Throwback Thursday: Storm Wraith

 Art I did for the Warlord CCG many years ago. Later I inked the original sketch, changed the background, and used that art for the Beasties book of monsters.

The original acrylic painting was 11"x17" I think. I traded it to another artist, one of my heroes Christopher Moeller, for one of his amazing acrylic paintings.

Here is a detail shot:

I inked the sketch later and made some improvements to the background:

Fimbulwinter

Lurking Goblin

Green Sky done

Green Sky

Sketch (marker and ink):

Acrylic Painting:

Not finished.

Retro

I tried to get a sort of retro 80's fantasy feel and I don't mean the kind with rainbows and unicorns. This is 10" x 14" acrylic on Arches hot pressed watercolor block.

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.

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

More Lorwyn

This illustration is from the Morningtide expansion.

Sketch for Notorious Throng:

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

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.

More Gathering Magic

A couple more Magic: the Gathering cards have been revealed by Wizards of the Coast. Kinsbaile Skirmisher and the ridiculously-fun-to-illustrate Boggart Mob. Did these in acrylics, it felt good to have real paint under the fingernails. :)

Hi-key still life

I was exploring a composition with white on white, and put a darker object in for an accent. This was done in acrylics, the original is about 12" x 16". I did this at a time that I began using masonite as a painting surface.

Acrylic Quick Studies

While I love oils, I work naturally in acrylics. The reason I take to acrylics is that it forces me to avoid some bad habits: over blending and noodling. These were done at a figure painting workshop, each of these is 20 minutes! I used techniques I learned from Craig Nelson's quick studies class. Craig is a great teacher, he has a way of teaching artists to overcome their fears and just going for it. His book and video on quick studies are good lessons for anyone interested in painting in oils or acrylics.

This was another acrylic quick study done on location in Sausalito.