Monster Monday-September 30, 2013

Tomorrow is October, starting the count down to Halloween. Since this is the first October for Monster Monday, it's going to be a themed month. All characters and creatures from famous books, legends, and tales. Each week I'm going to draw as many portraits of characters as I can. At the end of the month all of the drawings will be available for purchase through the online store I'll be opening up. The drawings will first be for sale at The Comic Book Shop in Wilmington, Delaware for their Halloween weekend. The remaining drawings will be up for sale in the shop.

First up is Frankenstein's Monster from Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. In high school, I read both Frankenstein and Dracula during my senior year to help pass the time. After finishing both books, I found that I was more interested in Shelly's book. It captured the isolation of man and the dangers of science in the hands of the mad. 

For my version of the monster I drew from my imagination when reading the book. I stayed away from the Universal movie monster look of the flat top. I added electrode like contraptions to his spine to power his nervous system. There is also a heart monitor that shows his irregular heart beats. His jaw is metal and hinged to the skull, I figured the jaw of a corpse might fall off so the monster need reinforcement. 

Next is The Phantom of The Opera from the book by Gaston Leroux. Like many people I became familiar with the story from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical. But quickly realized that is wasn't a direct translation from the text. The classic Universal film is a great translation of the book, plus it has the power of early film make up effects. The phantom actually had multiple masks to cast different shadows for different lighting situations, that's dedication.

My phantom draws from both the pop culture design and original book. I've always favored the full mask since his whole face is disfigured. His clothing is theatrical because those are the clothing he has access to leaving under the Paris Opera House. The collar and cape are used to hide while wondering through the many corridors of the opera house and shield his identity from the workers. 

Monster Monday- September 23, 2013

Tree Folk have been dominating my sketch book since the beginning of summer. I can't stop, there just so cool. This was a inking practice for an illustration I am currently working on for one of my classes. It has to do with tree folk.

Later on this week I will post Illuxcon Part 2 as well as share some sketchbook pages.

Illuxcon Part 1

Illuxcon Part 1

This year I decided that I wanted to attend Illuxcon, I bought my ticket in January during my winter break and knew that all the work I created from that moment to the beginning of September could end up being in my portfolio. Luckily between my thesis and generally nonstop drawing, it wasn't to difficult to choose 12 images for my Illuxcon portfolio.

Thursday night, after my 10:00 class ended, I jumped in my car to head to Allentown. Unfortunately it rained the entire drive from school to Allentown, at some points I was driving less then 50 mph because of rain fall. But I made it there in one piece. I checked into the hotel, and quickly passed out from the long drive.

The next morning I got up early to be at the Allentown Art Museum as Illuxcon opened. For the first hour, not to many visitors where on the floor, making it easy to move around and see lots of the paintings. Very soon, the floor filled with students and other illustrators, some getting portfolio reviews, some purchasing prints, and others buying the paintings off the walls. For the good portion of the first day I talked to the illustrators exhibiting in the main showcase. I was very excited to have Chris Seaman review my portfolio, as he is one of my favorite illustrators. His paintings have a great sense of color and stylization that is often missed in the fantasy genera because most often its realistic oil paintings (not that there is anything wrong with that). Its easy to relate to more stylized work for me. I even purchased an illustration from Chris Seaman and happy to say its my very first original illustration that I have purchased. 

Later on in the day I went to a lecture about illustration verus concept art. It was interesting to here two different opinions, one being Robh Ruppel from Naughty Dog and the other Jon Schindehette of Dungeons and Dragons. It all leads down to what answers are being found, a final answer or an explorative answer.

I also purchased to white backed magic cards from Ryan Pancoast and Ralph Horsely. A white back is a printed magic card with out the normal logo of Magic written on the back. Its left white and illustrators often sell them with a nice sketch of the back. From Ryan Pancoast, I got a goblin and from Ralph Horsely I got a tree folk.

Later that night was the showcase at the Holiday Inn a few blocks away. Many students, up and coming illustrators, and seasoned pros set up tables with originals and prints. It was great to see so many people passionate about one thing and it made the experience even greater. I got to meet Sean Murray, who worked on the game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, one of my favorite games I've ever played. I purchased his sketchbook and it is amazing to look through.

There were the books, prints, and the original painting that I bought on my first day of Illuxcon. After the showcase, I headed back to my hotel to do some home work with all the energy from Illuxcon.

Monster Monday- September 9, 2013

The past week has been very busy, I started my last semester and the first time commuting from home to school, a nice hour and a half drive (with out traffic). I'm also preparing for Illuxcon this upcoming weekend in Allentown, PA. This is my first time attending Illuxcon and am excited to meet many of my favorite illustrators and get my portfolio looked at.

