Mike Burns Illustration

Inspiration Spotlight #21: Steve Jobs

2012-02-10T10:00:00.001-05:00

Ok, I know I'm throwing a curve-ball with this one. To clarify, up until about a year ago, I didn't know who Steve Jobs was, I didn't recognize his name, and I didn't have any opinion of him when I found out he was the founder of Apple. However, a couple days I listened to his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address and I really liked a lot of what he had to say. I thought it would be nice to add something like this because while it's not art related a lot of what he said resonated with me and I thought his speech was really inspiring. Aside from any of his achievements in his career, I think Steve Jobs definitely deserves some appreciate for this speech...

P.S. I learned how to add videos to my blog today!

I'm up to 27 altered Magic cards

2012-02-08T10:00:00.000-05:00

It feels like it's been a while since I've done some alters. Plus since opening the Phyrexian Obliterator, I really wanted to alter it. It's such a gorgeous card already. After looking at these for a while, I think I might go back and paint out the names. I like having the information visible, but in some cases I think it holds back the potential of the alter (like Phyrexian Obliterator and Lightning Bolt). Lightning Bolt would be an awesome one to do full card art on. I'll repost after I tweak them.

I've been keeping a jpeg on file, full of all the card alters I've done so far and they're at the original scan resolution in case anyone's interested. I'll try and get into the habit of posting the updated version along with each new Magic alter post. Which ones are you're favorites??

Phyrexian Obliterator Sketch

2012-02-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

I've got a couple freelance jobs going on right now so I can't post the work I've been doing lately. I just finished up 2 illustrations for Pinnacle Games though and I have to say I'm really happy with how they turned out. The Super Sculpey has been helping me out a LOT. I highly recommend trying it out! I bought some Magic cards and opened up a Phyrexian Obliterator. Awesome card, even awesomer artwork by Todd Lockwood. I loved the art so much I decided to do a quick portrait sketch of the creature. That's all for today, and to my fellow Magic: the Gatherers, Happy Dark Ascension!

Inspiration Spotlight #20: Anthony Briglia

2012-02-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, those of you who know me personally know that Anthony Briglia is my best bud and I know this isn't the first time I've promoted his work on my blog, but he definitely deserves a spot in the spotlight section.

I've been a fan of Anthony's work for about 8 years now and it's been a real joy watch his work grow in both skill level and concept since we were both mediocre artists (at best) going to high school together. He's got some great ideas and a wonderfully grotesque sense of aesthetic which really gives his work just the right flavor to sell his ideas. And if you're someone who really enjoys good ink work you should definitely take a closer look at his work because he really knows how to lay down a nice line in ink.

Anthony has recently started his own blog where he's making a habit of posting an exaggerated portrait every week. There's currently 2 of them up right now and they are both really awesome. You should go check out his work and show him some love. There's sure to be plenty of more goodies in store.

Headless Hydra: Weapons

2012-02-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

My latest batch of work for Headless Hydra Games has been released and you can purchase it HERE. I illustrated a bunch of weapons which can be seen below this sentence.

Hiatus? Explain this!

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed that last week I missed out on a couple of posts, or then again maybe you didn't! Either way, I totally missed out on a couple of posts. This was due to a combination of being away from home for a while and me getting some important emails which needed immediate addressing. I woke up one day to find 2 emails in my inbox that made me VERY happy. The first was from an art director at Fantasy Flight Games who offered me some work to do illustration for one of their games. I happily accepted as FFG is on my career goals "to work for" list and I consider it to be potentially a huge career-changer. Can't really post much more about that now, but as soon as stuff gets published I will be sure to share, though that might be a while.

The other email I got I can totally talk about but I'd rather keep it somewhat to myself until the end of the process. What I will say is that I applied for an in-house illustration job in NYC and I was contacted back asking me to complete an art test because they liked what they saw in my application. If you poke around on this blog you can find out who it's for but I'd rather announce it at the end. I have a really good feeling about the in-house job as I busted my butt working on the art test and I'm really hoping to get an interview.

Anyways, that's my excuse for not updating, I've had a lot on my plate. But things have cooled down enough to where I can start posting regularly again. Even though I totally never officially announced I was going to post 3 times a week. Here's a random character I've played around with recently...

Copies of my Children's Book

2012-01-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

Last week I received a few copies of the children's book I did over the summer with Capstone, "Your Life as a Cabin Boy on a Pirate Ship".

It's a pretty nice feeling to finally have the final hard copy in my hands. It's been so long since I worked on it that pretty much forgot about it, so it was a nice surprise. Here are a couple shots of the cover.

If you want to see what's on the inside you can pick up a copy from the Capstone website or from Amazon.

Digital Doodles

2012-01-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

I'm hit a lull in projects so I've been doing a lot of sketching lately. Below, the top 3 are different thumbs for an underwater Beholder that I came up with. The bottom 3 are various random sketches, except the one on the right, that's a werewolf...don't give me that look, Dark Ascension is coming out soon!

Here are a couple more in-depth sketches. They all need a lot of work but I'd like to take 1 or 2 of them to final at some point.

Here's a sketch I came up with one night on a whim. It has a pen and ink feel to it but it's entirely digital. This was a really fun sketch and I'd like to do more work similar to this in the future.

That's all for now, I'll keep fleshing out the ones I like and maybe you'll see a new portfolio piece coming from me soon.

From the Molskine #5 / Daily Study Update

2012-01-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

Here's some new sketches from my Moleskine notebook. Some fun stuff in here, might try and work these into illustrations at some point.

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As for the daily studies I was posting, the holidays REALLY bogged me down and I've also been working a lot so I haven't had a lot of chances to keep up with the studies, however I have been making sure to do some form of artwork everyday and I've been keeping up with that. The studies were a big help in getting my confidence back up and getting me pumped to create. I'll get back to studies soon but right now I've been focusing a lot on work. It stinks I haven't been able to keep up with the studies, but I'm still producing a lot of work.

Inspiration Spotlight #19: Jason Chan

2012-01-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, I wasn't sure what to write about for the spotlight this week so I'm just going to gush a little over my favorite illustrator... JASON CHAN!!

I've been following Jason's work for a few years now and he continues to be one of my biggest sources of inspiration in art. He's got some awesome ideas for illustrations (see above and below images). And they're topped off by being gorgeously rendered. There are TONS more illustrations out there by JChan that you should see and my folder of his work is currently at 183 (if only he posted stuff online more often!).

Another reason I love Jason Chan is because I've learned a lot from looking at his work and watching his tutorial videos. I also came across a section on his website called "The Junk Drawer" where he had archived tons of old pieces from back when he wasn't quite as good. I was in awe after going through all the sections and actually seeing his growth happen with each new year of work. Seeing his less matured work alongside his now ridiculously-awesome work made me realize that he started off right where I did and so there's really no reason I can't improve to his level as well. His website seems to be down right now and "The Junk Drawer" section was closed off well before that, but here's a blog post I came across that gives an example of what I'm talking about as far as his growth as an artist.

Lastly here is some of his most recent work for the new Magic: The Gathering expansion Dark Ascension (above and below images). He does a lot of great work in various genre's and I'm always excited to see new work from him. Please check out his stuff if you aren't familiar!

I've been altering more Magical cards

2012-01-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

Here are the last 2 batches of Magic: The Gathering alterations.

I can definitely tell I'm improving with these and I've been really happy with the progress. If you have any suggestions for cards you would like to see altered please let me know and I'll see what I can do. Enjoy!

Illustrating the Art Order Dragon

2012-01-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

Jon Schindehette asked the Art Order community to take a swing at illustrating the beloved Art Order Dragon to use on business cards and T-shirts. I saw his post about it only minutes after posting it and I was really interested in giving it a try myself. Here's a walk-through of how I created my piece...

I had just recently gotten my hands on a base to use for my Sculpey maquettes so I was raring to give it a try. I quickly sketched my idea and made a sculpt and lit it.

I then started blocking in the shadows with ease due to having my Sculpey reference.

Next I carved out the silhouette and added some fun design elements to the image.

Here I start rendering the dragon, and it looks to be coming together nicely.

More detail...

Final detailing and added a bunch more dots and inserted the Art Order text.

I did another version where I edited out the background for Jon's use, but this was the final piece I came to for myself and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The Sculpey is turning out to be very useful and just as much fun. I hope you've enjoyed this step-by-step. I want to try and post more in the future.

Inspiration Spotlight #18: IlluXcon

2012-01-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

IlluXcon

That's right, IlluXcon gets it's own line in this post, it doesn't even need any period or anything either. IlluXcon is a fairly young convention that celebrates the Fantastic Arts and it is THE place to be for people who are looking to break into the Sci-Fi / Fantasy art industry, or if you're already comfortably nested in the industry you can enjoy the pleasure of hanging out with your friends and selling some goodies. There are tons of connections to be made, plenty of people more than happy to look at your work and talk about it, and lots of lectures and demos put on by the industry's leading talents.

