Art and Ramblings

HitRecord at the Sundance Film Festival

2012-01-31T15:04:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, my girlfriend and I discovered a little community called HitRecord, an "online collaborative production company" run by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (of "3rd Rock from the Sun", "(500)Days of Summer", and "Inception" fame). Of course, by "little" I mean "big"; like 80,000+ members big. The site is a place where filmmakers, musicians, artists, writers, animators, etc. can come together and create by uploading content for everyone to use and "remix" as the site calls it. Basically, it's a lot of artists sharing their work freely with each other.

Wanting to practice some character designing, I responded to a callout to illustrators for character art to be used in an animated short by the Gregory Brothers that addresses police issues and free speech. They needed an angelic Ben Franklin, a kid with a camera, and a police officer, all in a style similar to those old Schoolhouse Rocks cartoons. I figured "what the hell, might as well."

The short was completed from start to finish in less than a week and headed off to the Sundance Film Festival. And wouldn't you know it - there's a couple of my designs in there! They may be in the background. They may only be on screen for a fraction of a second. But they're there. And that's kinda cool to me. Check out the video below to see the whole HitRecord presentation at the Sundance Film Festival. The short I contributed to begins at around the 18:25 mark. See if you can catch my characters haha!

Watch live streaming video from sundancefest at livestream.com

L5R Emperor Edition "Sake House"

2012-01-26T12:21:00.000-08:00

AEG just put out a preview of a couple cards for the upcoming Emperor Edition of L5R. This piece was one of them, so now I can show it off!

Xenogears - Elly Prints!

2012-01-20T07:16:00.000-08:00

For all you Xenogears fans out there (I know, there's only like 100 of us) I'm pleased to announce that pre-orders are now being accepted for high quality prints of my Elly painting! Click on over to my online storefront for more details on how you can get your hands on one of these very limited items!

And I'm also happy to say that my next Xenogears painting is coming along smoothly and, my schedule allowing, will hopefully be finished very soon!

Have a great weekend everyone. :)

Khazad-Dum

2012-01-11T07:13:00.000-08:00

The Khazad-Dum expansion for Fantasy Flight Games' "Lord of the Rings" card game has just released, so I can show off a couple cards I illustrated for it. Hope everyone's holiday went well!

"Dangerous Pitfall"

"Black Uruks"

Check out the game at FFG's website here!

Lightsabers as Light Sources

2011-12-26T19:30:00.000-08:00

Fair warning to all: This is going toget really nerdy REALLY QUICKLY.

I've been researching a lot of StarWars art lately and an interesting question came to mind: from anartistic standpoint, should lightsabers be considered lightsources?

You mightautomatically think, as I did, “Well of course they should! Lightsabers are made of light, and therefore that light should radiateoutward and affect the surrounding environment. DUH!” However,after years of watching all the movies and looking through mounds ofartwork, I think the answer begins to get a little less obvious.

If you watch anyof the Star Wars films, you should notice that in most cases thelightsabers DO NOT emit any sort of light onto surrounding objects.The reason for this is that the lightsaber effect from the movies iscreated by means of rotoscoping over the prop lightsaber rods usedduring filming – which emit no actual light.

Notice the lack of any red or green ambient light on the actors despite how dark the setting is.

In fact, there areonly a few instances in the entire series where a lightsaber actuallycasts any real light onto its wielder:

In Episode II,when Anakin and Dooku get their close-ups in the dark...

...And in Episodes II andIII, when Yoda wields a lightsaber.

(Notice that digital Yoda is theONLY character that is ever consistently affected by the light of hisweapon.)

SO, taking theseexamples into account as an artist, how should a lightsaber bedepicted in a painted work? Should it be a lightsource or not? Take a look atsome of these examples of Star Wars art. Which of them seems the most“realistically Star Wars” to you?

Personally, Iprefer the work where the lightsaber light does not interact with itssurroundings. It doesn't make logical sense, but as a Star Wars fanI've become so subconsciously used to seeing it that way in themovies that the other way just looks wrong to me. Even in theprequels, I think digital Yoda might have actually blended betterwith the actors if they hadn'tmade his lightsaber a light source.

But whatdo you think?

Images used are ©Lucasfilm and their respective owners.

Dibs

2011-12-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

Who's excited about the trailer for The Hobbit premiering tonight?!?

Some Holiday Fun

2011-12-16T09:43:00.000-08:00

I just mailed out some art to a client today and couldn't resist doodling on the envelope. There was just SO much unused space there waiting, no begging, to be violated by my sharpie. Luckily the postman was kind enough to avoid covering too much of the doodle with all the insurance and tracking stickers. Anyone who watched Mark Kistler's "Imagination Station" on PBS as a kid in the 90s might recognize the "sleeping feet" motif I ripped off hahaha. I loved that show as a kid....

Lord of the Rings LCG - The Hunt For Gollum

2011-12-12T14:47:00.000-08:00

Gwaihir - King of the Eagles

The Eagles Are Coming!

Giant Marsh Worm

It's been a little over a year, but the NDA on my very first set of Lord of the Rings cards for Fantasy Flight Games has finally lifted! It always seems weird posting work that's just been sitting in my file for a year haha. With most of my work revolving around the human figure, these were a really fun opportunity to paint creatures and animals that I hadn't really tried much of up until that point.

All images © Fantasy Flight Games

Nightfall: Blood Country

2011-11-30T10:32:00.001-08:00

A new expansion for AEG's "Nightfall" card game was just recently released featuring a couple cards I did for it. I know Halloween is already well past us, so monsters and vampires probably are a little bit late for the season, but I figured I'd share these anyway. Seeing as these were done almost a year ago, it's hard for me not to look at them and immediately see everything that's wrong with them, but I still like them and had a lot of fun with the concepts.

All images ©Alderac Entertainment Group

Warmup

2011-11-28T10:51:00.001-08:00

Just an hour speedie done based on an old photo I took at an Indiana lake years ago. Trying to figure out how to get a LOT more texture into my strokes with Painter. I'll have to do some more experimenting, but I'm fairly happy with this one.

Figure Friday 003 = Fail

2011-11-18T08:12:00.001-08:00

Wanted to experiment with some graphite sticks I bought oh so long ago and never use. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to practice with them a lot more to get the hang of it because I'm not very happy with how this drawing came out today. Maybe I'm just trying to push the medium too much to do things it just isn't meant for. But oh well - always learning!

Reference photo credit to Marcus J. Ranum.

Final Issue of KULT Released

2011-11-17T08:54:00.001-08:00

A few days ago, I received my comp copies from Dark Horse for the final issue of KULT which is now out on comic stands. It's fun to have all four issues together at last and I wanted to share some process images I managed to dig out of the hard drive.

I try to keep my digital working process as close to my traditional process as possible. There are a lot of digital painters out there that basically combine their sketching and painting stages into one jumbled process, but, while I do that on rare occasion, I'm much more comfortable starting at a drafting table in a sketchbook. My art directors wanted a sort of homage to one of Frank Frazetta's Conan covers, without being too obviously derivative. It made the sketching stage both easier and more difficult at the same time.

One real advantage to doing digital color comps (something I need to get more in the habit of doing) is that once you've got something down that you're satisfied with, you can just color pick directly from the comp image. As you can see, there is very little difference between the colors in the comp and the final piece.

The final pencil drawing is done on Fanboy standard comic art boards. I really hate the product name, but they're awesome for doing any kind of comic work because the sheets are already sized and marked off for bleed and trim, etc. I didn't use any specific photo reference for this piece. It's basically a mish-mash of a bunch of different sources...and it probably shows, haha. But, after this gets the okay, I scan it in sections, piece it together in Photoshop, and get rolling on the final painting in Painter X!

And for anyone interested, I've got 10 limited edition high-quality prints of this cover for sale at my web store! They're 12"x17" (the largest existing versions of this image!) and printed on archival-quality, museum-grade rag. Click the link above, or go to www.murr-art.com/storefront for ordering details!

