & her Cactabex !!  Feel free to name the beast and as always, send me your Genesis Generator born Creations !!

Just a quick favor to ask of anyone who has my latest art tutorial book, Fantasy Genesis Characters. Please give me a review? I've just one on there which gives me 3 stars (with no written portion) so I'm casting a big groovy net out there in order to give my book some solid numbers. Blessing or Curse. =) Hope ayebody's got their wig bubbler churnin' out some positive wig bubbles and you flipped yourself some serum to keep you safe from that big bug.

Bowing to your
inner LightPusher,
Chuck

Fantasy Genesis Characters: A creativity game for drawing original people and creatures

Fantasy Genesis Characters: A Creativity Game for Drawing Original People and Creatures

Just a quick favor to ask of anyone who has my latest art tutorial book, Fantasy Genesis Characters. Please give me a review? I've just one on there which gives me 3 stars (with no written portion) so I'm casting a big groovy net out there in order to give my book some solid numbers. Blessing or Curse. =) Hope ayebody's got their wig bubbler churnin' out some positive wig bubbles and you flipped yourself some serum to keep you safe from that big bug.

Bowing to your
inner LightPusher,
Chuck

Fantasy Genesis Characters: A Creativity Game for Drawing Original People and Creatures

I catch folks at the height of exploring their visual skills, wigs bubbling at a rate most of us can only fathom when in school, experimenting and exceeding expectations with a magical momentum, no matter the kind of Challenge you throw at them?  I think that's why some of the Challenges I've developed over the years have a bit more impact on Students, as they're so open to whatever direction opportunities come from, and that's really what all these Challenges ask of us.  To be open to thinking in new ways, to give over to completely ludicrous ideas that don't have to make any sense at all.. =)  I do my best to open doors, flip a few Light switches on, and knock obstacles from their paths in order for students to find their next level up, their next visual problem solved.  I never require colour in these Challenges, they're all about simply Generating fun and memorable Ideas in a relatively quick sketch. 

     So, in gratitude and celebration of successful wig bubbling, I'll be posting a few bits of Student work that have dove straight to the deep end of the inventive pool for each Challenge!  There will certainly be more to come, the years will jump around from 2011 to the present, and I hope you enjoy the results of my Challenges half as much as I have over the years!

(© All Rights reserved by the Artists named below.  Contact them individually before ANY and ALL use, outside the Pacific Northwest College of Art.)

Check out Lucy Brown's work!



      The first couple posts will consist of the Original Fantasy Genesis Game found in my new bookFantasy Genesis : Characters (currently online at www.ChuckLukacs.com as well) and the first Challenge I give in class, The Doubling Tree Challenge.  With the Original Fantasy Genesis Game, it's all about the random and serendipitous word associations.  When you see a couple words written in the corner of these sketches, those are the words the Game has supplied to create from, and then anything and everything goes!







Liliya Dru, 2010


Jillian Drillon, 2018
Check out the work of Opal Stanton
Tony Zhang, 2018
       Okay, as if the Original Fantasy Genesis Game isn't difficult enough to explain, here's a bunch of repetitious heads popping out of nowhere..  Welcome to some successful work from the Doubling Tree Challenge!  I made this challenge after working with one of my "Art Equations", but applying it to facial expressions.  I found it helps to create new and inventive visual cues, first by sketching your content large, then incrementally smaller & smaller.  It also forces you to practice abstracting and simplifying the marks you make for a particular character, while developing your sense of design and placement.  Check out the whole Challenge on Page 14 of Fantasy Genesis : Characters and it'll make more sense, but for now check out all the great examples that came from class!

Check out Clive Hawken's work!

Check out Lucy Brown's work!

Check out the work of Christin Engelberth and Tayler Howard




Katie York, 2018

From the very first manifestations of the game - Lukacsian Flux - circa 1992, to when the first book Fantasy Genesis was published, I've kept the idea of compiling and publishing the most creative creations very close at hand.  There has always been an aim to publish the creations that have made it into the physical World by way of my way out word association games.  To further exploration for sure, but also in gratitude for all the years of contributions.


Craig Spearing's Horsepower Penguin - Penguin/Horse/Rust/Cycle
     Every time I look back into the folder that houses my collection of Fantasy Genesis born Creations, I find myself scratching my head and wondering why this Artist made this choice, or this association with that word!?  Free Association games do have a bit of the psychological and the serendipitous attached to them.  =)  How did this combination of the words ever build that?  How might I ought to have thought about those words differently or similarly?  Or what would those combination of Words supply our Brains with; after the associations of the 1990's, after the 2000's?