On Wednesday, I mentioned I'm really trying to beef up my portfolio, and IlluXcon is the whole reason why. I have attended IlluXcon once before (the 3rd one) but I wandered around as some nobody just taking in the artwork and being terrified by and in awe because of all the talent surrounding me. I got a lot out of it but I didn't have a whole lot of direction. I just knew I wanted to go.

But this year for IlluXcon 5 I'm attending again and I'm trying to plan things out a little more. The first thing I did was buy a ticket along with a table in the Showcase room! Here I'll get to set up my own work for others to walk around to and see for themselves rather than having me walk up to everyone and make the puppy-dog eyes and ask "would you pwease wook at my powfowio?" I'm definitely going to take advantage of having a Showcase table.

(Another photo from IlluXcon 3 would be here if I were better about taking photos)

To give you an idea of what a big deal IlluXcon is for me, I've been in falling in and out of a slump with my work lately, but after simply paying for admission and a Showcase table, I'm already feeling super recharged and pumped up to do some awesome work in preparation. If you want to learn more about the convention there are a lot of other people who have done a great job of documenting it, I also talked about my experience briefly in this post. Really, nothing speaks for IlluXcon like the con itself so if you're interested at all, do yourself a favor and go!

Sculpey, of Super Proportions

2012-01-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

I recently bought myself a new toy! Tools can be toys so I don't want to hear it. I picked up some Super Sculpey so I can start making maquettes for me to use as a source of reference for future illustrations. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out how light would fall against an object you made up out of your head, so it can help out a lot to sculpt some simple shapes just to figure out how the light reacts and where the shadows fall. Ideally, in the end you get a more realistic and believable final image from it.

Here are a couple of first attempts with the Super Sculpey. Not trying to get too extravagant, just trying to get a feel for the stuff since I've never touched it before.

And here's my study based on the bottom-left photo. It definitely helps me move along more quickly because I don't have to try and figure out how it would work, I just follow the information I can gather from the photo.

This is all a part of me trying to get more serious about using reference. I'm really looking to beef up my portfolio in preparation for something very important and exciting. Some of you may already know, but if not you'll find out about it on Friday so make sure to stop back!

More Headless Hydra work

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

I recently finished up a new batch of work for Headless Hydra Games. The pieces below are for the Death in Spindlewood Marsh adventure. If you follow this link you can download the adventure for FREE. I'm really proud of this batch of work. I got to choose whatever I wanted to illustrate and it allowed me to have some extra fun with them. Enjoy!

Hydra Skull

Hydra Tapestry

Zanthike, the Green Hag

Inspiration Spotlight #17: Ben Templesmith & Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse

2011-12-30T10:00:00.000-05:00

Speaking of artists who've inspired me early on (last week's post), Ben Templesmith is one of the first illustrators to ever really start influencing my work and this was long before I even really knew what illustration was. Ben is an very accomplished comic book creator...I say creator because he has been know to draw, ink, color and even write for the comics he produces. I've been enjoying Ben's work ever since I first picked up the Silent Hill comics he worked on for a little bit, way back whe nI was in high school.

My favorite of Ben's works is one he created entirely on his own titled "Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse". The story takes place in a universe inhabited by corpse's that act as meat suits for an inter-dimensional traveling worm, demons, leprechauns and a whole mess of other crazy species.

Wormwood is super funny and enjoyable! Ben has created a really fun and interesting world with some really delightful characters with some great personalities. His style has a lot of character and grittiness to it too, and his color choices really drive home the perfect mood for the setting.

I've been following Ben's work for a long time now and he always manages to keep me wanting more. He's done his own interpretations of superheroes and other famous characters...like Jesus! (see below) I really enjoy Ben's work a lot and he's got a pretty large fan base, so it's definitely not just me. If you like what you see check it out and maybe buy a comic or two of his!

A tooth for a painting

2011-12-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

Well not really, she never actually took any of my teeth and it's more like a painting for money...what I'm trying to say is that I recently did a couple of mixed media (ink, watercolor, colored pencil) pieces for my dentist. I came in for an appointment, told her about what I did and she asked me if I could work up some pieces for her son and daughter for Christmas.

It was a lot of fun working on some children's illustrations and it felt good to be working traditionally again as well. I'm really looking forward to hearing how her kids liked them. I'd love to do something like this again in the future so if you'd like your own piece, let me know.

P.S. I have been really busy lately working on jobs and stuff that I haven't really had much time to do studies. I have however been making sure to do some kind of artwork every single day. I missed out on only one day so far though, really rough day. Anyways, I hope to get back into the habit of doing the studies after the holidays.

Inspiration Spotlight #16: Sean Murray

2011-12-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, I briefly mentioned that I got to meet artist Sean Murray a few years ago. He came to speak to the illustration class at Syracuse University. During his visit we got a chance to hear about his successes as an illustrator, ask questions, and we even got to watch him do a digital painting demo to get a feel for how he works.

Sean Murray is currently the lead concept artist over at Big Huge Games and he was part of the team that's been working on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. He does some really ridiculous drawings. His characters and architecture are completely saturated with ornaments and detail. His sketchbooks are a real joy to look through.

At the time of his visit, I had never met a professional illustrator aside from my professors. When I saw the kind of work Sean was doing I immediately thought to myself "that's exactly what I want to do!" That was the day it finally clicked that working as an artist was absolutely possible, because here was a guy who was doing exactly what I've always wanted to do. Not only that, but we graduated from the same college so there's no reason I couldn't wind up doing the same right?

This is the mindset that I've been using to propel myself forward and it's what got me to start being serious about my work. The Kraken Wizard piece from Wednesday (the one in the middle) was the first piece I did (not for classwork either, only for myself) and it was the best piece I had ever done at the time. It was the spark that helped ignite the still-burning fiery passion I have to make it as an illustrator. Sean Murray continues to inspire me with his new work. You can see plenty more work on his website and you can stay up to date with his latest work on his blog.

Kraken Wizard 3.0

2011-12-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

Finished a new portfolio piece recently. I drew this guy in my sketchbook a little while back and I finally got a chance to paint him up. I'm pretty happy with how he turned out.

This actually isn't the first time I've painted this character. I first doodled this guy and painted him up back in 2007. I had just recently bought my first tablet and hadn't really been pushing myself at the time. Then in 2008, I got to meet an artist by the name of Sean Murray (I'll talk about him and his work more on Friday). and after seeing his work and hearing him talk about it, I decided to redraw the character and repaint him too. At the time I had blown myself away, I was so shocked that I was able to push myself to do a piece like the one in the middle below. A couple years later, and still pushing myself really hard, I've completed the piece you see above and below on the right.

I have no intention on slowing down anytime soon though, I've still got a long long way to go to really start reaching level I want, and even then I've got to keep pushing.

Imagine FX FXPose feature in issue #77

2011-12-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

A few months back I submitted my work to the FXPose submissions and I got word that I would be featured! Recently, the issue I'm in went on sale, #77, and I got my copy in the mail. It's a pretty good feeling to see my work featured alongside artists I love in a publication I've been reading for a couple years now.

Lots more to accomplish still though, until next time!

Inspiration Spotlight #15: Dr. Seuss

2011-12-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

You know, for an illustration blog, the so called "inspiration" section could use a couple more illustrators huh? Might as well get this started off with someone good right? How about the most successful illustrator who ever lived!? Some of you may think I'm talking about Norman Rockwell, Charles Dana Gibson, or Frank Frazetta, but...um...not quite. While they are all FANTASTIC illustrators who have truly made their mark in the illustration world, truth is the average person doesn't even know their names. But there is one illustrator that everyone knows about no matter your age or interests...and that's good ole Dr. Seuss.

It's hard to deny that Dr. Seuss is the most successful illustrator when lots of illustrators I talk to these days complain about no one even understands what it is they do let alone can they appreciate it. Illustrators used to be celebrities, but now even the most talented illustrators these days aren't recognized or appreciated at the level their talents deserve, at least by the general population. I'm not including within the realm of illustrators, we know who the celebrities of the illustration world are today.

Dr. Seuss is known for (like you don't already know why he rocks) his crazy imaginative worlds and characters and his super delightful writing (yeah he illustrated AND wrote his own books). He wrote a lot of best sellers and his books pretty much make up their own genre now. Spell-check doesn't even yell at me when I type his name!

He's just awesome. I don't really need to explain, his work speaks for itself. I'm writing this mostly so people understand the magnitude at which his awesomeness reigns. I would suggest you do yourself a favor and pick up some of his books and love them forever, but it seems like most people are already doing that.

0 A.D.

2011-12-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

I recently did an illustration for the game 0 A.D. by Wildfire Games. This illustration was done as a background image for their main menu.

