Kumo Onna Redux

4 years ago, I did a painting of a Jorogumo, or Kumo Onna, a spider woman of Japanese mythology. (Here's the old one) I decided to revisit it as I wasn't crazy about it the first time.

Here's the new one. I hope you like it!

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!

Cheshire Cats

This past weekend was one of those weekends when inspiration hits from out of nowhere. Christina and I somehow landed on the topic of Cheshire Cats, so I thought it'd be fun if we sketched out our own versions of a Cheshire Cat.

 

Guess who did what....

And I figured I'd quickly paint up mine!

Wild Wargs

2013 is already looking pretty exciting! My first CCG card has been released, the Wild Wargs card. It is part of the Hobbit Over and Under the Hill expansion set.

And here's the original art. I have to say, Fantasy Flight Games does a very nice job with their printing and colors.

Mûmakil

Hi! I'm a bit behind on posts, but today's post is something special. A job I did for Fantasy Flight Games was released last month as part of the Lord of the Rings Card Game. More specifically, this is for the Heirs of Númenor expansion.

I was really honored to be asked to paint a Mûmakil, one of the most iconic creatures from Tolkien's great works. We weren't permitted to use New Line Cinema's designs, as Fantasy Flight only has license with Middle Earth Entertainment and not NLC. Therefore, our designs could not resemble the movies in any way. I was more than happy with that as I wanted to come up with my own look and culture. I knew I wanted my Mumak to be heavily armored, wicked, yet exotic and cultured. Oh, and it had to have tusks. Big tusks. I ended up using Greek, Indian, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian sources. 

I included a lot of gold to give a sense of opulence. The armor is taken from Indian horse armor. The wavy spikes are a classic Thai architectural feature. The red standard is a reference to the Serpent Lord.

Here's the final card, as taken from the Fantasy Flight website.

IF: Sight

"The way out is in sight!"

Spiderwoman

For the Alphabeastiary. This creature is called the Jorōgumo, or 'whore spider'.

This was a bit of a struggle for me. Here are some thumbs and whatnots I did trying to figure this one out.

Eowyn and the Nazgul

Sorry it's been a while! I've been slaving away at the latest ArtOrder challenge. It's been a while since I did ArtOrder, so I wanted to make sure this one was good. And what an awesome challenge! Depict the battle between Eowyn and the Witch King from the Return of the King.

Naturally, I gravitated towards giving the Fell Beast a lot of attention!

Here are some of the progress sketches. Note how eager I was towards making the Fell Beast HUGE before the good folks at Muddy Colors reined me back in.

Don't Go in the Water

A bigger boat won't help you....

Pipsqueak

Meet my new best friend!

This is a painting done for the Alphabeastiary. Hope you like it!

When Pigs Fly....

An artistic take on the famous adynaton, 'when pigs fly'. Thanks for the idea, Christina. I don't think this was quite what you had in mind though.....

In other news, I was lucky enough to discover Claire Wendling. If you want an artist who can draw, and I mean REALLY draw, she's someone you should look up. Stuart Ng offers a nice selection of her books. Check it out!

Edit: Added another, cuter flying pig. It's airborne porcine madness!

IF: Beneath

'Food that brings its own toothpick!'

My entry for Illustration Friday. It's not quite a finished as I'd like, but deadlines are deadlines. Check back in a few days, I will have a finished version. Thanks!

Quick Warhammer Sketch

Trying to pull a Mu...

ArtOrder Gotta Have a Hook Final

Well, here it is. It's been a good challenge. To be honest, this piece was a struggle and in the end, it's still not everything I had hoped it would be. I will say with conviction that I did the best I could with this piece.

ArtOrder Gotta Have a Hook Thumbs

Okay, so I'm way behind on posting this. I'm taking part in Jon's latest ArtOrder challenge. Here's my submission.

I was lucky enough to get a critique from Jon.
Here it is for your convenience.

I picked up your entry because of #1. This is the most inventive way of including the horror in the image without actually showing the horror. While I like the concept (a lot), it has a lot of pitfalls right now. I'm getting a great shot of the dwarf, but the horror almost feels like an afterthought. I've got to look for it to find it. I'd be curious to see what would be the result if you tightened up even more so that I saw just his face over the shield, maybe a hint of the hammer, and the shield taking up the majority of the image. I'd like to see the hook horror really big and scary in the reflection. I want to get the sense that the dwarf is about to be consumed in a single bite. Thumbnail it a bit and see if it has any merit. If it works, it can be a most powerful visual.

I experimented with Jon's suggestions. Suffice it to say, I've settled on this.

I'll have the final pencil for you next week...till then, take care, stay cool.

ArtOrder Mutation Nation

Phew!! I wasn't sure if I'd get this done! This is the proper submission to ArtOrder. I was inspired by an old Discovery Channel show called Air Jaws. I thought 'how much fun would a flying Great White Shark be?!!' So here he is in all his glory.

He's snacking on a griffin style pigeon/rat hybrid (a rat with wings...get it?!!!)

Now vacation is officially started. Boston, here I come!!

Fanglion

This WAS an entry for the Mutation Nation Challenge over at ArtOrder. There's a bit of lion, lionfish, hatchetfish, viperfish, anglerfish and fangtooth fish. I found out later I could only use two animals to create the little critter, thus disqualifying my new creation. Grrr........

While working on this piece, I stumbled on a fantastic blog for those of you who love animals and creating monsters, like I do. It's the Ugly Overload blog, which gives ugly animals 'their day in the sun'. It's very informative and a lot of fun to read. Yes, kids, science IS fun! The link is at the right side of this blog page. Also, I broke out my DVD of the Blue Planet series from Discovery. I finally justified the $80 or so I spent on it. Hahahaha!!!


Did I mention there's a bit of fish in this creature?

ArtOrder Beholder

Behold the Beholder! This is probably THE iconic D&D character. I remember seeing this guy for the first time back in the 90s, during my teens, in a Jim Lee X Men Comic. It's a creature I never forgot, even though I have never played a game of D&D (sorry Jon....). I think that really speaks to the power of the design of this creature.

Painting to come!!