studio space

A place Arcross Time

2012-01-18T13:20:00.000-08:00

A few posts back I mentioned that I was doing a series of black and white/ pen and ink style images for an anthology. Well it has been published and I must say the edition is gorgeous.Titled E Pluribus Undecim, it's a collection of personal stories, grouped into three sections: Underground Stories from A City Not Somewhere Else, Confrontation with Mortality and the Cervantes Trinity. The stories jump through time, but most take place near here, in the Fort Vancouver area. This was a very different kind of project for me, not just because there was only the slightest hint at fantasy, or I was working face to face with the writer (most of my clients are from remote locations), but because of the personal aspect to these stories, revealing much about the writer and his loves and losses

It's Laundry day

2011-12-23T12:52:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite ongoing projects to work on are the covers for cubicle 7 games that are based around the Laundry novels by Charles Stross. These are set in a strange sort of alternative lovecraftian world. I love the strange mix of genres-- slimy tentacled creatures, computer geeks, spy and espionage, with the occasional Nazi thrown in for good measure. Also, I seldom get a chance to do humor and these covers give me a chance to show the lighter side of horror

cover for 'The Mythos Dossiers"

cover for the "License to Summon"

cover for "Cultists Under the Bed"

You can find my previous covers here, here and here and here.

Fly me to the moon

2011-11-24T15:18:00.000-08:00

The image to the left was done for Tyche Books premiere publication, Ride the Moon. Its an anthology of stories containing fantasy, dark fantasy, and science fiction stories. It's chalk full of mythic tales, modern retellings, and beautiful weirdness about the moon and the creatures associated with it ( but no werewolves or vampires, cause aren't we just a little over done on werewolves and vampires?). The idea for the cover was to create a Maxfield Perish like piece recalling the romanticism of his images with a contemporary, almost self aware feel to it. A playful homage to his work.

Also if your fluent in Chinese, there's an interview with yours truly in China's Fantasy Art Magazine. These guys have interviewed the likes of Tim & Greg Hildrebrandt, Alex Horley, Ron Miller, Brom and lots of other fine folk and for some reason they have decided to interview me--guess they must be running out of artist or something. Anyway they have seen fit to put me on the cover and I am quite flattered by the whole thing. Not sure if there will be an English translation or not, Ill keep you posted.

Other then that I have been hard at work doing, among other things, two covers for cubicle 7 games Laundry sires, a cover for Kobold publishers new RPG supplement, Sailing Journey's, concepts for HMX Entertainment (very hush, hush) and illustrating the cover and concepts for The Pillars of Natura, the first book of the epic fantasy series The Realm Walkers Chronicles, by Aaron Lee and published by Orbit books. I will be posting these and more in the upcoming few weeks. Stay tuned

Singing in the Rain

2011-09-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

Good Morning

Well the Folks over at Wild Horses Productions have posted some of the art work I've done for their Movie Rain Balls. So I figure it should be ok to show a few of my favorite from the series.

I've talked about it some below in previous post. It was quite a wild project. The Story of a Child Dying of cancer, a mothers surrealistic fantasy dreams, Gene Kelly and the Movie Singing in the Rain (yes that Gene Kelly), with the Chinese National Ballet thrown in. You can read more about it on their site. I love projects like this, that push me out of my comfort zone, that let my imagination run wild. There was a great feeling of collaboration as my ideas and input feed back into the story. There are to be another round of images soon. I am really looking forward to getting back into this strange world.

Blood Ballet

fashion show

Playing catch up,,,,

2011-09-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

I Thought I would post some of the other stuff Ive been doing over the last several months Here we have and image done for Sacrosanct Games. Its the cover for "The Adventure Begins" a Choose your Fate book that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Quite a fun little read. It was a bit difficult coming up with the concept for the image. Originally the idea was to have all the major adventure threads represented on the other side of the door, in one of those complex scenes I seem drawn to create. But it seemed too cluttered and the boy (and by proxy the viewer) seemed detached from the scene. So I simplified the concept and brought the action right to the threshold.

Why So Serious?

2011-09-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

not sure why it is so hard to keep my blog updated,,,, In some cases there are NDA that keep me from sharing, sometimes I'm just too busy, other times its just plain old laziness. These days its because I have been very busy (ok, well maybe Ive been a bit lazy too). I just completed a series of 14 black and White Illustrations for the Anthology Memoir by Ben Tanosborn. These were quite different from much of my work, No fantasy, no zombies, no dragons or space ships. These were highly detailed pen and ink drawings illustrating very personal stories. I have also just completed the frist round of concept illustrations for the movie Rain Balls. Again this is so different from my past work. A surrealistic story of how a young boy brings harmony back into his mothers life, even while knowing intuitively that he will soon lose his battle against cancer. And I am right now doing concept pieces for a movie about bicycle racing. I will be share all of these soon as I get permission. But in the mean time I here is a little project I found quite amusing to do. It is the poster for a short film called The Joker Chronicles--First Blood. A little genre mash up, that asks the question of what makes a villain, a villain. The poster was to mirror the original by Drew Struzan, which was great fun.

Noggle Stones

2011-07-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

This is the cover for the next book in the young adult series The Noggle Stones, written by Wil Radcliffe. This cover is a departure for the series. In the past the cover art for the books, as well as the art for the games and comic books has been very cartoon like, but this time Wil wanted something different,. and that is where I came in taking the previous established characters and giving them a more realistic look and feel.

Ain't No Grave

2011-07-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

Been enjoying me some Johnny Cash lately and every time I hear his 'Ain't No Grave' I think what a kick ass song for the opening of some zombie flick and wonder why its never been used before.

While I don't make movies, I do make zombie pictures. So I decided to make my own little scene to go along with the song.

I would strongly recommend you listen to Ain't No Grave to get the full impact of the image.

Pajama Party

2011-06-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

yikes, have kind of let things slip here at the studio space. Way past time to do a little update as to what I've been up too. My only excuse is that I have been pretty busy.

