Spring 2010 Update - C2E2

Howdy Everyone,

This is a last minute update. I have a table in the Artist's Alley at C2E2 in Chicago happening this weekend. Come visit me at table A6. This will be my first time ever behind the table and it's kind of a last minute thing, so I apologize in advance if my display leaves something to be desired. I brought with me a bunch of my coloring books for Dover Publications, including my Sherlock Holmes Sticker Activity Book, which I had not shown on this blog before.

here's the cover:


the background image, on which you put the stickers to make your scene:


and some pages of stickers:




I'm also bringing prints of a "newish" illustration I did for White Wolf's Vampire: the Eternal Struggle CCG. This was for the Heirs to the Blood expansion set (released a few months ago):



here's a series of sketches I sent the AD for approval:


And I'll also have a bunch of original watercolors from Nude of the Day.

Hope to see you there.

Nude of the Day Rejects Part 5 -1000 Nudes

Big day today on Nude of the Day. Today I posted my 1000th Nude!



Here is the image:



And I have more Rejects for you. A few Thursdays ago the theme of the night was belly dancing:


Here are a few of Darlinda Just Darlinda.




There as another night with a salsa dancing theme:
Rainbow and Raphael




And a quick little sketch of The World Famous "Bob".



Also, a few months back I had a mini freak-out because I had not oil painted in a long time. I took an evening that I should have been working on my deadlines and decided to do a quick oil study. I used a modified version of the Zorn palette. The Zorn palette is a limited palette of yellow ochre, cadmium red light, ivory black and white, which Anders Zorn used only a few times to showcase how much range one could get from having color and value interact with one another. I think I used a different red and used a sepia brown with an ultramarine blue instead of the ivory black. This was painted from a photograph in an art magazine.




Related Posts: Nude of the Day Rejects: Part 1

Happy 2010!

Howdy Everyone,

I know I'm a little late to the party, but I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!
I started off the year swamped with freelance deadlines and a nasty cold slowing me down. I'm finally getting a lot of last year's stuff out of the way and it's given me a moment to reflect on 2009 and set up some goals for 2010.

My biggest goal for 2010 is to pursue my freelance career full time. I'm at that point where the freelance is enough to have me pulling all kinds of crazy hours outside of my day job but not enough to support my retarded-high New York rent and food expenses. I started off 2009 with just one client, and was lucky enough to pick up another few throughout the year. A few of them in the RPG card game industry, something I've been hoping to do for a while now. In 2010 I'm targeting the Big Kahuna in the RPG industry, Wizards of the Coast. I've hung out with a bunch of the AD's from Wizards over the past few years and had some great reviews from them.

One of the AD's who's been a great source of information is Jon Schindehette (the Senior AD for Dungeons & Dragons®). On his blog ArtOder he posts great insights into the inner workings of Wizards of the Coast, answers questions from the AD's perspective, spotlights all kinds of great artists, runs weekly creative challenges, and a whole lot more. I tried to participate in as many of the weekly challenges as possible, but only managed to finish up one, the one for the Vampires Challenge. Here is my entry:




One of the funnest challenges form last year was the Drow vs. Mind Flayer Challenge. Jon enlisted top AD's in the industry to help him judge the challenge and it was a great opportunity for exposure. Unfortunately, due to prior deadlines for Dover and a fun week bleeding after sinus surgery, I wasn't able to finish my piece in time. I planned to finish it up after the deadline but haven't gotten around to it. Here's where I'm at:



detail:


There's probably some things I'd change in the composition but overall I'm happy with the direction it's headed.

One of the other really helpful things Jon used to do (and I hope he gets back to doing this year) was post selections from the D&D style guide so that non-D&D-playing artists like myself can familiarize ourselves with the characters of the D&D world. Every Thursday that Jon posted a style guide I'd spend my lunch hour at work sketching up some compositions and character studies. I also started using the style guides for warm-up sketches before tackling my freelance work. Here are a few:

Tieflings







A watercolor warm-up sketch:


And with some digital on top:


Dragonborn





Lucky for me, the stars aligned themselves and I spent most of 2009 working on books for Dover that related to the RPG game industry. Dover just published my Fantasy Warriors Stained Glass Coloring Book. Here are a some pages form that:

Front Cover:


Back Cover:


Orc:


Angel:


Devil Girl:


It was a fun project to work on and I used it as an excuse to work up a bunch of sketches and collect a ton of reference that I may be able to use in the future.

Also, I just finished up a project for Dover that had a dragon in it. And thanks to Jon's critique of my dragon at GenCon, I was able to make a stronger image for this project. Here's a sneak peek:

Nude of the Day Rejects Part 4

Howdy Gang,

Once again freelance work and life has gotten in the way of updating this blog. I'll have lots of treats for you in the next month.

But for now I'm back to advertising my other blog (the one that actually gets updated): Nude of the Day

Today I posted my 900th Nude!




Today is also the start of the Holiday Sale on Nude of the Day. All paintings are up to 50% off just in time for the Holidays.

Click on image for details of the Sale.


And just to make your visit worthwhile, here are more Rejects:

Gigi La Femme


Lillian


Main Event




The World Famous "Bob"







Related Posts: Nude of the Day Rejects: Part 1

Summer 2009 News And Updates

Hey Gang,

Lots of exiting news from yours truly.

First off, yesterday I posted my 800th Nude on Nude of the Day.

I'm a little late with the Best Of Year Two book, but rest assured that it is in the works. I hope to have it in time for IlluxCon in November.


Second, Spectrum Show II will be up at the Society of Illustrators from September 1st to the October 17th. I had the honor of helping Arnie and Cathy Fenner, Irene Gallo and Greg Manchess curate the show. The opening for the show is on Friday September 11th and will be followed by Art Out Loud demos on September 12th. If you can spare the $40 entrance fee, I highly recommend you make it to the opening. If not, come see the show any other day when it is free.


Also, I updated my website. It's not a big update, just a few "newish" pieces in the Illustration section, but its an update non-the-less.


The update was spurred on by GenCon 2009 (got to keep those portfolio sites updated). I went out Indianapolis to help out my friend Steven Belledin. He told me months ago "Come out to Indy, show your portfolio to gaming publishers, and you will get work", and I did. Two days after GenCon, White Wolf called with a job. W00t!
I had a great time hanging out with my friends in the Artist's Alley and meeting new ones. One new friend, Jeremy McHugh, recorded my mindless babble for the Ninja Mountain Podcast (which is a MUST listen for everyone in the illustration field).

In other news, a few weeks ago I received several sets of the Ancient Greek Discovery Kit from Dover, which collected a few coloring books (one of them mine) and included crayons and an 11x17 poster I did of the Battle of Marathon. Click on the image for a larger version.


Until next time.