McLean Kendree: News

Sweet Tooth

2012-01-22T10:21:00.002-07:00

One time I turned in a piece to a client with a strong hit of the color pink in it, and they asked me to change it because it wasn't appropriate for their audience. A very reasonable request, though with the unexpected side-effect of me wanting to use the color pink wherever I can in personal work now!

This is a revisit of an old idea. Who says I don't have a sense of humor?

A Year of Head-Paintings - 2011

2012-01-04T09:36:00.002-07:00

Every Tuesday night we have portrait-painting class with Coro. Its a single 3-hour session with oil paint. What follows are most of the paintings I did in 2011.

I did some oil painting back in college, but when I started these paintings I literally hadn't touched a brush in years.

Cast drawing had an impact on these paintings early on, I kept trying to make them about form instead of just abstract arrangements of color and value... which runs counter to what I was taught through most of art school.

Its amazing how you can stare at a painting for hours and not see your mistakes. I've got a bad habit of exaggerating foreheads, as we can see in some of these.

Somewhere in here I started to occasionally get something I wasn't outright ashamed of. Definitely a step in the right direction, I think.

Its painful to have some of these online, but I feel like I've come a long way this year and thought that was worth sharing.

Thanks for looking, can't wait for the next time I can post a year's worth of paintings all at once.

Vampires vs. Werewolves, Pandora's Vase

2011-07-03T23:10:00.001-06:00

I did these covers for Capstone Press last year. I only just noticed them on Capstone's site, I have no idea how long they've been public.

Below are some larger versions without the type.

Being children's books I definitely was pushing the cartoon aesthetic a little more than usual.

In the end I felt like I got some fun images, though like with any work under NDA, by the time I finally get to post it all I can do is think of what I would have done differently if I were doing the job right now. Thanks for looking, all!

Big Ol Monsters

2011-06-24T20:09:00.005-06:00

You guys like monsters, right?

I was thinking of these as card illustrations, I wanted to have some fun with simple straightforward images.

Please excuse my compositional redundancy, I'll try harder to prove I'm not a one-trick-pony next time! I did these images at the Safehouse Atelier.

Cast Drawings

2011-05-26T23:28:00.000-06:00

To be honest, I didn't know what to think about cast drawing before I started.

I soon found that a main goal of cast drawing is not just to render something immaculately, but to internalize the relationship between form and light. It's obvious in theory, but can be elusive in practice.

The impact on my personal work has been solid. Light and form are becoming more of a reflex. When I'm working from imagination I make confident decisions where a year ago I would have been confused.

I know many artists haven't given this a shot and don't see the point, but there are many artists who HAVE given this a shot and DO see the point. Don't knock it til ya try it, it could make a world of difference. ;)

I did these drawings at the Safehouse Atelier. Represent.

Safehouse Atelier & Massive Black concept project

2011-04-12T14:43:00.002-06:00

So I've been hanging out at the Safehouse Atelier in San Francisco since January 2011, and now I've got a couple of things to share.

If you're not familiar with Safehouse, it is the new incarnation of the old NextGen Conceptart Atelier, headed up by Carl Dobsky and some of the Massive Black guys. The NextGen Atelier produced artists like Mike Bierek, Whit Brachna, Nonie Nelson, Christian MacNevin ("Dirty C"), Karla Ortiz, and lots of others. The program has some street-cred in the industry, to say the least.

I came into the school while this project was already underway, it was headed up by Kemp Remillard and El Coro. We were to design assets and flesh out the world for a movie set 50 years in the future. We had to make it seem futuristic without going overboard (like I did on the robot sketches below!). This assignment is coming to a close, and soon we'll begin work on the next project!

I am building up art-momentum, and should soon be posting more frequently with freelance jobs and classwork. Thank you all for looking!

Parade: Finished!

2010-10-21T23:56:00.000-06:00

Ah, finally done. Taking a break to work on those other pieces really helped me come back to this one and wrap it up. In my defense, I have been working on this piece for maybe an hour or two at a time, intermittently. Glad to be done with it though, it would bug me so much if I never finished it.

Tune in next time for "Don't Cover Everything in Pattern, You Idiot!"

Thanks for looking!

Mister Monday

2010-10-11T12:15:00.002-06:00

Here's another piece in my effort to round out my Middle Grade portfolio component. This image is based on the Garth Nix book Mister Monday.

I proceeded on this one a bit more cautiously than the Canopy piece. That one practically fell together, as though I wasn't trying. This time around the image was a little more complicated. Two characters instead of one, distorted perspective, fantastical architecture, and blue jeans! A formidable foe indeed. I'm happy with the result, though. Turns out blue jeans aren't so tough.

As I mentioned earlier this is from the book Mister Monday, a middle-grade fantasy-adventure published by Scholastic. I think it's easy to write off books aimed at younger audiences as being less sophisticated, and I guess to some degree that's true. Could you imagine "Cormac McCarthy for Kids!"? Better bring a dictionary, lil' squirt. However, it might be easy to forget that these stories aimed at kids are often crafted by sharp, intelligent adults. Being a fan of several Garth Nix books, I was unsure how I would feel about this story that was so intentionally marketed toward a slightly younger audience (Middle Grade instead of Young Adult... I could be splitting hairs here). Anyway, of course the author's imagination, humor, and drum-tight action sequences were just as present here as in any of his other books. Once I have some free time I'll be checking out the rest of the series (there's a book for each day of the week)!