Figure Friday 002 - Veterans Day

2011-11-11T11:31:00.001-08:00

Happy Veterans/Armistice Day! In honor of the day, I decided to dedicate this Figure Friday to practicing a man in uniform. This 1.5 hour sketch was done from a photo of a Japanese-American soldier from around WWII. I really liked the lighting and the complex fold patterns in his shirt. Whether black, white, home-grown, imported, gay, straight, male, female, human, or non-human, thanks to all those who have helped protect the people of the U.S. with their military service!

Figure Friday!

2011-11-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

It's Friday! And to celebrate the closing of another work week, I've decided to try and make every Friday a "Figure Friday". Sometimes it's hard to find the time to just sit and do some artistic studying, but it's really something I need to do more of. Thankfully I came across a website called artsyposes. It's a pretty simple site, but has some handy offerings such as video tutorials, demos, and a nifty timed drawing feature for practicing gesture drawings. Check it out!

---artsyposes.com
---reference photo credit to Marcus J. Ranum

Mid-Ohio Con

2011-10-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Krysti and I spent a good fourteen hours manning my table at the Wizard World Mid-Ohio Comic Convention. It was my very first experience showing work at a convention, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. But it was a lot of fun, and we met a lot of talented people from around the midwest and elsewhere - not to mention people from galaxies far, far away and beyond haha. There were tons of great costumes being donned by people of all ages. It's a bit of a smaller convention, so it wasn't quite as lucrative as I had originally hoped, but maybe next time I'll have more offerings of Batman and Wolverine or something. Everything's a learning experience, and the networking opportunities and people watching are worth it anyway. A big thanks to the people at Wizard World for inviting me to participate this year. I'll definitely look to be attending again next year!

My table. Thanks to Krysti for helping me set everything up!

One of my favorite duos of the con - Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer!

I have a bad feeling about this...

Speaking of Krysti, if you like playful designs that go with a shabby-chic decor, check out her new Society6 page! There's funk-ton of cool ways you can enjoy some of her designs, from prints to phone covers, to laptop covers, oh my!! Very cool stuff.

The Shop is Now Open!

2011-10-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce that I have opened a new storefront page on my website at www.murr-art.com! So far, I've got an assortment of signed and numbered, limited edition, museum-quality prints for sale - including the first of my Xenogears paintings, "Fei"! More merchandise and artwork will be added to the roster as I get it photographed and set up. Seeing as I am NOT a professional website builder, if you find anything funky or screwed up with the pages please, please, please, let me know at jake@murr-art.com.

I'll have some photos and such to show from Mid-Ohio Con next post!

XENOGEARS #2

2011-10-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

After a stupid amount of pondering, noodling, and changing things mid-painting, I'm pleased to reveal the second of my Xenogears series of paintings. And who else could it be but Elly? I really wanted this painting to be a stark contrast to the first one - hence the much lighter colors and airier quality. While there's sooo much back story and depth to pull from with both Elly and Fei, the focus of these first two pieces is really on their initial struggles in the game. With this painting I wanted to reflect Elly's internal conflict between her role as an officer for an oppressive military government and the compassion to do what is right. She comes from a land in the sky, but ultimately forsakes her home - hence why she's looking downward (towards the land). Hope you guys like it!

You can see the first painting in the series here.

And stick around for some exciting stuff tonight!

Talk About Endurance!

2011-10-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

Here's something a little out of the ordinary for me. An editorial illustration! Yesterday, as I bowed before the Stumbleupon gods, the story of Fauja Singh suddenly appeared. If you're like me and don't follow the news very much, then you may not have heard that this 100 year old Indian man from Great Britain just finished the Toronto Waterfront Marathon a few days ago - making him the oldest person to ever run a marathon. I can barely run two miles without croaking and this guy is running marathons. Now that's inspiring. So inspiring that I figured I would whip up a painting to commemorate this man's extraordinary achievement! The official story can be found here.

Morning Sketch

2011-10-18T06:19:00.000-07:00

For the first time in a loooonng time, I woke up this morning....and felt great! So great that I decided the view outside my bathroom window needed some commemoration. I'm really trying to get better at limiting my palette range to get more convincing lighting effects. Unfortunately, there wasn't any way I could have painted the scene at the time that I saw it, so I just had to study it and sketch from memory as best I could. It came out okay I think!

Things are Stirring.......

2011-10-03T14:41:00.000-07:00

Mid-Ohio Con is nearly upon us and I am SOOOO close to being ready. I've been gathering my minions (business cards, banners, prints, etc.) from all corners of the U.S. in preparation for making my first foray into the convention world an enjoyable (and hopefully successful) one! More exciting news to come!

But to prevent this post from being a total teaser, John Struan, creator of the "Super Punch Blog", asked me to contribute a piece of art to his "American Gods Art Jam" which just went up today. American Gods is a novel by famed author Neil Gaiman set in a world where mythological beings and gods exist purely because people believe in them. In the book, the Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis, takes the form of a modern day funeral director. Though I have not read the book, I really liked that idea, and decided to base my entry on that. Check out all the other interesting artwork inspired by this book over at SUPER PUNCH BLOG! Many thanks to John for the opportunity to join in on the fun.

[Artwork] Legend of the Five Rings: Second City

2011-09-13T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's been far too long since my last post. Things have been a bit slow in the "work I'm allowed to show" department. But I finally received permission to show some card artwork I did earlier in the year for AEG's Legend of the Five Rings CCG. These are always fun to do because they let me get back in touch with my love of samurai and feudal Japan!

On another note, issue #2 of Dark Horse Comics' "KULT" series is now on sale, so go pick a copy up at your local comic store or online!

[Nifty Things] Kult #1 Released!

2011-08-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

Something exciting came for me in the mail yesterday. About two weeks ago, the first issue of KULT by Dark Horse Comics was released, and I just received my print copies from them! I'm really happy with the way it printed, but it's still hard to look at my own work on a piece of published material. It's like, everything else feels official and then, oh, my artwork is in there, too. I'm sure I'll probably never be able to look at my printed work and feel the same as I do about the work of other artists, but it's still pretty nifty in any case! If demons and action are your thing, go pick up a copy at www.darkhorse.com or at your local comics retailer!

[Artwork] Hysteria

2011-08-12T13:01:00.000-07:00

Another image I did for AEG's "Nightfall: Martial Law" deck building game.

[Artwork] Friday Special - XENOGEARS!!

2011-08-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

I can't really remember the last time I did some good old fashioned fan art. Somewhere (pronounced "art school") it was driven into my head that creating fan art was just not creative or artistic, so I stopped drawing the things that I enjoy from other artists/media, etc. I can see where it would become a problem if that's ALL you do, but where's the harm in just doing some fun artwork that makes you happy and feeds your other obsessions?

That being said, I've been replaying Xenogears for the PSX and really loving it. Haven't done any painted book covers for a very long time, so I wanted to do some fan art that could double as a book cover project. I've got sketches in the works to make this the first of three in a series, so I guess it will depend on how much time I have whether that actually happens or not. There are just sooooo many themes rolling around in the Xenogears plot that it's hard to choose which ones to focus on for covers!

This first cover deals with the main character, Fei, and his struggle to accept a destructive power that resides within. This power is seemingly brought out (and symbolized) by the giant mech, or "gear," named Weltall that he happens upon. As a result, Fei is often faced with the choice between helping the people he cares for, or avoiding the power that lays hidden in him that could destroy everything.

20 x 30 oil on Strathmore illustration board

[Artwork] Sketchbookarie

2011-08-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

Remember back when I was posting every Tuesday and Thursday for like 3 weeks? Yeah, that's gone out the window. Things have slowed down a tad these past couple of weeks and I've been finding myself with more time to pursue sketch outings and personal paintings. Figured I'd share a couple more recent spreads from the ol' sketchbook. I've been working more in pencil lately and really enjoying it.

Oddly enough, I feel like working for so long in ballpoint pen has actually improved how I work with pencil. My marks don't feel as timid, and my overall tonal arrangement is more thought-out. One thing that has been working for me is to sketch in terms of just black and white. I use a 5B pencil and work my way through the sketch just filling in dark shapes against light ones based on what I'm looking at (the study of the German Village Book Loft below is an example of this). What I end up with is something that looks a lot like a penciled comic book page, but later on, I can go back to the sketch and fill it in with a variety of tones to make it look more rendered - just as long as those dark areas are kept separated from the light. I may be waaaay late in this realization, and many of you may well be thinking, "Well, DUH!" but I figured I'd share anyway. It's all a journey, right?

