Diablo III: Book of Cain Review

Published by Insight Editions in December of 2011, this obviously isn't a new product. It isn't even technically an art book, it's really more of a promotional product for Diablo III, that just happens to contain a lot of art. And what art it is. A collection of modern masters, plying their trade in pencil rather then paint, and done on a parchment colored paper, with textured edges for that extra feel of aging, and impeccable graphic work and layout, this is a rich history book for a world from a video game franchise, oozing flavor from every page. But with a presentation and art of this caliber, it is so much more impressive then just a video game book, and deserves recognition alongside some of finest collectors art books today.

Contributing artists include:
Brom
James Gurney
Mark Gibbons
John Howe
Joseph Lacroix
Alan Lee
Victor Lee
Iain McCaig
Petar Meseldzija
Jean-Baptiste Monge
Adrian Smith

It can be found on amazon here and I can't recomend it highly enough to anyone who appreciates pencil based fantasy art, or anything at all in the dark fantasy genre of art, this is one hell of an art book (see what I did there? Hah!)

Downfall graphic novel world design

I really enjoy the gritty atmosphere this kind of world allows, and rendering the ruins of cities and cracked and broken details has been a ton of fun. We're drawing a lot of inspiration for this setting from the classics of the genre, but I'm getting to design everything from the ground up within the style that we've set for the book. It's the kind of production work I've done a few times, but never for this kind of world or in this kind of illustration style, so its been a real journey of discovery.

Brother Night

 This was one of the characters I was assigned for the NPC Codex, a Pathfinder roleplaying game book. The book itself was a pretty mammoth undertaking (for Paizo anyway, not me, I only had to do 6 characters for it), and the huge number of characters included is impressive, but the quality of the art in the book is even more outstanding. Not every image is perfect mind you, but overall, it sets a high standard for a book with hundreds of full body character images. It's like a bestiary for NPC's, and not somthing I've seen on this scale before.

Also, it was a cool project to be a part of, because the characters were all unique, interesting, and unusual. So often fantasy art is a matter of creating a variation on a well worn archetype, and these characters are definitely not archetypes. I will be posting my work for this book over the oming days here, and first off is the orc shadow dancer bard assassin. I'm not sure what the official classes ended up in the final product by the way, I'm just listing the character backgrounds as they were given to me, so you can identify why I drew them as I did. They may have changed throughout production to something else entirely, this orc may be published as, say, a duel knife wielding janitor in the final printed book.

 

Downfall graphic novel promo issue

Before launching our kickstarter for the Downfall project last year, we put together a little 10 page promo issue to test the waters and really show people the comic we wanted to make, albeit in a very small slice of the world. But it was enough fun to create and such a departure from my usual work, that I thought I would put it on here and talk a bit about the process.

 

The first page was easy. I'm an illustrator after all, and doing a full page, establishing shot is the kind of thing I've been doing for years. So this was the first piece I worked on, and easily the fastest from start to completion. I knew it needed to really encompass the world and its themes, but still read easily. So this is where I decided to do the classic post apocalyptic wasteland, broken buildings and scattered signs of a civilization long gone.

The second page was a little trickier, as I had to show the character close up, and set the scene, and show the alien in just a few panels. The alien by the way was a fun creature to design, and I will be getting to draw them quite a few more times throughout the rest of the story.

The Skillful Huntsman review

Published in 2005 by Design Studio Press, this book is an interesting experiment in art book publishing. For 14 weeks an instructor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Scott Robertson, gave his students a project to create original designs and concepts for a world based around a Brothers Grimm story, namely, the Skillful Huntsman. This book is the collection of art that came from that project.

The actual Brothers Grimm fable is not very long, this book actually begins with the original story, and it only takes up a two page spread from start to finish. The remainder of the 160 pages are filled to the brim with an excellent collection of concepts for characters, props, environments, and everything in between.
This book is an excellent education in variety, and the core principles of concept design, and is one of the best published resources for anyone looking at a career in entertainment concept art. It's also just plain fun art, with wild experimental ideas from cover to cover, and a great resource for any artist.

