The Art of Michael C Hayes

Nearheath Stalker

2012-01-09T16:36:00.000-08:00

Another new Magic piece from the Dark Ascension set just got previewed. It is always fun to try and creep out your audience.

16" by 22" oil on paper on board.

Curse of Bloodletting

2012-01-02T15:45:00.000-08:00

Some of the new art for the Dark Ascension expansion was previewed by WOTC today, so I get to show this one off a little early. (or a little late, since it was originally commissioned for Innistrad and got bumped back)

I don't know the name of the card yet since the article just showed the art, I will update this post once I do.

13" by 18" oil on paper on board

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T22:58:00.000-08:00

Here is a present for you:

Did this one for a friends annual Christmas card. 12 x 16 oil on paper on board

The Silver Hand

2011-11-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a cover I recently finished painting for a novel titled "The Silver Hand: Book One of The Consortium" by Sharon Pansky. This one was a bit of a challenge for me, while I have painted many a still life in my day, doing a full fledged cover without a person in it was something new.

I was working directly with the author on this one, and she had asked to see photos of the painting progressing. I always swear I am going to do this one every painting, and this time I actually did. (These were shot at different times of the day and are uncorrected so the colors are kinda off from one to the other)

Thumbnail

Final drawing

Acrylic underpainting

From here I realized I had gone a little too warm with the metals. I usually do this to give them more "punch" but with a book titled "The Silver Hand" I went back in and toned them down digitally.

Final is 16" by 24" oil on paper on board. (ok, I guess acrylic/oil/digital)

In other news: I know everyone has just been dying to wear my artwork on a T-shirt. Well for a limited time you will have a chance, and help out the fantasy illustration community as well.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/artorder/works/8101324-michael-c-hayes?p=t-shirt

I am not sure how long they will be available for, Jon mentioned that it will be a rotating portfolio of shirts, so get em while you can. After Redbubble takes their cut, all proceeds will go to the ArtOrder community, an invaluable resource for aspiring illustrators.

Evocation

2011-11-10T11:06:00.001-08:00

I started working on this painting quite some time ago, and recently finished it up for this years Illuxcon. (Which was amazing, as always)

There isn't a whole lot to say about this one. Sometimes I want to create something with a deep narrative and some days I just want to paint something beautiful. I am so grateful for shows like Illuxcon and the collectors that attend that allow me to get paid for both.

16" by 24" oil on paper on board.

Arthur and Morgana

2011-09-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

So here is the final painting of a private commission I have been working on for awhile. I had a lot of leeway with this one. Initially the clients asked for an armored male knight of some sort and a female sorceress or with character. I wanted to have a story, not just generic characters , so I started looking around at stories from mythology to modern fantasy. The story of Arthur and the love-hate relationship with this scheming half-sister Morgana (or Morgane Le Fey or Morgaine) fit what they wanted perfectly and gave me something to really sink my teeth into.

I did a bunch of rough thumbs and gave them the 3 that were working best. They ended up going with the more traditional book cover approach.

I got some friends together, shot some reference and put together a detailed drawing to send them.

They weren't too crazy about the tattoos and suggested a few other small changes. From there I enlarged the drawing, mounted it too a board and got to work, here is a few progress shots: a thin rough underpainting and two of me working my way around the painting.

and here is a close-up for everyone who read to the end:

Alethia Brightsong

2011-09-27T22:52:00.000-07:00

So here is something bright and shiny for you after all the doom and gloom of the Innistrad paintings. This is from the latest WoW TCG set entitled "Throne of Tides"

There is some digital work done on top of this one to get the underwater glow effect to work a bit better. A lot of the glazing layers I used in the original for this effect didn't photograph all that well and had to be recreated and then exaggerated digitally . Thus, I can't really show what the real painting actually looks like underneath the photoshop. Everything but the little glowing dots was hand painted though, and the effect was enhanced mainly through several soft light and masked off levels and color layers.

The original is 13" by 18" oil on paper on board, and will be on display at Illuxcon.

Arthur and Morgana is almost finished... stay tuned

More Innistrad paintings

2011-09-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

Here are the other 3 paintings I did for the Innistrad set. I had done 6 total, but one got pushed back to the next set. It was a good one too, and I have been itching to show it off. To be honest I am not all that thrilled with how these 3 turned out, but a fan asked me to post them, so here they are.

