More commissions

Not a lot to report today, but I thought I'd share the latest commission work I've done. Everyone's getting pen and ink lately, which is fine with me. I haven't done much of that in recent years, so it's great to get back into it. (And it's going faster with practice, too!)

Lobster Johnson:

Judge Death and Judge Fish:

Rorschach:

If you're curious, I'm doing all of these on Strathmore smooth bristle, using a combination of Deleter and Pitt pens, a Windstor & Newton #1 sable brush, Titanium white acrylic, and Higgins Black Magic ink. And they're all 9" x 12".

If you want to order one of your own, don't be shy - I love doing them! Find out all about them on my new online store!

-Patrick

What I'm up to lately

Hey folks,

Thought you'd like a short update on my current projects. Would you? Darn this turn-based communication! Well, I shall simply assume you would and proceed from there...


A couple of interesting things came out recently. I did the illustration for an article in the new Dungeon magazine (#189) called "Killing Ground". You can see a preview here. Also out now from WotC is the "D&D Heroes of Shadow" supplement book. I did a few pictures in there that were quite fun.

Next up, I did the art and graphic design for an iPhone app that came out recently called "Police Scanner Radio" (yes, it's just what the name says!). The same company, Critical Hit Software, is in the very, very final stages of game-tuning for a new app called "Epic Gladiator", which should be lots of fun. You can find previews of the massive amounts of icon and other art I did for it here.

Lots of cards in the Legend of the Five Rings "Dead of Winter" set a few months back, and more in next month's "Before the Dawn". Read about that game on the AEG site.

In addition, I'm working on an awesome new Graphic Novel called World War Kaiju. Find out about it here, or check my DeviantArt account for updates! I think you'll be blown away by the ideas.

Speaking of DeviantArt, I'm updating that account more often these days, with both brand new art and favorite oldies. Take a look, give me faves, watch my account... Whatever makes you happy. :)

Aside from that, lots of development work for various iPhone games, concept art, and other stuff that I can't show for various reasons.

Oh, and did I mention I'm doing commissions these days? Let me not forget that!

That's it for now - talk to you soon!

Starkweather discount and other stuff!

For a very limited time you can pre-order the Starkweather: Immortal hardcover for OVER $11 OFF at DCBS: http://www.dcbservice.com/search.aspx?search=starkweather

Plus, we'll throw in a free exclusive print. Order quickly - I don't know how long this sale will last but it's very short.

Here's a fun preview for you - the layout of the dust jacket!


Also, I did a four-page tutorial about my Starkweather art process! If you're interested in my art techniques, you might like this:
http://patrickmcevoy.deviantart.com/gallery/#Tutorial-art-process

Starkweather: Immortal!

It's finally done. It's in the can. It's completely finished.

"Will Ferrell's career" you ask? No, we wish. Rather, I speak of the Graphic Novel that I've been working on with writer Dave Rodriguez for (off and on) 2-1/2 years!

STARKWEATHER: IMMORTAL

This hardback edition from Archaia will contain 138 pages of story, four covers, a complete original prose story by Piers Anthony, and lots of contemporary fantasy fun! It compiles Starkweather: Immortal issues 0 - 2, and the unpublished issues 3 and 4 (with the fourth part coming in at 35 pages alone!)


Here's a first look at the wraparound cover for the book:



The logo, "trade dress" etc. goes on the right side, and the left side is the back cover, where Dave will no doubt write some gloriously wonderful prose to sell the book to prospective buyers. Such as you!!

We hope that the book will be published and ready for the San Diego Comic-Con in July. We were hoping to have it out in time for Wonder*Con in San Francisco (in April) but unfortunately our fine publisher Archaia didn't have a place for us on the schedule for then. So July it is. I think it will be worth the wait.

And we've already waited a long time as it is! After a good start with the zero issue (based on a story written for us by Fantasy great Piers Anthony) and then two main issues, we sort of hit some snags. Archaia Studios Press had some ownership shakeups, and took a year off from publishing, to re-emerge last year as simply "Archaia". In the meantime I personally had some ongoing money problems which greatly curtailed the time I could spend on what is basically an unpaid labor of love.

