The Avenger

Hey All,

I just wanted to share that my cover illustration for the newest "The Avenger" pulp paperback has finally been released and I can show my artwork.

Here is a Link to the company's webpage

I've always been a huge pulp fan and it's been very gratifying to work on a classic character like  The Avenger and follow in the footsteps of many of my art heroes of the past.

I've been contracted to do a couple more covers so stand by for even more awesome artwork as I really start to get to know this character and sink my teeth into his world.

Adventures in Time. Retro NES box art

Today I am posting up my submission to this years art book and auction for the Calgary comic and entertainment expo. 

I know it is a bit of overkill for an art book piece but I was inspired and had a lot of fun making this image. NES game art was very influential on me as a kid growing up playing these games and I used to study the art and judge a game based solely on the cover art. Sadly that did not always work out and I ended up buying Predator. One of the biggest let down wast of money piece of trash games that I ever laid my eyes on. But I digress.... ;)

Anyways, I came across some really neat faux box art images in my internet ramblings and I was inspired to do one for myself based off of the Konami model. When the theme for this years con was released, I found myself an excuse to finally make a NES box and "Adventures in Time" was born.

Below, I am posting some process images and the finished box layout. I have actually made the box and I'll save that for a later blog post.

 Finished Cover Art with Watermark. Babes, Dinosaurs, Valkyries, Spitfires, Phone Booths, Nuclear explosions can you pick out any more 80's pop culture references?

 Pencil under drawing.

 Painting the background in order to establish the color temperature of this image.

 Basic Monochromatic values.

 Fleshing ( pfft! snicker) out the details.

 Adding in the dinosaurs and background elements.

 Here I was playing with the game logo and the various relevant packaging logo's and the over all layout.

And finally we have the finished box layout, complete with game description! Now can you tell m that your 11 year old self would not think that this game looked promising? Nintendo power gives it 5 stars! Wicked Graphics, amazing controls, makes the Adventures of Link look like pong in comparison.

The Walking Dead Season 5 Poster Process

Hey All,

I thought that I would cap off all of my process videos by providing you with a breakdown of how I created this Walking Dead poster image. Up until now, I've shared a few time lapse videos but this time I will share how I got from point A to point B.

To start off with a spent a lot of time photo comping and rearranging various images trying to come up with a pleasing arrangement. I ended up setting on a nice triangular composition with that included almost all of the Hero's cast from season 5 as well a few zombie to indicate the threat and motivation in the overall narrative. You can't make a zombie movie poster without zombies in it!

I didn't keep many of these photo comps but what I do have is the initial pencil drawing. I had originally thought about putting a border around this image as a bit of a homage to some of my drew Struzan posters but in the end, my wife talked me out of it and I think that she was right.

 Next, I painted in some background color and texture. The show in general has a real saturated, green/ sepia tone to it and I wanted to start off and paint into a nice ground that conveyed that gritty, dirty, blue world.

 Here I am laying in all the local colors with an airbrush ( Photo shop) just like I would do it traditionally. The goal here is to give me an indication of the basic colors and forms and how they will interplay with one another.

 

This next image is a halfway done process shot. I've completed the rendering of about half the characters and really it is all just labor from here on out. Rick himself took me about 7-8 hours to paint. The time lapse condensed it into a nice 4 minute chunk but I ended up putting a lot of time into this piece.

 Final Image. Once all the rendering was done, I added the text and a few embellishments to the composition. I ended up making several minor adjustments in photo shop to harmonize the color scheme a bit more and "amp" up the piece in general. Photo shop really does have several "Make it Better" buttons. ;)

Well that is it in a nutshell. If you have any questions or comments on this piece and/ or my process, please drop me a line as I'd love to hear from you.

Cheers.

Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead by Mike Perry

The Walking Dead Season 5 Poster

Hey all, I finally finished my "The Walking Dead" Season 5 Poster. Just in time for the second half to kick in.

Carol From The Walking Dead by Mike Perry

Carol played by Melissa McBride.

Abraham from The Walking Dead by Mike Perry

Here is another time lapse video of me painting the character of
Abraham on the TV show "The Walking Dead" portrayed by Michael Culditz.



Who will I post up next?

New Art Rep.

Today I am happy to announce that beginning in 2015 I will be working with Warshaw Blumenthal Agency out of New York. I'll be joining their group of talented 2D artists and I'm very excited to get started working with Ryan, Danielle and the rest of the team and their clients.

