Elysian fields

Portfolio piece,. No real story, just kind of going for that Twilight Zone zone moment, you know, the last thing he remembers before loosing consciousness was tumbling head over heals in space, his tether cut, his air running out....only to wake here.  Cue Rod Serling

The rise

Promotional image done for the music duo The Rise. The Rise is a Dutch record producing and songwriting team, composed of Mavis Acquah and Gijs Huijs. The team's genres include Urban Electro, House, Pop and R&B.You can listen to them here.

The struggle

Not long ago I posted a couple horror images depicting violence against women and discussed my discomfort with the whole genre that presents the this kind of violence as entertainment. In light of those thoughts what had started out as romantic image of mermaid and man morphed into the the mermaid struggling to be free from the mans grasp, perhaps a metaphor for the struggle against institutionally imposed male dominance, and control...

Re-Evolution of Man

A while back I posted the cover for, Darriel K Caston's sci-fi Novel "Gestation'  the first book in his Re-evolution of man series (http://www.darrielc.com/). Well he has since approached me about doing interior illustrations. His idea was to do black and white images with just a hint of color.

 Im loving this project. and really looking forward to getting on to the next image....This is going to be one very cool book.

Monster Ink(well)

  Been doing a lot more Monsters for Inkwell games. Joe Wetzel, the brains behind Inkwell, has come up with a pretty cleaver product. These are sock illustration available for purchace either as individual or as small packages. Each of this last batch of images were done in both  color or black and white versions, and with the option of a color with a back ground.

What I really like about this project, as an illustrator, is that its given me the opportunity to do a hosts of creatures that I would never have done if left to my own devises. Looking over my portfolio I had done very few images of the classic D&D type of monster illustrations. Now I have created every thing from a efreeti to a gelatinous cube... some 30 different creatures over all.

 

lamintations in space

Second piece I did for James  Raggi's Lamentations of the Flaming Princess RPG.This time our brave heroines find themselves being sucked into the waiting arms of some kind of insectoid creature who waits on the other side of the dimensional rift. Mr Raggi sure does put these women through some pretty rough stuff. I wonder if he is married?

a few odds and ends

been a while since I posted stuff and I thought I might as well take the time to share a few little pieces. I do a fair amount of character concept work, but usually I am not allowed to share my work due to non nondisclosure agreements. Most of these were small little projects, involving just a few simple character illustrations. The image above was done for Tommy Khoo and his amazing, though still in the works, alien invasion game.

these are few of the  concepts I did for Yegor Tesler, who graciously gave me permission to share provided I not give away to much of the group/project ahead of time. But I promise to release more info as as I am allowed.

and these pieces were done for the immensity talented Kays al Atrakchi  a highly regarded composer whose work spans over a decade of extensive work on award winning films, commercials, and television series.These were done for his first time crack at the other side of making films, as a writer director of a horror short, called Lucidity. These are designs for the Stranger, that haunts our hero's dreams



This concept piece is an example of the work done for Ecko Entertainment. A depiction of the new Kirk enveloped in energy.

Broken Earth

Couple of pieces I did for  Matthew J. Hanson's post apocalyptic RPG adventure Kickstarter project. called Broken Earth. He is so close with 4 days to go...so what you sitting there for, click the link
already and push this one over the top.

The Raven

I cam across this quote from Louise Erdrich and felt compelled to do a little illustration to go with it.......

dont look now he's behind you

given my last post one might wonder about this image. This one was done as a portfolio piece. It is based on an image that I did a long time ago. Those that frequent this blog know that I like to revisit images done earlier in my career as a means of seeing how my skills have developed. Much like the image in the last post this image depicts, or implies violence against a woman. Does it make it better that the danger is imminent rather then postmortem?  Is it more exploitative because of the way she is dress. We know the story here, seen it in hundreds of movies. Her fate is pre-written. If she is a "bad girl" (that is one who has sex) she is doomed, if she is a good girl, then she is the lone survivor of the night. The faux feminism of the strong female. Horror has gone from the old studio monster and radioactive mutant giant- you pick the insect- to the dont look now he's behind you, female mutilation, sexually charged slasher movie (there have been exceptions, such as Alien) and it has been stuck there for a very long time. I think it must be time for something new.

That's Entertainment?

Not sure if I should post this or not. This was an odd one, but the client was looking for someone to draw her a realistic bordering on dark depiction of a very visceral murder scene for an RPG system she was am currently making. I must admit I was a little uncomfortable doing this image. I have become more sensitive to violence in my art in general and against women specifically. I have come to find that so many popular tv shows, such as Law and Order: SvU and Criminal Minds are little more then excuses to depict brutal violence against women.




why did I take the job?
am I any different?
I think so. I hope so

Zombielicious

been a busy busy couple of months, running the red queens race just to catch up, let alone stay in one place.  I am not a fan of just dumping art, but if you want to see my new stuff  click on over to my  Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror galleries. Take a moment to see what Ive been doing with myself.

The image to the above is a particular favorite from the last couple months. It was done for the book "Addicted to Zombies",  from Thunderstorm Books. I sort of ad libbed a bit and put in the butcher character. I was trying to channel the dark humor movie Delicatessen with just a dash of Sweeny Tood. But I was worried that I had gone too far. The book had been described as not to be taken seriously, but far from a comedic story. So I created a second version without the butcher just in case. Turns out the Author loved it so much he was he decide to create a short story about him to be published with the book. I love happy endings.