In some ways they were a good kick in the ass. And a reminder that just because you have painted some good paintings in the past, you can't just expect them all to magically kick ass without any thought or effort on your part.

Reckless Waif and Merciless Predator

2011-09-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lapse in posting lately, things are crazy as always. I should have a fair amount of new art to show in the next 6 weeks leading up to Illuxcon. So much to do before then, just typing that I only have 6 weeks left is freaking me out.

Here is a double sided card from the upcoming Innistrad expansion that was just previewed.

These double sided cards are a new mechanic in the Innistrad block. They all start with a human character of some sort that can then flip over and change into a werewolf (or other monster). In order to link the images together, certain things like hair/fur color had to be the same in both paintings. Thus, I was in all seriousness, asked to paint a strawberry blonde werewolf:

Both images are 13 x 18 oil on paper on board. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more Innistrad paintings, a Warcraft card, the Arthur and Morgana commission and one, hopefully two personal paintings for Illuxcon.

DragonCon

2011-08-30T10:55:00.001-07:00

I am heading out to DragonCon in a few days, lots of friends on facebook are talking about attending. Since my location isn't exactly what you would call "prime real estate" I thought it might be useful to post a map to where I will be.

This is the dealers room, in the international ballroom which is located in the southeast corner of the Marriot Hotel. The red circle way in the back corner is where I will be all weekend. It is my first year there and I am gonna go out on a limb and guess that location was based on seniority. I have heard nothing but good things about the show, so I am looking forward to weekend regardless.

Oh yeah, since this is an art blog and all that, I should probably post some art since I haven't done that in awhile: Here is what I currently on my easel: a private commission of Arthur and Morgana. There have been a few changes, most notably I got rid of the tattoos and repositioned the castles a bit. If all goes as planned I should have this finished up not too long after I get back.

Poison Ivy

2011-07-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

Just in time for San Diego Comic-Con. If you missed it in my last post, be sure to stop by artist alley table FF06. I will have this painting, Daenerys and Harley Quinn on display. As well as matted prints in all sizes of most of my work.

16" by 24" oil on paper on board.

Daenerys Targaryen / Mother of Dragons

2011-07-13T21:59:00.001-07:00

I was hoping to get this finished to coincide with the release of Dance with Dragons yesterday... alas paint drying time had a little something to say about that.

For those who aren't familiar with the name, she is a character from the very popular Song of Fire and Ice books. Although I think Emilia Clarke is doing an outstanding job portraying her in the HBO series, I opted to paint my interpretation of Dany from the books.

I will have this painting on display at San Diego Comic-Con next week. If you are planning on attending please stop by artist alley table FF06 and say hi.

Original is 12" by 18" oil paper on board.

Crumbling Colossus

2011-07-03T15:18:00.000-07:00

So this card just got spoiled a few days ago, another one from the Magic 2012 Core set. It was actually the first Magic card I ever painted.

13" x 18" oil on paper on board

Arya Stark / Maisie Williams

2011-06-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

A fun little portrait I did of Arya Stark/Maisie Williams from the Game of Thrones book/tv series.

Distress

2011-06-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

This just got revealed on the Magic the Gathering website yesterday. I have been itching to show it off since I painted it almost a year ago. It is one of the images that I got into Spectrum 18 and will be part of the upcoming Magic 2012 core set, releasing July 15th.

The original is 13" by 18" and will most likely be on display at San Diego Comic Con.

Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter

2011-06-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

I can finally start showing some of the work I have been doing for Magic: the Gathering. This card was recently spoiled and will be in the upcoming Commander Deck that will be released in a few weeks.

Stay tuned, I should be able to show off two more cards from Magic 2012 which releases in July, including one that made it into Spectrum 18.

And now for something different....

2011-06-02T22:52:00.001-07:00

With all the comic conventions I have been going to to I was feeling a little left out not having painted a single comic book character. I was told Harley Quinn (the Joker's girlfriend, from the Batman comics) would get some attention... and did it ever.

Poison Ivy is up next...

Conan and Red Sonja

2011-05-25T10:17:00.001-07:00

Here is my latest, fresh off the easel. This was done as a private commission and measures 16" by 24". Oil on board as always.

