I've been a fan of Rocket since I picked up back issues of Mike Mignola's run back in the '90's. A raccoon running around with a crazy gun and Mignola draws it, awesome. Experimented with more texture in the piece like Rocket's hair, pants, and rocks. It was weird drawing a crazy scifi gun since I don't draw a lot of science fiction. But it does make me want to try to make a large scifi illustrations.
Rocket raccoon belongs to Marvel
Born from the wraith of the sea god himself, the tritons are amphibious creatures constructed of some of the most feared beasts of the sea. Legend said that when a small fishing town began to stop thanking Tritonus (the sea god) for the food, calm waves, and good weather, he became angry for their selfishness of taking with no thanks. Tritonus pulled a rock from the depths of the ocean and carved an army of soldiers. The soldiers had the face of an eel, the fin of a shark, and smarts of a dolphin. After arming his new people, he sent them to the town for an attack. The Tritons sunk the boats and destroyed their equipment. The town was in horror of the aquatic beasts that Tritonus forged from anger. From then on, people made sure to give thanks to Tritonus. Though the story is thought to be pure legend, Tritonus are know to attack ships that enter their territory. Working together in large groups to use shear numbers to intimate their foes. It is rare for Tritons to be seen on land unless they have a reason to leave the water. Some even believe that Tritons are as much legend as the story itself.
The past week has been busy preparing for Illuxcon along with working on new drawings and illustrations and a part time job. But that didn't stop Monster Monday from happening, this week's monster is a Fate Spirit. A Fate Spirit is a creature I imagine that lives in ancient tombs to protect secrets or treasures. It uses the ancient rock to craft armor and weapons that it used in their former life. The Fate Spirit reminds me of a creature that could be used in a role playing game where a group of adventurers have to enter an ancient city or tomb. It would have multiple levels in order to create different challenges for the party and end with a battle with a fate spirit of a king or warlord.
This week's monster is a goblin mechanic. It's a revisit of an idea from a while back and thought the idea would fit well into the Goblin Guild. It's done similarly with inks and a little clean up digitally after it was scanned. Next week, I will post another requested monster. Just have to work on bird anatomy first.
Late Night Monster Monday, the past few days have been busy between working shifts at work and creating new drawings. The last post was a Hobgoblin and decided to draw a Bugbear that would match. Added similar textures like the other piece. So far, I like adding more texture then normally. I was browsing notes from Illuxcon last year and was reading over the portfolio review notes from Chris Seaman. He talked about adding texture and pattern, which I am applying to my drawings. The textures also look good when I am coloring in photoshop. I prefer to create the texture with line then adding textures digitally. Next I plan to draw a goblin to match the hobgoblin and bugbear.
Next week I will continue with more requests, still working out some anatomy and design on creatures.
Yesterday after I got home from work, I was checking out twitter to see that Sketch Dailies topic was Hobgoblin. I haven't drawn a Hobgoblin since the ink drawing that was published in Dungeons and Dragons: Against the Slave Lords book. This piece became a nice break from working on larger pieces. Tony DiTerlizzi's D&D work are some of my favorite illustrations and I was inspired by his ink drawings to work on adding more texture to my own work. So far I liked the results of playing with adding texture and pattern to my work.
A little creature inspired by insects of many kind. A little drawing I inked for practice and turned out well. This design will be done on toned paper and inked maybe even colored. This creature is very small and lives inside trees with a larger colony of its kind. They work together collecting pollen to create a honey that can heal even the worse wounds. Many people wander the woods looking for the honey to help the injured or sell to a doctor.
Another goblin, sometimes I feel like I draw them too often. This goblin is a shield striker. It can block with the shields on it's arms as well as hit opponents with the spikes or sides of the shield. Shield Strikers are heavily armored since they move slow due to the weight on their arms.
Later this week, I'll post the digitally colored piece that I am currently working on.
This week's monster is a Minotaur. I've drawn minotaurs in the past but wanted to have a more unique looking design with long ape like arms. When it rests, it lays it's hands down on the ground similar to a gorilla. This design is one of the creatures of Fable Wood, which I have two stories on their first draft. Minotaurs will play a role in a few of the short stories and are helpful builders because of their strength.
It's been 1 year of Monster Mondays. I only missed two Mondays is a whole year (i think) and plan to draw a monster for every Monday of 2014. It's been a great exercise in character design and well as holding accountability to create and post drawings. A lot of the drawings are going to be published in my 32 page full color sketchbook I'm printing for convention season as well as some never before seen monsters and illustrations.
As celebration for a full year of Monster Mondays I drew a portrait of a tree folk. I have drawn many tree folk in the past year and can't help that they are a joy to draw. There is something about looking at a tree that creates strange anatomy. There are tree folk in Orbis but I haven't decided if they travel or are planted to the ground or both. And like Goblin Guild, I will be creating a small book of just tree folk for convention season and finish my book of wizards. Lots to get done for April (MoCCA Fest, Asbury Park Comic Con) and then Illuxcon in September, where my work will be displayed on Friday and Saturday night.
