Last month, I had the opportunity to try my hand at trying to get my art into a book based on the 1982 film The Thing. Now, if you’ve known me at all over the years, you know that John Carpenter’s version of The Thing is one of my very favorite films, so getting the chance to do art was a wonderful chance to bring my work to something I love. Ultimately, my bid failed, Read more…
After a bit of a hiatus on fully illustrating a digital piece, I’ve created my new, creepy image, “A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed.” I’ve been doing digital manipulations here and there, but I’ve shied away from full digital illustrations for most of this year. New times bring new ideas, though, and these are indeed new times. I’m now a full-time freelancer (unless someone is reading this that would like to give me Read more…
I’m a big fan of the recent Mad Max: Fury Road film, especially many of the characters. Furiosa was a great character, and I really liked the character of Immortan Joe. So, when I was thinking of a new piece of art to create, I decided that Joe would be an interesting one to try. I had tried one before, that evolved into an entirely different piece, as well as a couple of sketches. I Read more…
Last fall, Thunderstorm Books asked if I could create cover art for author Ronald Kelly’s new short novella, Strong Steps. Anytime I get to work with Thunderstorm is a great time, so I jumped right into it. In the months just before I started working on the cover, I was coming off of a year-long hiatus from art. Not just from getting published work out there, but from any art at all. For that year, Read more…
Inktober is a yearly, unofficial ink project by artists everywhere. The idea is to create a new ink piece each day in October, and this year I managed to do a number of new ink pieces despite a busy life schedule. Here they are below, and let me know what you think.
Last week, I was sketching while I was on the mass transit (which I’m apt to do). Typically, I end up with the strangest and weirdest sketches, even more so than my typical artwork. I’ve learned over time that when I’m sketching in my Moleskine, I just have to let go and sketch whatever comes out (follow my Instagram for daily madness). I go with it, and don’t let any ideas push it around. I Read more…
I spent a couple of hours last weekend trying to will a new ink into existence. It was an idea that I’d had for a few weeks, and something that I was really looking forward to. It would have been something like this: But it was one of those times where the idea had its moment, and that moment had passed. I just couldn’t get into it. Not that I couldn’t have created a good Read more…
I’ve been sketching in my Moleskine journal quite often on my daily mass transit ride into work. It takes about 20 minutes each way, which is a decent amount of time to sketch something interesting in my Moleskine. I normally just let my imagination run rampant with those sketches, I feel it’s an open time to do whatever I want. I don’t fight any urges either, I just go with, which leads to some surreal Read more…
Below is my comic adaptation of Emily Dickinson’s poem, I Died for Beauty. Let me know what you think, either in the comments or on my various social media networks. You can look at it below, or click on the first page for a gallery of all pages horizontally. Here’s a horizontal version as well, more “print” like if you will. Click on it for a larger version:
In getting back to doing more art, I’ve worked on both digital and ink pieces. With digital, it’s easy to change my direction, and to try new effects. Getting back into inks, though, reminds me that planning is ultimately my greatest friend in traditional media. In the case of this new ink, Initiated, I kept changing my mind in the sketch stage. Should it be a monster? Should it be the veiled death that I’ve Read more…
As an artist, what resonates with me is the idea of creating something that hits a little deeper than simply showing a scene. Sure, as an illustrator especially, there are plenty of times where I need to paint the scene as it is. Much of the time, illustrations are visual adaptations of a story, and need to reflect that. That’s not to say that any one technique, or specificity versus vagueness, needs to be demanded. Read more…
I’ve had the privilege over the last couple of years to work on a series of books by S.P. Miskowski, her Skillute Cycle series. The latest, and final, book in the series is called In The Light, and I recently created the art for it as well. Her books have a certain mystique to them, and an embodiment of place that is both real and supernatural. The books themselves have each had their challenges from Read more…
I’ve always been fascinated with the monsters of the old movies. The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera, and of course, Boris Karloff’s Im-Ho-Tep from the 1932 film The Mummy. The creatures of old had such great texture to them, such great characterizations. They were unique creatures, with their own way, and they’ve always influenced the ideas that I have when it comes to creatures in my artwork. Karloff’s Mummy, Read more…
I had been thinking of working on some larger pieces lately, and the opportunity to be in a local art show was a great motivator. As with nearly all of my acrylic paintings, I had a pretty good idea to start with. Also, as with all of them, they didn’t end up anywhere near that original idea. Which happens to me all the time, and I don’t see it as a bad thing at all. Read more…
I’ve come to really love painting the traditional way, though I still love digital art as well. But traditional art, such as inks and acrylics, give me a different sense compared to digital. It’s not just that I see my art differently from medium to medium, it’s that my whole approach is different. In many ways, it’s less secure. With inks, that’s not as much an issue, I’ve done quite a lot of inking over Read more…
Last year, I created a tattoo for the great author Michael T. Huyck, Jr., based on an idea he had (see it here). Being that it was for a tattoo, I created it as a grayscale piece to keep things simple. As I’m approaching my visit to the World Horror Convention in Portland, Oregon, I wanted to use the artwork for prints that I could sell. But I also wanted to keep the original illustration Read more…
I’ve been wanting to work in more color with my inks, and I’ve had a number of ideas run through the old noggin. I thought it would be fun to try an experiment with ink and color, so I started in with a sketch of a skull. Not just any skull, of course. I thought that having branches attached to it, like antlers or horns, would be fun. I also thought it would look interesting Read more…
Most days, a billion ideas are running through my head. I think the better ones tend to stick around, and then it’s a matter of putting them into action. I’ve learned through years of experience that some ideas work better in specific mediums. For example, the last work that I did, Waiting for a turn (here), really had to be an ink. Sure, I could make it work as something else. But it clearly cried Read more…
Sometimes when I start a new personal piece of art, I don’t necessarily have a direction in mind. I might have a general idea, or a smidgen of something in my head. In many cases, such as last week’s ink (see that here), I know exactly what I want out of it. With this new ink, I was thinking of doing something with stone, or at least the texture of stone. I looked at a Read more…
A few things have been rolling around in my head this week. First, the fact that my son used up all of my larger watercolor stock. Second, there have been a lot of Lovecraftian and “King in Yellow” ideas in my brain, probably because I binge watched True Detective the week before. After picking up some new 140 lb. Cold Press watercolor stock (and briefly considering 300 lb. hot press stock), I decided to work Read more…