However, during that extra time Dave was continually thinking about, and improving the script. After a few plot sessions we actually ended up with a very different animal than we'd started with, and Dave re-scripted much of chapter 4 and added some pages to chapter 3... Which gave me a lot of extra work, but I think you'll find it was well worth it.

Also - of interest to those of you who have already read issue Zero (the story of Cartaphilus, immortal Roman bastard), Dave went back and extensively tweaked the script, so the version in this volume will read (I think you'll agree) MUCH better than the original. We're still using Piers Anthony's story, but now I think the dialog works better for the comics page, thanks to Dave's expert massaging.

[Quick aside - you will probably love Dave's web comic Shadowgirls, with art by Dave Reynolds. I know I do! www.shadowgirlscomic.com]

MY BIG PLAN
So right here, on this very blog, I plan to do a series of behind-the-scenes process posts. Showing sketches, drawings, render process, 3D models (I used a few for recurring sets!) and hopefully some interesting thoughts about the series in general.

As a start, here's a previously-unpublished page from the fourth chapter. No big spoilers on this page, I think (and I won't be including any word balloons anyway on these previews) but I think it's a fun one. Definitely one of my favorite pages from the chapter.





OK, more to come soon, including some steps through my work process for panels. Hope to see you here. Please leave a message if you like reading about this.

-Patrick

Lovecraft Primer

Hey, that book I illustrated several months ago is out:


Click here and here to see the black and white pictures steps I used to create some of the art for this book. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out!

My Favorite Books 5 - the "me" edition!

In a blatant display of vile narcissism, I thought I'd do an entry in my "favorite art books" series where all the books feature... ME! :) Though by no means all of the books I've worked on - there are a plethora of RPG books out there with my covers and interiors - this is a fun bunch of mostly-art or instruction books.

The Art Of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos

If you like Lovecraft and/or my art, this is probably the book for you! It's an incredibly well-realized volume of art from the "Call of Cthulhu" collectible card game, for which I was a major contributor. There are about 30 pieces of mine here, as well as boatloads of other very cool and creepy art by top illustrators of the strange (and a number of fellow Ninja Mountain members!)


World Of Warcraft: The Art Of The Trading Card Game
This is another book featuring art from a collectible card game. And what spectacular art it is, too! Only a couple of mine in here, but if you're a fan of fantasy art OR World of Warcraft, this is a good one.



Fall of Cthulhu Vol. 2: The Gathering

I just did covers for this comic book series from Boom! Studios, but I was very happy with the cover for issue #9, and they used it as the cover for this collection. Fall of Cthulhu has a GREAT story for the Lovecraft fan, so it was a real blast to be a part of such a cool project.


Drawing & Painting Fantasy Beasts

This is a great instructional book by Kev Walker and various other artists - including me! Also, there are several other Ninja Mountain regulars in this: Anne Stokes, Ralph Horsley, and Jon Hodgson. For each of our segments we wrote the text and did all the art and instructional material. I did three of the creatures: Desert Elemental, Sea Elemental and my favorite, the Forest Elemental.


The Fantasy Figure Artist's Reference File with CD-ROM

With tons of pictures of Fantasy characters to use as reference, this is an interesting but flawed book. The major problem is that the photographer took shots with too much foreshortening, but at the same time they aren't very dynamic. Should be one or the other, I would think. But at ANY rate, don't worry about that! I did lots of sketches throughout the book, so that has to count for something. Doesn't it? :)

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Well, thanks for bearing with me as I bring you the best in me. Next time out I'll try for something with a little more broad-based interest!


Oh, and one more thing! If you're reading this blog and not following me on Twitter, you're missing out on my continuous stream of utterly brilliant babbling. Follow the hell out of me.

Another simple piece - steps

Here's another piece from that Necronomicon assignment. Pretty much exactly the same process here. For this one, I found that I'd saved my original sketch page, so I'll show you the painstaking procedure to get to the final drawing.

