About a month and a half ago I was informed that I am scheduled to be in issue 67 of Imagine FX, (however the specific issue is subject to change). Imagine FX is a fantasy digital art magazine based out of the UK. I am set to be featured in the FXpose section.
Some of the art you'll see will be pieces from my sci-fi/fantasy pin-up series as well as my Beowulf series.
This is the first time I will be in Imagine FX so I am extremely excited. The issue itself will be released in the UK on February 8th and then between 3 to 4 week later here in the states. It will be awhile before it's out but I will make sure to keep everyone informed between now and then. Make sure you go pick up a copy.
I am currently working on a Frank Fraztta tribute piece. It is my submission for a gallery that is putting together a full tribute exhibition. They already have uploaded some work in progress and finished work at there site here.
With this piece I wanted to get the essence of Frazetta's work, thus naked woman with big cats. At the same time I tried to pay special attention to the composition as well as the style of facial features.
I actually took a lot of influence from some Frazetta pieces that are not women with big cats. One such piece is Frazetta's snow giants. I used that as the basis for color as well as the environment. As well as his cover to Dark Crusade. I was greatly influenced by the symmetrical composition that is balanced on each side by cliff faces.
This piece while very much a pin up is not a part of my ongoing pin up series. That I will however be continuing very shortly so expect to see some new progress on those. I should have this finished soon so keep a look out for it.
So I have been meaning to give this update for awhile but I keep forgetting. Over the summer I was extremely fortunate to get work with Fantasy Flight Games. They had me illustrate for one of their trading card games. I just wanted to express how great of an experience it was. Zoe and Mike were great to work with, it was really a lot of fun. Hopefully I will work with them again soon.
The product I worked on should be released sometime in December so expect to see the art and everything around then. Be sure to keep a look out for it.
This is the final part in my Beowulf step by step series. The process for this one is the same as my previous pieces so first off I will re-quote myself; "I treat my digital work the same as I do a traditional painting. I start with a finished drawing then do a flat color wash as an underpainting. I also change the actual color of the linework as well, this I do in my traditional by tracing my drawing with colored pencils, or by printing out the drawing in a different color before mounting.
After that I roughly block in my colors and values, colorpicking from my original studies, it helps save lots of time.
Then I re-work and refine everything, make any appropriate changes until I finish. That is a very rough summation of my process but I figure it helps."
There are a few things that were unique to this piece. Mostly as you can see I had to pay particular attention to the edges of certain parts such as the wings of the crows. While I start off blocking them in roughly I then go in and create specific hard edges to them. Since in the end I do not want hard edges I go back in and repaint and soften them. This may seem like extra effort for no reason but I find that it helps me more specifically control my shapes.
So this is a run down of my process as always if you have any specific questions feel free to ask.
Man it has been a busy few weeks. Writing can really consume your time. I am sorry for the delay but here is part 2 of my step by step pieces.
My process here is pretty much the same as before, with some slight changes. Such as you can see between steps 6 and 7 I altered the colors from what I originally had. I used a colorize layer in Painter for this, I really really love the way it works. It allows me to change any color I want without altering the value. The only other significant difference that is seen is in the early steps where you can see I started off by planning out the highlight shapes. This helped me figure out how much contrast I would need in certain areas for focus.
Since the rest of the process is the same I will just quote myself for the rough explanation.
"I treat my digital work the same as I do a traditional painting. I start with a finished drawing then do a flat color wash as an underpainting. I also change the actual color of the linework as well, this I do in my traditional by tracing my drawing with colored pencils, or by printing out the drawing in a different color before mounting.
After that I roughly block in my colors and values, colorpicking from my original studies, it helps save lots of time.
Then I re-work and refine everything, make any appropriate changes until I finish. That is a very rough summation of my process but I figure it helps.
But if anyone has any questions about my process I will gladly answer them. I hope you find this informative."
I hope you enjoyed my process.
Hey.... I made a LinkedIn, so go check it out. If you happen to have one feel free to connect with me.
Yeah it is almost 4:30 in the morning and I am greeting you all at the end of a fun birthday. A few friends and I went to Olive Garden (unlimited soup, salad, and bread-sticks are VERY good) and then we hung out, watched House, and played cards all night. All in all it was a good day.
Since I am still up now I figured I would give an update on what you should expect in the next few weeks. I will have some more step by steps up soon of the rest of my Beowulf series, I should also have a finished drawing of a portrait I have been working on, as well as a very old drawing of a giant flying turtle done soon.
I hope you are looking forward to my new stuff and I hope you enjoy them. Well I am off to bed now to get some rest for a D&D packed day.
Also remember today the 21st of August is Worldwide D&D Game Day, so get a group friends together, a bag of dice, Mountain Dew, Cheetos, and get NERDY.
Hey everybody. I have recently made a Formspring account. So if you have any questions at all feel free to ask me. I love helping out and giving advice so please do not hesitate to ask anything you wish, just so long as it isn't inappropriate.
This is a step by step for the first piece in my Beowulf series. I had never posted a step by step before but thought some might be interested in my process.
I treat my digital work the same as I do a traditional painting. I start with a finished drawing then do a flat color wash as an underpainting. I also change the actual color of the linework as well, this I do in my traditional by tracing my drawing with colored pencils, or by printing out the drawing in a different color before mounting.
After that I roughly block in my colors and values, colorpicking from my original studies, it helps save lots of time.
Then I re-work and refine everything, make any appropriate changes until I finish. That is a very rough summation of my process but I figure it helps.
But if anyone has any questions about my process I will gladly answer them. I hope you find this informative.
I just entered my piece The End of a Legend for a chance to win prizes from Corel. Please if you would vote for my piece. All you have to do is sign in and then vote. You can also vote everyday so any help you can give would be extremely appreciated. You can vote for my piece here.