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 at C2E2

Dave Rodriguez, writer of Starkweather: Immortal, will be at C2E2 in Chicago, April 16-18 at the Archaia booth. I've put together a promotional poster he'll have there - I thought you might want a first look at it!

Wondercon - another reminder!

Hi! Bet you thought I'd forgotten to remind you again about Wondercon again! Ha! What are the odds of that?

Find out all about WonderCon (April 2 - 4) here: http://www.comic-con.org/wc/

I'll be signing and drawing and chatting and whatnot at the Archaia booth 813/815. Also, you can check me out at two events. First my digital painting seminar:

Digital Painting
Friday, APRIL 2
6:00-7:00pm
ROOM 204/206

And second, the Archaia panel on Sunday with other great artists and writers from that fine publisher, such as Chandra Free, Kat Rocha, Josh Finney, and more!

Archaia News, Notes and Hightlights
Sunday, April 4
3:30 - 4:30
Room 236/238

I should note that I'm expecting almost no one to be at my seminar this year, because it's at the same time as Kevin Smith's talk. So if you do show up you can consider yourself one of a VERY select group.

Hope to see you there!

Wondercon news

Hi! OK, there are now two events planned for Wondercon! First, on Friday 4/2, I'll be giving a digital painting seminar:

Digital Painting Demo – Patrick McEvoy (Starkweather: Immortal, Fall of Cthulhu) will demonstrate the art of digital painting with Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. Using examples from his work on the Marvel Style Guide and art for Wizards of the Coast, Patrick will step through various techniques to create a fully rendered painting, including color blocking, textures, lighting, blending and more. Learn how to bring a fully-painted look to your digital artwork!

Digital Painting
Friday, APRIL 2
6:00-7:00pm
ROOM 204/206

Then, on Sunday the 5th, I'll be on the Archaia panel talking about my Starkweather: Immortal book with other creators from that publisher. That should be fun!

Archaia News, Notes and Highlights for 2010— In the coming months, Archaia will be making a big splash with new hardcover books, new #1s and digital releases of its high-quality line of titles. Join us for a spirited discussion about all that and more! Panelists include Archaia’s Mel Caylo, Stephen Christy and Paul Morrissey, plus creators Josh Finney and Kat Rocha (Titanium Rain), Joshua Hale Fialkov (Tumor), Chandra Free (The God Machine), Patrick McEvoy (Starkweather: Immortal) Tom Pinchuk (Hybrid Bastards!) and Michael McMillian (Lucid). Also on hand will be members of the Fraggle Rock #1 comics team, including writer Heather White, artist Jeff Stokely, consulting editor Joe LeFavi and managing editor Tim Beedle! Attendees will receive a free gift from Archaia!

Sunday, April 4
3:30-4:30PM
Room 236/238

See you there!

Digital Painting Seminar at WonderCon!

Well, if you missed my seminar at MacWorld last month, then you'll be happy to know that I'm doing another in the very same venue (the Moscone Center in San Francisco) for WONDERCON next month. And this one, while sadly a half-hour shorter (only one hour) is no extra charge for convention-goers.

Here's the birds-eye lowdown on the caper, whatever that means:

Digital Painting Demo – Patrick McEvoy (Starkweather: Immortal, Fall of Cthulhu) will demonstrate the art of digital painting with Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. Using examples from his work on the Marvel Style Guide and art for Wizards of the Coast, Patrick will step through various techniques to create a fully rendered painting, including color blocking, textures, lighting, blending and more. Learn how to bring a fully-painted look to your digital artwork!

Digital Painting
Friday, APRIL 2
6:00-7:00pm
ROOM 204/206

Hope to see you there!

Starkweather character sketches

It's time for a little bit more about my process on Starkweather: Immortal, the graphic novel!

Originally, we were going to print an issue 3 and 4, but as I mentioned in my previous Starkweather post, those plans were changed so we'd just fold that all into the hardback GN collection. And for issue 3, we were starting with a scene that introduces several new characters at a mysterious meeting place.

New characters means "new character designs" of course. My partner-in-infamy Dave Rodriguez is very good about writing vague descriptions of characters and letting me design them visually pretty much as I like, so this is always a fun part of the process. I don't spend a lot of time making the pictures look 'great', per se (or even 'good'!), since they are just for me and Dave. However they do have to serve as a model for future drawings. Here are some of the new characters that are introduced in the first few pages of the former "issue 3"...