Thanks for all the support for Monster Monday as well as my other illustrations.
A Tarasque is a dragon of the swamps. It does not resemble the common image of what a dragon usually is. It spends it's time on the ground, hiding in large bodies of muddy water. Camouflage is the technique the creature uses in order to hide it's massive body from armies that could take it down. It prefers to snap out of the water, grabbing it's pretty then drags it into the water to both drown and eat. The large club at the end of it's tail is it's defense from being attacked from behind and it's horns can pierce the best armor. Legend tells of the Tarasque slicing a knight in half with the power of it's jaws.
In Orbis, only one Tarasque remains in the bogs of the North. All others have been killed and kingdoms displays the horns and shells as relics of battle. That last Tarasque has not been seen in hundreds of years. Lots of people believe that none are left, but few believe that the harsh stench of the bogs is the Tarasque breath and don't venture into the swamps.
The Goblin Mining Company owns many caves in a wide area of Orbis. Not all caves are active at the same time. To protect the cave from being mined before the company has a chance to, goblin guards are set up at the locations to protect the property. A watch tower is constructed at the mouth of the cave as well as a wooden gate; Two guards at the gate and three in the watch tower. The goblins that work at the sites are sword for hires, meaning they are trained in combat but don't owe allegiance to a person of power. The company pays the hires as well as provides them with food and a place to live with in the watch tower. Most of the time, there isn't anyone trying to enter the cave with out permission from the company. But there have been times of slaying thieves and competitor companies spies.
Goblin Week continues with a Goblin Climber to add to the Goblin Mining Company.
Some times mining crystals takes Goblins' to scale down water eroded holes to collect crystals. Often a Goblin will use rope and a harness to get down to the bottom with out breaking their necks. Though ropes have snapped in the past and goblins end up stuck at the bottom of the trench with no way out. Another rope line is scaled down to the goblin with a bucket to place the crystals in and raised continuously raised and lowered. A standard axe is used to remove the crystals in large junks and separated at the surface or brought out of the cave to be removed by a jeweler.
My first full color digital illustration created for my independent study at school. I started sketching and conceptualizing the illustration while I was at Illuxcon in September. With rounds of redrawing the tower and scanning my ink drawing to place together in photoshop, to create the base of the illustration of the final line art.
I had a good understanding of photoshop before starting the piece but it was an experiment to find the best way to render the piece. With alot of guidance and help from Prof. Chris Gash, he guided me to create a final piece that I'm very happy about.
Since I got to choose the content of the illustration, I picked the scene in Lord of The Rings when the Ents attack Isengard to stop the destruction of the Fangorn Forrest. It's a scene that I've wanted to illustrate for a while and thought that it was a good time to finally create it. Plus I've been drawing lots of Ents and Tree Folk in my sketch book (and drawing them is still not out of my system)
SHOP VISIT
The Halloween weekend, I'll be at my favorite comics store, The Comic Book Shop in Wilmington, DE on Saturday the 26th selling zines, prints, stickers, magnets and original drawings. I'll also be drawing monsters for customers at the shop. It's going to be a fun weekend so stop by!
Here's the ink drawing for a watercolor I'm about half way done with. Its a part of series of 3 paintings about Tree Folk. This is the last piece in the series. I am experimenting with textures in the current 3 watercolors I'm working on and it's really adding to the pieces.
Next week I will have a new drawing for monster monday. The past 2 weeks have been really crazy.
The idea for this Imp piece has been pinned to my board for a month and a half before I decided to make a finished piece. Originally I wanted to make the thieving imp into a watercolor but decided to create a drawing first to see if I wanted to continue the piece to a watercolor illustration. We'll see if it ends up as a watercolor, It would make a nice spot illustration for a role playing game.
tree folk have been dominating my sketch books for the past month. Its interesting to see the many solutions to creating anatomy out of branches and bark. This is a small study for a much larger illustration in the works.
Thanks to a major heat wave and no air condition I got very little work done. My room alone was 95 degrees at night, making the water evaporate as I watercolored. I spent much of my time sketching and planning to make finished work which I started last night. As a warm up, I finished a toned paper drawing to get back into the swing of things.
Last post, I shared drawings from my sketchbook, one of those was of this fish monster. The creature is a combination of fish, frog, and other water animals. Drawing on the blue paper is nice because its different then the brown paper I usually use. I have a bunch of other colors left that I plan to use for more drawings.
Soon I will have a new painting to share, just have to do some finishing.
Rock Elemental
Lately I've been drawing lots of rocks. They have interesting forms. This character was created after I started placing faces on the rocks then I thought of other ways of creating the anatomy.
Craglin, rock elementals