Next Time: Exciting (at least for me) new oil painting unveiled!!!

[Study] Trying to Keep Busy...

2011-07-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

This week has been chocked full of waiting. Waiting for new projects to kick into gear. Waiting for my girlfriend/roomie to come back from her trip out west. Waiting for an order of illustration board to reach my doorstep so that I can begin some fun and exciting new personal pieces. And, most of all, waiting for The Dark Knight Rises to be released in theaters (I know. I've got a while for this one.). So, in order to keep busy and productive, I figured I might as well do a digital painting study. It's been a while since I've actually done any digital painting, and I always feel that if I leave it for too long, my abilities will shrivel up. This one took about the length of "Batman Begins" to complete.

Reference photo credit to Marcus J. Ranum. Check out his great library of stock photos on his DA page here!

[Art & Rambling] Kult #4 and the Longpigs

2011-07-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

Here it is - my final cover for Dark Horse's "KULT" miniseries. For this one, my art directors wanted to capture a similar feel to one of Frank Frazetta's classic Conan covers, without being a blatant carbon copy. I really enjoy working religious iconography and symbolism into a piece any chance I get, and this story really afforded me a good opportunity to make it work. I really ran wild with getting the paint to look juicy and impasto-ed. Not entirely sure how successful I was with that, but I'm pretty happy overall with the piece.

On a side note, does anyone else miss the days when a music video was more than just watching Beyonce and Lady Gaga dance? I recently rediscovered this song by the Longpigs and decided to look it up on youtube. The video reminded me of how thought provoking visuals can really supplement a good song - and how most of the music videos of today's popular music are just flashing lights and sensationalism. Now I'm sure my opinion here is primarily driven by my nostalgia for 90s pop music, and I realize that even back then not every music video was artistic gold. But I sure do miss the ones that were....

[Artwork] Don't Traffic Drugs, Kids. The Time-out is LONG.

2011-06-28T10:06:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago, I did some more federal court sketching for 10TV here in Columbus. I had sketched this particular woman before, but seeing as this was the actual sentencing, emotions were running much higher this time around (especially with her family sitting in the back). You can see the sketches and learn more about the case by full-viewing and watching the video below!

[Artwork] Captain John E. Byrd

2011-06-22T15:20:00.000-07:00

I've been sketching an awful lot lately, but painting has been sadly infrequent. So this past weekend I decided to do some painting for fun based on a character sketch inspired by my girlfriend's parakeet Johnny. I really love the way the painting turned out, but really kind of hate how the scan of it doesn't really do it justice. Anyway, while these guys may share similar physical features, they in no way share temperament (the bird is not nearly as grouchy....most of the time.)

[Artwork] I Like Trees

2011-06-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

Somehow, whenever I'm feeling down about my work, they make me feel better. Except between May 15th and June 10th every year - then they make me feel horrible, haha.

[Artwork] Sketches in the Village

2011-06-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you, moving out of the concrete jungle and into an actual neighborhood with people and parks and it's own cultural heritage is doing wonders for my sketchbook enthusiasm. German Village has such interesting and unique houses. And the park! Don't even get me started on the park!

[Artwork] Kult #3

2011-06-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

Kult #3 is now available for pre-order! Really enjoyed working on this one. If you compare it to the two previous Kult covers, you can definitely see that I started leaning more and more towards simplistic design approaches. Always learning!

[Artwork] Talisman - The Dragon

2011-06-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

After an exhausting move and a week of isolation from the interwebs, I have returned! Buried under the mountains of advertising and spam emails that had accumulated in my inbox was a message from my art director at Fantasy Flight Games. An expansion that I worked on for their "Talisman" board game has been recently announced and my artwork for the board can be seen right, smack-dab in the middle. I've done board game stuff before, but never an actual game board, so this project was a lot of fun! The goal was to somewhat emulate Ralph Horsley's style and the look of the game's original board. Definitely a challenge and I'm not sure whether I really succeeded, but a great learning experience too.

All images in this post are ©Fantasy Flight Games.

[Artwork] Double Dragon Rainbow

2011-05-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

What a crazy past couple of weeks! Ridiculous weather, Macho Man Randy Savage sacrificing himself to prevent the apocalypse, allergy season on the offensive, work, and packing up the apartment for this weekend's big move! I don't have a lot of new stuff from work that I'm able to show at the moment, but figured I'd throw a new promo piece and some sketchbook pages out here. The painting started off as an abstract shaping sketch and just morphed into what is probably the most cliche fantasy painting ever (complete with double rainbow). But I still love it and put it on my postcards. Unfortunately next week I won't have access to the internet at home, so blog posting will probably be scarce for a bit. Hopefully I'll have something wonderful to share by the time I'm back though. Until then!

I do love my springtime clouds........(girly sigh....)

[Artwork] Kult #2

2011-05-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or has this week felt unusually LONG? I don't know what the deal is. But anywho, Dark Horse has started promoting issue #2 of the Kult series already, so here's the cover from that! Hope everyone has a joyous weekend, and if you're in the Columbus area on Saturday with nothing to do, come check out AGORA 8 at Junctionview Studios with me!

Hmmmmm.....I'm starting to feel a musical mood coming on......

Images in this post are © Dark Horse Comics

[News] 2011 Appearances

2011-05-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

My job tends to require me to be cooped up in the studio a majority of the time, but good news! You may have noticed a new list added to the sidebar called "2011 Appearances." Oh, you didn't? Well that's okay too, I guess. From now on I will be posting any events and conventions that I'll be showcasing at throughout the year. Two such events have recently popped up:

The first is AGORA 8, and is this coming Saturday (May 21st) at Junctionview Studios in Columbus, OH. It's a local gallery show that celebrates Central Ohio's creative community. Two of my pieces will be hanging along with numerous others from Ohio's artistic pool. So if you want to enjoy art, live music, vendors, dancers, and more, come check it out! It's a creative smörgåsbord that runs from noon until midnight. I'll probably be there for a couple of hours some time in the afternoon. More information about the venue can be found at their website, here.

I will also have a table at the Wizard World MID-OHIO COMIC CON this year! The con runs from October 22-23. No specific details on where I'll be or what I'll be bringing yet, but I'll keep you informed, loyal blog readers. You can check out the events and guests who are much cooler than me on the official website, here. Some very cool guests include actors James Marsters and Nicolas Brendon from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Needless to say, my girlfriend Krysti is an avid Buffy fan and very excited.

[Artwork] Nightfall: Martial Law

2011-05-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

Hello all! I've been bad and haven't been keeping up with blogging on the days I usually do. Life is hectic and blogging schedules become rubbery (flexible). But, I have some fun new stuff to show today. Earlier this month, Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) announced the first expansion to their deck building card game, "Nightfall". The expansion is titled "Nightfall: Martial Law" and features my work on the box cover! The game takes place in a world that is cast in perpetual night, and vampires and werewolves have overtaken society. "Martial Law" releases this July and you can check it out at the Nightfall website, here, to learn more!

P.S. - I really appreciate how the graphic designers there at AEG were considerate of the artwork in their design and placement of the title logo. Looks great guys! ;)

All images in this post are ©Alderac Entertainment Group.

[Artwork] Kult #1 for pre-order!

2011-05-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

And here's the exciting: my very first professional comic book cover! For the past few months I've been working with Dark Horse Comics on a series of covers that I haven't been able to talk about or show - until now! "Kult" is an action/horror series based on the popular roleplaying game from the 90s, set in a world where the reality we know is just an illusion masking a hellish existence. Think "The Matrix" meets "Constantine". Issue #1 just became available for pre-order on the Dark Horse website, and is slated for an August 3rd release! I'd try to explain what exactly is going on in this particular cover, but I don't wanna give away any of the story (and get my ass sued off in the process). It's pretty confusing, I know, but I wanted to try to make potential readers curious rather than just give them a cool picture of a guy fighting a demon.

