Eschaton

This is part 2 of a 2-part post. You should really read part 1 first if you haven't.

So, I had done this big painting and turned it in. I had a couple more character designs to do for author Dady Johnson eventually, before we parted ways. This was all, for reference, basically a year ago.

When I originally submitted my sketch, there were two forms of it--the form we saw last week, and a second version which featured a shattered stained glass. You'd be able to see that the main figure had himself been painted on the glass in the same pose, but with the reality appearing, the symbolic/prophetic passes away. I thought that I'd also include the heads of the various bad guys within the stained glass, to include them on the cover.

My client considered them both and went for the straight-up figure, which I went ahead and painted, as discussed last week.

I really liked the stained glass idea, though. So, I began to get back to work on the piece immediately after finishing it, although now this was purely a studio project which meant it wasn't going to pay any further, and so it was relegated to when there was time. From the beginning of working on the painting I suspected I might want to do this, and by the end, I was happy enough that I was sold. I thought a bit about how to do it. After all, there was a completed painting here already!

I wish I had taken some process shots of what I did. Chalk it up to working in bits between things. I printed out my scan, small, and laid tracing paper over it. I "posterized" the forms of the figure as they might be simplified for stained glass. Then I created a decorative frame around the whole thing, grabbing and mixing motifs from various old medieval stained glass windows. His flowing thick robe down below breaks frame in the stained glass version. Then, having done this I scanned it and overlaid it on the painting scan in Photoshop. I then "broke the glass" digitally, erasing out bits of it, trying to find a balance that would leave enough of the main original figure, while also having enough of an indication of the image on the glass so an astute viewer could figure it out with a little work.

Next, I printed it out actual size on multiple sheets of 12x18" paper, taped them together, and laid it on top of my painting. I used a traditional conte rub-down and traced down the total silhouette of the window--no details yet.

I had this finished piece, and had used retouch varnish on it for scanning, on purpose. Retouch is a thinner, more dilute varnish that helps to freshen the color some, but still allows you to paint over it, and the paint will still bond correctly. So, I was able to continue painting.

Now, not knowing exactly how this was going to turn out, I painted the entire area that would be the stained glass back to white. I used 2-3 coats of alkyd white and obliterated about half of my painting, permanently. It was incredibly difficult to do, psychologically, but was necessary; to get the pure color of stained glass required a white base again. I couldn't just paint on top of the darker colors.

It stayed like that, all white, for days. Having purposefully ruined my painting, there was nothing to do but move forward and improve it!

I digitally recreated what it looked like here, while in that state. I envy my digital brethren now. Putting down that white layer took a few minutes in Photoshop. To get the painting like this probably took a full day, with the multiple coats. And this was necessary to simply begin.

So because there are no process shots, you'll have to see the final, then re-read those last couple of paragraphs to get what I meant. I'll post the two side-by-side so you can compare:

Step 1: Do a full painting                                Step 2: Do another painting on top
Easy!

Once the white had cured, I then flipped my stained glass print-out over again and traced down the decoration. From there I worked with pure color, thinly, allowing it to function as glazes to retain the luminosity of the white. I was really happy with the effect. Right around this time, my wife and I took a walk on the newly-expanded High Line Park here in NYC, a walking park built onto abandoned elevated railways. Very cool. It travels at about the 3rd-story level of buildings, which are quite close to it. One of them is a church, and so we were able to stand right outside the stained glass high above the altar (if viewed from the inside), only we were standing outside. Great timing. I was able to better see the structure and shape of the lead framing that surrounds all these little cells of colored glass. I've never made stained glass before, so I had to kind of give myself a quick crash course in studying images--again, all online--to figure out some of the ways stained glass is formed using these lead supports for smaller cut pieces of glass, since no stained glass window is all one piece. I snapped some photos. After we finished our walk, we back-tracked and went in and looked at them from inside. I noticed something I had overlooked before: dust. Dust around the edges of each cell, collecting on the bottoms especially. Of course--I'd noticed this when I painted Rorschach a few years earlier, as a way of making glass look believable. When you clean glass, it's hard to clean the very edges, so dust collects there. paint that and you add a lot of illusion. I used that tip again in Krallenhorde Wantons. So I went home, added that layer of detail, and called it a day.

Whew.

There is a reason I've tried to work larger lately when I can: I'm just better, bigger. In this case, as in many cases, I went well beyond what was reasonable for the fee allotted, by choice. Creating good paintings is often an exercise in making one's self poor.

