A new piece and two step by steps on WIPnation.com

Over on my WIPnation page I've posted a few step by steps. The first two are of my Stalking the Unicorn and Stalking the Dragon covers. I've also posted how this dragon piece has come along from the pencil stage.

Creature sketch from Illuxcon

Here's a sketch I did at Illuxcon, using a bit of Iain McCaig's process and advice from Allen Williams.

Speaking of San Diego: Heather Theurer

At San Diego Comic Con I got my first good look at Heather Theurer's art. You would think with her recent Spectrum silver award her work wouldn't have had a chance to surprise me, but it did. And, I confess, I now have something of a school-boy crush on her paintings.

I just found out she's running a Kickstarter for an art book, and thought other folks out there may be interested, yet not already heard of it. So here are links to Heather's site, a couple of her dragon paintings, and her Kickstarter project. Have a look. Enjoy!

Heather Theurer's website
Air Dragon
Game of Chase
Heather's art book Kickstarter

Back From San Diego

Thanks to generous sponsorship by Steve Argyle I was able to attend San Diego Comic Con this year. It was my first time, and thoroughly exhausting.

I now present a selection of doodles from napkins and a boarding pass:

I like to think I generally feel pretty free to play in my sketch book, but knowing these weren't part of that semi-permanent record seemed to be a bit liberating. Interesting. Well, to me, anyway.

Steve Argyle

IMC 2011:Firaxe

I was fortunate to be able to attend the Illustration Master Class again this year. We were given several projects to choose from, and in keeping with tradition I worked on another sci-fi piece:

Oil on Panel, about 15"x23.5"

It turns out that assignment had been provided by Irene Gallo, and is the same story excerpt she offered up for the July/August challenge over at Jon Schindehette's Art Order.

Illustration Master Class
Story Extraction ArtOrder Challenge

There and Back (Montreal Kotei)

I took a quick trip to Montreal for their Kotei the first weekend of June. I'm sorry I couldn't take more time -- there were people and places I missed because of time constraints. That said, I had a great time and look forward to visiting again. Thanks! Here's a sketch I did while I was there:

NM99 Sketching

I started this piece not too long ago, and put some more work into it while we were recording the 99th Ninja Mountain Episode. I'm interested in seeing how it turns out.