Boy Studies

Posting another series of studies. This time from randomly selected images by Jason C. Taylor. It really helps to have multiple photos of the same kid to learn from!

Otherwise, doing well and keeping busy. I can't believe May is just about over.

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:

First Sketches for The Snow Queen

A bit of beginning work for the Fairytale Thunderdome competition. I still think I'm happier with the sketch than I am with the next step. Hmmm...

Daily Sketch Deluge

CG talk has a nifty sub-form called the Daily Sketch Forum. Each day a new topic is posted at random along with a time limit. I've participated previously, but it's been a looong, long time. As I'm cooling my heals waiting for author approval and choice on the thumbnails, I decided to have a little fun and practice child anatomy at the same time. Here they are from the last three days.

"Rain" 60 min:


"Early Spring" 60 min:


"Pure" 35 min:

Thumbnail Sketches

Today I did the thumbnail sketches for the next book cover project I'll be working on!

In the Study

Forward march to the next piece. This is a full-wrap book cover for the same client whom I did the angel portrait/design for. The initial doodle was done in *gasp* real pencil and then scanned. The second image is me trying to work out the correct perspective of the interior.

The Color of Heaven

The biggest challenge this past week has been finding any time to do art. Christmas shopping, wrapping, cards, baking, decorating, etc, are a real time drain. Not that I don't enjoy those things. ;)

So the client decided he wanted a background, which turned out to be a greater challenge than I first thought (and, I still don't know if I've got it "right"). At least I kind of got the colors to a likable state. It's harder than you think, trying to find the right colors for Heaven.

Sweet Progress

My next cover commission is still in progress (being edited) so I've had a bit more down time than I expected. So I decided to use my time "wisely" and work on my picture book idea.

I now have a (roughly) 2,000 word story (hopefully, I can further tighten and shorten in the next revision).

On the illustration side. I made a series of tiny thumbnails so sloppy that only I could decipher them in my sketchbook (with a real pen, no less!)

For the past week I've been working to make these into more readable roughs, and also to work out a potential layout. I really like the idea of using mostly spreads, with the first and last images being single-side images.

Here is what I've come up with so-far:



The BIG version (with the actually legable text is here, warning 2.5 MB):

http://www.ldiehl.com/wip/bookdummy_wip.jpg