Check out 0 A.D. HERE

5th week of studies

2011-12-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

It gets tough doing studies every single day. Sometimes I don't have the energy to really polish them enough to sparkle, sometimes I'm busy, other times I restart a couple of times in order to get something I like and sometimes I wind up copping out after 3 or 4 tries *cough* (like the sword) *cough*. So if you see any images that stand out as "Really? That's it?" just remember we all have rough days. I'm not really doing this for anyone but myself anyways so it's not like I'm hurting anyone else if I do become lazy. I just feel like I should explain what I'm trying to accomplish since I've decided to share the progress. I always try to find some way to make up the work no matter what the situation is. My main goal is to do something art related EVERY SINGLE DAY and that's exactly what I've been doing no matter how much or how or little. One day I didn't do a study because I wound up spending 10+ hours finishing an illustration and I just did not have the energy to do a study (and I doubt it would've been all that great either) but you can't really feel bad for not painting because you were busy painting you know? Makes sense to me. Anyways if I ever do fall behind I'll be sure to bear the shame and fall on my badly painted sword. Maybe the humility will push me to try even harder. No more delay, here's the goods...

Inspiration Spotlight #14: All my friends are dead.

2011-12-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

I heard about this book a while back, and it sounded hilarious. Then, one day I'm just waiting in line at a bookstore, and BAM... All my friends are dead., staring at me in the face. I picked it up and flipped a few pages and it was an instant buy!

Here's an excerpt from the book...

WASN'T THAT GREAT!? How about this one??...

Ok, it's hard to get the full effect of the book from just the first 2 pages, but it keeps going, it picks up momentum, getting better and better. The drawings are amusingly simplistic and the expressions on all the faces are pretty priceless, especially with the super awesome punchlines and perfect comedic timing. If you're interested in picking up the book (if you have a sense of humor then you should!) then you can check it out HERE.

Work for Savage Mojo

2011-12-07T10:00:00.001-05:00

Here's a couple of black and white illustrations I did a little while ago for Savage Mojo.

Stone Hound

Fire Wizard

Mutant Rat Attack

4th Week of Studies

2011-12-05T10:00:00.000-05:00

The holiday made things tough, and I have a good feeling the same thing will happen for the next holidays coming up soon. I couldn't always do a study each day so I at least made sure to do some sort of practice drawing like #24. There were also some days I was just not feeling good enough to do the studies so I decided to relax and do some Magic card alters. I'm still learning from the Magic alters are though, I'm getting really confident with my color mixing and matching, and it's nice to be able to use the traditional materials every now and then. Anyways that's all for now, check back for more later.

Inspiration Spotlight #13: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

2011-12-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, this one might be a little obscure, but I remember reading Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz all the time when I was little.

Me and my friends were really into them and one of the things that stood out the most were the pencil illustrations that accompanied each story.

This was probably one of my first real encounters of illustrations that really impacted me, at least since I my children's books.

To this day, when I make drawings more along the lines of the horror, you can often see similarities between my drawings and the drawings inside Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, done by illustrator Stephen Gammell.

The stories are a lot of fun, and some of them are really creepy for a kid to read. I still enjoy looking through these books from time to time, though I have no idea what happened to my copies.

New Magic Alterations

2011-11-30T10:00:00.001-05:00

I've been hard at work on doing more Magic: The Gathering Alterations. I've been trying some different methods of doing the alters. If anyone reading this is interested in having some of their own please let me know and maybe I can do some for you! Now onto the cards!!!....

Cards and their original artists:

Demystify - Christopher Rush
Thallid Germinator - Tom Wänerstrand
Chandra's Spitfire - Justin Sweet
Grim Poppet - Kev Walker
Kessig Wolf - Wayne England
Child of the Night - Ash Wood
Utopia Mycon - Anthony S. Waters
Doom Blade - Chippy
Sudden Death - Dave Allsop
Full Moon's Rise - Terese Nielsen
Cone of Flame - Chippy

3rd week of studies

2011-11-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

I'm really happy with a lot of the stuff in this batch, particularly 15, 16, and 17. These studies are turning out to be a lot of fun and I feel like my work is already improving from them. I'm going to give a warning ahead of time, the start of the next batch was a little rough due to the holidays and some traveling, and some aren't so much studies as much as me staying productive. I'm still making the effort though so that's the most important thing to me. Anyways, enjoy the new batch!

Inspiration Spotlight #12: Ninja Mountain Podcast

2011-11-25T10:30:00.000-05:00

Ninja Mountain is a collective of Sci-Fi / Fantasy / Horror illustrators. They regularly make a podcast appropriately called Ninja Mountain Podcast. I found out about the podcast last summer and I started listening to a few episodes a day as I worked on art projects. They are jam packed with fun and interesting conversations about the art world, they talk a lot about the business involved with being a freelance artist, and they are more than happy to answer any questions from their audience and from time to time they have special guests like art directors and other awesome artists.

Ninja Mountain has been a great influence on me because they really opened my eyes up to exactly how the illustration world works, and they kept me company during my long days working. There are currently 107 episodes, most are around an hour and a half (sometimes more) so if you're looking for something fun and inspirational to listen to while you work, here's another one to add to your list!

You can find all of the episodes on the Ninja Mountain Scrolls Blog, and you can subscribe to the podcast on itunes HERE.

From the Moleskine #4

2011-11-23T10:30:00.000-05:00

Lots of dragons this time around. I think I'll wind up using the first image as a sketch for a finish sometime.

2nd week of studies

2011-11-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

Here's my 2nd week of studies for the Crimson Daggers Deathline Challenge!

William O Connor dragon

Todd Lockwood dragon

Inspiration Spotlight # 11: Final Fantasy IX

2011-11-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

Final Fantasy IX is my favorite video game. It is the only Final Fantasy game I've been able to reach the end of, and I've done so many many times. For me, I can easily pickup this game whenever and run all the way through it without getting sick of it.

This game had a huge impact on me when I played it as a kid. My first Final Fantasy game was VIII and it was just too complex and had too much teen angst for me, I could only get past the 1st disc. But everything about FFIX I loved! It was more sword & sorcery / steampunk (which I prefer) than other Final Fantasy games are; most usually leaning towards the sci-fi realm. It has a very whimsical art style to it, and the overall feel of the game is a lot more lighthearted than most Final Fantasy games as well.

FFIX knows just how to balance the happy-fun-times with the dramatic-extreme-epicness. It's not a non-stop depression-fest, it's a mix of all the right emotions. FFIX is my favorite game because I will never be able to forget when I finally beat the game and I watched the end credits and I found myself asking "It's over? NO! I want more!" I'm yet to play any other game, read any book, or see any movie that made me feel the same way about it.

The art (like any Final Fantasy) is absolutely gorgeous and all the designs are brilliant. The monsters, the characters, the cities, the vehicles, EVERYTHING! For anyone who loves FFIX as much as me or just appreciates the artwork that goes into creating such games, I highly recommend The Art of Final Fantasy IX. It's full of gorgeous development artwork for a variety of characters, monsters, and environments. And of course, it has a bunch of Amano pieces in it as well. Overall, you can tell there was tons more that they left out and so it's a little upsetting to see they didn't add more into the final product, but it's still one of my most treasured art books.

If you haven't played FFIX yet, you're missing out. You should get a hold of this game somehow and love it forever. If you have played and you've been nodding your head with excitement as you read this post, then high five!

Mor Aldenn Illustrations for Headless Hydra Games

2011-11-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

I've been working for Headless Hydra Games and I recently got approval to share my work. The 6 black and white pieces below were done for the Mor Aldenn setting guide. It's a setting that strongly focuses around magic and magic users. Check em out!

Magic powered lampposts light the town.

You can find some mages partaking in summon fights.

Necromancers must abide by the 2nd Law.

A Spellshield stands reviews some of his notes on magic in preparation for his patrol.

A Spellwarden, standing proud and noble.

Asmorah Vildrae relaxes with her pig familiar.

I'll try to make another post when the setting guide is released, until next time!

First batch of studies for the Crimson Daggers Deathline Challenge!

2011-11-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

As I said last week, I'm partaking in the Crimson Daggers Deathline Challenge and to get myself started off I'm just trying to make sure that I take some time to do some sort of study every single day. Some may take more time than others, some are inevitably going to better / worse than others, but as long as I'm doing some sort of study everyday then I'm good, at least for the first month. Next month I'm going to kick it up to the next gear...not sure how yet. I've got a bunch of stuff to deal with right now so I'm going to finish up all that stuff and then focus more on studies and stuff. Without out further delay, my studies...

Inspiration Spotlight #10: Dave Rapoza, Dan Warren, & Crimson Daggers

2011-11-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been listening to / watching illustrator Dave Rapoza's livestream. You've probably seen his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, but in case you didn't here's a mash-up Dave made of all the finished portraits.

Dave's been really influencing me for a while now. The above series is one of the big reasons I decided to do the couple Power Rangers pieces I did. But now that I'm been watching his livestream I'm getting some really great advice, I can ask him questions and from time to time he'll give feedback on people's work along with his also illustrator friend Dan Warren. Dan's been doing a 2 hour study everyday in order to better his skills for when he goes to do new portfolio pieces. An example of one of his studies can be seen below...

Dave and Dan run a study group called Crimson Daggers. There are no real rules or anything, a basic outline is in place that everyone can work from in order to become better artists, and every month on Dan's livestream they host the Golden Boy awards, where they name one of the participants the Golden Boy for really improving their work through studies. Dan also hosts his study sessions on his livestream and encourages others to work alongside him.

