The Siren's Call

So I'm working on my own little comic project called "The Siren's Call."  I hope to publish it by APE in a split-feature with a yet-untitled work by Eve.  Anyway, I figure I'll post maybe 1/4-1/3 of the comic online as it comes out as a sort of a preview.  These may or may not be the final pages, as while I'm posting these, there are a few panels I may need to fix, and I'm thinking I might have to change fonts to something more legible at a small size.

Hella WIPs

So after joining the amazing WIP Nation, I've already got some great feedback on my Arctic Horror piece, which I'll be revising.  I'm also working on about five different pieces simultaneously to try and trick myself to not get bored with any one piece.  As long as I'm working on something new, the painting process gets less tedious, and by working on different pieces, I find that I'm painting each one faster, as since I'm taking breaks from each piece I reapproach each one with a fresh pair of eyes.

Anyway, here's two new WIPs (works in progress) for your viewing pleasure.

Larissa, Airship Mage, 1st Class

  Noxia, Queen of the Slime

Started working in two different styles, came out with two different points.  I'm a lot more happy with the direction Larissa is going, but I think it's just because I really focused on the figure in the slime painting first without resolving the background.  Thus, you have a much more finished foreground and a crap background, making me hate the painting, when I really just have to work on the background as much as the foreground.

Well, just gotta keep going.  I'm working on two other digital paints and a traditional piece, but they're in such a rough, crude, "I want to stab myself" point, I'll wait until they're a bit more respectable before posting them.

Arctic Horror - finish! No really this time!

Okay, decided there were still some tweaks to make, and thus, I spent the hour or two tweaking stuff.  Much happier with it, and I think it's time to move on and at least let this one be done for now.  cool.

Arctic Horror - finish!

Whew.  So while I think I only logged in about 12-19 hours on this one (I wasn't the best at tracking time spent on this project), I'm pretty happy with the end product.  Perhaps I'll come back to it in a few days and work on it more, but so far I'm pretty happy.  This is also the longest I've probably ever spent on a digital paint, so that in itself is a big accomplishment for me.

Cool, time to get on with the other pieces I have in mind.  Go Friday art days!

I'm pretty excited that with the new HP Lovecraft movie in the works, the shoggoth is gonna get more attention.  Woo!

WIP..still

And progress.  Still chugging along.

It's weird that I'm usually okay spending 20+ hours on a traditional painting, but even spending 7 on a digital one seems super difficult.  At least it's coming along!  Still lots of rendering to do, more lighting on the background, etc. etc. etc.  Yosh!

Anyway, I'm already starting some loose sketches and thumbnails for other new pieces.  I asked some fellow Big Umbrella members for inspiration, I got "Punchline" and "Three legged Dog."

For punchline, I ended up with a sketch of a dark circus that has a bone bridge leading up to it and tons of crucified people staked around it.  For three legged dog, I had a rotting zombie dog eating it's own leg.    And who says I can't turn anything dark and creepy?  No one, that's who.

Anyway, if you have any interesting themes or suggestions for future paintings, I find I usually get inspired easier from other people than myself.  Comment away please!

Happy 2012

Yay for a new year!  I feel like more and more, years go by quicker and quicker.  I would assume that's a good thing, but there's already so much work to be done in 2012!!  Arg!

Anyway, one of my new goals is to develop two portfolios - one for book/CCG/RPG illustrations, and one for creature/monster design.

Here's a quick WIP (about three hours in) of an illustration I'm working on which I hope to print and put in the upcoming Big Umbrella "Girls with Guns" show.

Happy Halloween!

Happy halloween everyone!  I'll be spending Halloween night sitting in the airport waiting for my 1am flight to Indonesia!  Crazy!

Anyway, enjoy this quick digital paint and I'll see you in a few weeks!

Defending the Homeland

Digital quick sketch. "Defending the homeland."

Morquat turned back to the last remaining defenders. 'I need more time!!" He quickly returned to focusing his energies on the task at hand - the last remaining bridge. Morquat could feel the heat of the plasma as it flew but a few feet overhead. As he closed his eyes to focus on channeling the forest energy, he heard the unearthy howl of the lumbering beast just yards away. He wondered if the plasma bolts were doing anything but enraging the invader further..




So Eve got a subscription to the Gnomon workshops, and after watching one where Scott Roberts uses markers and overlays them on top of each other to get weird compositions for landscapes, I sort of tweaked it using a mix of digital and traditional media to get a basic shape, then figured out a story (and of course, carved out a monster).  It's not a lot different from the process I outlined in my monster book for my monster sketches, so it was really natural for me to work this way.


I'm definitely looking forward to learning some new techniques to improve my art as a whole.  Cool.

Monster sketches

Monster design - all photoshop.  Woo!

A/B Comparison

Actually, it's more of an "1 vs A" comparison.  I like the idea that came up in an old Futurama episode, where neither of two parallel universes wanted to be "2" or "B," so there was a Universe A and a Universe 1.

Anyway, which of the two do you like better?

Actual art update!

So I'm working on a creature design for a competition.  Any critiques/suggestions by Sunday afternoon would be super helpful.  Weeeee!

I guess the concept of what I'm going for might be helpful.  So the idea is that it's this giant beast (~300 ft. or so) and it's the embodiment of all life in a sort of "embrace-the-entire-cycle-especially-death" type of life.  I wanted to represent as many of the different kingdoms as possible - thus the amphibians, animal, plant, and fungus parts.

Just so you know where I plan to go with this - finish the spiky "teeth" parts on all the flytrap heads, maybe more leaves and smaller vines whipping about, the glowing pods on all the mushrooms, and maybe cooling down the background and warming up the beast as a whole?

What do you think?

The Child Snatcher

The Child Snatcher.  Digital.

Thanks everyone who came out to the opening of Bestiarum vocabulum!  The show will still be up until April 10, and you can check it out at Big Umbrella Wed+Thurs from 7-10pm, Fri+Sat from 3-10pm, and Sunday from 12-5pm.

Woooo!  Hope to put up more photos soon.  Plus, we're still selling our limited-edition t-shirts!  Wowza!  More details coming soon!

12/31/10

Well, I sort of fell off the wagon during the holidays, but I was still making art every day!  Alas, I think I've come to the realization that the art every day is frickin' tough.  As 2010 comes to a close, I'll definitely try to stay active and post new work and such, but I'm not going to kill myself to post every day.

I have some new goals - more finished pieces, finishing up my portfolio and shopping it around, getting the workshops at Big Umbrella going, plus I have a show in March and June to work towards. 

I'm also trying to get more guides up on the Monkey + Seal site (free and paid), and I'm also working on building up the Monkey + Seal website so it's bigger and better. 

Anyway, I've actually sort of settled on a style for my digital illustration work (I never thought anything remotely close would actually happen), and so here are the pieces (some updated a bit from their original postings here) that are currently in consideration for a portfolio.  I'm hoping to get another 10-20 pieces so I can narrow it down to a nice strong 12-15 or so. 

Have a great 2011!

12/16/10

12/15/10

11/21/10

Colored collab with Eve. 

11/19/20

11/18/10

For Monkey + Seal.  Digital and pencil.

11/12/10

11/11/10