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.

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

Glenn from The Walking Dead by Mike Perry

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 ;)

Susan Coffey Study.

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

Medieval Warefare: King Richard

Hey all,

Today I get to post up my illustrations that I recently completed for Medieval Warfare Magazine's latest issue on King Richard the 1st, otherwise know as "The Lion heart". In this issue I contributed two illustrations. One depicting Richards siege at Acre and a double page spread of his glorious cavalry charge at Arsuf.

 In this image I am depicting Richard, to sick to fight yet he still insisted on going to the front and picking off Saracens with his crossbow.

 This image is of the cavalry charge that Richard and his knights made at the battle of Arsuf.

A closer look at the King in action.

For more information about this publication you can go Here and for a synopsis of the particular issue go Here.

Going Painterly

Well in the never ending quest for self improvement, today I attempted a quick study with the goal of making the illustration look more painterly. Painterly can mean many things but in this instance, I wanted to push my photoshop skills and try to paint like I would with the real thing. This meant more controlled / confident brush strokes ( not so many searching marks and less CTRL Z), less concern with modeling the forms and more focus on value and edges. Not bad for a first go and I intend to do more down the road so stay tuned for more.

I've included a second version with the direct reference as comparison and yes, I did use the color picker.

Also, I tossed in a few pictures from my sketchbook. Go Green Ranger!

Enjoy

Pinup Study

Hey Gang,

Today we have a pinup study I did of a Keri Russel image I found on the net. I just thought it was such a good example of the pin up genre and I've always wanted to give Pinup style painting a chance so I decided to execute this study. I used both painter and Photoshop on this one and I think it took about 16 hours all in. Not too bad. Perhaps I will do more in the future.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

Cheers!




Reference Comparison


Close Up of the Portrait