Monday, November 17, 2014

Popcorn Madam



This woman was in the theater when I went to see Gone Girl some time ago. I wanted to do a sketch of her, and since I haven't posted here in a while, here she is.

I am posting pieces to a story series on my facebook page, but I will post all of them in a collected post here when I am done. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later!


Wednesday, October 01, 2014

5th Edition Monster Manual





Last year I was fortunate enough to work on three illustrations for the new Monster Manual. I was originally working with Jon Schindehette and then transitioned to Daniel Gelon as art director. I very much enjoyed working with both men, and I thank them immensely for allowing me to be a part of this new addition to the D&D franchise!

The three creatures I worked on were the Blue Dragon, the Behir, and the Storm Giant. I just received my copy of the book in the mail. There is a ton of cool stuff in there, so if you like monsters (and their attacks, history, etc) this is a great resource. If  you play D&D, you probably already have it ;)

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Free Fallin'



This is procrastination made visual. I have real work to do, but I don't want to do it!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Goldman Sachs Fashion Week?



I was looking at some fashion week stuff today, and after some time, this image came to mind. The Obama face is pretty reliant on a Terry Richardson photo...of course, if this was a commissioned image, I would have to spend some time really getting a unique attitude and approach for the likeness. In any case, it was a fun experiment!

Friday, September 12, 2014

Share the Road



Here is a sketch based on a guy I saw on my way up work in San Francisco on 19th avenue. I saw a massive, massive man on a fast-looking sport bike splitting lanes. I had some earlier sketches that more accurately depicted the man size-wise, but they were less fun.

Friday, September 05, 2014

"The Beard" Lunch Sketch



This is another sketch of a guy I saw at Starbucks. We call him The Beard.

Thursday, September 04, 2014

Putin It Down



Putin, chillin' like a thug.

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Construction Worker



Here is a sketch of a construction worker I see now and again. His natural proportions are very pushed, so I tried to capture them here. I also tried a slightly different approach than I usually do; seeing what details I can leave out and what I have to include to get the effect I want.

Hoard of the Dragon Queen Assassin Rough Concepts



Here are some of the cult assassin concepts I did for the Hoard of the Dragon Queen Dungeons & Dragons book that came out last month. There were a lot of ideas that we tossed around, but we eventually settled on a stealthy dark look that you see here. These sketches were done very quickly and were used to inform the artists that created the interior illustrations for the book. I did not do any of those illustrations, but I do have some upcoming pieces in the Monster Manual, and those should be available for posting soon.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Starbucks Duckface



I saw a man at Starbucks today with a resting duckface that was pure perfection. Here is a sketch of him from memory.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Spit Paints 8.22.14





Here are some of my most recent 30 minute speed paintings based on the phrases "defeating the dark" and "master omega"

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Player's Handbook Concepts

One of the best assignments I have worked on lately is a set of loose concepts that helped to flesh out the style guide for the Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Player's Handbook. I worked with art director Jon Schindehette on the looks for various classes of characters across races and disciplines. I have seen how the new Player's Handbook took the ideas and ran with them for the final illustrations, sometimes using them as reference, while other times going in a new direction. It's really fun to see how the book turned out! I have a special place in my heart for D&D since my friend Forest Stearns gave me a spare 2nd Edition Player's handbook back in the mid 1990s. I pored over the illustrations and wondered what it took to get a job where I could draw dragons and wizards, so this is some what of a dream come true.

They even made little table top figures based on some of these guys!

I also worked on the upcoming Tyranny of Dragons adventures and I have some illustrations in the new Monster Manual as well. I will post some images from those as they are released.

Cheers!



























Thursday, August 07, 2014

Fairy



Nothing particularly original here. Just playing around with something lyrical after work because my wife asked me to make her a drawing. I hope she likes it!

Friday, August 01, 2014

Above and Below



Here is a quick one I did today while playing with some brushes. It's Friday, so I suppose I'm thinking of travel and the weekend.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

High-Key Study



Here is a quick watercolor sketch from a pic I found online. I'm experimenting with a line-and-watercolor look, so for this study I tried to convey as much as possible with as little information.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Dark Energy



Getting back into the ole' sketchbook. Shaking off the dust, etc.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Red Rock



Lunch Sketch

Monday, April 21, 2014

Yoda


Here is a painting I did for the Yoda arc in the Lost Missions episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It was fun to play with a stylized version of Dagobah.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Night Portrait: Weisz-Like



This is a quick mash-up that I did (no photo mashing...I'll explain) to blow off some steam. I have done a lot of photo comps for a gig I'm working on, and I wanted to get back to my first love, just painting. I did a head from my imagination, then I "cast the character" by picking an actor/actress that looked like the head. I found an image online with similar lighting and pose to the sketch, then fleshed out the rest of the head using the ref as a guide. It ended up in a weird place where it looks too much like Rachel Weisz, and yet, not enough to be a straight likeness. It also has a slight Madonna vibe to it, so who knows? In any case, it was fun and refreshing.