For those in Arizona: I will be at the Phoenix Comicon this weekend, if you are planning on coming stop by booth # 331 to say hi.

By popular request...

2011-05-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here is the sketch to the Red Sonja commission I have been talking about and everyone wants to see. I am shooting to get it done before the Pheonix Comicon next month.

Again, apologies for the lapse in posting. I am all kinds of busy lately. I hope to get back to a regular routine soon.

Framed limited edition canvas giclees now available

2011-04-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

I finally got everything organized on this project, like everything else I tend to do this took a lot more time an effort than I had originally thought it would. But now that it is all said and done, I am very happy with the results. Without further ado, here are all the details:

These are 16" by 24" giclees printed with Epson archival inks on the best canvas I could find. Each has two coats of a glossy UV-protective varnish so they don't have be put behind glass. Each print is limited to an edition of only 25, and are hand-signed and numbered in oil. And last but not least they all come with a frame I personally selected for each image. They even come with hanging hardware attached.

(I know I am sounding like a bad infomercial salesman here, bear with me it's almost over)

Best part of all is that I am selling them for only $299 (plus $30 s&h). I am in the process of redoing my website so that these can be ordered through a paypal store. In the meantime just send me an email (mike@artofmike.com) and I will send you a paypal invoice. (or my address if you want to pay by check).

Because of the costs, time involved and space these take; inventory might end up being sporadic. I am going to be printing, varnishing and framing these in batches and just don't have time to do it on demand. So I apologize in advance if I run out of the one you want and take a few months to get it back in stock.

Here are the five giclees available to begin with.

Spectrum 18

2011-03-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

The list is of artists to be included in this years Spectrum is now up.

http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/

I don't know how to explain how good it feels, after being rejected five times, to finally see my name on that list.

Wondercon

2011-03-30T08:45:00.001-07:00

I will be exhibiting my work at Wondercon in San Francisco this weekend. If you are going to be there, be sure to drop by artist alley table # 136 to say hi.

Guardian Angel

2011-03-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

Finished this one last week, and unlike everything else I am doing lately, I am allowed to show it!

This was a private commission where I was given pretty much free reign. The only requirements were that it be a beautiful female angel, and that the birthstones ruby and diamond be worked into the design of some sort of weapon.

The final is 20"by 30" oil on paper on board.

On the easel

2011-02-16T21:52:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the lapse in posting, and apologies in advance for some of the lapses to come. Things might be a little patchy between now and the end of March as I try and get everything ready for the first few conventions of the year. Between work, a large print run I am doing myself (including some framed very limited edition canvas giclees), a complete website facelift, taxes, family visiting and a whole lot of other little things the blog is taking a bit of a backseat.

In the meantime though: here is something cool I am working on: it is a private commission so no NDA!

I don't usually go quite so nuts on my underpaintings/block-ins. But with the effect I am trying to pull off on this one, getting my values and color relationships spot on is very important, so it seemed like a good idea.

More drawings, and some incoherent rambling on drawing for illustration.

2011-02-02T10:08:00.000-08:00

In my last post I mentioned that I had gotten away from the red pencil drawings because I was worried the media might be influencing my assessment of the overall image. I want to expand on that thought today and explain my general philosophy for preliminary drawings.

In essence, I try and draw in as boring a style as I possibly can. Everything I was ever taught about attractive draftsmanship goes out the window. Thick and thin line weight, loose charismatic linework, cross hatching, etc... I am not having any of it. While all those things are very important to creating a good drawing, I don't think of my prelims as drawings. In my mind they are blueprints, a means to an end, and therefore function must come before form.

One of the hardest challenges an artist faces is imbuing a sense of life into their work, creating something that "breathes" instead of just 'shows". A somewhat common issue I have heard from several illustrators over the years is that the final painting lost some of the life that was in the sketch. There was some indefinable spark in the sketch that just didn't translate to the painting. When I looked at the sketches of these illustrators, they had many of the traditional characteristics of an attractive drawing that I mentioned above. It made me think that maybe that spark had come from their technique instead of something inherent in the content and that is why it didn't show up in the final.

Therefore, my thinking is that if I draw in a boring manner, and the image still has a breath of life in it, then I know that life is inherent in the content, not the technique, and will transfer into the final every single time.

