Tuesday, November 1, 2011

The Tour

Here's the process behind my latest painting, "The Tour".

The initial sketch. To get the composition right I used Photoshop to help me with the layout.

Inked with with a crow quill pen (good ol' Hunt 102).

Painted with watercolor, highlights with colored pencil (mostly in the nebula which was a blast to paint). Archival prints are available of this image through Imagekind HERE or signed copies are available on my Etsy shop HERE


Thursday, October 20, 2011

October is the best

Everybody needs somebody. If a scarecrow was going to love anybody, it'd be a witch.


The Secret Admirer
 pencil and photoshop

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Roller Derby Fire and Water Process

Here's the process behind my most recent poster for the Rose City Rollers.

1) Initial sketches sent to their Art Director, these were done separately and then arranged in Photoshop. Babs gave the okay so I moved on to polished drawings.
2) I decided to do the drawings in charcoal in order to force myself to figure out how to paint over charcoal drawings in Photoshop (yes, I really really really wish I was James Jean in his Fables years). I used so called "white charcoal" for the first time to tone down some of the stark blackness of the charcoal. I usually do my figures for the Rose City Rollers separately because the art director likes to have the freedom to move things around for all their print formats (posters, ads, signs, etc.)

3) I figured out how to paint on charcoal in Photoshop! I'm not going to describe it because its involvedish (mostly using a lot of layer masks) and I'm not sure how many people would be interested in it anyway. Needless to say, it works!



Monday, September 12, 2011

"Clean" Cover Process

Here's my process for the cover to the short story "Clean" that I did with my good pal Justin Zimmerman. I used a technique that I saw on William Stout's website (he made that Dinosaur book in the 80's that every boy has, he also most likely worked on every fantasy film you like).

Initial rough penciled concept, getting all the pieces in place

Inked with a crow quill using a mix of black and sepia ink

Raw Umber under painting

First washes of color

Final painting, but since watercolor looks washed out when you scan it in...

...I did some digital color correcting in Photoshop.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Re-Charged

Well, I wish I knew this watercolor trick a few years ago! I could paint 100 pictures this way. If you're interested in the process, I followed William Stout's "Rackham" process that I found out through Justin Gerard on the AMAZING muddy colors blog. It might seem slight, but laying down a wash of colored ink over your watercolor really unifies the piece (in this case it really cooled down the orange of the kid's apollo spacesuit). I am hooked and I can't wait to try this on a more complicated piece.


Oh, and consider this the launch sketch of Jet Pack Jack's successor! Painting this spun off an entire story in my head. If you're interested in buying this astro-boy, you can do so HERE, if you'd like to buy a print you can do so HERE.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Dissapointment

Well, I had a rather disappointing art-week. In the old days this would cause me to go through my flat files and randomly burn a few paintings to make myself feel better (looking at you BFA project). However, being the mature adult that I am, I decided to doodle something for myself instead. It turns out that doing fun things for myself recharges my batteries far better than artistic arson!

Here's the sketch:
Here's some ink:
I'm going to use some NEW TECHNIQUES to paint the image, so this may or may not end in failure in the next few days, which is ok since I'll have learned something.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Troll Kid

Some character doodles for a children's book project I'm mulling over.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

New painting

The latest painting off the easel, this went on a two month baby induced hiatus, but I'm starting to get the hang of this stay at home artist dad thing.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Roller Derby!

I've been on a blog hiatus for awhile, but here's what I've been working on (besides being a new dad).


Saturday, March 12, 2011

12 Days (left) of Pyramid!! My last Saturday!!

Today is my last Saturday shift at my day job! This painting was created for my portfolio, and to use some brighter colors, and show my ability to paint pirates. If you're interested in buying a poster of this you can do so HERE

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Twelve Days (left) of Pyramid! Day 10

This painting is special because its when I got good at drawing kids (which is hard, really, they have weird proportions). Also, its pretty stinkin' cute. You can buy the $12 poster of this painting at my Cafe Press store by clicking HERE.

Octopus!, watercolor

Thursday, March 3, 2011

The Twelve Days (left) of Pyramid! Day 11

My lovely wife pointed out that I should be using my countdown to have a SALE!! So, I've launched a Cafe Press store where you can buy posters of any of the images featured in my countdown for $12.00. The posters are 11"x17" and are nice n' glossy. Apologies for the lame looking store, I'll spruce it up over the next couple of days.
My image for today is my Little Shop of Horrors inspired painting "Feed Me". This painting is special because I started using models other than myself and my wife! I hope to be able to use models more often in the future since it adds a realistic sheen to an otherwise fantastical image.


Feed Me, watercolor and acrylic

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The Twelve Days (left) of Pyramid! DAY 12

Well, today is a big day. Today is T-Minus 12 days left at my job. I'm quitting to be a stay at home artist dad (yes, my wife is probably more rad than your wife). Looking back at my time at Pyramid, I've decided to look at it more like Grad School, it gave me several years to get much, much better at being an artist, and I didn't even have to take out an obscene amount of Student Loans. For the most part, it was a job that just needed a warm body as a place holder, so I spent a lot of my time drawing and painting at my desk. So, long story short, I thought I'd do a count down of pieces that I created while sitting at my desk at Pyramid Brewing.
Bedtime, charcoal
This drawing was a game changer, this was my first real drawing in charcoal and it fostered a love of the medium that continues to this day. Also, it made me a fair chunk of change since I sold the original and all of the prints I made from it.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Monday, January 31, 2011

Ogre Serenade

Here is my latest painting, based on a story by Gina Bellisario (she was kind enough to give me permission to use her story to create some portfolio pieces).
Ogre Serenade
10" x 13"
Watercolor on Arches Hot Press

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Color Cover

I almost forgot to post to color version of the color, I already posted this in facebook, but blogger lets you have much bigger images.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Comic book cover

Here's the charcoal  drawing for The Robot Library, a comic book one shot coming soon. I'm painting it in Photoshop, so look for a color version later this week.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Roller Derby

Its that time of year again. A magical era where my sketchbook fills up with pretty girls on roller skates.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Other Worlds

Over the last month or so I've been drawing a short story  called "The Robot Library" for Justin Zimmerman. All I have left is the cover, which I think I just figured out about 10 minutes ago. You can view the Other Worlds Facebook page by clicking on this link

Here's one of my pages for the story. As you can see, I drew many...many books for this project.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

album artwork rough

Here's a rough sketch for the album artwork for John Craig & the Weekend's debut CD. I have another character to add, and some more high rise trees on the left, but I'm liking where this is going. It'll be painted in Photoshop when I have the drawing right, and its going to have some bright bright color in it.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Its a New Year and I'm Motivated

I've been neglecting my blog lately and been posting more heavily on Facebook. The main reason is I have a wider audience on FB, and I try to limit my online procrastination mode to one website at a time. That is about to change though. Jon Schindehette mentioned illustration new years resolutions on his fabulous blog Artorder, and the idea has stuck with me. There are a ton of them that I plan on working towards, one of which is more promotion, a painting a month, and attending at least one new convention.  Long story short, as part of promoting myself more I'm going to be a bit more rigorous on updating the blog.

Here's a sketch for a series of paintings I'm developing for my children's book portfolio.