[Artwork] A Game of Thrones and Big Black Lines

2011-05-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

It's proving to be a pretty good week so far. While perusing the Fantasy Flight Games website, I discovered that one of my pieces for their "A Game of Thrones" collectable card game had been posted. Better yet - it had somehow made its way to the set's box cover! I never would have thought they would use it there, but I guess it does seem to fit with the title of the set. Many thanks go out to my good friend, Dave Armstrong, for posing for this one (and allowing me to turn him into an overweight fancy-pants).

And, of course, because I promised last time, here's some full-res detail shots of my finished "Eowyn and the Witch King" image. Strangely enough, I think the clouds and the one ring are my favorite parts of the whole piece. :P

Next post: Something really exciting! (I hope)

[Artwork] Eowyn and the Witch King - finished!

2011-04-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a real labor of love and after a week of obsessing over this piece (no exaggeration), I'm ready to call it finished. After finishing with the main image, I decided that I just couldn't let it go without framing it in a decorative border. I don't know if I'll ever reach the same level as that crazy bastard Franklin Booth, but I'll keep trying! I'll put up some detail shots in my next post.

[Process] Eowyn and the Witch King

2011-04-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

Quick post today. This is my preliminary drawing for the "Eowyn Versus the Nazgul" challenge at ArtOrder. It was drawn on tracing parchment paper so that I could erase a billion times until everything was just right. Afterwards, I had to transfer this puppy to a large piece of bristol board and now I am currently in the inking phase. As tedious as transferring the drawing was, the nice thing is that I can still use it later on if I want to do an oil painting or something.

[Artwork] Sketches!

2011-04-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased my very first Moleskine sketchbook. I tend to be pretty cheap as of late so my skin crawled a little at the $20 price tag of a 5" x 8" sketchbook, but I really love it now and don't know if I'll be going back to cheapo sketchbooks any time soon (though they do serve their purpose). With the warmer weather finally taking hold, I've been making it a point to go out into the city every day to draw. It's a blast!

Also, there's a challenge going on over at ArtOrder right now, and, being Lord of the Rings themed, I couldn't stand to miss it. Everyone is doing their own interpretations of the conflict between Eowyn and the Witch King of Angmar. As I've been really itching to do some pen and ink illustrations lately, I figured this would be the perfect subject matter for it. Below is my rough sketch for the composition. Will probably be tweaked a lot from here, but I'll continue to update as I move along.

[Artwork] Initiation of Glaaki

2011-04-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

"From an oval body protruded countless thin, pointed spines of multi-colored metal; at the more rounded end of the oval a circular, thick-lipped mouth formed the center of a spongy face, from which rose three yellow eyes on thin stalks. Around the underside of the body were many white pyramids, presumably used for locomotion. The diameter of the body must have been at least ten feet at its least wide..."

-Ramsey Campbell, The Inhabitant of the Lake

After almost a year since I finished it, I am now able to display my very first card illustration commission! This will be coming out in the "Aspirations of Ascension" Asylum Pack for the Call of Cthulhu Living Card Game, published by Fantasy Flight Games. Despite the wonderful description of Glaaki given above, my job was to illustrate a poor sap about to be initiated as one of the monster's undead servants. Sucks for him!

All images in this post are © Fantasy Flight Games. All Rights Reserved.

[Promotion] Framed High Quality Prints for Sale!

2011-04-05T08:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday, everyone! The CCAD Spring Art Sale is nearly upon us and I'm pretty excited. In addition to regular prints, doodle cards, and paintings, two specially framed full-sized prints will be available for sale as well! These two pieces are printed with archival inks on watercolor paper and come in 3" Renoir antique gold and black frames. Both pieces have been featured in print magazines such as "Heavy Metal" and "ImagineFX", but this is the very FIRST time that either of them have been printed at their full sizes (19" x 12" and 13.5" x 17" respectively). They are fully backed and ready to hang with a crystal clear protective acrylic, and will be on sale for $450 each come April 16th!

And even if you don't want to buy my work (how dare you), whether you're a collector or just like to make cosmetic purchases for your living room, the CCAD Art Sale will definitely have something for you! The sale takes place on April 16th, at the Loann Crane Center for Design.

And a special thanks to my awesome ladyfriend, Krysti Kalkman, for helping me get this done. It wouldn't have happened without her! I'll be sharing a table with her at the art sale, so run over to her blog and drool over the things she'll have for sale.

[Artwork] Mini Head

2011-03-31T07:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, all I really need is some lighting reference of a basic head. Being at home alone all day kind of limits my options as to who I can pose for reference (basically just me and the parakeet) and when all I need is a head, searching for a model can be a pain. So, in the spirit of the Great Gurney, I took some time yesterday to sculpt a miniature head out of super sculpey. One thing I really like about unpainted sculpey is how you actually get some sub-surface scattering going on when it's lit like you would with skin. Though after I was done, I realized that this "basic head" looked a bit familiar......

On another note, the results are in from this month's poll and, of the 5 people that voted (thanks!), a majority of you actually like my informational posts. I'm sorry to the one person who wants me to shut up, but well.....that's democracy - DEAL WITH IT!

[Artwork] Life Studies

2011-03-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post yesterday. GASP! Well I don't have anything insightful to make up for it, but I've got some fun recent studies to show at least. It's taken me forever to get off my ass and gesso a piece of masonite for painting, but I gave it a shot this weekend. Used the limited Zorn palette (titanium white, mars black, cadmium red, yellow ochre) for this one too. I LOVE the Zorn Palette. I think I need a bit of work on actual technique and paint handling, but it was fun for a little two hour study, in any case.

P.S. - If the apple looks too red, it's because it wasn't a real apple. Just a plastic apple-shaped cooking timer Krysti owns. :P

[Process] Divine Divisions

2011-03-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to keep it pretty simple and show some more examples of how the proportions of a rectangle can (and often do) influence our compositional choices - whether we intend them to or not. All of the paintings below were composed without any conscious thought given to how they would fit into the "armature" of the space. But after overlaying the diagram, you can see pretty clearly how the rectangle influenced some of the choices I made, whether by creating certain directions for eye movement, or constrictions of space. In some ways, these paintings might have been more successful had I actually given thought to where I was placing certain lines and objects.

For anyone who's interested in exploring further, I've provided a digital armature for download below. You can use it for composing your own work, or just to overlay on everyone else's to study further. You can also find a more in-depth description of how it works in my self-portrait posts from November.

Resources

-- Art and Ramblings: Self Portrait Process 1 - Drawing and Compostion
-- "Classical Painting Atelier" by Juliette Aristides
-- Digital Composition Armature Download

[Rambling] I Am No Longer a Living Being. I Have Become...

2011-03-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

A WEB SURFING ZOMBIE.

That's right, friends. The Jake Murray you all have come to know is no more. He has drowned in the digital sea* and risen as an undead creature doomed to lifelessly surf the internet in search of inspiration and entertainment.

Maybe some of you out there are web zombies too. I realized that I had become one of the browsing undead after noticing the following symptoms:

1. Checking email COMPULSIVELY.

2. Jumping on the internet for no real reason.

3. A lack of interest in the activities I used to enjoy (sketching, reading, games, etc.).

4. Clicking through the same list of bookmarks over and over just to find that nothing has changed.

5. A gradual disinterest in anything happening on the internet, but still browsing just the same.

6. Work life and home life is dominated by the internet.

7. Boredom with life in general.

If you are experiencing any of the above symptoms, then perhaps it's time to take a web vacation. I know I'm going to severely limit my internet exposure. I will, however, continue to blog on my usual days (Tuesdays and Thursdays). My hope is that, by getting back to my real life, I'll have some more interesting things to blog about and posting will come more naturally.

Life is good. Let's get acquainted with it again. :-)

*line courtesy of the song "Digital Sea" by Thrice.