The Crimson Daggers just announced a challenge called the Crimson Daggers Deathline Challenge. Basically you set up a couple big seemingly unachievable goals to accomplish over the course of the next year to better yourself and your artwork by setting miniature goals to achieve every month and you have to do something every single day to work towards your goal. Every month they are going to have up meet-up on the livestream to talk about everyone's progress. If you wanna learn more click the link and join in yourself! I'm partaking, and I've already started the process. I'm starting off by making sure I do some sort of study every single day no matter what. I'll post the studies up on the blog next week, I've already done a bunch. I think I forgot to link to Dave's website...BAM Dave Rapoza!

International Self-Portrait Day 11/1/2011

2011-11-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

For the past few years, the ConceptArt.Org community has been doing an International Self-Portrait Day held on the first of November, and despite my distaste for doing self portraits I came up with something.

I originally spent a couple hours trying to get something I liked out of a realistic style painting, but that was not working out and I looked way too serious. I much prefer to do self-portraits as far from serious as possible. See the rest of the self-portraits HERE.

I'm in ImagineFX!

2011-11-07T10:00:00.001-05:00

Some of you may remember way back when I was featured on the front page on ImagineFX's website. Well short after that happened I got contacted by the people over at ImagineFX to be included in an upcoming magazine! A few months later (now) I found I was finally featured in the magazine.

I should clarify, I'm not really printed in the magazine anywhere, but I am included on the free dvd that comes with the issue.

On the disc you'll finds lots of tools and resources great for any aspiring artist, as well as a lineup of featured artists. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I got to share the disc with Christopher Burdett. I've been following Chris's work for some time now (super-awesome-fun-time-monsters!!) and it's a really nice feeling to be included next to someone else whose artwork I admire.

I was pretty sure I was going to be also featured in the printed magazine's FXPose section in another issue, but I've never heard anything back on it. I sent them all the files and the bio and everything but I don't really know what happened. If anyone comes across my work that's printed in another issue please let me know! I would really like to get my hands on a copy, but I have no way of figuring out which one I'm in. If anyone sees me int the printed pages please let me know!!

Inspiration Spotlight #9: Egoraptor

2011-11-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

Online personality Egoraptor (Arin Hanson) is an animator / voice actor who has achieved much success on websites like Newgrounds and Youtube. I remember watching Egoraptor animations way back in high school. He is the creator of and voice actor in his "Awesome" series, where he takes popular video games and turns them into hilarious Flash parody animations.

Here's his first animation uploaded way back in 2006: Metal Gear Awesome

He also has another series called Girlchan in Paradise which is a parody on anime and it pokes fun of the tendencies that come up a lot in anime.

Last but definitely not least (it's what sparked the idea to feature Egoraptor this week) he just started this new series called Sequelitis and he describes it as, "a funny and slightly educational look at sequels and the relationship they have with their predecessors". If you enjoy watching reviews on movies / video games, you'll most definitely enjoy this series (after I wrote this the second video just came out!). The first episode is on Castlevania and Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest.

It's cool coming across this stuff when you're a naive little high school student and then all of a sudden you realize how much work goes into this kind of stuff and you can appreciate the growth of his work over time, just keeps getting better.

From the Sketchbook #4

2011-11-02T10:00:00.000-04:00

It feels like it's been a while since I've drawn anything on paper. I didn't know what to work on so I decided to dig up an old piece I did of this same character of mine and give it a make-over.

I'm going to fully paint this guy and I hope to post him up sometime in the near-future. Along with it I'm going to show the past image I was referencing from to show the difference, and I'm even going to show the very first time I drew the character, about 4 years ago. It should be a fun post so keep an eye out for it. Until next time!

Dragon Hunters

2011-10-31T10:00:00.000-04:00

Wooo, new piece! There are a lot of things that I like about this one. I have a tenancy of doing a lot of solo character, no environment type of pieces. But for once I decided to focus on going all out and painting an actual fantasy environment rather than the typical fantasy monster or character.

It's nice to do a piece that has some depth and story behind it. Who are these hunters? Are they from that town in the distance? Are they hunting out of sport or out of protection? Is this dragon a pest or was he minding his own business? Being able to ask these kinds of questions at the end of a piece makes it way more interesting I think. Anyways, I'll stop rambling about it now. I'm pretty happy with it though. :)

Inspiration Spotlight #8: Vsauce

2011-10-28T10:00:00.000-04:00

Vsauce is turning into one of my favorite channels on Youtube. I like to describe it as a sort of filter for finding cool things on the internet. If you want to see awesome and hilarious images they have a segment called IMG, for games and other fun things to do on the internet they have another segment called DONG (Do Online Now Guys). But in general you can learn a lot of really awesome things depending on what you're interested in seeing.

They also have a second channel, appropriately called Vsauce2. It basically is has the same feel as Vsauce, but they also cover more things like riddles, and some mind-blowingly cool things under their segment Mind Blow as well as FAK (Facts and Knowledge).

One of the coolest parts to Vsauce is that they link back to just about everything they reference in their videos so if you see something you like you can look into it further.

Here are a couple of my favorite episodes from Vsauce and Vsauce2...

LONELY.

FIRST Photo on the INTERNET ... and other things too.

The world's BIGGEST HOLES

CROSSBOWS !!!

Magic: The Gathering Alterations

2011-10-26T10:00:00.001-04:00

I recently found a place to buy and play Magic where I live! I was starting to think I was the only person in Philly who played. So I bought some cards to pump up all my decks a little bit, and while there I played against a guy who had an altered Magic card. I've seen alterations people have made to Magic cards online, but I'd never seen any in real life though. They definitely call attention to themselves and have the potential to look pretty cool if you do it right. Some people extend the art outside the original borders (check out Daarken's alterations) and others change the art into something humorous (check out Steve Argyle's alterations).

I decided to take shot at these myself. Check out my first batch of card alterations:

Nothing too crazy yet, just trying to get a feel for what painting on a card is like. So far it's been pretty fun! If you have any requests or suggestions for card alterations let me know and I'll see if I have the card and maybe I'll give it a try.

(Original artists from left to right: Christopher Rush, Tom Wänerstrand, Justin Sweet)

A Crabby Dentist and Tumblrs

2011-10-24T10:00:00.000-04:00

Here's one of the sketches that I reclaimed from before. I haven't done anything children oriented in a while, so it was fun to mix things up a bit and revisit an old idea that I was still fond of. I feel like this piece would make for a great poster to hang up in dentist offices in order to get their patients to brush their teeth.

And here's the sketch again in case you forgot...

---

In other news, I've recently created a Tumblr page and have been posting up all my work, hoping that people start sending my work around the web for me so I can essentially have other people marketing my work. It seems to be getting some good results so far, especially anything fan-art related (no surprise there). So if you're the kind of person that Tumbls, why not head over to my page and reblog a piece or two. If you don't, I'll just tell my crab dentist buddy that you haven't been brushing your teeth!

Inspiration Spotlight #7: Breaking Bad

2011-10-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

The finale season 4 of Breaking Bad aired recently and well...let me explain.

I started watching the show last year when a friend of mine recommended it to me and our other friends. My friend had all the seasons so we started watching from the start of season one. The first night we watched four 45-minute episodes in a row. Needless to say we were pretty hooked.

According to AMC's website:

"Breaking Bad follows protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher who lives in New Mexico with his wife (Anna Gunn) and teenage son (RJ Mitte) who has cerebral palsy. White is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of two years left to live. With a new sense of fearlessness based on his medical prognosis, and a desire to secure his family's financial security, White chooses to enter a dangerous world of drugs and crime and ascends to power in this world. The series explores how a fatal diagnosis such as White's releases a typical man from the daily concerns and constraints of normal society and follows his transformation from mild family man to a kingpin of the drug trade."

Now what might this have to do with what I do? Not much material-wise. But honestly this show is constantly amazing me with how great the writing is, the outstanding performances by the actors and the overall fun and intrigue I get out of watching. It really challenges myself to take a look at my own work and think "Am I working as hard as I can to make sure my own work is this well-done and interesting?" Seeing other artists (of all kinds) creating amazing works makes me want to be able to do the same with my work. Gotta keep climbing to reach the next level.

2/2 Birthday Zombie

2011-10-19T10:00:00.000-04:00

Here's a piece I did as a gift for my good friend Anthony Briglia. It was his birthday yesterday so I worked up this fake (and over-sized) Zombie token for Magic: The Gathering. I recently split a box of the new Magic set, Innistrad, with him and he really took a liking to how the zombies worked so I decided to make him his very own personalized zombie token featuring him and...himself.

Last month was my own birthday and Anthony made a couple of custom Magic cards for me along with some original artwork featuring myself and my old dog Chester...

The piece I did was drawn in pencil then inked with Microns and Sharpie, painted in water color and acrylic.

From the Sketchbook #3

2011-10-17T10:00:00.000-04:00

Been so busy working on finals lately that I haven't done any sketching in a while. I really need to get back in the habit of doing so. Can't lose sight of the fact I still have to practice. Here are some recent sketches I managed to make time to do...

