Flight 7

So after a couple weeks of late, frantic work nights I managed to finish my comic for Flight 7 - Sentinels.

Along with being my first nationally published work, this is the first full-color comic I've ever finished, so I'm pretty proud of the result! It took a lot longer than I expected but in the end, with the help of all of the other Flight artists, I was able to tell the story I wanted to tell and make it look pretty cool in the process.

The book will be out in July, just before Comic Con, so any of you going to SDCC will see me there signing books with a big stupid grin on my face! I hope, when you finally get to read it, that you all like the story as much as I liked working on it.

Amulet 3

So Amulet 3 is done! I ended up painting 125 of the 198 pages in the book, which was a huuuge undertaking, but I learned a ton in the process. I was also able to help out with some story editing duties for this book, which was a ton of fun. Kazu and I were able to spend a lot of time bouncing ideas off of each other, and I think having that extra layer of editorial input really strengthened the final product. The book is really a fantastic read, and I can't wait until September when everyone can get their hands on it.

Here's one of the spreads Kazu posted today. This is one that me, Anthony, and Kazu all worked on, and it turned out to be one of the best spreads in the book as a result.

Now it's on to Flight 7 stuff before we start on Amulet 4 in March. I'll also be helping Jake out on Missile Mouse 2 in the meantime. Sounds like it's going to be another busy year, and I am super excited.

Lift Off: The Art of Airships

It's been a long time! We're finally finishing up Amulet 3 this weekend, which is really exciting. I can't believe how proud of this book I am, and I don't think I've worked harder on anything in my life. The book won't be out until September of this year, but once it hits shelves I think it's really going to be a hit. We've gone above and beyond with this one in just about every way possible.

It's nice to be able to breathe a short sigh of relief before we start on Book 4 in March. In the meantime I can finally sit down and do my Flight story!

Unfortunately this week turned into a bit of a perfect storm with the Amulet deadline, my sisters visiting from Minneapolis, and a new show at Gallery Nucleus which I am super excited to be a part of!

The show is called Lift Off: The Art of Airships, which should be fairly self-explanatory. It features some absolutely incredible artists, which has me feeling incredibly lucky to have any space on the wall for my meager entry...

That said, I'm really proud of this one, and I hope it resonates with someone as well as it did with me as I was working on it.

Terrible Yellow Eyes

It's been a while! Unfortunately I've been crazy busy on Amulet 3, and haven't had time to post any personal work.

Luckily despite the crazy schedule I was able to finish a piece for Terrible Yellow Eyes! This may look a bit familiar to a few of you... This time around I opted to print the digital file and do all of the wall drawing in colored pencil. I think it gave it a nice effect, and also means this is a one-of-a-kind piece!

This piece will be on display at the show opening this weekend at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, CA. There are going to be some absolutely amazing pieces on display, and I'm really honored to be a part of it.

Amulet 2 Interview

Newsarama just posted an interview with Kazu about Amulet 2, and he gave me and Anthony a nice little name drop!

We recently got a couple of the final hard/softcover books in the office, and they are absolutely beautiful. I gave the book another read through in full color, and it is absolutely fantastic. I am overjoyed to have been a part of such an incredible piece of work.

The interview is pretty great, so give it a read, and look for Amulet 2 on September 1st!

Indy

So I decided to start doing some practice paintings to work on lighting, color, and all that good stuff. I took a bunch of screencaps from films and I'm devoting a couple hours every now and then to straight practice.

Anyhow, these are probably going to be pretty boring, but I figured I'd post them anyway.

Here's number one!

Missile Mouse

Hey everyone! It's been a while. I've been working hard at the studio, we've been doing some pitch materials for a couple new projects and Amulet 3 is still ramping up. Bolt City Productions is kicking into gear!

Jake just posted a few pages from Missile Mouse, and they happen to be pages I colored! I thought I'd share them here as well. Isn't his little space suit adorable?

Amulet

I'm doing a bit of concept art for the next Amulet book. Here's a little sneak peek...

Galactic Hunters

So Missile Mouse is done! Jake has been posting a lot of stuff over at his blog, so you can get a sneak peek at the book over there. The book is slated for January of next year, which is an agonizing wait. I'm really interested to see what everyone thinks of it.