Well... not really. :) Actually I don't usually take a lot of time sketching unless I'm really stuck. I usually just try to imagine what's going to happen without drawing, which is quicker for me. Didn't used to be that way, but it's something I've developed over the years. (Years! Has it really been "years"? Wow...)

Idea sketches. Mostly just nailing down the unique anatomy for the creature. This is the "Gug", whom I'd never read about before. His double arms are interesting in that they break off at the elbow. I try to stay just loose and gestural in this phase so that I don't get "married" to any particular lines in the drawing. (15 mins including reading the brief.)


Final drawing. As you can see I based it on the final sketch from the previous page - I'd already had this pose in mind when I started. (20 mins)


Here I've added the median filter to the pencils to blob them up a bit, added a texture layer, and added a few of the initial light/dark values (using mostly dodge/burn. (10 mins)


Here I've skipped a few steps, but as with the Cthulhu piece I went into Painter and smudged it up, then back into Photoshop for detailing. Most of the details are done just with a simple round brush, though there are a few random-ish texture bits that used a sponge-texture brush. (about 1 hour)


Here's the final. The main difference between this step and the last is that I've punched up a few highlights, and added one more texture layer on top (it's a photo of a concrete floor, desaturated and set to 20% multiply). (10 mins)


Well, this one wasn't much different from the last one, really. I'll do a color piece next time! Let me know what you think, as always!

A simple piece - steps

I accidentally overwrote my incredible prose for this step-by-step of a black-and-white illo, but you'll get the idea from the pictures alone, I hope! (sorry!)













That's it! The whole thing took about 3 hours, and probably would have been a lot less without all those tentacles. ;)

My favorite books part 3: painting!

We've reached the meat of things now: painting books. If you haven't read the other posts in my series you can find them here and here. And now, take a deep breath and let's dive into some paint!

The Fantasy Art Techniques Of Tim Hildebrandt, Jack Norton

Have you ever wanted to look into the mind of one of the great Fantasy illustrators? This book should fulfill that daydream nicely. Tim Hildebrandt is without a doubt one of the best ever in his genre, and certainly one of my favorites. He has invaluable things to say on a broad range of subjects from the conceptual to the specific: color, lighting, composition, using models, even putting together your portfolio. There’s sage advice from beginning to end of this lavishly illustrated volume.


Welcome to My Studio, Helen Van Wyk
Color Mixing the Van Wyk Way, Helen Van Wyk
Helen Van Wyk's Favorite Color Recipes, Helen Van Wyk

If you’re learning about Oils, these are the books for you, but as with all painting books they have fantastic value to you DIGITAL painters as well. Because principles are principles, and you can take the Oil lessons easily to Painter or Photoshop.

Helen Van Wyk was a fantastic instructor; if you find that her “Welcome to my Studio” TV shows are playing in your area, you should watch them without fail! These books do a great job of distilling her vast knowledge and presenting them in a friendly and lucid manner. Expect to find lots of information about color theory, lighting, artistic observation, composition, and most importantly "lost edges" and how to use them in an effective rendering.

One note: I have no earthly idea why the second book I've listed is out of print; it's one of the best books on color in painting I've seen. If you blanch at the price of the used books right now(I don't blame you) try looking around for a bargain. It WILL be worth the search.

Painting Sharp Focus Still Lifes: Trompe L'Oeil Oil Techniques, Ken Davies
Ken Davies, artist at work

Ken Davies is an Oil painter, and these books feature only oils, but they contain principles that should prove equally useful to artists working in any medium: Acrylic, watercolor, pencils or even digital. His techniques concentrate mainly on observation, critical thinking and practice, and these skills transfer winningly to any artistic endeavor.

The first one, “Painting Sharp Focus Still Lifes”, was released in 1974, and is the larger of the two. It is written as an art course, immediately plunging us into interesting and challenging assignments. And make no mistake - this is not a book for beginners! Davies writes in the introduction:

“The information [in this book] is intended for the serious student or the experienced painter who is willing to devote many hours of hard work to practicing the essentials. It is not for the hobbyist or the casual ‘Sunday painter.’”

