More Gridded Sketches

Playing around with some painting ideas while in Canada. I'm pretty sure I went into these sketches thinking one square would equal six inches. Because, obviously, I have nothing to keep me from doing a 3.5x7 foot painting this spring.

Back From GAnime

I'm back from GAnime, and had a fine time. The people were friendly, and though sometimes taken aback by my complete lack of ability with French, quite patient about it. One might go so far as to say friendly, even.

Special thanks to Luc, Frederick, Roxane, Stephanie, Andrew, Christina, Vincent, Phillip, Marc, Jean, Simon, Mike, and Doctor Who. Also to everyone who came to my panels and got to see, in turn, some of my terrible early work, and some tricks I've addopted to make my work faster and less terrible.

Upcoming Appearances

My 2010 travel season starts early this year. Here's what I have planned for the next handful of months. I'll be glad for anyone who stops in to say hello.

February 6-7: G-Anime 2010, Gatineau, QC Canada

March 6: Feeding Hills Kotei, Feeding Hills, MA USA

March 13-14: Tacoma Kotei, Lakewood, WA USA

April 3-4: Iron Samurai XP4, Calgary, AB and Saskatoon, SK Canada

June 26: Utah Kotei, Orem, UT USA

Cat Oni Attack!

I believe it was at the Aldershot Kotei in 2008 I talked with Mark Wooten about this piece. He had a drawing by his son Drew, and we thought it would be fun to take the design and work it up as a piece for an L5R card. I took some liberty with the design, but I think it's turned out well in the end. Hopefully Mark and Drew like it.

Ninja Party

We recently recorded another episode for the Ninja Mountain Scrolls podcast. Beyond congratulating me on entry into the elitist cabal, we also talked about about these five pieces:

Mick Collins' Terrible Lizards

Jeff Johnson's Fire From Above

Nick Egberts' Lich Knight

Melissa Hitchcock's Vampire Hunters

Chris Burdett's Barbarian Essentials

Because it's such an easy thing to do I turned to doodling, so much of my contribution is these paint overs. Expect larger versions in the show notes, and hopefully some idea what I was thinking will come through the audio. More likely you'll discover I nicked any good ideas from Jeremy, Patrick, and Socar.

Earthquake Dragon Re-Revision

I put some more time into the Earthquake Dragon. I really wanted to get back some of the texture in the dust cloud, and I did a few other things too.

Revisions: Bullywug and Earthquake Dragon

First is my revised bullywug piece. I lightened the near toad's face and throat, and clarified some of the middle and background's value schemes (or something like that. It's been a couple of weeks. What Jeremy said). I also toned down the diagonals pointing into the corners.

Below that is my revised Earthquake Dragon. I posted the original version back in July. Flipping between the two now I seem to have edited out some of my favorite parts of the original. I guess another revisit is in order.