Barak


Decarte


Mr. Nyps


Persephone (She's sort of based visually on a movie star from the 1920's & '30's, Brigitte Helm).

I usually fill up a few pages with ideas before I get to this point, and then do a page like this with some front and side views and a bit of distinctive emotion or action the character might display. With that done, I am able to work going forward with a good idea of how these characters look and feel. I did a couple more pages of sketches of each before starting the final drawings, just so I was comfortable with them.

And here is where we first meet Mr. Nyps and his boss, Persephone. This is the first page of chapter 3!




As before, I'd appreciate any feedback you might have, questions, comments, etc. Thanks for stopping by.

MacWorld approacheth!

Well, the big date is almost here. My digital painting seminar is Thursday at MacWorld.

Will any readers of this blog be there? If so, let me know in the comments!


Thanks - see you in San Francisco!!

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

Match-up Math!

How would you like to try a FREE version of Match-up Math, the iPhone/iPod touch game I worked on? Just use this link:

Match-Up Math!

(If this link doesn't work on your browser, just go to the iTunes Store and search "match-up math")

This is an educational game that's a lot like Mahjong solitaire, except instead of matching symbols, you're matching numbers, equations, fractions and decimals. I'm pretty proud of this fledgling effort on the iPhone (My Turn Mobile is a start-up company with some great ideas about making educational software) And I'd love for you to download it for free and let me know what you think.

Oh, and did I mention it's FREE?

Here's a demo video to give you an idea of what it looks like:



And if you like it, you can buy the full version too, which would be pretty awesome. :) I did the art, audio, and was co-designer on this app. It's great for kids to learn math, but also a lot of fun for us grown-ups too!


Oh! I almost forgot.. If/when you DO download it (for FREE, in case I forgot to mention), please leave a comment and rating - that will REALLY help people find it, and it's very hard to get found above the noise on iTunes. I do appreciate that - thanks!

Macworld Expo!

Are you going to Macworld Expo in February 2010?

Would you go if you knew I was going to be doing a Digital Painting seminar there, with new art, new techniques, and all new hilarious patter that all the cool kids dig?

Well, would you go if you could get 15% off the price of a conference pass? Wouldja?

OK then, here's the deal! Click the banner below and use the promotional code PMCEVOY and you can join in the fun for less money. You can't afford NOT to go! This code will give you a 15% discount off any conference package (except the 1-day Users Conf.)

Here's the seminar info:
Users Conference / Creative Track
Thursday, February 11, 2010 / 5:00pm – 6:15pm
US932: Digital Painting
Room: 2003, West Hall



Click here for more information about MacWorld Expo.


See you there!

New Web Site!!

Thanks to Ninja Mountain fan and all-around good guy Collin Lenzen, I've got a shiny new web site for everyone to enjoy!

I made the decision to take down a lot of my older stuff, and it's really streamlined now. I will probably be adding more pictures over the coming weeks, but I like the simpler layout and focus on mostly newer and better pieces.

Of course if you do want to see a lot of my older work and a wider variety, there's always my Epilogue gallery (where you can leave comments as well!)

So, enjoy the awesome new look, and maybe see a few pieces you hadn't before: http://www.megaflowgraphics.com

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!

San Diego here I come!

I'll be at the San Diego comic-con this week, July 22 - 26. You will most often find me at the Archaia booth, which is #2635, right between the Image and Marvel booths (so that we can be ignored by fans of both). Here's a helpful map of the convention floor!

Also, I'll be at two events. The biggie is my DIGITAL PAINTING SEMINAR on Friday, where I'll be demonstrating my Photoshop and Painter techniques. Here's what the official blurb says:

Friday 6:30-7:30 Digital Painting Seminar: Patrick McEvoy (Starkweather: Immortal) demonstrates the art of digital painting with Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. Using examples from his work on the Marvel Style guide, a panel from Archaia's Starkweather, and a cover from BOOM! Studios' Fall of Cthulhu, Patrick will step through various techniques, starting from pencils and working up to a final rendering. Learn how to bring a fully painted look to your digital artwork! Room 30CDE

And the other is an Archaia comics panel on Thursday:

