UmbraLust

Covering Up

2011-12-22T00:50:00.000-08:00

I recently completed the promo cover of a fantasy novel. The book's sort of a mix between Narnia and Harry Potter with super powers. Currently the author is submitting manuscripts, trying to get it published. Here's her blog.

I also took a class from Anthony Jones about creature design at Red Engine. During which I came up with these:

I also put together this set of portraits as a personal project. They are based on the RGB color system.

I'm also proud to announce my new position as Illustrator and Designer for a company called Puzzled Inc. I've been working there for a few months now, illustrating Christmas ornaments, designing plush dolls, and photocompositing packaging for 3d wooden puzzles. Their products are sold all over the world in gift shops and amusement parks.

Also, I will have a bunch of pieces up at WWA gallery in Culver City in a few months, more on that as it develops.

Not Losing

2011-07-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to Red Engine's anniversary party and was awarded a scholarship for a free class! I entered the contest with this little guy:

I also checked out Andrew Hem's show at LeBasse in Culver City, which I highly recommend for anyone in the area to go see and be amazed.

And Now, Here's Some More Stuff

2011-07-01T00:47:00.000-07:00

First off, here's a book cover I worked on for a non-existent author. He was pretty quiet, but I could tell that he really liked the illustration I came up with for his non-existent story:

Here's an oil painting I did for a show with The Upper 600s, a great creative collective that puts together some awesome art shows. Unfortunately this piece didn't sell, so if anyone is interested, shoot me an email:

And finally, here's some character design stuff from my Red Engine class:

Lotus Falling

2011-06-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

A recent trip to the Raminfard School of Arts inspired me to get back into oil painting, and when I found out that jujitsu legend Wally Jay died on Sunday, I knew I had my subject. Wally Jay studied the same style of jujitsu that I do, Dan Zan Ryu, under it's founder H. Seishiro Okazaki. Afterward he went on to pioneer small circle jujitsu, and work with many martial arts masters, including the ever-popular Bruce lee. Wally Jay will undoubtedly live on in his teachings and stories of his upstanding character. As Professor Okazaki put it in a message to all the students of Dan Zan Ryu: "when the lotus flower falls, it rises to the surface".

So I begin my painting with photo reference, using a very dry brush with very little paint to lay in the light shapes, and make sure my proportions aren't too off. You may notice that even though I'm painting in color, the reference is in black and white, but this is because a) tone is way more important than color, and b) my printer is low on ink:

Next, I begin blocking in some light color and mid-tones, making sure they don't get too extreme so I can slowly build up. I also stick to large brushes so I can get through this stage more quickly, and so there is more variety in brush strokes by the time I get to later stages:

At this next stage, things are getting very close to where I want them, and I wind up doing a lot of adjusting to make sure the likeness reads true and the brighter highlights, vibrant colors, and deeper shadows work in harmony:

And by now, I'm pretty much done. There may be a few minor things here or there to adjust; edges to sharpen, features to change, highlights to pop. But everything, for the most part, is where it needs to be:

And of course, it doesn't hurt to throw a couple of adjustment layers in photoshop to get rid of the way cameras see differently than human eyes:

So there we have it, my tribute to a martial arts bad ass, and six hours well spent.

Sukechi Sketch

2011-05-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some character development sketches I've been working on for the Red Engine class:

And here are a couple of the environment thumbnail sketches from last week taken to the next stage of development:

And finally, here's a portrait study I did today. I gave myself one hour to finish:

Concept Sketches

2011-05-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

Here's some more stuff I'm working on for the entertainment portfolio class I'm taking:

All Aboard!

2011-05-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Today I had my second week in a course I'm taking at Red Engine. The class is geared around creating a portfolio worth presenting to entertainment concept design studios. This is my first week's homework, creating ideation sketches for some monsters and and their slayers. I definitely recommend taking a class at Red Engine. The instructors can give each student an ample amount of time each week, they give awesome, direct, brutal (if need be) feedback, and their talent oozes out of the sides of the building like a scene from Ghostbusters II.

Eowyn and the Nazgul Step-byStep

2011-05-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

So I recently participated in another contest on ArtOrder, the challenge was to create an illo based on the battle between Eowyn and the Witch King from Lord of the Rings. If you're not familiar with the story, I suggest you go out and take in a movie or book once in a while.

