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

Troll Kid

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

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.

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.

Ogre Serenade

Here's a drawing that I can't wait to paint! This was inspired by a story by one of my agent's other clients, Gina Bellisario. I've never met Gina, she was just kind enough to let me use one of her stories to develop my portfolio.

I'm not sure about other artists, but I have what I like to call "project based self esteem". Being an artist is a tough road to plow in terms of making a living, and I really have to try hard to no be too hard on myself. What I have found is that if I'm working on something good (or at least something I'm excited about), those negative thoughts don't get a chance to enter my mind. I try to use this threat of negativity to spur myself into constantly working, hoping that I'll have a piece I can't put down, and no time to worry if I should have been a tax attorney instead of an artist.

some portfolio work...

Decided to make a piece where I turned the cuteness up to 11. This started as a portfolio piece to showcase some kid friendly pallet choices, but has now developed a full story to back it up (which always seems to happen).

The Tinker, line art

Through the magic of FB, I was able to get a bunch of random suggestions for objects for the Tinker's cart of adventure. Thanks for all the help!

The Tinker, rough pencil

Little over a month to the show! Oh, I got my table for the Alternative Press Expo for anybody that feels like being in San Francisco October 16th and 17th, I'm at 536.

Boots For Dinner, pencil render

This took much too long to do, but I'm pleased with it.

Boots for Dinner

Newest line art for the Jack show in November.

Jack Triumphant (rendered in pencil)

Here's the finished drawing, ready for color.

Every story needs a huge robot in it

Here's the latest drawing.

Jack's First Flight

Here's the latest Jack piece rendered in pencil. I can't wait to paint this one. I'm really getting to love drawing this character.

Jack and the Gramophone, Pencil Render

Here's the most recent piece rendered in good ol' fashioned pencil. I'll be painting these in Photoshop for the final versions of the image, but I won't show those until AFTER the art show at the Sequential Art Gallery on November 1st.

Jack's House, Pencil Render

Here's the line art rendered in pencil.

Jack's House, Line art

Here's the beginning of the next Jack illustration. I'll post the final colored versions once the show in November has wrapped...or at least until after the opening.

Rendered Jack

Graphite on Arches, 8" x 12"

Yesterday's drawing, now with shading. Now its time for some Photoshoped color.

summer is busy

It seems I have plans for every weekend this summer, so my production rate is slowing a bit. Here's a recent drawing I did as part of an application to the US Mint to be a coin designer.

 Also, I'll be teaching a workshop next month on Graphic Novels, which you can find out about HERE