[Feature] Why We Do This

2011-03-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

Art by Christopher Burdett

Today I wanted to point to a great post by Christopher Burdett on his blog, DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT. Christopher contacted a whole spectrum of professional illustrators and asked them three simple questions about their career choice. It's interesting to see how many of their answers are similar and/or vastly different, and really gives some insight into how these guys view their careers. It's a three-part post, so I'll link to all of them:

Why We Do This - Part 1
Why We Do This - Part 2
Why We Do This - Part 3

Christopher has a lot of other cool stuff on his blog and website as well (links below), and posts regularly every Mon, Wed, and Fri. If you don't already know about him, check it out!

On a side(bar) note, I've created a poll for anyone who's interested in voicing their opinions about my blog. It would help me to figure out what I may need to do to improve the experience for you guys, so please cast your votes by the end of the month! Thanks!

Catch you all on Tuesday. Have a great weekend everyone!

Links

--The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of Christopher Burdett

--Christopherburdett.com

[Tips] Sitting on It

2011-03-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

As I was looking for imagery to go with this topic, I came across the gem above and was compelled to post it. Now that I've stopped laughing, I figured I'd discuss the importance of "sitting on it." No, not Admiral Ackbar's mouth; a piece of artwork. More often than not, it's hard not to get too excited about a piece of work and just call it "finished" on your first notion. I'm tempted to do this all the time, and it can really keep your work from progressing to the next level. It can also be a bit embarrassing when you turn a piece of "finished" artwork in to an Art Director only to have them come back with "This is coming along great, but it doesn't look finished." So what do you do? You sit on it. Any time you think a piece of work is really finished, STOP FOR THE DAY. Don't even look at it until the next day. I guarantee you'll see a lot more clearly once you've come down from the initial art buzz (or caffeination high). This requires a bit of extra discipline, but even just a small amount of work above and beyond can really help to sell an image. To demonstrate this point, I've created a gif animation below that shows the difference between what I initially thought was finished and what was actually finished.

All of the changes made were small, but it's surprising how noticeable they are.

Anyway, it's back to work for me. I think I'll put a poll up on Thursday to see if you guys actually find any of these posts useful at all. Always trying to build a better blog (hence the new color arrangement).

Oh and the Admiral Ackbar toilet was discovered on Geekologie.com.

[Rambling] Well, it's Thursday, and I Have a Case of....

2011-03-10T18:16:00.000-08:00

That being said, even though I may not have anything interesting going on today, I'd like to point you to someone who does. My girlfriend and fellow artist, Krysti Kalkman, has a sweet giveaway going on in celebration of her soon-to-launch Etsy storefront! Check out her blog, and, if you like her work as much as I do, head over to her website's Facebook page and "Like" it by Monday March 14th to be entered in the running for a free silkscreen of your choice (a $40 - $50 value!)! I would enter, but her being my girlfriend and all, well....I would wipe the floor with all of you.

Anyway, that's my spiel for today. Hopefully next week I'll have some more fun things to share. Have a great weekend everyone and I'll be back Tuesday!

[Process] Make Your Own Prop Sci-Fi/Steampunk Gun!

2011-03-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

I call this little baby "Serenity Now". A while ago, I came across a tutorial for cheaply crafting a realistic prop gun and thought that it would make a really useful addition to my illustration prop collection (which currently consists only of a few sculpey heads and bristol board spaceships). The process was so easy and fun that I wanted to share it with all of you!

Materials you'll need:
-A cheap plastic water pistol or cap gun ($2-3)
-silver metallic spray paint($5)
-black flat spray paint($5)
-old paint rag
-"Rub 'n' Buff" gold leafing (optional)

Step 1 - Make it Shiny. Cover the entire gun with a coat or two of silver metallic spray paint until none of the original paint job shows through. Wait for it to dry completely.

Step 2 - Muck it Up. In a spare tin or paper plate, spray a generous amount of black spray paint until it pools. Quickly dip your paint rag into the black paint and rub it over the surface of the gun. This layer should be very thin (you don't want to completely cover your nice silver paint - just dull it up a bit). Also, don't worry about filling all the nooks and crannies, as those places would be more sheltered from outside forces anyway and should still be shiny.

Step 3 - Beat it Up. For an extra level of detail, take your fingernail and scratch into the faded areas. You don't want to scratch all the way through your silver paint job, so keep it fairly gentle.

Step 4 - Add Some Class. Since I had some "Rub 'n' Buff" gold leafing laying around in my drawer I decided to add some gold details to my gun. This step is purely at your discretion depending on how you want your gun to look. Doing this made my gun look like it would be more comfortable in a Steampunk setting.

And that's it! You'll have a sweet-ass prop gun in your arsenal that will be hard not to play with. I fully intend to use mine for reference in future paintings, so be on the lookout for it!

P.S. -- I make no claim to have come up with this process on my own. I simply varied up the steps from a tutorial which can be found at the "Backyard FX" website HERE. Check it out!

I'll see you guys on Thursday. Hope the week is treating everyone well!

[Nifty Things] The Ven Diagram of Mythical Creatures

2011-03-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

Originally, I was going to post up a new musical update, but seeing as the website I use to create playlists (Mixpod.com) no longer allows for URL uploads of songs, I have no means of updating the media player on my site. So instead, I figured I'd share this nifty little image I stumbled upon. Kinda puts the mythological world in perspective, huh? Something like this would be a great tool for fantasy world-building/concept art ideas.

Have a good weekend everyone. Until next Tuesday - PEACE OUT!

[Artwork] Doodle Cards

2011-03-01T11:48:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a batch of little 5 x 7 "doodle cards" to hopefully sell at the upcoming CCAD Spring Art Sale (pending Krysti and I get a table...). Seeing as sci-fi/fantasy paintings tend to be passed by at this particular event, I decided to try experimenting with something smaller and cheaper. These guys come straight from funny little doodles in my sketchbooks and are drawn with micron pens, prismacolor markers, and colored pencils on bristol board. I know it's kind of weird to see such cute things side-by-side with dragons and epic mountains, but hey, I'm having fun. You have to try and flex all the muscles you can, right?

[Artwork] Battlestar Speedlactica

2011-02-24T09:12:00.000-08:00

I've been watching an unhealthy amount of Battlestar Galactica lately (thank you, Netflix). During my sick days this week, I took the time to experiment with making some new custom brushes in Painter - something I've had a phobia about for a long time. Anywho, I figured I'd test them out with a quick 1.5 hr speedpainting of Kara Thrace from the aforementioned show. Maybe I'll kick my butt into gear and do more quick little images like this. You know, for fun.

[Tips] Things You Can Do as a Sickly Freelancer

2011-02-22T07:25:00.000-08:00

Let's face it: being sick sucks. But if there's one benefit to working for yourself, it's that you don't need to ask for permission to take the day off. So what can you do to keep your recuperation days from being a total waste?

1. Keep working. (Not recommended.)

2. Research. (If you've got freelance projects just starting up, looking up visual reference and inspiration doesn't take too much energy and can keep you productive.)

3. Catch up on blogs. (Get inspired by all the other people who aren't sick)

4. Listen to illustration podcasts. (Crank up the computer speakers and listen while you soak in a hot bath.)

5. Update your blog. (Check.)

6. Back up your computer. (There's no better time to do it than when you're not really using it.)

7. Do some accounting. (Just make sure to double check your math.)

8. Promote your work. (Post on social networks, prepare mailers, yada yada yada.)

9. Take lots of naps. (The most productive thing you can do is get yourself feeling better.)

I'll be back soon with some fun little updates. Stay healthy, everyone!

[Artwork] Lone Wolf: Corruption of Ikaya

2011-02-10T13:41:00.001-08:00

This is a project I recently finished up with Mongoose Publishing. It's a cover for a supplemental release of their Lone Wolf role-playing game. I think this is actually the first traditional oil painting I've ever done for a publisher. And it was scary. REAL scary. But definitely fun too! The original painting is on top and the final cover design below.

All images in this post are ©Mongoose Publishing.

