Ink splats

I've been playing around with creating ink splats to make Photoshop brushes a lot lately. I must have made a dozen pages worth of these:


This quick sketch was painted in Photoshop entirely using ink splat brushes:

Deva

One of the coolest things in the Player's Handbook 2 is the new character race: the deva. I was fortunate to do an illustration of one.

PHB2 - Wild Elf

The Player's Handbook 2 was recently released, which I did a few illustrations for. This one called for a Wild Elf. My first version (the bottom one) wasn't quite "wild" enough, so I added some tattoos and animal pelts - because everyone knows that makes you wilder.

Brigand

When I was recently making a portfolio, I dug up this old image. I fixed a few things (his head was too big - proportions have always been hard for me) and thought it'd make a good blog post.

Solemn

A quick digital sketch. I've really gotten into using splatter brushes lately.

Digital Doodle

Barbarian Raging

Peanut Brittle Tastes Good

Sees Candies makes my favorite peanut brittle. I was eating some while sketching this.

Flames of Battle

I was going through some old folders and stumbled across this illustration I did a while back. After not seeing it for so long I saw some potential and adjusted the levels and changed the background.

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.