Meowww-RRWAAARR!!!

(Thanks to Chris Burdett for inspiring the blog title post)

Hey guys, so here's two new pieces done for an online game. The brief had a slew of monsters, so I had a really good time. It's not every day that what you love to paint and what the client needs manage to line up, so I jumped on this one pretty quickly.

Apologies to cat lovers, but here's a rabid radioactive housecat! I love the idea of all this energy, temper and thermonuclear danger packed into a cute and cuddy package.

And a classic firebat. Elemental creatures always lend themselves to being a ton of fun.

I'll have some more in the next couple of days. I've also got another project wrapping up, and once the art is delivered, I'll be free to share. I'm really excited about that one...hint..firebreathing!

Lord of the Rings Cards

Some cards I did for Fantasy Flight Games's Lord of the Rings decks have been released so here they are!

A Goblin Lurker for the Into the Pit Nightmare Expansion deck.

And a Prowling Wolf for the Voice of Isengard Expansion deck. Hope you like em!

I'm Back!

Well hello there! Wow it's been nearly 5 months since my last update. Lots to talk about! First off, a few months ago, I had the honor of being publishing in Lands and Legends Volume 1, a high quality, amazing coffee table tome full of art from the likes of James Gurney, Bill Sienkiewicz, Donato Giancola, Scott Murphy and so many others. It was exciting to see the book make its public debute at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live.

Here's the piece I contributed, the Wild Hunt of Odin. Odin is the Norse Allfather of the Gods, riding on the 8 legged horse Sleipnir and welding the spear, Gungnir. He is accompanied by his hunting hounds, Freki and Geri, and his ravens, Huginn and Muninn. Odin's hunting party consists of Valkyries, his favored warrior maidens and the Einherjar, the souls of Viking warriors slain in battle. 

Next, I just wanted to drop a quick update and express how pleased I am that my Jei Usagi drawing and print sold on eBay for $152 as part of the Help the Sakais project. This project is sponsored by the Comics Art Professional Society (CAPS) to continue to assist the Sakai family as they go through medical difficulties. Those who know me can speak of my long time admiration for Stan Sakai and his creativity, professionalism, example and humility as an independent creator.

Finally, on a personal note, my lovely lady and I have recently become engaged. :-)

Jei Usagi

I've finished Jei Usagi. It was a lot of fun and a learning experience. It's interesting what happens when you try speaking someone else's visual dialect...in this case, cartoon anthropomorphic animal samurai. Hope you like it!

Demonic Samurai Rabbit (and My Website)

I needed a break from another piece I was doing a while ago...actually I needed a break from my usual look and style. Somehow or other, I decided I wanted to do another piece for the Help the Sakais fundraiser.  I remembered a couple of years ago that Sakai released issue 101 with this startling cover:

I loved everything about this cover: it was unexpected to see Usagi possessed and even a casual reader would find  it startling (but hardcore readers knew exactly what was going on). It really uses Sakai's trademark skull of death icon, making it consummate Sakai. Finally, Tom Luth's colors are beautiful as always. I wanted to do my own homage to it.

I have yet to color the piece, but the ink drawing is on its way to North Hollywood as I type this. More exciting news on this front: Dark Horse has announced The Sakai Project, celebrating 30 years of Usagi Yojimbo. It's going to be a book of Usagi as interpreted by the greatest talents in comics. Although I'm not a comic book artist, it seems submissions are open to anyone, so I'm going to go for it. Deadline is February 20, so you'll see the finish soon!

And finally, I just wanted to announce that my website is updated. Check it out! It's my biggest website so far, containing much more art than I've ever put on my official site. That being said, the body of work is broken down into categories and easy to navigate. Hope you like it!

Month of Love: The #nofilter Valentine

Something a little different today:

I thought I'd jump on on the Month of Love challenge, run by the amazing Kristina Carroll.

The challenge is 'No Filter Love' ie: love after the feel good emotions and the high of young love has long disappeared. Indeed, the 'honeymoon' is so named due to the transient nature of a new couple's love, waxing and waning like the phases of the moon.

Now the cynical among us can use what I just said as a reason why marriages don't work and is a sham. Indeed I have known many with that mentality.

