Blight Mamba sketches.

My work for Scars of Mirrodin came just as I was trying out my gridded sketchbook, so my early posts about it had to skate around the NDA-covered bits. I try to avoid for-hire work on my blog, but I thought some process sketches might be interesting and this is a good example. Also, since I'll be at the Toronto Grand Prix this weekend, Magic has been on my mind.

(I know it may not look like many thumbnails, but in my defense I do a lot of erasing. Any sketch that feels wrong at the outset gets erased and that spot gets another chance to be useful.)

And the final:

(I also talked about sketching in Ninja Mountain episode 83, if anyone's interested. I like to think there isn't anything particularly scandalous in the episode.)

Game Session Sketches

Back when I was doing some work for Adventurer's Vault I got a copy of the D&D 4E style guide. I thought some of the ideas for the new dwarves were interesting, so when it came time for my group to try 4E my character was a female dwarf fighter, who I sketched during a couple of sessions:

Some time later I was talking with William O'Connor (Website Blog Dracopedia) who had done a lot of concept work for 4E. He told me they had made a concerted effort to make female dwarves interesting to players -- research had shown they were played even less than monster races.

So I guess their new marketing targeted me. I'm always surprised when that happens.

September is also sketchy

Dragon*Con in Atlanta is this weekend. I'll be attending, and will have work in the art show. If anyone wants to get together, drop me an email. This will be my first Dragon*Con, and I'll be glad for an orientation.

I have a few more robot sketches, some of which are more giant than others. These were done pretty quickly on the heels of the last batch -- I was just slow sharing them.

Back Up To Speed

Just some quick sketches today, as things get back to normal after GenCon.

I started with an old idea of a wyrm with a tower, which I've not been able to nail down, and ended up working on a few "woman with her giant robot" compositions.

GenCon Post

The titular "post" in this case leaning toward "the station or rounds of a person on duty." This was my table in this year's GenCon art show. (Shooting at f/2 with the available light made for quite a shallow depth of field. Sorry about that. Next time I'll try a flash.)


This year I wanted to emphasize my paintings -- which were mostly new -- and my playmats. The playmats would easily take all the table space I could get, but I also wanted to have paintings on the table, where people could get a close look at them. While sketching some display ideas it struck me I could use an LCD desk mount. (I also considered extending the tabletop for more display surface, but let that idea go for another time.)



I think they worked admirably. The paintings were convenient for passers-by to see, were secure, and didn't interfere with looking through the piles of mats on the table.

The LCD arms I used are model 5402 from MonoPrice.com
I've also been asked about my panel extenders. They, along with the stiffeners and support bar, are from ProPanels.com. The GenCon panels are 38.5" wide, with dark grey carpet, if you're looking to match.

Centaur Doodle 4

Last month I listened to Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, which no doubt influenced this centaur sketch.

In other news, I'll be in the art show at GenCon next weekend. No doubt I'll also be slightly frazzled.

Mind the (Graphite) Dust

I did a couple of sketches for The Treasure Chest of Art. I put in some tone after scanning them, but this is the only record I have.



These are a couple of pages from my dot grid journal. I haven't used it all that much, as most of my recent sketching hasn't been aspect-ratio specific (and it doesn't fit in my pocket). I should have the top right one painted and with me at GenCon.