But I didn't forget monster monday, this week is a Mind Flayer from Dungeons and Dragons. This is actually based on a drawing I did last summer, I redrew it to see how much I've improved over the last year. My drawing and character design skills have improved as well as the direction I am taking my work. Last summer I felt lost on what to do, digital VS traditional, Super cartoony VS Stylized. Now I feel comfortable on where my skills and look forward to another year of improvement.

Thunder Beard Watercolor

For a while now I've wanted to create a watercolor piece from 'The Iron Halls' a fictional world of a dwarf kingdom in the high mountains with glaciers and snow. A while back I posted the drawing of Lord Thunder Beard and did some digital work on it. This time around is all traditionally done with ink, watercolor, and gouache. There was experimentation done creating texture for the background as well as switching inked lines out for lines created with saturated watercolors.

In the past I haven't written to much about the characters and worlds I've created. So I decided that I should share those thoughts too.

The Thunder Beards are one of three clans that rule the Iron Halls. Thunder Beards are known for their strength in battle with mighty war hammers. There culture centers around the warrior figure in architecture, clothing, and thought. The Thunder Beard clan is always the first line of defense with the Ice Giants attempt to break into the mountain and exterminate the dwarves. They also tend to be the ones who hastily  makes decisions in council meetings. 

The current leader of the Thunder Beards is Olaf 'Giant's bane' of the Thunder Beard Clan. The middle name is a feat name that a dwarf can receive after doing a feat that helps the Iron Halls.

Monster Monday- September 2, 2013

This piece has been on my desk for a while, slowly working on it between shifts of working on the boardwalk. This elemental was an experiment of texture, I used multiple techniques to create new textures. I also experimented with using colored lines that I normally would ink, it really helps give different look then I normally use and I want to try again. 

Monster Monday- August 26,2013

A completely new drawing for Monster Monday. For people who also follow me on tumblr have seen me posting an orc drawing I was working on. Unfortunately due to late night mistakes, the piece fell apart from being over worked. But it did give me a chance to change some elements I wasn't pleased with. Here is Orc Gate Guard (2.0)

Inspired by any dungeon crawling adventure played around a table with imagination and some dice.

Monster Monday- August 19, 2013

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.

Monster Monday- August 12, 2013

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.

Radagast the Brown

The Hobbit has been a favorite of mine since I was 12 and did a report on the book for my English class. (the year before I read The Fellowship of the Ring) At a young age Tolkien's middle earth has shaped and inspired my illustrations.

A while ago I was sketching bored after a full shift on the boardwalk and sat down to draw. Lately all I have been wanting to do is create a new Tolkien piece, I feel my design, composition, and painting skills have all improved since I finish my 5 Hobbit illustrations in my independent study last fall. This time I'm thinking of illustrating a piece from Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion. I just need to find a scene that inspires an exciting image to add to my portfolio before I attend Illuxcon in September.

Monster Monday- August 5, 2013

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.

Tree Folk of Autumn

This painting has been sitting on my desk of over a month and I'm happy to share a new painting. Lately I've been drawing many tree folk in my sketch book and am planning a small long term project with the wandering trees.

I experimented with some new techniques on this piece. The red watercolor was becoming more pink then I wanted, I then mixed some Doc Martins ink to create red. For the Tree Folk, I tried a different bark pattern then I usually use and it turned out great.

Monster Monday- July 29, 2013

This watercolor was made for my Mom for mother's day/her birthday. I finished it over the weekend as a warm up to getting back into painting more and creating finished work again.

This creature is a water sprite. He hangs out by bodies of water collecting pearls and leaving them as good fortune to people they deem worthy. The design was inspired by frogs.

I just finished another painting last night that I will share in the next few days.

Monster Monday- July 22, 2013

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. 

Monster Monday- July 15, 2013

Taking a break from a post about the Legendary Monsters. This week is full of creatures who fill my sketchbook. Keeping a sketchbook is important for me to brew ideas and designs, so I thought I would share sketches done in the past 2 months.

These little guys are going to be used for a series of chapter headers. It shows how the leaf sprite changes with each season, not just physically but emotionally as well. (i really like the little sassy sprite)

The left side of the sketchbook has some fish monsters that I designed to be used in a character spot illustration for a role playing game manual. The right side are designs of dragons, one thing I know that I should be able to draw better are dragons. After all they are important in my books and video games. 

I show spreads of my sketchbooks to show that not every page is filled. Sometimes just to get a fresh feelings, I'll hop to another page. The right side is covered in lumpy, weird mushroom creatures. These guys mumble to themselves as they run around stealing real mushrooms.

More designs of forrest sprites. The orb was to glow at night and guide the lost out of the forrest and back to civilization. The other page was my first attempts are Ice Giants, I have more pages that explore the idea as well as compositions for the watercolor I completed a few weeks ago.