But in a way, I believe that the ephemeral nature of eros adds beauty and meaning to those couples who make love work. New love is great, but after it disappears, it leaves couples with nothing but their own free will and choice. Those couples who succeed in marriage simply refuse to give up on each other. Yes, warts and age spots and lines appear, but strong couples CHOOSE to make it work.

So for my drawing, I wanted to be able to show that even when a couple fight, they're still together. A wife may be mad at her husband, but she knows that the important word is that he is HER husband. A husband may find the wife irritating, but she's HIS wife. There is nothing on this earth that can change that. I force of will, tenacity, selflessness and consistent choice to love is a beauty to behold, and I pray with every fiber of my being that I will be able to live that life myself.

By the way, yes this is in ink. New for me. I'll explain why the change later.

A New Year (and Ringwraiths)!

Happy 2014 everyone! Sorry it's been quiet recently. I've been slowing chiseling away at this new drawing. As you can see, it's in a medium and surface that I haven't really used all that much: pencils, white charcoal on toned paper.
It's a new look and clearly, I have a lot of work to adapt to this new style, but I think it has a lot of potential.

Usagi Yojimbo

This painting is my contribution to the Comic Art Professional Society's fundraising efforts to help out Stan Sakai's and his family. Stan Sakai is the creator, writer and artist of the one and only comic I read, Usagi Yojimbo.

I cannot overemphasize how much Stan Sakai's creation has affected my life. I proudly own every single UY graphic novel. Despite the fact that my style and subject matter is quite different from his, I strive to follow his example.

Stan Sakai is an exemplar of what we all strive to be: a creative artist and professional who has fed his family, bought his own home, sent his own kids to college, all through his own creations. He is legendary for never having missed a deadline, despite being responsible for EVERY part of the UY comic (right down to the lettering!) since 1986. 1986!!!!! His stories are still fresh and original even after 27 years. Usagi Yojimbo derives its quite power through well developed characters, great plots with tons of twists, lots of funny points and Stan Sakai's untiring enthusiasm and iron discipline.

Right now the Sakai family is going through a grave medical crisis that is not covered under their insurance. The expenses are considerable. This watercolor painting will be donated to a CAPS auction to raise money for the Sakai family. I am very proud of this piece, but I will gladly give it up, for it is a poor thank you compared to how much Stan Sakai's work has moved me.

If you are a creator who has even once read UY, I ask you.....no, I implore, demand and beg you to please consider helping out.

ArtOrder Inspiration

My submission to Jon Schindehette's awesome challenge, the Inspiration Challenge.

I've always tried to infuse my work with some good storytelling and your stories don't get much better than the classics. Enter Hades and his less than enthused bride, Persephone.

It's great to get back to ArtOrder challenges. This one WAS A CHALLENGE. I think I overdid it with the detail and spent a lot more time on it than I had planned, but I learned a lot and am a lot wiser for it. Hope you like it!

Painting Video

Hi everyone! Just got done with a ton of freelance work that I will be showing off shortly. In the meantime, I just wanted to show off my latest project, my first painting video!

You'll be able to see how I painted a pivotal scene in Lord of the Rings, Gandalf confronting the Balrog from start to finish. I describe how I set up the file, use reference, etc. It's a good 20 minutes long and I hope, informative and helpful. 

Here's the finished painting from that scene!

Deathwing Knight Master

A character painting today. I present to you a Dark Angels Deathwing Knight Master with his trusty (and creepy) cyber cherub. Enjoy!

He's so cool he wears a church on his head.

The Dragon Whisperer

Well folks, an exciting post today! A game I contributed to, the Dragon Whisperer, is on sale! This is a milestone for me; my first commissioned dragon paintings! Thanks to Erik and Shane of Albino Dragon for having me contribute to this game. The boxed set is looking sweet. Here's the paintings!

 Reef  Dragon

Sand Dragon

Blue Dragon

Quick painting to experiment further with this new style of painting.

Zombie Dragon, Twice the Awesome

Dragons are awesome and zombies are awesome,

so zombie dragons must be TWICE the awesome!

