A new fantasy piece and tons to update.

Well, it’s been pretty eventful of late.

Episode 9 of the podcast I co-host, “Ninja Mountain Scrolls” has posted and is being very well-received.

I am so proud to be a part of that.

I’ve wrapped up artwork on a boardgame and some fantasy rpg book interiors.

Now I am at work on a book cover for  Goodman Games that I think is some of my best work to date.

My latest portfolio piece is complete and I am preparing some large prints of it for the Boston Comicon coming up next weekend.

 

I’ve also been taking part in Jon Schindehette’s blog,  Art Order ’s weekly Concept Tuesday Contest which has been great fun. I’ll be sure to post my entrues for those here. They’ve been great fun so far.

I gotta jet, but here is that new portfolio piece I mentioned…A Dragon Slayer…or so our hero hopes….

 

Ninja Mountain Episode 5 and cold calls…

Well, 

Episode 5 went up a week ago and the show is doing very well. I am told we had four hundred downloads on February 27th!

Very cool. This week we talked about our artistic processes. I thought it was really interesting to hear my friends discuss their approaches. Gave me a lot to think about.

 

I’ve also started to put together a contact list of potential clients for my new and growing body of work.

This has required a series of cold calls that I am slowly growing more accustomed to. I’m even starting to enjoy them to a degree.

I view each one as a new opportunity and a means to introduce myself.

I’ve started locally and this has kept me within my comfort zone as I make those first tentative steps to promoting my work.

 

I am currently creating illustrations for a New Hampshire Creative Club mailer in preparation for the year end show that I am chairing. This is the main character and he is essentially doing what I am doing right now…shouting the word out.

Copyright 2009 Jeremy McHugh

I know that self-promotion is one of the less enjoyable tasks of being a freelance artist, but I have finally decided that it is a process I must embrace as a businessperson. I even manage to do it with a smile now. If you, as a business owner, receive a call that starts like this, ” ….Ummmmm…helllloooo, sir or madam as the case may be…my name is Jeremy McHugh and I am a freelance illustrator…”

Please be gentle. I am new at this…

Mercifully, the majority of my calls have been accepted by receptionists and office managers who are comfortable answering my questions and who put me equally at ease with the whole process. They’ve all been very friendly thus far and now I don’t mind dialing up strangers and inquiring about their illustration needs.

I’ve even had post cards printed. they are good to go. Now to just complete an initial mailing list, get those bad boys in the mail and see if anything happens…

—Jeremy

Quick update for today…

Episode 4 of Ninja Mountain Scrolls is up at www.ninjamountain.blogspot.com and via ITunes!

It is a podcast for illustrators and by illustrators ( such as yours truly).

This week we discuss deadlines and begin the many-faceted topic of conventions.

I hope you’ll give it a listen and  perhaps even leave a positive review at ITunes.

 

If you have any questions or suggestions for show topics, don’t be afraid to post them at the show’s blog page.

Thanks for reading!

Mrowr!

My valentine to my valentine!

I decided to once again make a card for the misses.

I gave it to her just before we began wandering Portsmouth together. We must have made for an excruciatingly cute couple that day.  

I hope you all had a terrific Valentine’s Day!

—Jeremy

Whew! I’m back!

Dear Blog,

So very sorry for having taken such a hiatus from posting.

I’ve been busily churning out artwork for a board game and could not return to your warm embrace until I had completed my labors. I enjoyed the holidays with family from around the state as well as my twin brother who flew in with his beautiful family from Los Angeles.

Woo-Hoo!

I even completed a portfolio piece!

Icarus

 

The sketch group met once again on Wednesday evening and I got to hang out with friends, Peter Noonan and Jason Luongo. I also made the acquaintance of Larry Gagon, whose son is an aspiring artist. His son may join us soon and share some sketching time. 

