Still Life: Part 2

Egggs!!!

Or just 'egg'.

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.

Zombie Princess

A new e-book cover!

Believe it or not, she's a zombie. She's probably the most alluring zombie I've ever painted. The zombie dragon was a lot of fun, but a word to the wise: give more time, and charge a bit more for skeleton armies!!! This took FOREVER!

Curing Ezra

A few months ago, my friend Jennifer came to me with a request for a special painting. Her nephew, 3 year old Ezra Jordan Fineman is undergoing treatment for a condition known as Hyper IgM Syndrome.
He's at Sloan Kettering recovering from an umbilical blood stem cell transplant which will hopefully cure him. In the meantime, this brave little toddler has a long recovery ahead of him.

 Ezra's a fan of the book Puff the Magic Dragon, based on the song by Peter, Paul and Mary and illustrated by Eric Puybaret. Jennifer asked me to create a painting for her nephew based on this book. Here's my painting, with Ezra standing in for Jackie Paper.

Ezra is a big fan of dragons, basketball, music (I heard he's really good with a guitar!), space shuttles and lighthouses! His progress can be tracked here. He will continue to need blood transfusions over the coming months. Information on how to donate can be found here.

Good luck Ezra, and may the God watch over you.

IF: Sight

"The way out is in sight!"

Uh Hi!

Eh...Greetings! Hola! Guten tag! Aloha! Shalom! Bonjour!

Okay, I have explaining to do. You see, I've been going about this blog all wrong. I strongly felt I could only put up my art here and not much else. You know, the whole 'being professional' thing. I'm a painting MACHINE! Now problems arose this year due to a sudden influx of freelance work...and all those pesky NDAs that come with them. So I have been painting all this time, but I still can't show you too much of what I've done. Hence the silence.

Anywho, after a lot of reflecting and despairing over the negligence of this beloved blog, I'm back. I'm going to start posting other things besides just my latest piece. Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to be posting about government conspiracies or any of that jazz. But I'll try to make this blog a little more about art in general, not just the desperate pushing of paint and pixels I've been monotonously posting for these past 5 years or whatever it is. I never talked about the shows and cons, or my peers or the masters who have inspired me! So hopefully, this blog will grow in scope, not just as a platform to show off my latest...masterpiece (stop laughing!)....I hope this becomes a place to check out to learn a bit more about art, to have fun, to see what this field is about, etc etc.

This whole thing is still a work in progress, so bear with me. Having been a teacher for 2 semesters now, my thirst to share what I know has grown. So let's see where this blog goes....

Oh but wait! I'm not going to leave you with no artwork, ohhh....no no no no no!!! And just to prove I have a pulse and a life, this is a new collaboration with my lovely artist girlfriend, Christina Skapriwsky. 

What you've never seen a polar bear during the dog days of summer?

Fall of the Minotaur King

Here's a book cover I designed. The book is 'Fall of the Minotaur King'. It was written by a college buddy under the pen name Dave Devine. You can find it for download on Smashwords. 

It's a pretty fun read, full of magic, kings, castles, dragons, minotaurs (obviously), etc., with a rather stinging sense of humor. And it's only $.99 to download!

Still Life: Part 1

Dusted off the old oils earlier this week and did a still life. This is the same setup for that last digital still life I did a few weeks ago. Clearly I need more practice!

Tyrannosaurus Astronaut

Why a T Rex astronaut?

Why not?

I'm also submitting this to IF. Dinosaurs developing a space program...yeah, I'd consider that 'capable' wouldn't you?

Lighting Demo

Uh, hi! Long time no see!

Sorry about the being quiet for so long. I'm still alive and painting, but now I've gotten work and those pesky NDAs mean I can't post what I've done....at least until it's released to the public. I suppose that's a good problem!

Anywho, I have a demo here I did for my class on lighting and color. The one on the left was done using daylight (and painted live in front of the class, hence why it is less resolved). The one on the right was done with a lamp at night from the comfort of my home.

Dragon a Day!

Hey everyone!

Since 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, I decided it was time to do something I've been thinking about: a drawing a day blog! And if you know me, you know I can never draw too many dragons, so I've decided it would be a dragon a day, every day. By December 31st, 2012, I will (hopefully) have 365 drawings posted.

The blog's URL is http://piyadragonaday.blogspot.com/. Please become a follower! Thanks!

Stir

Today I have a piece I'm very proud to have been a part of. It's a collaborative painting between my girlfriend, Christina Skapriwsky and myself. The original drawing and concept is hers, done for an Illustration Friday topic. I took up painting duties, and this is the result!
Yes it's very cutsey and not in following with what I normally like to design (dragons, dragons and oh, more dragons), but nonetheless, this painting stands out as something special for me.

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing you're having a wonderful holiday. This is my Christmas card for 2011. I've always wanted to do my own Nativity scene, but I've always found it to be a challenge because it's been done to death...after all, we had the Renaissance and the Baroque periods-300 years of the Church commissioning art!

Finally, I saw Donato Giancola's new Joan of Arc painting about two months ago, which gave me the initial spark of using hands as a theme, and this is the painting that came out of it. Thanks Donato!

By the way, this is available for sale as a Christmas card on Etsy. Check it out!

Merry Christmas!

Dragon Zombie Concepts

Some thumbnails for a zombie dragon painting. Please help out a confused artist and vote for your favorite(s)!! Thanks!

Watercolor Pencils

I discovered watercolor pencils recently and I'm loving them.

EVE sits on my office desk and keeps me company.

At Barnes and Noble.

Rocket Witch

Revisting an old piece I did for Halloween last year.

I redesigned it to have better colors and a more dynamic composition and the same zany witch. Hope you like it!

A print of this piece is available for purchase for your Halloween festivities. Find it here.

My Etsy Store! My Teaching Gig!

Just a quick one today. I've started an Etsy store to sell prints of my work! Check out the link on the right. It's small right now, but I will expand the store with time to include more art, larger sizes, etc. If there's anything I haven't put up that you're interested in buying, please email me and let me know!

Also, I'm a bit late in announcing this, but two weeks ago, I started a new job as an adjunct professor in digital painting at Mercy College's Computer Arts and Design School in White Plains, NY. It's always been a dream of mine to be a teacher, and suddenly, I'm blessed with this chance. I have 6 great students, and two weeks in, things are looking good. It's been an exciting time!

Zombies!

Some of my Amscan art for this coming Halloween just entered the market, so I'm free to show them off here. Zombies! Everyone loves zombies!

This zombie is to be stuck to the window of your car. If you try to use this to drive illegally on the HOV lane, I am NOT responsible if you get ticketed.

This is the toilet zombie. I was asked to make a zombie that looked like it was coming out of the toilet to bite you in the butt.

IF Swell

Grumpy: adj, surly or ill-tempered; discontentedly or sullenly irritable; grouchy

Kaldor Draigo

My latest Games Workshop piece! This one has been a long time coming. Hopefully it shows.