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