studio space

More fun then a barrel full of Hitlers

2009-12-21T17:44:00.000-08:00

Thought you all might want to see the cover to the next book in the Chronicles of Hiram Grange. Hiram Grange and the Twelve Little Hitlers by Scott Christian Carr. Watch out for this Hiram guy cause he's gonna be a rock star!!! Below is the art without text

More Last Dragon stuff--

2009-12-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

work has been a little light lately. Doing some stuff for an independent game developer, some covers for Kobold Quarterly and Moonstone Books (all of which I will post in a bit). But with a lighter schedule I have gotten a bit more time to work on my own stuff and have been able to get a couple more images done for my children/young adult book project done and thought I would share them.... This one is from the earlier part of the story where our young heroine decides that the only way to save her brother is to search out for N'gara Khan, the last dragon.

I have another illustration almost ready to show (ill post this in the next day or so) This puts me about half way done with the large full page illustrations. After that, it's the hard part--Writing it!! Then the plan is to come back in and do small illustration and some panel to panel illustrations through out the text.....

What goes together better then Babes, Guns and Noir?

2009-12-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

How about Babes, Guns and Noir and a pet ocelot! The adventures of Honey West continue in the ongoing series of comic and pose books published by Moonstone Books. This is the second Honey West cover I've done for Moonstone. You can find the first cover here along with the rundown on the series and you can look for more in the coming months.

who the hell invited these guys

2009-12-07T16:00:00.001-08:00

Hirams coming out party--Just my way of celebrating the publication of the first book in the Chronicles of Hiram Grange...

Sh*t Happens

2009-12-06T10:44:00.000-08:00

Ugh! one of my projects has been canceled-- just like that.... well not quite, first the publishers stopped answering my e-mails, then this morning I got notice to stop all work on the project and that they were sorry and blah, blah blah...and though I received a small advance, it in no way compensates me for the amount of work I did for the project. It is one of the down sides of working with small press publishers. Some are kind of fly by night operations. However, I work for a lot of little guys--small press publishers of books and magazine, comics games and small independent film and video game studios--and most are hardworking and creative operations putting out great products in an incredibly hard market, run by people who really love the genre. *Sigh* At any rate, thought you might enjoy seeing one of the images I did for them, 'cause, I guess they belong to me now.

Black Gate Magazine

2009-11-30T11:00:00.001-08:00

The Black Gate Magazine blog has a nice little write up on Spectrum 16 and the cover. I did for them. John O'Neil, the big cheese over there is a great guy and always such a pleasure to work for.

And speeking of Black Gate below is an illustration I just finished for issue 14 for a story written by Ron Roth. One of the more challenging aspects of illustration is illustrating for a quite story with out a lot of action. Ron's story, " La Senoro Del Oro" is told through a series of letters and the suspense was built through the slow changes in the personality of the main character through his letters....... I think my goal, as an illustrator is to create an image that makes the viewer wonder what is going on, to create some kind of intrigue. A story illustration should be an open question that can only be answered by reading the story.

when the dead rise leave it to the professionals

2009-11-24T11:38:00.000-08:00

This is a concept piece done for Condition Dead. It was conceived and written by Dave Davis (of C.H.U.D. fame) and is currently in the works as both a movie and graphic novel to be released some time in 2010. I came into the project pretty early (back in 2008 when it seemed all I was doing was illustrating zombies) and it looks like much has changed since I did my illustrations for the project so I don't think I would be giving too much away with one little sneak preview.........

Hiram Grange is in the House

2009-11-17T09:28:00.000-08:00

its been a long time comin'. Ive been talking about this project for well over a year and a half and now, at last, the first book in the Hiram Grange series is on its way. As I have said before some projects are just jobs that I can pay the mortgage, put food on the table, but their are other project that I feel privileged to be involved with and Hiram Grange has been such a project. The stories are very visual, very raw, blending humor and horror, supernatural monsters, hot chicks, and secret conspiracies into an action packed ride...... Hang on 'cause it gonna be a bumpy ride!

Dragon Flight

2009-11-11T15:56:00.000-08:00

Here is an other illustration for my The Last Dragon project. Things are still pretty busy 'round Hanged Man Studio so I'm not getting to work on this is much as I would like, but I am determined to finish this project this time..... over the years I have played around with this idea and always got side tracked by one thing or another and shelved it--again and again. Well. we'll see how far I get this time-- fingers crossed as I am notorious for getting distracted by any shinny little object.

Sometimes I have a hard time determining when and images is finished-- especially highly complex images like this one. I tend to keep tinkering with them, making micro changes here and there...little things that no one would notice but me.... Often it is the deadline that determines when a piece is done. I will just keep playing with an image until the clients comes banging at my door. But when it is a piece I'm doing as part of a personal project it never really is ever finished and is instead is always in a state of being " almost there"---that is, at least, until exhaustion sets in.

