Heroic Tier Ardent

Heroic Tier Ardent from Psionic Powers.

Awakened Visionary

Awakened Visionary from Psionic Powers. The concept was that she's striking the troll and then teleporting.

Unbound Nomad

An Unbound Nomad from the Psionic Powers book.

Storm Disciple

Another illustration for Psionic Powers. This is a Storm Disciple.

Psionic Powers

Released today was Psionic Powers for D&D which I did a few illustrations for. This one was called "Topaz Crusader". Done in Photoshop CS4. The sketch for this was much looser than I normally do for a client. I would prefer to always sketch this loose so I can do a little more invention on the finish. The tighter the sketch the more I find the finish to be like paint by numbers and a bit more tedious.
Here was the sketch:

This was the first sketch I did, which was rejected:

This was the art description:

This illustration depicts a female half-elf ardent, epic tier, in the Far Realm. The surrounding landscape should look warped and strange, with tentacles, horrific gaping mouths, unblinking eyes, and other horrific imagery.

The ardent wears PLATE ARMOR that looks to be made from bronze and almost dwarfs her body. She has a GREATSWORD in hand and a heavy HELMET on her head. The HELMET HAS ONE GAP and it’s over her FOREHEAD. Within, we see a TOPAZ GEMSTONE AFFIXED TO HER BROW. It glows with soft light. The ardent has a mix of ELVEN and EAST ASIAN FEATURES, with tan skin and black hair cascading over her shoulders.

Yeah, a chick in armor in a world of tentacles! Not an art description you get to work from everyday.

You can see in the rejected sketch I was confused how to show her face and a heavy helmet at the same time. Also I was following the direction for armor that dwarfs her body to the point it is hard to tell it's a she.

More Peaks

Peaks

Snowy Mountain

Monkey Knight

One of my daughter's monkey dolls (she loves monkeys!) and a stuffed horse my mom gave her. In our backyard chillin'. Just having fun with a little quick sketch. Been so long since I had a free moment to do any personal art.

Ozma

A couple of different concepts.

Colorful Falls

A little study for color practice. Done almost exclusively with the Dry Media brush set that comes with Photoshop.

Murderous Heads

Rough sketches for a long running project about murder most foul.

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.