[Artwork] Battle Beyond Space

2011-01-26T16:21:00.000-08:00

Some new work to display! This body of work was done back in October (I think) for an upcoming release by Z-Man Games entitled "Battle Beyond Space". Basically it's a board game that tries to emulate the fierce and hectic combat between vast armies of space fighters - with a throwback to retro sci-fi aesthetic. The first image will be the box cover and the second shows artwork for cards of the four different alien races you can choose from. Buck Rogers, Sith Frogs, and Space Babes, oh my!!

All images in this post are ©Z-Man Games.

[Artwork] Courtroom Sketches

2011-01-12T14:19:00.000-08:00

This is a little bit out of the ordinary, but I figured I'd share it anyway. I was called today by 10TV News here in Columbus to do some courtroom sketches at the sentencing of Richard Case. This was the second time I've done sketching for 10TV and it was just as intimidating as the first. I don't think I'll ever really feel comfortable sitting in on a court hearing, but it's pretty interesting to see how things proceed. Anyway I found a video of the story that was broadcast earlier tonight and figured I'd share it. Click the full-screen button at the bottom right of the video to get a better view of the drawings!

[Artwork] Heavy Metal Magazine

2011-01-05T08:08:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a very enjoyable holiday season (I know I did)! Now that life has returned to normal, it's time to start blogging regularly again. It may be kind of tacky to start off the new year tooting my own horn, but this is something I've been meaning to post for a while now. "Auria - Goddess of Sound and Musical Inspiration" has been featured on the contents page of this month's Heavy Metal Magazine! For those of you unfamiliar with Heavy Metal, it is (in its own words) the world's foremost adult illustrated fantasy magazine. Think of it as something like MAD Magazine - with a lot of robots, dragons, and breasts.

Stay tuned!

[Artwork] Prints Available!

2010-12-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

In conjunction with Fine Art America, I am now offering prints for select illustrations from my gallery! Just browse through the sci-fi/fantasy gallery of my website as you normally would, and if prints are available for a particular piece, it will have a link to my storefront in the full-view. It's that simple! You can also browse my selection at my Fine Art America page. Prints range in a variety of sizes and papers, and you can even have greeting cards printed! More pieces are sure to become available in the future, and if anyone has any requests feel free to let me know via the contact page on my website or by leaving a comment here, and I'll do my best to make it available!

[Nifty Things] Lunar Eclipse on the Winter Solstice

2010-12-20T08:35:00.000-08:00

This info comes from the front page of National Geographic's website. A total lunar eclipse will occur tonight at around 3 A.M. and should be visible to all of North America, weather permitting. What makes this special is that it will supposedly be the first time since 1378 that a total lunar eclipse has coincided with the winter solstice. What does this mean to us artists??? Well, if you're brave (I'm still trying to decide if I am or not) and you like to plein air paint, this is an opportunity to paint something from life that has not happened for over 600 years - something even Da Vinci has never seen! Could be fun. If I decide to do it, I'll definitely post up the painting that results. But if anyone else out there decides to go for it, comment back with a link to your image! Happy moon gazing everyone!

Read the whole National Geographic article here!

[Artwork] Happy Holidays!

2010-12-10T13:23:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to do a quick something for the holidays. It's been a while since I've painted cute robots doing people things. Calling this one "The Best Snowbot Ever!". I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

[Process] Self Portrait - Final Overpainting

2010-12-08T17:48:00.000-08:00

This is it! Sorry if it seems like I've completely skipped a step here, but I would say that everything done since the glazing stage would fall under this segment. After letting the glaze dry, it is simply a matter of mixing colors as observed and putting them on the canvas. I would almost say that this part could be called the "light and color" stage because for the most part I'm just painting in the light areas with the colors I observe (the shadows pretty much took care of themselves through the previous steps). After letting the final painting dry to the touch, I put down a layer of retouch varnish to bring some of the matted colors back to their original vibrancy. Retouch varnish is a special kind of varnish that allows the painting to "breathe" and continue to dry underneath (you should wait about six months for the painting to dry COMPLETELY before applying the final varnish). Overall, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. It may not be the most accurate portrait in the world, but I'm happy with the classical feel of it and enjoy actually having a physical object to hold at the end (as opposed to all the digital work I've been doing lately). If I've been too vague about this part of the process, feel free to post any questions you might have!

[Process] Self Portrait - Glazing

2010-12-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

This step is the quickest of all. After letting the dead layer dry for a couple days, I go over the skin with a thin glaze of burnt sienna. I allow the pigment to be just a bit more opaque to give certain areas like the nose and ears a deeper redish hue. At this point it's starting to look really ugly, but the thing to keep in mind is that this glaze is providing what will essentially be my shadow colors for the skin, and everything else will be built up lighter and more opaquely from it.

Next Step: Final Overpainting

[Process] Self Portrait - Dead Layer

2010-12-06T07:09:00.000-08:00

After letting the underpainting dry, I now do what is essentially a completed value painting over top using a paint mixture of titanium white, raw umber, and mars black. At this point I'm still using little to no paint medium to facilitate blending and to keep with the fat-over-lean rule of painting (meaning that paint should contain more oil in the later layers than in the earlier ones to prevent drying discrepancies, and ultimately cracking). This step is probably the most time consuming because the goal is really to get all the values right. If you don't get it right here, it will get much harder to correct later on. One of the fun aspects to this step is seeing how much more dimension is created by the interplay of the cooler value painting over the warm underpainting.

Next Step: Glazing

[News] ImagineFX 2011 Calendar

2010-12-03T15:12:00.000-08:00

Today I received a surprise in the mail - a copy of the latest issue of ImagineFX magazine from the UK, complete with a 2011 calendar featuring my "Evading the Bats" piece for the November spread. Thanks Claire Howlett and the great folks across the pond at ImagineFX!

[Poll] Process Problems

2010-12-01T09:32:00.001-08:00

As I've been posting this painting process on my self-portrait (that's a lot of P's), it occurred to me to ask everyone:

What stage in your creative process do you find to be the most frustrating?

This doesn't necessarily have to apply only to drawing/painting/illustration/etc. I'd like to hear from people in other disciplines as well, so everyone post your replies!

[Artwork] Mr. Topaz Breaks the Rules

2010-11-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here it is, the third installment of the Mr. Topaz series of books for children! Finished this up at the end of October and it's available for purchase here. Here's the cover and a couple spreads from the book.

[Process] Self Portrait 2 - Underpainting

2010-11-20T13:04:00.000-08:00

This step is much simpler to explain in the process, so lucky for all of you this will be a pretty short post! After covering my charcoal drawing with a matte finish spray (my current substitute for just plain old workable fixative), I let it dry and am ready to begin underpainting. For this piece I've decided to employ the "wipe-out" method. It's the first time I've done this, but I really love the result.

First, I cover the entire canvas board with raw umber oil paint straight from the tube with no mineral spirits or paint thinner added (photo number 1.). It's pretty dark, but not too dark that I can't see the drawing underneath. From here on, I take an old cotton t-shirt and begin to wipe away the paint in light areas. That's basically it! I just continue to wipe away paint until I have a complete value rendering on top of which my subsequent paint layers will be applied (photo number 2.). For the brightest areas, you can also dip the paint rag in a little bit of mineral spirits and continue to wipe out the paint. This step altogether took little over an hour.

Next Step: Dead Layer

[Process] Self Portrait 1 - Drawing and Composition

2010-11-15T10:49:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to do a process post for a while, so I figured I'd use my most recent self-portrait an example. This will be a continuing process through to the finish as I attempt to create a fully realized classical painting of myself from life(the key word here being "attempt").

With a medium-dark charcoal pencil, I've drawn in my head and face on a 12 x 16 inch piece of gessoed canvas board. I have my easel rigged with a small bathroom mirror so that I can easily look back and forth between the subject and the drawing. After completing the drawing of my head, I realized that the placement and composition were all wrong. I had jumped the gun and not really thought things through. So I quickly erased it all and started back from scratch, this time allowing myself the proper time to get it right using a classical method I will now explain.

When working within the confines of a rectangle, there are certain points and measurements that most humans are subconsciously aware of. Our minds automatically divide the space up into nice little sections. As an artist, we can use this to our advantage when composing an image. Before I start redrawing my head, I make sure to plot out the "armature" shown above. I start by drawing lines from corner to corner. The intersection of these lines shows me where the precise center of the canvas is. Then I draw a horizontal and a vertical through the center point. From here I continue to divide up the space with diagonals as shown.

