Illustration Friday: Book

It's been a good long time since I've ever posted to IF, a couple years maybe! I used to post every Friday back in the early days of my blog. Well, I'm pleased to make a contribution once again.

"Book" brought to mind this recent piece from Menagerie, the gryphon with the troll kids.

Troll Children with Gryphon. 

I'm sorry (but a little pleased?) to say that the first print run of Menagerie has just sold out but I just released a series of prints from the book.

Thanks for taking a look!

New work! New prints!

Finally! I've got a ton of new work to share.

All of these new pieces are from my 2012 sketchbook, Menagerie. Enjoy!

Note. Some are available as matted 8" x 10" prints (total size 11" x 14") others as both a decoratively matted 8" x 10" OR miniature. Some are only available as miniature. All sizes are noted and linked below.

There is also one special charity art print I hope you'll see at the bottom.

Thank you for supporting my work! To visit my shop and see everything that's available, prints and sketchbooks alike, you can visit here.

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Operatic Dragon. Gioioso.
Miniature print.

Operatic Dragon. Dolore.
Miniature print.

  * * *

The Games of the Tiger King.
8" x 10" print

Fox River Holiday.
8" x 10" print

Troll Children with Gryphon.
8" x 10" print

Gryphon.
8" x 10" print

* * *

Two sizes available. 

A decoratively matted 8" x 10" or a miniature 4" x 6" print.

Renaissance Baire I.
 8" x 10"
Miniature

Fox.
8" x 10"
Miniature

Richard.
8" x 10"
Miniature

Renaissance Baire II.
 8" x 10"
Miniature

Tiger King.
Miniature

Gentlefox.
Miniature

Tiger, profile.
8" x 10" print

All proceeds from the sale of this print will be donated to
the World Wildlife Fund's Save Tigers Now campaign.

Over the course of reference gathering for this project
I came across a statistic that I couldn't ignore.

A hundred years ago there were 100,000 tigers in the wild.
Today there are as few as 3,200.

NOTE: Print appears without logo and text.

Indie Craft Parade

My sprawling set-up.

Once again the Indie Craft Parade has struck the heart of downtown Greenville, SC with a fierce ↓, ↘, → punch!! of a variety of handmade media. 

Whether felted things, ceramics things, drawings things, the third annual ICP gathered together some of the best working artists in the southeast.

As you might know, this event is my wife, Erin's largest yearly project. As such, in exchange for my name going on the sponsor list, I end up doing a lot of hand lettering and illustration for the event. 

Here's a look at some of newest work.

The Illustrated Elephant.

Oh gosh, and now it's spread to shirts.

Hey! A billboard.
(Alternate hand drawn text.)

I debuted the most new work to-date at this show. I think 10 new prints in all. I'll be making them available online this Friday, September 21st in my shop!

Here's a peek at what to expect.

Many new things. All creatures.

Imagine FX

Here's something that I've been really looking forward to seeing in print.

The first time my work has appeared in Imagine FX, the premier digital art magazine. I was in touch with them a while ago and I'm indescribably pleased to see this feature in the magazine.

A huge thanks to everyone involved, especially Beren!

Here's to the next one. I'd love to do a cover for you guys!

Hiatus

Man, it's been some time here! It's a shame to let a blog lie dormant. It's a blog for gosh's sake! These things are meant to be watered regularly and turned towards the sun!

The third quarter of this year has been packed with travel, conventions, speaking engagements, and client work. I've been slammed and this poor blog has been the main causality. Time to water.

I'll be back next week with a full blogging schedule: catching up on past engagements, new projects, and future work. Also, a better-late-than-never giveaway!

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Until then here's a peek at some of the new work I debuted at the 3rd annual Indie Craft Parade.

New prints! I sold out of several but I'll be reprinting and listing on my shop.

Green Man pt. III - final

And the final stage of this small watercolor painting for Ruel Pascal's recent "A Moment Of..." group show. 

Click here for the previous post, Green Man pt. I.

Click here for the previous post, Green Man pt. II.  

I really enjoyed my time with this one. I hope to create a dozen or so more small watercolors like it this Fall. I've been wanting to do that for the (sadly) the last year or more but between my sketchbook projects and regular client work it's been difficult to find the time. 

It's hard to beat the feeling of productivity and momentum that comes from creating a new series of drawings VS an evening potentially blowing up in my face because my painting skills are rusty. I want to work through that but a sometimes crippling sense of my own narrow window to make drawings and ideas is hard to wager against burning through time before I arrive at show ready paintings. 

Yes, I know the real thing is I ought to just do it and work through it but when faced with the frustration of a break in productivity and momentum and at the end of the day feeling like I didn't accomplish anything to show for myself is almost too much to bear.

I'll get there, I'm sure. It's just a matter of steeling myself to the fact of feeling empty handed for an extended period of time.

Green Man pt. II

And the next stage of this small watercolor painting for Ruel Pascal's recent "A Moment Of..." group show. 

Click here for the previous post, Green Man pt. I. 