Dragon of your dreams

This was a private character commission. Slumber, a cloud serpent.

I was given a drawing from the client and a rather detailed description and then a lot of creative freedom to interpret the dragon.

Briefly he was described as a creature of dreams, that travels through the sky like a chinese dragon. He can creates  cloud creatures to scout for him in places that he passe and visits those creatures/organisms with the strongest dreams granting them for a price. One of his scales is enough to reshape that creature/organism to the form that will either help them accomplish their dream or to the form that they dream to be.

If you look at the large image you will find cloud creatures swirling around him

Lamentations of the Flaming Princess

Here is a little piece I did for James  Raggi's for his Lamentations of the Flaming Princess RPG. This is the first of three images, so stay tuned for more. When James ask if I was interested in doing an  "european explorers in the Lost World" kind of thing featuring his three characters on horseback being chased by a tyrannosaur on the African plains I jumped at that chance. I have been planning on doing some dino images for some time, even have a few in the works, but have not had the free time to finish them up. So this gave me the opportunity to to combine work with pleasure. It was great fun. James is an exacting AD and knew what he wanted, his feedback really helped. I was so focused on the T-rex that the rest of the image was kind of suffering from inattention, he pushed me to make the image a stand out. 

Oy vey!

This cover is for the Book "The Moloch Caper" by Victor Pilgrim.  A kind of supernatural noir set in the future of an alternate Earth where a detective of Israelite blood finds himself embroiled in several cases that lead he and his Orthodox tinkerer friend down a road that will end with the confrontation of an ancient enemy of  the Jews long forgotten. Its release date is still not nailed down. Ill keep you all posted.
Character driven pieces like this are so much fun to do. Dont get me wrong I love doing the heroic epic sort of thing, but it was fun to create this 'odd couple' dynamic duo.

speaking of the four horsemen....

one more post, before I get back to work.. .just wanted to share this triptych of covers I did for Thunderstorm books for the cover of Michael McBride's God's End trilogy  . The Idea was that when the three books in the trilogy were laid side by side they would create one image. Those that know my work know how much I love doing images with a letterbox aspect ratio. It gives me elbow room to create and there is just something so cinematic about it,

Anthocon 2012

So I went to my first convention in years.  I was coaxed out of my cave by Tim Deal, one of the four horsemen (the other three being Danny Evarts,  Johnny Morse, Mark Wholley,). They made me the special guest Artist and promised me all rum i could drink....how could I resist? I had a great time. One of the high points was hanging out with the Hiram Grange gang. The 7 of us worked over the course of three years to create  the Chronicles of Hiram Grange. The five part sieries  is one part Lovecraft, one part James Bond-- that is if James bond were and opium addicted, absinth drinking, Jody Foster obsessed psychopath. It was the first time all of us have been together, and for me the first time I met any of them.  All and all it was great fun.

Let me see what spring is like On Jupiter and Mars

its show and tell time again. As usual I have been a little neglectful of posting stuff here. So Im gonna do my best catch you up on the goings on here at the Hanged Man Studio Space. Lets see where to begin, where to begin....... In the mood for a little martian intrigue?

Here is the book cover and web site banner I did for Darriel K Caston's sci-fi Novel "Gestation'  the first book in his Re-evolution of man series (http://www.darrielc.com/).

Trick or Treat

(>")> hugs......

Camp Chippewa

Here is another project that is conspicuous in its absence of fantasy/sic-fi/horror elements. This is the Struzan-esque  poster I did for the short movie  Camp Chippewa. A film by Brandon Osterman. The film is a bitter sweet story of an anti-social boy and a gift in the way of a treasure map, that brings him out of his shell. They launched a kickstarter project to raise funding to finish up the movie and do the post production. Go check them out.

The race is on

 I have at last been given permission to share a few of the images I did for the movie Peloton, a film by Daniel Rinsch that is currently in pre- production. This was particularly challenging for me. You may think painting dragons, or polar bears might be difficult, but, it ain't nothing compared to trying to paint realistic looking bike racing scenes. The uniforms of the competitors are as complex as any fantasy armor. The bikes, while seemingly simple ( they are after all just a few strait lines with a couple of circles attached at either end, right?) are a nightmare of perspective angles. The emotions as intense as any battle scene I have painted for an RPG. Truly an epic project. I am flattered that Daniel trusted me with his baby.

orphaned art

was cleaning out the old hard drive, archiving images when I came across these two gems. These pieces were done for a project that got canceled a little while back. I felt bad for these orphaned images and thought they deserved to be seen. Hope you enjoy them.

In the Market Place....

I love doing big complex images. If I made movies I would make the kind that Cecil B. Demille made, with a cast of thousands.This is an image I have been working for years. I did the first version probably about 9 years ago early in my illustration carrier. At the time it was one of my favorite pieces. Since then I have returned to it, with the idea of recreating it, many times. But, I would get pulled away by paying projects, or detracted by another of the many personal projects that I never seem to finish. I am not sure why I kept coming back to this one. There is something about the exotic, epic other worldly feel. To me it recalls the works of the orientalist, that group of  painters that captured  the near and far east in their romantic, sensual and exotic paintings.