Today’s warm-up. A Samurai type fellow in green. Good fun.
I am also assembling an interesting segment of the Ninja Mountain Podcast this weekend.
We’ll be talking about “old-school” Dungeons and Dragons art with some of its practitioners.
To learn more about the show, head over to www.ninjamountain.blogspot.com
It’s ape lizard time! I love me some weird critters. 
Now to work!
—Jeremy
Woodsman
Here is today’s daily warm-up sketch. I am now ready to get cracking at the day’s work.
Another Monday is here. A new warm-up sketch has come along with it.
I’ve even played around with a different signature for yucks.
I am back in the studio and in my regular work environment which is actually pretty nice. Everything is in its proper place and hopefully my mind will follow suit.
Now onto the day’s work!
I am out of the studio and am currently house/baby/pet-sitting.
It began last Saturday and continues through tomorrow evening.
My responsibilities include 3 awesome kids, 3 dogs, 4 cats, some house flies, and a basement filed with spiders.
The internet connection here is spotty as all get-out, hence my relative lack of posts. Y’know–those posts I promised would be more forthcoming? Ugh.
I did manage to bring my iMac with me along with my art supplies, though it has been hard to get any meaningful work done. As it turns out, I am slightly allergic to the zoo-ful of critters that reside here in every known crevice of the home. It has made concentrating a rather difficult task.
I am set up in a corner of the family dining room on a folding table with a bare-bones computer set-up. Just my iMac and a Wacom tablet. As a drawing surface I brought along a big ol’ hunk o’board to rest in my lap and prop up on the dining table. Not that much drawing has been going on due to the before-mentioned allergies.
On a more interesting note, the head of the graphic arts department at a local college is preparing a new curriculum focused on 3D computer game design. If this new course track comes to fruition, he would like me to teach a course on character/concept design. I am pretty excited at the prospect. I actually enjoy teaching.
Also, I am going to try something new with the blog.
I’ll start posting regular warm-up sketches. Digital bits and bobs to get the ol’ drawing hand limbered up for the day’s work.
Here is the first of many such rough exercises. I hope you enjoy it.
If things go as planned, then many more are to come!
Alas, My Drow Vs Mind Flayer cover contest entry, the subject of my recent Work-In-Progress tutorial, is getting no love.
Sadness.
It is not a no-win situation, though. The entries that won the judges’ hearts received excellent comments that give real insight into their thought processes and I have found it very useful as I pursue future projects.
I got to learn more about what makes a successful book cover and to produce a useful tutorial for those interested in digital painting. All around a terrific experience!
For those interested in viewing the winners and the useful commentary provided by the judges, head on over to Art Order !
I just learned that Ellie Frazetta, wife to artist Frank Frazetta, has recently passed away. As a fan of the artist, reading about the man and his work also included becoming acquainted with the dynamic lady behind the artist.
I am genuinely saddened for his loss and I hope that Mr Frazetta is finding comfort in his family and in her memory.
Our prayers are with the Frazettas in this sad time.
I just went to see all the entries for the “Drow Vs Mind Flayer” cover contest over at Art Order ( Jon Schindehette’s blog about illustration and art direction) and there were some truly great entries.
There were some really inspired pieces in the line-up!
My faves ( in numerical order as I scroll down the list of entries) were numbers 14, 16, 25, 27, 37 ( guess who!), 39, 52, 60, and 66.
All kidding aside, I admit intimidation when I view some of these entries. They are very well-executed and exciting to look at.
I am certainly learning a few things from them on what I can do to improve my own work.
To see all the entries, head on over to the following link:
http://artorder.blogspot.com/2009/07/drow-vs-mind-flayer-part-1.html
The judges of this contest will be Jon Schindehette himself, Irene Gallo of Tor Books’ fame, Matt Adelsperger of Wizards of the Coast Books, and Kate Irwin of Mirrorstone Books and Wizards of The Coast Books. That is quite a panel of respected art directors and I am sure whatever comments they make about the entries will be very informative. Be sure to check it out as the contest continues!
I really look forward to reading their thoughts on my piece and to seeing what I can do to improve upon it with their guidance.
If possible, I will post those results in this blog as a continuation of the WIP/Tutorial.
Back to my laborious labors!