I’ve also been working with friends to produce a new podcast about illustration and freelancing in the art world called ” The Ninja Mountain Podcast”. It is truly an awesome program to work on. We have already published two episodes and are now available on ITunes as well as through our group’s blog at www.ninjamountain.blogspot.com

Here’s are links to the specific episodes as well, though it is easy to find them at the above link:

http://ninjamountain.blogspot.com/2009/01/ninja-mountain-podcast-episode-1.html

http://ninjamountain.blogspot.com/2009/02/ninja-mountain-podcast-episode-2.html

 

I am really excited about the show. So far we have had opportunity to introduce ourselves and speak a bit about our backgrounds. Episode 2 discusses some of the tools needed to seek work and present your studio professionally.

We are already planning the next episode and we hope to keep it a weekly affair.

Be sure to check it out! We hope you will enjoy it enough to subscribe ( Don’t worry–it’s free!) Our subscriber list grows daily and we love to get feedback and ideas for topics. 

Change of topic back to the board game I mentioned above. 

It has been a great experience so far as I’ve been exploring new tools within Corel Painter X ( at least those tools that I’ve never previously needed). The vector and text editing tools along with the selection tools being of great importance to the project.

I am growing much better rounded as an illustrator for having gained experience with them. It will be quite awhile before I can share some examples of the work, but I will be sure to post some here as soon as I am allowed.

Another thing I learned was the fundamental difference between creating artwork for a game board as opposed to a singular painting. When I create a painting I have a great deal of latitude as to the level of detail I bring to various parts of the canvas. The focal point of a painting is where I tend to lavish attention and time while other parts can be more loosely handled ( and indeed must be) in order to serve the overall composition.

On a game board, all elements pretty much receive equal weight and thus each element often  requires a great deal of time to render to the fullest. Still, I enjoyed the challenge and now I must wait for feedback from the company. Here’s hoping things are all good to go.

Well, back to my labors. I have a four page comic story to work on which I am very excited to do so I best get things under way. The layouts are complete, now I just have to gather some reference and get the layouts down on board. 

Onwards!

—Jeremy

A new private commission goes public!

Hey All,

I’ve just completed a private commission for a gaming friend of mine.

David plays some of the most unique characters in his role-playing games and I love doing portraits of them.

This latest character is named S’serj. He is a lizard man explorer with a very cool fez hat, a rapier, whip, and a razor shooter mounted on his forearm.

He has successfully disarmed every cunning trap. However, he has failed to disarm a rather irate mummy even with his charming grin…:)

I hope you enjoy this one as much as the new owner of the drawing does.

By the way, if you are a reader who happens to be interested in a private commission from my studio, please do not hesitate to contact me at jmchugh@mchughstudios.com

Thanks for reading!

My work is being miniaturized!

Hey, All.

Just a quick update today. I just learned from friend and fellow Talisman 4th Edition artist, Ralph Horsley, that the characters that he and I designed for the popular fantasy board game are being reproduced as miniatures for use with the game. 

I was very excited to see some examples on-line at:

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=243

Here’s hoping I can get copies for my collection ( fingers crossed).

I still get giddy when work I did appears in a book or game. Seeing miniatures of stuff I did gets me doing embarrassing touch-down dances that mercifully take place in the secluded privacy of my studio…;)

The presentation I gave at the December meeting of the Manchester Artist’s Association went very well despite what I am told was a smaller turn-out ( the monthly newsletter wasn’t able to go out on time so many folks were unaware of the event. People really seemed to enjoy the spectacle of me pushing pixels around on the screen. It was good fun.

I hope I can do more of such demonstrations of my working style in the future.

I have a sketch group meeting this evening at Barnes and Noble in Manchester. I’ll probably bring the private pencil commission I’ve been working hard on. I can’t wait to present it to the proud owner for approval. He liked the sketch, so I’ve been rendering it for the past few days. I’ll be sure to post a scan of it soon.

In the meantime, I did a sketch of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ character, John Carter of Mars. Anyone else catch the homage to this character in the name, “Jack” Carter, the sheriff of the little town of Eureka ( an original Sci-Fi Channel program)? Very clever indeed. Gives me a chuckle…

Hope you like the drawing. ‘Til next time.

