Joan of Arc

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

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

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

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

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!