Christmas Treefolk

The latest challenge over at Art Order just wrapped up and here's my entry. This one was the Holiday challenge where you had to take an elements from the holidays and put your own spin on it so I did a treefolk all dressed up like a Christmas Tree. I'm still going to touch up some areas on this, but I figured I should post what I submitted for now and I'll post the revised one later. Happy Holidays everyone!

Art Order: Dungeon Delve Challenge

Today's the deadline for the latest challenge over at Art Order and here's my final entry. There's 121 entries for this one so there's some pretty steep competition. There's a lot of great work to be seen so make sure to check out all of the other final entries over at the forums!

Aesop's Fables Finishes

Here are a the finished illustrations I did for the Aesop's Fables Illustrations 'The Fox & the Grapes' and 'The Tortoise & the Hare'.

Art Order Dungeon Delve Drawing / Golden Surprise Drawing

Here's a couple of drawings I finished up recently. The first one is for the Dungeon Delve Art Challenge going on over at Art Order right now. Check out some of the other sketches/WIPs that have been uploaded, there's a ton of awesome work up there right.

The second one is for "Million Things Everywhere" assignment. The main point of the assignment is to have information everywhere in the image. The empty spaces behind the character will have more gold and treasure painted in.

Both of these are currently being painted and the finishes should be up in the next week or 2 along with my pieces for the Aesop's Fables.

Aesop's Fables Drawings

Here are a couple drawings I did for some Aesop's Fables Illustrations I'm working on. The fables being illustrated are 'The Fox & the Grapes' and 'The Tortoise & the Hare'.

IlluXcon 3 - 2010 in review

It's been a few days since I've gotten back from Altoona and my brain is still trying to register all the awesomeness I've experienced during the Super-Omega-Awesome-Illustration-Fun-Fest that was IlluXcon 3.

I met so many awesome artists who are just as awesome people. I showed my portfolio around, got it ripped to shreds, and was told which shreds were worth keeping. I was very humbled by the great overall response my portfolio drew from a number of people and at the same time all of the masters I was surrounded by showed me just how much further I have yet to push myself. I bought a ton of goodies and grabbed freebies from just about anyone who was giving them out.

IlluXcon has got me really motivated to really throw everything I've got into my new work and I really look forward to seeing how these new pieces I'm working on turn out. I'm already seeing signs of how the con has impacted me and it's a really great feeling to know that I'm getting closer to reaching that next level.

Thank you to everyone who was kind enough to share their time and wisdom with me at the con and a special thanks to Jeannie and Pat Wilshire for putting the con together in the first place. Those two really have put together something special and I hope to come back again next year. IlluXcon is the perfect reminder as to why I love the fantasy genre, it seems that nowhere else can you find such a talented and passionate group of people who want to share their knowledge and help each other improve in their work!

P.S. the jam night was incredibly fun! I very rarely get to play the drums without silencing pads anymore...nor do I get to play with other people, or on stage, so that was a really awesome time for me :)

Mousy Dies: Cover

Here's the illustration I did for the cover of my 2 page comic "Mousy Dies"

Mousey Dies

Assignment was to show a character dead, leaving their body, going through some sort of portal, going to heaven/hell, and ending with the character confronting god/the devil, all told over the course of 2 pages of sequential art.

Claudio Sanchez

I was really in the mood to just paint a portrait for fun so I chose Claudio Sanchez from Coheed and Cambria.

This piece took me 1 hour and I'm really surprised at how fast it went. I'm really happy with the results so I think I'm going to try and do more quick pieces like this for practice.

Reference

Goblin Launcher

Here's a piece I just finished up. This was done as a mock job for Magic: the Gathering. I looked at the new goblin designs seen in the Scars of Mirrodin set and did my own thing with them.

Society of Illustrators Children's Book Show Poster

*
The illustration faculty asked me to do an illustration for the poster advertising the SU bus trip to NYC to see the Children's Book Show at the Society of Illustrators. I was told I could do whatever I wanted as long as it wasn't obscene so I really took advantage of it. The posters are now hanging up throughout the art building. Here's a high quality version of the image:

*Poster layout by Lori Klopp

Gob-a-lins

Quick-sketch turned quick-portrait. I just really wanted to try my hand at a goblin, I'm currently working on an illustration featuring this wily guys.