I've got a lot of ideas for what pieces I want to do in the future but I'm having a little bit of difficulty deciding which ones to stick with at the moment. I may be leaning towards a specific idea, but you'll find out what I've got in store in soon enough.

Inspirtation Spotlight #6: Perry Bible Fellowship

2011-10-14T10:30:00.000-04:00

Change of pace for the Spotlight this week. By now a lot of you know how big on the fantasy genre I am, and sometimes this leads to people overlooking my love for other genres, like humor. I take a more humorous route with my Youth work and my Comic Strip, and I think it's time to give a tip of the hat to one of my favorite comic strips, The Perry Bible Fellowship.

The Perry Bible Fellowship was created by Nicholas Gurewitch and a small group of his friends who give their ideas and input. The comic first appeared in Syracuse University's Daily Orange Newspaper, which is the same newapaper that I worked for and ran my own comic in during my own time at college. Turns out Nick and I share the same alma mater, the same page in the comics section of the Daily Orange, and we even had the same teacher for a class.

It was a huge surprise my freshman year in my Narrative Drawing class when my professor Yvonne Buchanan laid out a bunch of books for the class to draw inspiration from, and one of them was a book of Perry Bible comics. I remember telling Yvonne how much I loved the comic strip and was surprised to hear her say "Oh, I know him! He was in my class." It was really exciting to talk to her about it, as I was already a huge fan of the comic at the time.

An even bigger surprise came when I became Art Director for the Daily Orange newspaper. The D.O. had their own house off campus where they made the paper. I had a small room to myself to work in and the walls were covered in drawings and writing from art director's past. There were tons of drawings scattered all over the room and piles more lying in drawers, filled to the brim with archived comics and illustrations. One day I decided to go rooting through all the drawers when I came across a drawing that looked very familiar. I immediately recognized it as the original New Specs for Ken drawing/inks. Happily surprised, I rooted through every other piece of paper in the room (which was a LOT, trust me) and found about 2 or 3 more PBF drawings. Apparently Nick had been trying to get the drawings back from a previous Art Director, so he sent an email asking for an update on the comics. He used to work as the Art Director for the D.O. as well and I guess he left some of the comics there a long time ago while working there. I told him that I had found a bunch of them and sent them to him in the mail.

As a sign of gratitude, Nick kindly offered to send me a signed print of whichever comic I wanted. I'm now the happy owner of a signed print of Scorpy the Forest Friend (above). Nicks comics continue to inspire my humor and keep making me laugh, despite the comic not been produced regularly anymore.

If you enjoy the PBF, you should purchase the Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack. It's 256 pages of beautifully printed comics, included never-before released comics and an interview. It's one of my favorite books in my collection.

Mousey Dies: The Comic

2011-10-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

I present to you my short comic, "Mousey Dies". A year ago I was given an assignment to create a 2 page comic with no dialogue, illustrating a character's death, becoming resurrected in the afterlife, then they have to go to heaven or hell. In addition to the 2 pages, we had to do a cover image as well. The pages had to be done in pencil or ink and the cover image had to be fully rendered in color. A year later and I decide to revisit the project, tweaking the color scheme of the color to fit what I wanted to do with the pages, and I fully colored the 2 pages. Below are the results of my reworking.

I hope you enjoy what I did with the assignment!

Rita Repulsa from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

2011-10-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

When I was looking into doing my Madame Woe piece, I saw a lot of images of Rita Repulsa and I couldn't resist giving her a go as well.

Rita always stuck out in the show, of course that has a lot to so with her being the main villain, but she was also completely insane, and her costume design was even more insane. I mean just look at that hair!

I'm planning at least one more piece in the Power Ranger series, but I think I'm going to give the Rangers a break for a little while so I can focus on some other projects I've got lined up like what I mentioned in the previous post on old sketches. Hint as to the next character I'll paint...he's depicted in one of the images posted in the original Power Rangers post I made.

Inspiration Spotlight #5: The Legend of Zelda

2011-10-07T10:00:00.000-04:00

Now here's a game series that I know a lot of people have played. The original Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System is one of the first video games I can remember playing and the series as a whole has left a lasting impression on me. The Zelda series takes place in it's own unique fantasy setting and it's always a fun adventure with every game.

When it comes to fantasy settings, I get a bit tired of dwarfs (short, tough people) and elves (tall, environmentalist people). What I love about the Zelda series is it's full of it's own special species like the Deku Scrubs (seen below). Sure they're humanoid, and they're not the first species to be tied into nature, but I think they're a lot more creative than the concept of say an elf.

Oh yeah and the monsters and just as awesome!

The Zelda universe has been expanding for over 25 years now and it's gotten pretty complex, and it's still growing. There are a lot of die-hard fans who have cooked up some pretty crazy theories, a lot of them concentrating on how each game fits into the universes time-line. This guy, Dan Merill, wrote out this really awesome article on Majora's Mask, talking about important themes and the overall story. It's a really great read that's got me wanting to replay Majora's Mask...and there may be some fan-art in the future ;)

If you're interested in checking out the article I mentioned you can find it here.

(all above images created and owned by Nintendo)

Reviving old ideas...FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE!

2011-10-05T10:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I get really pumped up to make some new artwork, only to find that once I sit down to create, I have no inspiration. No cool ideas. Nothing. It's sad but it's true that sometimes I can't think of anything good to draw, and this can interfere with the quality my sketching. Thankfully, over the years I've built up a nice storage of ideas in my sketchbooks that I can play around with and tweak to make even better. When I look through my old sketchbooks I always get surprised. I get surprised at how bad I used to draw and how much better I am now in comparison. And I also get surprised at how much I still love some of my past ideas that I never got around to fleshing out. I've decided that in effort to build up my portfolios a bit more I'm going to dig up some old ideas from my sketchbooks and try to pump some life into them. Here are a couple of sketches I'm considering working out:

So next time you're looking for something to draw, take a look at some of your old sketches. You might remember a great idea that you forgot about :)

Madame Woe from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

2011-10-03T10:00:00.000-04:00

I wasn't lying when I said I wanted to paint some Mighty Morphin Monsters. I specifically remember Madame Woe from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers video game for the Sega Genesis. She had a very annoying laugh but I always thought she looked pretty cool, and in the show's version she even looks kinda creepy. Here's my take on Madame Woe below...

...and here's a shot from the TV show featuring Madame Woe...

You can read the original Mighty Morphin Post HERE.

Inspiration Spotlight #4 - Magic: The Gathering

2011-09-30T10:00:00.000-04:00

I've been playing Magic: the Gathering for about 4 years now and I'm a pretty big fan of the a lot of different aspects of the game. For one, it's a really fun game! There are seemingly endless card combinations for making your own personal deck allowing you to cater the game experience to your own style of play and allows you to cook up your own strategies for playing. As much as I enjoy the game itself I'd probably still be collecting cards even if I decided to quit playing, and that's all because of the art.

What made me love the art even more was when I picked up on the fact that the whole Magic universe has its own story that goes along with each set, giving each new set a unique flavor to it. To give you an example of what I mean by flavor, look at the card Daggerback Basilisk, below. Cool name, appropriately cool picture, cool ability, and some awesome flavor-text puts the cherry on top. Every part of the card is tied together making the overall appeal of the card much more interesting than if the creators had not gone through the trouble of doing so. In the end, this aspect of the game makes Magic a lot more fun.

The art hasn't always been as pretty as it is today. Magic has come a long way in all aspects of the game and the art is no different. The standards for Magic artwork today is absolutely jaw dropping, and I feel like I've still got a long ways before my work is up to that caliber. It's one of my goals to get commissioned to work for Magic, ideally before they decide to come out with a new joke set like Unhinged / Unglued (look them up if you haven't seen any of the cards, they're freaking hilarious). Until then I'll keep on pushing and keep on playing.

What led me to write a post on Magic was the fact that their new set, Innistrad, is being released today and I pre-ordered a huge box of booster packs that should be on their way at the time of this posting. I'm splitting the box with a friend and it should be a fun day of opening cards and building decks when they finally get here. This set looks absolutely amazing in regards to art, game-play and flavor. So much fun to be had very soon! If you wanna check out what the set looks like, all the cards have been posted on the Magic website here.

Power Rangers Piece: Sneak Peek

2011-09-28T15:52:00.001-04:00

I was out of town for a few days and I didn't get any work done during that time so here's a little preview of what I'm working on now. It's a monster from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Can you guess which one??

From the Moleskine #3

2011-09-26T10:00:00.000-04:00

I went to a party recently and brought the ole Mole with me. Here's some of the stuff I did. As you can see, not everything is a gem. Honestly, most of the stuff I sketch is pretty awful, but once I do draw something I like it makes it that much better.

Inspiration Spotlight #3 - Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

2011-09-23T10:00:00.000-04:00

Power Rangers...that's right, Power Rangers. But not just any Power Rangers, I don't really care for the sub-space, Eskimo-pirate versions that came later. It's all about the Mighty Morphin for me.

