RPG Compositions 2 and Society of Illustrators Jazz Sketch Show

Sketching some more compositions for RPG's on my lunch breaks at work. Here is a new batch.











Thank you for all the comments on the first batch. I should have a little more time in the new year to attack these babies and turn them into finished illustrations.


Also, I have a nude up on the wall of the Society of Illustrators part of the Jazz & Sketch Group Show. See Related Post.

This painting of the beautiful Piera was also on the Nude of the Day Blog: 11.24.2008.

Nude of the Day Rejects

I'm sorry for not keeping up with with the posts over the last few months. Part of it is I was busy finishing up some work. And I spent most of October traveling (Art Retreat, Wedding, visiting my best friend Lana in Chicago for her solo show). I didn't do much art at the Art Retreat so there was nothing new to show. And the only thing I remember of November, besides being sick for two weeks, is Thanksgiving (which was AWESOME!!!).

So with no new art to share, I was stuck trying to figure out what to put up here on the blog. Two days ago I was hanging out with my friend Joe Bluhm and the Society of Illustrators Sketch Night and he, inadvertently, helped me come up with a topic for this post. About two years back, Joe put together a great book of his drawings from his days as a Caricaturist in the theme parks in Orlando. He called the book Rejects because the drawings tended to take a lot of artistic license, and the tourists with no sense of humor rejected the drawings. I know you guys are probably tired of me writing about my Nude of the Day Blog, but I have my own share of rejects that never make it to that blog (mainly because they are usually portraits, heads and generally not very nude drawings, and therefore won't fit in with the Nude of the Day theme). Here is a small selection of my Nude of the Day Rejects:

Kika


Nikki


Piera


Alexis


Sara


and Jim



And some sketches of the models in costume around Holloween time:
Doug



and Stephanie


Also, As long as were talking about Nude of the Day (I know I'm bad) might as well plug the Holiday Sale I'm having throughout December. Click on image for details of the Sale.



Related Posts: Best of Nude of the Day: Preview, Best of Nude of the Day: Year One - Order Yourself a Copy
, Nude of the Day Rejects: Part 2

Sketching Compositions for RPGs

Ever since I picked up my first Magic: The Gathering cards back in high-school, I was into sci-fi and fantasy role playing games. Not for the chance to be in a different world, pretending to be a monster or a goblin (I've never touched Dungeons & Dragons), but for the Illustrations. I haven't played the game for over 10 years. I don't think I even remember how to play it anymore. But every time a new set comes out I scour the interwebs for the art. I have several friends that illustrate for Wizards of the Coast (the company that publishes Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons), some even make a decent living from it.

It's always been my goal to work for WotC but my portfolio does not reflect this. So I've been playing around with compositions and sketching out ideas that I'd like to eventually turn into a portfolio for RPGs. Here are some doodles I did last week on my lunch break at work:








What do you think? Are there any that jump out at you? Any I should develop further or forget about?

Freelance work for Dover Publications

Wow, it's been over a month since my last update. Not good.

I went off to California last month for a little break from NY, and came back to a mountain-load of work.

Thanks to the referral of my good friend Scott Altmann, I've been working on coloring books for Dover Publications. Between working a full-time job (almost full-time, I've been at lest an hour late consistently over the last 3-6 months), and helping out at the Society of Illustrators, I've been burning the midnight oil working on the books for Dover.
The first one, Extreme Sports Coloring Book, is coming out October 17th. Amazon has it for pre-order. I'm not too crazy about the cover...

(not my font choices)

...but some of the interior pages turned out pretty nice.







I wish I had more sketchbooks to show, but the Dover work kinda took over my life in the summer time, so I haven't been able to do much personal sketching. Hopefully this will change as I better incorporate my freelance work into my already busy schedule.


In other news, the good folks over at Spectrum plugged my Best of Nude of the Day: Year One book in their ComicCon International coverage. That's very nice of them, especially after I got hostile with Arlo Burnett.


Also, I created a Facebook fan page for Nude of the Day. If you are a member of Facebook, head over and become a fan of the blog. I will be updating the page with my favorite images and will notify fans of upcoming promotions and special offers.

Best of Nude of the Day: Year One - Order Yourself a Copy

I'm about to get on a plane to San Diego for the annual ComiCon and I wanted to let everyone know that I'm bringing advance copies of Best of Nude of the Day: Year One. You can pre-order a copy for yourself today, and I will ship them out when I come back from California in early August.

Best of Nude of the Day: Year One
40 pages - Softcover
7x7 inches

Pre-Order Yours Today!
$25.00
(Free Shipping in the Continental United States!)

Canada, Mexico Add $5.00 for Shipping		International Add $10.00 for Shipping
$30.00		$35.00

I'll be sending out Pre-Ordered books in early August.
If you can't wait that long you can always order directly from Blurb.

Best of Arkady...

Year One

By Arkady Roytman

Book Preview

The only thing about ordering from Blurb is that they charge for shipping. That may not be worth it for all the people in the United States, but may cost less for the folks in Europe.

Check out a 15-page preview of the book on the Blurb website.

Best of Nude of the Day: Preview

Howdy Everyone!

A few weeks back I mentioned collecting some work from the Nude of the Day Blog in book form.
I'm happy to announce that Best of Nude of the Day: Year One is almost ready. Rebecca and I have been hard at work on it over the long 4th of July Weekend and after some finessing and spell-checking I'll be ready to send it off to Blurb for printing.

Here is a preview of the cover:


And some interior pages (click on the image for larger version):




The book will be available for order off the Blurb website and both here and on the Nude of the Day Blog.
More details Coming Soon


Related Posts: Best of Nude of the Day: Year One

Watercolor Moleskine Part 2

I'm a little late with this post. More deadlines and a much-needed vacation kept me pretty busy the last few weeks.

Just like in Part 1, most of these were done at the Society of Illustrators Jazz & Sketch Sessions.








































Also, Just a few more days of the Anniversary Sale the Nude of the Day Blog left. Click on image for details of the Sale.




Related Posts: Moleskine, Moleskine continued, Moleskine 2.0, Moleskine 3.0, Moleskine 2007: A Year in Review, Watercolor Moleskine: Part 1