Okay, first up, a private commission for a Forgotten Realms character.
Next, it is Ten Ton Studio Contest Time. I did win last week, so I decided to nominate this week's challenge as one of my personal fav artists: Mark Schultz and his Cadillac and Dinosaurs for the subject matter.
I've been busy putting together 3 Warlord cards for their anniversary set. Doing oil paints is very time consuming. But they are done and I can get back to the large pile of commissions waiting for me.
A bit of a change of pace from the usual elves, wizards and superheroes... This is Dorothy (from Oz), but the client requested that she was older and that she have silver boots from the books...not ruby from the movies.
I think this is an un-typical fantasy duo. The patron had really neat visual ideas, even down to the poses. It is the first time she has commissioned anything from me... but I was impressed by these two's descriptions.
I am in the process of working on interiors for John Wick's (7th Sea, Legend of the 5 Rings game designer) House of the Blooded. Which I also had the opportunity to be part of the playtest of the rules and setting. It is a great game.
Playing a game you are to illustrate, makes it a ton of fun. Working with someone like John, is even more fun on top of it. I'm to do 13 illustrations for each of the 13 chapters. Because we did NOT want to show DIRECTLY what the ven look like (the culture that HotB is about), we are doing it as a series of archaeologist sketches and notes. Show indirectly through a cameo and a wall painting, what the ven are... and hopefully, leaving a lot to the imagination of each table that plays the game.
Coming up with the notes is a hoot. Because we can be so academic... and because we are purposively jumping to wrong conclusions.. which you can discover when you play the game.
John has given me permission to post some of my art as I go along on this assignment. So I'm sharing a bit of current passion. I hope it intrigues... and oh yeah, one more note... the runes are an alphabet I made up. The key will be in the book.
Here is an interdimensional superhero (or villain!) who can reform himself into thin shards, throw them around, teleport by forming in a new place. nasty.
And 2 versions of the War of the World tripods, one classic old skool... the other, a bit more modern (and perhaps a bit of anime influences seeping into my subconscious now that I think about it.)
I got a chance to work on Mutants and Masterminds supplement, Books of Magic, which was a ton of fun for me, as I'm a big Doc Strange fan. Got to work on my inner Ditko!
I always forget to post my published work, because it takes months for the work to come free of NDAs. By the time it happens, I've moved onto other things. But I got a nice email from someone who had bought the book and liked my work in it.
So here is a sampling of what I did for Books of Magic. Just to plug one of fav clients....Here is a link to the actual product over at Green Ronin: http://greenronin.com/store/grr2518/
I always love the composition, viewpoints and poses in your images, mate. Lovely work.
Crow
gracias
I like to keep trying new techniques (for me, they are probably from centuries to decades old). And sometimes it is a good thing to play around before trying it on a job. Ten Ton Studios weekly challenge is a good way to play.
I have done watercolor and I have done brush inking before, but I've only tried combining it a couple of times, about 12 years ago. Doing watercolor over black india ink results in a thin discoloration over the black line I do not like. This time I inked it AFTER the watercolor was put down.
I wanted to see if it would work for the "right vibe" for an upcoming job. It doesn't. But it is still a fun thing to try and it might work for some other kind of job down the line.
This weekly's challenge is Witchblade. Here is the link to the sketch challenge so y'all can see (and vote for your fave) the plethora of scantily clad, phallic wielding, warrior women. Voting begins and ends tomorrow (Thursday).
First up, let me lay another Ten Ton Studio weekly challenge on y'all. The challenge is "What Would Hellboy Do on Summer Vacation?". Here is my answer... or rather, this is what I do in the summer a lot and I have even been teaching a wee bit.
Here is the link to Ten Ton, so y'all can see what my fellow wacky artists have come up with...
Voting starts tomorrow. gotta join the forum to vote.
Next, last night I got the chance to get in on a 4th ed D&D game. Or the prelim discussion, as the books have been ordered by several of us. Hopefully, we can start next week.
My character is going to be from a kinda gypsy faction of the Eladrin, but the GM, B., wanted to kick it up to 11 on the weird, fantastic, mystical scale. So instead of wagons and ponies, after a bit of discussion, my "tribe's caravans" actually teleport around, courtesy of the Master or Mistress of Tents. A powerful otherworldly fey entity that supports 6 or 7 of these caravans.