So I started out with some sketches to establish the feel of each character. I wanted to push the idea of a powerful and oppressive evil facing off against an unlikely and underestimated force of good (kind of like Star Wars... or every other movie for that matter.

Most of the approaches I've seen for the Nazgul make them pretty lanky. I'm not sure if it's a result of Tolkien's descriptions or if skinny guys are just creepier, but I thought I'd go with a more robust, sitting on a throne and nom nom-ing a giant leg of ham, kingly form:

I had already wanted to frame Eowyn's light complexion and features against the dark tones of the Witch King, so I tried to work out some thrusting action poses as seen from behind (coincidentally, "Some Thrusting Action Poses as Seen from Behind" can now be found at your local adult movie rental establishment) :

Once I had more of a feel for how to pose the characters, I worked out a few rough compositions, trying to keep my values towards the extremes of light and dark to help me group them and create focal points:

The comps had some nice things going on, but they were still too static, even if they were a moment of stillness amongst the action, and I wanted to create a piece that portrayed more of the endless tide of battle, so I kept playing with the composition until I came up with this:

Added details, rounded out forms, played with textures... :

Some of the nice people on the ArtOrder WIP thread helped me with a few adjustments, and I opened up the bottom of the composition to help spread out some of what was jumbled in there:

More details, textures, adjustments, etc. and added color:

Adjusted colors to create a more limited palette, and then sent it off to Jon Schindehette for the contest:

The Beast with One Back and a Buncha Heads

2011-04-20T03:26:00.000-07:00

So I was out walking near Pasadena the other day and it started snowing. I was in a nice place to hike and I had my coat with me so I figured I'd just keep on walking. I was making my way down this steep hill and I must've hit a patch of ice or something and I slipped and started rolling through the bushes and sticks and rabbit turds. When I stopped I got up and realized I was in a clearing with a bunch of dead trees. Then I heard a scream. Not just any scream, but a blood-roiling cry of rage! I turned and saw some dude in armor swinging two swords hopping around on a giant hundred foot long snake monster with five heads and nasty sharp pointy teeth! Luckily I had my camera with me, so I snapped off a couple of shots and got one that made really good photo reference for this next painting:

Experienced

2011-04-09T17:50:00.000-07:00

I just finished a piece for ArtOrder's latest contest: The Ultimate Fighter Challenge. The prompt was to create a human fighter in the world of D&D, with bonus points for giving it a unique spin. I thought I'd go with an older fighter, battle-worn, who's lost his hand and replaced it with weaponry. At first I wanted to go with a more active pose, but in the end liked the quiet menace of stillness and dramatic lighting. I imagine this guy being able to tell war stories and drink all night, but still snap into battle mode when the tavern brawl inevitably explodes.

Titanic Struggle

2011-04-04T02:46:00.000-07:00

I've finished a couple of new pieces recently. The first is a slugfest between some kind of centipede based giant worm and a huge golem... or maybe just aliens fighting over a can of beans. I mostly wanted to add some action scenes to my portfolio and play around with designing creatures. The other is a landscape, which I think my portfolio needs. I started it without much planning behind the narrative, mostly thinking about the use of silhouette and creating a composition based on the extremes of dark and light.

March Madness

2011-03-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

Although a lot of my time has been devoted to smaller illustrations for the web, I have had a break in that work recently, and was able to work on a couple of larger pieces.

First is a piece inspired by the old Atari game Joust. I used to play it when I was little, on my NES. I remember continually dying because of that damn pterodactyl.

If you're not familiar with the game, you can play an online version of it here.

The next piece isn't really based on anything, other than the idea of making a pretty girl look sinister and trying to use soft light.

The Monster Mash

2011-02-02T20:16:00.000-08:00

I recently had a blast illustrating some classic movie monsters for a recent job. Now that I feel a bit more comfortable with my sense of tone, I've been concentrating on consistently getting my brush strokes to follow the form. I've been looking at Leyendecker paintings and Zorn etchings for guidance. Following the form makes a huge difference, and I'm hoping that eventually it will be something I do without having to think so much about it.

