The cover contest entries are in!

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!

OGC Con 2009

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

I’m going to IlluxCon 2009!

So I hemmed and I hawed and I agonized over whether or not I could afford to go to this most awesome event and the opportunity very unexpectedly landed in my lap to get accommodations at a much reduced price.

So there you have it. No more excuses.

A friend and I will be heading to Altoona, Pennsylvania in order to achieve art “Nerdvana” !

Four days of terrific educational opportunities with some of the best illustrators in fantasy and science fiction art working today await!

To learn more about the event, head on over to www.illuxcon.com

I am very excited about this turn of events and am already preparing ideas for an IlluxCon special for the Ninja Mountain Podcast. We’ll see if that can come together.

Onwards!

I have to go wrap up an illo for Expeditious Retreat Press now.

Part 4 of my Drow Vs Mind Flayer cover work in progress.

It is time to move onto painting now that I have the structure of my piece more or less in place.

I begin by laying down transparent layers of color. These will be washes of ” local color” ( the actual color of the subject) which will be most visible ( in the final painting) in the middle tones of the piece where strong light meets shadow.

I begin my painting in the background working from front to back. I build up my colors much like a traditional watercolor or acrylic wash technique. I established a sickly,alien green light source coming from the tunnel above. Mind Flayers are such bizarre creatures and I wanted the light to further hint at their strange society.

 

As I continue to build up the colors, I am also adding layers of opaque color to reclaim and add detail to the rocks in the shadows. I am using darker washes to establish further details in the rocks found in the light as well ( cracks, spots of oxidation, etc.).

 

Now I’ve added color to the light source in the foreground. I wanted a strong warm color to indicate that the two combatants are falling towards something hot! I imagine a lake of magma that if the reader wants to learn more about, they will have to sit and have a read.

 

Now that I’ve managed to establish the background for the most part, I set about adding color to the Mind flayers. I used a dark cool blue for their cloaks and and a dark cool grey for the armor. The reference indicated their purple flesh so I chose a warm light violet for the first pass. I also make a first pass at the drow female’s attire.

 

Next I added flesh tones to our female drow elf and indicated the warm light falling on everyone. I visit passages of blues and purples into the shadows of the Mind Flayer’s flesh and passages of unexpected color to create interest such as the odd spot of green. Also, as I paint, I make refinements to her features and start to establish the location of highlights.

 

 

I have now started to add further details such as to the woman’s clothing since much of what I want for this picture is in place. I still have some reservations though. Maybe it’s time to give it a flip.

 

I flip the piece horizontally from time to time at various stages of production in order to see how a change of view reads to me. I recommend this trick to anyone when you want to get a real glimpse of how well a piece is holding up. You can get a better read on how a composition is behaving and how well you’ve handled details such as perspective and anatomy.  I’m happy to report that the image still reads well to my eye, but I will continue working on the flipped image for a time to see if the change of perspective inspires any fresh ideas as I continue to work.

I’ve given our foreground mind flayer a blue crystal sword! Me likey! It will really pop on the cover I think!

 

I continue to noodle with the lighting situation on the rocks in the foreground as it serves a vital role in framing the action that will appear on the front cover. I’ve also added a bit of green to the rocks in the middle ground to show some of the green light that is bouncing around in the scene.

 

Time to flip it back and continue on my merry way secure in the knowledge that things are reading well.

One change I have made is to correct the foreground mind flayer’s head. That tentacle needed to be further behind his head. Now his head reads far better as a round form to me. Sometimes you have to be willing to make changes to the drawing even in late stages of a project, if it serves the image. While best to avoid these instances with better planning, don’t be afraid to make changes as they occur to you.

 

I’ve now added some green to the armor of the mind flayer in the middle ground to add further interest. It also echoes the green of the light source in the back cave. I’ve also deepened the shadows behind him and obscured his silhouette somewhat to give him that “coming out of the shadows” look.

 

Finally, I have placed a wash of the fiery light into the highlights of the foreground and middle ground figures. This helps to root them better in the scene and helps to unify the palette. I have added subtle details to the mind flayer in the background to give him more form. Not so much that he begins to compete withthe middle ground and foreground, but just enough….

I’ve also finally decided to darken areas of the stone behind the foreground figures. Their highlights help them to pop against the newly darkened background.

Now, I’ve been continually referencing the position of the trade dress to see how all is coming together. Let’s have one final look at this piece with all of the elements in place…

Looking good! I mentioned in an earlier article that I maneuvered the middle ground and background figures  a smidge. You may notice that the middle ground mind flayer’s staff is placed so as to be visible just to the left of the text and that the background mind flayer is just giving the reader a peek from behind the upper right corner of the text. I will admit to having a bit of fun with that . Another subtle thing I played with was the green light that comes from the tunnel and how it wraps around to the front. It is my hope that the reader will follow it to the back cover to learn more about the book.