Like many people my age, one of the shows I grew up watching was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and it was one of my favorites. Sure the quality wasn't all that great compared to what we have now, but at the time that show was the epitome of awesome. I remember drawing the Power Rangers a LOT when I was younger and I especially liked the green ranger's design. I think the fact that his costume was so different from the others really interested me, something about that gold triangle thing he wore was really cool to me. I'd like to take a moment to comment on how annoying it was that it was almost impossible to find the green ranger action figure too...moment completed

The zords were really awesome too, and you knew when they came out the Power Rangers meant business! From a concept art perspective, it's interesting how the dinosaur theme carries between their costumes and their zords, as well as how they all work together.

Lastly, and once again, I gotta mention the monsters! Say what you will about how awful some of them looked on TV, but I still think there are some gems in the monster designs that appeared in the show. I'm playing around with the idea of doing some redesigns of a couple of the monsters as a personal project, but we'll see what happens.

Some recent highlights...

2011-09-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

I've been pretty busy with freelance work lately and I haven't gotten a chance to do any doodling for myself lately, so I don't have anything to display at the moment.

I did however finish up 3 black and white pieces for Savage Mojo, and 3 black & white pieces for Headless Hydra Games. They were commissioned to be done in black and white, but I'm considering adding color to them for myself for when I add them to my portfolio. When they get published I'll share the pieces and I plan on talking about my process a bit for each piece to give an idea of how I come up with ideas for my commissioned work. Until then you're just going to have to sit tight.

I also got contacted by a greeting card company and I'm in the process of working on my first couple of cards for their humor line. I'm pretty excited to get a chance to work in 2 completely different fields of illustration. I'm already realizing just how different doing fantasy-gaming work is from doing greeting card work, and I'm just getting started doing the card work! I'm enjoying the different approaches and thought processes involved with working in each genre and I can't wait to start showing what I've been doing.

I also wanted to note, I'm a member of the Sketchoholic community and my "Gentle Treefolk" piece is getting a full page in their zine titled 'Cutesies'. Inside you'll find TONS of adorable artwork along with some awesome interviews by awesome artists. If it sounds interesting, why not pick one up and support the community! You can preview the book and order yours HERE!

(Cover image by "Victorior")

Art Order: Anonymous Challenge

2011-09-19T10:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the deadline for entries for the new Art Order challenge: Anonymous / Trying Something Out of the Ordinary. Out of the 4 options of characters you could illustrate, I went with the red, tentacle, dragon-ish monster due to my lack of interest in the reference material, funny enough. I decided I would try and make something interesting out of an uninteresting source of reference, and I did a satisfying job I think.

Here's the original image to use as reference:

..and here's my take on it:

The line-up for this challenge has been posted, check out all the entries HERE!

Inspiration Spotlight #2 - Silent Hill / Masahiro Ito

2011-09-16T10:00:00.000-04:00

For those of you who know me personally, this one isn't much of a surprise. I've been a huge fan-boy of the Silent Hill series ever since I played the first game when I was about 11 or 12.

Silent Hill is a survival horror franchise that centers around a town with a dark past and a mysterious power. What makes the games great are their amazing storytelling, scary and disturbing atmosphere, and a killer soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka that chills spines...plus you know, lots of other stuff too!

I'll never forget my first time playing the first Silent Hill, it was the middle of the night, lights out, and I was visiting at my grandparents house in upstate Pennsylvania, so it was in the middle of the mountains. In other words, the playing conditions were PERFECT. I was too afraid to play the game for very long myself so my cousin took over the controls and we ran through the whole game in one night. Since then I've been hooked on the game series, fairly obsessively I must admit...I guess passionately would be a better word.

One of my favorite parts about the Silent Hill games are the monsters. First of all I love monsters regardless and I always have and always will, but there's something special about the monsters in these games. I've noticed a lot of monsters these days are really over the top, in-your-face-scary. But the monsters created for these games by Masahiro Ito are more conservative but still very striking and unique. Many of them are deformed humanoids that give you a sense of familiarity and yet the fearsome unknown. Below is a concept sketch of Ito's most famous creation from the series, Pyramid Head.

Ok, you get it, I love Silent Hill. If you haven't played the series and are now interested, I recommend starting at the first game and playing games 1 through 4 (the ones made be the original Team Silent). For those of you reading this who already knew how awesome Silent Hill is and just want to get your fan-boy SH-fix on, I recommend watching The Real Silent Hill Experience created by the guys over at Twin Perfect. It's a giant documentary on the entire SH franchise and will make you appreciate the games all over again.

(all above drawings were created by Masahiro Ito and the characters belong to Konami)

From the Sketchbook #2

2011-09-14T07:00:00.000-04:00

Here's a new addition to my sketchbook. I was on a long car ride into the mountains of upstate PA and I decided to entertain myself with some drawing, but being in a moving car presented some...challenges. Since I knew it would be very difficult to keep a steady hands at all times, I decided to embrace the wobbling around aspect and decided to draw something that looked mutated so I wouldn't have to worry about getting the shapes and proportions just right. I really like what I came up with and I plan on adding to it in Photoshop, and maybe painting it up entirely.

I know it's kind of weird seeing such a creepy drawing from me right after the adorable AWWWW-fest bunny painting from the last post, but I say, what's wrong with enjoying both? This drawing also gives a bit of a hint as to what the next Inspiration Spotlight will be in a couple days. It's definitely a strong source of inspiration for this drawing, and to many of you who know me, it won't be a surprise at all

Bunny portrait in Mixed Media

2011-09-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine recently worked a deal out with me where I would do a portrait of her as a bunny in exchange for her crafting me up some jewelry she made of her own. I was originally going to do this digitally, but I decided since I would be getting a physical object out of this that she should get one too. It's on 9x12 inch hot-press watercolor paper, done in ink, watercolor, colored pencil, and a little bit of marker too.

Inspiration Spotlight #1 - Kings of Power 4 Billion %

2011-09-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

The main reason for my blog is hopefully people who come across it will see my work and think it's cool. But there are plenty of other people on the internet posting cool things too! I decided that instead of just posting my work, I'd post some links to things that inspire me; things I think are really cool.

I got this idea after a re-watched Paul Robertson's Kings of Power 4 Billion % animation, for the 4 billionth time. I wondered how many people don't know about this compared to how many people I think should know about it, so I decided I should feature it on my blog!

Kings of Power 4 Billion % is an mind blowing side-scrolling-beat-em-up video-style animation EXTRAVAGANZA and it really speaks for itself. If you have 12 free minutes and want to get the most out of them...watch the animation here...or if you want to have a copy for yourself download the animation from Paul's livejournal.

I REALLY love this animation and would watch it in a heartbeat if you asked me to, sometimes I play it in the background on loop just so I can listen to the amazing soundtrack too. Check it out, let me know if you like it...if you do, maybe I'll post some more cool things I like!

From the Moleskine #2

2011-09-07T07:00:00.000-04:00

Here's another post showing spreads from my other Moleskine. To be honest I kinda prefer having the lines go across...it makes it easier when I'm writing notes down and it gives me something to measure with when I'm drawing.

I draw in the Moleskines with ballpoint pen, which often give a really scratchy, crude look, but sometimes I think that can work to an advantage if you do it right. All the blotches of ink and light line-work can give the sketch a different kind of feel. Drawing with ballpoint pen feels different because the pen glides across the page more easily, and sometimes is the reason why I prefer drawing in ballpoint pen over pencil (sometimes).

Follow me on Facebook

2011-09-05T16:54:00.003-04:00

Some of you may know about the hit social media website called Facebook, and some of you may even be friends with me on there as well. But I wanted to share some news regarding my activities on Facebook...I've got my own page exclusively for my artwork! So if you'd like to follow my artwork via Facebook but you don't care much for my personal business, then go on over to Facebook and like my page!

Cyclops Caterpillar

2011-09-05T07:00:00.000-04:00

You may recognize this little guy as a sketch from my sketchbook. Here he is in his fully painted glory. I really get a kick out of designing creatures, I love making up stuff you would never see in real life. I've been really pleased with where my work is headed at the moment. It's got me feeling really good and pumped for the future.

Off to School - Collaborative piece with Anthony Briglia

2011-09-01T07:15:00.000-04:00

Here's a piece drawn and inked by my good friend Anthony Briglia, with colors done by yours truly (aka me). I've been doing a lot of these lately haven't I? I've always loved Anthony's morbid characters and outrageous expressions and situations. I asked him if he could pass me a piece of his I could color in and he sent me this guy. I highly recommend checking out Anthony's website, he's got some really awesome work up.

From the Moleskine #1

2011-08-27T23:00:00.000-04:00

A friend gave me a tiny, pocket-sized Moleskine notebook a while back and from time to time I like to bring it with me on lectures to take notes and doodle if I get bored. I also take it on trips and sketch in it when there's not enough room to draw in my regular sketchbook, or if I'm in the mood for something different. I wanted to share some of those sketches, so here they are...

I approach things a little differently in my Moleskine, as you can probably tell from the spread in the top left, I like to do really warped drawings from time to time, they are just as fun as anything else. I try not to worry about rules or showing anyone when drawing in the Moleskine so sometimes things look a lot more crude than anything else I'll show people.