Now the interesting thing about this funky star-shaped abomination I've just drawn all over my board is in the intersections of the lines. As you can see in the images above, if I draw horizontal (or vertical) lines through the intersection points, I'll have divided the space into exact thirds and fourths. This is especially handy if your frame of reference is an awkward measurement and doing the actual math is just frightening. The intersections also suggest natural focal points. As you can see, I decided to put my right eye exactly on the top 1/3 intersection. You can also see how all those diagonals can influence other visual choices as well (note how my entire portrait is nicely framed within the green diamond shape).

I use this method all the time when composing a painting and it really is extremely easy and helpful. If you're feeling experimental, open up a piece of your own artwork in Photoshop and on a separate layer, draw out the armature over top of the piece. You might be surprised at how much you just intuitively compose along these measurements and maybe even come to understand why certain pieces just don't seem to "feel right".

Next Step: Underpainting

[Artwork] Monday's Figure Drawing

2010-11-04T13:19:00.001-07:00

Same model, same pose as last time. One day I'll quit trying to do overly rendered drawings on paper that's too small - the paper grain just gets in the way. But anyway, it's always fun to draw nudes.

[Artwork] Another Figure Sketch

2010-10-26T09:30:00.001-07:00

The nice thing about still living near an art school is that I can take part in free figure sessions on Monday nights! Last night I attended my first session, and aside from the awkward feeling of being on campus again, I really enjoyed doing some life figure painting again. Unfortunately I was told that, due to ventilation issues, I shouldn't bring oil paints to work with anymore. So from here on out, it's going to be pencil drawings, I guess! This was a three hour sketch, still utilizing the Zorn palette mentioned in the previous post.

[Artwork] Studies

2010-10-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

I think you're probably all starting to notice that when I'm between projects, I post on the blog, A LOT. But that's only because I'm trying to churn out as much new work for the portfolio as I can. So, sorry if you're sick of hearing from me. These are actually just a couple figure studies from the past week or so. Thanks to a post on the fantastic "Gurney Journey", I stumbled upon a new palette that I hadn't ever heard of before. It's called the "Zorn" palette (after Swedish painter Anders Zorn). It's a limited palette consisting of only yellow ochre, cadmium red light, ivory black, and titanium white. So I decided to test it out in a digital figure study. AND I LOVE IT. I may be waaaay behind, but for any painters out there who haven't tried this, go for it! It's pretty cool what you can get out of just four colors.

[Artwork] Recent Concept Environments

2010-10-21T13:13:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to share three concept enviros I finished this week. As I looked through my portfolio, I realized that I have NO dragons or castles! So I just had to do a piece with both and make it ridiculously larger than life ('cause that's how I roll). The other two are for a sci-fi side project that shall not be named. Hope you enjoy!

[Artwork] The Dead Don't Cry

2010-10-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

Author Mark Lopez's science-fiction drama, The Dead Don't Cry, has been released for e-readers through Amazon.com. I was fortunate enough to be commissioned by Mark to paint the cover for this novel a few months back. It was a great experience and the book has a unique flavor to it. For links and product information, check out The Dead Don't Cry blog. The cover as it appears on the book and the original painting are above.

[Poll] Truly Artistic Video Games

2010-10-18T06:45:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm all growed up, there isn't too much time to indulge in gaming like I used to. But every now and again, I manage to bust out a classic round of Sonic the Hedgehog or a 20 minute sprint to the next save point in an old Final Fantasy. So where am I going with this and how is it a poll? Well I recently popped in Shadow of the Colossus for old time's sake and let me tell you, if you've never played it (and you actually are a gamer of some kind), then you are missing out on what I would consider to be one of the few real "works of art" in video games. And I'm not just talking about the visuals here. This game was artfully crafted in every aspect of it's production, from story development to controls. SO here's the poll:

For any of you gamers out there, post a reply stating what video game in your mind stands out as a "true work of art" and why.

[Artwork] The Trial

2010-10-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

It's a bit frustrating making artwork all the time and not being able to show it, so I took the past couple of days to put together a new promotional piece. Hope you all like it!

[Videos] Pokémon Apokélypse

2010-09-22T05:58:00.000-07:00

Came across this video posted at www.io9.com. I never played Pokémon as a kid, but I thought this was hilarious in light of how popular it's become to make dark, gritty reboots of popular franchises. I think this fan film hits the mark!

[Nifty Things] Music with no Musicians

2010-09-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

I'm in a musical mood right now, so I wanted to share something with all of you who may not be savvy to the music production pulse (not that I really am, necessarily). Ever since the dawn of the music synthesizer or electronic keyboard, computers have become exceedingly present in the world of music recording and production. Well, it seems that with the help of amazing pre-recorded "samples" and a good sound engineer, you can create an orchestral experience as realistic as any film score - without the orchestra!

Listen to this sample recording from East West Quantum Leap's "Hollywood Strings" sample library. None of the music you hear was recorded live (at least not in the traditional sense). Maybe I'm just amazed by this because I'm an orchestra nerd. But at the same time I am a bit alarmed as this seems to be just another example of humans striving to replace themselves with technology...and getting extremely good at it.

[News] ImagineFX Rising Stars

2010-09-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

ImagineFX Magazine recently published the ten winners of their "Rising Stars" competition, of which I am very honored to be one. Each winner gave a short interview about their inspiration and processes alongside a few samples of their artwork. The team at ImagineFX did a great job of selecting a variety of different artists' styles to display, ranging from the very decorative to the more realistic.

Congratulations to all the winners, including my friend Bernadette Carstensen - a fellow CCAD alum. For anyone interested in checking it out, the article is in issue #61 which has yet to print over here in the states, but is currently out in the UK. It should be available in the US close to the end of this month. Thanks to everyone at ImagineFX for this wonderful honor!

[Nifty Things] Stereoscopic Paintings

2010-09-17T05:47:00.001-07:00

I don't know if this will be new to anyone, but I wanted to share it anyway. This image by Theo Prins is a stereoscopic 3D painting. That is, if you get close enough to it and cross your eyes hard enough, the right and left images will blend together and you'll get an effect of 3D space. It's a neat little trick, and Theo is by no means the only one doing this, but so far he's the only artist I've seen who's applied it to the realm of concept art. See if you can get it to work, and if you like this one check out all his other stereoscopic paintings on his Deviantart page!

At dawn-Stereo 3d by *artbytheo on deviant ART

[Artwork] Cults of the Young Kingdoms

2010-09-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

Finally some new stuff to share. These are a couple of four black and white spot illustrations I did for Mongoose Publishing's "Cults of the Young Kingdoms" which comes out this month. All image rights © Mongoose Publishing.

[Poll] Background Music, Yay or Nay?

2010-09-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure some of you know, music and music composition have always been a close second behind art for me. Like many (if not most) people, I've always enjoyed having some kind of music playing in the background while I work - usually a movie or game soundtrack or something. That is until recently. Now I find that I work much better in complete silence, the reason being that it allows me to focus better and lose track of time much more easily. So here's a simple question for all of you!

Do you prefer to have background music or noise while you work, and if yes, what kind?

P.S. - these poll thingies won't have any kind of time limit, so comment your answers whenever!

[News] New Format!

2010-09-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

With the help of a nifty ImagineFX article, it has occurred to me to do a little revamping on the format of this blog. No, I 'm not talking about the design of it (though that may be the topic of a future poll...). I'm talking about making it perhaps a little bit less one-sided and a little more interactive for my readers. I'm talking about polls and news briefs and how-to's, etc. This should give me more reasons to update consistently too. So what does that mean for YOU, the fantastic reader?!?! Well, each new post title will have a subtitle (like the one above) that will tell you the nature of the post, whether it be a rambling, an art or music update, a poll, whatever! If you're interested, then just do what you've been doing and read! SIMPLE! Anyway, I hope you all will like the slightly new direction! And thanks to all of you who have been keeping up with my little ketchup and mustard colored blog!