Also, the thrust of the action on the front cover is towards the right; an invitation to the reader to crack open the book and read some additional teaser text.

At the very end, I’ve added some mottled flesh to the foreground Mind Flayer.

Et Voila!

To recap this whole process for you folks who’ve followed this tutorial …

Part 1: Rough Sketches

1) Rough sketches which are then scanned and used to generate a refined final sketch.

Part 2: Refined Drawing

1) The sketch is then printed on to copy paper and light-boxed to illustration paper for final refined drawing.

2) The drawings are scanned and assembled on the computer.

Part 3: Grayscale underpainting.

1) Create a “multiply layer” ( or any layer type you find suitable to the task)  and fill it with your darkest value and erase the areas that are in light.

2) Work into the image with white paint and blending tools to refine your grayscale underpainting until you have the solid underpinnings necessary to begin painting.

Part 4: Painting

1) Begin with washes of local color and the color of your lighting. 

2)Work into the shadows with reflected light and color.

3)Establish your highlights and final details. Add passages of unexpected color here and there to add visual interest.

4) Add final washes of the color found in the lighting to help unify your palette and root everything within the scene.

 

I hope you found this Work-In-Progress helpful as a glimpse into how I currently tackle my assignments as a freelance fantasy illustrator.

Maybe you might give this process a try, if you don’t already work this way. I am learning a great deal from working this way and the opportunity to learn and grow as an illustrator was one reason I adopted this approach.

I wish you all the best as you set to work in your studio.

Good luck!

Part 3 of my WIP. Underpainting!

I am now moving onto Part 3 of this Work-In-Progress tutorial.

I have settled upon a rough composition and prepared a more refined drawing.

To start, I have opened the file in Corel Painter X which is my current digital painting application of choice. It has many things in common with PhotoShop and much of what I will do here is also possible in PhotoShop. (I will also be speaking more generally when it comes to the painting process as this tutorial isn’t really an article about a specific program).

My first step is to create a new “Multiply” Layer and , using the Paint Bucket Tool, fill that layer with a dark gray. In this instance, I chose to go with a value of 16% white ( as my program measures the gray value).  Some folks like to use a color for their underpainting, but I prefer gray because it helps me to focus on what is most important to me at this moment—the value range of my piece.

I can now begin rendering the piece with an eraser. I am effectively drawing and sculpting the forms with light. I select the eraser tool and set it to around 4-5% opacity. I then start removing the gray from the Multiply Layer where the light will strike and allow the shadows to remain.

This is the exact opposite way of how I used to do things, actually. I used to build up the forms in a slow series of gray washes working from light to dark. This was a relic of my older training with penciling, watercolor, and acrylic wash techniques. While it helped me to wrap my brain around performing artwork digitally (by mimicking traditional media), it was also more time consuming. This method is much faster for me and gets me the initial results I ‘m after with time to spare.

My pencils remain intact beneath the Multiply Layer and I can play with the value levels of the layer to darken or lighten as I see fit. 

On a new standard default layer I can now begin a more refined rendering by painting with white and carefully blending. I add strong highlights and more carefully modeled middle tones.

I also add visible details in the shadows using tones of gray. I make strong use of reflected light ( light bouncing off of nearby surfaces that help illuminate areas in shadow)  and I like to place a good deal of subtle detail into even my deepest shadows to add interest and give depth to the forms.  Where appropriate I also add rim lighting ( lighting visible along the edge or contour of a form).

I mentioned in my previous post that changes will occur along the away as I work. You may notice that the Mind Flayer in the background has been given a more extreme tilt. I found that his pose and angle were a bit too similar to my critter in the middle ground in my initial drawing. Since both creatures are on separate layers, it was an easy fix.

I think he’s looking much better now.

I also shifted them both a smidge to aid the composition. Nothing drastic, but it is an improvement to my eye.

This stage is so important to me because it is here where the lighting is established and the drawing and details are further refined. 

Before adopting this working method, my work ran the risk of being too narrow in value range.

It failed to take advantage of the compositional possibilities of value and relied too heavily on contrasting color to guide the eyes of viewers. My earlier work sometimes had rather odd color palettes as I attempted to add much-needed contrast.

Now, I don’t move forward to color until I am confident that I have properly developed the picture’s value range and established the lighting and detail. Minor changes may be made as I move onto the next stage, but I have further strengthened the foundation of my painting with this important step.

Part 4 will be under way shortly!

Thanks for reading.

Part 2 of my cover in progress…

What follows are the individual figure drawings I generated from the rough sketch you saw in Part 1.

