Christmas Is Coming

So I am selling prints again. I currently have 4 up on my store, including 2 from the St. George Series and one from the AWOL Series.  Check them out here.  

All the prints are giclee on fine art paper and have been individually signed and numbered.

Holiday Bear Delivers Your Packages Safely. 

The sketchbooks however... have sold out. We sold through 200 in 2 weeks. 

And now that I have told that to the world, my family will be expecting absurdly lavish gifts for Christmas.  Like the 14k gold kitten collar and the diamond-encrusted yacht that have recently appeared on their wish lists. 

I am working on getting a second print run together and hopefully will have some in time for Christmas. Until then though, check out the new prints!

Sketchbook 2011 Shipping Out

Today I am shipping out the first batch of sketchbook orders! 

The response has been amazing. We sold through the first 50 in 3 hours! Of the original 250, we are down to about 45 left. 

The first 50 drawings are individually numbered (using fancy roman numerals) and I will be shipping them out in the order received.  So Fernando from Spain, (who somehow managed to order before the blog link was even up), you will be getting numeral I. Congratulations!

If you came in just after 50 don't give up hope. Thanks to my somewhat curious numbering system (pictured above), there are a number of extras who numerals aren't *exactly* standard that will be shipped out as well.

The sketches feature a lot of dragons, dwarves, elves and vikings.  Why?  Partially because all of these characters are interesting to draw. But also because I was watching Day[9] livestream Skyrim while I was drawing these.  You heard it right, the future is now; I don't even have to play video games anymore.  I can just watch other kids playing video games while I work.

Along with the fantasy creatures, there were also a fair number of monsters that managed to creep in as well.  

Like the were-rabbit.  

Note: XXXX is not a real roman numeral. Someone will be getting this as a bonus...

 And some old friends from previous Quickhidehere posts.

Thanks again for all the orders and support! You guys are all awesome. I look forward to getting the books in the mail and I hope you enjoy them as much as I've enjoyed making them. 

Sketchbook 2011

Sketchbook 2011

9 x 6, 32 pages, color

For those of you who missed Illuxcon, I am selling a new sketchbook! I am really excited about how this one turned out (This year it's in color!)

The sketchbook contains a lot of work from St. George and other projects finished in 2011. 

I am selling the sketchbooks HERE. All are signed, but I am doing drawings in the first 50 orders!

UVU Demo

Last post I showed a few studies for a demo I was scheduled to do at Utah Valley University. I am back and today I will show how the painting progressed and eventually turned out. 

Thumbnail

Digital Color Comp 

Drawing on paper

9 x 15 

 Values

Color

Detail and Final Adjustments

I didn't get to the Detail and Final Adjustment stage in the demo because I am slow.  This piece is relatively simple, but even still it ends up taking a little over 30 hours for me to finish. (Which was too long for the students because they apparently have other, non-art-related classes they are forced to go to.)  

I will repeat Lesson #2 from the lecture: Draw all of the time.  Especially in your non-art-related classes. 

The lecture itself went well and only once did technology stab me in the back. (I'll get you Bill Gates if it's the last thi..)  

No, really it was great. Nobody got shot or mauled or anything. I wish that every time I go speak in public it could go as smoothly.  

It was a ton of fun and I hope to get the chance to visit again in the future.

AWOL No. 4 Studies

I am currently on the road so today's post will be a quickie of some studies done for an upcoming digital painting demo in Utah.

This article is a re-post from a previous MuddyColors post.  To see the original post and comments please visit Muddycolors.blogspot.com.

Flying Monkeys

This is a digital, 1-hour speed-painting I put together recently to demo the brush sets I have been shamelessly plugging. It is Photoshop CS5 over traditional pencil.  

I'm Selling Brush Sets Again!

So I am selling Brush Sets again for Photoshop.  And to kick things off, I am releasing the undead.  

Er, I mean the undead brushes.  When I started working on Resistance 3 I knew that I needed to create a completely new set of brushes to tackle this kind of work.  As you all know, most of my previous work had to do with pastel bunnies frolicking in magical fields of clover. I hadn't done as much of this super gritty work before, and this called for something new.  Something serious, something that could handle brains-on-the-wall mayhem and carnage.  


So I created the Zombie Brush Set.  It solved all my problems with how to deal with the undead, leaving me free to tend to my cactus garden and get back to painting adorable kittens.    

Visit the Store

To see these brushes in action, check out the demo:

How To Paint a Zombie

Resistance 3: My Year with Zombies

Some of you may recall this little post I put up a little while back:

I mentioned then that its purpose was to reclaim some balance in my life. I had been spending a lot of time in zombieland, and I needed some fresh air. The project (that I couldn't speak of or Sony would burn my farm) was Resistance 3, which was released September 6 for the PS3.

