More Figures

And this, too.

Finished up this guy.

Monsters and Madness!

This is my first freelance illustration! It appears in Issue 11 of Kobold Quarterly magazine: [link].

I owe a debt of gratitude to my good friend Michael Jaecks [link] for getting this gig. He gave me tips on who to contact to get some freelance work, answered my questions, offered encouragement, and allayed my fears.

So, as far as first freelance commissions go, I totally lucked out on this one. Terror, madness, fleeing adventurers, Cthulhuoid tentacled monstrosities...what's not to love about a job like that? And I did indeed have a great time with this. The art director was an easygoing guy, and was a pleasure to work with.

There are, of course, some flaws in the piece; look how thin that wall is, for example, and the cast shadows of the monster's arms and hands should be more defined. These flaws are probably more obvious to me than to you, though, since I painted the darn thing. Plus, I've been staring at it as my desktop background for a few months, giving me plenty of time to see its imperfections. Ah well.

It's a thrill to see my art and name in print. I hope you guys like it.

A Trio of WIPs

So, long time no update! A lot has happened since I last posted here. Most notably, I moved to the Seattle area, and enrolled in some classes at Gage Academy. I have many images to post, so I'll start with a few designs that are works in progress.

This first character is a gent by the name of Swinelius Hobgoppem. He's either the mayor of Munchkin City or the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum's imperious uncle. You decide which.

This next character will be someone someday soon, but for now she is just a sexy nude. Based on many reference images.


To properly explain this next image requires an annoying amount of links. As you may know, I'm a member of an awesome group blog called Creature Spot. The blog is now doing monthly themes, and the theme for September was to draw and/or redesign a creature from an old pulp magazine called Strange Tales. I'm a month late and the creature I'm designing is actually from Tales of Suspense, but whatever. I redesigned a creature simply called the Monster in the Cellar. After the first session of painting on this, I did some research, and found out that the image I was working form is inaccurate. But, again, whatever.
I painted this in front of an audience using Livestream. Look here to watch a recording of it (click on "On-Demand" at the bottom). Please ignore the first four videos, which simply show my mouse darting around the screen, trying to learn how to do this streaming video business. In fact, I'm going to figure out how to delete those videos. The last two videos are where it's at.




Oil paintings coming very soon!

Team ChoW sketches

I'm taking part in Team ChoW this month. Since there's a good chance you have no idea what that is, I'll explain. On ConceptArt.org, there's an activity called Character of the Week. Each week, a topic is posted, and participants have to create a character that fits that topic. Team ChoW is like that, only the time frame is a month rather than a week, and you have to work with a team to create several different character designs.

Here's what I've done so far. All of these are quick sketches, exploring ideas.


Initially, my team wanted to design some alien characters. However, when the topic was posted, it turned out that we needed to work in the high fantasy genre, so we had to put that idea aside.









To see my teammates' designs, check out the thread on ConceptArg.org: here.

Dusk in Western Arkenland

I'm done with this. It could certainly be more polished, but I think I'm just going to move onto the next one. It was quite a fun, experimental, and informative image to paint.
This is actually a scene from yet another one of my stories/worlds. I expounded upon this world on Deviantart, so if you're interested, here's a link to that: helloiamalink. I'll be painting more scenes and characters from this world, definitely.

Landscape

I'm working on a new environment piece! Pretty much the same subject matter as my last one, rocks and water. These are the two most recent saved versions of it. I imagine the lighting situation as being after sunset, but still with plenty of light in the sky. Early twilight, I guess you'd call it. The bottom version might be more deep and dark than what I originally planned, but I like it, so I may go with it anyway. There will be some figures around the fire. WIP.

Final Cyclops

I finally finished Oog, the cyclops. The textures were a blast to paint!
The bottom image is an animation showing all the steps, from thumbnail sketches to finish.

