Price of Two Blades

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.