I'm excited to see it is doing really well so far and getting really good reviews. It was a fun project. I don't usually go in for zombies or slashers in general, and this was a complete departure from my usual style and manner of work. But it was fun to switch things up and jump into something really gritty for a while. It was also a great learning experience and I got to work with some super talented guys from Edgeworx.

My primary job on this project was to provide art for the opening cinematic sequence for the story.  This explained in brief how things got to be such a mess and why you were about to go out into that mess and shoot everything in site.

I was really excited to finally get to see the work in motion and with sound.  The guys we worked with at Edgeworx did some really amazing stuff with it.  However, there was one thing that did strike me as odd when I saw the first videos after it hit youtube.

Resistance 3: Opening Sequence

At 1:25 in the video my friends Zach and Alissa get married.

Zach helped me out on this project, getting reference together and setting everything up for me. And when there was no reference, he would improvise. So in much of my reference, I find Zach being both the hero and the villain, and occasionally even the innocent bystander who gets eaten by zombies.

Here Zach posed for the priest and for the groom and Alissa posed for the bride. Strangely enough, Zach and Alissa actually did get married in real life shortly after this scene.

I was actually in the wedding too and so all of this kind of blends together.

When I watch this video, what I see is Zach and Alissa taking their vows, walking down the aisle together, and then Zach running out into the parking lot with a machine gun and mowing down the wedding guests who have inexplicably turned into mutant zombies.

Like I said, it all gets kind of fuzzy now that I'm thinking back to it...

Also, for those of you who have picked up my brushes in the past, check back in later this week.  I will be selling the brushes I used for this project.  They are zombie killing machines!


Note: This post is a re-post from Muddy Colors. To check out the original post and comments visit:Muddycolors.blogspot.com.

Reference Hunting: The Narrows

In 2004 some friends and I hiked the Narrows at Zion National Park in Utah.  Of all the hikes I have ever been on, this was perhaps the greatest.

During much of the hike, the 100 foot vertical sandstone walls of the canyon close in so tightly that you must hike in the water itself, which is murky, and full of bowling balls, making each step a perilous lesson in jujitsu.

When I was working on the St. George illustrations, I kept coming back to this place in my mind, and in the end, I used it very closely for the images of the last showdown with the dragon.  Part of this, is that amidst all the natural splendor of the Narrows, there is an element of danger, depending on which time of the year you are hiking.

When we got into the park we were told that it would be very dangerous to hike the canyon because if it rained then there would be a good chance that it would flash flood in the canyon. This would result in either severe injury or death or both.  But only if it rained. And it was suppose to rain.

Also, there were cougars.

After looking at the forecast, my friends were justifiably alarmed that we might get rained on half way out in the gorge and then be overtaken by a chocolate mud-slide of bowling balls and angry cougars. I was only able to convince everyone to go by showing them pamphlets for the hike, which offered glowing, happy pictures of elderly couples and very young children hiking in the stream, unmolested by mud-slides or cougars. If they can brave it, being elderly and infirm, surely we can.

(Confession: The pamphlets were actually not for the hike we would be taking, but a separate, safer one with guided trails. I lied and I am sorry.)

But in the end it never rained, and we weren't caught up in a flash flood or eaten by the indigenous fauna.  Instead we witnessed one of the most amazing places I have ever seen on planet Earth and the most memorable hike I have ever been on.

If you ever get the chance, go to Utah, stop by Zion National Park and hike the Narrows.  You will not regret it.

(But check the forecast first…)

                                                                          Image: Jon Sullivan

Note: This post is a re-post from Muddy Colors. To check out the original post and comments visit: Muddycolors.blogspot.com.

St. George Final

As some of you may recall, I planned to tackle one of these two final St. George pieces in oil.  This was the piece I chose. 

Oil Underpainting

Things started off really well. But after finishing the underpainting, I ran into some minor health issues... 

Side effects may include...

And I turned into a monster and ate my neighbors.

  

Apparently my problem is that I cannot seem to manage to paint what I want without solvents and solvents just don't agree with me. 

So, while I sit here filing down my fangs and waiting for the manufacturers to solve this problem,  I tackled this piece digitally, in the same manner as the previous St. George painting.  

Digital Underpainting

St. George #10

12 x 16

Pencil and Digital

Note: This post is a re-post from Muddy Colors.  To check out the original post and comments visit Muddycolors.blogspot.com

St. George Process Articles on Muddy Colors

Recently, along with a few secret projects that I am not allowed to discuss even under pain of death, I have been working on a small show for Gallery Nucleus.  It is based on St. George and the Dragon and it goes up on August 6th.  

To see some of the methods used in the creation of these pieces, check out the Muddy Colors links below.  

Article 1 Link: Traditional Approach

Article 2 Link: Digital Approach