Though the e-Book with the original cover was for just came out recently, I exhibited the painting last November at IlluXCon. My efforts began to pay off, and I received many kind compliments which made my day. A couple were surprisingly flattering. The incredible Raoul Vitale, whose work I'd admired for a few years but hadn't really talked to (even at past IlluXCons--it's a busy show), stopped by and really scrutinized it. The guy is a powerhouse painter, so I just waited for him to say something. He had very nice things to say, but in particular he told me that he'd spent years working in stained glass, in the past. So he was very interested in that aspect of it, in particular. I told him I had not, and so I was sure that I'd made lots of errors in the handling of how the lead framing and glass-shaping would actually work. He assured me that I had done a surprisingly good job of it, and pointed out the couple of places where the framing would have run differently, for technical reasons. It was a great conversation, and really improved my confidence in the piece quite a lot more!

And now the painting is actually done. The painting, from sketch to second-final, took a month. If only I could always give every project a month! You can see more detail and information here.

"Embryonic" shortlisted for 2012 Chesley

Last year I was honored to be shortlisted in the Unpublished category for the 2011 Chesley Award for my painting, "The Sacrifice." The shortlist gets nominated down to the 5 finalists, of which one wins. The Sacrifice didn't make it that far, but it was great to be mentioned in the same breath as Chesley all the same.

While at Spectrum Live last week, I was approached by an ASFA member and told that I was shortlisted this year, too, for my painting "Embryonic," in the magazine category, appearing on the cover of Lightspeed Magazine June 2011. Naturally, I was thrilled to hear this.

Members of ASFA are allowed to nominate 5 artworks in each category, and from those results the 5 finalists are presented for final voting. They may also write in works not shortlisted as suggestions. The deadline for nominating is May 28th, so if you're a member and haven't voted, please do so. And if you'd like to join the Association of Science-Fiction and Fantasy Artists, you can do so online. You don't have to be an artist to join, as there are many supporting members as well who get memberships.

The full gallery for the magazine category can be found here. If you're a member or choose to become one, I would be honored to have your support.

Spectrum Fantastic Art Live

Last Wednesday morning, bright and early, I set off on a 2-day road trip to Kansas City for Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! I wasn't alone but caravaned with a few buddies and fantastic artists. We packed a van full of art and headed out, sure to make mutual enemies of each other by the end! And I'm posting this from the road, somewhere just outside of Kansas City on the way home, packed even tighter.



The crew consisted of Scott Murphy, The Greg Manchess, and Steven Belledin. Yes, Greg deserves a capital-T The before his name. And then there was myself.
Fast food was eaten, music listened to, art discussed, and when it was over the party began in MO. This was my first time with a full 10x10' booth. It ended up being an order of magnitude more complicated than half that, which is about what I usually put up at shows like IluXCon or GenCon, and certainly much more than an artist alley situation like San Diego or New York. It turns out that as you double in size, the prep and total costs double, as well. I hadn't anticipated this, when I signed on, but now I know.



Before


After. Simple! It ends up that with a show of this size, the illustrators themselves may be geeking out far more than the fans. We were constantly looking at each other's work, sharing items picked up at other artists' booths and so on.

A tip for next year, presuming this happens again: without any gaming happening (this was an art related show, after all), we estimated that Spectrum Live featured the largest number of Magic: the Gathering artists ever assembled under one roof. Someone said the number was over 50. Had that been well-advertised to the Magic community, it would have been signing central for the entire center of the country. There were even a number of artists present unofficially.

It was a great weekend, and I enjoyed meeting those of you who could make it!

It's roughly 20 hours back to New York. On the way out we stopped in Columbus OH and had dinner with Steve Prescott who had to back out very last-minute. Our ride home featured Arkady Roytman in lieu of The Greg. It's all a lot of time away from the studio, but is also good fun and amazingly, a chance for me to relax a bit. Weird how it takes a road trip to relax. Well, apart from blogging from the road. So, I'll wrap this up and get to relaxing now.

The Man of Redemption

If you can pay an illustrator's fee, you can probably hire yourself an illustrator. I'll cover that topic a bit more in the future. But this was just the scenario when an individual contacted me, interested in my helping him with a project of his. Big company or individual, I generally don't discriminate. It actually took months to coordinate timeframes and get on the same page (which isn't always the case), but we finally did.