The artists featured include:
Khang Le
Mike Yamada
Felix Yoon

Every one of them has since gone on to a pretty sterling career in video games and movies. These are gifted, world class artists at the very beginning of their careers, showing the kind of work they produced when they were still students themselves. As far as educational and career beneficial art books go, this is one of the best available.

Personal work, Peril

This one took me quite a while to finish. Yes, its super simple, but sometimes its the simple ones that take the longest. You see, my personal work is an exercise in creative development of an image in the most organic way possible. Yes, I do sketches and thumbnails beforehand to find the basic shapes that inspire an image, but I rarely stick to them as I do with my professional work. These images are about putting down the basic pieces, and then finding my way to the finish line by trying new things, and there is never a set amount of time for that kind of process. Sometimes its easy and everything falls into place on the first try, and sometimes I feel like I'm chasing a rabbit in the woods, I keep adding elements, taking them away, trying something totally different, playing with different colors, even flipping the image in different directions or changing the sizes of the elements I like to see if they fit into the whole image better a different way. It's always a unique wall to climb, and always an experiment in creativity. This one went through many different versions, and I even thought it was finished a couple times, but I just wasn't quite happy until now.

Downfall graphic novel character design

Downfall is my first real project in the world of sequential storytelling. It has been a lot of work so far, and over the past year has proved to be quite a balancing act with the rest of my projects and commission schedule. But it is finally starting to come together, and while there is still a lot of ground to cover before its complete, I want to start offering some sneak peaks at the work that is going into the book.

 

To start with, there are two main characters in the story, and here are the initial sketches for each of them, and the rendered color finals.

Legend of the Five Rings sketches

Some of these are from the recent sets, some not. I just haven't shown them anywhere before, so this is as good a place as any to show how this work started out. Are they all works of genius? probably not. But they are some of my personal favorites from recent years. As you can probably tell I develop them to different levels of completion in this stage, and I would like to say its an artistic choice, something done for the needs of the individual image. But really its just how much time I had to devote to the sketch phase of each piece. And how confident I am in the art director not asking me to make huge changes to the image.

Some sketches from conventions

This is something I'm calling the King of Swords. This is one of those sketches that really probably wouldn't have happened if I was at home in the studio, looking to do something original, or practical, or super artistic. Its inspired by a kind of symbolic, iconic look that you might see on playing cards, or Taro cards, just kind of graphic and basic. You know, the kind of thing that can be drawn while doing fifty things at once, which is how it can sometimes feel to be running a booth at a convention.

 

This is another sketch that was just a matter of streaming consciousness when most of that consciousness is engaged elsewhere. I was always a big fan of Conan art, and Frazetta's work in general, so a lot of the time at conventions I find myself drawing barbarians and giant monsters, or like this one, armored dangerous looking characters that bear more then a passing resemblance to the Death Dealer character Frank made so popular. It's a well I've visited more then once, but when it's a fun place to visit I say go for the fun stuff whenever possible.

Shaintar: Legends Arise players guide

Way back in 1998, I was still working at a company that did most of its business with websites and marketing. So it was an exciting time for me, because I was getting my career off the ground. But the problem was, it was the wrong career. I never really wanted to do graphic design, though it was fun, it never really got my juices flowing the way fantasy art did. Or does.

Anyway, lucky for me, this company was made up of other people who had a great love for games and the game publishing business, so we decided to split our efforts between the websites and corporate work, I.E. "stuff that actually pays a paycheck", and creating roleplaying game books.

So we devoted as much time as we could justify to the creation of our first game book, hired a full time game writer named Sean Patrick Fannon, and a year later, we published our first book to great industry acclaim.

 

But eventually the reality of the business caught up with us, and the costs of publishing in such a niche business, and we sold the game publishing side of our company, and moved on. I went into freelance, others found jobs with other marketing companies.

 

Sean Fannon however, has stayed very much a part of the gaming business ever since, and the world he had created and shaped for many years is something he has continued to pour his heart and soul into for all the years since that time.

 

He has finally managed to craft a definitive version of his world using the Savage Worlds rules system, and will soon be launching a kickstarter campaign to help fund the main world book.

When I heard he was finally taking his project back to market, I knew I wanted to help as much as possible. So I contributed as much art as I could to the initial product, the Players Guide, which will serve as an introduction to his world, and a sampling of the much bigger project still to come. It's free, so go grab a copy.

 

Anyway, on to the art.

When I get a chance to work on passion projects, which is a true rarity these days, it is something I tend to relish quite a bit. I try to use it as an opportunity to try new things, and experiment with ideas and styles I've not used before, but always wanted to try.

 

For this project, I knew Sean had a lot of basic, fantasy style character art. Which has been a very popular way to illustrate fantasy RPG's for the last few years. But that meant he had almost no scenes from the world itself, something that is really a necessary part of any good setting book. So I used it as an opportunity to brush up on my landscape skills, which I don't get many chances to use these days.

And in order to create a look that fit with the other work in the book, they had to be done in pencil, which made it an even more unusual project. In the end, I did kind of cheat by adding a lot of texture, shading and detail onto the sketches digitally, but I think it still fits into the pencil style pretty well.

 

Spectrum Live 2

The second time as it turns out is even better than the first. I don't have the official numbers, and I didn't do any kind of survey to support this claim, but I'd say the attendance numbers were at least double last years show, though the consensus among the exhibiting artists did seem to echo this sentiment.

It was a lot of fun to see all the usual suspects, and to meet a few new ones. The awards ceremony was even better then last year, and to see so many of my friends get the big awards was a lot of fun. Many great booths, and from what I hear the panels and demos were also pretty excellent.

So as tradeshows go, or as art shows go, or as shows go, it certainly went. As in, it went well. Which is a combination of factors mind you. For example, the attendance numbers at most shows are a huge indicator of its success, that and the accompanying sales they bring with them.

At this show, this is not necessarily the case.

The new reality we face at a show like this is that we aren't there to make money. In many cases we actually lose money by exhibiting. We are there for the immersion it offers in the world of fantasy art at its best, and to be surrounded by the people that create it, which may sound a little strange, but when it is the thing you do, all day, week after week, and year after year, it becomes an unusual and isolated life we live in this business.

And to be surrounded by it, and those who live it with you, for even a few days, would seem like more of the same to some people. But it offers such a concentrated dose of inspiration, and other people so inspired, that it is a rare thing indeed for those with a love for the work this business is built around.

Its a show that is growing, and hopefully will keep growing for years to come. As much as I like tradeshows about comics, and shows about games, in all their forms, and even shows about books and movies, this is the one that's about art.

Illuxcon 2012

 Some of you may be doing the match and realizing its been about a month since Illuxcon. Why the stunningly overdue report you may ask? Well, I've been busy. And out of town. And also busy with the art I should have been doing while out of town. And then out of town again...you get the idea.

"Better late then never!" is what people usually say, but art directors hate that kind of statement, so I'm going with "I was so overwhelmed by the experience that I couldn't put metaphorical pen to paper until I unknotted my brain from the rubicon-like pasta it had been scrambled into by the pure awesomeness of Illuxcon." Which is actually pretty accurate anyway.

This was a strange convention for me, as I had nowhere particular to be. No booth, no volunteer badge, no panels, nothing...just a ticket to get in the door and a desire to see and experience a great deluge of talent, undiluted by other kinds of booths the way most conventions are. Don't get me wrong, I love games, comics, publishers, and movie companies, but sometimes conventions are so full of all those things that the humble artists get lost in the crowd.