Just to clarify a few things: by content I mean things such as composition, gesture of the figure, facial expression, storytelling, etc... Fundamental image-making concepts that are independent of style and media. I should also mention that I do start out with much looser and gestural technique, I just choose to erase and clean up as I go along.

Lastly I should mention that I arrived at this way of thinking on my own, it wasn't something I was taught. Therefore, there is a very real possibility I am dead wrong and I am giving everyone bad advice. I would love to hear other peoples thoughts on the subject.

Red Pencil Drawings

2011-01-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

I was working in this style of drawing for around a year, not always, but as much as I can. I loved the old world look. And with the erasable colored pencils I was using I could cheat that look with modern easier to work with materials. Ultimately, I ended up abandoning this technique and going back to trusty ol' graphite on white paper for two reasons:

Although I could erase the red pencil, it is not nearly as malleable as a graphite and a kneaded eraser. These days I find I am erasing and redrawing more than I ever have in my never-ending quest to get my work better and better. (Funny, I always thought once you get good you don't have to erase anymore, you just draw stuff awesome the first time).

I also found that the natural beauty of the materials was influencing my judgment as to whether I actually had a good image and a solid drawing. These days I do my sketches in a rather boring style, If they start to look good I know there is something inherent in what I am drawing that is working, not just what I am using to draw.

All that being said, I haven't worked in this style in over a year, and I am starting to feel the itch to do so....

For those who are interested in this technique; I am using Stonehenge fawn paper, Prismacolor Col-Erase tuscon red pencils and General's white charcoal pencils.

Cover art for Miserere: An Autumn Tale

2011-01-18T22:56:00.000-08:00

Finally, some new art I can show. And I am really proud to show this one. This is my first commissioned novel cover. Done for Miserere: An Autumn Tale by Teresa Frohock. It is being published in the summer by Night Shade Books and was art directed by David Palumbo.

Dimensions are 24" by 16" oil on paper on board.

Time lapse painting: Sword of the Four Winds

2011-01-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

Almost forgot I had this footage, I did this awhile ago for a live broadcast over at the The Illustration Board I am going to start doing those again when NDA's don't get in the way. Also going to start filming more of my process and getting more of these videos out.

They don't look half bad at full screen if you want to see me painting the details.

Without further ado:

Life drawing: Portraits

2011-01-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

I am a firm believer in life drawing being a part of any artists development, lots and lots of it. I estimate that I have logged about 3000-4000 hours drawing and painting from a live model, most of which was done in the past five years at Watts Atelier.

By far my favorite life drawing exercise is the 2-3 hour charcoal portrait, I have done hundreds of these and never get tired of them. Here are a few examples:

Behind the scenes: "Discover a Muse"

2011-01-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

This image is a great one to kick-off the "behind the scenes" series of articles for my blog. It shows the amount of work I am often willing to put into an image to try and make it something special.. or just how truly neurotic and perfectionist I can be. It is a glimpse into my thought process, usually I come up with and discard many ideas in my head. But in this particular project, to my great frustration, many of my thoughts ended up on paper.

For those who don't know, this painting was done for competition on the ArtOrder blog. The requirements were simple: participants were given a zip file full of reference provided by model Veronika Kotlajic to use as reference and we were to come up with an image that embodied the terms: strong, independent and sexy. I hadn't entered in a competition since I started getting freelance work a few years ago, but I had a break in my work schedule that coincided perfectly with the competitions deadlines, so I decided to go for it.

Veronika has a few egyptian style tatoos that inspired me to go in an egyptian goddess route. After some thumbnails and digital composites with the reference photos, I came up with this:

Looking back, it isn't half bad. In fact having just dug up the sketch today I am thinking I might revisist the concept. But at the time it was just not happy with it. It was solid, I could have made it work. But it just wasn't a winner, it didn't have anything special about that was going to seperate it from the what I knew was going to be a tough competition. (and it was.. here are the entries). After some more drawing and much deliberation, I decided to abandon this concept. I wasn't getting paid for it, and I didn't think I could win with what I had come up with, so what was the point?

I had done this drawing about a year before, and even had it enlarged and mounted on a board.

I had just never got around to painting it. I figured it might be a good place to start. The composition wasn't quite working for me anymore, but it had potential.

Much drawing ensued and I came up with these two ideas:

I liked the simplicity and flow of the wing-arms version, but my friends told me it just looked goofy. So I went with the first option, had the drawing enlarged at kinko's and mounted it to a board, ready to paint the next day.

