Deeper Darkness - Book Cover - Final

Actually finished this up a few days ago (though still awaiting confirmation of exact book dimensions before I send the author final files).

Much has happened since the grayscale painting. I've gone through many many different color options, tweaked a number of things, and actually sat down and painted each element in a finished fashion.

Quite please with how this one turned out! =)

Final Wrap Cover Painting:


Final with Title Text:


Color Rough:

The Deeper Darkness - Book Cover

I'm currently working on the second wrap format book cover for K.E. Stapylton's Prism series (YA fantasy). It's great to be working with Kareyn again and I'm quite excited about how this one is coming along!

Kareyn's blog: http://kestapylton.blogspot.com/

Terror of Prism Fading site: http://www.theterrorofprismfading.com


The sketches so-far:

Photoshop CS5!

So today I made one of the most exciting upgrades in recent history: I went from Adobe Photoshop CS4 to CS5. The reason for my excitement? Three words: wet media brushes.

I believe I should preface my thoughts by saying that my first digital art program (back in 1998) was Fractal Painter 5.... which has since changed hands a time or two, and today goes by the name of Corel Painter 11. It was my first love of art programs, but over the years we drifted apart: it became more and more convoluted or perhaps I just discovered the clean simplicity that is Photoshop.

At any rate, for YEARS I have longed for a way to do wet-media (read: wet paint) simulation in Photohop, every time I've tried going back to painter I've quickly gotten a headache and ArtRage just can't cut it with large files or keeping layer effects intact (a must for the large complex paintings I do for clients).

I had all but given up.... but here we are, a decade after I got my little hands on Photoshop 4 and they are here! I can only related what an afternoon of "playing around" has shown me. And they work nicely. The options for the wet brushes have been expanded we now get to adjust things like: wet, flow, load, etc.... there is brush length, stiffness, angle, etc. In short everything you need to paint with that nice "squishy" wet paint in Photoshop.

I feel like I have much more to experiment with in this realm. I'm excited. =)

You can read a bit more in-depth review of the brush feature here: http://www.photoshopcafe.com/cs5/Wacom.htm


A speed painting using some of the new brushes:

The Woodcutter (Sketch & Color Rough)

So, I've finally got another project-in-progress to share (ie one that is not NDA...like the big ones I'm working on). The client is an author by the name of Lorn Wolf and he needs a cover for his up and coming fantasy book: The Woodcutter.

In this scene the main character (and family) confront the Giant who has supposedly kidnapped his daughter (the girl in the center). At this point in time, the daughter has rushed out to "save" the misunderstood Giant but is rapidly loosing control of her magic.

Golden Fish

Golden Fish is my first truly "personal" piece in ages... I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep one night and this would not leave my head. After fighting it a good hour, I decided to get up and sketch it out....only then did the glowing fish in my head go away! =)

Oh, I highly suspect that the glowing fish came from the respective episode of Big Bang Theory.





Some progress shots:

Prism and Daddy Long Legs

Been workin' hard since the last post...

First up, the beginning steps of a project for K.E. Stapylton, author of The Terror of Prism Fading, for which I did the cover art. This image is to be the splash page for www.theterrorofprismfading.com as well as the site layout on which all the pages can "hang."


















And a BIG update as well for the Kalliope Audioboooks Daddy Long Legs cover:



The next step for this one is textures and tweaks! =)

11 Year Celebration!

Happy New Year!

So I realized something... I got my first computer (a Micron PII) and art tablet (a Calcomp Creation Station Pro) in 1998, it is now 2009... that means I have been doing digital art for 11 YEARS! Yikes! As I am sure you are aware, 11 is a special number and as such I thought it only fitting to put together a collage of pieces from each year. I must admit I had fun digging through my old folders and it does make me quite happy to see how far I've come =)



A BIGGER Version

Harry Potter and the Ruby Apple

I'm immensely excited about seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in IMAX tommorrow. It's been years since I've seen anything at an IMAX. The last 20 min of the movie (the battle at the ministry I assume) are going to be IMAX 3D. Wicked!

In other movie news, I saw Ratatouille yesterday. What a cute well-done movie. Eye-candy with a good message. Props to all the artists at Pixar. :)

More work on the ruby apple painting. Mostly Painter though I have cheated a bit and used some Photoshop.

More on the Angel

Today was rather blah out, even though it wasn't particularly cold it felt like it was because of the color of the light and lack of sun.

The good news: I actually got a chance to work on art. For the first time in a few days I didn't spend the day baking cookies or wrapping. I worked mainly on "smoothing" out the angel's outfit, skin, etc, and on defining form. Tomorrow I hope to do the first pass of blending on the background.