P.S. - After writing this post, I did in fact decide to alter the design of the blog. :P

Enviro

2010-09-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

Wanted to do some quick practicing. This one was maybe a little less than an hour if you don't count distractions. It's for a side project that I'm involved in. Hopefully I'll have more of this to show soon while I wait for permission to show all the other work I've been doing! Hope everyone's Labor Day was relaxing!

A Speedie Update

2010-08-21T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hi all. So I've been pretty busy with projects lately, hence the lack of any recent updates. But there will be plenty of new work and exciting news to come, hopefully in the near future, so stay tuned! It's been a long time since I've been bitten by the speed painting bug, but I just had to get this one out last night. Now back to work!

A Musical Weekend

2010-07-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

With the completion of my latest job, I found myself in the composing mood - probably because of all the adventure movie soundtracks I was listening to while I painted this week. There are a lot of unfinished ideas written down in my little staff-paper moleskine, so I wanted to see if I could finish a composition based on one of them this weekend. I'm fairly happy with the end results. Anyone who's interested in taking a listen can do so over at the Soundtracks page of my website! The new piece is titled "The New World" along with a couple other new tracks posted up recently. I sure do miss 1990's adventure movies......

Gouache is...Good????

2010-07-22T11:57:00.001-07:00

I've been looking at a lot of old concept artwork from the good ol' days before the computer took over and couldn't help but notice - a lot of those great artists like Ralph McQuarrie were using gouache. Suffice it to say, gouache and I have not been on the best of terms since my freshman year of college. All those design and color concept projects that had to be painted in gouache gave me headaches that I'm sure a lot of CCAD students and alums are familiar with. And so, at the end of freshman year, those little Windsor & Newton tubes of pure evil went into the paint case, never to be opened again....until today. Surprisingly enough, I kind of enjoyed working with them. Two tubes (blue and black) of my meager five-color collection had completely hardened inside the tube. So with yellow, red, and white, I decided to just have a little fun. Now I'm not sounding the victory trumpet over this little turd of a painting, but the moral of the story is: You may have hated carrots as kid, but you'll be missing out on a lot of good stuff if you don't at least try them again when you're older.

My Influences Episode #2

2010-07-21T05:33:00.000-07:00

#2. Donato Giancola

Admittedly, I wasn't even aware of Donato (or a lot of other great artists out there) until about sophomore year of college, but after seeing his painting "Prometheus" on the cover of Spectrum 13, I was immediately interested. A lot of you are probably already familiar with his work. What I love Donato's art is his use of color and description of light and form. His paintings are as technically beautiful as an old Renaissance Master's painting with extra luminosity added by his control of bright colors. His figures are conveyed with such accuracy and delicacy that they almost feel more real than I do. To check out more of his work, visit his gallery at www.donatoarts.com. And you should check out more of his work!

Johnny

2010-07-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

Being out of school means no more life painting class to force you to paint from life. So I decided to paint the liveliest thing in my room/studio. Johhny, my girlfriend's parakeet. He actually did a pretty good job of modeling!

A Couple Features!

2010-07-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a cover project with sci-fi author Mark Lopez for his book, "The Dead Don't Cry." Mark has been a great client so far and kind enough to post a couple features on me up at his blog, Café Lopez. The latest one is a short interview about working as an illustrator, and the one before it showcases a couple sketches done for the cover assignment in progress. Mark has been hugely supportive and a great client - not to mention a skilled and intelligent writer. So, if not for me, then go support this author, check out the blog, and read the first couple of chapters of "The Dead Don't Cry" online!

My Influences Episode #1

2010-07-06T07:44:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do this for a while now, and seeing as how I'm sitting at home with a head cold waiting for some freelance projects to begin in earnest, I figured now's as good a time as any to update the blog! So I figured I would pay a long overdue tribute to the artists who have inspired and influenced me over the years. I'll be doing this as a series so that you all don't have a freakish novel-sized post to read through.

#1. Hiroaki Samura

A lot of people have probably never heard of this guy before. Aside from his work, he is pretty reclusive. He is a Japanese manga artist most noted for his series "Mugen no Juunin" or Blade of the Immortal here in the U.S. I'm not much of a manga enthusiast anymore, but the thing that has made Samura one of my all-time top favorite artists, regardless, is his awesome ability to draw extremely accurate figures in extremely interesting motion. There is absolutely nothing stiff about his work - each panel flows as smoothly to the next as an animated film. If you've never heard of him, check him out. Blade of the Immortal is published in the U.S. by Dark Horse Comics and can be found in any comic book store that sells manga.

Vertical Urban Scrawl

2010-06-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

I was driving back from Fort Wayne with my girlfriend last weekend when I started having all these ideas about the country side. The first one being, why don't cities build up instead of out? I mean, that's the concept of the skyscraper right? You can conserve space and valuable farmland by going vertical. I'm sure I'm not the first one to come to this conclusion, but I wanted to do a painting of a possible concept. So here it is with a couple details!

Freedom City

2010-06-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Gotta keep limber! Just a 4 hour speedie in photoshop. Now back to the job hunt!

Breath

2010-06-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Saw this posted on my friend Kartika Mediani's blog. This is the poster for her very cool animation final for CCAD, for which I wrote the soundtrack. It was a fun side project to tackle as a student and a great way for me to break up the brain-drain of school and work. I don't think the animation can be watched online as of yet, but if I find a link I'll post it up. In the meantime, you should jump on over to Kartika's blog and show her some love!

Graduation, San Francisco, and Moving, OH MY!!!

2010-05-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

Hey all. The past couple of weeks have been crazy! I've barely had time to do any real artwork aside from sketching here and there. On May 15th, I received the most expensive piece of paper I will probably ever own. It's been a mind-blowing 4 years at CCAD, and a real honor to have learned beside so many talented, talented people (just a goofy handful of whom are shown above!)

Almost as soon as I was out of my gown, it was off to San Francisco, California for a week along with a pretty nifty lady friend. Krysti's old roomie, Sarah, let us stay at her apartment with her, so that made the trip soooo much more affordable. Thanks again Sarah! Hope we weren't god-awful annoying! Some photos from the trip:

I took a three hour nap after getting back to Columbus and then it was time to pack for the big move to the new apartment (with the same nifty chick. :P) So, I've finally gotten everything moved over here and am slowly getting it all organized and unpacked. Here's the new (well, new for me) place!:

You may be asking yourself, "I say, do those walls go up to the ceiling???." Well, yes. Yes they do. :P Next episode: JOB HUNT

Discover a Muse

2010-05-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

Hey all! So, Jon Schindehette's community, ArtOrder, has teamed up with model Veronika Kotajik and put together an art challenge for charity. Basically, challengers had to create an image that embodies the terms "sexy, strong, and independent" using reference photography of Veronika provided by Jon (and whatever other reference needed). The point of the challenge is that products will be created with the artwork submitted and then sold for charity (specifically, the Discovery Arts program which gives sick and hospitalized children artistic outlets to express themselves). In any case, the deadline is June 1st, so if you want in, better get in fast! Go to www.discoveramuse.com to get all the info.

This is my entry for this challenge. Have to say, it was difficult using someone else's reference photography to put together a good image, but I'm very happy with the result of this one. The title is "Auria - Goddess of Sound and Musical Inspiration." Hope you guys like it!

And the Training Wheels Come Off.....

2010-05-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

Today was my very last day of school. FOREVER. Well....unless I decide to come back later on down the road (music maybe?????....no probably not). But anyway, it's weird. Even though I only had one class this semester, the thought of not having any more is confusing to me. So what better way to deal with the confusion than producing more art!! Had this composition floating around in my sketchbook for a while now and just had to throw some paint/pixels on it. This color sketch is what resulted. Thinking I might use this as a starting point for an actual painting, but that has yet to be seen. I might just start doing a paint sketch-a-day just to keep from getting rusty. But no promises......

Evading the Bats

2010-04-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

This is another sample piece done in Painter X this week. I'm loving Painter more and more. It just feeeeels so goooood. At least when it's not ruining my life. Anyway, it's a space battle. Hope y'all enjoy!