When I woke up I wasn't happy with it again. I had a pretty strong visual in my head of this angel doing circus style acrobatics in the air, showing off... being all strong, sexy and independent. Somewhere along the line that just got lost. At this point I was getting pretty frustrated with the whole thing. This wasn't suppossed to take this long, it was just a competition and I had other ideas in my sketchbook I wanted to work on. But with so many hours already invested I decided to stick it out and see what I could do.

I played around in photoshop and sketched all morning and afternoon and decided to go back to the original backflip I had, replaced the scepter with a less distracting sword, covered up the breasts (again, too distracting) and for reasons I can't remember, closed the eyes. Went to Kinko's late at night, got a new print, mounted it and went to bed exhausted.

I woke up and looked at, and was again unhappy.. and very, very frustrated. I can't remember exactly how the solution revealed itself to me, I am just glad it did... Looking back it is so ridiculously obvious, I can only assume all my frustration got in the way of my thinking clearly and prevented me from seeing it earlier... Mirroring the other arm for a more symmetrical pose got rid of more clutter and gave me the flow and power of the initial wing-arm version without the goofy anatomy. Since it was a simple fix I redrew the arm on the board, opened the eyes back up and got to work.

Banged out this color comp in PS pretty quickly and the painting went smoothly, even pretty quickly up until this point:

I was damn proud of the face and shoulder area I painted, but the background colors weren't quite working as well on the final as they had on the comp. No big deal I thought. I messed around with it digitally and came up with a better pallette and figured I would just glaze over it to fix it.

This project wasn't quite finished with me yet.. it just had to kick me in the nuts one last time. I ran into serious technical issues with the medium I was using (M. Graham's walnut alkyd) I guess if you mix too much into your paint the surface will become too slick and will not accept another layer of paint. So my glazing layer beaded up (kinda like water on a car hood) and my attempts to correct it by adding more mineral spirits into the mixture caused the bottom layer of paint to peel off. The mountains and much of the sky was ruined... There was not much to be done but to lightly sand down the area and just repaint it, silently cursing digital painters the whole time. I have since switched to Galkyd lite.

In the end though, this was the result:

All the blood, sweat and tears were worth it though: I got to go to Chicago and exhibit my work in Veronika's gallery, where she ended up buying the painting. I scored the cover of the book that was made from the competition, I got a fair amount of exposure and accolades from the whole thing... and I finally broke myself of a bad habit of jumping into the final stage of a painting before it is really ready to be painted.

New Years Resolution: Self-Promotion

2011-01-01T21:31:00.000-08:00

2010 was a very good year for me: I made huge jumps forward in both the quality and consistency of my work, sold quite a few originals at Illuxcon, the illustration exchange and my first gallery showing and have gotten to work on bigger and better projects than last year; including Magic: The Gathering and my first novel cover (more on that to come in a few weeks).

One area I have been slacking quite a bit in though (or perhaps avoiding because of how I often perceive my own work) is self-promotion. My recent successes have given me both the confidence and the kick in the ass to start really getting my work in front of people. This isn't really a new years resolution per se, most of these ideas and plans have been in the works (or at least in my head) for months. But this seemed like a good time to formalize the plans and announce everything. So without further ado, here is what is in the works for 2011:

Plans for the blog. Which include a lot more content and way more frequent posts in an effort to attract more followers:

-behind the scenes... in-depth descriptions on the creation of some of my paintings, not just a generic step by step on how I usually work. But rather I will focus on one painting at a time and go through how the process evolved. What went wrong, what went right what I would have done differently, along with thumbnails, sketches, color studies and photo ref from each project.

-My life-drawing studies, both new and from the archives. I haven't mentioned or show this stuff at all on my blog yet, which is a shame since it was and is still such a huge part of my development.

-Time lapse videos of my painting. This might be a little slow going at first because of NDA's, but I plan to start filming my painting process a lot more and eventually have it be a regular feature.

-Random musings and philosophies on art - Just my thoughts and experiences related to certain topics such as style, commercial vs. fine art, why I work the way I work, If you paint a painting in a forest and no one is around to see it... you know, that kind of stuff

-FAQ's: similar to above: my somewhat in-depth answers to the age old questions man has pondered for centuries, such as: what brushes to you use? how long does that take you? and where do you get your ideas?

