Dungeon 212

Here's a couple pieces I did earlier this year for Dungeon Magazine issue 212.
These are always fun because no matter what the assignment, I get to paint any combination of creatures, arms and armor, and magic. What could be better? 

8"x17.5" Oil on illustration board

This one shows the famous D&D sorceress Iggwilv and her little demon friend, and a good reason to not invite her to dinner...Unless you like it when she turns your roast into a cloud of flies.

8"x17.5" Oil on illustration board

In this one, an angel catches up on some reading while he is trapped in a library, but he's not alone.

Spectrum 20

Back in 2001 I was a junior in high school. Art class was my favorite, and I tried to fill my schedule with as many as the school would allow. I had been drawing and painting since I was very young. But I didn't really think anything of it until later in high school when my teacher told me that I could actually make art as a living, and there were such things as "art schools." I was ecstatic, I knew what I was going to do. In high school however, you don't learn so much about different artists. Sure, we heard about the big guys that everyone knows about, but I was never told what illustration was and how it differed from fine art (it doesn't, but for the sake of categorization in the eyes of art history...). I knew I liked painting and I especially enjoyed painting things realistically, but at the same time I liked comics and video games and fantasy movies. 
One day while in Boston wandering around by myself as I waited for my girlfriend at the time to get out of photography class, I stopped into Virgin Records to look for some music. Shortly after not finding any music I came upon the floor with all of the books. I immediately saw this one: 

I picked it up and sat down with it to see what "Fantastic Art" was all about. It was filled with hundreds of amazing images. I couldn't believe how cool all of it was, and that people painted these things. I knew I had to have this book. 

I carried it with me every day to school after that,  and flipped through it any chance I had. I drew from it, I studied the artists names, I memorized every image in there. I hoped that one day I could be a part of this, but I knew that was silly....me? Nooo. 

Years later, as a junior in college, I entered my first pieces into the Spectrum competition. It became an annual event each year after. My friends and I would get our best pieces of the year together and send them off to the competition, knowing we had little to no chance. Most of the time I would even forget that I sent things in because of how much of a long shot it was. But it was still worth it to try.

Twelve years after I chanced across that Spectrum 8 I can finally say that I've achieved what I dreamed of when first setting eyes on it. I'm deeply honored and still completely awestruck to be included in this year's Spectrum 20. Thanks to all the judges, and the Fenners who have been publishing the series for all these years. Here's the piece that will we included:

Now I have to keep my butt in gear to hopefully continue to get in!

Also! In other Spectrum related news: I will be back at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! in Kansas City in just a few short weeks. I'll have all sorts of prints, drawings, and original art to check out so come say hi at booth # 802.

Skull Soldiers

My, how time flies when you're busy! 

Between school and general freelance work i've been running like a madman these past couple of months. Luckily, in all of the lack of time to post anything here, lots of things have become available for me to finally show you. So hopefully i'll have time to get those things up more regularly for you.

First off, back in the fall of last year I started working with mobile gaming company Cygames, creating art for a card game called Rage of Bahamut. Though I think my work only appears in the Japanese version so far. It's a free app, so check it out if you want.

Similar to work I have done in the past for the Legend of the Cryptids game, the idea is that the player starts with a basic version of each character. Then by combining versions of the same card, the character is upgraded to an advanced version. With Bahamut however, the character can upgrade four times. So four illustrations are needed. 

My character was a basic skull soldier called Hell Lord Skeleton in-game. As far as i'm concerned if I can get a skull or skeleton in an image, it can't get any better. But it can! They wanted a skeleton leading an army of skeletons! And they are all being controlled by some kind of necromancer. So the idea was to start with a normal version that didn't have too many frills and very basic armor for stage 1. With each additional stage the armor gets more detailed and there's a few more guys in the background. In the final stage, he should be the ultimate skull soldier! Well needless to say, these were a whole lot of fun to do. Here's how they progressed:

All of them are 10"x12" Oil on illustration board.