The Wolfman:
The Fly:
The Blob:
Godzilla:

Rodan:
King Kong:
Frankenstein's Monster:
Dr. Zaius:
Count Orlock:
The Creature from the Black Lagoon:

Cycles of Rebirth

2011-01-18T20:59:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Personally, I am looking at 2011 with rose-tinted glasses. The economy is starting to pick itself up off the littered floor, and I just got three books to help inspire and guide me:

The first is Spectrum 17, the latest in the series. A great source of lovely, beautiful, amazing, inspiring, shame-inducing, wonderful work. I am always blown away by how great the best contemporary artists are in every aspect of what they do. It simultaneously makes me want to lock myself in a room and paint until my hands wear away into little nubs or explode in a fiery ball of frustration and self-pity. This might sound strange, but I know many artists who feel this way after looking at the same book, or going to the museum, or a really great gallery opening. Inspiration is weird that way.

The next is the Graphic Artist's Guild's Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. It's a must-have for freelancers who don't want to be taken for the proverbial ride. It gives industry standards for pricing and an explanation of various terms that can be found in most contracts. Just seeing how many zeros are on the established artist's paycheck has much the same effect on me as looking at the Spectrum books.

The third is an amazing book called Framed Ink, by Marcos Mateu-Mestre. It's geared towards sequential art, but is full of great advice for narrative, lighting, composition, character design, and plenty of other stuff that's on pages I haven't read yet. I highly recommend it for any illustrator or concept artist.

Changing Houses in TriviaTown

As I have mentioned before, I have been working with TriviaTown Inc. on a Facebook game called Exorcists vs. Demons. Unfortunately, the game has hit a bump in the road, and it may be a while before we can get back to working on it. However, when a door is closed, a window is opened, as they say, and I will continue to be able to work with TriviaTown on illustrations for another game. Also, as it is unclear whether they will be utilized in the future, I have been given permission to share some of the 100+ illustrations I made for Exorcists vs. Demons:

Goat Men

2010-12-28T15:37:00.001-08:00

I've been trying to add more process and concept art to my portfolio, so I've started a few sets of character silhouettes. The idea is to play with the form of the character in as many ways as possible in a short amount of time, so the ideas can be discussed with a team or art director.

I've chosen to play with the idea of a satyr, faun, goat-man. One version is mostly human, another more monstrous, there's the standard hybrid, and the little frumpy guys.

Aliens vs. Superheroes

2010-12-22T15:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a recent piece I made for the good people over at Palladium Books. They requested a cover for the next issue of Rifter. Although I was working under a tight deadline, I was very excited about the assignment, so working on it was pretty fun.

Dungeon Delve Challenge

2010-12-14T12:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks again to everyone who helped me out with suggestions for this piece. Today is the deadline, so here is the final image. I went back into the anatomy of the figure, adjusted some of the architecture to fit the perspective, and made a few other minor changes.

Lost!!!

2010-11-19T18:32:00.000-08:00

With the help of a bunch of talented, friendly, awesome artists, this piece is nearing completion. They reminded me to pay attention to things that I overlook sometimes, like setting up a hierarchy of light sources, letting scattered debris like snow build up in architectural crevices, and using long, dark shadows to add drama. I also had the benefit of very sharp extra sets of eyes to notice some of the strange things happening with the figure's anatomy, perspective angles, and shadows. Special thanks to Nathan Ota for suggesting that I add the staff's marks in the snow to the figure's tracks to strengthen the narrative.

I've gotten to the stage of staring at it for long periods of time, hunting for something to work on. I still have about three weeks before the final paintings are due for the contest, but I will definitely be posting my final, final, final image, and the results of the contest as they become available.

To check out the other sketches/WIPs for the contest, go here:

http://artorder.ning.com/forum/topics/dungeon-delve-challenge

And to see the final pieces as they build up, go here:

http://artorder.ning.com/forum/topics/dungeon-delve-challenge-finals

Lost

2010-11-13T15:01:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a piece to enter in ArtOrder's Dungeon Delve Challenge. The winner of the contest gets published and paid, but it's worth it just to enter and have some of the top fantasy art directors looking at my work.

The idea is to show a adventurer lost in a dungeon at the moment that they realize there may be no way out. I wanted to show the immense space and variety of paths available in the dungeon. The character is realizing that he's doubled back on his own tracks, recognizing them from the drips of blood leaking from his left leg (which will hopefully read better once I add color).

