Tower of Ureth Hal

After 3 months in Egypt and an additional few days spent in lovely Barcelona I have finally managed to get home and back on track. Here is a drawing for a new painting I'm currently working on. The painting was started while I was in Egypt, but because of problems I was having with the oil mediums they sell there I was unable to finish before coming back.

New Painting

So it's been a while, i know, but i've been busy doing lots of web design work as well as some other non-fantasy related work. Anyhow, here's my latest painting that i've finished.

In other news, I will be off in the sandy land of Egypt for the next 3 months doing some archeological illustration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I will be sure to post sketches when I return. Also, I am still going to be accepting commissions while i'm there if you are willing to work on a thursday to thursday schedule...since I only will have e-mail access on thursdays and fridays.

I also hope to get another sample or two done while i'm over there so keep an eye out when I return!

On a final note! the new James Patterson book: The Murder of King Tut, that I did interior illustrations for, will be coming out September 28th. I will post some final illustrations here after the release.

Venom Mage Sketch

It's been a while since i've posted anything so here's a sketch for my next painting that I'm working on. Thanks for stopping by!

Updates! and SDCC

Well it's taken some time between other projects and my preparations for San Diego Comicon, but my Berserker Lord painting is done! I made some small alterations to the left figures tunic as well as some corrections to the bear. Also did a bit of glazing to push and pull some areas.
I'll be in San Diego this weekend and the Comicon. I'll most likely be hanging around the illustration area more specifically booth #4503 where i'll be helping a friend tend her booth part of the time. Come stop by and say hello!
Also, head over to my collective blog Running With Paintbrushes and check out our updates on the Mother Nature painting project. Here's my finish for that:

IMC Continued!

Well as you may have figured, the IMC was a blast! So much so, that I had no time to post any further progress on my painting, because, well...I was painting!! So anyways, here is a bunch of progress shots through the last sleepless hours "finishing" my piece. I say "finishing" because I did manage to fill all of the painting in, but for me there is still some work to do. A perfectionist is never happy!
Continuing where my last post left off, I got the polar bear in there and started on the secondary character:
Here's a detail of Aath's head:

Here's also a progression of his hand: I like to paint all of the flesh tones in one sitting so that I have all of the colors mixed up. I generally put the darkest and lightest tones in first, and then fill in the middle. Kinda wacky, I know...


Almost done here, just need to mesh some of the colors together first.

Cape Time!


And the final! Sorry for a not great shot. I will be continuing work on this and update with a nicer final image. Nothing like a full illustration in a week!

IMC Painting Day 1

Day one of painting! Worked like crazy to get the background filled in. Here's some progression shots! Definitely inspirational having some Greg Manchess paintings on the wall nearby.

IMC Drawing Progress

So the IMC is going very well thus far. As you've seen in my previous post, my initial sketch was brought before the jury and decisions were made! Here's a shot of the sketch post-crit with attached correction proposals on tracing paper. The basic consensus was that the bear needed to come down to make room for type and get him more in the other characters faces. The main character, Aath Ulber, as he's referred to in the story has too little of a neck and it is causing him to look akward. Also, the secondary figure in the midground was in a bad position and perhaps should be moved off to the left to get a more dynamic flow between the three elements.
Next, I began by photocopying my original sketch up %40 to match my final drawing size. The final was drawn on tracing paper to allow for underlaying of photocopies and sketces for easy adjustments. You can see her that I've made the front characters pose a bit more interesting and less stiff. Also, moved the secondary character left and brought the bear down.


Now I am starting to flesh out the main character, adding costume elements and designing as much as I can to make him beleivable.

Finally, I decided to make the secondary charcater even bigger as well as the bear. This I think ties the three together even more. I also changed the ridge that the bear is on to make it flow better with the jagged parts behind. This is my final drawing that I will print and mount on my masonite.

This is what it looked like when I left the studio tonight. I was able to mount the drawing to the masonite and apply a ground tone of Burnt Umber. I started pulling out some of the highlights in the bear and Aath because the mounted print had lost a bit of detail and I wanted to reestablish those areas. More process on the way!

IMC Preliminary Sketch

Hello! Been working hard preparing for the Illustration Master Class next week. It's finally here! I am very excited for the upcoming week of painting and lectures and critiques and hanging out with cool people and no sleep!
I will do my best to post a few times during the week with updates and perhaps some progress shots. So check back often.

