littlejohn's fantasy art (Updated 6/12/03)

[Piratecat]

Personally, I imagine I'd much prefer the pictures you do out of your imagination. I'll bet that there's a noticeable difference between your portraits and your interpretation of what you conceptualize inside of your head; with your style, the former just wouldn't seem to fit as well.

That being said, I really like most of the self-portraits on your web site.

 

[Sialia]

One of the things I love about your art is that it is not photographic. There is a quality you capture that goes beyond what is in a static image of the visible world. Gets at the impression, the feel, the metaphor, the subtext of things.

 

[Knightfall]

Great work as always!

Just thought I'd chime in again, littlejohn, to tell you how much I really like your art. It's really different from what I 'normally' get addicted to but your interpretations of the Defenders of Daybreak keep me coming back.

I love how there are artists out there willing to create character art for gamers. You do it for Piratecat and the Defenders while guys like Kip the Bold, Stone Angel, and now astralpwka are open to anyone for character work.

Heck, I even got Kip to do a couple of my Story Hour characters in black & white and he's going to do a version of one of my gods. I have posted another one for him to do but he's a little overworked right now.

I've also posted character ideas in Stone Angel and astralpwka's threads. Astralpwka says he can have my character don for me sometime today. I love EN World!

I guess where I going with this is are you only going to do character interpretations for the Defenders or can I post a character description here and have a chance it might get done? Or should I jut forget it?

Cheers!

 

[Piratecat]

Knightfall, I know I've been pretty careful not to presume that littlejohn will draw anything for my game. I don't want to ever think that the guy is doing portraits-for-hire unless I'm paying him, so I've been assuming that he goes where his muse takes him. whether that's my game or someplace entirely different, the result is still glorious to see.

I might suggest that if anyone gives David requests or commissions, they do so over email unless he announces that he'd rather have them in this thread. That will help the keep thread focused more on art.

Thanks!

 

[(contact)]

I'm glad to see people appreciating the line for line, color for color and shape for shape in littlejohn's work. That's formalism-- an approach near and dear to my little, cold, coal-black heart, and littlejohn's strengths are his markmaking, composition and palate.

The subject matter, like in all painting, is merely a starting point-- unimportant to the point of being irrelevant.

(Ducks thrown dice from PC, Kid C and Sialia)

 

[(contact)]

One of the things I love about your art is that it is not photographic. There is a quality you capture that goes beyond what is in a static image of the visible world. Gets at the impression, the feel, the metaphor, the subtext of things.

But it's just as real (or even more real) than a photographic image would be, in the sense that it communicates more than just the physical appearance. For photos to convey subtext/ephemeral qualities the photographer has to contrive to create the same conditions that a naturalist painter can place at will.

Most photorealism is so fixated on accuracy and fidelity that the images become kind of static, anyway. They are interesting because of the excruciating craft, or the fact that the portrait is twelve-times life size.

 

[TheLoneGoldfish]

I just wanted to chime in and say how much I love your illustrations... Still wating for a tutorial though....

 

[littlejohn]

Dang. I love the responses; but it makes me look bad to have so much text on this page and so few paintings. These days I've been doing a few self-portraits, life drawing, taking a portraiture class and a bunch of networking to see if I can get some more work. Whew! It's super-competitive out there.

In case you're wondering what I look like to myself in a mirror:

I thought a while back about doing commissioned character portraits. This cool artist Socar Myles painted pictures of people's pets for a while. If I could make a living painting character portraits, that would be great. As it is, I think I need to broaden and polish my portfolio before I could make money painting much of anything.

By the way, I think what Kip the Bold is doing is awesome. But a talented artist like Kip offering free portraits on this board is pretty much asking for sleep deprivation. I already have pangs of regret getting people's expectations up about defender's portraits or other story hour illustrations. There are so few hours in the day; and I don't even have a full-time job right now.

(contact): As for subject matter; and I can't emphasize this enough: if it weren't for Piratecat, the defenders' players and other folks on this board and a couple of others, I wouldn't be painting, period. I owe all of my productivity to them. In my cold, coal-black heart I know my true strength is procrastination.

 

[RangerWickett]

Dave, just wondering, no reason. *cough* But if someone offered, would you be interested in an illustrating job offer? Like say for a D20 company. In about a month and a half?

 

[Knightfall]

I thought a while back about doing commissioned character portraits. This cool artist Socar Myles painted pictures of people's pets for a while. If I could make a living painting character portraits, that would be great. As it is, I think I need to broaden and polish my portfolio before I could make money painting much of anything.

I've seen Socar Myles work on Epilogue.Net. Amazing stuff by an amazing artist. Do you have an Epilogue gallery?

By the way, I think what Kip the Bold is doing is awesome. But a talented artist like Kip offering free portraits on this board is pretty much asking for sleep deprivation. I already have pangs of regret getting people's expectations up about defender's portraits or other story hour illustrations. There are so few hours in the day; and I don't even have a full-time job right now.

I agree, Kip's the man but sometimes I worry that doing so many free portraits is going to exhaust him. But he's taking a nice break right now, which will keep him sane. I hope!

As for the Defenders portraits, I'm more of a lurker on this thread then Piratecat's story hour thread. I'll come look at them whenever you post a new one but I don't live for it.

And you shouldn't feel ANY pangs of regret. As authors, we are honored to have any artist bring our favorite characters to life visually in pencil, pen, digital, canvas, or heck even tomato paste - heh. I'm sure Piratecat feels honored and a little in awe. Here you've gone and brought the Defenders to life visually and he didn't even have to ask you to do it. And he wouldn't dream of imposing on you. P'Cat's that way, I know that and I haven't even met him.

Anyway, just wanted to make myself clear on the matter.

Cheers!