Color study

Here is the color study for my next painting...I thought I would be ambitious and work on my color, figures, and landscapes all in one.

Sketchbook Drawings

So while at work I have had lot of time recently to do some drawing in my sketchbook. Since coming back from Illuxcon I have been focused on not only improving my art, but also having a renewed focus on my drawing skills. I noticed at the show great some of the drawings were, and I decided then and there to spend more time drawing in my sketchbook. I noticed that I often work on a sketch for a couple of minutes and then move on to a new sketch/abandon it. I have not been trying to spend more time on my individual drawings, focusing on generating better ideas and better rendering skills. So now after I finish my lunch I spend the rest of my lunch break (I get an hour) to just draw in my sketchbook. In the few months that I have been doing this I have noticed a huge improvement in my rendering skills, also I have been coming up with a bunch of new ideas for future paintings. I thought that I would share some of the better ones and hopefully I will be posting new ones consistently.

Inspiration Art Order Challenge

So here is my submitted painting for the Art Order Inspiration challenge.  My inspiration is one of my favorite artists of all time, Alphonse Mucha.  The only artist I have made a specific pilgrimage to go see, I went to see all of his major works in the Czech Republic including my favorite series of his work, the Slavic Epic.  I have always loved Mucha and Art Nouveau, and have wanted to do my own Art Nouveau piece for a long time, this challenge was the perfect impetus to recharge my artistic mind and take a break from my illustration portfolio work and just do a painting for the sheer enjoyment of myself.

Court of the Dragon

Everything is beginning to settle in after an amazing weekend at Illuxcon in Allentown PA.  I had an incredible time, I met and hung out with some amazing artists, got some great feedback on my work from not only other artists, but art directors too.  In the lead up to the show I was going back and editing old pieces to make them the best I could possibly make them.  I originally wasn't planning on editing this piece, I thought it would be to much work to fix, in too little time before the show with everything else that I still had to do.  With two weeks before Illuxcon I decided I had to do it anyway, there was a lot of stress and long days that ensued but in the end it was totally worth it; it turned into my best piece and helped elevate my portfolio to another level.  I cant wait to go back next year, and I cant wait to see what my work looks like when I do.

All Hail Smaug

So my Smaug painting is finally finished, looking forward to showing it off at Illuxcon next week

Colors

Stage 2 complete

Homage

This is a new piece that I have been working on and off (unfortunately mostly off) for most of the summer.  Alphonse Mucha has always been one of my favorite artists, I love Art Nouveau, and have always wanted to do some nouveau themed pieces.  So in may I decided to take a break from landscapes, monsters, and knights in shiny armor and do my version of a Mucha art nouveau piece.  Hopefully this will be colored and painted by Illuxcon in September, but there are no promises.

Salt Mine

Several months ago I did some card art for Romance of the Nine Empires and they have begun to release some of the artwork for the set.  One of the cards I did was released so I can now post and show the work.

Angel of Justice

Had this idea in my head for almost a year, looking up at an angel as he is taking out his sword to deliver justice.  I started painting it over the summer and realized half way through that the composition was TERRIBLE, so I abandoned it.  A few weeks ago I was messing around in my sketchbook and did a sketch of the same idea of an angel unsheathing a fearsome looking sword.  This sketch had the energy and drama that was completely missing in my previous attempt.  So I scanned the drawing and took some more reference photos and I came out with this, something I am really happy with.

Drink of the Damned

So I did this piece almost two years ago and at the time I was really happy with it.  Recently I was looking at some of my older work and noticed that this piece could use some more work.  I thought I had a opportunity to turn an okay-good piece into a great piece.  I went back and repainted the hands and face of the figure and completely repainted all of the statues on the arch and some other things here and there.  I have to say after finally getting around to fixing all the things that were wrong with the piece (I didnt like most of the stone figures even after I finished the painting in 2011) this is now probably one of my favorite paintings.

Outpost

I started this piece a little over a month ago and decided to take a break from it and work on other things and this week I opened it back up and finally got around to finishing it.

Moonlight

Been wanting to do a night themed painting for a while and now I finally got around to do it

Smaug the Magnificent

So, who else is excited for the Desolation of Smaug?....its only what, 9 months away....

Smaug the Magnificent

Finished drawing for my next painting.....can you tell that I am just slightly excited for The Hobbit?

Boss Battle

Did this one as a quickie, spent a little over a day on it.  I am happy how it turned out though I may go back and spend hours and hours getting everything detailed....though I do kinda like the looseness of it, so I guess we'll see.

There are no happy endings

Over the course of my life I have seen A Lot of war movies where the hero, king, general, or whatever leads a triumphant charge to save the day.  Whenever I see that a small part of myself thinks "you stupid idiot!  What if you get killed right at the beginning of the battle."  Personally I feel the odds of avoiding all of the spears at the front line while wearing a giant "Kill Me" sign are about 0.  So I thought that I would illustrate my version of the idealistic heroic charge....so I decided to show the moment when our beloved king realized he has been fatally stabbed....and probably made a huge mistake leading the charge.

Dinner

So I have been working on this piece for the past 2 months, putting everything I had into it.  mountains, architecture, landscape, trees ect. I definitely learned a lot and am very happy with it.  Now onto more painting!