Title: Riverside Opera! The World of Darkness
Medium: Photoshop CS6

Notes: I would be lying if I told you that this wasn't inspired by a conversation about the Vampire: The Masquerade LARP that happens here in Memphis (http://riversidelarp.com/).

I was in line ordering a pizza and I heard the entire tale of how it played out during the convention, only to find out that everything that transpired is completely true! I was just minding my own business thinking about things to sketch, not really in thinking about anything in particular, when in walks a large group of folks. I had just gotten back from Memphis Comic and Fantasy Convention, and was pretty much ravenous, so I wasn't actually paying too close attention to what was around me. I kept hearing the con mentioned as well as the events that transpired during the Vampire LARP. I had always found the idea of the World of Darkness intriguing, so I just so happened to listen in to the events that had transpired. The events aren't as particular as the idea that popped into my head. I started to think about modern vampirism. What would that look like? How gritty would it be? What kinds of attire would they wear? Mundane things really... but then I started to recall when I played all of the World of Darkness material when I was younger. I was brought back to a time when I was playing RPGs constantly. It is ultimately what inspired this painting. The conversation that happened behind me, on an unassuming pizza run. It just goes to show you that inspiration can strike you when you least expect it! Don't let anything deter you when you find inspiration.

This leads me to a major statement that I want to make about the upcoming year...
I want to begin a major change in my art. 2016 is the year that things HAVE to change.
So with that I give these declarations of where my art will go for the upcoming year:

The darker side of art is what interests me the most.
I've been wanting to get into the darker side of my art for quite some time and have only just recently begun to reach back into the original reasoning for why I wanted to do art in the first place. I want to paint the things that scare me, that horrify, that stay with me, in the back recesses my brain pan! I want to inspire people to talk about a piece because of the horror they feel about it or just recoil from sheer gore or violence. That's not to say that I will do violent pieces for violent sake, but I will probably have some pieces that come out that are so rage-fueled that some people might not approve of the visual output. For that reason, I'm putting an official disclaimer here:  

I want to evoke an emotional response in some regard.
If those have to be the recoiling of people from my work so be it. In some ways I want to cater to my own tastes rather than always painting what I think others will enjoy. I think that Fear drives too many people. Fear of the unknown, fear of the known, fear to the point of holding back. This is really what keeps almost everyone from truly doing the things that they want out of life. Ashley is always pushing me to break this in myself. I have too much pent up fear of things like, "I'm afraid people won't like this piece." or, "I'm afraid I won't be able to make this piece exactly what I see in my head!" There's too much in the world holding us back, so why the hell do we keep holding back in our own personal life. If people don't enjoy the work you do, screw them, keep doing it anyway. Hell, do it because they don't enjoy it. But ultimately, make it the best you can. Don't let fear hold you back anymore.

Make a schedule and stick to it.
This year is another year to fill with another schedule. I think that I might have referred at one point to a summer schedule that I followed. I will openly state that it grew my skill exponentially every time I did it. Therefore I think that it's high-time that I started a new one. I will still stick to set of rules that I think seems to work, one that Ashley actually proposed:

1. Do one piece of original art a week that is purely yours - something that you want to see.
2. Do two pieces of fan art that will be things that others will want to see.
3. Do three pages of sketch pages a week to flesh out some of the ideas that lurk.

I feel like this is a good goal set to have for the upcoming year and this is what I plan on sticking with from here forward.

Title: Sons of Anarchy: Chibs Telford
Medium: Charcoal, Chalk
Scale: Original is 8.5" x 11"

Notes: I feel like throughout the majority of the series, Chibs was one of the more mindful characters. He had a tendency to really try and think through a situation before moving forward.

Title: Dragon Age: Origins - Morrigan
Medium: Charcoal, Chalk
Scale: Original is 8.5" x 11"

Title: Welcome to Silent Hill
Medium: Charcoal, Chalk
Scale: Original is 8.5" x 11"

Notes: I am a fanatic for Silent Hill. To the point that I watched about four hours of people on youtube discussing their theories behind P.T. and how it relates the rest of the Silent Hill canon.

