Back in January I shared with you The Droid's Task that I created for the It Binds All Things expansion of the Star Wars Card Game. Now that this expansion has been released the time has finally come to share the process that went into this piece. So we are all on the same page, here is how the final piece turned out...


This piece needed to portray the deadly bounty hunter droid, IG-88, having a meet and greet in Jabba's Palace as it received a mission or task. There was only one logical next step... REFERENCE! I started things off with creating several tableaus based on some composition ideas that I had and used my vast collection of action figures to work out my thoughts. When it was all said and done, three of my reference images rose to the top...


Now that I had a starting point for my compositions I got to work on my thumbnails. There was still a bit to do to turn the reference into something usable, but they were a big help in getting this complex scene headed in the right direction. Here are how the thumbnails turned out...

While I liked them all, "C" was my favorite and the winner as far as Zoe and FFG were concerned. It conveyed that this scene was at Jabba's Palace and it focused heavily on IG-88 getting some sort or instructions, duty... or TASK, as it were. With an approved thumbnail it was time for a drawing...


BOOM! Drawing done and approved... time for some painting. This piece was a very odd size and I ended up making it really big so that I could get a enough height to get the detail level I prefer. In the end, the file is twenty or more inches wide. Here is a breakdown of the piece in sixteen steps...


You might notice there is a lot of editing of IG-88 towards the end and that we loose Bib Fortuna. Once the painting was finished and turned in there were several requests for revisions from FFG. First was to remove Bib (I will paint you another day my friend) he was pulling focus in the middle of the image. There was some concern IG-88 was a little beefy in all the wrong areas and that the table he was sitting at was causing his limbs to appear shorter then they are. When it was all said and done there was a bit of editing late in the game... but, it made the client happy and so it gets addressed. Here is a more thorough animated break down of the panting coming together...


Always nice to work with named 'monster' characters and I am a huge Jabba fan, so getting to paint him again was fun. While all the edits were a little stressful, end the end it did make for a stronger image that was easier to read at a glance. Again, here is how the final image turned out as well as the final production card...



That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...
 

Today on the blog I have for you the process and steps that went into my contribution to the Journey Into Nyx expansion of Magic the Gathering, the very hungry Ravenous Leucrocota. This may be a little overdue, but there is so much to share on the blog these days that is a little wait in the queue to be posted. Here is how the final Ravenous Leucrocota turned out...


The Leucrocota was not part of the Theros style guide which meant I got to design and illustrate another new monster. Since the Leucrocota is an existing mythological creature I needed to give it a unique Theros spin with a generous helping of my own monster tendencies. The art order listed the physical characteristic they wanted to see - head of a badger, haunches and tail of a lion, hooves, mouth open to the ears, bone ridges instead of teeth... and it all had to feel like a cohesive animal and not a chimera. With that in mind I got to work on some concepts...


While these may seem similar, to me they are very different. Both designs were approved by production so in the end I did a mix of the two designs and played up elements I really liked. I also worked up several color concepts to give a range of options. All of the animals of Theros have patterning on them, which allows for lots of fun when designing. Here are how my color concepts turned out...


Again, all options were approved and I could pick my favorite. I liked them all, but I really wanted to do the red headed option "B". In the final I pushed the neutral body grays more green, since this is a green creature. I have the creature's concept, colors, and patterning... all that is left are the thumbnails for the card itself...


At the time I wanted to give them a lot of action and movement and I was just in love with "C" ... of course looking at it now... it feels a bit silly. Of well. I think I was feeling good about option "D" as well. Which is good, since option "D" was the winner! With all the pieces ready to go, it was time for some drawing and then some painting. First, was the drawing...

RAWR! It is a Ravenous Leucrocota! ...or at least the drawing of one. Worked out all the issues and worked up form and detail. All those folds and wrinkles gotta come from somewhere and a lot of them begin life in the drawing. All this drawing ultimately leads to even more drawing...

The art directors never sees the toned drawing, but the line drawing was approved and I was all set to get started on the painting. This one was straight forward, but they are not always. The 'not always' will be discussed next year. Here is the Ravenous Leucrocota coming together in 14 steps...
 

Here is an animated gif of the steps for the Ravenous Leucrocota so you can see what changes a little more easily. They biggest real edit made during painting was adjusting the perspective on the mouth. Maybe it was just fine originally, but it just felt off and that means it needs to be addressed and worked on. Nothing worse then ignoring something that is bothering you and then have it brought up later by an AD or by another artist when it is too late to go anything about it.


Again, here is how the final Ravenous Leucrocota turned out as well as how the card appears in its intended home, as a card...



At some point between the release of the Journey into Nyx and now there was an article on the Magic the Gathering website that featured the Ravenous Leucrocota. I feel that it was misquoted in its interview and I wanted to set the record straight about the Ravenous Leucrocota views on the mater...


That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

Today on the blog I have for you ANOTHER new traditionally painted Star wars piece! It is like I am making a habit of this or something ...as if I am practicing ...studying ...experimenting to learn, as it were. This time around it is a Gamorrean Guard and is the largest of these Star Wars studies so far. It is also my favorite so far. I present you with my Gamorrean Guard...


I have a new frustration ...the images, scans, and digital captures I am getting of my pieces just do not truly represent what is going on in the painting. Oh well... I could have worse problems. ...it is not like digital files loose something when they are printed out.

For this piece I started with a detail from a Star Wars drawing I did for myself last year. The Barada that started off this series of studies is also from the same drawing. I really liked how each of this monsters turned out and wanted to revisit them. Here is that drawing...


