Shaking her Tail with a .22

Here's what I painted for the upcoming Cannibal Flower. It should be a great time, and I'm looking forward to seeing The Color Turning play! I definitely recommend that anyone that can make it come out this weekend.

Shadows

Here's a creature concept I'm submitting to a contest on ArtOrder, a blog run by D&D's art director, Jon Schindehette. It's a great read for anyone interested in fantasy art. Jon presents a new challenge every few weeks, and gives an enlightening look into the mind of an art director on a regular basis. The contests are usually based on past projects or something similar, so it's a great way to work up a good portfolio.

Anyway, this time around the contest was to reimagine a creature from one of D&D's many Monster Manuals: the Devil Assassin. This monster can manipulate shadows to cloak itself or attack. Figuring out a way to make a tangible object read as a shadow was really fun. The contest's prompt also requested that we include bits of armor that look like demonic body parts, which was nice because coming up with an arrangement of different pieces that look varied but cohesive was a challenge.

Hope you guys like it, wish me luck!

Ta-Daa!!

Here is the finished painting for La Luz:

Deadline Deluge, WIPs, and Some Little Ones

I'm going a little crazy right now. I have four deadlines coming up before the end of the month, and my schedule gets tighter and tighter as the days pass.

First, I sent off a couple entries to Spectrum 17 today. I've been entranced by their collections of fantasy art every year since I found out about it, and they've continually given me the inspiration or kick-in-the-pants I've needed. This is my first attempt at getting in, and as an upcoming artist I certainly don't expect any gold medals, but hopefully the work speaks for itself, and I at least show Spectrum's prestigious jurors what I'm capable of. Anyway, here are the pieces I decided to enter:




Now, I have to focus on finishing my submission to La Luz de Jesus's Kitschen Sync show, and send a photo of it in by Friday. In a situation like this, with such a tight deadline, I'll often switch my drawing process from traditional to digital practices. This means photo comping and paintovers and all those neatzo quick tricks that many digital artists make use of:



The following Sunday, I have a deadline with ArtOrder for a creature design contest. The idea is to re-imagine a creature from D&D's Monster Manual called the Assassin Devil; a being that can use shadows as a cloak or a weapon. It's a really fun project, and I'll be glad when I can get back to working on it after Friday:



Finally, I have been invited to provide a piece for Cannibal Flower, at the end of this month. Cannibal Flower is always fun, and The Color Turning, a band I like, will be playing there as well. I haven't started anything for it, however, so instead, here are some small pen drawings I did for The Hive show:

Boneheads

"Armadillo"
3"x5"
Acrylic
"Platypus"
3"x5"
Acrylic
"Lion"
5"x3"
Acrylic

Here are some of the pieces now displayed at The Hive Gallery, and some necklaces I made recently. Jewelry making is a new medium I'm having a lot of fun playing around with, and I've always liked painting bone forms, especially exotic skulls. Hopefully I'll be able to incorporate elements from my paintings into some jewelry in the future... we'll see.

Big Weekend

Both shows this weekend went really well! There was a great turnout for both of them; super-thanks to everyone who was able to come!

Showtime!

I went to hang things and paint the walls at The Hive yesterday. Tomorrow is the Under the Influence: He Man show at Gallery 1988, the day after is the Bee Here Now 2 show at The Hive. I've got a big weekend coming up, and my family is coming down to LA to share it with me!