Jim Pavelec's Witch - Crocodile/Pumpkin/Gourd

    Herein lie a few of the wonderfully skilled folks who contributed shortly after the first book Fantasy Genesis was published in 2010, and where I'll start posting on the new blog.  These fine folks have brought their brilliant imagery to Light by way of word associations supplied in the original Humanoid Game, and they've all been wildly supportive of my books from the very beginning!  Gracious thanks to you All!


Gavin's Fire Drummer - Fire/Deer/Bliss/Chant






Stephen Huczek's Spring Action Vertebra - Moth/Amoeba/Spring





     Nowadays, this Original Humanoid Game has never been more Effective and Magical to Play!  Choose from the Randomized Red Words, choose in terms of Animal Parts Replacement for instantly new Creature Concepts, you needn't have dice for the Genesis Generator to roll Forward and Back, and when you land on a couple words you want to explore, CLICK to find masses of photo reference at your fingertips!

Dan Frasier's Apple Bomb & Drunken Owl - Tree Fruit/Dial/Button - Bird of Prey/Bubbles
     Okay, now that you've perused some of the very initial work done with Fantasy Genesis, on to the Promise.  Inherent in this new Blog and the Genesis Generator app is a Promise to Publish.  At the end of the day, the words and briefs are only the building blocks for what really matters, Your Art.. your brilliant Brains!!  There's not a ton, but I've been amassing that Fantasy Genesis born Art from all over the Sphere, for the past decade and intend to Post it all here first, then Publish through a crowd-sourcing campaign!


And Then There Were Three Spread from Fantasy Genesis - WildCat/Lizard Pronghorn/Octopus
    Once I get a group of 50-60 hi-res Sketches, Inks, Paintings, Digital or otherwise, I will do my best to publish a Volume!  So where the whole World, can forever scratch their heads and smile at such wonderful Creativity.

--Stay Tuned for more!

Hey Folks,  You may have been on the Fantasy Genesis journey from the very beginnings, you may just have picked up the new book Fantasy Genesis Characters.  Why, you may have even taken my Character Design Class at the PNCA, have heard all about this Genesis Generator and will soon be seeing some of your sketches right here in the next couple months?  No matter your level of Lukacsian based madness, here's the low down ::

      In 2010, Fantasy Genesis - my word association game/SF&F art tutorial book - hit the shelves.  It coincided directly with when I started teaching, where some of the games began morphing into Challenges specifically based on Character Development.  The Students wig bubblers grew, my wig bubbler grew, and by 2018 I'd authored Fantasy Genesis Characters the book every writer and visual artist remotely interested in Character Design should get their eager little mits on.  Following the book launch of FGC, coding hero Geoffrey Dean and I started to write and code The Genesis Generator.  Certainly not anything new in terms of random brief generators, but something very new in terms of thinking about your Character's Culture, their Archetype, random associations of Occupation and Time Period and an Image Search dedicated to the original Humanoid Game that started the whole FG top spinnin'.


      So here we are, in a place smack dab in the middle of your Imaginative Cerebral Cortex, floating pleasantly somewhere in the ether, the Genesis Generator quite daftly spitting out Character Briefs for us to materialize and visualize with, and a scroll with millions of them on!  An insane compilation of Creature Characters resulting from my Genesis Generator..  here an Albino Gorilla driving a Chicken Bus, there a microscopic Water Bear with the Crest of a SailFish - photo reference guiding you as your Character starts to form.  Is that an Olympian Merfolk?  A Bishop Ogre?  There's a Terrapin Humanoid, but also one who's a Rebel / Anti-Hero Archetype, our seafaring Hero Capt. Sasquatch, Shadow Archetype Viking Jet Pilot and the Turkish Astronoceros.  This silly spot gives us an Evil Super Villain sipping on a tiny Juice Box and an M&M mascot covered in Tattoos about nuts.

      All of them scrolling by for us to ponder upon, laugh at, wonder what exactly it is that makes them funny or subtle or a bit over the top, why they're successful or who they're for.  Like the subtitle says, this will be a place to share your "Way-out Wonderful World.  The great big funky jug where we can pour all those Genesis Generated Characters into, and shake 'em all up!"  Stay Tuned-