The sketch is due tomorrow on ArtOrder, and afterward I will have another month to finalize the piece. I would love to hear any feedback on this piece. I'm putting as much time into this as I can, and I'll take all the help I can get!

I've Been Published!

2010-10-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

Huge, great news! Palladium Books is using my contest entry from this spring for the cover of Rifter #52, and asked if I would be willing to illustrate for them in the future! My fingers are crossed, and I'm very excited to start working with them!

Hive Titan

2010-10-01T00:47:00.000-07:00

Here's an overview of the making of this monster:

Part 1

When I began, all I knew was that I wanted to play with scale and make a giant creature. I started with a general lumpy shape, which turned into a shell. I started putting holes in the shell, and got the idea of something other than the giant mutant snail living inside. I added the smaller swarm shapes and started placing light and dark shapes around the creature, which turned into plants and clouds. Then, I went into the creature's head, starting with a snail like head, so the shell could be more easily identified, and then embellishing to make it something more interesting.

Part 2

As I developed the different forms and broke up the major shapes, I added color. I put warm colors on the shell where it faces the light, and the color of the sky and plants where it is in the shadow. I added tiny figures and stone henge boulders to have something to measure the size of the creature against.

Part 3

After I made the sky bluer and the light more gold, I made the lit edges of the trees warmer. Then, to add depth to the scene, I lightened the shadows and blurred the edges of everything beyond the foreground increasingly as it recedes into the distance.

In Hindsight

I like the light in this piece, but I think the creature could be more interesting and active, and the composition is a little lacking in drama. However, as a quick project without much planning or time put in, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Horrorwood

2010-09-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a preview of what I'm submitting for WWA Gallery's Horrorwood show, opening October 15th. The show's theme, as the name suggests, is classic Hollywood Horror. The pieces should range in subject matter from Bela Lugosi to Freddy Kruger, and I'm pretty excited to see what the other artists have come up with, especially my fellow 'Illust' crew members Dalva, Buerli, Cooper, Nigel, and Jules!

Step-by-Step

2010-09-15T01:16:00.000-07:00

This is a quick character concept I made today featuring a futuristic-James Bond bad girl-amazon:

Maniacal Warm-ups

2010-09-07T14:07:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been spending 15-45 minutes on posemaniacs thirty second gesture drawings three or four times a week. Its a nice way to practice anatomical proportions, making quick decisions, and drawing the figure with poses and viewpoints that force me out of my comfort zone. Warming up this way, or more importantly staying warm every day, has helped a ton with my work. Pieces seem to come together faster and with less frustration when I keep my creative engine running, and I'd definitely recommend this type of exercise to anyone wanting to knock the rust off. (A word of caution, though: posemaniacs uses 3d models with a skin that has the muscle anatomy on top, which is misleading when it comes to keeping your anatomy accurate. I'd only recommend using it for quick drawings, instead of anatomical studies.)

Venice Grind

2010-08-31T11:06:00.000-07:00

Through September my artwork will be featured at a cafe called Venice Grind, located at 12224 Venice Blvd, near Centinella. I'll be putting up some old stuff, some new stuff, and some stuff that was old, but that has been worked on since the last time it was displayed:

Jim

2010-07-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

Here is a portrait of I did a few years ago. I worked with Jim for the entire seven odd years I worked at Barnes & Noble. He was hilariously honest, knew a ton about art, smoked like a chimney, and kept M&Ms in his shirt pocket at all times. I heard that he recently passed away, and thought I should post his portrait. Goodbye, Jim.

AFK

2010-07-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

The last month and a half appears to have snuck by me in my recent bout of activity. As I mentioned in my last post, I picked up a job doing illustration work for a facebook game. I have also picked up a couple other jobs, one for a fair-trade raw food company, and another for a local cat toy factory.

Unfortunately, this has not left me with much time to put towards personal projects, like many of the pieces featured on this blog. Both long-term projects will have to be put on hold, but I can still sneak in an hour here and there to work on short term proj-- Blah blah blah, I'm busy, you get the point.

So here is my latest project, a shot at character concept art for an air pirate.

