Young Mage - Oil on paper on board

A fantasy portrait of my oldest daughter. I wanted to show a little girl looking to the future with some apprehension. She hasn't quite grown into her clothes yet, but she has an inner strength as evidenced by the glowing staff.

Orc Shaman - Digital

I submitted this as an art test for the upcoming 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. 

Spaceman

Spaceman - oil on panel

Here's a study I just completed at a monthly painting group I attend. I wanted to loosen up and be more "painterly" :)  It was fun!

Levi, The Bone Whistle Corpsman

Digital

This is my most ambitious digital piece to date. Done for an Art Order challenge.

Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel - Digital

Here's an illustration I completed for a Grimm fairy tale challenge back in July. Beware gingerbread houses...

Story Extraction Challenge

"Black Bottle" - oil on illustration board

This is a piece I entered for another challenge on theartorder.com  

We had to illustrate a book cover based on an excerpt from the story. The excerpt I chose is from a steampunk novel called "Black Bottle" in which Caliph pilots his zeppelin to a mountain-top city to attend some kind of big political meeting. This is a wraparound cover, so the front of the book would be the right half of the picture with Caliph, and the big zeppelin on the left would be on the back cover.

Illustration Master Class 2011

Dragon Merchant - oil on board

I just got back from the illustration Master Class held annually in Amherst Massachusetts, and it was awesome.  This was my second year attending, so I got to know the people I met last year a little better and lots of new people. The teaching line up was phenomenal:  Iain McCaig, Boris Vallejo, Dan DosSantos, Donato Giancola, Rebecca Guay, Scott Fischer, Irene Gallo, Julie Bell, Greg Manchess, Adam Rex, Jeff Mack, Scott Allie, Mo Willems, Peter De Seve, and James Gurney. WHAT!?

It seemed the theme of the week was all about "story" - using composition, lighting, character expression, color, and focus to create a narrative that draws the viewer in and makes them ask questions. It changed my thinking about how I start a painting. I learned not to create a warrior fighting a dragon "because it looks cool", but rather ask questions like,"Why is this warrior trying to kill this dragon? Who is the main character of this story? What does the main character want? What does the main character actually need?"  After all these story elements are figured out make every part of the picture tell that story.  

We chose an assignment to work on over the course of the week tailored to fit the kind of portfolio we are trying to build, so I chose a book cover assignment that had to have a dragon with multiple figures in it (pictured above). Hope you enjoy it!