12.18.2011

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.

12.11.2011

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.

9.21.2011

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

7.27.2011

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

7.16.2011

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

6.07.2011

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:

5.27.2011

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.

5.16.2011

Eowyn and the Nazgul

Last month Jon Schindehette and the guys at the Muddy Colors blog put together a challenge. The topic was Eowyn and the Nazgul, from the Lord of the Rings. It wasn't until I was waiting at the airport, trying to fly to the Austin Kotei, that I found the approach I wanted to take.

There's been a lot of focus on the end fight, but I decided to look at what lead up to that. I settled on when the Witch-king takes to the field of the battle. Eowyn's horse Windfola panicked, and she and Merry were thrown (and since there's no specific reference to when her helmet came off, I decided it would be a fine time for that, too). I stretched things a bit having her bumped by the fell beast, but I wanted to show her resisting them. The Witch-king and fell beast, however, are cropped out of the picture to show they don't regard her at all.

Here are some of the steps I went through. The last is a photo of the painting as it stood last night. It's oil on paper on panel, about 15" x 21".





Art Order Blog
Muddy Colors

3.26.2011

April 2011 Kotei Apperances

I just wanted to post a quick note about the three L5R tournaments I'll be attending in April. On the 2nd I'll be in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. On the 16th I'll be in Austin, Texas. On the 30th I'll be in Louisville, Kentucky. I've included links to more specific information for those interested, and here are the thumbnails for a couple of new pieces I'll be showing at the tournaments. Come say hi!

Ottawa Kotei details: here
Austin Kotei details: here
Louisville Kotei details: here


2.25.2011

"...Twenty To Thirty Minutes a Day."

Alonso remarked on my Mark Kistler reference during the latest Ninja Mountain episode. I used to love watching Secret City on PBS, and was always trying to catch up with my older brother's skill whilst contributing to the family mural. I hadn't thought about it in years, but not too long ago we found his site and subscribed for my daughter. Here are sketches from a couple of episodes we watched together.


Mark Kistler -- http://www.draw3d.com/
Alonso -- http://monotremedreams.blogspot.com/
Ninja Mountain Scrolls -- http://ninjamountain.blogspot.com/

1.16.2011

Talking about myself. What could be easier?

Two things:

1: Next weekend, January 21-23, 2011, I will be a guest at Running Gagg at SUNY Geneseo. I'll be giving a couple of seminars late Friday and Saturday afternoons. The organizers have asked for the standard fare -- starting out,experiences, process, painting demo, those sorts of things. I was wondering if anyone had any questions they'd like answered, or topics that they'd like me to cover. What gets missed or glazed over in convention talks like this? If you're an illustrator, what do you wish you had heard starting out?

2: When I started my blog the plan was to only talk about work I did on my own, for myself. From my sporadic updates it would seem I'm not really doing a lot on my own, so I think I'll open things up to more work-work. I'm hoping that will make it easier for me to find interesting things to say -- or at least show.