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!

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.

More New Work!

Recently, Monte Cook games has released a couple of new products that contain some of my work.
Check it out.

Mikka Kipprusoff Poster Illustration Concept

Today I am sharing a Poster Illustration Concept that I created based on the all time greatest goalie of the Calgary Flames, Mikka Kipprusoff. What can I say,I'm a huge Hockey fan ;)

As always, names, logo's & trademarks are copyright to their respective owners.

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.

The Making of " Kalikos Hero Quest" for the Guide to Glorantha

The Making of “The Kalikos Hero Quest”.

Final Print Version with Adjustments

Since the Guide to Glorantha is finally finished and on sale, I thought that I would post up another “making of” article to explain the process that I used to create the illustration “Kalikos Hero quest”.

As always, each commission that I am given by Jeff Richard at Moon Design is accompanied by a long and detailed document outlining the events to be depicted as well as includes many points of reference for me to consider. 

Here is the initial Art Brief:

It shows a group of heroes (and heroines) from the Lunar army walking through frozen wastes towards the edge of the Sky Dome. The stars of the Northern Sky (based on the attached Inhabitants of the sky picture) can be clearly seen.

Story: Each year, the Lunar Empire sends a band of its most talented magicians and most powerful warriors to travel beyond the edge of the world to strengthen the White Pillar God and defeat the God of Winter. They drag the Kalikos Boat with them, which brings the magic they will need to perform their heroquest.

Sky Dome: The celestial sky dome is a key part of this picture. The attached picture Inhabitants of the Sky show the position of the major constellations in the sky on New Years Day, when this picture takes place. Once we have the major constellations in place we can always add additional stars. We should be able to see a slice of the sky, from the North Horizon to the Pole Star, reaching out to the Love and War stars on the far right, and the Bagog constellation on the far left. Both the Red Moon and Orlanth's Ring are visible.

The God of the White Pillar: Glorantha's skies are a physical dome (like http://dcsymbols.com/mastersquare/mayan_cosmos.jpg), separated from the firmament by four pillars (one in each direction). The North Pillar -White Pillar -manifests as a huge, white-bearded god carrying a compass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:God_the_Geometer.jpg) and clearly struggling to hold up his corner of the sky. Our heroquesters are approaching the edge of the world and can see the dome and White Pillar god (as a shadowly figure in white who for some reason I imagine as being a muscular white bearded man drawn by William Blake) wreathed in the Aurora Borealis. The Aurora Borealis should look as magical and fantastic as possible (http://cdn.tripwiremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Magical-Aurora-Borealis.jpg), it represents the transition into the Outer Realms of the Otherworld.

The Icy Wastes and the God of Winter: Our heroquesters are traveling through icy wastes (http://www.world-traveller.org/images/no05-s05-002.jpg), so cold that it takes on a white-blue cast.

Above the icy wastes can be seen the God of Winter, a huge giant, dripping with ice and a frozen beard. The giant is hostile but far away. Perhaps something like this: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7v6ow7jQI1rbdu7po1_1280.jpg, although he is more likely to use a wintery sword (with icy winds that cut) than a club.

The Lunar HeroQuesters: We have a group of Lunar heroquesters - magicians and heroes who are entering the realm of the gods in order to strengthen the God of the White Pillar. There are at least seven of them, half are male, half are female. I have attached two pictures that give a feel for Lunar costume (plate01final and Pelorians-FINAL - here is another good reference picture http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q545/quicksabre/84b266a3.jpg). The Lunar heroquesters wear heavy cloaks of red or bear skins against the snow. The warriors are armored (bronze cuirasses, bronze scale, or lamellar, and with greeves on their legs) wear their shields on their back, trousers under their ornate tunics, and their leader should have a high golden helmet, similar to http://i1163.photobucket.com/albums/q545/quicksabre/84b266a3.jpg, but higher and based on this: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5h53igZ9lrkrA5OmWtvgx-e68fgup7dRD5cvTG-EjPT229BGULI5OWGixfsdcXu57e5PdFd8h5jBs3FhtCbk4XXaN1rxXS8CurwP2W-14TFhb_RStVQRwJjzJn5fa9TOotLRVefCZQp5d/s1600/Golden+Hat+Schifferstadt_sm.jpg

They are on horseback - their horses are laden with gear, and perhaps some are on foot, guiding their animals (http://www.suryaschool.org/images/post-images/2008/08-10-06.jpg and http://www.suryaschool.org/images/post-images/2008/08-10-06b.jpg for inspiration). At least one carries a standard like that attached as Lunar standard1.jpg, although it only has one star, not two.

The Lunars are dragging a sled behind them: the Kalikos Boat!

The Kalikos Boat: This is a reed boat (like the Egyptian reed boats - http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~catshaman/15Sailors/Image4799.JPG) on top of a sled like this: http://ancientweb.org/images/explore/Finland_Ancient_Sled_Reki.gif. The sled is being dragged across the icy wastes by the Lunar horsemen.

In the center of the boat is a pillar (like this: http://www.touregypt.net/images/touregypt/si-amun13.gif - but without the Egyptian gods or winged beetle). On top of the pillar is a glowing red rock, as bright as a star. This star houses the magic the Lunar heroquesters need to perform their heroquest, and must be defended by them with their life. Without this, their quest will certainly fail. 

Rough Thumbnails.

At this stage, I sat down and brainstormed a few ideas for this composition. I deliberately keep the drawings loose with and focus primarily on composition.

Final Sketches:

Usually, I only do one of these but after discussion with Jeff and my own personal taste, I thought that I would work up these two comps to a more refined stage. As you can see, we ended up going with comp#1.

References:

Now that I have a plan for the final illustration I begin “gathering” references and information to help me put this piece together and “fill in the blanks” for what is to be depicted. Luckily for me, this image was commissioned in January and since I live in Canada and my mom owns some horses, I did not have to go too far in order to get some relevant references. For this picture, I stood on my mom’s balcony while she walked her horse off in the distance a couple of times. This allowed me to get a pretty good approximation for the horse’s anatomy and perspective as well as some additional information for the environment.

Next I went to trusty old google Sketch up and put together a quick 3d model of the boat and riders and took a few shots of them in perspective. Sketch up can be a great tool for this kind of thing.

Lastly, my good friend Owen McManus is a 3d Guru and he whipped up a quick lighting setup to give me some more information regarding lighting and scale for the scene.

I also took some reference photos of myself posing as a struggling Northern giant/ god but we won’t be sharing those ;)

Lastly, I saved only a few process shots but at least you can get a bit of information regarding how I combined all this information into the final image.

Finished the Questers.

Blocking in the Dome.

Adding the Constellations. A lot of noodling went on in this process. I think I have 4 or 5 emails from Jeff discussing the subject and a few versions that include the Red Moon and more. This is what we ended up with.

Add the "Big Guy" and some atmosphere.

Finally we have several layers of snow effects. I really wanted to give this piece an epic " Lost in the Barrens" feeling type of snow storm. As if the weather was on the brink of turning for the better or for the worse.

Thanks for tuning in and if you find these of interest, let me know which image from the guide that you would like me to do a write up on next and I’ll see if I can’t accommodate you.

Cheers!