Truthfully, it's been a while since I've done a watercolor that was meant to be seen as a finished piece. Most cases, I'm working with a sort of watercolor "underpainting" with a digital finish. For my clients and projects this is the best, speediest way to go. But for a gallery show I'm obliged to stretch my traditional muscles a bit.

I'd love to move more towards traditional works again, and indeed I've been making the gradual shift back. It's slow though. 

That said, I had got a lot of enjoyment out of this little exercise. It was pretty smooth and went swiftly enough.

The basic idea was, with a brown Col-Erase pencil, get my drawing down (loose in the hair, leaves, and beard) and then paint washes directly on top. Over the years I've experimented with quite a few kinds of paper and different combinations of drawing, spray fixing, and painting and truthfully I haven't been too satisfied with any of them. In this case, and I'm trying to remember the exact kind of paper, I'm thinking it was some kind of Bristol. But I'm not sure.

After that it's just applying washes, drying, washes.

Next post, Wednesday. Final steps.

Green Man pt. I

This week I'll be walking through the stages of this small watercolor painting for Ruel Pascal's recent "A Moment Of..." group show.

If you've ever gotten a copy of The Hidden People from me you might recognize this guy. I tend to quickly doodle some variation of this little guy in most of the signed copies. Because I'm so familiar with his face I knew I could quickly make a small painting and get it mailed out quick.

* * *

Next post, Wednesday. Planning! With thumbnails. Or, not those kind of thumbnails.

Heroes pt. III

Here's the other commission I did at HeroesCon last weekend. I was really happy to hear, "whatever you feel like drawing" as my only direction. If I hear that I'll probably end up drawing from The Hidden People.

King of the Walking Hills

I thought of this guy as the King of Walking Hills. With a crown of old trees and grassy beard. Heck, maybe he's blind, even. He looks really old. Once I put the finishing touches on my entire book of The Hidden People (beyond the sketchbook) I'm certain I'll have figured it out.

(Here's what I guess is a comparatively young Walking Hill, for reference.)

Previously,

HeroesCon pt. I
HeroesCon pt. II

HeroesCon pt. II

Here's a look at the booth set up and two commissions I did this past weekend at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC.

David Petersen has been amassing a collection of work inspired by Harry Potter. I'm honored to join  the gallery with this drawing of Dumbledore. I throughly enjoyed working on this one.

Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

And then because I had a little bit more paper I penciled a quick Dobby the House Elf.

Dobby.

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And here's a look at the booth set up. Some day I would like to have a booth all arranged with tree limbs, sticks, leaves, moss, acorns, flowers, and miniature woodland creatures gamboling about. And also a team of faerie engineers to design, build, set up, and take it down. But that will be a little while? Probably.

Behold! I'm talking about things!

My two books. The Hidden People and Menagerie

Labyrinth FCBD originals.

Mother's Love! A miserable puppet! Mr. Gerard, run out the long nines!

I hope you've enjoyed your time here. Next time (Friday) if I get a scan or picture of the other commission I did I'll post about that ... otherwise, it will be time to resume treehouse renovation postings!

Heroes!

This past weekend we exhibited at HeroesCon, a convention in Charlotte, NC.

I've always meant to get around to Heroes; it's so close, practically in my backyard, but I'd always forget. This time we got our act together and made it to the show.

Justin and I didn't split a booth this go around, we secured neighboring booths and made a kind of SUPER BOOTH. Like the Death Star of booths.

We had awesome time hanging out with David Petersen and his wonderful wife Julia. Also, Jeremy Bastian, a man who's brain works in intricate ways (as evidenced by pictures from his sketchbook, below). And we also spent some time hanging out with the super Skottie Young.

Our booth neighbors were great as well, friends from FaerieCon and on the other side we met Ken and Nikki of Grimwood Fables.

I went into the show not expecting to take on commissions; I suppose in my mind I was expecting that if I opened up that option it would mean I would be obligated to draw Wolverine stabbing Dr. Who in the face while R2D2 watched. Also draw them all as samurais. For $15.

Thankfully, I encountered a higher class of gently persistent collectors who were looking for original work at respectable rates (sorry if I was initially reluctant, I had to bum paper off of Justin!). You guys were awesome. I had a really great time with all your commissions. The experience you gave me has put faith in me to decide to take commissions for real at future conventions. Thanks again! I'll post those drawings if I get scans from the commissioners.

* * * 

Here's a look at some of the things I picked up from the show; just to note, I failed to get pictures of some small posters. In general though, I usually only pick up sketchbooks though, so that's mostly what's represented below.

The tiny haul.

A few other Archaia FCBD book contributors were there!

Can't possibly recommend Mouse Guard enough.

The intricacies of Jeremy Bastian's brain.

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I rarely actually draw in my sketchbook, usually I'm making notes or writing but at a convention there's too much activity for me to be able to think too much so I ended up doodling a good bit more than usual. Here's some of how I spent my time while at the booth and hanging out with some of the aforementioned rock stars of comics.

Always trolls.

All in all, a great time at HeroesCon. I had no idea what to expect but we had a profitable show as well as fun, thank you to everyone who came out and supported my work!