I hope you enjoyed this peek inside my Moleskine. I'll make another post in the future

From the Sketchbook #1

2011-08-25T11:00:00.000-04:00

I've been doing so much digital work lately, I've been wondering if my traditional chops were going to crap or not. Well to be honest, for a while I had a really hard time drawing ANYTHING in very well in pencil and it began to depress me. It gave me mixed feelings about doing so much digital art recently. I love watching my digital skills get better and better but I always want to be able to maintain my traditional skills as well, they always come in handy. After a long sketching funk. I've finally done some stuff I'm happy to share!

Here's the first page of my brand new sketchbook. A lot of people always say the first page is the scariest but I've never understood that too much. I like to think of it more as a fresh start, there are tons of pages are ready to be filled and I just want to jump right in!

The top left piece was somewhat inspired by a creature found in the first Silent Hill game. It's not exact, and I wasn't looking at any reference at the time, but I was definitely thinking about Silent Hill when I starting drawing that guy.

For the bottom drawing I just started drawing the eye, with no real direction in my mind at the time. As I drew I decided I wanted the eye to be sitting inside of a really saggy eyelid. Then I thought about how this guy would blink, so I added a very scrunched upper-lid that folds back like a hood, I then tried adding interesting shapes connected to the bottom of it and it started looking like a worm or a caterpillar so I just went with that idea. I curved the body around to add some interest, then decided to hint at an environment behind him with the plants. I'm really happy with this one and I plan on taking it to finish as a creature design piece for my fantasy portfolio.

For the top right drawing, honestly it was just something I drew to fill more of the page. I don't really know what it is, just a cute little face I guess.

As you can probably tell by the "#1" in the title, I plan to make more posts showing my sketches in the future, I'm really gonna try and push myself to draw with a pencil more. Stay tuned for more posts From the Sketchbook.

Ape-Tribe Shaman

2011-08-23T11:29:00.000-04:00

I recently saw "The Rise of the Planet of the Apes" in theaters and I loved it! It was a really fun movie with some great action and I like what was done with the story. I left the theater really pumped to paint something "Ape" based.

I've been trying some new approaches with my digital painting and I'm really liking the results. I'm going to try and continue experimenting with different brushes and techniques. I've been using more reference lately as well and I think that's really upping the ante on the quality of my work, I don't understand why I'm so reluctant to use it...I've got to get over that!

You can purchase a print of this piece on Society 6.

Maps for Savage Mojo's Gamescapes

2011-08-21T12:06:00.000-04:00

About a year ago I painted a couple of maps for Savage Mojo's Gamescapes. The maps were released a little while back but I never got around to announcing it until now. They are both available for digital download, just click on the links under each preview I posted below (I can't post the whole maps because that would sort of defeat the purpose). You can see more bits of the maps previewed in the Savage Mojo shop...

Gatorglades Swamp

Ruins of the First Age

The process for these is a little different from a normal painting, but it was a lot of fun and something I've always wanted to try. I'd like to do some more in the future!

Concept Art for Independent Film

2011-08-21T10:22:00.000-04:00

Just completed a few concept pieces for the guys over at REC Films. They're working on a short film that I can't reveal too much about. However I can show you the following images that I was asked to complete:

Main character

Card scanner prop

Interior setting.

The most I can say about the project at this time is that it follows the character shown above as he deals with some personal conflicts in his life and it takes place in a sci-fi-ish setting. I'll make sure to post again when the film has been released.

Cytlierr - A Kevin Holmes Monster

2011-08-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

My friend Kevin Holmes, has a pretty crazy imagination when it comes to creating monsters. He comes up with some amazing ideas aesthetically as well as statistically and I've always wanted to take a stab at doing my own thing with one of his monsters. The one above is named Cytlierr and it as drawn by Kevin and painted by myself.

According to Kevin...

"Cytlierr are guardians of the Bittercold Fortress and exist in small numbers, often fighting solo and guarding key positions. Covered in ultra thick ice armor, the Cytlierr acts as a powerful phalanx in combat.

Abilities:
-Frost Fastings - Covered in ice so cold, fire can't even melt it, Cytlierr can't even be harmed unless their front armor is broken, exposing the eye. Additionally, attacks cut through most armor and all cold resistance.

-Shroud of Sadness- When its eye is attacked, its eye wells up and cries tears that quickly refreeze into Frost Fastings.
-Phalanx- Cytlierr is aware of combat and able to parry up to three attacks either against itself or nearby allies, generally negating the 3 strongest melee opponents. Additionally, Cytlierr never flinch and resist most status effects.
-Focused Strike- By temporarily forgoing parrying, Cytlierr can lash at a single target 9 times in rapid succession after a normal hit, each hit shredding a bit more armor and causing the target to flinch.
-Icy Grab- If a large amount of damage is dealt to its arms, each arm that can't parry (in a multiple of 3) grabs a lighter character and binds it, dealing a large amount of damage and preventing it from doing anything. While grabbing, it rarely changes targets."

Treefolk Fan Animation by Will Giamas

2011-08-11T09:36:00.000-04:00

My friend Will Giamas is the creator of the acclaimed web animation series JojoVIll as well as several other animations and games. In the past, I've done a few fan art pieces of some of his characters at his request, in exchange he was supposed to do a fan art piece of some of my own characters as well. About a month ago, Will posted this animation to his deviant art and made me very happy in doing so.

*still image taken from Will Giamas's animation

Bunny and Beaver are Buddies

2011-08-09T18:29:00.000-04:00

Here's a piece I just finished up for my Children's portfolio. Here we have a couple of young animal pals waiting for the bus together. Doesn't it make you wanna just go "awww"? I was messing around with brush settings and I found a way to get some really interesting strokes for the animal fur.

Louis C.K.

2011-08-09T12:46:00.000-04:00

Thought I'd do something different so I decided to do a quick portrait of comedian Louis C.K. His stand-up is hilarious and he has a show on FX called Louie, which is also pretty great.

Lightning Strike

2011-08-05T17:01:00.000-04:00

New piece! VERY happy with this one. Feels like a big step for me. I was in bit of an art funk before I did this piece but now I feel recharged and pumped to do the next one. I'm thinking the next piece will be more cutesy...yeah, gotta paint something freaking adorable next.

In other news I've been sending out postcards and promotional emails like free candy (only much better for you). I've heard a few replies back from some publishers interested in working with me, so it's only a matter of time before I announce some cool projects. In the meantime I'm researching more clients to contact and building up my portfolios.

Dragon

2011-08-01T19:32:00.001-04:00

I know I haven't been posting very regularly lately here on the blog but I plan on changing that very soon. I've decided I need to add new work to my portfolio so I'm officially kicking off operation: Portfolio Beef-Up. Not sure what my next piece will be just yet but I can promise you it's coming very soon!

Buy Prints of my work on Society 6

2011-07-24T18:02:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! I decided to set up shop over at Society 6. My work is now available for purchase at various sizes and prices. Check it out and buy some stuff if you see anything you like!

You can find my page HERE

Monster Portrait

2011-07-22T14:08:00.001-04:00

I've been busy finishing up my children's book lately and I haven't had much time to work on any personal work. I made some time to finish painting up a piece I drew a little while ago and I thought I'd share my process with everyone in case anyone's curious as to how the piece evolves as I work on it.

1. Quick, loose drawing just to find something fun, threw some value down to pop the silhouette
2. Basic under-painting. I usually like to work from dark to light
3. Starting to render, not too contrasty just yet, just trying to figure out colors mostly
4. Getting more detailed, render render render
5. Upping the contrast to give things more pop
6. More of the same, adding some nastiness in the face to add more interest
7. Adding a secondary light source to pop out the silhouette more and to vary the colors
8. Color Dodge layers to introduce subtle color shifts in flesh, adding more interest
9. Even MORE detail
10. Finishing touches...

This is the final product! I hope you enjoyed seeing my process. I'd like to show more of these in the future.

Art Order: Brother's Grimm Challenge

2011-07-02T19:15:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the deadline for the new Art Order challenge: Brother's Grimm. I went with the story 'Little Red Hood'. My take on the scene where riding hood sees her "grandmother". Lineup should be coming in the next few days.

Right now I'm working on a project I should be finishing up in the next month or so. Hint, hint, it's a children's book ;) After that project is over I'll be building up my portfolio some more. There's a lot of fun stuff to look forward to!

Phillustration 2011 Opening

2011-06-26T23:09:00.000-04:00

Today was the opening for the Phillustration show at the Philadelphia Sketch Club! I had 2 pieces of my own in the show and I even won an honorable mention for one of them in the Student category. Here are some of the photos I took...

Matt Stewart(left), Best of Show winner Joe DeVito(right)

Charles Santore

Julie Bell

Boris Vallejo

...more artwork (the pics that didn't turn out ridiculously blurry

My good friend Anthony Briglia got 2 pieces into the show as well!

Here's me with my 2 entries, the one on the right won me an honorable mention...

...and here I am receiving my award along with my goodie bag of art supplies along with a copy of Star Wars: Visions, the Star Wars tribute art-book.

