Recent book cover for Rapheal Slepon.

A picture of my home set-up. I likes to have me a nice big O' screen to work with. And when doin' covers, ain't no thang better than a nice big vertical on the side. Pardon the dirty dishes and clutter but I only take care o' that when the mold starts to grow.

INTERVIEW

I recently joined up with a group of comic and fantasy artists called Outland Collective. Here's a little interview they did with me...

Self portraits are weird to do.

This is one of maybe 2 or 3 self-portraits that I've ever done. I don't like doing them a whole lot. They are kind of creepy somehow, but I hit two birds with one stone with this piece. Apparently, yesterday was national self-portrait day...so there's that. I also painted it because I needed a profile picture for an artist's collective that I'm joining. I'll give more details about that when it's all set up, but basically, I will be part of a monthly online gallery of artists who work mainly in comics and sci-fi/fantasy illustration. There should be a nifty lil' interview and feature on my work and everything. Good stuff. I can't wait to share!

But speaking of "more details". I know there hasn't been much of that going on here lately. I've been doing a lot of work for a sequential comic based project. Again, I can't say much about the project yet, but I will say that it involves super hero stuff, which is not my usual subject matter. It's been super challenging and fun for me. Hopefully I'll get to share some of that with you soon. Anyway, thanks for tuning in!!

Sorrow Sublime

This is the illustration I did for Curtis Gray's new novel, Sorrow Sublime. Curtis commissioned me himself and was awesome to work with. I happened to be away from my studio during the making of the cover, so 100% of it was done digitally on my computer, unlike much of my work that is done mostly in oil paint.

My process starts with lots of daydreaming and tons of sketching. At this point Curtis had not finished the manuscript yet, so I was given a rough draft of the first chapter, and let loose to create an image from those pages.

At first, my sketching is really like a bunch of scribbles; its a matter of daydreaming in order to sketch out tangents of ideas that will allow multiple ways of telling a story. I pick out some of the best ideas -in this case, three- and present them to the client. In the first chapter of Sorrow Sublime there is a river and bridge that are very integral to the story and Curtis really wanted them to be depicted on the back of the wraparound cover. He really liked the first and third sketch, and left the decision of choosing one of them up to me. I chose the first sketch because it was the more intimate portrayal of the two main characters and I really wanted to capture their personalities, which really carry the story of the first chapter.

First, I start shooting photo reference, using my friends as models, if possible, and renting from costume shops if I can't find something hidden in the back of the closet.

Using my photo reference and original sketch, I create a larger and more refined line drawing. I create this sketch on a transparent layer in photoshop with no added tones of value. This makes it very easy to try out different value and color sketches on a layer set beneath the line drawing layer, allowing the weight of the image to be carried by the lines. I then submit the color image to the client. In this case, Curtis approved it straight off and I begin working on the final.

From here on out, its just a matter of painting, and then adjusting and refining the painting. Painting takes up more than half the time of the project, but most of the project's success comes from those initial sketches. If it doesn't look good in the sketch, it doesn't look good in the final.

I really hope to get the chance to work with an author again, as it was very exciting to discuss with Curtis one-on-one about the process of interpreting his characters. 

At the moment I've got a lot going on. I can't really say much about it other than it is comic book related, which I am super stoked about. I'll try and get an update earlier next time around. Tah tah for now, and thanks for tuning in...

Spectrum Live!!

 

 The recent Spectrum Live convention was completely awesome. I shared a booth with my old pal, Brooke Howell. We had tons of fun meeting up with lots of art buddies and meeting lots of new faces. I finished the Grave Watcher painting just in time to bring it along (in fact it was still wet) and I received a great response from the attendees.

 I've never seen a con like this one before -as far as the sheer number of amazing artists goes- and it went really well, especially for it being Spectrum's first con. Some highlights for me were meeting great people like Irene Gallo, Jon Schindehette, Zelda Devon and Kurt Huggins, and the painter of painters, Greg Manchess. Of course there were many more...I could go on and on.

Manning the booth didn't leave a lot of time to see all the wonderful demos, workshops,  and film screenings; I barely even managed to walk the entire floor to see all the amazing artwork. I did manage, however, to catch Greg's demo and the awesome display of the bat tumbler. 

I really hope that Cathy and Arnie Fenner decide to host the con again next year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Chaos

This is the chaos that my studio is in at the moment. I have been scrambling to get everything done in time for Spectrum Live next month in Kansas City. That painting on the board there has been calling out for attention but between ordering prints, building their supports, mounting them, negotiating assignments, and figuring out booth logistics for the show, it has been hard to knock it out. I'm feeling that a couple long nights might be coming up, indeed.

I was very excited to hear that "Laura's Sanctuary" was accepted into Spectrum 19. It was my first time submitting and although I was trying not to get nervous about it, I was pretty anxious. So I'm really happy I got in. Just one goal out of many I hope to achieve in the next few years.

I am also thrilled about an upcoming assignment I recently received to do my first wraparound book cover. I've only read part of the manuscript so far but the story seems wonderful and set within a very intriguing world. I'm not sure how much I can say about the assignment so far but I will post more about it as soon as I can.