2:30-3:30 Archaia/Roddenberry Productions: Days Missing— Archaia Studios Press is now simply known as Archaia! Learn about the sci-fi titles the publisher has in store, such as Titanium Rain (with creators Josh Finney and Kat Rocha), Robotika (with creator Alex Sheikman), and Starkweather (with writer David Rodriguez and artist Patrick McEvoy). Then meet the creative dream team behind Days Missing, the new sci-fi comic miniseries from Archaia and Roddenberry Productions, the legendary company that brought you Star Trek. Get a sneak peek of exclusive covers and art, and learn more about storylines for upcoming issues. Panelists include Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth from Roddenberry Productions; Archaia’s Stephen Christy, Mark Smylie and Rob Levin; Chris Burnham (X-Men: Divided We Stand); Ian Edginton (Stormwatch); Phil Hester (The Darkness); David Hine (Batman: Battle for the Cowl); Frazer Irving (Batman and Robin); and Matz(The Killer). All attendees will receive a free copy of Days Missing#1! Room 3

Also, I'll be roaming about doing interviews for the Ninja Mountain podcast. So all in all it should be an exciting and fun week of fun excitement. Hope to see you there! If you happen to see me, come on over and say Hi - I'm almost as friendly as I look.

Ninja Mountain - the awful, terrible truth!

I thought that listeners to the Ninja Mountain Podcast might appreciate a little rundown on just how it got started. I just realized that we've just passed our 16th week. FOUR MONTHS! We really had no idea we could do this thing weekly for so long...

The story behind the Ninja Mountain podcast is really two stories - there's the podcast, and there's Ninja Mountain, the group.

Long before our podcast took the universe by storm, Ninja Mountain existed as a loose collective of artists working in the Fantasy/SF/Horror genres, mostly in the field of Roll Playing Games, Collectible Card Games, and the like. The initial gang mostly met at the rpg.net forums, and put together the core group at that time. And it's still going strong, with a stalwart cadre of 20 or so artists who meet online to discuss their latest jobs, sketches they've done, art they dig, and just shoot the breeze.

I was invited to join (totally out of the blue - I still don't quite know how!) way back in mid-2005. I realized pretty early on that this was a perfect coterie for me, in that I don't really feel too comfy in public forums, but a nice small, talented group like this would be just right.

You can see a list of most of the members here: http://www.ninjamountain.net/

(And an aside - I really don't know why more artists don't do this! A smallish private league of like-minded artists is a really good idea. We don't do projects together as a team, or make calendars or have bake sales. Just hanging out to talk art and stuff. Suggestion to the world: you should try it!)

Anyway, some time last year I got it in my head that we really had a lot of fun talking to each other, and we had some really kickass artists on the Mountain, so maybe, just maybe, a Podcast would be fun, and a good way to get our names out there some more, as all freelancers must. And because, you know, all the really cool kids are doing it! And aside from all the artistic talent, I was pretty sure that having such an international bunch (North America, South America, U.K., Northern Europe, and Australia all represented) would make for some fun-sounding discussions if nothing else.

Now, as with any project involving artists, it took a lot of time to get it together. ("Herding cats" is a phrase not altogether inappropriate for the process). Not that people weren't interested, but we all had to figure out when we'd have the time, and I had to figure out how to make a podcast from different locations, and we needed to discuss just what we could possibly talk about. After all if we were going to talk for a WHOLE HOUR wouldn't we run out of things to say?

(Actually I knew all along we'd be fine with that. I mean, have you ever sat at a convention and listened to a gaggle of artists chatting? We're talkative folk. Just try and stop us...)

Finally, a date was decided upon. Jeremy McHugh, Jon Hodgson and I were ready to do it! I would record and edit, Jon made the music and stings for stitching parts together, and Jeremy - at literally the last moment before we started recording - volunteered to be the MC. A great call that turned out to be! You can hear the fruits of that labor in our first astounding episode, made way back in the distant past: January of 2009.

(For those wondering, we were then and still are as of this writing doing things on a very low budget. We use Skype to conference, which is free. I record with CallRecorder (the only part of the process that actually cost anything), then edit in Audacity and mix tracks in Garage Band. Oh, and Jeremy and Jon do backup recordings, which have come in handy in the past!)