Seeing them all in one place is a great, almost zen-like experience for the fantasy art fan. And no one in the business is just an artist, we are all fans of the medium first, and artist second. Maybe that order changes over time for some of us, but it simply isn't a genre you can paint without holding it close to your heart for years beforehand, and learning its complexities and nuance. It's a genre of both pure imagination and historical reference, and has just as many tropes and clichés as it does original ideas never before seen or painted, and knowing how to traverse that landscape of the unreal correctly, is the difference between a practiced hand and a rank amateur, regardless of talent. Though talent helps.

As I walked off the plane (I use the word "plane" rather loosely here, it was more like a miniature version of the planes I had flown on previously) I found that, not surprisingly, Altoona, PA ha a rather tiny airport. It isn't the tiniest I've ever seen, but very nearly. And it also sports a distinct odor of fertilizer, which I took at first to be some sort of nearby septic malfunction, but later realized it was simply a matter of the airports location out of town, and surrounded by farm land.

I then arrived at the Ramada, the hotel which has been both the secondary location for the conventions official events, and the watering hole for artists and attendees after the show has closed down for the day. The bar was mostly empty, as it was still afternoon and most of the show was still setting up at the convention hall downtown, so I went to the restaurant across the street for some tasty and terribly unhealthy mexican food, combined with a "medium" margarita (note: whenever a mexican restaurant has varying sizes for alcoholic drinks, two truths become self evident, that they will be very, very large, and not great. But I have always found that the first rule discounts the second!)
After I finished dinner, I went back to the room for a while, and later returned to the hotel bar, to find it populated by a few familiar faces. William O'connor had just arrived, Ralph Horsley, and a number of other artists who I instantly recognized from the convention circuit. I then proceeded to have a ton of great conversations over the next several hours that I can remember very little about.

The next day I attended the show itself, and was able to take some photos from the convention hall:

Here Steve Belledin is trying to decipher the hidden phallic codes Chris Seaman has hidden in his portfolio, while Chris is trying to decipher how Steve could both see and purchase that shirt, at the same time.

 

Chris Rahn has some incredible work. It will melt your face. You will find yourself wanting to cry from how awesome the work is, and then you will realize your tear ducts have melted down onto your chin, which is also kind of sad. Steve Prescott is in the background, also melting faces, but with his awesome facial hair arrangement.

Mark Poole is incredibly photogenic. Let me explain: This is an ambush photo, and he still managed to turn and smile in exactly 1/100ths of a second. Its unnerving. Had I been a snake, he would have bit ME.

the booths of Michael Whelan and John Palencar right next door to one another (which is pretty crazy in and of itself). Note neither artist is in attendance, as is a common sight at Illuxcon. Most of the big names like to roam the floor, and stop in at their table to do the meet 'n greet thing when they get tired of standing. Let me be clear: this is an awesome thing. It is both the antithesis of most conventions for artists, and also means you can have a real conversation (instead of a "behind a booth convention style conversation) with any legend of the business that you can spot in the hall.

Donato's booth. I think it needs more stuff, but other then that its pretty cool (hah!). He actually had a lot of space to display, both his originals and a sketches portfolio, and let me tell you, if you thought his originals were big, his sketches are just as huge. This is not a common thing, most of us draw small and paint big. But I guess taking that extra time is working out for him so far, so I think it's safe to say he knows quite a few things the rest of us are missing.

Here is Donato at work, touching up his latest LoTR piece. Unbelievable subtlety and detail goes into his work. Also, though I didn't get a picture due to people standing in the way, about ten feet behind Donato was Boris Vallejo, also working on a painting. Only at Illuxcon does that occur, and in a space where people can watch!

 

 The following few days and nights turn into a bit of a blur, attending the main convention building and alternating between the main hall, where the art and artists are setup, and the auditorium and classrooms next door, where the panels and movie screenings take place. I saw some great panels on freelancing, art directors, branding, and the industry as a whole. Really great, inspiring, informative stuff.
And as you have probably guessed, the evenings mostly took place at the Ramada bar, and consisted of great revelry and consumption of alcohol.

Friday night was the "showcase" where 50 artists not displaying their work in the main hall, were invited to come display in one of the hotel ballrooms, for 4 hours, one night only. It was very cool, and opens up the show to a newer generation of artists, since the main show is so hard to get into, this is a great way to get your work seen by all the big names, and more then a few art directors as well.

Saturday night was the Illy awards, where Omar Rayyan took home the big award of the year. It's a different trophy every year, and this year was a grotesque, sculpted mutant zombie like head. So, it should look pretty cool in his living room ;)

And finally, the last night consisted of a very long meal at the nearby Outback restaurant, and then drinking with the likes of Larry Elmore (who kindly gave us a preview of his kickstarter art book, which is still ongoing at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1488741362/larry-elmore-art-the-complete-elmore-artbook?ref=category) and Todd Lockwood, for a number of hours before closing down the bar and bidding them a fond farewell.

Convention season may be over for this year, but hey, 2012 itself is also almost over, and it was a fun one, so I can't wait for another big season next year!

Back from Comic Con

This was another crazy year in San Diego. The Hobbit, Total Recall, Pacific Rim, among other movies, all had a really strong presence, as well as a ton of toys, action figures, sculptures, video games, and a little fantasy art too. Also there were comics. But lets be honest, not that many.
I also had a chance to debut my new comic Downfall's promo issue, which can be seen online at www.downfallthecomic.com which got a stellar reaction from everyone, and basically flew off the table non stop. Apparently comics sell well at a comic convention. Considering the slow leaking of actual comics from the conventions larger composite shape as it stands today, this is a surprise.
This was the first chance to really show people what I and Drake had been working on for the last few months, and it was great to finally get feedback face to face. And the fact that it was overwhelmingly positive didn't hurt any.

It was a great time, had a lot of fun seeing all the usual faces and meeting lots of new ones. One of the best parts of CCSD is getting to catch up with the friends you only see once a year, and sharing in the strange spastic nuclear blast of genre media that is a convention of this size.
Am I tired of fighting the crowds which somehow get bigger every year? you bet. Am I going to do the same thing next year? Wouldn't miss it for the world ;)

Next up, Gen Con in Indianapolis.

another Magic card from Innistrad block

Almost forgot to include this one in todays post. This was another extremely fun project, a Zombie that has a lot more to his description then just your usual zombie template blood and guts.
He was also a good place to try playing with some unusual color balancing, and to see if I could make that green slime brightly contrast to an almost cartoonish level, and still keep things kind of gross.

A promotional card

Every once in a while, I get lucky enough to get tapped on the shoulder by an art director, asking for a special promotional image. At times like those, all you can do is allow for at least double the usual completion time, and put in a lot of time sketching, composing, color concepting, and just plain nose to the grindstone refining. When you think your done, go back and work some more. Thats how you do an image thats worth showing itself as the face of a game thats bigger then any individual artist.

There's always a bit of the unknown outcome in any creative business, and illustration probably more than most. Sometimes it turns out good, and sometimes not. The only way to manage that random quality is to put in the time necessary to correct any problems that keep the image from being as good as it can be.

Now that I've commented on the philosophy at work here, let me also say that those branches were a lot of fun to draw. And thats why there's so damn many of them. I'd like to say there's some kind of artistic theory at work, but it's just that I like drawing branches. Sometimes thats how art works too.

New Legend of the Five Rings art

Here are a few of my latest contributions to the card game world of Rokugon. These are a bit on the varied side, which after a decade of illustrating for this one game, is definitely preferred.
Sometimes the hardest thing in art is finding a new way to illustrate a concept you've drawn dozens, if not hundreds of times. This is made a whole lot easier when the concepts themselves come with some built in originality. Never underestimate the power of a good, fully realized idea.