Alien Elder

An alien chief/witchdoctor inhales hallucinogenic smoke and holds the preserved skin of one of its ancestors. It hopes to "read" the skin in much the same way that a fortune teller reads the palm of one's hand, in order to receive new insight into whatever is currently troubling it.
Don't do drugs, and follow this link to read the short story I wrote around this alien: this link, here.

Last Batch o' Figures

One last batch of figure drawings. I wont be taking any classes this summer, so I'll instead focus on my personal projects and studies. It'll do me good, since I feel I've sort of hit a plateau with these. Getting back to the basics, drawing from Bridgman and other anatomy books, that's what I need now.

Self Portraits

This semester in my figure drawing class we had to do four self portraits. We had four pictures taken of us, and for each photo we had a specific format for the dimensions of the drawing.


"Cosmic Background"

For this first one, the assignment was to use a full sheet of normal aspect ratio paper. I chose to do each of mine on toned paper, since I like actually drawing in the lights. Plus, I didn't have to shade as much using toned paper, which is good, since I was using graphite pencil.
We were also encouraged to make these self portraits personal, so I drew mine with a sample of what might be on my mind on a given day.
This drawing got into the student show at my school, and won the juror's choice award for the drawing category.


"Components"

Here's the second in my series of self portraits. 3/4 view, tall and narrow format.
The eponymous components are just things and places that have left and influence on me.
For some reason, it is difficult to get a good photograph of these drawings. I didn't see that this one was somewhat blurry until I uploaded it. If it wasn't such a pain in my ass to get my camera and computer to cooperate, I'd redo this one. I still might.


"The Feeling is Mutual"

We were encouraged to include personal imagery in these self portraits, so of course I had to include the skulls of some extinct things.
The way I see it, there are a few symbolic interpretations of this one. On the most basic level, it could be saying "I'm into paleontology." On a deeper level, it could be saying that, since I'm staring at a bunch of things that are long dead and gone, I dwell on the past (which is true). Or, since a bunch of scary, toothy things are looming at me out of the darkness, and rays of light are shining out from me, it could be saying that I'm facing, or facing down, the negative aspects of myself.

Hyperodapedon Brontotherium Thylacosmilus Gorgonops Diprotodon Dunkleosteus yay!



"Circle of Life"

Last of the self portraits. Square format, and front view with flat lighting.
I decided for this one that my main motif would be a ring of my critters surrounding me.
This feels unfinished to me. Also, I learned a strange thing about blue toned paper while drawing this. It seems that it absorbs the material you put on it. I'd draw on it one day, then when I'd look at it the next day it would appear paler, with the darks and lights less pronounced. Whether this is an actual phenomenon or just a subjective illusion I don't know, but others that I've talked to have noticed it as well.

Khalkha Wife

I'm studying costumes and cultures in order to improve my character design skills. This here lovely lady is a wealthy member of the Khalkha, a Mongolian people, wearing the traditional clothing of a wife. We know where Iain McCaig got his ideas for Queen Amidala's fancy costumes now, don't we?

Puyg

Digitally colored alien sketch, inspired by pugs, hence the name. I wrote a bit about it on DeviantArt. You can find a link to my DA gallery over to the right, if you're curious.

Deity

There are tales of entire villages, entire cities, absolutely wiped out. Every man, woman, and child. Dead. Headless. Even the statues, headless.

Millennia ago, the Hero chopped the Dark God's head from its shoulders. Ever since, it has been searching, and they say that if it ever finds its true head, our world will end.

Pray that the Hero returns before then.


***

Pencil sketch on biggish paper. I darkened it quite a bit in Photoshop, only leaving light on the upper body. Digital manipulation is fun.
The head he's holding is the head of a Classic era Mesoamerican statue.
I've asked my friends on DeviantArt to help me come up with a name for him. A name that sounds suitably ominous and godlike, and is at least loosely rooted in an actual language. You can help, if you want.

Buncha Figures

A whole buncha figures, posted in no particular order. Most are from the last six weeks, but a few are from a few months ago.