Spectrum 18 and Dragon Magazine

In yet another exciting genre shift from last week's post. I've been accepted to Spectrum 18, the annual best of science fiction and fantasy illustration. I don't yet know which of my entries was accepted (it wasn't the piece below,) but I'll let you know when I find out.

Below is an illustration for an issue of the Dungeons & Dragons magazine, "Dragon," that was recently released. It's for an article about "Athasian familiars" or magical wizard pets in the desert land of Athas.

Oil, 11 x 24 inches

Present Company Excluded

I've recently been notified that my new painting titled, "Present Company Excluded," has received a Certificate of Excellence Award in the Portrait Society of America's 2011 International Portrait Competition! I'll be traveling to Atlanta the last weekend of April to accept the award and attend the annual PSA conference, which looks like a lot of fun. The competition recognizes only 35 paintings out of over 1,750 entries this year so I feel highly honored to receive this award. You can see some of last years award winners here.

Present Company Excluded - Oil, 18 x 24 inches

Also coming up, tomorrow I will be an guest artist at Montserrat College of Art, north of Boston, to give a short talk about my work. I don't know if it is open to the public.

San Francisco Story

A little out of the ordinary for me, about a year ago I illustrated a chidrens book for the Penguin Readers series through Pearson Education and Penguin Books. It's titled San Francisco Story and it has recently been released.

The story takes place during the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. My guess is that the writer/publisher thought it would be relevant after the earthquake in Haiti, but of course had no idea it would be released just before the quake in Japan.

I had less than a month to paint all the illustrations for the book. Here are a few of them...

Tasha

Oil, 9 x 12 inches

(click to zoom)

Raphael or The Goblin King

...just not as much hair spray as David Bowie

Oil, 16 x 20 inches

Sketches

From drawing time at the coffee shop...

Caroline

Another quick portrait.

Oil, 16 x 14 inches

Nude

Happy Holidays!

Oil, 20 x 16 inches

Elana

Oil, 11 x 14 inches

The NeverEnding Story

I began this illustration for fun as part of a challenge on CGHub.com. I got distracted from it by other projects during the challenge but I eventually got back to it and then took my time varnishing it and getting it digitized. So here it is, a cover illustration for The NeverEnding Story.

Oil, 18 x 23 inches

(click to zoom)

I would like to say, I got excited about painting an illustration for The NeverEnding Story not only because the movie is a cherished childhood memory of mine, but also because I think the story is particularly effective for teaching kids how to understand metaphor in storytelling. If you remember the movie (or not), the main character is a troubled little boy, named Bastian, who reads a book titled The NeverEnding Story who's main character is a boy just like him in a fantasy land on a mythical quest. Through the story, Bastian learns to confront his problems in real life. Quite over-obvious to adults and there are many stories that are also obvious in this regard, but great for kids to learn that this metaphor is present, at least to some degree in all stories, even the ones they are told are "True."

Sketching

at the coffee shop as usual...

Rachel with Process Photos!

Oil, 16 x 20 inches

(click to zoom)

I've gotten several requests to show my painting process on these portraits. Now, I don't have a great camera, but took a few shots during the model breaks of this portrait. It's a three hour session, during which this model took two breaks, so here is a picture of where I was at each break. The first is only a little more than a drawing in oil, the second has most of the planes of the face blocked in. Other painters tell me I tend to "pull it all together at the last moment", so in the final (above) you can see I've put in all the final details and highlights.

Nude

I got another chance at a 3 hour nude pose not too long ago, it's nice to paint a little more of the figure. This fall the portrait group is planning to do these once a month, so hopefully there will be more to come.

Oil, 20 x 16 inches

Coffee Shop Sketches

I haven't posted many of these for a while. Just some drawings from the local coffee shop...

Tangled Thoughts

I just keep playing around with this one. First it was a sketch (bottom right), just an experiment in design. I liked it, so I did a digital color version of the sketch (bottom left). Well, I was still curious what it would look like as an oil painting, so here it is. If I can come up with more designs like it I may do more.

Tangled Thoughts, Oil, 11 x 24 inches