Well boys and girls

2009-11-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

this is it, and it's been a long time coming, But DK2G has finally released the second image I did for them. DK2G is a high end clothing company based in Brooklyn better known as Deth Killers of New Brunswick (You can get the whole back-story here, here, and here). This is probably the most complex image I have ever done. With well over 300+layers, composing the image was kind of like stage blocking a play.... I was constantly moving elements around the canvas, pulling them forward, pushing them into the background, shifting them from stage left to stage right. taking some out and creating new ones to add in. This did create some problems with the lighting and perspective, but overall I am very happy with the results. There are all kinds of little ester eggs hidden in the image including tributes to Don Lawrence, Normal Rockwell, Star wars, the avengers and even Akira Kurosawa.

While working on this image I was constantly listening to the music of Ozomatl i. In particular their song "Saturday Night". If you want to get the full impact of the image I would suggest playing the tune while viewing.....

Neptune City Narratives

2009-11-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a little taste of the stuff for D3 games. Based on Elliott Davis' superhero world of Neptune City Narratives. while most comic book worlds seem to assume all heroes are stationed in New York, Neptune City Narratives explores a super hero universe where each state of the USA has a dedicated super-hero. This image is of Arizona.

I haven't done much in the way of super hero illustration. Just a few fan commission here and there.... I grew up reading comics and I really enjoyed creating the images for Neptune City Narratives.

Self Portraits

2009-10-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

I've never really considered myself a photo realistic painter. But over the last few years, I have found that my rendering styles have moved in that direction. So much so that I wondered if I would have the skills to paint directly on a digital photo. As an experiment I took two self portraits and and Painted over them to create these sci-fi images. Kind of silly, I know.... But it was fun.

Holy Crap!!

2009-10-28T15:28:00.001-07:00

Geocities is closed!! man where have I been. I just went to check on my site only to find that as of 10/26/09 Yahoo is no longer offering free hosting services and closed it down...... wow, it is the end of an era. Not sure if I am going to set up a home page somewhere else, stick with yahoo (doubt it) or just not bother with a home page. The one advantage of a home page is that you can set your art up in galleries for easy viewing, while here a visitor has to scroll though endless entries

--- got some thinking to do.

The Black Parade

2009-10-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

This the cover for the the Imperial principalities of the Elders published by Kobold quarterly, hitting your local hobbies shops next week. Man-o-Man this was a fun cover to do. It was not supposed to be a wrap around, but I was bad--very bad. I got an idea and just sort of ran with it--Inspired by artist like Brueghel, Durer and Rathel's images of death and the four horsemen of the apocalypse-- Death rides in the foreground upon a desiccated horse, in his wake skeletons and the recently dead rise and dance. At the far left edge a devil/goat headed creature dances too, wanting to claim it's share of souls. In the back ground, mounds of bone go off into the distance with a parade of soldiers, lead by a court jester and a group of hooded figures carrying a dead knight. Still further back we see a castle and hovering/ super imposed over the scene a plaintive angle and below her the other horsemen of the apocalypse. Down below we see a huge gathering of soldiers on the vast plain of Armageddon waiting for the final battle as the sky fills with dark ominous clouds....

So Malcolm, what's Up?

2009-10-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know, I haven't posted in a while-- Been very busy these days. I am working concept images for two separate film projects. I'm incredibly excited about these project, but, I can't talk much about them at this point, except to say that at the moment I'm up to my neck in werewolves and mutants. I will post images and details when possible. I'm also doing a tiny little something for D3 games--which I'll post soon. But for now, I can at least show the latest image for "The Last Dragon" project. I continue to plod along on this project at a frustratingly slow pace---- sigh, Just not enough time.

Last Dragon update

2009-09-23T10:16:00.000-07:00

Well that was fun while it lasted, several new projects have come in and I will have to put The Last Dragon on hold-- again. I was having fun working on my own stuff, something I rarely have enough time to do. But, a guys gotta pay the bills.

Here is some of the stuff I've done for The Last Dragon. I know, in previous post I had said that I be working to be working on the 13 large full page illustration for the story, but I started to think about how the sequential parts of the book project and how they might look. I haven't tried to do sequential illustration in years and years. I can't believe how hard it is. Consistency and continuity are a bitch. Hats off to all the comic book illustrators out there.

