The Current State of Things

Now, where did I put that drafting table?

You are looking at a picture of our new studio! For comparison's sake, this is how the old studio space looked for the past three-and-a-half years. There's a lot of work to do...

Sprites!

Paizo Publishing has released the latest Pathfinder Player Companion, Fey Revisited, which means I can share the Sprite illustrations I did for the book, just in time to liven up my blog!

I was not surprised that I was hired to work on a book of fey, since I have been assigned creatures from the fairer side of fantasy for years: elves, faeries, baby dragons, horsies... Clients feel that my work leans towards the majestic or cute, rather than gross and scary. (Fine by me, since I can avoid illustrating zombies. I didn't like zombies before they were cool.)

A Sprite token.

Heeeeeyyy, quit it!

While Sprites may look enchanting and sweet, as most folklore will tell you, faeries have a dark side. Look, they're attacking poor Harsk and stealing his stuff! I tried to limit my palette on this illustration to give the forest a mysterious atmosphere. I think I did a decent job, but as always I see plenty of room for improvement.

Whoosh!

This was a challenging piece because I had to suggest a swarm of Sprites without conjuring an illustration that would take a year to paint. I'm not sure how successful I was at showing anything close to a "swarm," but hopefully one can guess that there are many more Sprites emerging from that tree.

Etsy Sale Oopsie

It has come to my attention that my Etsy Moving Sale coupon expired a day early. D'oh! I have created a new coupon that will still work on the last day of my sale which is today, June 5th! Make your purchase before midnight tonight and enter the new coupon code MOVINGSALEONEDAY to receive 15% off your order at my Etsy shop, Fabled Earth Art.

I finally have some art to post here, so please stay tuned for that in the next couple days!

Moving Sale on Etsy!

Many apologies for the lack of posts for the entire month of May! I've failed to keep up with what was supposed to be my self-imposed blogging schedule. I've been working on a couple of fun projects that I can't show publicly yet and I'm also preparing for a big move. In a few weeks, I will no longer be working out of a bedroom!

In order to lighten my load, I'm holding a sale at my Etsy shop, Fabled Earth Art. Through June 5th, all of the items in my shop will be on sale for 15% off! If anything catches your eye, please consider making your purchase during the sale, as my shop will be closed for the remainder of June once the sale concludes. Just enter the coupon code MOVINGSALE upon checkout to receive 15% off your order!

Take a Break and Relax!

Interview on Fantasy Artists of Etsy Blog

A brief interview with me has been posted on the Fantasy Artists of Etsy blog. Interviews are posted each Monday, and an archive of interviews is available here. Check out the blog to discover some of the talented fantasy artists that sell their wares on Etsy!

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

Last month my friend, author Susan J. Morris, and I visited a local elementary school to talk to students about writing and art and, most importantly, dragons. After our presentation, I was cornered by clever kids that (quite easily) convinced me to doodle some dragons for them to take home. Time ran short and I finished up some of the drawings at home. These are some of my favorites from the group. One student was a bigger fan of foxes than of dragons.

Animal Archive Process

My apologies for the long hiatus!

I mentioned in my previous post that the Animal Archive cover painting was one of the most complex I have ever done. I read over the art order for the job, thinking, "This is going to be awesome!...This is going to be hard!" I would need to tackle a high level of detail, rendering dozens of creatures in the scene, and still make the illustration readable. 

Balancing out the composition began at the thumbnail stage. I did numerous thumbnails for the illustration. I narrowed them down to the five I felt were the most successful.

We went with number three, though I liked numbers one and four as well.

Often, when working with a complex scene, I will draw important characters separately, so that I can put as much detail into them as I would like, and then I'll collage them together in Photoshop later. I used this technique (if you can call it a technique) for Animal Archive, as well as for the cover to my book.

I did the drawing for the hero character, Lini, at a larger size than needed for the final composition.

After drawing all of the animals either in my sketchbook or on tracing paper, I grouped like animals on their own layers in Photoshop. The rough drawings below show how I experimented with those layers before settling on a final composition. I had to make sure there would be room at the top and bottom for text without the image being so busy as to make it indecipherable.

I spent lots of time drawing that leaping boar in the bottom right and ended up having to sacrifice him for the title.

The fox on the left would eventually be eliminated as well.

The final drawing. I found a way to get that boar back in there, at least partially!

I don't usually have progress shots of my paintings, since they are mounted to a board as I work, making them very difficult to scan, but in this case I took a couple digital photos along the way.

This is usually the stage where I start to panic because I feel like I've forgotten how to paint!

The final gouache painting.

I was asked to change Lini's magic to fire magic, which I painted in Photoshop to complete the cover image.

The cover with title and Pathfinder logo.

During the course of working on the illustration, I feel as though I lost some of the forward momentum of all of the animals and the compositional punch of the lines converging on the troll's face, both more apparent in the thumbnail. (James Gurney coined a great term for this compositional device: spokewheeling.) I was happy with what I was able to accomplish with this painting, though there is certainly room for improvement next time.

Animal Archive

Lini and her forest friends attack a belligerent troll.

Last summer, after returning from Gen Con inspired by all the amazing fantasy art I had seen during the convention, I immediately (well, after unpacking, of course) set to work on my own attempt at an epic fantasy painting for Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder RPG. I don't say "epic" lightly. The painting was one of the most complex I had ever done: an action scene involving more than a dozen individual figures, most of them animals.

The Player Companion I did the painting for came out this month, so I can finally share my cover art! The book is called Animal Archive and it has been receiving many positive reviews.

Sketches from ECCC 2013

Thanks to everyone who came by our table at Emerald City Comicon last weekend! Here are some of the sketches I did for people who purchased my sketchbook:

 

Elves ahoy!

As I posted on my website after ECCC 2011: Many freelance artists tend to live reclusive lives, and sometimes it feels as though we work in a void. Feedback about our work frequently only comes from a small circle of art directors, editors, and close friends and family, and while all of that is much appreciated, it's very different to hear from the general public. Good response to an artist's work is one of the best forms of encouragement, so to everyone that took the time to chat, buy stuff, or even simply say hello, thank you. I look forward to attending the con again next year.