It was a fun day and I got to talk to a bunch of cool people and saw some amazing artwork! The show will be up until around July 17th...look up hours the Sketch Club is open as well as directions on their website.

2 of my pieces were selected for Phillustration 2011

2011-06-16T09:35:00.000-04:00

The Philadelphia Sketch Club's annual Phillustration show just announced the selected works for this year's show. Juror Dave Palumbo has selected 2 of my pieces to be in the show...

"Gentle Treefolk" will be submitted to the Self-Promotional category

"Elephants Love Pogo Sticks" will be submitted to the Student category

Both pieces are done in Photoshop and I've made 14"x17" prints. Both pieces will be for sale, prices pending. The Juror's selection for awards will be made on June 24th and the Artist's Reception will be on Sunday June 26th from 2 to 4 PM at the sketch club on 235 S Camac Street. I will be attending along with my good friend Anthony Briglia, who also has 2 pieces in the show. Some notable artists who had work in last year's show included: Charles Santore, Dominick Saponaro, Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Matt Stewart, Dave Palumbo, Roger DeMuth, John Thompson, Richard Williams, Eric Braddock and many others. They're likely to have work appearing in the show again this year as well, so if interested swing on buy.

Digital Ink Sketch / Painting

2011-06-14T12:11:00.000-04:00

I haven't been doing as much doodling for myself as I would like to, so after I finished up working on Blue Shift I decided to mess around with some bold line-work drawing in Photoshop and I was really enjoying the results I got so I colored it up. I hope to do more pieces in this style in the future.

Blue Shift issue 2 wrap up

2011-06-10T12:10:00.000-04:00

*This piece not done by me

After almost a year of working on the project, Blue Shift issue 2 has reached completion and all the pages have been published. You can check out issue 2 in it's entirety on MTV Geek. This has been a really awesome experience. I've learned a lot from working on this project. I want to thank art director, drawer and inker and friend Dave DeVries for having me onboard as well as the rest of the Blue Shift creative crew for providing such stellar work for me to contribute to. This is the end of Blue Shift for now. If there happens to be any more news on the title further down the road I will be sure to share it here on the blog, but until then it's goodbye Blue Shift.

As for what's in store for me next? It's fairly unpredictable at the moment. But I would like to mention that I am about halfway through working on my first children's book and I'll be working on that over the course of about the next 2 months. I can't share anything else on that yet but I will when I can.

A piece to say "thanks!"

2011-06-05T13:08:00.000-04:00

I finished up this piece a little while ago for all the people who made comments on my work at Lubin House and I decided to share it on my blog as well. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's ever shown me support and given me help.

Thanks!!

ImagineFX News

2011-05-31T11:10:00.000-04:00

Two things I wanted to mention today...

1. Today I noticed that , to my surprise, my Snow Serpent piece was featured as ImagineFX's Image of the Day on their website!! This is a pretty big deal for me as some of my favorite artists have been featured here as well.

2. I guess I should also mention that I recently submitted my work to be included in the magazine, and I got word back saying that they'd like to have me and my work included in a future issue. Once I find out which issue that is, I'll be sure to let everyone know.

All my web galleries have been updated.

2011-05-23T11:32:00.001-04:00

I've spent the day updating all the various galleries I have on various websites and I plan on being more active in all these communities. If you're a member of any of the following feel free to look me up:

DeviantArt Gallery -- Username: FlammablePerson (I use this regularly so it hasn't had much of an update but I will be more active there)

Updated ConceptArt.Org Gallery -- Username: MikeBurns

Updated CG Hub Gallery and Profile -- Username: Burninator

Updated ImagineFX Gallery -- Username: MikeBurns

Updated CG Society Portfolio -- Username: MikeBurns

Updated Art Order Gallery -- Username: Mike Burns

I'm going to be making some more updates to try and streamline things but for now this is what I've got. Enjoy! Also, if you know how to edit stuff on ImagineFX well, please give me some pointers, that layout is killing me.

P.S. Sorry for all the different usernames. I don't know if you've noticed, but Mike Burns is a pretty ridiculously common name so I can't always chose it sadly. Still, enjoy!

The New Studio

2011-05-22T15:55:00.001-04:00

I've been setting up my new studio lately and it's still a little cluttered but it's finally ready for business! I've got my new drawing table set up, a brand new 27" iMac to work on and a nice comfy chair so I can work all day. Oh yeah, and those are all my art books under the table...I should really do something with those.

It's time to start producing more work so get ready to see some new stuff on the blog really soon. I'll be submitting some work to a show coming up here in Philadelphia pretty soon, I'll talk more about that later. I'll be back soon!

Baby Turret!

2011-05-19T23:54:00.000-04:00

I haven't uploaded anything for a while so I wanted to do a quick little fan art piece to prove to everyone I'm still alive. Portal 2 came out recently and I LOVED it, plus I've been meaning to do SOMEthing portal related so I figured it was about time!

I've been really busy lately getting settled into my new living space and I'm currently finishing up my internship with Blue Shift. I also got a gig working on a Children's book, but I can't really show anything or say much about it at the moment. I'll be sure to share what I can when I can. I'm going to try and get more work up here on the blog more regularly and have more of a presence online in general, so watch out...plenty of new stuff is on it's way!

World Premiere of Issue 2 of Blue Shift webcomic!

2011-05-06T16:59:00.001-04:00

Today's the world premiere of issue 2 of the Blue Shift webcomic on MTV Geek! I'm responsible for the coloring work on this issue and after months of working on it I'm happy to finally be able to show it off.

Click here to read the comic on MTV Geek!

Click here to become a fan of Blue Shift on Facebook

Art Order: Ultimate Fighter Challenge

2011-04-11T12:03:00.000-04:00

The lineup for the Ultimate Fighter Challenge was just posted on Art Order. My entry is below. I feel really good about this piece. I think I really raised the bar on my character designing, pose and rendering. This was a really exciting piece for me to work on and it was a very rewarding finish.

Portfolio Prep

2011-04-04T21:57:00.000-04:00

I've been preparing my portfolio to send off to potential clients in the very near future. Here are a couple creature pieces I did recently to beef up my portfolio.

Art Order: Segmentation Challenge Entry

2011-04-04T21:30:00.000-04:00

Art Order just posted the judging results for the latest challenge "Segmentation" up on the blog today so I thought I would post my entry here. Find out about the details of the challenge here, see the full line-up of entries here, and read the judges comments here. My target group was Under 2 year-olds.

The deadline for the next Art Order challenge "The Ultimate Fighter" is coming up soon and I really feel like I raised the bar on my entry for that challenge so I'm excited for the reveal, so stay tuned!

Blue Shift launched on MTV Geek!

2011-03-27T16:40:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Blue Shift made it's debut on MTV Geek! The first 5 pages of the first issue of Blue Shift are now up on the website. I did not contribute any color work to the first issue however the cover image (seen below) was colored by me.

Here's the link to the Blue Shift blog on MTV Geek. There you can find interviews, trailers and some excerpts from the comic. If you don't know anything about Blue Shift yet and you want to get your feet wet, that's the place to start. And here's the link to read the comic when you're ready to give it a go. 5 pages will be released every Friday so swing on by and check it out.

I'll make another announcement once the issue that I worked on starts getting released. Until then, enjoy the first issue of Blue Shift!!

Old sketch, fresh paint...well, as fresh as 'digital paint' can be

2011-03-23T23:48:00.000-04:00

Here's a character that started out as a doodle in my sketchbook, probably over a year ago. I was always fond of the drawing (that I never finished) so I decided to paint it up today and I'm really pleased with the outcome. It's funny because I was having a lot of problems with his left hand and his legs back when I first started drawing this. Finishing it up a year later made all the problems I was having before easier to tackle.

Chester

2011-03-10T17:18:00.000-05:00

Sketchbook Animals

2011-03-10T15:35:00.000-05:00

Here's a bunch of animals sketches I've done recently in my sketchbook. I'm going to paint a few of them up so stay tuned for those.

Frightened Spirit Finish

2011-03-01T16:08:00.000-05:00

I finally finished this up and so I thought I'd share it. I'm really happy with how it turned out! I was looking at a lot of Steve Prescott's character drawings and Jesper Ejsing's paintings for inspiration.

The Nightman Cometh and Goeth...

2011-02-21T16:10:00.001-05:00

You may have noticed that I've been making a lot of posts regarding my Nightman Cometh painting recently, so let me explain...

Soon after finishing my Nightman Cometh painting I got the idea to look up the cast members on Twitter and I found that Glenn Howerton (Dennis), Danny DeVito (Frank), Charlie Day (Charlie), and Kaitlin Olson (Dee) all have personal accounts. I tagged them all in a tweet linking to the finished painting posted on my blog. I thought it would be really awesome if the cast of one of my favorite shows could see my painting.

Danny and Glenn complimented me on the painting and a few hours later I got an email from Glenn's assistant Sean asking if it were possible to buy the original. We made a deal. As you can see from the photo below, my Nightman Cometh painting is now in the hands of "Dennis" from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". This has been a great experience for me. It's been such a blast interacting with the people who have created a show that brings me so much enjoyment!