The second book by Davies, “Artist at Work,” is mostly demonstrations, with a short “materials and methods” section at the beginning. What makes this book interesting in its own right is that it includes a serious discussion of how and why Davies makes individual choices in his paintings, from color to composition to subject. It's about the "What, How and Why", as he puts it in the introduction.

These books are currently out of print, but can be found online for not much more than a new high-quality hardback art book. They get my very highest recommendation - would I be overstating it to suggest that all serious painters specializing in realism should have these in their libraries? Probably, but not by much!

Oil Painting Techniques and Materials

I'll wrap up this part of the list with perhaps my favorite book on the subject of painting. As the title implies, this is a book about Oil Painting, though it covers general areas very well such as composition and aesthetics.

However, it's an amazing book not only for the things covered in the title (traditional realism techniques in oil) but for Speed's unique view of the world of Oil painting in the 1920's (it was originally printed in 1924); a time when impressionism was already mainstream and abstraction was coming into ascendance, but hadn't yet completed its complete takeover of the fine art world. Therefore, you will find many random scraps wisdom about how one can marry the useful techniques of the impressionists and other more modern schools with traditional realism, before the total polarization of styles occurred only a few years later. (A schism we're only now overcoming, sadly).

Additionally, there is an all-too-brief section on the theories and techniques of several past masters. He even has a few paragraphs on the paint-application techniques of the Pre-Raphaelites, which is quite an eye-opener (before reading this, I hadn't realized their technique was so unusual).In short, it's an essential technique book because of the content, and a great read because of the subtext. What more could you ask for?

My favorite books, part the second

Here are some more of my favorite art & illustration technique books. This series is my idea of an indispensable library for professional or aspiring illustrators, especially someone in the SF/Fantasy/comics field like me. I'm a bit of a book nut, so I have lots to choose from!

How to Draw Animals, Jack Hamm

Of course it's best to draw from nature when possible, or photographs when available, but as with any subject a good idea of what you're drawing, and pointers on the details to look for, can be invaluable. Jack Hamm, in this book and his other classic how to books, approaches minute details with a passion that can perhaps best be described as clinically insane. If you need a quick reference for how to construct a drawing of a large variety of mammals, this should do the trick.

The Artist's Guide to Animal Anatomy, Gottfried Bammes
This animal anatomy book, on the other hand, approaches things from a more holistic direction than the Hamm book does. Here we see the bone structure and the underlying muscles and tendons,and how these things effect the fur and skin that you see on the surface. As well, there are an ample number of stylistic examples throughout. Bammes has a lot of focus on gesture drawing and the effect of different media on the final outcome of the rendering. Hamm's book is a great quick reference/reminder for the working illustrator, but this book by Bammes is more of a ground-up tutorial for beginning and intermediate artists.

Creative Perspective for Artists and Illustrators, Ernest Watson

While other books explain perspective more thoroughly, or more engagingly, or even in a more organized fashion, there is no book that does quite what this one does: it explains when and why you need to use perspective, as well as how. There are also some simply amazing ideas on how to "cheat"; - either with time-saving shortcuts or by exaggerating/distorting perspective for illustrative effect. I'd recommend this book for people with intermediate skills - if you already know the basics, this is an invaluable volume.


Perspective! For Comic Book Artists, David Chelsea

This is an exceptional book for several reasons. First, it's done in a comic-book format, like Scott McCloud's remarkable "Understanding Comics". Most importantly it's the best ground-up, basics-to-advanced perspective book I've found, and I've read dozens! The clear narrative is fun to read and also filled with practical examples - and since it's done in that comic book style, those examples are actually a part of the story. Very clever, very useful, and not to be missed.

That's it for this post. Next time out out I'll feature several invaluable books on painting - books which I think are not only great for traditional painters but also those who work digitally (which is most of my work these days, too!)

My favorite books, part one

So, I did a book review article a few years ago for Epilogue, wherein I listed all my favorite illustration technique and art theory books, and I was thinking - why not re-do that here, with a few additions and updates to bring it into... the future! I'll split it up over a few posts to make it a bit more bite-sized.

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One subject artists like to talk about is art technique books. The ones they love, the ones they hate, the ones they can’t do without. Everyone has their favorites, and I certainly have mine.