Unfortunately, my PC's call to action is the utter wiping out of his family, caravan and Master of Tents. But while we were b.s.ing our way through this all, I quickly sketched the Master of Tents.
First up is Judd's PC, Elias Corvus... a Paladin of the RavenQueen. Judd was pretty evocative with his description. I had a pretty good sense of where to go with his pic.
Next is A.'s PC, Exile. A once masked, mute tribal warrior (but is actually a rogue), he has found language and struck out into the wide, dangerous world. He is ritually scarred. The climate we are in, is near Exile's jungle... so I supposed a serengeti, african analog, as we are outside of the jungle, in rolling hills, grasslands etc. This climate influenced both Exile and my PC's pics... with Corvus sweating in all that heavy, black plate.
Last one is my PC... Methamere Dray. I wanted him to influenced by the climate, hence the bare legs... He looks like a rogue, but he is really a wizard. Being an Eladrin, longsword is a proficiency weapon. Doesn't look much like a mage and I'm cool with that. Originally, last night, I drew him with long black hair... but I decided this morning to erase that and show him with shorn, short black hair. I think this is a sign of morning amond the Eladrin, after all, his entire family and the extended caravan that Meth grew up with has been wiped out. I like the short hair.
I dunno why, but the face and Dray's calves look a bit like John Byrne's work. Just one of those odd influences that can sneak into one's work, especially when doodling away.
If you are interested in the campaign at all, check out this thread on En World.
And I got into ANOTHER 4th ed D&D game. This time, smaller group, again with Judd. These characters really came together in a cool way during character creation. Judd and I were coming into an existing game, so we decided to tie our PCs together in the backstory.
And then I was simply "on" while doodling that night at the table. Might have something to do with the cardstock that I had JUST bought that day from OfficeMax...that I prefer drawing on. The way the pencil makes its marks and the ease of the stroke.... I just really like that surface to do pencil on.
So without too much more blah-de-blah blah... here are the pics.
First up, Bok, an Eladrin mage, who is awfully "bishi" and gets rather upset when we call him, her. Which has happened several times. When I heard the concept, I was mentally..."wow, that is going to be tough to pull off....that adrogyny."... but I think I nailed it.
Then, we are going alphabetical, is my PC, Kendrick Dell. His 4 brothers are cops (city watchmen/guard), his father and uncle are cops. His 3 sisters married cops... and Kendrick WAS a cop. He loved being a cop. But, a stoopid noble got all drunk and pissy and came at Kendrick with a sword... even drunk, the damn noble was good, and Kendrick was forced to kill him in self defense. Problem. Noble family not happy. Kendrick is on the run, an outlaw and a criminal. Kendric is a fighter class.
Melech the Red's family also has a long tradtion.... of being assassins. Once for the Duke. Now, the family has fallen on hard times, and are knives for hire in "the City". Melech decided that his family was too far gone and made a run for it. Running into Kendric (they knew of each other prior) on the run from the law, the two teamed up to get outta Dodge and into a life of adventure.
Petal is a cleric of Bahamut, like her mother. C., the player, told me that she likes to pick flowers and bonk evil on the head. Petal is pretty damn cool. She weaves flowers for each good deed that she does, hopefully looking to weave each Point of Light into a flexible fabric of Light. Making something lizard-y look feminine...not easy, but I think this came off well.
With 4th ed D&D coming out, it seems like lots of folks want commissions along those lines. Here is something a bit different, a prop. A mystical sword that has been shattered into 5 parts and must be reforged as part of one group's quest.
And this LOOKS like a fantasy character, but is actually a trans-dimensional superhero character. I think it could work for a fantasy game too. Does 4th ed have rules to do other races besides its core? Cat people just seem to go with fantasy.
Here is some more oddness from Death Tribble, Frank-einstien. boy, I love these strange requests I get sometimes. This was fun.
A more traditional villain from Death Tribble, Snowstorm
And this sketch was done last night while playing 4th ed... the Beetle Matrons are tough, undead squad leaders we've fought a few times over the last few sessions. My GM, B., made these guys up as a test of how quickly a monster could be made on the fly during a session. Pretty fast, it turns out, and very, very cool mechanically to fight.
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
