Don't Feed The Drew!

Dungeons and Dragons: Fortune Cards

2011-07-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

A set of Dungeons and Dragons: Fortune Cards were just released! Check out 5 of the cards I illustrated for this set! This project was so much fun to work on and the art director was a pleasure to work with. I was also very surprised and honored to find that the top image was featured on the back of the packaging.

I'm very happy that they all reproduced so well.

Eowyn and the Nazgul

2011-05-16T11:32:00.001-07:00

Barbarian Berserker

2011-04-11T00:06:00.000-07:00

Photoshop Brushes

2011-02-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

My Brushes can now be downloaded via my ABOUT page on my website!

Or get 'em here!

Colors! sketching

2011-02-07T15:55:00.000-08:00

Found a new program for the Ipod called Colors! A pretty decent drawing program for Ipod and Nintendo DS. Here's a painting of a man on the train.

New concept Illustrations and Brushes

2010-10-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some concept pieces done for a proposal of a fantasy card game. Also my brushes are now available for download on the about page of my website!

All images © Fourth Story Media

Sketches and Reference

2010-10-13T15:42:00.000-07:00

A while back I was asked to do some concept illustrations for a fantasy card game which is always a fun thing to do. One of my favorites was this very dedicated young warrior who wears living vine armor. I immediately began working on sketches. I did a whole bunch of thumbnails and decided to explore these two. One of him taking in the sunrise and the other of him hacking away at some practice dummies at night.

Both sketches were meant to show his determination, how in tune with the earth he is, and show of his fancy armor. The client ended up picking the second, but asked that I get rid of the background and make the armor more orderly and with smaller strands.

Taking reference is key. It's a simple process, and should be done wherever possible. My setup consists of a $4 clamp light and a point and shoot camera with a timer on a tripod. My costume for this piece was made up of a cotton sweater vest, a thermal shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a red flannel shirt tied around my waist. I hung a Jack Daniel's belt buckle from the collar of my shirt and I'm holding an old karate bow from when I was in second grade. As you can see, it's just things I can find round the house. Although not necessary, I try to match the value of the costume to what it needs to be in the piece. I've recently started collecting things that could be used as reference down the road. Halloween is an excellent excuse to do this.

Here's one of the compiled reference shots.

And here is the finished piece.

On the digital Easel: Robots and Spartans

2010-09-25T00:47:00.000-07:00

Character concepts

2010-09-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

landscape oil painting

2010-09-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

New piece on my gallery

2010-09-03T20:36:00.001-07:00

2010-08-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

Some Sketches

2010-08-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine, Peter Emmerich, recommended during my trip to Italy last summer that I start exploring ink as a sketching medium as it's faster, more powerful and requires much more attention to work with. It's now one of my favorite training tools.

some studies...

2010-08-24T15:30:00.000-07:00

In school I used to think still lives were boring, not anymore...

Awesome news!

2010-08-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

Awesome News!

Be sure to look for "Space Mechanic" in Spectrum 17 this November!

For years I've collected the Spectrum books and studied the amazing art within them.
To be featured next to my idols will be such a great honor.

Back online.

2010-08-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

So after almost a year of experimenting with a different blog site, I've decided to switch back to my first, more straight forward and personal blog. Expect more posts to follow and I think it's safe to say, a little more frequently.

some art order stuff

2009-09-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

I love doing stuff like this but time has been short lately, so when I see things like this pop up, I jump all over it.

Rework after Comic Con

2009-08-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

So after originally creating this piece one year ago, I went to Comic Con and got a lot of criticism on it. So I went back and reworked it. It's kind of crazy the difference one year can make in ability. The old one's first. The new one's on the the bottom.

The Usual Suspects...

2009-05-23T19:09:00.000-07:00

This piece is for the ArtOrder challenge "The Usual Suspects. The assignment was to create 4 archetypes of the role playing and fantasy world. These can be found on his website for a more in depth description.

What's important to share however, is what I learned from this assignment. Working from thumbnail silhouettes is sooooo much easier and fun than jumping right into the more refined sketch process.

As I worked on this assignment, I created more believable anatomy, poses, and dynamism, than i've achieved on previous sketches because my right brain did all the work for me. Working on such a simple scale of shape, my brain was constantly filling in the rest, and I could "feel" and intuit where things were supposed to go rather than having to consciously think about it.

This solid color thumbnail process will definitely be integrated in my future illustrations. For all those with similar interests, definitely try it out.

Also watching a marathon of deadliest warrior on Spike TV helped with generating ideas. I found that ideas flow more naturally when i just surround myself with the subject rather than trying to spotlight certain pieces of reference.

Intro

2009-05-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

Hey All!

So with the creation of a new website, its time to start a new blog. This is where I plan to keep everything that doesn't have a home on my website.

To also keep this from being just the ramblings of a young artist, I want to use this as a medium to share the things I learn on my path in art.

But for now I'll leave you with two life paintings I've done from sitting at my computer desk.