But that also means I've got lots of stuff to share--a movie poster for Bohemian films, Front and back covers to the latest book in the Noggle Stone young adult series, A rpg adventure cover for Sacrosanct Games, and the cover for Kobold quarterly's World builder book (and I also did a nice little illustration of a clock work angel for them as well). But, lets start with this cover done for Moonstone Books Buckaroo Banzai comic series. They were on a tight deadline, so they gave me carte blanche to create an image and get it to them as soon as humanly possible. The image to the left is what I came up with. Its inspiration comes from an unlikely source. I am a big fan of the art of J. C. Leyendecker (one of my all time favorite illustrators) and always loved the illustrations he had done the Arrow shirt ads. So cool the way the blacks disappear into the darkness. I wanted to do the same here, but I found that in the case of the ninjas I needed to cheat a little and have a few contour lines delineating their form or it just became too much of a confusing mess

Media exits stage left

2011-05-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a ton of cover work lately and it has left me craving to work in a horizontal format. After a while the narrow aspect ratio and the need to leave space for the title text starts to make me feel a little claustrophobic. Doing the wrap around cover below wet my appetite, my desire for a little elbow room. I love doing images in a letter box format, there is something cinematic about it. In this case I was deliberately going for a very operatic, staged look to the image.

Medea was a was a big deal sorceress in the ancient world. She was the daughter of the King of Colchis, and the granddaughter of Helios, the sun god.....and she killed a lot of people including her two sons by Jason (of Argonauts fame). Kind of an odd myth considering how so often in Greek mythology even the smallest slight was punished in to the most severe ways. Just read the stories of Actaeon, Arachne, Sisyphus or Io. Yet Medea betrays her family, murders a couple of kings, stabs her children to death and lives a long unpunished life,,,go figure.

Its a cyber punk world,,,,,

2011-05-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

I see that they have posted the cover for Technoir over at Cellar Games. Its a high-tech hard-boiled roleplaying game. The idea was that the immediate area around the viewer would be a run-down part of town-- the architecture looking like it's from the 1940's to invoke the "noir" part of the title. In the background, towering skyscrapers of lights and with hover cars that call out the "tech" or futuristic themes. The cover is my own little homage to the likes of Bladrunner, Mobius, Enki Bilal and Neuromancer

Eon's Door

2011-05-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

This was a fun project in large part because I enjoyed the book so much. It is a young adult fantasy novel by John McKenny. The world he creates and the narrative with which he describes it was so vivid that it was an illustrators dream. It was difficult to settle on an scene to illustrate for the cover. After batting around several scenes this is the one we finally settled on

Blackwood Hotel

2011-05-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

cover

So I have been given permission to share these images. this was a fun little project. I was approach about doing a few concept for a TV pilot Produced by David Antoniuk and Eric Woolfe. Its a supernatural coming of age adventure series called the Blackwood Hotel. Sort of "lost" meats "DeGrassi", or "Freaks and Geeks" meets "The X-Files". Its "The Wonder Years" by way of "Kolchak: The Nights Stalke". Its an uber cool quirky adventure horror show about growing up.

Gimlin Gang Hideaway

Attic Room

Blackwood Hotel Lobby

Uncle Ambrose

Man-Monkey

Gimlin Bell phone

Lopers are Bad News

2011-05-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

So here is another illustration for Black Gate (see below for the others I did for the issue) This one is for the story "The Laws of Chaos Left Us All in Disarray" by S. Hutson Blount" a little lesson in releasing one horror to fight an other. Here I particularly took pleasure in realizing Mr. Blount's lopers

"The first one came over the rise at a bound, ignoring the thorns that tore at its skinless muscle. Like the slingers, they had been men once. Their feet and hands had been elongated to let them run on all fours like an animal. Where their eyes had been, they had two more mouths. I don’t know how they saw."
How horrifically delightful.

Mr. Blount informs me that he has further adventures of the main character in this story in this desolate world. Which I find particularly intriguing given the end of his story. I'm looking forward to reading them and even more so to perhaps illustrating them

Cowboy Dan

2011-04-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

I know, I know I had said that I was going to post the rest of the images I did for Black Gate Magazine #15. But I thought I would mix it up a little,,, a little change of pace. I actually started this image some time ago. It was shortly after the Golden Compass came out (whats was that, like 3 years ago?). I loved the images of the girl riding on the back of the armored Lorek Byrnsison in the poster for the movie. I wanted to do something along the same vein,,, but work came up and I was forced to put the image aside and only rediscovered the image a short time ago. This time I couldn't resist it and had to finish it up,,,of course now its just begging for a story to go along with it.

The Gifts of Li Tzu-Ch'eng

2011-04-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

Hmm, I believe I had promised to post some more of the images I had done for Black Gate #15. But as usual some shiny object came rolling by and I got distracted. But I am back on point and here for your viewing pleasure are the illustrations for "The Gifts of Li Tzu-Ch'eng" by Derek Kunsken . I loved this story. I dont want to say anything that might give it away, but, It's a quiet story, most of it revolves around conversations between two character, these take place over years, while most of the action take place off stage, as it were. But the action is not the point of the story, no the point is destiny and fate and love.

I got a couple more to share,,,,, will be posting them soon. I promise

Eating Venom

2011-04-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

Since we're talking about Black Gate this might be a good time to share some of the interior illustrations Ive been doing for the up coming issue. Typically I do my illustrations for them in color even though they are to be printed in black and white. Then I convert the image to gray scale, and re-work it to give it that old fashion pen and ink feel. The idea being they have a color version for their web site and a black and white version for print. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but, John O'Neil, the publisher, has been such a supporter of me and my art over the years that I figure doing a little extra is the least I could do

the illustration here is for the story 'Eating Venom' by Harry Connolly. Harry describes the story as one of " outright bastards, flagrant lies and manipulation, decent people trapped by honor and expectation, magical elements that are largely back grounded for human conflicts, screwed-up social/political structures, bitter resentments, and much stabbing with sharp pieces of metal" It was a good read and fun to illustrate.

