Portrait of a Monster #12 watercolor

Portrait of a Monster #12 sketch

Portrait of a Monster #17

Originals for Sale

I will be posting 3 originals on the store for sale tomorrow morning at 10AM est. I will be posting original watercolors later this week! www.justingerard.etsy.com

Justin Gerard Arts Store is Finally Live

I have made a great deal of prints to offer at the conventions that Portland Studios and myself will be attending this year. Comic con is over, and we still have CTN and Illuxcon to look forward to, but those conventions are still a ways off and I have been left with an over-abundance of prints and books that are now stacked floor to ceiling inside my very modest house. So this seemed like the perfect time to open an online store to sell some of my work.

Right now I am offering a few prints and sketchbooks, but I will also be putting some of the originals that have appeared on the blog here during the upcoming months. There are also a few other new pieces in the works that I am planning to make prints of as well, and those should be making their way onto the site soon.

The sketchbooks are ones that were originally made for the 2008 Comic Con and have a lot of developmental and conceptual sketches and studies from that year.

Drop by and have a look at www.justingerard.etsy.com and let me know what you think.

Photos from Comicon 2009

So then he looks right at me and says, 'No Disintegrations.' I mean, seriously? Say, have you seen Portland's new Booth?

Justin: "That print is overpriced."

Cory: "Yeah, great. Why aren't you wearing any pants again?"

Giving the SDCC Committee for Awesomeness some straight answers on being awesome.

Looking Good. Taking Care of Business.

San Diego was rocked again. It was an fantastic convention, and I am worn out. We met a ton of great people, got to see a lot of really incredible art and ate entirely too much awesome food in the gaslamp district.

We didn't really see much of the floor this year, because the booth was a madhouse. But we did make it out to see Donato and Manchess bring some shock and awe again this year with their demos. (Check out their work on Irene Gallo's blog here.) We also had the chance to meet and talk with Peter DeSeve. He has been a huge influence on me. I learned how to illustrate in watercolor from the Step by Step guide on him. (The one that Cory stole) Peter DeSeve is a great guy.

For the action in video format, head over to Cory's blog and watch his yearly Comic Con recap.

Photos by Matt Silver and Kitty Mach

Steampunk Wizard of Oz #3: Final Digital

Steampunk Wizard of Oz #3: Oil Color

Work in Progress

Steampunk Wizard of Oz #3: Underpainting

Underpainting

Oil on Masonite

18x24

A few years ago, some friends (who shall remain nameless) and I broke into an abandoned chemical plant that had been damaged by a fire. It was huge complex, that stretched over the better part of a square mile, it had its on rail yards, depots and an underground labyrinths of pipes and crawl spaces. In the passage-ways there were hazard signs on rusted, pressurized-doors that read, CAUTION: DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT. Oily water dripped and pooled in the hallways. Everywhere we were surrounded by an atmosphere of latent deadly chemicals and the feeling that maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. We crept through this labyrinth in complete darkness using headlamps. Everything was dripping, dank, ruined, and everywhere lay twisted steel girders, collapsed ceiling tiles and rusting electronic equipment.

But in one burned out rooms, we saw something that didn't fit in with all the rusting, man-made structures and machines. As we came into the room we froze, stopped breathing, and backed out the way we had come. In the room, we had seen large colonies of fungus several feet high covering the ground. One of my friends had worked in water and smoke mitigation before told us not to breathe in the air anywhere near there. So we crept out of the room and back into the relative safety of rooms labeled, TOXIC CHEMICALS PRESENT with their friendly MSDS diamonds on them. This struck me as very strange. Here in the midst of this dangerous man-made place, was something organic that was more immediately dangerous to us.

When I began to think through possibilities for this particular scene, (which you have probably recognized by now) this experience of seeing organic decay creeping into the ruins of man-made industry inspired me a great deal. The idea of 'don't breathe the air' in this industrial decay fit the mood of the scene for me.

Tomorrow we begin glazing.

Steampunk Wizard of Oz: Color Comps

The Steampunk Wizard of Oz idea was such an appealing concept that I ended up doing several dozen conceptual sketches before arriving at the piece I did for the previous entries and the 2009 IMC.

There are 2 concepts in particular that I would like to do in oil, if you all will permit me.

I'll be finishing the previous watercolor and digital piece tomorrow, but I will also be posting a progression of these pieces in oil during the next few days leading up to Comicon.

For those of you who will be attending Comicon in San Diego, stop by and visit me at the Portland Studios booth. It is going to rock. For some shots of last years immaculate action, check out these shots of awesome people. This year, on top of being publicly awesome, Cory Godbey and I will be rocking the convention center's socks off by painting original pieces on site. On top of this, we have also caved to the overwhelming public pressure to deliver new limited edition prints of recent works. And I do mean limited. While they last, we will be selling them like it is our duty to mankind at the convention.

Catch the action in San Diego. Booth #1032.

Steampunk Wizard of Oz: Digital Work

Digital stage 70% finished

imC 2009: The Lady of the Lake

Transfered Drawing on Masonite

Underpainting

Oil Painting in Progress