Phew! Back in the saddle.

Finally getting back into blog mode. It has been too long!

Wrapped up some work for White Wolf and Green Ronin Publishing. Rush! Rush! Rush!

Since my last post, I’ve run a few sessions of the sketch group. Most of them have taken place at the Barnes and Noble here in Manchester, though last weekend, I went to Portsmouth and met with friends, 

Vita Mechachonis ( http://vitamechachonis.blogspot.com/ ), Gina Perry ( http://ginaperry.typepad.com/ ), and Robert Squiers ( http://www.robertsquier.com ). 

I had a blast looking through their sketchbooks and noodling in my own over coffee at “Breaking New Grounds” in Market Square. An excellent cuppa and terrific company! All three are talented children’s illustrators whose work I look forward to seeing more of.

My friend, Gareth Hinds, came up to Manchester to present his work to the NH Creative Club. Gareth has created graphic novel adaptations of such classic literature as Beowulf, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, and Bear Skin. He is currently hard at work on The Odyssey. It was a terrific event and Gareth put on a stellar demonstration. You can learn more about his work at www.garethhinds.com

I spent a lot of time as the chairperson for that event and I was very happy to see it turn out so well. Thank you, Gareth!

I also visited a couple of comic shows in the past few weeks and had a blast. One thing I learned is that comic collectors are not so terribly excited to buy prints drawn from my RPG work. I figure it is time to dig into my own love affair with comics and do some drawings of my favorite characters, especially if I want to offer prints and private commissions to comic collectors at future shows. 

I just completed a pin-up for a friend’s comic book which will be out soon. I look forward to sharing it with you here when it has hit the stands. This small project got me to thinking about doing some short comic stories for anthology-type books. A friendly author has offered to toss me a short script to play with. I am thinking to do it in color or at least in full grayscale. Comics are what drew me to illustration in the first place. Now that I’ve developed a bit of skill, I should be able to have some  real fun with sequential art in the future. I am really looking forward to getting started.

It turns out that the nation celebrated my birthday with turkey and cranberry sauce this year.

Yep, My 33rd birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. I share it with my twin brother( Josh ) , Jimi Hendrix, and Bruce Lee.

My wife got me the latest Edition of the Spectrum Annual ( The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art). What a beautiful book as always. Some of my friends managed to get their work featured in it this year which I thought was very exciting. I may just give it another go this year. Who knows, maybe I might make it into its prestigious pages some day.

This Monday evening I am presenting my work along with a demonstration of my digital workflow at the December meeting of the Manchester Artists Association. I prepared my father’s laptop with the necessary software and the driver for my Wacom Tablet. I am looking forward to it! I hope the artists who will attend will enjoy it. I hope to de-mystify some of the concepts of digital painting while cracking the occasional self-deprecating joke.

In my opinion, and one that is shared and informed by many others, digital tools are just another medium in which to work. Since my own approach more or less bridges traditional and digital technique, it is my goal to illustrate that common ground during my talk. 

I am praying that they have some method of projecting what is on the computer screen so that the members can see what I am doing. Otherwise, I envision about a dozen artists huddled around my shoulders trying to catch a glimpse…LOL.

Well, nothing more to report today. Rest assured, that I will be a lot more attentive to this journal in the coming days.

I am working on a character portrait for a friend at the moment. I am really pleased with how it is turning out so far. I’ll be sure to post it here when it is finished.

Later, all!

The sketch group is coming together! And a new sketch.

 

The Latest page from my sketchbook. One person told me it looked like their old boss...

 

 

I hope you get a chuckle out of this new sketch I did over coffee at my local Barnes and Noble.

I am getting the ball in motion for a new sketch group to be composed of local artist-types. We are figuring out the first meeting place and time. I can’t wait.

I have gotten a few replies already and people seem excited to take part. Is there a better way to spend an evening than with friends, a sketchbook, and your beverage of choice? I posit that there is not!