D&D Pin Up Contest

2010-05-16T05:48:00.000-07:00

My latest contest entry on ArtOrder, for a pin up of one of the playable races from Dungeons and Dragons. It's a half elven woman on an owlbear-skin rug. In order to make it look like a pin up, I softened almost all the edges, and made the entire composition about displaying the figure's anatomy. I'm really proud of the hands in this piece.

Exorcists vs. Demons

On a side note, I recently have started illustrating for an upcoming installment of a facebook game called Exorcists vs. Demons. I can't show any of the work at the moment, but go play this very fun and addicting game and eventually all will be revealed!

Process, Pt 2

2010-05-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the second installment of my ongoing series about process; a step-by-step walkthrough for illustration.

Step Three: From Thumb to Rough

Now we have twenty-five compositions, but only one will survive. The first step in choosing the best thumbnail is easy: many of the thumbs will be boring, awkward, or just won't read. Pay attention to the overall shapes present in the composition, where dark shapes are on a light background, and vice versa. You should be able to identify the subject even at this stage.

The second step is to take the search for readability up a notch. Which compositions tell more about the subject than what it physically is? Which ones convey the subject's origins, emotions, and purpose? In this example, I'm looking for compositions that tell the viewer how the hippo rider operates as a powerful, amphibious soldier.

The third thing I look for is a bit harder to describe, and I believe it is something that comes with a lot of experience in looking, or being a visually oriented person. Sunlight shining through leaves and spiderwebs, the reflected light on the underside of a cloud at sunset, the rough textures of concrete under a streetlamp, a backlit figure on a hillside: some things grab the eye and hold onto it. Just like the sublime feeling that comes with listening to particularly good music while drunk, sometimes perception overrides the stream of consciousness, and allows us to just experience the outside world without the internal monologue. The greatest paintings have a certain charisma that draws attention to them and conveys drama. It could be the violence of the moment, the glory of the light, or the harmony of the tones and colors. Something stands out about these pieces, and it can start as far back as the thumbnail sketch. Certain thumbs will pop out at you, and you won't be able to explain why they are better than the others, other than that they are more evocative.

After narrowing down my choices, I am left with three thumbs, each with different elements that I like. Moving counter-clockwise from top left, I like the first for its drama and the how it seems to convey the power of the hippo, I like the second because the rider is clearly shown, while sending the eye back to the hippo with the line from the bow's arrow to the hippo's face, and the third conveys the purpose of the hippo riders as amphibious cavalry. The fourth, at top right, is a new thumb that I drew based on the other three, that will be the foundation for my rough sketch.

When handling a rough sketch I try to retain the loose sense of experimentation that I talked about in Pt 1 when handling thumbnail sketches. At this stage I have a general idea of the finished piece, but elements can be easily adjusted before they are defined. Now is not the time to add details, it is the time to define the major elements of the piece, to make sure that they work together to define each other.

Try to make sure that overlapping forms are clearly one in front of the other. Putting something in the foreground barely touching something behind it takes away the sense of depth. Also look out for lines that confuse the form rather than defining it. Sometimes lines from one object may look like the continuation of the lines from another, and both objects lose clarity. Hold the image up to a mirror, or if you're working digitally, flip it accordingly, to make sure that everything still looks good. Our brains do strange things, and the mirror quickly points out to us where a shape is wonky or a curve is weird.

In the next installment, I'll talk about arranging tones and moving into the final drawing.

Process, Pt 1

2010-05-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

How to Start a Painting

Welcome to the beginning of a series I am putting together to show my process of creating an image. Hopefully it will be informative and helpful for my fellows in the pursuit of artistic greatness.

Step One: Familiarization

Before you begin any project, you must do the research to know what you're dealing with. First, find out who will be looking at the piece; children, young men, and elderly women all expect to see something different, and have different tastes. Second, find out about your subject. If it is a living thing based in reality, learn about its behavior, its habitat, etc. If it is something unliving, learn about its history and the culture that surrounds it. If your subject is something that doesn't exist, find out about the closest things that do.

For this project, I will be illustrating for a personal project, a card game I am working on. It is similar to Magic: the Gathering, in genre and demographic.

The card I will be illustrating is called Hippo Rider, the concept being some kind of humanoid warrior creature(s) that use hippopotamuses as mounts.

