New Work! - Leatherback Baloth

On to new stuff! This guy was just released as Leatherback Baloth (not the original name by the way, but I guess that could be leather).

13 x 18 in. oil on masonite

Memory Lane - Day 6

I know it's late but here's the sixth and final installment of my trip down memory lane. This first piece is one of the few digital paintings I did while in school, it was for a hypothetical fantasy story called 'The Black Cauldron'.

*at least I thought it as hypothetical, apparently The Black Cauldron was a Disney movie from the '80s. Thanks Seth.


This next one was an attempt at mixing fantasy and sci-fi elements, called 'Klank'.


Here we have a mock-cover for Beowulf...


...And I thought I'd end with this piece. A self portrait that illustrates pretty well how I was feeling by the end of my time in art school.

Memory Lane - Day 5

Next up in this look back at my student days is a piece called 'Wolf in Sheep's clothing', and yes, I actually painted it in black and white...can't remember why.


Next up was an album cover for a theoretical metal band called Fallen Angel, I painted this in a final portfolio class I took with Chuck Pyle and Kazu Sano.


And I this guy was a mock fantasy book cover about a dragon rider. Looking at it now, there's a whole lot of Manchess in that background.


Check back tomorrow for the sixth and final installment of my trip down Momory Lane...There's six days in a week, right?

Memory Lane - Day 4... and 3

Sorry for the delay, yesterday got away from me so this is a 2-day super-post! First up is the first piece that I liked enough to make it into my first 'professional' portfolio, called Big Bug.


I don't think it gets more 'classic student work' than this next piece, I had to illustrate a song so this is my somewhat literal painting of Tool's '46 and 2' .


This was a personal piece I did while in school...


...and this was another from Steven Player's sci-fi illustration class. It's a mock-cover for a book about zombie vikings called 'Warriors of Decay'. I really miss that class.

Memory Lane - Day 2

Alright, for day two of my art school flashback, we'll start with a digital piece called 'Guardian'. I was living in downtown San Francisco at the time and I was on a kick about impossible things happening in everyday situations. For anyone who lives there, that's the corner of Stockton and Post, facing south.


This one's an Illustration of Daphne (of Greek legend) being transformed into a tree...


And this guy's pretty self-explanatory, called 'Ogre Hoard'.

Memory Lane - Day 1

Since I don't have any new work I can show at the moment and since it's about time I post some art, I thought I'd take you for a little trip down memory lane. This week I'll be posting work from my time in art school, two or three pieces a day.

I thought I'd start with my first really big, multi-figure piece that I ominously titled 'The Beast of the Moors'.


This second piece was an assignment where we had to illustrate a quote that my instructor Steven Player came up with, something about a crack to hell opening up below a cathedral.


Check back all week for more mildly embarrassing posts...

Charlie Chan Interview

I recently did an interview for the pulp fiction blog Killer Covers about my work on the Charlie Chan series. It just got posted today so if you get a chance, check it out here:

http://killercoversoftheweek.blogspot.com/2009/11/under-covers-with-charlie-chan.html

It's a really great blog and definitely worth following if you're into pulp/detective art, and who isn't, right?

Originals!

In my continuing quest to offload my originals, I've recently posted a few for sale at the Illustration Exchange: http://www.munchkinpress.com/cpg149/index.php

Definitely a site worth checking out if you have any interest in owning original sci-fi and fantasy artwork. Thanks again to Scott Altmann for recommending it.

* Just found out that new posts aren't viewable for 14 days unless you're a 'premium member' of the site so my stuff won't show up for about 12 more days...dern.

Some older work

Since I can't show anything I've been working on lately I thought I'd post a couple of pieces that I haven't ever shown. They were painted in the spring and summer of '08 for Magic. The knight was done for one of the Magic booster boxes in that set as well as becoming a card. A little tip if you ever need reference of guys on horseback bolting downhill - search for 'Omak Suicide Race', it's still the wild west in my home state of Washington.



Both 16 in. oil on masonite.

Tajuru Archer and Quest for the Gravelord

More recently revealed art for Magic: The Gathering. Believe me, you don't want to see the reference pictures for the Gravelord...yikes.


Both 11ish x 16 in., oil on masonite.

Wait...That's Not a Painting!

Last week, inspired by James Gurney and Adam Rex and feeling the urge to create something other than a painting, I decided to try my hand at sculpting a small maquette. I went with a male bust because I wind up painting a lot of these tough heroes/knights/villains etc. so I thought it could be helpful for coming up with interesting lighting schemes and angles. It was a lot of fun and I really recommend it for anyone looking for a change of pace, plus it's a cool/weird thing to have on your window sill.