That first one went pretty well for us. With Jon's great sense of humor, Jeremy's sonorous tones, and, um, me, we thought we had a good core group. From there things gelled pretty quickly. The inestimable Andy Hepworth joined in the very next week, not only making a great addition to the mix (as our only Anime expert, for one thing!) but also giving us the vague idea that 4 or 5 was a good number to shoot for in the weekly cast.

That lineup stayed consistent for over a month, but in March, for episode 6, we finally started getting some more Ninjas to join in, and things have been on a constant roil since! That episode Kieran Yanner joined us for the first time of many, and Scott Johnson joined us for the only time so far (though we keep hoping for another!).

Other Ninja Members started coming on more frequently after Kieran and Scott broke the ice. Also we've had one special guest, superstar illustrator Von Glitschka. Hopefully we'll be getting some more guests on again soon.

Here's a list of everyone from our collective who's been on so far, roughly in order of appearance, with their inaugural episodes in parenthesis.

Jeremy McHugh (1)
Jon Hodgson (1)
Patrick McEvoy (1)
Andy Hepworth (2)
Kieran Yanner (6)
Scott Johnson (6)
Anne Stokes (8)
Ralph Horsley (8)
Mattias Snygg (8)
Scott Purdy (10)
Socar Myles (13)
Sam Araya (14)

Wow - what a grouping of talent! You can find links to all of them on the aforementioned Ninja Mountain home page. And as you can see, there are still several more Ninjas we must yet coerce into making appearances.

Of course we're still going strong, and have even had a few shows now without Jon or me. Jeremy's record is still 100% though, but he has the vigor of youth. We record pretty much every Wednesday, though some Tuesday sessions have happened as well. It's in the evening for the UK crowd, which is noon (or maybe 1:00) for me on the West Coast U.S.

Oh - and our blog is HOPPING! Loads of great comments from listeners every week, with good discussions and ideas for show topics and just some nice feedback on the episodes. If you haven't left a message there yet, you really should. After all, it's our only payment.

Well, I guess if that was the sort of thing you are interested in then you may have found it interesting. Now you have a bit of history and context for the weekly madness - I beg you to use your knowledge responsibly!

If you have any questions I didn't answer (but really, what are the odds of that...) feel free to ask!

Ninja Mountain Podcast update

We're in the process of putting together this week's Ninja Mountain show right now. The first step is always seeing who's available and when. We usually record on Wednesday around 8 - 9PM GMT (or noonish my time), but we move times around when needed. And sometimes we do secondary recordings on Tuesday if folks can do that day instead.

Clockwork precision, that's our motto!

Anyway, since I hadn't mentioned any of the specific podcasts for a while, I should make a note here that the last two episodes introduced newcomers to the show. Episode 13 had the debut of Socar Myles, wonderful former-digital-artist and current incredible pen-and-ink artist. And the most recent episode 14 had the first appearance of Sam Araya, zombie artist extraordinaire, along with Anne Stokes' second time on the show.

Be sure to keep up with all the latest at http://ninjamountain.blogspot.com

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? :)

---------

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!

My Favorite Books 4 - storytelling

You thought I'd forgotten about my "Favorite Books" series didn't you? Ha! You only wish...

Here are some books on comics and storytelling. Even if you're NOT a comic book artist (or wanting to be one) these should be very valuable sources of inspiration and info about that most vital of component of the illustrator's craft - how to tell a story visually. Whether with a whole book of panels or a single drawing, we need to get the idea across as much punch and entertainment as possible. These books have a lot of the nutritious information you need, plus they're pretty good reads as well.


Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner

Will Eisner, the master of comic book storytelling gives us the basic building blocks and principles of comics. It had never been put in print before, and this book still holds up as perhaps the main pillar of graphic storytelling theory. If you are at all serious about telling stories visually, you should give this one a try. (And if you haven't read his Spirit comics you really should - especially the five years or so after WWII. Those are some of the greatest comics every made!)


Graphic Storytelling & Visual Narrative

Where Comics and Sequential Art gave us a framework for graphic storytelling theory, this book goes more into the practical techniques of effective storytelling, with lots of examples from both Eisner's work and that of other comics masters along the way. Eisner shares his genius in a clear and entertaining manner as always - you need to read this book if you haven't already!

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud's amazing book covers not just comics, but really his philosophy on art and creativity. This is a must-have book for visual storytellers of all types. Clear yet deep, funny in places and always useful.

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. ;)

Drawing!!