More coming soon, but right now, it's back to work

I Hunger

2009-09-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

Third illustration for "The Last Dragon"

All that Remains

2009-09-03T16:50:00.000-07:00

Another illustration I'm working on for"the last dragon" project..... My idea is to have 12 to 13 large illustrations of key scenes of the story. These will be tied together by smaller illustration and sequential panels. I have a couple of paying gigs pending, but still no work. I have mixed feeling as I would really like to be able to get these large image finished before having to shelve the project again. However the idea of eating is also very appealing......

The Last Dragon

2009-08-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, in my last post I said I was going to paint the front hall way..... and I am, but the paint has to dry between coats and rather then spend my time watching it dry, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I am jobless right now (gulp!) and work on on a personal project-- The Last Dragon. It has been over a year since I last had enough free time to dive into the project.... at this rate I should be finished some time around 2050 (sigh). I see this as something between a novel and a graphic novel. With some parts told in prose, other in sequential panels, with spot illustration and full color, full page illustrations throughout the book. I think it would be a very cool format and one I have not seen much of before.

A diffrent kind of painting

2009-08-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

wow... for the first time in a long time I find myself with out a project.... kind of scary! But, even more scary is the list of chores that I have been putting off because of my overloaded work schedule..... Looks like I'm going from painting dragons and such to painting the front hallway.....

......But I cant very well post an image of our front hall (it's just not that interesting) so here is a piece I did for the Warlords ccg from Phoenix interactive. This image is soooo close to being great, but ultimately it fails. Mostly the problem is that the assignment was to do 3 illustration in one panoramic battle scene . Each of the three had to be able to stand on it's own and apart from the rest of the image for a card illustrations ( the guy riding the wave on the left, the fight on the deck of the ship and the female on the right calling the charge). This created multiple points of focus to the image so that there is no real flow to the image... instead the eye just bounces around from point to point not knowing where to look-- and the "headlight" lighting of the image also contributes to making it a confused jumble of activity. Some day I will come back to this image and work on the lighting and focus and make it the great piece it should be.

I give you Honey West

2009-08-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

Think equal parts Marilyn Monroe, Emma Peal and Mike Hammer. She first appeared in the 1957 book This girl for hire and went on to appear in 10 more books from 1958 to 1971, and then popped up in a short-lived TV series (produced by Aaron spelling) in the mid-sixties staring Anne Francis-- One of the first TV shows to feature a lead female in the pre-feminist area. Now she will be making her appearance in a series of Comic Book mini series published by Moonstone Books.

This is the first of four covers I done for the series (I will be sharing the other as they get closer to publication) The trick for me was in giving her a slightly more contemporary feel while paying tribute to her past incarnations.

a day in the life

2009-08-21T08:20:00.001-07:00

typical day in here at hanged man studio... image really does not do justice to my studio space both in terms of its size or the level of mess that fills it.

Here be Dragons

2009-08-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

My niece (she's 10) and I have spent a great deal of time this summer discussing dragons. Making up thier ecology, systematics, and behaviors. And of course we have been drawing them as well. I will have to get her permission to share her drawing, but, here are a few of my concepts.

old friends

2009-08-07T16:02:00.000-07:00

Did you every have one of those friendships that you thought would last forever. But as you grew you found that you spent less and less time together and the time you were together you kind of felt that you would rather be someplace else. Meeting for a cup of Joe, trying to think of something to say......... Well that is kind of what my relationship with AEG was like. At one time they were not only my biggest client, comprising most of my work, but, I also had close friendships there. But as time went on the staff changed and for my part, after doing hundreds of ccg illustration I found it more and more difficult summon inspiration and so I put less and less effort into my images. And as other work took precedence and filled my work schedule I took fewer and fewer pieces until at some point I stopped doing any work for them.

I hadn't even really thought about it until today when I got an e-mail from a former employee and I remembered just how important AEG was to my earlier career. I will always be grateful to them for the opportunities they gave me.

I suppose one of these days I should give them a call and see if they would like to get together for a coffee or something--

Influences

2009-07-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

Any day my work is compared to Elmore or Parkinson is a good day. Both these artist played a role in the development of my style and love for fantasy illustration. But, my earliest art influence came comic books and artist like Berry Windsor smith and Bernie Wrightson, Jeffrey Jones and Neil Adams. Man, these guy's art was like noting else I had ever seen. So different from the steroid superheroes of Kirby and his imitators. To this day my favorite book covers are the half dozen or so Tarzan covers that were done by Neil Adams. I would urge any who love fantasy art to find them, they are absolutely amazing......

soon after that I discovered Art Nouveau, the Orientalists and Pre Raphaelites --are all very strong influences on my art, both in terms of style and what I like to paint. I think that that is what makes my art a little un-hip. Every now and then I try to create something a little more cutting edge, but it usually fails. I comfort my self by the notion that as styles and tastes continually cycle some day me and my art will be hip--providing I live that long.