April continues

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by at C2E2. Also, special thanks to Aaron and Laurie, not just for putting up with me, but for doing it for an extra day.

I picked at this piece a little during the latest recording session, but was too busy listening to find good reference or make good decisions, so I don't feel like I made any progress. I'll try to be more prepared for next week.

Painting, Shooting, and Podcasting.

(A quick reminder at the top: I'll be at C2E2 in Chicago this weekend.)

As if learning to paint weren't hard enough, I'll also have to learn how to photograph or scan paintings. One would think an array of color management tools would make the job easy -- that finding sun in Western New York would be the hard part -- but that doesn't seem to be the case. Anyway, here's roughly what the piece I started at last year's Illustration Master Class looks like now, after a couple of fits and starts of extra work.


I also worked on this piece a bit more, mainly whilst chatting with Socar, Patrick, and Jeremy.

April 2010

I had an excellent time in Calgary and Saskatoon Easter weekend at this year's Iron Samurai L5R tournaments. Thanks again to all involved.

Here are a trio of sketches from the trip. On the left, I was half remembering a story of Tomoe Gozen. I worked it up a bit more whilst recording part of episode 60 of Ninja Mountain. After so many weeks away it was great to catch up with Jeremy and Socar again.

Another trip is coming right up: next weekend, April 16-18, I'll be at C2E2 in Chicago. I will be in the artist's alley, perhaps looking very much out of place. Still, you're welcome to come by and wish me a happy birthday!

Searching For a Solution To a Problem I Don't Know

A couple of new sketchbook pages. I think there could be something to the last one.

Wait, I'm Home This Weekend?

Yep, I've been traveling. Whilst in the Seattle area not only did I get to have a fine time at the Tacoma Kotei, I also got to catch up with friends I see all too rarely. Special thanks to (in roughly chronological order) Franz and Imelda, Jon, Mary, Jeremy, Richard, Greg, Leon, Drew, Dierdre and Raven. Obviously, I've left people out. Also obviously, it's because I'm a jerk.

Shortly after my Seattle jaunt I was off to LunaCon. It was my first real convention experience without a table to sit behind. I discovered things like panels, fresh air, lunch, people to talk with, and how an art show check in/out system works. (Also that if you don't follow the "whole dollars only" pricing rules you may get whapped on the head with a stack of papers. Repeatedly.) It was also great to see/meet Eric, Matt, Dan, Marc, Kelly, Hillary, Bill, Joe, Kris, Michael, Dan, Bob, Sue, Patricia, and... so many other people who also have names. I made no promises, right?

And look what my Golden Wyrm painting came back with! A hard worker, that one.

Crosscut Update

I didn't mean to miss two weeks in a row. Sorry. If it makes you feel any better I did do some vaguely horse-shaped scribbles in my sketchbook, they just didn't make it up for one reason or another.

Here are a couple of pieces from my project for CrossCut Games.




I've also posted a new L5R piece over on DeviantArt. I'll bend my "sans NDA" rule a bit by mentioning it here.

Character thumbs

The third of these really has the mood I was after (imagine gaunt cheeks and a graying beard). However, I wanted to have more action to the piece, so the search continued.