Covering Up

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. Recently (as of May '12) the book was picked up by a publisher, and I've been asked to take down the artwork while the publisher considers what they want to do with the cover.

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.

And Now, Here's Some More Stuff

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:

Aliens vs. Superheroes

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.

I've Been Published!

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!

Into the Heart of the Machine

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.

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.

ArtOrder Challenge: Rust

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."

Drow vs Mind Flayer

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.