After working non-stop for nearly three weeks I finally caught a break and was able to do some work on my Space Hunter project! I did a quick color sketch of my character, I think I have him locked down now. You can check out the rest of the stuff here!

Call of Cthulhu

So one of my card illustrations for Call of Cthulhu was just used in a 'State of the Game' blog post over at Fantasy Flight, which you can read here: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=531

I did this back in February, but it is totally awesome seeing my illustration actually on a trading card! Here's the card along with the original illustration. I guess the Dreamlands Asylum Pack (which this card is a part of) is set for a late summer release, at which point I can show the rest of the work I did.

Phantom (of the Tollbooth variety)

I might just be able to pull this off.

More to come...

Talisman: The Dungeon

So my first published illustration work has finally hit store shelves! Back in October, I did a few card illustrations for Talisman: The Dungeon, published by Fantasy Flight Games. After what seems like forever, it's finally on sale! Here's the press release: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=521

The best part? I can show the work I did! This stuff is pretty ancient now, but I had a lot of fun doing these and I think they turned out well. I've been doing a lot more work for them since then, so I'll definitely post that when I can!

Concept Co-op

So I thought I'd plug Concept Co-op again. We're just in the beginning stages but I think there's some really awesome work being done. Here's a sampling of what I've been doing for the project. The whole idea is an intergalactic hunter who tries to find the largest and most fantastic creature to kill on each planet he visits.

So to see more of the work being done, as well as Matt's stuff, check out the blog:

http://conceptcoop.blogspot.com/

Concept co-op and new sketches!

Hey everyone,

So I've been neglecting this thing for a while...trying to get my new site put together and working on several different projects. Unfortunately most of my free time has gone out the window.

That said, I recently started a new project with Matt Kohr, and we're posting frequent updates on the project's blog at http://conceptcoop.blogspot.com/. I'm loving it so far and there's plenty of new work up there, so check it out!

I also picked up the sketchbook recently just to fill downtime and get back into doing art for myself. Here are a few sketches I've done recently:

speedies

Heyo,

So it's been quite a while...

I've been doing some freelance work over the past few months, most of which I can't show (unfortunately).

I did a few trading cards for Fantasy Flight, which was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to doing more work with them in the future.

Most of my time over the past few months has been devoted to the second book in the Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi. I started off doing flat colors, basically setting up the photoshop files for painting, and eventually moved into painting pages for the book! We're finishing up right now, doing final adjustments on pages, which is a little bittersweet. It's been a really great project, so I'm sad to see it come to an end, but it was a fantastic experience, and the book looks INCREDIBLE.

The first book is on shelves right now, and is a really great read. The second book should be out in September of '09.

So, that being said, I haven't had much time for personal work, as evidenced by my neglected blog. BUT I decided to do a quick painting for everyone in my family for Christmas, so I thought I would post those. I spent about a half-hour to an hour on each one, and they're all pretty heavily referenced, but it was good practice.

Hrm...

So I feel like I overworked this one a little. That being said, I certainly learned a lot about rocky landscapes and lighting on a grand scale. I came up with a few tricks that should help with the next one...

Onward!

WIP

Trying to polish this bad boy up...we'll see how it turns out.

Hello from PAX!

Hey all! I got into Seattle last night, thought I would post something I was working on yesterday/the day before. I'm only an hour or so into this one, but I'm really liking where it's going. It's been a fun experiment so far, but it's still a WIP.

Also I've decided I need to start sculpting again. Maybe it's because I had to leave all of my maquettes in Savannah, but there's something awesome about realizing a concept in (tactile) 3D.

And this is the best picture I have of my dino friend...what a shame.

Number 2!

And one more for the day. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this.

Now on to some character work...

Landscapey

So I've been home for a little bit now, and painting away. I'm still trying to get a grasp on environments, and I feel like I'm slowly getting there.

Rachel and I took a trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which is a free art museum downtown. I was absolutely blown away by what they had in their collection, especially the third floor which was full of classical landscape studies and plein aire paintings. I think I'm going to have to make several more visits there during my time here :)