To view my profile on their site just click the following link.

Shadow Run Run Faster

Today I am sharing a bunch of work that I recently completed for Catalyst Game Labs newest Shadow Run product "RUN FASTER".

This was my first crack at Shadowrun and I had a lot of fun trying to wrap my head around cyberpunk trolls and Ork's. Although, it seems that every character in this setting had a false arm? ;) lol.

 First we have an undercover cop Ork chick. I submitted 2 versions, one with police lights and one without.

 

Next is a Tense Meeting. Imagine an argument between team mates going down in an Alt future  Pan- Asian Cyber Noodle Bar.

When a Vampire schoolgirl realizes that she just took out a pack of Biker Elves! WTF!

 

 Don't Mess with the Cyber Tank!

New Work for Monte Cook Games

Today I am sharing a couple of Character Illustrations that I completed for some new upcoming products for Monte Cook Games "The Strange" game setting.

The first is a kind of Frankenstiens monster.

And the second is a Victorian woman with Strange Powers....

Assassins Creed Unity Story Boards

Last spring, I had the pleasure of working on some commercial storyboards for the latest Assassin's Creed video game for Tyler West Studios. I boarded out the scenes and then another artist went in and colorized them.  I wish I knew that person's name or else I would have credited him/ her/ them.
You can see the whole sequence Here

I'm posting up the presentation images above my storyboard panels. See if you can spot what they kept and what they changed?

I always get a buzz out of being part of a production team and seeing what other people end up doing with my work.

All of this work is copyright © Tyler West Studios 2014 and their respective rights holders

Medieval Warfare Magazine: The Lombards Vs. The Byzantines.

Hi All,

Today I am sharing my latest illustration that I have done for Medieval Warfare Magazine which depicts an epic battle between the Lombards and the Byzantines "when Constans' army, marching from Benevento to Naples, was ambushed at the river Calore's ford by the forces of Mitolas, the Lombard count of Capua."

You can find out more about the issue Here  and don't forget to let them know that you love the new centerfold ;)

Circle of Hands!

Today, I am posting up a cover illustration that I did for Adept Press's new game product "A circle of Hands". This piece was a lot of fun to do and a nice change of pace from so called " High fantasy" and more along the lines of the nitty gritty reality that was the dark ages.  Lots' of fun and I even got to build myself a chained weapon to use as reference for the hero.

You can find out more about the game and the author at Adept Press.com.

Susan Coffey Study.

Here is a study that I did based off of a photo of the model Susan Coffey.

A Few More Studies

Not too much to share for today. It's been awhile since I posted regularly but I have been very busy and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to manage all the various social media " Time sinks" that I am participating in.  lol ;)

Anyways, first is a quick study of Peter Dinklage from Xmen and another page of sketches and studies.

Cheers!

Tuvara Characters

Some Fantasy / African characters that I recently illustrated for Kelestia Productions' new Product "Tuvara".
www.kelestia.com

 Rough Comps before launching into the final rendering.

Master Study

Today, I am posting up a master Study I did of a Jeff Jones Piece. The goal was to recreate both the image and the texture/ media in photoshop. Trying to emulate traditional media using Digital techniques is always interesting and something that I look forward to doing more of in the future.

Lethbridge Comic Con!

Lethbridge Comic Con!
This year I'll be a guest artist at the Lethbridge Comic Con October 17-19. For more information visit http://www.lethbridgecomiccon.com/index.html .
Come on Down and visit me there and I look forward to having a great time!

Newt Liked my painting!

I can't believe that I forgot to post this.
Anyways, at the last Calgary Comic Expo, I got to meet Carrie Henn, the actress who played Newt in Aliens. She liked my "Aliens" piece and stopped by my booth for an autograph and a quick photo with me. Needless to say, it made my day and I enjoyed meeting and chatting with her husband and her agent as well. They were very friendly and I can't say enough good things about it. Of course I didn't have a camera on hand to capture the moment but luckily my trusty neighbor Tom was on present to snap a few as well as my booth hand Nick had his I phone. Thanks guys!
So here is the proof and I've got my nice signed print framed and staring at me in my studio as we speak!
Cheers!

Paintery 2.0 Go Green Ranger!

More Painterly studies.