As I am already comfortable drawing the figure, my first step is to learn about the hippo. I go to wikipedia, watch nature documentaries, go to the zoo, whatever I can get my eyes and ears on so I can get a sense of the character of the hippo. By doing this I learn that they are massively powerful, fast sprinting, usually docile but potentially very dangerous and aggressive, communal, amphibious creatures. This is also the best opportunity to gather visual reference of hippos in various poses to use later.

Now, finally, I can start drawing. I begin by learning the structure of the hippo by doing a couple quick skeletal overlay studies:

This gives me an understanding of how to arrange the hippo's anatomy, how it moves, and how its massive weight is held off the ground. It also gives me the opportunity to mentally catalog the unique visual characteristics of the hippo so I can draw it quicker and in such a way that it is easily identifiable in the image.

Then, I draw a few quick sketches from the visual reference I have collected, so my hand and eye get a feel for the kinds of curves and shapes that make up the creature. This also serves as a warm up for drawing the thumbnails. Warming up can be very helpful.

Step Two: Thumbnail Sketches

Next, I deal with composition. I work at the proportions of the finished piece, scaled down. I explore the various ways of displaying the hippo rider's form. At this stage, I don't have to put more than a few minutes into each thumb. Many artists put in less time, or do more thumbs, but I find twenty five gives me a lot of options, and allows each thumb to be clearer.

Try to think of each thumb as a visual experiment. Don't let any one thumb become too precious. Just put the idea down and move on. It can be easy to run out of ideas if you let yourself get too rigid. Only adhere to what is absolutely essential to the image, and let everything else change. In this case, so long as I show at least one hippo and someone sitting on it, it passes. Play with the angle that the subject is seen from, the situation the subject is in, etc.

In my next installment, I will talk about picking out the thumbs that work best, and moving into the rough sketch.

Fox in Socks

2010-04-30T01:51:00.001-07:00

This week I handled a freelance job designing t-shirts. I worked with the phrase "crazy like a fox", and drew some fox stuff and illustrated type.

This piece is one of the rejects, taken to the next level. The way I handled the stylization of the figure made it unsuitable for the demographic the t-shirt company was going for. However, I thought it was a good character concept, at least. So, after finishing the job I put in a few hours to polish up the drawing, and here are the results:

P.S. A special prize goes to the first person who can spot all the vulpine references in the costume.

The Monstrous Manual Project 002

2010-04-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

The next installment of this nostalgic project was a little harder to pick than the first. I decided that there was no way I could continue going in alphabetical order, or any organized order, for that matter. But that posed the problem of an over abundance of really inspiring options. In the end, I decided to pick creatures based on what would be good for my portfolio. So instead of painting nymphs, dryads, or other humanoid creatures, I chose:

Wyvern

Pronounced why-vern, this two legged cousin of the dragon is a terrible airborne predator. They swoop down on their prey, attempting to sink their talons into it and lift it up into the air, where they bite and use a deadly, poisonous stinger on the end of their tails. Around forty feet from nose to tail, propelled by a fifty foot wingspan, these things can fly carrying two man sized creatures at once, and could even prey on larger fare.

Self Portrait

2010-04-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a piece I did recently for a self-portrait contest on deviantart.

Unfurling our dreams
To annoint our backs
Hoping paint won't melt like wax

Into the Heart of the Machine

2010-04-03T18:55:00.001-07:00

Here is the second piece for the contest going on over at Palladium, a role-playing-game publisher.

With this piece I decided to try out a lighting trick I had seen many times before and read about recently. The idea is to use a series of different colored lighting, creating zones of color, to enhance the sense of distance in the painting.

For this image, I wanted to generate a feeling of caution and unease. I tried to do that with color, composition, and narrative. I tried to choose colors that clash a bit, and as you get deeper into the city, where the characters are, the color and angle of the light becomes more and more artificial. I tilted the composition to give the viewer a sense of disorientation, a trick I stole from film noir cinematography. I tried to design the structures in the background so that their function isn't completely clear, making them more alien, then added the human element of graffiti on the foreground wall. The back two characters are stooped over and aware, but the foremost one is calm. My hope is that these disorienting contradictions establish a mood of simultaneous fear and exhilaration, anxiety and curiosity, that comes with embarking on an epic adventure, because the adventure is what RPGs are all about.

2010-03-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

Here is the finished piece from last week (duh). I decided to switch from cool blue colors to oranges and reds to convey the sense of urgency and violence.