Agony-eater

I finished up this piece recently. It started out as a black & white drawing done as a tattoo design for someone, but I liked the drawing so much that I decided to go ahead and paint it up. I'm really happy with how this turned out and I really had fun painting all the details in the face.


Blue Shift update: new pages are in progress so I should be able to post links to them soon!

Lucas Christ

This was done for one of my Illustration classes. The assignment for this one was to portray a recognizable person as a god. I chose George Lucas and I decided to dress him up all sith-like and surround him by evil imagery from Star Wars to show my opinion of him. I really dislike the fact that George Lucas hogs all of the credit for the Star Wars films. Sure he played a mjor role in making the movies, but there are hundreds of other people who lent their talents to make Star Wars the success that it is and they deserve their recognition just as much. Not to mention he had even more control while working on the sequels and they are far inferior to the original trilogy. Anyways, bickering aside, I hope you enjoy my piece! I drew a lot from Byzantine art, and looked at some of the Star Wars movie posters for influence.

Elephant + Pogo stick = tons of fun

Here's the final painting for the "Animal doing something human" assignment. Special thanks to Christopher Burdett for sharing his awesome texture brush. It really helped me out with the elephant's skin. If you want to grab the brush yourself, you can get it from Chris's blog, and while you're there be sure to check out his awesome monsters!

I should have my George Lucas painting finished by Monday, so watch out!

New work in progress!

Finally got some projects in the works! Here are 2 drawings I just inked up recently

For this assignment we had to illustrate animals doing human things. I've always wanted to see an elephant on a pogo stick!

For this assignment we had to illustrate a recognizable person as a god. I took this direction partially due to the fact that I'm currently taking a class called The Mythology of Star Wars. Also, I really wanted to draw a baby Darth Vader!

Stay tuned for the colored images as well as a couple other things in the works.

Collaborative piece with Ben Templesmith

Ben Templesmith recently posted some linework to his Deviant Art page and he said that anyone is free to color in the lines if they wanted to, so I took him up on the offer and came up with what you see below. The image was colored in Photoshop and it depicts the character Psylocke defeating a Sentinel from X-Men. This was a fun exercise to do and I hope to get the chance to do something like this again, perhaps with other artists too.

New Season of "Comic Strip" coming soon!

Next week classes resume at Syracuse University, which means that the Daily Orange Newspaper will be coming out soon, which means that my new season of "Comic Strip" will start getting published! If you're not familiar with the comic please check it out, especially if you really enjoy puns, though I have to say you may wind up hating them after reading my comic, heheh. But then again, why not find out for yourself? Every week I'll post all of the comics that were published during that week at this blog. Click one of the links to get a sneak peek at what's in store!

Internship! Blueshift webcomic colorist

Starting in September I will be working as an intern for Seed Studio as the colorist for the Blue Shift webcomic. I was approached by art director/penciler/inker, Dave Devries, and after test coloring a couple of pages I was approved to join the team as their intern! I am very excited to be working with them and I will be sure to post links once my own work is up on the site. Pages should be published on a weekly basis once they start so stay tuned. Until then I encourage you to check out the first issue of the comic as well as the other cool stuff on the website.

These are the pages that I test colored in order to get the internship, these pages have already been published on the website, colored by the previous colorist. This is just to give you an idea of what's to come.

Venture Bros. Art & a week of painting comics

I've been doing so much digital work lately that I felt the need to unwind with some traditional work while doing some fanart of one of my favorite TV shows. This is my favorite character from the Venture Brothers, HELPeR. I've been re-watching all of the episodes to prep for all of the new ones coming out soon.

In recent news, I've spent the every day of the past week painting comic pages for 2 different projects, 6 pages in total to be exact. It was a rough week but I managed to stick to my schedule and get everything done. Hopefully I'll be able to share some of that work soon.

"Gotta Have a Hook" Art Order Challenge - Final Illustration

Today is the deadline for the "Gotta Have a Hook" challenge on Art Order and this is my entry. I'm very happy with my final and it's been a lot of fun participating in my first Art Order challenge. I look forward to participating in future challenges!

Here's a link to see the rest of the final entries for the challenge.

Tortured Demon

This started out as a late night sketch done simply for fun and the results were completely unplanned. I really liked what was happening with the sketch so I decided to go ahead and paint it up. I love painting all those gritty and disgusting details, it's tons o' fun!

