Sometimes, even though you may not think it, silence is a good thing. I haven't had any time these past few months to really post anything because, well, I've been doing NDA work for a few different places. I didn't realize it before Mid-South Con, but we actually have some local-ish companies that do RPG art. Since then, I've been contacted by one of them: Schwalb Entertainment, to do some art that seems right up my alley.

The Role-Playing Game that I was able to be a part of is called Shadow of the Demon Lord, and I was asked to participate in the Uncertain Faith expansion. This is actually my first time to do any sort of RPG work and I can say that the experience was incredible! I honestly want to dive right back into it as soon as possible, but until then I have been throwing around personal and commission pieces that are in the same vein. Below are the two pieces that were assigned to me...




The best part, honestly, was just how flawless it was to work in this method. It felt very natural, and the Art Director for Schwalb Entertainment (Robert Schwalb) was incredibly easy to work with for me. The turn-around was about two weeks for both pieces. As time goes on, I hope that more pieces end up showing up for this as the ideal goal would be doing RPG and CCG art overall. Although, don't get me wrong, I'm all about illustration in general, but book covers and games seem to be where my art is ultimately headed.

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Other than that, I've been doing personal commissions for quite some time.

I was contacted not too long ago by a woman that I met at a convention about doing a fantasy portrait of her sister. The process, overall, was just as smooth and flawless as the two pieces above. Below shows the process of which a typical commission goes through to get to completion.



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Other than that, I've started to do lunch doodles again, with the promise to turn them into fully-rendered pieces as time goes on.

Let me start off this post with a double post of inspirational soundtracks.

 

Lunch Doodles is a collection of drawings and paintings that I've done during my lunch break at work. Each one is voted on from about 5AM to about 12PM and the one with the most votes, or whoever got their vote in first, is the one that I draw. If you'd like to be a part of it, check on my Facebook page during the weekdays to vote! I typically post these as early as I can on weekdays so that I can get as many votes as possible. My plans with these are to eventually make a volume every other convention, and then maybe one day turn into a submission based annual or quarterly that other artists can contribute to.

This was an example of one of the days that are table was set up. It was overflowing with art and tapestries. Again, can't speak enough for the con itself. It was filled up.
Getting Started In The Comics Industry

Title: There's a Demon Inside
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is 6" x 8"

Notes: Continuing on the vein of things that scare me...

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I think that laziness sits on our shoulder every day. We just have to learn to shrug it off.

Title: Fan Art: Jessica Jones
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is 3' x 3' (Biggest piece I've done to date!)

Notes: I didn't know how I'd feel about it up front, but this show has actually been pretty amazing! It reaffirms my love for really well written, flawed female characters.
On a side note, this piece is flippin' huge! This is definitely the biggest piece that I've made by quite a bit - 3ft by 3ft!

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Just got done with another convention this last weekend - Tennessee Comic-Con. It was one of those weekends where you question what you're doing just a little bit. Ultimately it ended up being just a reaffirmation that I need to be more choosey about my convention schedule, but there's always a moment when at cons where you're just like... "This is really it isn't it." That's not to say that I didn't have a decent time. I met even more people, met even more artists, and ultimately, it got me out of the house. Between work and ... other work, Ashley and I don't really get out much, so conventions are like our little mini-vacations. We get to hang out with people, chat, share our love for all things creative. I think she described it perfectly as, "We are like carnies. But the misfits of the misfits. Like there are all these people walking in costumes and we are even further outside that bubble trying to make a living doing this." Sometimes I think we both agree that we are insane for even attempting to do this, but ultimately, it's the joy we see on people's faces that keep us coming back for more.
I just hope that the next show is even better. Here's looking at you, MidSouth Con!

Title: Fan Art: Rey from Star Wars: Force Awakens
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Original is 7.5" x 7.5"

Notes: I felt a tad on the obligated side to make a Star Wars fan art piece. I will admit though, that I haven't seen the movie yet, I just enjoy the character design of the new characters in the movie...
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Whew... almost fell behind already.

Alright, so I know that I said that I wanted to make sure that I stick to my goals for the year. I want to also make an addendum onto that by saying that I want to actually blog more again. I used to make sure that I had some sort of text attached every time I would update when I first started... let me go on to say that I will make sure to apply that from here forward as well.

The goals statement being said... I am currently working on about fourish pieces all in tandem at the moment on top of some fan art pieces. Fan art will still always be a big part of work as it helps me to not only practice techniques, but to give my mind freedom to just have fun playing. Most people give fan art a bad name, but I like to look at it as - sometimes an artist just needs to have a way to express themselves without giving themselves a complete headache. Sure it can be considered a bit lazy on our (my) end, but I usually try and change up the piece from the original.



You can always use the design.
A lot of times when I do fan art I will use the basic character elements - such as the hair style, clothing, etc. - but use my own poses or lighting on said characters. A majority of the pieces that I do use this technique.

For example, Gaige here... I used a lot of different reference angles of her to really capture as many of the fine details that I could. There is no realistic version that I could find of her, short of directly copying a cosplayer. I used many different references and many different angles. Most people forget that part about art that you need to make it your own, no matter what the subject matter is. In my opinion, unless your in a leadership position, in the entertainment world you will be doing fan art of some sort for a good portion of your day. That's not to say that you can't inject your voice into the piece. Every piece needs to have an equal amount of love in it or it won't be effective.


Make sure that you inject your style in every piece that you do, no matter fan art or not.
Even on the fan art piece of Rey that I did, above, on the original, there's a very stylistic choice made on every stroke that I did.

If you look at the entire piece up close, every spot has been informed by all of my skills with painting in gouache, charcoal smudge, and pencil. I try to tell every artist that I come across that asks me about process to follow one simple rule, especially when digital painting: every inch of every painting you do needs to have multiple stroke types or it ends up looking flat, almost plastic. I've seen many, many examples of people that call themselves digital painters forget the painting part. I mean, it all comes with time in my opinion, you need to learn the tools and all that, but most people just use that good 'ole solid round brush and just push that circle around. Don't get me wrong, I have seen it used to great effect, but the difference is all about stroke economy at that point.