Here is the second piece I'm making for the contest. I'm still deciding on a color palette, but I don't think the tones need much more work.

Also, after a lot of cleaning, tossing, rearranging, and more cleaning, I finally finished setting up a studio in my garage with Jessica.

WIP from a Week Well Spent

2010-03-20T17:08:00.000-07:00

All this past week I've been trying to dig in and put as many hours as I can towards this piece and one other for a contest being held by an RPG publisher. I've been trying to focus on mood and composition lately, reading as much as I can and looking at a lot of the illustrators from the golden age.

The Monstrous Manual Project 001

2010-03-14T00:55:00.000-08:00

I recently dug out my old Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual. Flipping through it reminded me of how much I used to sit with it in front of me, just looking at the illustrations. It's part of the reason I got into art. Anyway, it occurred to me that with all the great creature descriptions inside, I should try making my own illustrations. If nothing else, it'll be good practice and more stuff for the portfolio.

DISCLAIMER:

Dear Wizards of the Coast,

Please don't sue me.

Thanks,
~Z~

Aarakocra

The first creature in the Monstrous Manual, as it is alphabetized by the creature names, is the Aarakocra. Aarakocra are bird men that live in tribes in the mountains. They share large communal nests, and hunt with javelins using their thumbs on both hands and feet.

Sketchbook Update

2010-03-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

The Big One

2010-02-26T14:03:00.000-08:00

"Three Wishes"
24"x36"
Acryllic on Canvas
$500

Here's another piece left over from my show at The Hive. While I was making it, I was thinking a lot about how dreams and aspirations keep us going through all kinds of discouraging, disheartening, and somewhat maddening events. Our wishes are huge and powerful things in our own worlds. They can be the light at the end of the tunnel, a nagging voice in the back of your head that makes you feel terrible for not doing more, or they can be a playground to frolic and dance around in.

Just look at how many opportunities we give ourselves to wish, all the rituals and ceremonies that go along with wanting something specific to happen. Every birthday we blow out the candles, when I go through tunnels I hold my breath, and there are countless forms of shooting stars, dandelion seeds, wishbones; all of them are a kind of magic spell we use to try to make something happen, or at least to remind ourselves of why we're working so hard.

A wish is a powerful thing, deeply personal and often secret. Most importantly, given how often we must succumb to the circumstances of our existence, wishes are one of the few opportunities in life we have to define ourselves, and choose who we are.

Happily Ever After

2010-02-24T02:05:00.000-08:00

New work:

The Crane Who Caught the Moon
3"x5"
Acrylic on paper w/ cut paper

While working on this piece I was thinking a lot about happy fairytale endings. I was also looking at a lot of Yoshitaka Amano and Japanese woodblock prints. I really like framing the image with paper like this. It's something I'll definitely be doing again.

ArtOrder Challenge: Rust

2010-02-14T01:35:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned before, ArtOrder is a blog that holds regular art contests that are typically based around fantasy and science fiction. This piece is my submission to a challenge based on making a piece that conveys the concept of a quote from the Irish poet James Stephens: "A sword, a spade, and a thought should never be allowed to rust."

Small World

2010-02-10T14:58:00.000-08:00

This piece is one of the ones I sold during my show at The Hive. I really like how the tree turned out, and I want to do more with treehouses in the future. This is also the first time I've mixed pen and paint in a while, which I think I may incorporate into my next big project.

Shaking her Tail with a .22

2010-01-29T13:40:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-24T00:20:00.000-08:00

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!!

2010-01-22T02:27:00.000-08:00

Here is the finished painting for La Luz:

Deadline Deluge, WIPs, and Some Little Ones

2010-01-20T18:25:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-13T12:45:00.000-08:00

"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

2010-01-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-07T17:43:00.001-08:00

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!

Hey, where'd November go?

2009-12-04T03:15:00.000-08:00

I've been working diligently on stuff for the Hive, and don't want to ruin any surprises by showing it off here, but I don't like going so long without posting anything, so here are a few random things that have distracted me over the course of the last month:

Sneaks and Peeks

2009-10-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of previews for the He Man and Hive shows I'm working on. January is fast approaching...

