Experienced

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

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

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

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

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: