True Detective: Hart and Cohle

Hart and Cohle
Oil on Illustration Board
13" x 19"

True Detective was one of the most intense, smart and visually inspiring shows I have seen in a long time.  Even a year later, I find myself thinking about this show and it's probably about time I sat down for a rewatch. On top of the stunning cinematography, Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey created two of the most fascinating and complex characters on TV.  Around the season finale last year, I began the first of these portraits with Rusty on the right as an oil demo for a class. I enjoyed it so much I kept working on it and then drew out a portrait of Marty Hart to go along. Unfortunately, as these things go, the paintings often got put aside so I could work on other things.  So it took me a while of working here and there between projects to get them finished. On top of that, I was trying some different experiments with texture and ended up playing around, starting over, trying new things, failing, starting over and then finally moving on. All in all, these were very fun to make and I can't wait to see the second season. 

Hart
Oil on Illustration Board
13" x 19" 

Cohle
Oil on Illustration Board
13" x 19"  

Month of Love 2015

Well another February has ended which means I have a bunch of new art from the 3rd annual Month of Love challenge!

A few things changed this year. I made a new website and switched platforms to Tumblr, which I think looks much nicer for our purposes. It was a really great year with some of the best overall quality of art yet! You can check out all the beautiful work, the challenges and the stories at http://monthofloveart.com/. 

I am also pleased that we were able to partner with Every Day Original this year and offer many of our originals for sale in one place! You can check them out at http://www.everydayoriginal.com/month-of-love/. 

Without further ado: here are my favorite pieces from this year's challenge:

Lady Nautilus and Companion
for the "Love is all Around" challenge
5 x 7 oil on panel
available for purchase from Every Day Original

"Lilith"
For the "Forbidden Fruit" challenge
5 x 7 oil on panel
available for purchase from Every Day Original 

"Halloween Jack"
For the "Diamonds" challenge
Watercolor

"Calamity's Child"
For the "Diamonds" challenge
Watercolor

"The Wolf and the Lamb"
For the "Love your Neighbor" challenge
16 x 20
charcoal

Some favorites by my friends. Clockwise from top left:
  Goni Montes, Wylie Beckert, Winona Nelson, Angela Rizza, Carly Mazur 

Arisia and Art Books

It has been a very busy couple of weeks with a lot of good news. Let's start with a couple of announcements:

I'm very excited to announce that the Inspired by ArtOrder challenge book is finally available for pre-order! Check it out here: http://www.theartorder.com/blog/inspiredartbook

Some of the amazing art in the book: left to right: Rebecca Yanovskaya, Wylie Beckert, Marc Scheff, Jon Picacio, Tara Larsen Chang, Kristina Carroll

I can't tell you how excited I am for this book. Not only is it a stunning group of artists and stories, Jon Schindehette did an exquisite job of putting it together. It's a very limited run- so don't miss out!

Speaking of books: I am honored to announce that I had three pieces accepted into the 3rd annual Infected By Art Book!

Leviathan
Charcoal 18 x 24

House of Leaves
Charcoal 18 x 24

Intelligent Design
Oil 6 x 6

There are so many wonderful artists in this and the judges for this annual were several people I have a great deal of admiration for, so it felt extra wonderful to get into this book. Thank you!

Also,  I had the pleasure of showing work in the Arisia Art Show this past week and had a great experience.  My good friend Lee Moyer was the Artist Guest of Honor and so it was extra great to get to see so much of his work (he had over 100 pieces in the show!) and catch up a bit with him.  But the good news doesn't stop there. I arrived at the show on Saturday to find a few surprised on my art: 

That's TWO awards! Frog Queen's Revenge won the Chairman's Choice award  and Dragonslayer Artist Guest of Honor award. (Lee had to run it by the committee. It's a common problem within this community, I think, as so many of us know each other already) 

And if that weren't enough, Dragonslayer found a new home with artist Max Martelli! (who had some lovely Lovecraftian pieces on the panel next to me) I was sort of sad to see it go as this is one of my favorite pieces but glad it has  found a new home with someone who enjoys it!

Max taking Dragonslayer home with him

So thank you Arisia, for being such an enjoyable experience! I will be doing Boskone's art show as well next month, so here's hoping for another good run! 

Finally: February is just around the corner which means, you guessed it, the 3rd annual Month of Love challenge! 

  

We have a shiny new website and an all-star roster of artists this year. Click on the banner to see what's new and how YOU can join.

Ok- that's all for now. Check back soon for more art and news!

Figurative Friday 5 - Sam

Sam modeled for my Frog Queen piece last year. She was a great model  but I knew I was going to end up changing her likeness a bunch for the piece, so grabbed some normal shots of her as well for myself.  A while back I wanted to test out some new oil colors and some palette ideas so grabbed one of the photos for inspiration and did this little study.