The Imp designs on the spread are being used for a watercolor of a thieving imp sitting on a wooden beam. It's another illustration that I can be seen used in role playing games, more for a written adventure. The Imp steals a valuable necklace of importance and its the adventures task to return it.

These are designs for the Irish Phooka, a known changling, that takes the shape of small animals like goats and cats. I used the animals as reference to make the phooka more animalistic. 

I've been drawing my version of high fantasy elves for a while and haven't used any of the designs in an illustration. Here is the costuming and armor for an archmage high elf character for a role playing game character profile. The next page is my idea of how a explorer might catch smaller creatures of the wild. Many will-o-wisps trapped in jars, they kind of look like little ghosts.

And finally, basic rock elementals. I made it different from every other elemental using ruins to enchant the rock into an humanistic form. He has a strong body structure and cracked rocks of billowing smoke.

Thanks for checking out all of my sketches. I'll be posting one of these images a day of my tumblr.

Monster Monday- July 8, 2013

The past week has been busy with the 4th of July and general beach traffic of summer, luckily today I got off work early and was able to sit down to work on more legendary monsters. 

The Hippocampus is coming along. For the most part I am happy with the design and it's ready to hit some bristol with ink. It's been different for me designing for aquatic animals because I'm honestly not use to it. But now I am enjoying aquatic creatures.

The leviathan is a monster of the deepest of waters, known to crush everything in it's mighty jaws. The inspiration was many sea animals: crabs, eels, angler fish, and lobsters. I want to go back in to add more exoskeleton elements to protect the leviathan for the pressure of the deep as well as other predators. It also needs to be more intimidating.

The Manticore is an addition to the Legendary Monster line up. The manticore is known as a red lion with a scorpion tale and a trumpet like roar. Since it was described as a lion, I used a male lion as the main inspiration for the creature. Then looked at horned animals like gazelle to see how savannah animals horns looked like. There are design elements that still need to be solved, but it's off to a good start.

Inside the Studio

I've been back in Asbury for a while now and finally got my work space set up the way I wanted, thanks to a day of cleaning the third floor completely. Now I have 2 desks! Which makes switching between painting, drawing, and working on the computer much easier. 

I use my drafting table to paint at. It has a large surface area for all my palettes, brushes, and other supplies. In the upper left corner is my tiny light box and for some reason my portfolio is sitting on the edge of the table. Above my desk are my white boards.

The white boards are a new addition. The boards are also magnetic and have cork around the edges, multipurpose is great. I use clips to hold sets of sketches together for ideas that are close to becoming finished pieces and to remind me that there is always something to do. There are some notes as well for projects ideas and lists. I want to get a white board calendar next. 

Here's my new desk just for drawing. The left side of the table has my large format scanner, now I don't have to pull it off my dresser then plug it in under my drafting table. It makes me more inclined to scan and I've actually started using photoshop to help color comp paintings. Its nice to be able to have my sketchbook open on a flat surface to switch to drawing as I'm waiting for a watercolor to dry. 

Right next to my drawing desk is my book collection or at least part of it. This is where most of my art and comic books are. My D&D books are located close by in a large plastic crate. On top of the shelf are some finished sketchbooks for quick reference and an old tool box with extra ink in it. There's some sculptures on the shelf as well, one of a Satyr I've made, a satyr from the Narnia films, and Gollum. 

I don't get lonely working because my dog Abby (she's a mutt, we rescued her 6 years ago) is right behind me watching (more often sleeping) on my bed. She hangs out with me most of the time when I'm at home and really likes to cover my blanket in dog hair. She is a great dog, very gentle and sensitive, but not very graceful. Abby is great company while I work. Sometimes Claire hangs out with me and we talk about the illustrations we are working on and our summer jobs.

That's it for the next work space, soon to have a new painting to post, new legendary monster, and a boat load of sketches.

Monster Monday- July 1, 2013

It's already July, it's hard to believe. I had a very busy week, working a lot the past week at my summer job. I only got a chance to finish one ink drawing of a legendary monster.

Here's the cockatrice. Its a combination of a chicken, ostrich, and reptile features. The cockatrice was one of the easier creatures to design and the first monster I started to sketch at the beginning of the project. I plan on experimenting with ink wash to add more value to the piece over the week to see if I want to add some more pop to the drawings.

Traveling Ice Giant

Finished the illustration earlier in the week. My summer job was/is keeping me busy. But that doesn't mean I'll be slowing done my illustration work. I'm excited to start saving money to get both 'The Other People' and my new 'Legendary Monsters' book printed for the next Con season. All those days standing in the sun, helping tourists pays off.

Remember to pick up 'Against the Slave Lords' to see my hobgoblin illustration

Mushroom Creature

A little creature I drew in my sketchbook.