Major Domo

Exploration

I've been trying to explore a little bit with color and shapes. I find that I'm generally far too conservative and mundane in my designs. I'm amazed by artists that pull of crazy outlandish ideas. By those standards these are still for staid, but I'm trying to be a little more creative.



Here are the scans from my sketchbook the paintings were based on:

Love my iMac

I have been a PC guy ever since buying my first IBM PS1 back in 1991. However I was recently compelled to buy an iMac 27" because of its' sheer awesomeness. I must say, I have not been disappointed. After a brief honeymoon period of about 2 months where I was getting comfortable with the OS, I can now confidently say this is my favorite computer I have ever owned. It runs like a dream, never crashes, and the 27 inch high resolution screen is gorgeous!

My only idiosyncrasy is that I was not a fan of the wafer thin wireless keyboard. I should have been, it is minimalist, well manufactured and designed, but I have a strange preference for thick "clicky" keyboards. So I replaced it with a daskeyboard.

Here is a little something I did for fun on the iMac in Photoshop CS4 (using a Wacom Intuos3 wide pen tablet):

WoW: Scourgewar

I guess the World of Warcraft Scourgewar set has been out for a while, so I suppose it's ok to post these now.

These took a few more revisions than normal. I've been scolded in the past for oversaturating so I have a tendency to paint muted, but the art director wanted the bottom one really colorful. It took a few iterations before I got it close to the right color range.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Hope you have a good one.

Badass...Liu Ji and Leonides

Badass...Justinian

Here is the illustration for Justinian from Badass.

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.

Quiescent

A little digital practice.

Gnome, Ogre, Elf

Sketches for an illustration.

As The Crow Flies

Ogre Head Study

Snow Ride

Barsoom Canyon

Dragon Heights

Never tire of drawing dragons.

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.

Woodland Friends

Or foes?

Trespassers will be shot

By a Warden of the Northern border.

Enchantrix

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.