First, a bit of info about my library might be interesting: I have a hobby of sorts, which is reading and collecting books on art technique. I have lots of obscure artists’ magazines from the 1930s and ’40s, and even a number of tutorial books from the 1920’s era. The great thing about these is that they are from the aptly termed “Golden Age of Illustration”. There was, at that time a vast, popular appreciation for illustrators, many of whom had the sort of superstar status which is today reserved for performing geniuses like Britney Spears and Keanu Reeves. With this popular support came an exceedingly high standard of craft, which is reflected in the books of the time; they can be very enlightening.

I counted the other day, and I'm up to about 250 technique/artist books, plus another 400 or so reference books. Quite a library! And here's a few of my favorites.

Rendering in Pen and Ink, Arthur Guptill
Rendering in Pencil, Arthur Guptill
Color in Sketching and Rendering, Arthur Guptill
I’ll start with my favorite writer on the subject of art: Arthur Guptill. The man just flat-out knows how to write an instruction book! I re-read these and other books of his periodically, just for the joy of running my eyes over his prose and excellent examples. Even though they were written in the 1930’s and ’40s, they are as useful today as they ever were. They all center around architectural and landscape rendering, rather than figure drawing. But that's fine with me, as there are plenty of books out there that focus only on drawing people. And (I've found) most of us need to work more on our architecture anyway..

Amazingly, two of these books, Rendering in Pencil and Color in Sketching and Rendering, are out of print, though they seem to print the Pencil book every few years, so it’s easier to find. These books are complete, they’re easy to follow, and they include lots and lots of stunning examples by different top artists of the day, representing as many different styles as Guptill could find, it seems.

I still grab one of these books off the shelf to read in bed every few months or so to look through. They're always entertaining and still educational. Along with Figure Drawing for All It's Worth by Loomis, I think the one indispensable book for any beginning illustrator is Rendering in Pen and Ink.

The Illustrator’s Bible, Rob Howard
The subtitle (though potentially coma-inducing) says it all: The Complete Sourcebook of Tips, Tricks, and Time-Saving Techniques in Oil, Alkalyd, Acrylic, Gouache, Casein, Watercolor, Dyes, Inks, Airbrush, Scratchboard, Pastel, and Mixed Media. They couldn't say it if it wasn't true, could they? Well, maybe they could, but in this case it's true anyway...

It ’s very well written and filled with unexpected tips from the personal experiences of a very good commercial artist. If you're at all interested in traditional media (and you should be!) I think you’ll enjoy it.

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth, Andrew Loomis
Creative Illustration, Andrew Loomis
(Out of Print)
You may have heard of Loomis, but until you have read one of his books you simply don’t know what you are missing. Here is a man who is both a master illustrator and a master teacher. His knowledge and his ability to convey this knowledge in print are both breathtaking. I'm truly sure that everything you would ever need to know about being a professional illustrator is contained within these books - the rest you could teach yourself.

The subjects covered in these books are all indispensable to any illustrator: from basic techniques such as perspective, composition, figure drawing and using reference, to such advanced ideas as how to proceed from a client’s brief to final art.

Sadly, problems between Mr. Loomis’ estate and potential publishers have kept these and other Loomis books out of print for 30 years or more. Walter Foster offers some VERY truncated volumes, but they’re really only useful for looking at the pretty pictures - I’m afraid I can’t recommend those. There’s good news though - you can sometimes find some scanned versions of the books online. If you dig hard enough It’s a pain but it’s better than nothing… Or you can save up your money and buy one yourself, but expect to spend $75 - $250 or more, depending mostly on the edition and condition.

Keep your eyes peeled for a bargain - they’re worth it. In the meantime, the links above will take you to Amazon where there are usually some used copies for sale at various prices.

Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life, George Bridgman
(a.k.a. Bridgman’s Life Drawing)
Bridgman’s easy-to-follow “constructive anatomy” technique is a great standard, and very useful to the working artist. This book is not very expensive, and can often be found used.


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Well, that's it for this time. I really hope you take a look at some of these, you won't regret it. I'll post some more soon.