I enlarged and printed each figure individually. I then light-boxed and refined each drawing you see below on smooth bristol. I believe in working over well-realized drawings. I find it very difficult to do a good painting over a bad drawing. A good and solid drawing provides the foundation upon which I can paint with greater confidence. This is not to say that all decisions have been made by this stage, but a good starting point has been reached by the time I’ve finished drawing.

In general, I try to produce useful photo reference from which to work as that helps to really inform my drawings. In this instance I didn’t have a studio assistant ( aka. My wife with a digital camera) so I had to rely on experience and a handy mirror.

Here are the tumbling combatants that will be featured on the front cover.

Here is the Mind Flayer who is featured in the middle of the back cover. He will be very much obscured by the blurb text. As such, he will likely be in shadow and this will help him to recede without causing the text to become muddy. Still, I did visit some detail into him and this will guide my painting.

And here’s the Mind Flayer we spot in the background of the back cover. He will  be most deeply in shadow and there will be some back lighting that will reveal his silhouette for the most part. Again, the detail I have visited upon the figure, while likely to be lost, will still serve to guide my painting as I move forward.

 

Here is the cover without the trade dress. I scanned each figure drawing and dropped them into the layout. I scanned them at the same resolution as my final artwork ( 600 ppi) so they remain crisp.

The environment is still very loose, but this will start to be refined as I move onto Part 3 during which I will further refine the drawing and produce the grayscale under-painting.

And finally the cover drawing with the trade dress template super-imposed. See how much of those Mind Flayers are going to be obscured? Crying shame…;)

You’ll note how carefully the main combatants are framed on the front cover by the “Author Name” and “Really Long Book Title”. In this instance, I don’t know how much overlap of the text is acceptable so I chose not to meddle with it for purposes of this exercise. Plus, the figures could cause unwanted “tangents” ( awkward overlap or juxtaposition of elements that cause flattening of an image) with the text and muddy the letters/logos.

I also gave each figure a bit of breathing room within the design to accommodate potential bleed. It wouldn’t do to have one of my little critters getting nipped during cutting and binding.

Well, that’s all for now.

Part 3 will feature some of the techniques I use for under-painting.

Thanks for reading.

A tutorial/Work-in-Progress. Part 1

All right!

As promised, I am now going to give with a tutorial/ work-in-progress.

Jon Schindehette’s blog, Art Order, is featuring  a cover competition that I decided to take part in. To learn more, head over to www.artorder.blogspot.com

Jon has thoughtfully provided a template for the theoretical book’s trade dress and layout. I am using this in order to prepare my composition to incorporate the potential layout.

I prepared a couple of thumbnails and settled upon the above  rough sketch. 

As you can see, I have placed compositional elements while referencing the design. The brief calls for a female dark elf to be locked in battle with a brain-sucking octopus dude ( also known as a “Mind Flayer”). All the action takes place beneath the surface of the world.

I decided to have the two main combatants plummeting over a cliff’s edge while other mind flayers lurk in the shadows of the back cover. Drama and suspense are keywords for me on this one. I want the potential reader to have questions that only opening the book will answer.

I wanted the cover to be an opening cliffhanger.

You will note that the rough sketch is indeed the very definition of “rough”. It is more notational for me while establishing some basic shapes and compositional relationships. I have even made little notes in the sketch such as light sources and direction. I am already thinking about the light’s color though no decision has yet been made.

I will now move onto shooting photo reference and gathering other visual ideas.

Check back soon for the next installment!

What’s new…

Yesterday, I sent in my finished artwork for Paizo. I am hopeful of more work in the months come. The art director, Sarah Robinson, was a treat to work with. The descriptions were just detailed enough to give me a spring board to be creative. She even sent me the necessary reference ! How helpful is that?!

I can’t tell you how many times in the past I’ve received art descriptions that assumed I had deep knowledge of a company’s intellectual property.

” I want a 3/4 shot of a Xorchnarg as seen in Monsters of Demon Fart Ridge…only this one should have horns and wield a dire rapier…” and then give me absolutely no visual reference or even a description to work with. This usually leads to prolonged pestering of the art director for reference that only arrives within a day of the sketch deadline. Aaargh!

Thankfully, these instances are rare enough that I don’t have to pad the walls of my studio.

Any way, I am very pleased with my work on the book. The only heartbreak for me is that the publication doesn’t come out until the Fall which means I have to wait three months before I can show it off to the world and four months before I can expect payment. Oh well. Good with the bad, no?

Now I am working up sketches for Expeditious Retreat Press. A small budget, but the material is compelling. I did a few thumbnail sketches at my local Panera’s over coffee and an egg sandwich. Is there a better way to work, I ask you?!

—Jeremy

*GASP* Coming back up for air!

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

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….