While I took no pictures of the show ( it was a small gaming hall with no real eye candy beyond the odd medieval costume, I can describe to you a fun little gaming convention held in Nashua, New Hampshire. It is called OGC ( Open Gaming Convention) and is run by a fine group of folks who love to game. I was told that I had a table at the show at the last moment and showed up with prints and original drawings at the ready.
I have fun at small shows where I get to chat with folks and sketch. It is relaxing. I even sell the occasional print, oddly enough!
I am planning a new piece right now as a possible print for GenCon. Worked out some of the details while sitting at my booth.
More on that soon.
You also never know who you will meet at these shows. I made the acquaintance of a couple of business owners who need artwork unrelated to gaming.
Had I not gone to this small show, I never would have met them. Not to mention the friends I made while there.
To learn more about the convention, head to www.ogc-con.com
I got to hang out with my old buddy, Don Higgins, an illustrator and web cartoonist. Don posts a weekly humor strip called, “Dark Magic and Donuts”, that details the misadventures of a group of fantasy heroes. Currently, the strip and its archives are hosted at www.rpgbomb.com
Go have a read and pass the double chocolate!
—Jeremy
Well, I’ve once again returned to my blogging efforts. You would think having a blog at my disposal along with an unswerving need to express myself would lead to an endless torrent of posts, but I’ve been insanely busy of late.
I chaired this year’s New Hampshire Creative Club Annual Show. A lot of work went into it. You can learn more at: www.nhcreativeclub.org
It so happens that my piece entitled, “Icarus” won “Best Illustration”. How cool is that?!
Icarus
I am wrapping my first work for Paizo Publishing. I think it is some of my best work to date and ( despite one file corruption that forced a re-paint) went very smoothly.
I am also hard at work on card art for Fantasy Flight Games along with interiors for Expeditious Retreat Press. On the side I am developing artwork for a children’s coloring wall for the Manchester Girls’ & Boys’ Club. It will be printed quite large and colored by the young attendants at the 2009 Day for Kids Event here in Manchester.
I had to forgo sketch gatherings for a short while as I got caught up with my assignments. The gang and I have also been keeping up our steady weekly release of the Ninja Mountain Podcast. We will be recording Episode 25 this week in fact. Check out the show at www.ninjamountain.blogspot.com
One thing that has come out of all of my recent art assignments is greater confidence in my drawing and painting process. I seem to have stumbled upon a pretty solid series of steps. They consist of the following basic sequence:
1) small ink thumbnails jotted down in my sketchbook over coffee at my favorite local place. Not in the studio, if possible. I have to get out of the place some time after all. 
2) Scan the thumbnails into the computer. Blow them up and create more refined sketches in Corel Painter. I can really mess around with stuff digitally. Scale things up. Move them around the composition. Pretty much anything.
3) Send sketches to publisher for approval.
4) Once approved, I shoot photo reference with my digital camera. My computer stores more semi-nude photos of me than I care to admit to.
5) I print out and lightbox my sketches on to illustration paper. Currently that is a 2-ply smooth bristol. I use a hard lead in order to trace faint lines onto the paper and then use a softer lead to darken the lines I wish to keep. I frequently refer to the photo reference I am working from.
6) I scan the finished drawing back in to the computer and bring it into Corel Painter. I then flip the drawing and see if it needs any correction. Flipping the piece jars the eye into spotting mistakes. I then proceed to correct any errors in preparation for …
7) I create a “Multiply” Layer and fill it with the darkest gray that will appear in my under-painting. I will then take an eraser set to 4-5% opacity and remove my highlights and middle tones. A subtractive rendering process . Think of it as softly modeled scratchboard. I then create yet another layer and use white “paint” to establish my more subtle rendering and details.
I find it helpful to do a fully-rendered grayscale underpainting. It allows me to focus on the tonal quality of a piece before getting caught up in color decisions. For me, a successful painting begins with a strong underpainting. If the piece works in grayscale, it will work in color as well.
Once I am satisfied that the tonal range of my piece is correct, I will flatten the whole thing and move in with washes of digital color. I lay down my basic “local color” and then apply the highlights and add color to my shadows.
9) I will finally lay a wash of faint color over all the middle tones and highlights that serves to express the color of the light in the scene ( such as the warm gold of sunlight or the orange-yellow of torchlight). This helps to pull the whole thing together I find.
10) Send in the piece and receive hugs from my art director. ;^)
I will soon produce a tutorial to showcase this process in action. Pretty simple stuff, but words seldom convey that.
Thaks for reading!
—Jeremy