The Nightman Cometh: Drawing

I've been planning on doing an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia illustration for a while now and here's the final drawing. The image is based on the episode 'The Nightman Cometh' where the gang puts on a play that was written by the character Charlie. I borrowed the composition from movie poster legend Drew Struzan, specifically his illustration for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The play put on in the show is very makeshift and unprofessional so I thought it would be humorous to paint an advertising poster for it that showed it as this big budget and very epic performance, when in reality preschoolers have put on better plays. I plan to print out the drawing and do the final painting in oils so stay tuned for that.

The 150/150 show

My Snow Serpent piece is going to be a part of the "150/150" exhibit at the Philadelphia Sketch Club running from July 23rd to August 14th. The reception is this Sunday from 2-4pm. If you are in the area I encourage you to check it out, it should be lots of fun.

Gotta Have a Hook Challenge: Detailed Drawing

This was done for Jon Schidehette's latest Art Order challenge "Gotta Have a Hook". The winner will have their piece published by Wizards as if it were commissioned from them right from the start.

It's been a lot of fun watching the progression of all of the other entries and it's put me in a competitive mode that I think has really helped push me to do the best I can. Keep an Eye out for the finished painting.

Observational Drawings / Illuxcon 2010

Here are some recent drawings I've done from observation.


I recently purchased my ticket for Illuxcon 2010. I am extremely excited to be a part of the limited number of attendees. I'm really looking forward to this and I really look forward to getting professional feedback on my work, seeing awesome art, meeting awesome people and having awesome times!

Artslam 2010: Month 1 Highlights

Here is some of the work I've done for the first month of Artslam 2010. My goal for the month was to develop my character "Somnipathy". I wanted to design several forms for her as if she were to be the final boss in a video game. If you want to see more of my work for her or learn more about my overall concept click on these words.



Just a few more days left to month one. I'll have a new goal that I'll announce after I state it on Artslam.

Oscar the Misunderstood

Oscar the Grouch gets no love. I've always been a fan of him ever since I was a kid and I love putting my own spin on famous characters. This was done in Watercolor with some touch-ups in Photoshop.

3 Little Pigs Rest

Final painting of my 3rd of 3 illustrations for my 3 Little Pigs story. This is the part of the story where the pigs are just about to arrived at the Wolf's lair. Here is where they take their final rest before facing their nemesis.

Shells Still Life

After seeing this really awesome still-life I felt compelled to do my own. Just an exercise, done entirely in Photoshop.

Gentle Treefolk - Final

Here's the final painting of the Gentle Treefolk

I went through and streamlined my blog and spiced it up a bit. I hope you enjoy the update. If you have any comments or suggestions feel free to let me know.

UPDATE:
-Just finished up my first batch of work for Savage Mojo. I'll share what I can once the project is announced.

-I am one week into my first ArtSlam and I have a special blog set up to show my progress. ArtSlam is a 1-3 month long event where participants come up with an idea/concept/goal and everyday create at least one sketch building towards this goal. Learn more about my concept from the new blog.

Gentle Treefolk drawing

Yep, summertime. Which means I'm left up to my own devices to stay productive. I've got a lot of personal projects planned. Mostly stuff I wanted to do during school but couldn't find the time to get around to.

Here's a drawing I did last night of a treefolk. Soon to be painted.

Moosetaur

After what could only be calculated as forever...I finally finished my revamped Moosetaur painting.

Hound Vs. Ham

Here is my 2nd 3 Pigs illustration. This shows the climactic battle between the 3 pigs and the wolf.

2nd 3 Pigs Illustration Inking

This is the final inked drawing for the 2nd of 3 illustrations for my 3 Pigs project.

3 Little Pigs cover - final

Here's the first of 3 illustrations for my book assignment

Chuck & Beans fanart gift

I did this as a gift for my friend Brian Gordon from Hallmark. He gave me a lot of advice and motivation as I was working on my application for the Hallmark summer internship and despite not getting it I still really appreciate all the time he spent helping me. As a way to say thanks I made this painting and mailed it to him. It's a caricature of him with the two stars from his super awesome comic, Chuck & Beans.

Figure Drawings / 1st 3 Pigs Illustration Inking

Here's my latest figure work



Here's the final inked drawing for my 1st of 3 illustrations for my 3 Pigs project.