Title: In Citadel Space (N7 DAY!)
Medium: Photoshop CS6

Title: Brilliant Axe of Slaughter +1 (International Self-Portrait Day 2015!)
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Date: November 1, 2015

Notes: Every year, artists from around the world gather together to do a challenge called the International Self-Portrait Day. This just so happens to be November 1st of every year.
I decided that it was finally time to come out of the shadows and join in this thing.
..... I'm a bit shy though, so I had to bring my trusty axe just in case there were goblins or other nasties.

Title: Month of Fear: Danse Macabre
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is approx. 10" x 13"

Notes: Doing this week's challenge for http://monthoffearart.com/. 

Title: Month of Fear: The Sabbath
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is approx. 10" x 14"

Notes: Doing this week's challenge for http://monthoffearart.com/. 

Title: Honor Decoded: Plotting Villainy
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is approx. 8" x 10"

Notes: Starting to flesh out some ideas for Honor Decoded's character roster.

Title: Kasumi Goto
Medium: Charcoal, Chalk
Scale: Original is 8.5" x 11"

Title: Tali'zorah nar Rayya
Medium: Charcoal, Chalk
Scale: Original is 8.5" x 11"

Notes: I think that Tali is probably my favorite character from the entire series. Garrus follows closely behind, but she's my number one for the most likable character.

Title: Queen of Blades
Medium: Charcoal, Chalk
Scale: Original is 8.5" x 11"

Notes: I've been wanting to do Kerrigan justice for quite some time. I think that she is probably one of my favorite tragedies from games in the 90's. If you've never played the original StarCraft simply for the story mode, you were really missing out.

Title: MCA 30 Day Self-Portrait Challenge - Round 6.
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Each portrait will be 9" x 12"

Notes: The challenge is simple... draw a self-portrait every day for 30 days.

You can't take longer than 30 minutes on each.
Here's the entirety of the project!

Title: MCA 30 Day Self-Portrait Challenge - Round 5.
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Each portrait will be 9" x 12"

Notes: The challenge is simple... draw a self-portrait every day for 30 days.

You can't take longer than 30 minutes on each.
Here's 25 so far. Only 5 more to go!

Title: Precious Flower Girl
Medium: Charcoal, Chalk, Pastel, Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is 8.5" x 11"

Notes: My first attempt at post-charcoal clean-up. Trying to add in some photoshop work on top of the charcoals to see how it goes.

Title: MCA 30 Day Self-Portrait Challenge - Round 4.
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Each portrait will be 9" x 12"

Notes: The challenge is simple... draw a self-portrait every day for 30 days.

You can't take longer than 30 minutes on each.
Here's 20 so far. More to come...

Title: Isaac Clarke
Medium: Charcoal, Chalk, Pastel
Scale: Original is 8.5" x 11"

Notes: Ashley got me the Art of Dead Space for my birthday and HOLY CRAP is that book inspiring.

Title: Commission: Pronto Pup
Medium: Charcoal, Chalk, Pastel
Scale: Original is 8.5" x 11"

Notes: Commissioned by a teacher that I had back at Memphis College of Art, Adam Pankewycz.

Title: MCA 30 Day Self-Portrait Challenge - Round 3.
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Each portrait will be 9" x 12"

Notes: The challenge is simple... draw a self-portrait every day for 30 days.

You can't take longer than 30 minutes on each.
Here's the first 15. More to come...

Title: MCA 30 Day Self-Portrait Challenge - Round 2.
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Each portrait will be 9" x 12"

Notes: The challenge is simple... draw a self-portrait every day for 30 days.

Title: Good Night, Dream Master
Medium: Charcoal, Chalk, Pastel
Scale: Original is 9" x 12"

Notes: Wes Craven pretty much brought me the epitome of my favorite villain. While I know that he did many other films, a lot of them great, I will always know him for my first horror movie icon - Freddy Kreuger. I still remember as a kid watching in absolute terror and glee at the insanity that these films offered.

Title: MCA 30 Day Self-Portrait Challenge - Round 1.
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Each portrait will be 9" x 12"

Notes: The challenge is simple... draw a self-portrait every day for 30 days.

Title: MGX - Brotherhood of Steel from Fallout
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is 5" x 7"

Notes: Fallout is such an amazing series. I've been really wanting to do a fan art from this universe for quite some time. It was really between a deathclaw and a Brotherhood of Steel. The tech lover in me one out, but that's not to say that I'm not still considering a deathclaw. As of right now I have yet to really grab from the exact same universe, but it's still to early in my painting career to get pigeonholed into something like that. I just have way too much fun painting portraits!