Ill be posting more of my stuff for Black Gate #15 over the next few days,,,,,

Extra, Extra

2011-04-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

It seems John O'neil over at Black Gate Magazine noticed that Kobold Quarterly had picked up the Golden Dragon piece for their fall issue cover. And while I don't know that it is really "front page" news, I do appreciate the shout out. I am scheduled to do the cover for Black Gate #18 and had first showed john the image as a potential cover. But because John likes the covers to fit an over all theme of the the stories within the magazine he felt this image was too specific and didn't work with the stories already lined up for the issue. But as luck would have it the image was perfect for Koblods articles on pathfinders Jade Regents. Happy ending for everyone.

Speaking of Kobold Quarterly

2011-03-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

,,, here is a peek at the cover for their fall issue. I suppose I shouldn't give away too much, but issue is going to be packed full of cool stuff for Pathfinders Jade Regent series. So you wont want to miss it. As for the Golden dragon illustration-- Most of the time I find that asian dragons seem too cartoonish and almost comical in their depiction and I was really excited to try and bring one to life in a way that captured them in a more living realistic way. Any one that knows my intrepid boarder collie Lilly, might instantly recognize her influence on the piece.

Happy anniversary Kobold Quarterly

2011-03-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

So its the 5th anniversary of my friends over at Kobold Quarterly open design and they thought it would be fun to get various artist to do new interpretations of there mascot Jiro (a small lovable Kobold). These guys have been great to me and I jumped at the chance. I decided to have a little fun and take a little poke at fantasy art where often sex appeal is more important then practicality.

Alien vs Predator

2011-03-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

This is sort of a different kind of image for me. I was talking to Randy Stradley about doing some cover work for Dark Horse comics and it occurred to me that I had very little stuff in my portfolio that demonstrated how I would handle Dark Horse titles, so I whipped up this little piece for them.

Hanged Man studios is back on line

2011-03-09T21:14:00.000-08:00

as part of this new inertia I thought I would mention that I have finely put together a little web site. So for those that don't want to wade through my blog and want to get straight to the images, this is the place to go. Though come back here to see my latest stuff. I've got lots of new and cool stuff to share

blog physics

2011-03-08T16:36:00.000-08:00

A blog is a pretty useless thing if you never up date it. I mean that is kind of the point right? to let people see what your up to, to share you're art. Well, it seems that I have been a bit negligent on that front. Not sure what happened, seems that the second law of thermodynamics kind got a hold of me or something.........well now it's time to apply the first law of inertia and get things going again. Time for a little push.

let start big. I mean really big

The above piece is a little something done for the folks over at Cubicle 7 Entertainment. This epic battle of good and evil was done for the dungeon master screen for Legends of Anglerre.

It's October...

2010-10-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

and nothing says October like black cats and tentacles. A couple of new pieces, the first is for John Axel's anthology of cats and magic titled "A Spot of Bad Luck" The other is another Cover for Cubicle 7 role playing game based on the Laundry by books Charles Stross.

Knock, Knock...

2010-09-28T00:50:00.000-07:00

another image to share, Done for my good friends over Elder Sign Press. I know, I know, kind of a different kind of illustration for me, right? No dragons, no zombies, no battles, no blood or guts, no good vs evil....the assignment was to make a steampunk- esque door holding out the icy cold. A much more difficult task then I at first thought it would be, because I had to create a door that was compelling enough that the viewer would want to know what was on the other side.

Honey West, take two

2010-09-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Revised cover for Honey West #3. You can see the original one here. I was kind of trying for mod/60's look in the first version, but the folks at Moonstone thought it looked more house wife, then mod....looking back at it, I would have to agree. Her is the new version with Honey West cat suited up, looking nothing like a house wife.

Midgard

2010-08-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

cover for Midgard, part of Kobold Quartery's expansion of the world of Zobeck and bringing in the myths of Eastern Europe. Fun cover to do. I often trap myself into the rather stright forward/mid ground sort of perspective. In this case the giant forced me to choose a different angle and a forced perspective so that I could fit him into the image and still leave enough head room for a title and all of that.

Yes, I still love you

2010-08-10T09:03:00.000-07:00

Yes were still besties, BFF, mejores amigos,meilleurs amis, It's just that I have been very, very, very, busy and I haven't had much time to keep up with my blog posts. Got lots of stuff in the works these days that I am dying to share, but most of it will have to wait until I get an ok from the clients-- However I do have a few piece I will be featuring here in the coming weeks. First up is another cover for the folks over at Absolute X-press. This for the novel Pandora's Box. A nice little post apocalyptic scene for our pre apocalyptic world......Stay tuned there is more coming very shortly..promise.

I paint, that is what I do

2010-06-12T17:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, so last week has involved lots of waiting. Waiting for images to be approved by publishers, waiting for art descriptions to be finalized and sent. So I can start work on them. Lots of work, just that it has all been in limbo land. So I took the opportunity to to do an illustration just for the fun of it. I mean, that's what I do, I paint. I have a lot of partially started bits and pieces of images that I had abandoned for one reason or the other. I started playing around with these, combining them in different ways trying different compositions with different elements, not with a final image in mind when I hit upon this this composition I knew that I had something that was cool and used my down time finishing it up. I am pretty pleased, I must say.

This piece has been pick up by the folks over at Kobold publishing for the cover of an upcoming RPG supplement.. I love a happy ending.

Ants in Space

2010-06-10T14:28:00.001-07:00

Here is the other cover for absolute X-press, this one is for the novel, Futura. A kind of old fashion pulp sci-fi read. Lots of fun, giant insects intergalactic conspiracy and tons of action.

Mirror, Mirror

2010-06-02T21:20:00.000-07:00

This is the cover for Absolute XPress flash fiction anthology "Inhuman" The stories are written from an inhuman point of view, but, the stories highlight humanity in some form or fashion. I was really trying to create a retro feel with this cover, like those from the 70's. a little looser, a little more impressionistic. But in typical fashion, I found it hard to leave things unresolved and had to fight from adding more and more detail... in the end I think the image is a little uneven. But I really enjoyed playing around with the theme.

The Nymphs of Kracow

2010-05-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

This is it, I just sent in the last images for last book in the Hiram Grange Chronicles...Kind of a cool symmetry in that it is almost two years to the day that I signed on to do the illustrations. This project was so unique, Not just because of the unusual raw gritty nature of the anti-hero, but also, because when I started doing the illustrations, the books where not even written and I was working from an outline. So that my illustrations, the look of Hiram, the mood, some the crucial scenes, all fedback into the writing of the books. It's is a rare opportunity for me to be a co-creator in something as cool as these book. Thanks Jake, Scott, Rob, Kevin, and Rick, these were a great group of authors to work with, and thank to Tim and Danny and everyone else at Shroud publishing for the great ride. I am proud to be a part of this project.

I am sure these are not the last images of Mr. Grange I will do. He has lots monsters to slay, confluences to close, revenge to wreak, absinthe to drink and opium to smoke before his adventures are done.

Black Bag Jobs

2010-05-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

Still waiting on final approvals for this one. But, I think it's OK to share it. This is for the cover of Black Bag Jobs, and is a collection of adventures for the Laundry Files RPG. The game based on Charles Stross's series of Lovecraftian spy thriller novels. Had a lot of trouble with this image, in the end it had a real stagey look. Which isnt bad, but not what I had originally intended. Kind of has the look of one of those puzzle games, you know, where you have to locate a list of hidden items. Only here the list would include, dead body, Archaic text, blood stains, and tentacles....

Feast or Famine

2010-05-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

ah the life of a freelancer.One minute you sittin' around twiddling you thumbs, the next your overwhelmed with projects. I'm doing more Honey West stuff for Moonstone books. Plus the second cover to the space opera series, "In the service of the Empire" (cover to issue 1 is to the left). Doing 2 book covers for Absolute Xpress. Working on the last series of images for season one of the Hiram Grange chronicles. And I Just signed on to do some concepts for a little video game start up, And believe it or not I'm doing a series of comic fan commission. Been a long time since I've been hired to do any supper hero stuff. Should be lots of fun!

Not your Daddy's Werewolfs

2010-04-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

I don't quite, exactly have, you know, for sure permission to post more of these images. But, the director said that he like the last post, so I thought I might go ahead and share another concept piece I did for film prospectus of Hunted. As I said in the last post, these are not you daddy's werewolves. More to come (I hope) soon.

Werewolves

2010-04-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

While back I mentioned that I was doing some illustration work for a Film Prospectus. The movie is a horror-action feature film project called HUNTED. I designed some concept artwork to help pitch to investors and I have been given permission to give just one small peek at the work done for the film. This is not your teen romance werewolf story, nor is it another version of the wolfman. This is a very original reinvention of the werewolf and it was really cool to be able to work on the look of the creatures.... These are graceful powerful creatures a real departure from the underworld howling monstrosities. Wish I could tell you more, but, you'll all have to wait a little longer.....

Remember those 7-up ads from the 70's?

2010-04-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

some how this reminds me of those, though, maybe not so psychedelic. This bacchanalian image was originally for Kobold Publishings' RPG supliment called "The Green Gods" but when the project got shelved they decided to use it for the cover of Kobold Quarterly #13.

Catch the curve of your leather heel...

2010-04-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

Miss Emma Peal. Well actually in this case it Honey West. Who was the Emma Peal before there was an Emma Peal.Here is the third cover for the Honey West comic book for the folks over at Moonstone Books. I believe that issue one is about to hit the stands...

Procrastination Illustration

2010-04-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

ok, so, like I know, I got these two small project I should be working on. Each should only take a few day to do, right. But, it seem that all I've been doing lately is horror. Now I like Zombies as much as the next fellow, but once in a while I need to do something else. So this weekend rather then doing stuff that I actually get a paid for I decided to work on one of the illustration for my last dragon project. Still not completely satisfied with the image (heh, when am I ever completely satisfied with an image) But, I've run out of time and have to get back to real work.....

The Laundry

2010-03-29T10:16:00.001-07:00

A while back I posted the cover to The Laundry RPG for cubical 7 games. It is a game based on the laundry novel series by Charles Stross. The second part of the project was to make the cover into one panel of a four panel illustration for the game masters screen. Each panel had to stand on it's own, plus the cover image had to be placed at the far right of the image (because of the way the screen folds), which tilted the balance of the image way to far right. this proved to be quite a challenge to compose an image where the eye moved from easily across the image and not jump from point to point in a haphazard way.

Details of each panel.

Zombie Hunter

2010-03-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

So I have been looking at a lot of Jeffery Catherine Jones works and her nude studies are gorgeous. So I thought why don't I ever do something like that, but as I played around with the image something went terribly, terribly wrong,.....for gods sake when am I ever gonna act my age.

Working in the Killer Robot Factory

2010-03-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

those following this blog will remember the project that got canceled when I was about half way through it. Well, I have been in talks with the publishers (and no I am not naming names, the days when I would gleefully burn my bridges behind me are long gone. ) at any rate I have been released from the NDA agreement or at least in part. While I can not discuss the project I'm free to show and use the images in my portfolio and for self promotion. So don't ask, cause I can't tell you and if I did tell you I would have to kill you any way

I'll be posting more soon.....

Dinner and a Movie

2010-03-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here is something a little different, well, it is sci-fi themed so it might not appear that strange or out of place on my blog. What make it particularly different is that it is an illustration for a cultural online publication called Zero Point that is suposed to be launched sometime late spring or early summer. It covers trends in society and technology . This image was done for an artical on the future of entertaiment.... I was pretty much given free rain on the illustration, just told to make it fun and out there.....

Li'more Hiram Grange stuff

2010-03-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

I thought all you fans of the Scandalous Hiram Grange might enjoy seeing the interior illustration for the up coming Hiram Grange and the Digital Eucharist. I originally choose a scenes from the front and back of the book for the interior illustrations and The cover would also be a scene tword the back of the book. But it became quite obvious as I was working on the images that the illustration from the front of the book had to be the cover. The problem with that is the two interior illustrations would then both be toward the back of the book separated by only a few pages--not good. So I had to work up a fourth illustration.thinkof it as a bonus illustration....

Let just say Hiram's had better days!

2010-03-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

Cover for the next installment it the Hiram Grange chronicles--"Hiram Grange and the Digital Eucharist" by Rob Davies and published by Shroud Publishing.

This was image was originally intended to be an interior illustration, but as I worked on it it became clear that this had to be the cover. The image was a real challenge. I just could not come with a way to stage it... In the end I think that it turn out not only to be the best thing I've done for HG, but one of the best things I've ever done.

when the world goes mad, it's time to get your Geek on!!

2010-02-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a cover I just completed for the fine folks over at Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd. It's for a licensed game based on an X-Files/Cthulhu mythos/espionage novel series. Not sure if I'm allowed to say much more then that. In addition to the cover, this image will be one of four images that make up a single scene that will be used for the gamemaster's screen-- should be pretty cool.

But before I can do that it's time to return to the scandalous Mr. Hiram Grange!!

Hot off the press....

2010-01-25T09:08:00.000-08:00

still have a few tweaks, but here is the cover for Kobold publications Sunken Empires. I'm really happy with this one. Architecture and perspective are a bit of an Achilles heal to me and so this image was quite a challenge. To get the full effect I would urge you to listen to Steve Vai's For the Love of God. I played that over and over while creating the image.....

Zombies and Vampires all in a days work....

2010-01-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

most of everything I'm working on these days is sealed up and locked away under NDA's with do not open until the end times written all over them. But I have just done a couple of covers for Elder Signs Press that I can share. This First is for a Stewart Sternberg's novel The Ravening. The other is for a Vampire novel. It was a last minute pick up project and I don't know the name of the book or the Author. I will post and update when I find out.

Spectrum 17

2009-12-28T09:23:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that time of year and I'm going through my work from 2009, trying to decide what I might want to submit to Spectrum 17. I must say I'm a bit nervous, having been accepted last year (the first year I ever sent work in) I will be quite disappointed if this year if I don't get in....but the competition is crazy hard, featuring loads of, well, fantastic art, including the likes of Jon Foster, Greg Manchess, Paolo Rivera and Adam Hughes, so it's best not to get my hopes too high.

The above piece, alas, is not eligible, as work submitted must be from 2009 and this piece was done a couple years before. I just found it as I was going through my stuff and felt that it needed to be featured some where....The piece is inspired but not based on Tolkien story Luthien and Beren.... Now that I don't have a gallery type web site I really don't have a place to feature my older work. I really have to set aside some time and get a new site up. Even with my blog here, how many people want to slog through entry after entry to view my art. It's a bit tedious even to me. This will have to be one of my priorities in the new year.

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.

Price of Two Blades

2009-07-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

A a few weeks back I promised that I would show you the other story illustration I was doing for Black Gate #14. This one is for a story by Pete Butler titled "The Price of two blades". Just like the other illustration I did for the magazine this image will be printed in black and white.

to tell the truth I do not do too much black and white interior work any more. In general, I don't like doing black and white work as it almost takes me as long to do a black and white piece as a color of the same size and complexity, while only paying a fraction. I do make some exceptions, depending on the project, the publisher or the people involved. Black Gate is one of those special cases, because I like the magazine and feel proud to be a contributor and because of my long relationship with John O'neil, the Editor, who I think is a great guy!

Kobold Magazine 10

2009-06-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

Here is the cover to Kobold 10, coming out in just a few weeks. I figure it might be good to try and hype the magazine a little by previewing the cover--

I also did an interior illustration in the magazine for a clever article about Dwarves, drink and the Goddess of Ale.

I have few other things that I am doing for Kobold that I hope I will be able to show very soon-- I have just finished doing the cover and a few interior illustrations for Imperial Principalities of the Elders -- think memento morti, think the the triumph of death, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, think of a wrap around cover- think OMG! And I am currently working on the cover for "The Green Gods" this one is kind of tough in that the gods mentioned in the title are to be naked and featured prominently on the cover....... I really hate the old "leaves strategically place" thing, so I am not sure how I am going to stage this one. It looks as I will also be doing the cover to The Kobold Bestiary and a calendar piece as well..... these guys keep me busy.

Mist beyond the circle

2009-06-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

It will be a while before this hits the printers but here is a little something I worked up for Black Gate magazine #14. It is an illustration for a story by Martin Owtin. It was a great read. The image will be printed in black and white, but I went all out on the image doing it as a full color painting. They will be using the color version of the image on the web site and in other web promotions. I'm doing a second illustration for the issue as well-- I'll share that with you soon.

Buckaroo Bonzai

2009-06-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is the cover for the upcoming Buckaroo Bonzai Comic--HARDEST OF THE HARD, "The Ballad of Lady G"-- a little something I have been working on for Moonstone Books. I was thrilled with the idea of the doing the cover as a movie poster. I have always wanted to try my hand at doing a Drew Srtuzan like illustration and given the chance I went all out with the concept. Look for at soon in your local comic book stores.

I have signed on to do more covers for Moonstone, starting with covers for Honey West-- a hot, gutsy, kick ass, detective from the 1960's. Doing retro, film noir, action is a whole new kind of illustration for me and I am really looking forward to it....... should very be cool

Yikes

2009-05-31T15:22:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it is the last day of May.... I have been soooo distracted this month. I've got a full work load, doing cover work for Moonstone books, and Boondangle Press as well as interior illustrations for Kobold Quarterly and Black Gate Magazine and you guessed it they are all due at the same time, the first week of June.

However, I cant let May slip by with only one post so here is a little something that you all might enjoy. Until just a couple of years ago no one had even seen one of these creatures alive. I love the idea of these incredible animals, as alien from surface fauna as any extraterrestrial creature, lurking in the ocean depths.

Ice Storm of 2013, Roosevelt Island

2009-05-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

This is one of two images I did for DETH KILLERS of BUSHWICK, a high end clothing company based in Brooklyn. They approached me almost a year ago (man, time goes fast) They were doing a limited edition series of 10 illustrated and digitally printed t-shirts, inspired by the sci-fi book covers from the 80s and 90s (You can get the whole back-story here, and here). I loved working for these guys and loved the project. It was epic in scope, more akin to doing large murals then anything else.

The above image is one of the first 5 shirt designs that have officially been released to the press as part of volume 1 (though the first shirts will not be available until July). Visit their web site to see the other shirts that will be included in volume 1. The second image I did for them will be released at a later date and is currently under lock and key. Not sure when that is going to happen-- as they are launching 2 shirts at a time while previewing a few future releases-- maybe some time around the end of summer-- You will just have to hang on, but I promise you it will knock your socks off...

Death Waltz in Chiba City

2009-04-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

Here is another image for my sci-fi portfolio.This time I was evoking the "Nuromencer, cyberpunk, blade runner, street samurai" theme. I'm doing some pretty rapid posting these days, I wish that I really produced work at this rate, but in reality these images have taken quite a bit of time, as I've dabbled with them between paying projects and it just so happens that they have all reach a point of completion at around the same time. I usually have about a dozen or so images and projects on the back burner at any one time, most never get finished and get pushed out as new ideas or insperations compete for my little free time to work on my own stuff. I have several more sci-fi themed images I would like to finish up in the next couple of weeks , but I am not sure how much time I will have to spare....... stay tuned.

Medea

2009-04-17T13:19:00.001-07:00

As you know from previous posts I am featured in Shroud #5, along with the cover there is also an interview and examples of my art on the inside of the magazine. Well, Tim Deal, the publisher at Shroud, gave me the back cover for a full page ad!! I was not sure what to do with it--Tim suggested that I take a piece of art I like and just put my contact info on it and I had been working on this Muchaesque image of Medea and thought that the back cover would be a great showcase for it...... Of course I had to adapt it for the size requirements of the cover. Below is how it will appear on the magazine.

In case you don't know starting with issue #6 Shroud magazine is going to be carried in Barns and Noble stores, which is extremely cool, but I cant help but wish that national distribution had began one issue sooner -- It would be nice to have my cover in book stores across the country-- C'est La vie

Battle for Earth

2009-04-10T09:03:00.000-07:00

Here is the second sci-fi image in my effort to expand my portfolio with some hard sci-fi images (the first is two posts down). Not a bad first effort at this kind of thing, though, I think that my over dependence on line art gives it more of a comic book feel--not that there is anything wrong with comic book illustration, it's just not what I had envisioned when I started. However, in terms of my goal to pad my portfolio with a hard sci-fi I think it is a success and definitely a departure from most of the sci-fi work I have done in the past, which typically been in the realm where sci-fi overlaps with fantasy. Like this illustration inspired by Edgar Rice Boroughs the Princess of Mars, which is more fantasy then sci-fi.

Hall of the Mountian King

2009-04-09T10:49:00.001-07:00

I see that Wolfgang Baur, over at Kobold has posted these so I guess that I can share them ---a couple of cover Pieces I did for their upcoming publications "Hall of the Mountain King" and "Iron gazeteer". I also just finished up the cover for Kobold quarterly #10-- and man, I am soooo thrilled with how it turned out, I begged Wolfgang to let me share it, but he wants to wait since the issue will not be out until Summer....... If your not familiar with Wolfgang, there is a great interview with him over at Lou Argresta's RPG Agression. You should check it out. He is a great guy and a pleasure to work with and one of the great names in table top gaming.

Church of Quantum Teleportation

2009-04-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

I do not get to do much sci-fi. Most of my work is in the worlds of fantasy and horror. That means my portfolio is very thin when it comes to hard sci-fi work and clients looking sci-fi piece tend to pass me by with -- "Love your work, but not quite what we are looking for"-- Well, rule # 4 of my book on how to be a successful illustrator (which I intend to write as soon as I'm a success) will state that "the client wants to see work that demonstrate that you can do what they need done." So if you want to do a sci-fi illustration you can't show them an image of a barbarian chick on the back of a dragon. No mater how good it is, it still not a space ship--apples and oranges my friends, apples and oranges.

With that in mind I have been playing around with a few sci-fi images between paying projects. This one is based on a story , nothing fully formed, just an idea--The technology of quantum teleportaiton is at the base of an intergalactic religion. In the process of scanning the original person they are rended apart, shredded down to the atomic level. When the replecant person is created at the other end of the transmission they are, in effect, "born again". Making teleportation a form a baptismal and the teleportation halls grand cathedrals ----

Zombie Nation

2009-03-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

This image was inspired by a young woman I passed while walking down the street. She was dressed in a black t- shirt and black knee high leggings and pink converse tennis shoes. She sported a baseball bat over her shoulder and a walk that warned against anyone messing with her. Don't know where she was going or coming from, but, she had a kind of retro/vigilante/superhero feel about her. Her shortish hair covered much of face, so I could not really see her features that well, but I made contact with her one visible eye and it told me she knew that she was hot and that I was definably not in her league. Wow, I thought, I want to be with her when the Zombies attack......

whoohoo

2009-03-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

Just found out my art was selected to be included in Spectrum 16. The Spectrum books are an annual showcase of some of the best artwork in fantasy, sci-fi and horror of the year-- edited by Cathy and Arnie Fenner. It is pretty cool to have my art along side of artist like Brom, Eggleton, Giancola, Huges, Kaluta and Martiniere (just to name a few)--and congrates to all the other artists whoose work was selected as well--

4/12/09-- update

up until today I was not sure which images I sent in were to be including, only that I was on the list of artist whose work will be included in the volume. The official notification letter came today and of the three images I submitted only one was accepted-- Gladiatrix (the image at the top of this blog). The other pieces were a Piece called Dragon Rider that was used for the cover of Kobold Magazine #8 (a gaming magazine, sort of a successor to DRAGON Magazine) and the third piece was done for a short story published in Polluto Magazine #2 by Adam Lowe called Zombie Love song. This was the first time I have ever entered and I only sent in three pieces-- sort of testing the waters… and while I am a little disappointed that the other two images did not get accepted I am thrilled to be included in the volume.

Shadowrun

2009-03-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

here is a sneak peek at some illustrations for the 20th anniversary edition of shodowrun. These were really challenging assignments. First there was the aspect ratio of the images(1x3.2) Very long and narrow. Secondly the art descriptions had a ton of stuff going on in these images and since these illustration are to run across two pages anything in the middle would be lost in the fold of the book so no important elements could be could be in the center of the illustration making it hard to come up with a composition for the images that would work.

To tell the truth, I think Catalyst Games were a little less then pleased. Which is too bad, I really went all out on the images trying to put in all the elements that they wanted, but I think because of my lack of familiarity with the world of Shadowrun ( I know they have been around for years and yes I do live under a rock) my images don't mesh as well with the game. What I don't under stand is why more game publishers do not put together bibles of their game worlds that contained references, rules and special circumstances-- Wikipedia and Google images only help so much. WotC and AEG do this for their game lines and it is incredibly useful ( plus it makes the AD's life much easier). Otherwise, how's an artist know what is allowed or not-- the histories, technologies, creatures, and environments, or any other number of details that make up the very detailed and fully realized world of a game that has been around for such a long time. It's like shooting in the dark and in this case I guess I miss the target by a little.

Black Gate #13

2009-03-08T11:39:00.001-07:00

Black Gate #13 is at press and is sporting a cover that will be familiar to any of those that have spent time here. I was very hesitant about using the Gladiatrix image because it would have to cropped down dramatically for the cover. But,John O'Neil (publisher/editor) was very enamored with the image and thought it would be perfect for the magazine--- In the end he decided to go with a wrap around cover, getting most of the image in--it is only the second wrap around cover they have done. I am extremely flattered as the back cover is usually prime real estate for ad space. John e-mailed me the proof for the cover and it looks very cool.

Black Gate is a great magazine, and not just because they publish my artwork. The stories tend to be more old style fantasy and sci-fi (think Fritz Leiber jr.) The kind of stories I grew up reading. I would highly recommend checking them out.

10 years of Illustrating

2009-03-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

I painted the first image something like10 years ago. like many of my images it was born out of a story idea. I no longer remember the details, but it was called Home Sweet Home and something about a Man obsessed with homesteading in the west and after everything goes wrong, culminating in the death of his wife, he refuses to give up on his obsession.

And while it is not the best example of my art at that time, it is one of the first illustrations I sold. AEG bought the image for their Doom town ccg.

Now, as a sort of celebration of 10 years of illustrating I have revisited the image---- I am not sure if there are many other fields where you can measure your advancement in such a visual satisfying way. It has been a long road with many ups and downs and hours and hours of experimentation and failure and work to get to this point and there is still a long way to go as this is a life time pursuit-- my own obsession. And while I take a lot of pride in being self taught, it would have been a much shorter trip to get here with a few art and computer classes :>).

Seeing the light

2009-03-02T18:24:00.000-08:00

This is kind of cool. Usually when I want to create rays of light I use the gradient tools, feathered selections and masks and while I have been able to get some excellent effects with it I just stumbled on to a rather neat trick. Some time ago I had created an armored angel, it was to be part of a larger image that I never got around to finishing. Just for fun I was messing around with the image, just experimenting with different filters and blending modes. When I put the angel through the motion blur filter and wow a "light" went off in my head. I did this several times to get various levels of blur placing some in layers above the Angel and some below, messed around with the color balance getting a realy nifty filter light pattern. I then constructed a rather quick back ground to place the angel in...... It has a slightly incomplete look to it and maybe I will come back to it and add more the image, but as an experiment in lighting I think it is a great success.

Dragon egg

2009-02-14T14:04:00.000-08:00

well as usual everything I have been working is tied up in NDA's for the moment.... so to keep this blog moving here is something I have been playing around with. It started with yet again an other young adult idea, but I ended up showing showing way to much skin-- I have been meaning to come back to the image and make it a little more modest and finish up the back ground details some.

In other news I have signed up with Poetic License Printing to put my images on t-shirts- Their official site has not launched as yet.

They are trying to build up content to ensure that it is a fantastic launch. They have an other site (www.plasteredpoets.com) with some of our stuff, but it is not indicative of what we will have on the the new site which will be kind of like Cafe Press and Zassle only it will be purely comic book illustrators and the like. My images will be listed along side of people like Dave Hoover, Herb Trimpe, Peter Bagge, Dave Sim, the guys from Hard Case Crime Publishing (featuring their Pulp Fiction covers), Bob McCleod, Bob Burden, Armando Gil, Dave Simon, and the mighty Fred Hembeck, to name a few. Not bad company. So if you have been dying to have one of my images plastered across your chest, this is you chance.

Roskva at the end of the world

2009-01-13T14:04:00.000-08:00

I was paging through a book of Norse mythology and came across the story of Pjalfie-- Thor and Loki visited the youth Þjálfi's family on their way to Jotunheimr, Þjálfi cut open the bone of one of Thor's butchered goats in order to get at the marrow (when Thor is hungry he can roast the goats that pull his chariot for a meal. When he wants to continue his travels, Thor only needs to touch the remains of the goats and they will be instantly restored to full health to resume their duties, assuming that the bones have not been broken). When Thor resurrected the goat, it could not walk properly. To atone for this, Þjálfi and his sister Roskva (Reap) had to serve Thor as his thralls. Now I have read this before, but somehow I had forgotten that his sister was also consigned to be thors servant as well. Beyond that there is no other mention of her.I Immediately thought her story was ripe for a series of young adult book that would followed her adventures. I love the idea of taking obscure characters from myths and stories and fleshing them out, telling the story from their point of view. It is, of course another project idea that will go unrealized-- Though I was inspired enough to do this concept image-- Thor, Loki, Pjalfie and Roskva, with a slight modern touch, especially loki who is a blend of ziggy stardust and elric.

Happy New Year-

2009-01-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

and a happy birthday to me, or rather this blog--Studio Space. It has been a year since I started this thing. It was my hope to reach a larger audience, meet other artist, share the process of my work and thoughts and find new clients and in that since this little blog has been a great success. I have only been tracking the traffic through this blog for the last four months or so but it has been surprising with just under 3000 visitors in that time from all parts of the world. The kind and number of clients has changed over the last year, where as, I had been trapped in a role playing and collectible card game ghetto, last year I was able to break out doing concept work and posters for movies, and video games, book covers became a primary source of work, I got the chance to do comic book pin ups and covers, and illustrations for a high end clothing company. And this year looks to even be bigger and better.

I know what your thinking--who cares, I came here to look at some art.

well then here are a couple of sneak previews-- the first is for the cover for reprinting of Lucy Snyder's anthology SPARKS AND SHADOWS to be published by CGP, the second is cover for Elder Sign Press. I do not know the name of the book, but the working title of the image is Zombie city. It was hard to convey zombies from such a distance. What I was going for was to have the mob thin out as it got closer and larger so that we can start to pick out the zombies - with groups attack individuals and cars, with the closest group looking up toward us, the viewer, as if they have seen us looking down on them--- the idea was to draw the viewer into the image....

Shroud magazine #5 Hiram Grange

2008-12-26T09:48:00.000-08:00

Sometime ago I mention that issue #5 of Shroud magazine would be all about Hiram Grange with profiles of the authors and myself. I thought that I would give you a little preview of the cover. I deliberately constructed the composition so that it could stand alone, just in case I ran out of time. However if I have time I intend to add a cast of nefarious characters from the books coming out of the darkness behind him.

I am currently getting materials together to submit to spectrum 16. This will be the first year I have submitted my work for consideration. I was tempted to send some of my Hiram Grange images, but I thought that I would wait until next year when all the illustrations where done and send them as a series (I have two books left to do in the series). I have found my work on the stories to be some of the most enjoyable projects of the year.

Wrath of the River King

2008-12-16T17:34:00.000-08:00

I have some art to share. This is a set of images I did for the upcoming Wrath of the River king. Wrath of the River King is a 4th Edition D&D adventure project published by Kobold Quarterly. The above image is for the cover and these two are interior illustrations.

I tried something a little different on these images. Usually my images rely on line art in defining figures and features rather then using high lights and shadow-- It's a bit of a crutch. With these images I used very little line are in the final images. I am pretty pleased with the results.... particularly the dragon image.

I guess I'm feeling a little sulky today--

2008-11-22T17:17:00.000-08:00

As I have written before-- I would draw and create images no mater what-- it is in my DNA. If I had no computer or paint, no paper I would scratch images into stone and trace contours in sand. I would search for images in clouds and find figures in the stars of a pitch black night. I am a story teller, it is just that my medium for telling stories are pictures instead of words.

I bring this up because my Mother has been visiting here for most of the week and one would think that I work in the porn industry by way my Mom reacts to my art. I am not going to rag on my mom and in truth few of the folks that I spend time with show much interest in my work . Most have rarely seen my art and only a few have expressed the desire. I can not help but get the feeling that most think what I do for a living is stupid. I don't think that is how my friends or family would put it ( they are overall very nice people), but, the notion of illustrating fantasy, sci-fi and horror seems to bewilder them. Even now when sci-fi and fantasy has become mainstream it is still seen as a childish pursuit, as somehow illegitimate for an adult occupation -- the stuff of pimpled faced teenage boys. This is in spite of it being a billion dollar industry-- with explosion of children's and young adult books, and the proliferation sci-fi, fantasy and horror publishers , computer games, collectible card games, role playing games, movies and the internet there probably has never been a time in history when speculative art has been in such demand and still I feel like I must somehow qualify or excuse what I am doing here-- I know that it might not change the world or bring peace to the middle east, but I am one of the few people I know that is truly happy with their career choice and I must say that I am very thrilled to be able to do this for a living.

Drive by Posting

2008-11-03T17:28:00.000-08:00

Just want to do a quick little post just to let the world know that I am alive and well. My posting has really dropped off over the last couple of months--this due in equal parts to being super busy and the fact the the work I have been doing is all covered by NDA's and it will be a while before I can share any it here. I had just finished up a whole slate of projects and I am already booked up for work well into December. Right now I am Working on a Cover for an anthology of Lucy Snyder's stories to be published by Creative Guy Press, a Cover and a set of interior illustrations for Wrath of the River god to be published by Kobold Press, I am doing another T-shirt illustration for the good folks over at DKMC (see previous posts for the scoop on these guys). So it look like another month of sporadic posting at best.

Hanged Man Studio is open to the public

2008-10-12T16:09:00.000-07:00

Well it has taken me forever to getting around to it, but, I finally set aside a few days and put my Hanged Mans Studio web site back together-- I took it down last January because it was so embarrassingly out of date. It now features samples of work from the last two years or so, with only a few earlier pieces. There is, of course, overlap between what I have posted here and what I have featured on my site, but there is also a lot of previously un-posted stuff from the last couple of years, featuring both published and unpublished works. Plus not everyone wants to plow through my blog to view my art.

There are still a few bugs in the site. I configured the images as part of the background so that it loads in a odd way.... but at least it is up an running and open for viewing. So if you are in the mood click on over and take a looksee.

But come back here often as this will still be the place to find out what I am up to and to view my latest work.

Kobold Quarterly

2008-10-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

I thought you all might enjoy these images. They will be featured on upcoming publications from Kobold Publications. The first will be featured on the cover of the January issue of Kobold Quarterly and the second will be used for the cover of a Clockwork Mage gazetteer. For those that are not familiar with Kobold, it is a new quarterly magazine published by gaming industry veteran Wolfgang Baur filling in the huge gap left when Dragon and Dungeon magazines shut their doors.