Celestial Gift - Holiday Promo

Just finished a brand-new shiny holiday promo image. I give you:

Celestial Gift

Spectrum 18 Book is Here!!!

I just received my beautiful complementary hardback copy of Spectrum 18 in the mail moments ago. Beautiful reproduction quality on my Golden Fish piece. TONS of wonderful fantasy and sci-fi work by the best in the field to oogle! Congratulations again to all of the awesome artists whose work got into this one too. =)

Snowmist and Update

So I realize that it's been a bit since my last update. For the past couple of months I've been working primarily on my own YA fantasy personal project called "Snowmist." I've been doing a number of concept pieces for it along with writing and planning. The concept I've chosen to share below is one of my favorites to date.

I'm also currently in negotiation stage for several exciting contracts, one quite extensive. So I will have much to keep me busy in the coming months!

Cover Artist for Fantasy Magazine!

Yesterday, my Golden Fish piece went live as the August cover to Fantasy Magazine. Also in the issue is a fun interview they did with me. Below are a few of my favorite questions:

1) What can you tell us about the story behind "Golden Fish?"

This image came into my head one night as I tossed and turned trying to fall asleep... The waves, the fish, the boat, the lilies, the moon just kept rotating in my mind's eye. Finally, to appease my muse, I found a sketchbook and put the first sketch down on paper. Only then was I able to sleep. As another aside: I had just watched the "The Luminous Fish Effect” episode of Big Bang that evening, which, I have no doubt, was the starting seed that my imagination ran with.


4) You've said elsewhere that 95% of your art education happened outside of the classroom. What sort of things do you find yourself learning now, particularly with personal pieces?

Increasingly, it has become less about "getting better" ....and more and more about finding the heart of it all. Finding the "why" in the art I'm making. Thinking about the soul and storytelling of a piece. Learning to listen to my inner voice rather than drowning this out with critiques (from both my inner critic and others) about what I should change.


10) What keeps you coming back to fantastic art, both looking at it and making it?

There is a certain delight that comes from getting to visit (and re-visit) a childlike world of magic and wonder. It's the challenge and delight of telling a visual story that, to me, is truer than literal truth. It's getting to take these brief fleeting glimpses and imaginings and translate them so that others can see them too.

Click the image below to visit the Fantasy Magazine official site:

LDiehl.com Site Re-Designed!

It had been a good solid year at least (two if you don't count the slight refresh I did last spring)... I fought the valiant fight -but, finally, I bowed to the pressures of re-design.

I wanted a site design that felt cleaner and lighter. I wanted to pare back the old bloated portfolio and divide it into more relevant categories. I also wanted to make a site/blog combination that felt like the same design. And, yes, I finally got rid of the splash page! =P

I'm happy with what I've arrived with, though I am sure there are still a few rough edges to refine. I'm especially happy with the snappiness of lightbox clone "lighterbox2" which I went with for portfolio image display.

Anyhow, do let me know what you think (and if you spot any errors!) =)

Dandelion Sky

Done with this one! =)



I've also provided a high-res wallpaper (2560x1600) for download here: Dandelion Sky Wallpaper

Enjoy!

Dandelion Sky

Just started a new summer promo/personal piece. I'm calling it 'Dandelion Sky' ...inspired a bit by Miyazaki movies, a bit by Ray Bradbury's book Dandelion Wine, and a whole lot by the feel of summer!

Much more to go: but I like the way it's shaping up!

(As you can see I also decided, after coloring the initial sketch, that this would make a really nice wide-format wallpaper.)