Title: MGX - Garrus from Mass Effect
Medium: Chalk, Charcoal
Scale: Original is 8" x 10"

Notes: I have been wanting to do some Mass Effect fan art for so long, I just never got around to it really... But now I think the flood gates have opened up and now I want to do the entire cast line-up. Oh for more time, right?

Title: MGX - Big Daddy from BioShock
Medium: Chalk, Charcoal, Pastel
Scale: Original is 8" x 10"

Notes: Bioshock was one of those games that really crept up on me. I didn't really know what I was playing at first, but then I really got into it. The fact of a game being so dark and under the sea and creepy and awesome all rolled into one was intriguing. And that is my official review... (not really, but maybe I should start to review games.... hmmm future blog posts perhaps?)

Title: Sons of Anarchy Commission - Juice
Medium: Chalk, Charcoal
Scale: Original is 8" x 10"

Notes: Another Sons of Anarchy commission. If you missed the previous one, it's here.

Title: Michael Myers
Medium: Charcoal, Chalk, Pastel
Scale: Original is 8" x 8"

Notes: Eric Crimmins commissioned me for another piece, this time the enigmatic Michael Myers.

Title: The Mechnomancer
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is 5" x 7"

Notes: I think the Borderlands universe has some of the most interesting character design. It blends my punk-loving sensibilities with the grit and grime of post-apocalypse. In that vein, I have to go even further and say that Gaige happens to be my favorite of these characters. I mean, listen to this, she's a badass haha - albeit a little brat, but eeehhh....

Title: Artist Promotion
Medium: pencil
Scale: Varies

Notes: Following suit with the previous post, if you've followed me for any amount of time, you know how often I randomly sketch during lunch breaks. I have to do this to maintain any semblance of sanity. Here's a few of the quick sketches that I did during my lunch breaks over the week.

Title: Sorceress
Medium: pencil
Scale: Original is 9" x 12"

Notes: Lunch breaks... a time when we just eat and go back to work right? WRONG!

Title: According to Plan
Medium: Mixed Media

Notes: Now for something a little different... Typically I scan, retouch, etc. But I've been working on larger scale pieces lately, and this one was just too fun!

Title: Dr. Staten
Medium: pencil, pastel
Scale: Original is 8" x 10"

Notes: Ashley went out the other day and I was just sitting here drawing the day away. I look over at my art supplies and simply shrug and go, "Welp, guess it's time to stop procrastinatering and start using these damn pastels..." Long story short, I decided to start doing a study in random colors just for fun. I'm drawing away, la-de-da, and in walks Ashley. 

Title: Rocket Raccoon
Medium: charcoal, chalk, ebony pencil
Scale: Original is 8" x 10"

Notes: It's a bit on the late side, but while I was down in Texas, visiting the awesome Jeff and Maysa, I looked through their Marvel encyclopedia and was like... "I should probably draw one of these guys!" And so I proceeded to grab my charcoal and chalk and just go to town.

Title: Pin Ups - Bettie Paige
Medium: Photoshop CS6

Notes: Talking to a buddy of mine at work, we decided that he needed a little more art on his walls. Eric Crimmins is quite the convention goer and I thought it would be awesome to try out an official art trade with him. So here's the result, now it's time to hand it over so that we can get this show on the road!

Title: The Indies Pack
Medium: Photoshop CS6, charcoal, chalk, ebony pencil
Scale: Approx. 11" x 17", smaller pieces are 5" x 7"

Notes: This was one of the packs available at the Memphis Comic Expo last weekend.

Title: Harley Quinn
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Approx. 11" x 17"

Notes: Besides her voice, I think she might be up there with my favorite character from the Batman canon. I just love her design overall.

Title: Locke & Key - Bode
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Approx. 5" x 7"

Notes: Ashley and I just recently got into Locke & Key. I was just minding my own business at work and came home for lunch and she was just sitting there with this huge grin holding a big box full of graphic novels. I was like, what is that... and she just looks up and says... "Stuff."

Title: Teen Titans - Deathstroke
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Approx. 5" x 7"

Notes: Interestingly enough, I thought Deathstroke was originally a villain of Batman. I come to find out that he originated in Teen Titans. WHO KNEW?!