Plans include themed sketches, drawing from models when we can get an appropriate locale, perhaps a few improvised sketching games….

Really there is a lot a group like this can do. I am considering a sketching day where we head out into the world ( say Boston or downtown Manchester) with drawing tools in tow. Having done that before, I know it would be a hell of a time. Of course, that will have to wait until Spring me-thinks. Hard to draw when your hands are numb and shivering in the New England winter which is fast approaching.:)

Well, back to the grind. I have some contract work to get under way before I head out with the misses for a 5th Anniversary celebration in Portland, Maine. Really looking forward to it!

-Til next time.

Getting out and about!

I had a great time at last night’s New Hampshire Creative Club meeting.

We viewed a live demonstration of Adobe’s Creative Suite 4. That is some sexy software I must say. I was really impressed by some of the new features in PhotoShop and Illustrator in particular. I especially liked a new brush in Illustrator that allows you to paint flats fields of color that the program will then convert in to vector shapes. It seems like a powerful and convenient tool that would allow folks uncomfortable with the bezier tool to put it aside and work more intuitively. Very cool.

Shame I can’t afford to invest in the programs, but then I am pretty fulfilled by Corel Painter for the type of work I do.

Maybe some day….

I made the acquaintance of an illustrator named Katie Vernon who has recently moved into the Dover area. She maintains two blogs,” Ten Days Of… ” and ” Katie Vernon’s Adjunct Website” in addition to a terrific portfolio site that is ever-growing. A lovely person who does some fantastic work with mixed media.

I also met Guy Lessard, a Manchester-based Fine Art Photographer, who also happens to be the president of the Manchester Artist’s Association– a group I am actually quite interested in. A very friendly fellow.

One of the topics of casual discussion before and after the presentation was the prospect of a “sketch group” that would meet locally and just draw for the pleasure of it. The idea had been playing at my mind for some time and I finally decided to put the wheels in motion. I put together an email list and have posited the idea to my circle of artist-type friends. I hope it is able to gain steam because I think that such a group would be a valuable resource for anyone who takes part. I love drawing amongst friends and it would be a terrific time.

Here’s hoping.

I’ve also gone to the trouble of creating a daily/weekly schedule that I hope will be a good outline for success. I need to find ways of budgeting my time so that my studio can grow along with my work while maintaining a balanced lifestyle.

The primary problems I saw in my current habits:

I spend too many late nights here in the studio and I am primarily a day-person. There must be a way to be more productive during my more energized hours.

I don’t do enough to promote my studio and expand my list of potential clients.

I don’t do enough for my mental and physical health. 

Here is what I decided upon as a tentative breakdown of my day divided by activity type:

*Personal health (alternate activity daily) 8:30am to 9:30am:

Go to gym. 

Go for jog or walk.

*Business Building Things you must do each day (10am to 11 am) :

Lead Generation—

Make a new business connection ( email, on-line networking sites, phone calls).

Clerical Tasks—

Business Email correspondence.

Business paperwork ( contracts, etc.)

Creative Writing/Marketing—

Post in your blog.

–and/or–

Post in Ninja Mountain Scrolls. ( I also oversee Ninja Mountain’s Blog)

*Art Things you must do each day (11am until 6pm) :

(This schedule is a malleable thing, but typically the following will take place.)

Sketch in your sketchbook in quiet moments.

Work on a personal piece for one hour ( fantasy pieces. Humor pieces.)

Work on contract assignment. 

*Weekly Things you must do (6pm onwards as time allows) :

Head out to sketch away from office alone or with friends.

Work on NHCC Art Show.  I am the chairperson for this year’s upcoming Art Show. A lot of work ahead.

HAVE NOTHIN’ BUT FUN…

It was fun to put this together and I have already started to put it into effect, though I am sure the time I spend on each task will shift about on a daily basis. This does seem to provide a good rule of thumb for now. We’ll see how it goes.

Well, back to the grind.

—Jeremy