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"  

Every Day Original - Featured Artist Interview

As many of you know, for a couple month now I have had the good fortune to been one of the artists participating on Every Day Original. 

This online gallery the brainchild of Marc Scheff and Lauren Panepinto, the brilliant illustrator/AD team behind Drawn and Drafted. They have been working on many ways to engage, enliven and educate the community and I for one am very grateful for the incredible work they've done so far.

As part of the match-up between Month of Love and Every Day Original, Marc put together an interview for me as well. He asked some very good questions that really made me think. So  if you want to get a little more insight into my past, present and future- click on the image below to read more!

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 

Month of Fear 2014

I only just realized I never posted all my 2014 Month of Fear work here!  Bad, bad artist. The 2nd annual Month of Fear was AMAZING. Truly the best art yet- I was so inspired! You can check out all the amazing images and challenges at monthoffear.com. 

I think I made some of my new personal favorite work with this year's challenge as well. So here are the images and if you want to read the full stories about them, check out my Month of Fear page here.

"Leviathan"
18 x 24 charcoal
For the 2014 Month of Fear challenge: Demons

"Rabbit"
18 x 24 charcoal
For the 2014 Month of Fear challenge: Things that go Bump

"False Muse"
18 x 24 charcoal
For the 2014 Month of Fear challenge: What are you Afraid of?

"Unmase"
18 x 24 charcoal
For the 2014 Month of Fear challenge: Masks

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!

Henneth Annûn Guard - Lord of the Rings card game

Henneth Annûn Guard
for the Celebrimbor's Secret adventure pack
Digital

Doing card art is always an exercise in patience and changing taste. When it can take nearly a year for an image to be released, that's a lot of time to fall out of love with the art for any number of reasons.  Still, this piece I did for the Lord of the Rings card game was a lot of fun to work on and there is still a lot I like about it. So I unearthed some of my process to share!

One thing I enjoy about working with Zoe Robinson at Fantasy Flight (apart from LotR being one of the reasons I am an illustrator period)  is the descriptions. I love this world and whenever it's applicable, they will include a quote from the books in the art description. Nothing like the words of Tolkien to inspire! 

" They stood on a wet floor of polished stone, the doorstep, as it were, of arough-hewn gate of rock opening dark behind them. But in front a thin veilof water was hung, so near that Frodo could have put an outstretched arminto it. It faced westward. The level shafts of the setting sun behind beatupon it, and the red light was broken into many flickering beams ofever-changing colour. It was as if they stood at the window of someelven-tower, curtained with threaded jewels of silver and gold, and ruby,sapphire and amethyst, all kindled with an unconsuming fire."

The card description called for  a ranger of Ithilien standing guard in the entrance to Henneth Annûn

wearing a cloak and a sheathed sword.  Thinking back to the book, I remembered how ready for action and suspicious the rangers were and knew that this character would never be relaxed. Even if he'd been standing alone for hours, he would be ready at every suspicious sound. I wanted the entrance to be prominent, as if the next moment would bring someone or something crashing through. I also knew this would be a fun opportunity to play with some dramatic negative shapes and light. 

thumbnail 1

thumbnail 2

thumbnail 3

thumbnail 4 -
the winner

mood study

I knew I wanted to convey a dark, cool mood and was leaning toward a very limited palette. However, I soon realized, with some helpful feedback from Zoe, that this wouldn't be so effective on the small, card scale so ended up bumping up the palette and contrast so the figure would read clearly.

detail

I'm a traditional girl at heart and do it whenever I can but often find that my schedule makes choosing digital for either part or the whole project a better path. Time that I would spend waiting for things to dry, photographing, color correcting, I can spend on making a better image.  I really wanted to play around with color in the shadows and subtle light shifts in the character and going digital gave me the chance to experiment and push those choices with more flexibility. Thank you again Zoe for the opportunity to contribute to one of my favorite all-time worlds!

Month of Fear 2014

So things have been pretty quiet on the blog this month because once again I've been coordinating the Month of Fear challenge for October. Head over to monthoffear.com to see tons of amazing art from nearly 50 artists this round! You can also follow us on Twitter. It's the biggest one yet!