-Inspiration: From my biggest influences to artist I just admire. One by one I will talk about certain artists and what I take away from their work.

-Technical stuff- how to's on some of the more mechanical aspects of painting: mounting a sketch to a board, photographing oil paintings... as well as reviews and suggestions for cameras, printers etc. written specifically for illustrators.

-requests, suggestions... I am always open to these, in fact I welcome them. As well as artists, I would like this blog to appeal to fans and collectors. So please don't be shy with suggestions on features that you would like to see, what would make you suggest this blog to other collectors?

Other online self promotion: I plan to have a much more visible presence on some of the major art forums and communities this year. I spent some time today registering and uploading art to a few. If you are member of any the sites below please feel free to add me as a friend or contact or favored deviation or whatever it is exactly you are supposed to do on these sites.

http://www.facebook.com/artofmike
http://twitter.com/michael_c_hayes
http://michael-c-hayes.deviantart.com/
http://michaelchayes.cghub.com/
http://artorder.ning.com/profile/MichaelCHayes

(If you are a regular at these sites, and you see I am missing out on some feature or somethingorother that is helpful in generating traffic, please let me know... I am still trying to figure out all the different sites and their quirks)

Website redesign and overhaul: Still trying to figure out exactly how I want to go about this, but it is time to do something different and probably a bit more simple with artofmike.com. Thinking about having it act as a simple portfolio and a portal to all the social media. Suggestions?

Convention appearances: Huge plans here, lots of traveling in 2011. I will be exhibiting my work at the follwing this year: (Pheonix, Vegas and Dragoncon haven't been 100% confirmed yet, but will most likely be happening)

Wondercon San Francisco, CA April 1-3

Wizard World Anaheim Anaheim. CA April 29-May 1

Pheonix Comicon Phoenix, AZ May 26-29

San Diego Comic-con San Diego, CA July 21-24

Dragoncon Atlanta, GA Sep. 2-5

Las Vegas Renaissance Festival Las Vegas NV, Oct 7-9

Illuxcon 4 Altoona, PA Nov 3-6

Ok... that's it, that's all, hopefully all my efforts will pay off and I will be rich and famous this time next year. Happy New Year everyone!

Discover a Muse book is out

2010-11-29T10:45:00.000-08:00

The book from the "Discover a Muse" contest I entered back in May has been released. And yours truly is on the cover. Okay, not exactly yours truly... the world isn't quite ready for that... but the next best thing: a painting by yours truly did end up being chosen for the cover. Big thanks to Jon and Veronika for making this happen. All the info on how to order the book can be found on the Art Order blog.

Illuxcon trip report

2010-11-16T19:21:00.000-08:00

What a weekend... I don't even know where to begin to describe just how amazing this years Illuxcon was for me. I guess the beginning is probably the best.

E.M. Gist, Lucas Graciano, Tom Babbey, Ryan Schutter and Arthur Loftis and I all flew into Philadelphia on a Tuesday night red eye. We rented a minivan and drove to Philadelphia Museum of Art. While there were a few notable paintings, the highlights for me were the extensive armor and flintlock collections and the completely immersive rooms full of rebuilt ancient architecture.

From there we drove about an hour to the Brandywine museum. Seeing the enormous collection of N.C. Wyeth's work in person was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life. The Brandywine museum should be a required pilgrimage for all Illustrators out there... period. If you are ever even remotely close to it, you need to go out of your way to visit.

The convention itself was nothing short of magic. Pat and Jeannie Wilshire have created something truly special out in the middle of nowhere that is Altoona, PA. I was incredibly honored to be invited to exhibit again this year. I spent the weekend surrounded by several hundred amazing paintings, talking to dozens of the most accomplished, yet humble and friendly, artists alive. I got to display and talk about my craft with some of the most unpretentious, bullshit-free collectors out there. I got to chat with and give advice and critique to a few of the students attending the event. After so many years of tracking down and hounding pro artists to look at my portfolio, it was great to begin paying it forward. And.... in some respects the least important, and in other ways the most: Sales were outstanding, I sold 4 of the 6 paintings I brought with me, a few drawings and a handful of prints as well.

The dates for next years show have already been announced: November 3-6, 2011. I am already counting down the days...

