Merry Christmas!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.