Necrodancers

2009-10-19T23:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a preliminary sketch I did today for the He Man show. After watching a few episodes of the 2002 Toonami re-release of He Man, I decided to take my re-designs of the characters and costumes a lot further. I also wanted to play with the relationship between Skeletor and Evilyn, adding some of the sexuality often associated with black magic.

I HAVE THE POWER!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-10-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

I've been working on some preliminary sketches for the He-Man show coming up at Gallery 1988. I'm really excited to be working on this. He man was one of the first things to spark my interest in fantasy. I've been re-watching the old episodes whenever I can get my hands on them. They're awesome. Full of really weird design, cheap animation, and lots and lots and lots of cheese... delicious, corny cheese.

Sketchbook Update

2009-10-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

Traditions

2009-10-03T13:24:00.001-07:00

I really need to get someone to take better photos of these, but here are a couple of acrylic pieces I made. The pin up style painting, "Stinger", was made for The Hive's Beerotica show a few months back. The boy on the horse, "The Lost Boy" is for a show coming up in a couple of weeks at Liliya, a restaurant downtown. There will be a bunch of Otis faculty, alumni, and students participating. It should be a great show, and I recommend that anyone who can make it check out the work.

The Gentlemen

2009-09-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some drawings I did for a beat-em-up style video game called The Gentlemen.

2009-08-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here's another one-night-painting. This one was based on an experiment in which I messed around with a ton of layers with random things on them to get a color palette that I might otherwise have never used. It was fun, and a good exercise, but I think I prefer a more thoughtful process. Still, I'll be trying this experiment again in the future.

Nose Job

2009-07-31T12:59:00.001-07:00

I started this piece last night. It's based on a scene from Roman Polansky's Chinatown. Lately I've been thinking a lot about Noir. I've been reading The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, and I've been on the look out for good old Noir movies.

Most importantly, I want to start incorporating elements of Noir into my fantasy work. I've always loved dark fantasy, but it always looks like it has a heavy goth influence. Not that I have any problem with gothic influence, but a Noir influence could set my work apart. Plus, adding Noir elements to other genres has a lot of great potential, ie Blade Runner or Wanted.

Hopefully I'll be able to develop this idea before someone way more well known than me turns it into a movie or comic or something.

Drow vs Mind Flayer

2009-07-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a painting I did over the course of the last week. It is for a book cover art contest put on by the art director of Wizards of the Coast.

www.umbralust.com

2009-07-11T18:55:00.001-07:00

After many hours of programming, arranging, animating, and begging professional web designers for help, my official website is officially up and running.

check it out

Folklore

2009-05-30T11:56:00.001-07:00

I made this for the Western States Folklore Society's annual meeting this year. The idea was to combine elements of archaic stories with modern legends.

The Fall of Bacchus

2009-05-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

SO BUSY!

2009-05-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here are a few of my pictures from Sr. Show and Graduation. I wish the lighting on my pieces was better in these photos, but I'll re-shoot them when I get a chance to show what they really look like.

2009-05-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

Having trouble finding time the past few weeks. Been working on setting up my deviantART and illustration mundo pages. Still have to post stuff on conceptart. There are many, many sites to work on, now, but I figure working on them each a little at a time should still be feasable during this post-grad scramble.

I have a ton of pics from sr show and graduation, but they'll have to wait until another day.

Also, if you haven't already looked at her site, check out Jessica Dalva (a link to her blog is on my sidebar). She'll be in a four person show at La Luz de Jesus this August, and her work is the new hotness.

Sr Show WIPs

2009-04-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been spending all my time working on the pieces for my Senior Show. These are some of the works in progress.

Post with the Most

2009-04-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

I've been away for a while, but I haven't stopped working. A year makes a big difference.

Neverwhere and stuff

2008-04-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

I been workin'. Trying to juggle schoolwork, husslin' fo' an internship, and social living is getting complex.

Aviation Gypsy

2008-03-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

Before I go out and play for spring break I thought I'd hang around school and work on something random. Here it is.

Workin' on a Fo'tress

2008-03-05T10:04:00.000-08:00

Had some time to kill before class, so I worked on a landscape.

No More Blog Virginity

2008-03-04T22:03:00.001-08:00

Sweet! Look at me, I have a blogspot! I'm in Ken Choi's class right now. Here's what I've been working on: