Edelwood Process

Here's an animated gif showing my layers for the edelwood tree closeup. See how I destroyed Chris Tsirgiotis's beautiful drawing? I did a lot of that throughout the series.  There were times where it was extremely painful, but it was usually necessary for plot purposes. So much of Over The Garden Wall is about what is hidden...

Anyway, this was one of the few backgrounds where the layers really reflected the workflow, sort of like a core sample. Hope this doesn't ruin the magic for anyone!

Over The Garden Wall

This poster was pencilled by Laura Park, and painted by me.

A little more than a year ago, Nick Cross contacted me asking if I'd like to test for a background painter job on a top secret show created by Pat McHale. It was sort of out of the blue and I honestly didn't think I'd get the job, but somehow I did. The samples that he sent me were some of the most beautiful landscape paintings I'd ever seen. Even more surprising than getting the job, was the fact that Over The Garden Wall was even being made.

It was a fun and fulfilling job and I'd never worked with a group of people who were so astoundingly talented before. I feel lucky to count them among my friends.

Finally, this week at New York Comic-Con, the month-long promotional campaign swung into full gear when Cartoon Network released not one, but two sneak previews! The first one is 6 minutes long, and is a good clip to show off the charm of the show. The second clip is a good demonstration of how creepy it can get at times. It's the sort of show that people will still talk about in 20 years. Anyway, here are the clips. Most of the backgrounds that take place outside or on the deck of the ship were painted by me. The rest are by Nick Cross, German Orozco, and Clarke Snyder. I'm not sure who designed them but will post as soon as I find out.

Please remember to watch beginning Novermber 3rd at 7PM on Cartoon Network. 2 Episodes a night for 5 nights.

New INPRNT Store, DemonWars, and R.A. Salvatore!

I just wanted to mention that I have a new INPRNT store, for all your fancy print needs. So far there are 2 paintings up for sale, and I'll be adding new ones soon including some brand new personal works! Stay tuned either here or on my Facebook page.

Also I wanted to show off a cool mention by legendary author R.A. Salvatore on his own facebook page! I was lucky enough to work with him on his DemonWars: Reformation RPG, based on his Demon Wars novels and written by him and his son, Bryan. I also got to work with art director Irena Mandel, who was excellent. I was introduced to D&D and role playing games when I was 11 and like many many others, obsessed over the monster manual and the art contained within. Painting iconic monsters and characters for this game was like a dream come true.

Firefly - Bucking the Tiger

Earlier this year I did several illustrations for a Firefly RPG adventure called Echoes of War: Bucking the Tiger. This is one of my favorites, but it was tough to get Inara's likeness right. I just stumbled across a progress animated gif so I thought I'd share!

Process Post: White Dragon

I just finished up this small painting of a white dragon. One of my goals this year is to work in oil paints again. Digital painting is much faster for me, but oil painting will always be my true love--Something that will be a part of my life for as long as I can hold a brush. This particular painting is 2 projects rolled into one. The sketch is something I owe a friend from when he won a twitter contest last year, and the painting itself is currently up for raffle (which is still going on until Thursday night!)

I thought it would be fun and enticing to post process pics on my facebook page, but I also want to collect them all here for posterity. It began with a simple idea to have a portrait . Since I'm still wrestling with the medium of oil paint, I wanted to keep it simple yet interesting. I came up with a sketch.

I went with a traditional western dragon. Why not. I had the idea that the horns would be shiny metallic--something that looks like a valuable trophy or something, while also acting as a sort of natural armor.

I did a more "final" pencil rendering to define the shadows better and nail down the drawing. In the past I've glossed over this step which I now realize is 75% of the work! Most beginners to this school of painting, including myself, don't emphasize the drawing enough in their process. They do painting after painting without realizing why the end product never looks quite like they imagined. All I'm saying is that it helps me a lot.

I scanned in the drawing and did a quick color mockup in Photoshop. I played around with various schemes and settled on the one above. It's based on this still from Black Narcissus which has amazing visuals. The cinematographer is Jack Cardiff. I don't usually steal from movies, but when I do, I steal from the best.

I gessoed a board and painted it red, then I transferred the pencil drawing onto the board with carbon paper. Then I inked over the carbon pencil marks with india ink. I like working this way lately because it makes it easier to control my edges. I was finding that with pencil lines, I was losing the guide of the outline a bit too early for my tastes. The red acrylic underpainting is an old impressionist's trick. It'll unify and contrast with the paint over it, peeking through those little transparent areas, subtly effecting the color above it. 

Usually at this stage, I'd do an acrylic paint underpainting to build up some tones and value, but this time I decided to jump in with a build up in oil paint. This was dumb because I flooded the surface with wet opaque paint which I had to wait to dry before going in for finer details. A wasted evening I could have spent painting.

It was my intention to approach this painting in the way the flemish painters worked, by painting in monotone and building up color with glazes. I'll try that out some day, but old habits die hard and I just went in, trying to nail down the colors as closely as I could.

Here I added some "stubble" details and painted the horns. I painted these details in boldly, knowing I'd be going back and subduing the values and colors through glazes the next evening.

Finally, I went over the dark areas with a glaze consisting of dioxazine purple, olive green, and indian yellow. I also hit the horn areas with a more diluted version of the same mixture. Then I scumbled over the bright areas with a titanium white/indian yellow/dioxazine purple mixture (eliminating the gross veins in the process). I really wanted him to glow and seem almost washed out with a strong spot light or something.

I really feel ready to get started with some more ambitious paintings. Hope you enjoy this little step-by-step!

2013 Was Outstanding

A bulk of the work I made in 2013.

Wow, it's been an interesting year for me. Thanks to everyone who worked with me, supported me, "liked" my art on facebook, bought a skull mug, and otherwise inspired and encouraged me to live my dreams. So many things happened! I think this calls for a bullet list.

• When 2012 ended, I had had enough of working as a web designer. The work itself was fine, but working as a full time designer, I got tired of being laid off. If I was going to be poor, I might as well be poor doing what I wanted, so I bought a new tablet and made the resolution that 2013 was the year I would become a professional fantasy illustrator. No distractions, no baloney.
• And it happened! 
• I made a bunch of work, some better than others (see above). In previous years, I would consider myself lucky to finish 1 painting every few months. The above image doesn't even include much of the work I've done in the last couple of months!
• I went to Illuxcon, not knowing anyone or anything about it, and met some great people. The fantasy illustration community is such a positive and supportive group! I think there is a love and appreciation of each others' work that isn't as strong in other related fields. I also got to meet and got feedback from incredible art directors Zöe Robinson, Jon Schindehette, Lauren Panepinto, and Marc Scheff. As well as living legends Jeff Easley and Donato Giancola (and many more!!!). I was hesitant to go, but it was very much worth the trip and one of the most valuable investments i've made in my life.
• I got a wake-up critique from the afore-mentioned Jon Schindehette, which led me to make better work and to write an article about rejection that led to a feature in Imagine FX.
• I got a job at a major animation studio working on a(n amazing) secret project.
• I got to work with THE R.A. Salvatore on a project, and he sent me an e-mail!
• I got to make a contribution to the Whedonverse! (I'll post more about that later!)
• My daughter grew up leaps and bounds, and I was able to be there with her, working half time and being a dad the other half. Something that wouldn't have happened if I was at a 9 to 5 job.

Looking forward to 2014, I just want things to keep going how they're going, so I guess here's a list of some of my goals:

• Ramp up on painting in oils again.
• Get to work on Dungeons & Dragons.
• Make at least 8 personal pieces.
• Do a book cover.
• See a movie in a theatre.

Happy Holidays!

 I hope you're having a casual post-christmas. I finished my yearly painting in a series I call "Alpha Santa", where I like to imagine Santa shaped by the harsh-environment of the North Pole. This one is called "God Emperor of Christmas". This year, as a departure from the last two years, I wanted to show him in a religious, reverent way. So I went with a centered composition, inspired by this painting from William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

The Motherland - by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

I've been thinking of what to do with the elves for a while, now. They are implied by the arrows in "End of the Hunt I" (the one with the yeti), and last year's painting with Rudolph was originally going to be Santa knife-fighting with the king of the elves. I have purposefully kept from doing to much research into various elements of the Santa myth (like why he gets to boss around a magical race of little people) because I am pretty certain I'd like my own version better.

Planning the composition was really fun. I decided to approach it very formally, placing elements in a very deliberate manner according to two inverted golden rectangle cascades. The result was a symmetrical (both vertically and horizontally) picture, where I got to have a lot of figures and elements. It was a very fun painting to execute. It was also a good opportunity to switch it up from the tilted-action perspective illustrations I worked on for the last 2 months.

Here are the last 2 years' Santa paintings. I like seeing how i'm slowly getting better over the course of time.