There were a few interesting things in the setup for this piece, which were complicating factors. It was story illustration, however, the story was given to me in the barest outline form. Though it ended up being just under 100 pages, all the text could have fit on two pages or so in what I got. This was good because it left me lots of space to play in. It was bad because I like interpreting text.

Secondly there are some characters--fictional or otherwise--that are intimidating to illustrate, simply because of their fame, or how often they've been portrayed. Gandalf. Romeo and Juliet. George Washington. Alfred E. Newman. But the Eternal Son of God Almighty, Himself? Yeah, that alone almost put me off the project, to be honest.

(L:) Head of Christ, ©Warner Sallman
Well meaning, but no.

I like historical illustration. I like research and learning as part of working. Which is why I'm no great fan of most portrayals of the Anointed One. Because in the end, they just end up being these overly-groomed, Caucasian or vaguely Mediterranean men who either have never seen a day of labor under the sun, or who are nearly body-builders. These Jesus characters wax their chests, and get manicures and pedicures.

These are not meant to be "historical" depictions. They are meant to comfort, so need to be comfortable. I get it, I'm just not a fan. If I ever did one, it would probably offend more than anything. Hair somewhat oily and dusty, the scarred and calloused hands of a carpenter. Swarthy, sun-lined skin, giving the appearance of one far older than his thirty-odd years. Dusty feet and legs. Bad teeth. Middle-Eastern visage.

(L:) Charcoal Study

I needed to find a way out if I were to take the job. As it turns out, the story was intended to be an adventure loosely based off a somewhat literal reading of the book of Revelation. So I gave that a read through, and decided that it held some answers. I wouldn't be showing the doe-eyed peace guru with laundered robe. Taking a tip from Rev. 19, I decided my portrayal would be the triumphant warrior. That was my starting point.

This was meant to be an iconic character image, a revealing. The clouds split and the hero appears. There's a bit of Gandalf's appearance at dawn during the battle for Helm's Deep in the scene; as Tolkien was a devout Catholic, this should come as little surprise.

(L:) Costume/armor concept, pencil

Also included as part of the job was a series of character designs, which while colored, were published in black and white for the eBook. One of these meant I would need to design the whole armor and character, and I used this as the basis for the final illustration.

Once you come down to it, at first blush the piece doesn't seem out of step with other things I do. That's great, I didn't want to have this odd piece of "religious" art. I was asked as a fantasy illustrator to lend my vision to this project, and so it was gratifying to have it slide in alongside other items in my portfolio.

Yet the clues are there. He continues wearing his crown of thorns, now memorialized in gold and the first of his multiple crowns. the armor on his hands retain the stigmata, and from there and his helmet brilliant light emanates from beneath. A scale of his armor is missing, reflecting the spear wound. Had this been a full-figure portrayal, his feet would have had similar. And so on.

From first contact to final painting was over a year. As I mentioned, it was slow going. But it was done. I slapped a coat of retouch varnish, scanned and delivered it. Here then is the final image, as used on the cover of "Redemption: The Quest to Recover the Book of Life". The sky was digitally blown out to accommodate text better.

It was done, as I said. But it wasn't.... 

This is part 1 of a 2-part post. Part 2 can be found here.

Redemption: The Quest to Recover the Book of Life

Recently released is this e-Book by Dady Johnson and Westbow press, entitled, "Redemption: The Quest to Recover the Book of Life." While there are intentions to produce a print version of the book, it's being released first in Kindle (left) as well as Nook and other formats through the Westbow site. It's a younger readers story (unsure what grades), under 100 pages, and also features some interior character illustrations; as the title implies it's also Christian fiction if that's up your aisle at all. While they were rendered in color, they appear in black-and-white for e-Reader versions for maximum compatibility, I think.

There's a lot of story behind the artwork, and that'll make up the following two posts, beginning this Friday.

Whiteback Sketches, pt.9

You know, when doing whiteback card sketches, there's a good chance that if there's a woman on the card art, even if there's lots of other stuff going on, I'm going to focus on that character when I sketch. Sometimes, as with "Darkblast" below, sometimes I draw a related scene to the front of the card.

Also, Magus of the Tabernacle is so far the most requested sketchcard, with Soul Warden approaching it. And this is my favorite version here below

(L) Uba Mask | (R) Magus of the Tabernacle

Darkblast

In any case, here are a few more whitebacks, and a reminder than you can get your own, from a broad assortment of Magic and World of Warcraft cards. Note that I usually ask for a month in which to do them, as I slip these in while between projects or while waiting for feedback from a client or whatever.