Pow!

We recently had family photos taken. This one demonstrates what it is like to be a daddy.

sentinel

As so often happens when I experiment with Painter I end up taking the image into Photoshop to finish it. This is still pretty rough, I'd like to add some decoration and design to her dress, but I kind of like how her hair came out. Her left arm is freakishly long, I really need to work on proportions.

Tunnel to San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, Italy

Last year when we visited Rome our hotel was across the street from this archway, which led to the church that holds Michelangelo's Moses sculpture. Amazing.

For practice I did a quick digital sketch from a photo I took of it.

Dragon Heads

Dragons are so fun to draw!

Tome of Treasures

Some stuff for Wizards.

Lodestone of Direction:

Pech's Belt (gives the dude enough strength to push a big boulder I guess):

Stormbolt Spear:

Missile Attraction armor:

And some crystal ball that supposed to enthrall your victim I guess:

More and more lately I've been using acrylic paint as part of my illustration process, going back and forth because I like the texture of real paint, and the speed and flexibility of digital tools.

Digital Quick Sketch

20 minutes. Photoshop cs2.

Knights and Castles

About a year ago I illustrated a children's book for Innovative Kids called Knights and Castles. It finally hit the shelves of Barnes & Nobles this week.




It is an interesting hybrid: book, toys, game they call a "Groovy Tube". The book is connected to the box, with a game board, and a tube of toys attached.

Colors!

I'm way behind the curve here, but I finally got Colors for my DS. What a great program! It's like the ultimate paint sketching kit the size of a small sketchbook.

Here was my first rather abstract attempt. This was in front of the Oakland airport.

Looking out the window of the plane I sketched the fields of some mid-Western state.

This was done at my wife's Aunt's house backyard.

More to come later, I'm sure.

Gen Con 08 sketches

I recently attended Gen Con where I had an artist's table. The convention was great with lots of cool things to see. It was fun seeing all the artists whose work I enjoy. I generally don't do a ton of sketches when at cons, but this one I did quite a few.




Sorry for the quality of the photos, I shot them with my cellphone so they aren't very hi-rez.

One of the coolest thing that happened to me at the show was the esteemed Wayne Reynolds traded an original painting for one of my originals.

Travail

Some dudes on a long journey up. Who knows where they are going? I certainly don't.



Photoshop cs2, mostly done with that one default hard brush that changes size depending on pressure. Pretty much my favorite brush next to the basic round brush.

Wizard Duel

I love the wizard's duel scene in Disney's Sword and the Stone. This doesn't have anything to do with that.


Simulated pen & ink, in Photoshop cs2.

I like to scribble

The sketchier the better when trying to find ideas.

Anything so lovely as a tree

Our baby girl loves trees. So do I because they are easier to draw than people. Who cares how many limbs a tree has? But put an extra limb or two on a person...

This was a watercolor sketch done on location in Golden Gate park. I couldn't resist a little digital enhancement.

canyons

A digital quick sketch of some canyons. Nothing special, I was just trying some new techniques with masks and embedded layers.

And can someone please suggest some good music to get Katy Perry out of my head? Thanks.

Athena

Athena leading Greek hoplite warriors in battle. Pencil on cheapo copy paper.

Sprig of Moly

Circe turned Odysseus' men into pigs, he bargains with her while holding a sprig of moly to protect himself. What the heck is moly? This is a sepia prismacolor drawing on bristol.

Sera refined

I had posted an earlier version of this digital painting. The other night I was looking at it and thought it had potential, so I did some refining work on it. There are still some wonky things about the anatomy, she's got the shoulders of a football player, but there's also something about the feeling and mood I kind of like.

down but not out

I've been really under the weather for almost 3 weeks now. Just starting to feel a little better. It's hard enough to do art when you are feeling fine.

battle prowess

Trying to get the values under control before I apply color.

Too much commercial work

I've been posting too much of my commercial work here, so here is a sketch I did just because. I often doodle in photoshop using a hard brush to simulate pen & ink.

Shadowmoor

Wizards has previewed some of the card art I did for the Shadowmoor set.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/db31

And this crazy illustration for the card "Tower Above"
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/shadowmoor/spoiler

From the comments I've seen people are reading this as an enlarged goblin, but these are supposed to be spriggans. When enlarged their limbs and head remain original size - thus the weird proportions.

More Lorwyn: Boggart Mob

The Sketch, a pencil drawing done on plain copy paper:



Next I took the sketch into Photoshop to apply shading and turn into 2 variations:


After the art director chose a sketch (a combination of the best elements of the 2 sketches) I print it out on 13"x19" bristol board, tone it with acrylic matte medium and paint it in acrylics. After scanning it in I adjusted the levels a bit. The finish:


I recently put this illustration for sale on eBay: Boggart Mob

Nath's Buffoon

Sketch was done in pencil, then scanned in and values were blocked in with Photoshop


Finish was done in Photoshop

More Lorwyn

This illustration is from the Morningtide expansion.

Sketch for Notorious Throng:

And the finish, this time in acrylics on bristol paper:

Lorwyn

Here are some higher rez versions of the art I did for the Lorwyn Magic: the Gathering expansion. Also some sketches to show insight into my process for the illustrations.

Here are the sketches for Nectar Faerie. Jeremy, the art director, chose the 3rd one. And I painted the finish in photoshop.

Giants 2

Okay, actually 3 giants. The previous piece was so fun, I thought I'd do another.

Happy 80th Birthday Frazzetta!

Frazzetta was born on February 9th, 1928. So here is a little sketch to celebrate the grand master of fantasy illustration, and to honor the influence he has had on my work (and many, many, many other artists).

Now go look at some great art: www.frankfrazetta.com

Sera

gothish characters

I've been working on a little card game in my "free" time, and the illustrations are all pen & ink with a bit of a goth feel to them. Recently I uncovered some old high school drawings I thought were lost forever. I'd forgotten how much I loved doing pen & ink back then, and have been finding reason to do more ink work lately. Though I'm really rusty I'm having quite some fun!

Notorious Throng

Wizards of the Coast has previewed a card I illustrated for the Morning Tide expansion of Magic: the Gathering. This was painted 13" x 19" Acrylic on bristol. I think I punched up the glows a bit in photoshop, other then that it was all painted traditional.