Photo Credits: Cynthia Sheppard and Noah Bradley

Inheritance

2010-11-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

And here is the final piece I will be bringing to Illuxcon this year. This was also done as a book cover sample portfolio piece. Big thanks to my nephew, sister and father for donning all the costumes and letting me take pictures on a particularly hot day. 16" by 24" oil on paper on board.

Anticipation

2010-11-02T15:34:00.000-07:00

A simple, personal piece done to add to my line-up for this year's Illuxcon. I painted it alongside a larger, more complex narrative-driven illustration. It was great to be able to switch back and forth between two paintings with very different goals. 16x 20 oil on paper on board.

Stay tuned, I will post the "Inheritance" in a few days, the last of the new Illuxcon paintings. As well as a shot of everything framed just before I shipped it off.

Erolissi Marr

2010-10-16T18:09:00.001-07:00

And here is the other card I did for this Norrath expansion, who is basically a female ranger version of cupid. I was a little tired of painting leaves after this.... 20 x 16 oil on paper on board.

For those wondering why the format is different; for Norrath the actual format is a square. But I tend to compose to both fit the square and a rectangular format that I prefer.

Offering of Peace

2010-10-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

I finally get to show some new art again, The 11th expansion for SOE's online card game Legends of Norrath released today. Here is one of the images I did for them.

16" by 20" Oil on paper on board. One more month until Illuxcon! This is one of 5-6 paintings I plan to bring to the show.

Misquoted in ImagineFX

2010-09-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

After this years Illustration Master Class, my piece was chosen to appear in an article by ImagineFX magazine. So I sent in my piece and answered 4 questions via email. After reading the article as it appeared in the magazine I realized that one of my answers had been abbreviated and printed out of context. This comment could possibly be construed as arrogance, or worse, disrespectful to the IMC organizers and/or faculty. I don't think most people will take it that way, and I don't think the writer was trying to make me look like a jerk, but I do want to take the time to post the entire interview and explain a bit further what I actually meant.

Here is the section of the article that was written:

"For Michael Hayes, this session needed to change his skeptical outlook on hyped workshops. "I set a simple goal of picking up a few tricks," he admits. "But Greg's lecture on 'innate talent' and why it's total crap, followed up a few days later by Donato's on why he paints left me positively giddy"

The second quote is fine, the first one is where I feel the problem is. Here is the entire Q&A that I sent to ImagineFX

How did you find out about the masterclass?

Being an Illustrator and staying plugged into the community, it is rather hard not to know about it. It was conversations with several IMC alumni this year that convinced me to go. These were working professionals at a much higher skill level than I, telling me how much they learned.

What did you want to get out of it?

To be honest, my past experiences with over hyped workshops still had me a little skeptical, so I wasn’t quite sure what I would get out of it. So, I set a simple goal of raising the bar for my own work and picking up a few tricks. I can’t even put into words how much more than that I ended up getting out of it.

What did you enjoy most about it?

Greg’s lecture on “talent” and why it is total crap, followed up a few days later by Donato’s lecture on why he paints left me positively giddy. It’s a good thing they weren’t back to back; otherwise my head would have exploded from sheer inspiration. Just thinking about it makes me want to stop typing and go paint...

Did you learn anything that’ll change your approach to art?

For me there was no drastic “one thing” (although I did hear that from others…) but rather lots, and I mean lots, of little things here and there that add up to a significant change. I would say that every step of my process, from concept to finish has been improved upon in some way.

To explain a bit further: I had been to another art workshop, put on by a different organization, that was advertised (by the organization itself) as "a life-changing experience" amongst other grandiose claims. I figured if it was half as good as they said it was going to be I would be worth my time and money. It wasn't... It was such a letdown that I didn't travel to another workshop for 6 years.

The IMC staff makes no such grandiose claims (thought they could and it would be true) any hype it has is from actual alumni. I was not trying to say that the IMC was over hyped or that I was skeptical of anyone involved. I was not trying to say that I traveled across the country, spent $2000 and took a week off of work to "pick up a few tricks" I just wasn't sure how much one could learn in one week, no matter who is teaching or organizing. Turns out I was wrong... you can learn an unbelievable amount.... Which is what I was trying to say. I only mentioned the skepticism as a way of contrasting what my actual experience was.

