Sunday, November 15, 2009

Friday, November 13, 2009

Badass

I recently helped illustrate a funny little history book called "Badass", filled with vulgar language, but quite entertaining and educational. Written by the amazing Ben Thompson.

Here was the illo for Peter the Great, known for his hard drinking as well as his "badassness".

I illustrated this while at the height of my "ink splatter" brush fascination, so they were quite fun to do.

It's published by Harper Collins, so it should be available in most major retail book stores. It's also on Amazon.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Monday, September 14, 2009

Tiemens Workshop

We just spent the weekend in Mendocino at a watercolor/gouache workshop with Erik Tiemens. One of the best classes I've been to. It really took me outside my comfort zone with color, and I was inspired by learning the classic pre-photography approach of doing several sketches on location and bringing them back to the studio to do a finish from.

This piece was done by experimenting with mixing gouache and watercolor by toning the board with very intense colors: neon green, yellow, and bright red. Then painting washes of more somber, realistic colors on top. This allowed the bright color underneath to "sparkle" through in some areas creating color combinations and harmonies I'd never think of doing on my own.
We were encouraged to try different papers like this warm gray Canson paper:
This final piece I did was done from location studies and memory and a bit of invention. Erik put some magic touches at the end that really added drama and pulled the composition together. I learned a lot.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Friday, September 4, 2009

Z-Day 1878

It is a little known fact of history that William "Rawhide" Cody prevented Z-Day in 1878 with his swift action on undead cowboys who had been inadvertently buried in a cursed Indian burial ground.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Saturday Morning Wizards

If I made a Saturday morning cartoon about wizards it might look something like this.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Storyboardart.org

My friend Sergio, who is a kick-ass storyboard artist, started a new website that is about all things storyboard. http://www.storyboardart.org/

Check out the interview with Robert Valley, who draws like fishes swim, only better.

Layouts





There was a time I seriously considered entering animation layout as a career. This is a style I don't post often on this blog, but I do like to explore and have fun with. These were concepts done for a "side scroller" type game.

Half Orc Shaman

A Half Orc Shaman type guy. Looks like he's getting ready to rock da house on da mic.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Seer

A doodle of some old wizardly type dude.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Armored Elf

No one has ever drawn an elven archer before. Ever. This is the first.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Europe...the rest of the story

Some quick watercolor paintings I did in London and Rome a while back.
Trinity Square in London


View from the Spanish Steps, Rome

Roman ruins

Ferremanto plaza

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Friday, August 7, 2009

Phasing Arrow

An arrow that can phase through solid objects. This was for the new Adventurer's Vault 2 for 4th edition D&D coming out in a few days. Here is the article: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20090807

Notice the little hints of splatter brush? I love splatter brushes.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Knights & Castles frontispiece

For a book I did a while back. I like the simplicity of this composition.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

How the West was Lost




This one (in 3 parts) has a painful history. Maybe someday when the trauma has worn off I'll tell the tale.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Sword and Planet

Been reading Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars books. I'm so inspired! And so excited that Andrew Stanton is directing the movie.

This one is real pen & ink, not one of my digital fakeries.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Mouse Guard

Comic Con was a blast this year! This is the first time in years I've gone as a fan not as an artist hawking his wares at a table. I saw many great things, but one of my favorites was David Petersen's Mouse Guard.

I read through it on the plane ride back and it was so good I'm looking forward to more. If you like good stories and good art I highly recommend it.


Sunday, July 19, 2009

Flapper quick study

It's not often I use Painter, and even less often for quick studies. But I wanted to capture some thick buttery brush strokes in this sketch.

Castle

A quick little castle painting. Tried to focus on atmosphere and lighting.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Cursed Village

This was the original sketch, done while in some boring meeting.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Free Sword

All you have to do is pull it out of the stone.

Night version.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Daidoji Chitose

Samurai are always cool. This is one I did a while back for Legend of the 5 Rings.