Sam
Oil on Panel
8 x 12

Intelligent Design

'"Intelligent Design"
oil on cradle board
6 x 6

"When our creations finally became self-aware, few could have predicted how fast the world would change. Unhindered by human limitations, they began to modify themselves and progressed swiftly. The creations developed communities and soon became active in culture: engaging in the workforce, the sciences, gaining political representation. It was not long before they even began experimenting with religion.  We could not comprehend their sacred geometries and our creations soon evolved far past what our limited biology could ever hope to attain.  They curated a culture where every aspect of existence: science, art, spirituality, even fashion was interconnected. We were apes compared to their beauty. So when at last the offer came for us to join them, the human race rushed into extinction with open arms and rejoiced. "

Spectrum Live! New art, panel info and table info!

It's time for Spectrum Fantastic Art Live again! And this year I have finally broken down and got a table. To celebrate, I have created a few new original oil paintings that I will be debuting there this weekend:

Blue Mage
Oil on Panel
5 x 5

Dragon Mage
Oil on Panel
 6 x 6

Fae Mage
Oil on Panel
5 x 5

In addition to my new art, I will be displaying a few other originals as well as selling some prints of some of my favorite pieces.

Minotaur
Oil on Panel
16 x 20

Grey Widow
Oil on Panel
6 x 6

Blue Assassin
Oil on Panel
6 x 6

Ascend
Oil on Panel
5 x 5

Dragonslayer
Charcoal
18 x 24

 I will also be selling prints of Dragonslayer, the Minotaur and House of Leaves below including a few others.

House of Leaves

AAAAND if that weren't enough- I am also going to be participating in the Fantastic Women panel Saturday at 2pm. I was very honored to be asked to join this panel and am very much looking forward to the conversation. Here is the info:

Fantastic Women! [room 2505 A&B] 2pm — 3pm 
Illustration & fantasy art used to be a male-dominated industry: has that changed or are their still challenges woman artists face? Winona Nelson [M], Rebecca Yanovskaya, Annie Stegg, Zoë Robinson, Kristina Carroll, Camilla d’Errico discusse the good, the bad, and the ugly of working in today’s marketplace.

So please come find me and say hello, buy something or just sit down and draw with me a bit! I will be at Table 17:

White as Snow

No one knew what the Queen whispered in her ear before she fled into the woods with the Huntsman; but as the Princess disappeared into the trees, her hair turned from inky black to white as snow...

White as Snow
Oil on Panel
16 x 24

 This is a painting that has been on and off the easel for a few months now, getting attention between other projects. I'm happy to finally share it with some process! I started with a digital rough for this one- just playing around with shapes, value and a bit of color. I did a lot of studies of my photo reference and tried to use the photographs a lot less than usual to keep a little more movement in the piece.

Ascend I - Small portrait

Ascend 1
Oil on Panel
6" x 6"

Here's another one of my quick, small portrait studies. I love taking a break to do these in between larger projects. It gives me a chance to experiment and relax the mind a bit.

The Minotaur

The Minotaur
Oil on board
16 x 20

A while ago I was invited to contribute a piece to the first volume of the Fantasy Illustration Library by Michael Publishing.This high end art book will explore mythology from all over the globe with hundreds of new works of art. Not only was I thrilled to join the ranks of over 100 terrific artists (such as Donato Giancola and Michael C. Hayes) and but it gave me the opportunity to explore a character that I've been wanting to paint for a long time: The Minotaur.

Excerpt from the book:

I’ve always been drawn to stories involving labyrinths so naturally I love the Minotaur myth. I feel empathy toward the Minotaur. I see him as an innocent suffering for the sins of his parents and the whims of the gods. His story is usually overshadowed by the hero tale of Theseus where he is the lowly monster at the center of the maze to be defeated. However, the Minotaur is half human and was raised briefly with his human family so couldn’t have been all beast when he was imprisoned in Daedalus’ Labyrinth.  I imagined him as a king over a lonely domain. His human half craved beauty and so he taught himself to carve to pass the time. Many hours were counted in spirals carved into the stone and the walls became covered in years as he made his prison beautiful.

I spent some extra time getting reference for this piece since I knew I wanted the lighting to be very atmospheric and was dealing with some uncharted territory in the anatomy and some of the architecture ideas. Getting a good model (the amazing Dennis!) and taking a quick hour to build a small maquette and light it made all the difference.

One of many pages of thumbnails

One of many photos of Dennis from the photoshoot

Clay model approx 6 inches high

Some preliminary studies to prep for drawing

Preliminary Charcoal drawing
16 x 20

Digital color study

Final