Well, it's been a busy week or so here. My Marvel contract is on hiatus for a little while, as they busily re-schedule movies, so I was left hanging a bit. Luckily my friends have been coming through for me with leads - remember how much we stressed networking on Ninja Mountain? Well, it's really been important as I try to rev-up old contacts and make new ones quickly.

So, that's left me at the start of several projects at once, as well as working on pencils for Starkweather: Immortal (my comic book series with Dave Rodriguez, published by Archaia). And what all these things have in common is that I'm drawing! Almost exclusively for the last week I've been working at my drawing table because since all this stuff is at the beginning phase, that's where they all happen to start.

Of course, I've done some penciling work at my Marvel gig, but I'd say easily 70% of my assignments have involved painting over someone else's pencils, with maybe a little "patch" work. You know, drawing a new arm or hand or face, or maybe updating the costume.

But now...

Aside from many, many Starkweather pages, I've done a drawing for a card for Upper Deck, a cover for Boom! studios, the drawing for a commission painting (now I have to get up the nerve to paint it!) and 19 drawings of Lovecraft creatures for a Necronomicon-based book. I don't think I've gone through this many pencils in the last year put together!

And it's funny - I think I'm getting better at this drawing thing. I say this with no false modesty: drawing is my weakest skill. I think I'm pretty good at rendering, which I love, and concepts and layout, but the actual drawing portion of things is my least-favorite thing. And sometimes it shows.. But this last couple of weeks - once I shook out the cobwebs - has gone pretty well. I'm not going to say I'm loving it, or anything, but it's been a little bit less of a chore lately.

But I can't wait to get back to rendering!

This week's update!

Last week was a bit lost as we visited my Mom up in Oregon. This week I mostly want to pimp the new NINJA MOUNTAIN. It's HUGE this week with three separate segments featuring a total of 7 art ninjas. Enjoy!

http://ninjamountain.blogspot.com

Also we got a great shout-out on Jon Schindehette's blog - you should check it out if you aren't reading it:

http://artorder.blogspot.com/

Ninja Mountain Podcast - Episode 6

Don't miss it! This episode features Ninja Mountain members Kieran Yanner and Scott Johnson. It's a lot of art talk by a lot of artists!

http://ninjamountain.blogspot.com

Be sure to let us know what you think!

WonderCon wrap-up

Well, I'm back from WonderCon and boy are my arms tired. Literally! I had to carry a bunch of luggage close to a mile, and my muscles still feel stretched...

First, I just wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who came to my Digital Painting seminar at WonderCon. I had an incredible time, and it was great to see so MANY people in the audience. I was truly wondering if everyone was in the right place. :) But you laughed in all the right places and asked great questions. AND the applause at the end was unexpected and touching.

And thanks to all for being so forgiving of my fumbling around on the PC keys. I only got stuck a couple of times... Maybe someday I'll get a Mac laptop instead of having to borrow my friend's PC (and thanks again for my pal Salaam for swinging it by for me).

I sent a letter off to the programming director at WonderCon and asked how I'd be able to do the same thing at SDCC - I had that much fun. I'd do a similar show with some different pictures and a LOT more of an idea how to work the PC this time. I think it might be fun. I'll let you know if that goes anywhere.

Also, it was spectacular catching up with friends and meeting new ones. The Archaia booth was hopping - Nick (who let me share his hotel room), Kat & Josh (who picked up sandwiches), Marv, Dave & Julia (and Jeremy at dinner) - and good times were had by all. Also nice to see Chip, Mike, Matt and Ross from Boom! studios. And a friend of mine, Tania, came by to see what was up with the show, as she'd never been to one before. She ended up spending the entire afternoon wandering around by herself on the showroom floor checking out every damn booth in the hall. I was quite glad to turn someone on to the wonders that are a comics convention.

I missed seeing Stephanie Pui-mun Law (which was my fault entirely - I looked in Artist's Alley but couldn't find her) and I somehow missed connecting up with any of my Twitter followers. But overall, I can't complain. It's a well-run show in a very nice convention center in a very cool city. I'll be happy to be there again next year.

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!)

Ninja Mountain Podcast - Episode 4

You know the drill - Art podcast, it's awesome, I'm in it, go listen!

Click here to get Episode 4.

Or...

iTunes is another fine way to listen!

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.