I will say that there is something eerily similar to how these traditional pieces are now coming together compared to how my digital work comes together. Not sure if this is just a sign that I have a very ingrained work flow and habits that transcend media, or if in fact that after years of convincing myself to the contrary that I am actually painting when I work digitally. ...or both ...neither? Some elements take longer in digital while others take longer in traditional. In both there is the same feeling that I am swirling around and around on a piece and it slowly tightens up and at some point the piece just appears in front of me. Here is the Gamorrean Guard taking shape in 16 steps...


If all these separate images are not your thing, I have for you another of those handy dandy animated progressions for you so that you can just stare at different areas and see how they develop... at least that is what I like to do...



That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

UTINNI! Today I have for you a new traditionally painted Star Wars piece. This time around it is a small portrait of a Jawa. As with Chief Chirpa, I wanted to work a bit smaller for this one, see how quickly I could finish it and try out some new materials on it. I present you with a very small Jawa...


As with my other Star Wars piece I have been doing for myself the initial drawing is much larger then the final painting... this time even more so. The Jawa drawing is a square on 9 x 12 paper. Since I knew it was going to end up so much smaller I decided to work a little looser and quicker on the drawing. Once it was shrunk down to 4 x 4 it really tightened up and was perfect for the painting. Here is how the drawing turned out...


I was working very quickly on this one, but still managed to get some images of it along the way. Here is the Jawa coming together in paint form... more or less...


Here is another handy dandy animated gif of all those images so you can look at them all at once...



As an added bonus, here is a little video to go with a little Jawa. This was originally posted up on Instagram (where I like to post little videos of me working and photos of my drawings while I am working on them). You can see my skills of using a pencil to... um... paint? It is still painting when I use a pencil, right?


That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

YUB NUB! Today I have for you a new traditionally painted Star Wars piece. This time around it is a small portrait of the Ewok, Chief Chirpa. I wanted to work a bit smaller for this one, see how quickly I could finish it and try out some new materials on it. I present you with a very small Chief Chirpa...


As with my other Star Wars piece I have been doing for myself the initial drawing is much larger then the final painting... this time even more so. The Chief Chirpa drawing is on 9 x 12 paper. Since I knew it was going to end up so much smaller I decided to work a little looser and quicker on the drawing. Once it was shrunk down to 4 x 4 it really tightened up and was perfect for the painting. Here is how the drawing turned out...


I was working very quickly on this one, but still managed to get some images of it along the way. There is only one gap when I realized I had not taken a photo in a while... but you should still see what I was doing... or not doing. Here is Chirpa coming together in paint form...


Here is another handy dandy animated gif of all those images so you can look at them all at once...



That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

Way back in November of last year I brought you a piece I did for Dungeon Magazine illustrating a tentacled bear and his pet porcupine grub. Two great things that go better together! RAWR! Today, at long last, I have the process and steps that went into this piece. So that we are all on the same page, here is how the final piece turned out...


Stop me if you have heard this before... I started this piece off with some THUMBNAILS. Imagine that! Anyway, the assignment was to depict a druid that had been corrupted by the taint of the far realms and in his bear form (wait for it) HE HAS TENTACLES! The druid also has a couple of little porcupine grub pals and at least one needed to be in there too. I got some of my favorite bear and insect reference together and got to work on some thumbnails...


"B" was the instant favorite and was selected for this assignment. It was time for some drawing... and that was what I did. Here is how the final drawing for this piece turned out as I built up the details and fleshed out the piece...


The drawing was approved without issue (if I remember correctly) and I was good to go on getting started with the painting. In just 10 easy steps you too can have a tentacle bear... or not. Here is a progression of the image as I painted it...


This piece was really straight forward. The biggest over all issue was to make sure everything read well since there were two creatures, lots of tentacles, and a tree leaking star juice in the background. I like to crop in really close to my subjects... and this can both help and hinder me, but in the long run I have made it work. As an added bonus, here is an animated version of the painting coming together...


The painting was turned in and accepted without revision. Well, there was one note, and that was from Kate, my AD on this piece... she really wanted to see the nose of the bear to be blue to match the tentacles. Unfortunately, she was overruled by other folks at WotC and the nose remained as I had painted it. She sent me a mocked up image with the nose blue and I agreed with her, it would have been fun to see a blue nosed tentacle bear...


As always, this piece turned out as well as it did because of the ever present and helpful art directors at WotC, thanks Kate! Again, here is how the final piece turned out...

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday!  Until then...

While I had others to blame for Cad Bane, this time around it is complete my fault that that I made a Ree-Yees painting. Ree-Yees is one of the MANY aliens seen in Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi that I have been in love with for the last... 31 years (can that be right?). It was only a matter of time that I produced a piece featuring a Gran, but I figured I would cut to the chase and make myself that is based on Ree-Yees. Here is my portrait of Ree-Yees wandering around on Tatooine or perhaps Kinyen...


Why am I making these little Star Wars portraits? Because I want to. I can say that it is to better improve my traditional skill set... but these pieces are really for me and satisfy an aspect of my creative impulse that I have ignored for a long time. Don't try to read to much into it. Even though I am working at 5 x 7 for my final I have continued to work much larger for the initial drawing. I just draw better at 9 x 12 at least, if not larger, so the  drawing for this painting is nice and big...


As with the rest of my traditional pieces I have tried my best to document the process. I am still very much trying to find my way while working traditionally, so this is as much for me to reflect on how the painting went as it is for you to judge me and laugh... or learn, I guess that is an option too. Here is a bunch of images of Ree-Yees taking shape...


Here is another handy dandy animated gif of all those images so you can look at them all at once...


Is the animated gif not enough? Here are a couple of other photos I took along the way while working on this piece...



That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...