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. :-)

New York Comic Con

So I'm a little late, but I just wanted to drop a line and say thank you to everyone who came by to visit my booth at New York Comic Con last weekend. It was my first time participating in a con's Artist Alley and it was a great experience, getting to meet so many new people, meeting up with old friends and presenting my art in such an exciting venue. Business wise, it was pretty successful too. I didn't leave filthy rich, but I did better than I had ever hoped to expect.
A word to other artists: don't wait until you feel 'worthy' to try out a table at a Con. When you have a large enough body of work (let's say 10 pieces) and the resources to commit to having a booth at an Artist's Alley, go for it. I spent roughly $700 in total, if that helps. But the experience is so worth it. You'll learn a lot of how people respond to your work, to you and you'll learn just a little bit more about yourself.

Ku'Gath the Plaguefather

My newest Games Workshop inspired piece is Ku Gath the Plaguefather. I decided to work more on textures for this piece. Hope it shows!

Also, I'll be exhibiting at New York Comic Con this weekend. Please find me at the Artist's Alley, booth Z6. I'll be selling prints!

Salamanders Librarian

So sorry about the lack of posts! I just got back from my first Gen Con last weekend, and I have to say, even with the drama of the 1 stop flights, the lack of buses, etc., it was a really worthwhile event to go to! Thank you to Zoe Robinson and Mike Linnemann at Fantasy Flght Games, Ed Bourelle at Privateer Press, Sarah Robinson and Andrew Vallas at Paizo Publishing and Jeremy Jarvis, Kate Irwin and Jon Schindehette at Wizards of the Coast for your time, reviews and encouragement. In addition, here's a painting I just finished in time for the con.

Mind Flayer Mighty Mugg

A couple of months ago, Jon over at Wizards of the Coast put out a call for artists interested in painting up a Mighty Mugg as a Wizards of the Coast character. I volunteered to make a Mind Flayer Mighty Mugg.

Here's my pitch sketch!

All the parts of my Mugg all laid out. Notice also, my epoxy putty, to use to sculpt the tentacles.

The face drawn on and some epoxy tentacles. I added several layers of epoxy sanding in between each one. Unfortunately, the seller of the putty sent me very old putty, which resulted in some of the putty already being hard and not very malleable. Oh well. Can't win every time you shop on eBay. After that I spray coated my drawn pieces with workable fixative. BAD IDEA. Acrylic paint becomes very streaky and thin on a smooth surface of fixative. Oh well. That's why the smart people think you experiment with this first. I ended up painting over the whole Mugg with gesso. After several layers, I lost my drawing, but acrylic painting was adhering well to the gessoed surface.

 My only other progress shot. Sorry I was pretty bad at taking photos as I progressed.

The final painted Mugg.

He looks like a tiny Chthulu that fell in a vat of Welch's Grape Juice.

The obligatory human skin cape. If you're wondering, the cape is painted felt. I had to get a paint specifically meant for cloth.

I'm hoping he'll be on display at Gen Con; I'm not 100% sure that will happen.

Anyway, this was a fun break from digital painting. It's the first time I've used acrylic paint in about 6 years. Hopefully that isn't too blatantly obvious.

Takhisis and Paladine

It's done...for now.

This painting depicts two characters from the Dragonlance novels, Takhisis, the goddess of evil (she's the big 5 headed dragon) and her brother, Paladine, the god of justice, taking the guise of a wizard. I just love the contrasting approaches to godhood that these two beings take in the novels: Takhisis always appears in a mighty and overwhelming form, demanding all to worship her, while Paladine takes an almost Christlike approach, shedding his godly form for an Alzheimer's-inflicted wizard leading many to underestimate him.

By the way, I just got back from IlluxCon 3 days ago. I got swamped immediately with work, so sorry about the delay in posting. By the way, as far as conventions go, IlluxCon is probably one of the best for artists in our genre. It's small and focused exclusively on the art, and allows artists to learn a lot, be exposed to a lot of art, and not be overwhelmed at the same time. I highly recommend it.

Bringing Nerdy Back

Don't even think for a moment that I've gone all plein air!!!

Here's my work in progress. I'm really thinking about doing the final in oils. Hopefully, it'll be done in time for IlluxCon...Oh and a prize for you if you can tell me the name of the wizard in the painting.

IMC 2009

I was lucky enough to take part in the 2nd annual Illustration Masterclass in Amherst, MA. The class was taught by a who's who in the illustration industry: Greg Manchess, Donato Giancola, Dan Dos Santos, Scott Fischer, Charles Vess, Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, art director Irene Gallo and the founder of the IMC, Rebecca Guay. It was a week of illustration madness: 12-16 hour days, 2-3 lectures a day, constant painting, way too much screwing around...what a fine vacation!

The assignment I took was for an interior illustration for a Norse-ish novel called 'Berzerker Lord'. The assignment was to depict three characters, a giant warrior, Aath, and a tiny, idealistic dreamer, Draaken, taking on a polar bear.

Here are my early thumbs.



From that, I picked the third thumb, blew it up, and made a few changes. I was lucky enough to have Joe Weatherly's help with the polar bear. It still looked a bit crowded though....Anywho, here's what I brought with me to the first day of class.



From the critiques of Dan Dos Santos and Charles Vess, I made a new rough. Changes include cropping the bear from only two sides of the frame instead of three, allowing me to move Draaken to the right and behind Aath. Also, Aath has a much more dramatic pose.



From that, I took some reference photos, using my fellow classmates. Thanks to Hasani and Noni for posing. The polar bear was made with Play Doh. I'm not sure why I didn't start doing this earlier; 4 tubs of clay for $1.99 at Target-what a bargain!!!!



Upon reviewing the photos, I realized I practically broke Aath's arm in the new rough.

Now here's the pencil rough. Note the note I wrote to myself because I made Aath's torso way too short-I would correct that digitally before I started painting. Note also, the change in perspective, made by lowering the horizon line-that idea came from the ingenious Greg Manchess. One simple change, and the drama just went up 200%!



And finally, here's the finished piece. I did change Draaken half way through. I wasn't too happy with how tiny he was.



Thanks very much to Rebecca Guay for putting this whole thing together. Thanks of course to Greg, Donato, Dan, Scott, Boris, Julie, Irene, Rebecca and Charles for being our teachers and staying with us up to midnight or later. And finally, thanks to all my classmates and new good friends in the IMC 2009.