Hello there, long time no see! Lots of changes afoot in my career, so this blog was a little neglected.

Speaking of changes, I thought I'd throw my old style out the door and try for a looser, more expressive style. Now that I think of it, my drawing style has always been more expressive than my painting style (you can't help but draw loose when you're around animators), so I figured this is just bringing things a bit more together.

I always knew I wanted to cut loose a bit more, but wasn't sure how. But they do say when the student is ready, the master appears. Actually, reappears, in my case. I was lucky enough to learn a bit from Scott Fischer, but at the time, I didn't give his methods much credence. Not that I though he couldn't paint, but I just didn't think he was for me. Then I ran into this old blog post by him, and suddenly, it was like a door opened for me.

I've always had a huge pile of brushes sitting in my computer and no idea what to do with them. Now Scott's post teaches me: just 'one click' them! As in, select your brush, and click with a mouse! So simple and yet, produces such interesting results!

So anyway, you'll be seeing me use this style more, with probably more elegant subjects.

Spectrum Fantastic Art Live Recap!

Hey everyone sorry about the late post. Last weekend we made a grand road trip from New York to Kansas City for Spectrum Art Live!

We had the good fortune to see so many incredible talents in the fantasy art field: Donato Giancola, Justin Gerard, Greg Manchess, both Anthony and David Palumbo, Scott Murphy, Arkady Roytman, Michael Manomivibul, Brynn Metheney, Tiffany Turrill, Tara McPherson, Garrett Johnson...on and on and on. And let's not forget the art directors without whom we could not have this industry: Zoe Robinson, Andrew Navaro, Andrew Vallas, Irene Gallo and many more!

Since we had a 19 hour drive, this was the scene for me for a lot of it. Not that I'm arguing.

Here's a sweet high school couple I had the privilege of meeting.

A detail of the Cheshire Cat Sketch I did for them.

 

Of course, I couldn't leave SFAL without being inspired to try something new. So here's a new sketch using toned paper, lots of dark pencils and white charcoal.

Spectrum Live, Here We Come!

 I'm excited to announce that we will be at Spectrum Live this weekend! Look for us at Booth...either 616 or 618. Due to these plans being last minute, things will be a little...by the seat of our pants. But we're super excited and we look forward to seeing all of our friends there!

Oh and a teaser of what I'm working on. :-)

Smaug the Magnificent

Ah, yes, Smaug the Mighty. Smaug the Tremendous. Smaug the Golden. How did I take so long to finally depict you in your grandeur?

Chaos Mutilator and Eldar Howling Banshee

This painting was started a few months ago. I wanted to try a piece that really emphasized contrasts between two characters: contrasts in size, shape, texture, color, etc. The latest Chaos Space Marines Codex had just been released and the Chaos Mutilator that was introduced got my attention. I looked for a suitably polar opposite character to face up against the Mutilator and lo and behold, I found the Howling Banshee. Where the Mutilator was male, heavy, warped, clumsy and with exposed flesh, here was a female, lithe, armored and futuristic.

This painting is actually the second go around. I had originally finished an earlier version which, to be honest, I wasn't too crazy about. I painted my hardest for this image, but it just wasn't firing on all cylinders. Finally I decided to post it to this blog, but then disaster struck. I accidentally saved the 72 dpi flattened web version over my final copy. I no longer had a hi res file. I got rather bummed about that and put the image away and forgot about it for a few months.

About a month ago, I pulled the image back up, brought it back to 300 dpi and started painting over it. Eventually, I came to the painting you see above. It's still not a masterpiece in my opinion, but I definitely feel better about it now. Perhaps it was a blessing that I accidentally lost my hi res file.

Dark Winter Dragon Part Final

Edit: On 3/8, the winners were announced. This piece won second place! Awesome!!!

The winter dragon art entries are up, so I'm posting my entry up. Here she is in all her dark glory!

By the way, if you're wondering why I called her the DARK winter dragon, that's because she's my second winter dragon. Here's my first one from 6 years ago!

Dark Winter Dragon Part 3

The challenge deadline has passed and I've submitted my entry, but I won't show it just yet. Here's a sketch of my dragon in the meantime!