Here is my preliminary sketch that they wanted us to bring to the first class for crits. It's 7.7" x 11.2" It's likey to change a bit from here on out so i'm interested in seeing where this will end up. The image was taken with my camera on my drafting table so please excuse the bad image.

Grumpy Polar Bears!

Getting started on some new projects lately. Next week I will be attending theIllustration Master Class in Amherst, MA. We have to pick an assignment given by the instructors and arrive to the class ready to get started on the painting. I've chosen a scene of a couple of travelers on an ice berg that have a run-in with an angry polar bear. I've posted my thumbnails for this project as well as a sketch for my other "Mother Nature" project on the collaborative blog Running With Paintbrushes.

Here's a few grumpy polar bear studies to get ready for this next painting. Check back for some process shots and updates throughout the week long class.

Armour and Progress

Well it's been a little while since I've posted anything. Been very busy lately doing some web design projects (gotta pay them bills!), and getting ready for the upcoming Illustration Master Class that I will be attending in about two weeks. Also getting started on my next portfolio project for my collaborative blog: Running With Paintbrushes.

Added my newest painting, Lilliana Vess, to my website also!

For the sake of giving you guys something new to look at, here's a couple little armour studies that I did not too long ago. First one's from the Met, and the Close-Helm is a replica that I own.

Happy Tuesday!

Boll Deevil

This week I decided to try my hand at the weekly concept sketch challenge put on by Wizards of the Coast art director Jon Schindehette's blog ArtOrder. Here's the challenge:

Challenge #1
Concept Name: Boll Deevil
Due Date: May 3, 2009, Noon PST
Concept Description: Sometimes the best source material for a new critter is right under our own noses. In this case, I want to take the innocent little Boll Weevil as a concept base for our next critter. The "Boll Deevil" should bhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife a large and imposing critter - at least 15 feet in length. The attacks it can have I will leave up to you, but I want to see them. In other words, if it has a claw attack, I want to see claws that look like they can do real damage. If it has a breath weapon - show it's effect. This is pretty straight forward. So have fun with it.

And the prize for the winner of this round is mind blowing!

Prizes!!
Whoa!! Here's a big one! Win a commission from either Dungeon or Dragon magazine! I will pick one person that I feel excelled at this weeks challenge, and give them a commission from an upcoming issue of either Dungeon or Dragon magazine. Please note - I reserve the right to declare "no winner" if there are no concepts that I feel hit the quality standards for the magazines. I do not expect that to be a problem - since the caliber of entries has been stellar..but I've got to cover myself. All you have to do to enter is - make a kick-ass piece, and really impress me.

So anyways, here's my sketch that I did. I was a bit upset because I really wanted to do some digital color and detailing, but since most of my stuff is still far away in storage, I cannot find my Wacom tablet for the life of me. Anyhow, everyone loves some good pencil work, right?

I had a lot of fun doing this drawing. I was trying to think of how this creature would be used in a battle or what it's specialty would be. So I came to the conclusion that his long snout would be like a giant wrecking ball mace with the two side antennae becoming blades for side to side clearing of anything that stands in its way. The Boll Deevil would be like the smash and destroy tank of the attacking horde. It's thick articulated armour shell is nearly impenetrable, yet flexible enough to allow for the violent flailing of his head and body. There is little that can stand a chance...

A Broken Head and Lots of Work

You might be wondering, "Why the heck hasn't Scott added any new paintings to his website?" And I have to agree with your question because I sometimes ask myself the same thing. Truth is, however, I've been lucky enough to be asked to do some interior work for an upcoming book by Little Brown & Company. While I'm not sure how much I can say about it at this point, I can say that it is about Egypt, and it may be interesting. Anyhow, to make up for a lack of website updates, here's a drawing of an ancient Egyptian artifact done as a sample. It won't be in the book, but many of the illustrations will have this look.

 

Friday!

It's friday! so to celebrate, here's some random sketches from the sketchbook.

The Kick-Off!

So today marks the day I begin my first blog! Now, to be perfectly honest, I still think it's silly to think anyone cares what I've been up to doodling away into the wee hours of the night, but hey, why not? 

Anyhow, I will try to update this frequently, so come back soon!

First off: I've been going to figure drawing for the past couple months at The Society of Illustrators. They have great sketch/jazz nights on tuesdays and thursdays. Here's some sketches from my times there:

Something was intriguing about her face.....she was just so happy.