Sorry for the long rant. I knew a few of the IMC instructors beforehand, they have always been incredibly kind to me. And I had nothing but the utmost respect for everyone involved with the IMC beforehand. The article made is seem like that may not have been the case, so I felt like I needed to clear that up.

Influence Map

2010-09-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

This Meme has been going around the internet, When I first saw it I wondered if I could come up with enough influences to fill it up... After sitting down to do it though, I ran out of room very quickly... I probably could have added at least another dozen.

I will have more art up soon... I have been busy as usual. Lots of NDA stuff, some of which I can't show until next summer, some I will be able to show next month.

Three new paintings for the gallery show

2010-08-02T13:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, as you can see I have been rather busy working on paintings for my upcoming gallery show. Here is all the info: http://www.galleryprovocateur.org/upcomingexhibition.html

The new paintings are 20" by 30", 18" by 24" and 16" by 24"

The entire exhibition will also be available for purchase online at the gallery's website for the duration of the show.

Time to start getting paintings ready for Illuxcon now... stay tuned.

Joan of Arc

2010-06-23T22:54:00.001-07:00

Here she is... not much to say except that this is quite the breakthrough for me. It will be on display at my booth at Illuxcon 2010 in November. My sincerest gratitude to everyone who helped me create this.

Gallery Provocateur - Upcoming Exhibition

2010-06-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

I am proud to announce that I will be part of my first group exhibit at the Gallery Provocateur in Chicago. The exhibition will run from August 21st, 2010 through October 2nd 2010, so if you live or will be in the area at that time I encourage you to stop in and take a look. Info on the gallery and exhibit can be found here: http://www.galleryprovocateur.org and here http://www.galleryprovocateur.org/upcomingexhibition.html

Above is an illustration I did for Legends of Norrath. It is 18" by 24" oil on board. This painting along with the discover a muse piece below and 3 others I am busy painting will be on display at the exhibit.

I am just putting the final touches on the Joan of Arc piece I did at the IMC, I will have it up in a few days. Stay tuned, you are going to want to see this one....

Off to the Illustration Master Class

2010-06-10T07:41:00.000-07:00

For those who haven't heard about the week long intensive course. All the info is here http://www.illustrationmasterclass.com

I get on a plane early tomorrow morning, and I am very excited about it. One of the main goals of the workshop is to complete a finished illustration under the guidance of the instructors. We were given a list of 6 assignments to choose from, ranging from sample magic cards to a paranormal romance book cover. After carefully reading all the options it took me about 0.5 seconds to choose Joan of Arc. It fits in too perfectly with what I like to paint.

Above is my rather obnoxiously detailed sketch. I have to get it through a round of critiques by the industries top dogs before I can paint it, so we will see what the final image actually ends up looking like. I will, of course, be posting the final when I get back... stay tuned.

Discover a muse contest

2010-06-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

So what was that I was saying about a subtler way of doing things? ummm.... Here is an upside down angel with a bright color palette.... old habits die hard I guess

I actually painted a few subdued illustrations prior to doing this one. This one just screamed for some color, as much as I tried to push it otherwise. At the end of the day you have to do what the painting tells you to do and go for the best possible piece. Even if it is inconsistent with your current goals.

This one is 22" by 27.5" oil on board. It was done for the Discover a muse contest over on Jon Schindehette's ArtOrder blog.

I forgot to mention it in my last post but that painting is 32" by 18" and was a private commission

Fashionably late to the party

2010-05-31T09:06:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to getting one of these things started. I plan to update quite regularly with finished illustrations, sketches, life drawings and paintings... as well as instructional posts and many other goodies...

I believe the image above is a perfect way to kick off this blog. Not only is it arguably my strongest painting to date, but it marks a slight shift in the direction of my work. Most notably, I intend to shift away from the high chroma pallette I was pushing... towards a subtler more subdued pallette. I will be making a number of other small changes as well, most of which are difficult to explain in a small number of words or even put into words at all. But they all follow a similar theme of a shift towards a subtler way of working that will, hopefully, draw people into the worlds I am creating instead of the bright colors or other techniques I employ to create those worlds.

So... for those familiar with my work: I hope you like the direction I will be taking things. I encourage you to check back regulary. And for those who aren't: this is a good point in my career to start paying attention!