4.5 in. high x 5.75 in. wide x 3.5 in. deep - super-sculpey over aluminum foil over an unusably short pencil for the neck. Painted with acrylic.

Post #20! Nimbus Wings and Highland Berzerker

These two pieces were just released, both are from the new Magic set.

Both 11 x 16 in.

Process...or something

I was asked recently to post some process stuff to show how I put a painting together. I've actually only photographed my process once, it was for a larger scale packaging illustration I did for Magic in the summer of '08. This was a while ago and I've changed things up a little since then but this is still pretty much how I go about working. Click to enlarge.

1 - value thumbnail, usually I do this in pencil but here it's digital.
2 - color sketch, this is what I submitted to the art director for approval.
3 - final drawing (they're never pretty).
4 - final drawing transferred to masonite over acrylic tone.
5 - acrylic underpainting...I don't really do this anymore.
6 - oils!
7 - everything's in but unrefined.
8 - final painting as I submitted it.

Halo Hunter

This is a piece for the next big set that Magic is releasing called Zendikar. He's a demon that specializes in hunting angels (grim, I know). I had a ton of fun with this set because I got to really jump into some dark content, it was a good break from knights in gold armor.

15 x 20 in.

Jenara, ready for her close-up

I was asked (by Capprotti) recently if I'd post a couple of close-ups of the armor on this piece. As you can see, a lot of what looks like detail from a distance is actually just looser, and in some cases sloppy, brush work. In terms of scale, these files are actually a bit larger than the original painting.

Quick Sketch

Occasionally I like to do a quick painting without any planning, just sketching in thin paint and seeing where it goes.

6 x 9 in.

Tinker

This guy was just released while I was at Gen Con, he's a character that's obsessed with improving himself through artificial means.


~13 x 18 in.

Back from GenCon

GenCon was unbelievable, I barely had a moment to spare but it was so much fun. My favorite part was definitely getting the chance to meet and spend time with so many insanely talented artists including Wayne Reynolds, Steve Belledin, Omar Rayyan, Dan Scott, Steve Prescott, Richard Whitters and Chippy, all of whom I've been following for years. I've got to thank Chippy in particular for introducing me to so many artist and art directors and showing me the ropes at my first convention.

Chippy and me at our table.

Gen Con

For anyone who happens to be in the vicinity of Indianapolis, Indiana next week, I'll be at Gen Con from Thursday the 13th through Sunday the 16th as a guest artist for Wizards of the Coast. I'll be answering questions, doodling and signing whatever's put in front of me. Feel free to stop by and say hi!

Jenara, Asura of War

I'm so glad I can finally show this one, it's been almost a year since I finished it. Jenara here is basically the top general of the warrior angels in the current Magic set. I had way too much fun geeking out on the armor.


12 x 18 in.

Alara Unbroken

It's been out for a while, but last week I finally got my hands on a copy of the Magic: The Gathering novel I worked on last year. This project was a lot of fun and it's really great (and a little strange) to finally see the end result.

Charlie Chan 5 & 6

These are the last two covers for the Charlie Chan series, hot off the easel. The publisher was really focused on maintaining a retro feel so I tried to make them as pulpy as possible, plus I finally had an excuse to buy a vintage suit jacket and a real, though nonfunctional, Saturday Night Special.

Roadtrip!

The reason for the recent shameful lack of posting is that Betty and I have spent the last couple of weeks on a killer roadtrip through the Southwest to celebrate putting up with each other for the past ten years.

Here we have Betty belittling a Tyrannosaurus Rex,

The Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ,

A surprise piggy-back ride,


And one pretty grand canyon.

Fatpack Illustration

Another Magic: The Gathering packaging illustration. It's a scene of characters from three different worlds (four if you count the dragon) all crossing paths.


15.5 x 22 in.

Enigma Sphinx

Last summer I worked on a few packaging illustrations for Magic: The Gathering that also doubled as card art. They were just released so I can finally share them with you folks. This is the first, called Enigma Sphinx.


16-ish by 24-ish

Quick Study

Back on topic, here's a recent quick study. Working on values and different kinds of light.

6 x 9 in.

My first blowout!

I know it's totally off topic, but I thought it was worth a post. It happened on I-5 at about 70 mph. Even the tow-truck driver was impressed.

Veteran

This is a quick personal piece I did recently between jobs, trying to push myself to loosen up.

6 x 9 in.

Society of Illustrators 51

I know it's a bit late but I thought I'd post the two pieces of mine that made it into this year's Society of Illustrators annual and their show in New York. The first is a cover for the re-release of an old detective novel from the '20s and the second was a cover for the L.A. Weekly.