Oh, I'm writing this on a Friday afternoon, but I just had to set this to automatically post on Monday. Cute, right?

Cthulhutech - Ancient Enemies

2010-10-07T18:02:00.006-06:00

Hey guys, looks like Cthulhutech: Ancient Enemies came out recently, which means I'm good to share the image below. I've worked on Cthulhutech before, and again had the pleasure of working with Mike Vaillancourt.

I did this image almost two years ago, and after not looking at it for so long there are several things that jump out at me. For starters, I know that if I did this same image today, I would be MUCH more thorough with the architecture's design and rendering, and would have eased up on some of the photoshopped textures. I'm not so sure about the perspective either. The colors, however, I'm still pretty happy with. Cthulhutech always brings out my neon side.

I was 50/50 on whether to share this here, since I feel like I've grown substantially since this piece. I decided to share it because hey, SOMEBODY might get a kick out of it.

Keep an eye out, because I've got a new piece right around the corner. It's so close to being finished I can TASTE it!

Canopy III

2010-09-26T16:11:00.006-06:00

So, this might look sorta familiar.

I got so attached to that first color sketch that I had to finish it up! And I did so pretty quickly too. I am continuing to try and cover more Middle Grade ground in my portfolio, in addition to the more classic fantasy stuff I already have.

If you've known me for a while, or at least been familiar with my work for a while, you'd know that I can't seem to go for more than 2 years or so without painting a new picture of some girl running around in a tree (wow those are so old and bad). Thus the "III" in the title. As always, thanks for looking!

Color and Composition Practice 1

2010-09-20T22:09:00.002-06:00

It always seems like when I'm in the middle of a lot of work, I always get ideas for images that I don't have time to create. I always tell myself I will eventually make that image, but I rarely do. The paying jobs always seem to come first. Lately I've taken a little time out of each day to do a quick color/composition sketch and at least materialize these ideas to some degree, before they disappear into the nether-regions of my brain, never to be seen or thought of again.

It's also great practice! I intend to continue this exercise whenever possible, and maybe I'll end up finishing the "home-runs" from time to time. Thanks for looking!

Portrait Drawin' 2

2010-09-14T18:15:00.004-06:00

Hey people, here's a new portrait. Instead of using a spotlight I used the ambient day-light from the glass doors of our patio. The result was a more gentle modelling of the forms, instead of the harsh contrast of a spotlight.

Thanks for looking!

Influence Map

2010-09-01T18:27:00.003-06:00

Well, there's a new meme making the rounds in art forums and sites like Deviantart. I decided to sit down and do one too.

Most of this is either stuff that I think is apparent in my work, or stuff that I'm trying to incorporate into my work.

If you want to do your own you can download the template from here.

On the Digital Easel: Parade Progress

2010-08-22T08:14:00.003-06:00

I've been working on this image on and off for the last few months. I've been so slammed with work that I've not been able to give this piece much attention. Normally I wouldn't post something that's so half-baked, but its progress has just been dragging on and on, and I haven't posted anything on here in forever.

At this rate, between concepting environmental objects on a sweet upcoming video game (none of which I'll be able to share for a while) and painting up an illustration job here and there, I'll probably end up posting the final around Christmas time. I've got another smaller personal piece in the works that I will probably end up posting way sooner than that, though. At least I hope so. Til' next time, friends!

Portrait Drawin'

2010-06-27T04:06:00.004-06:00

Had a local Santa Fean come to the apartment and sit for a portrait. My roomie and I were the only ones drawing. It was the most chill figure drawing session I've done in a while (ever?).

Thanks for lookin'!

Dragons VS Dinos!!!

2010-06-23T20:26:00.004-06:00

We were all kids once. When was a kid I apparently thought nothing was cooler than dinosaurs playing dragons in basketball. I've never even liked sports.

Here are a couple studies I did from other people's photos. You know, to make up for the silliness.

Busy as ever, doing a lot of work that I probably won't get to show for another year or two, if at all.

But I'm working, I'm drawing, and enjoying the cool evening air tonight. Life can be nice.

Spectrum 17 - How'd that happen?

2010-03-22T22:33:00.004-06:00

I just found out last night that I was selected for inclusion into Spectrum 17, and I'm pleasantly surprised. I don't know yet which piece got in, but I'll find out soon.

Congrats to all my friends who battled their way into this edition of Spectrum too!

Sam Bosma
Kali Ciesemier
Zelda Devon
Erin McGuire
Aaron Miller
Sean Murray
Winona Nelson
Chris Rahn
Adam Volker

And thanks for all the support and congratulatory words from everyone on twitter and facebook!

Sorry if I missed you in the links above - its a long list! If you want to see the full list, you can click here.

D&D Spot Illustrations and a Figure Drawing

2010-03-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

Here are a few 1/4 page illustrations I did for Dungeon and Dragon Magazines over the past several months. The two characters on the left I did for Jon Schindehette, and the four weapons I did for Keven Smith. I've enjoyed doing pieces this small, the variety is a nice break from some of the bigger, more involved pieces I've posted lately.

Also, this past Sunday my friends and I went to an uninstructed figure drawing session, and it was great to get back to drawing from life. I felt a little rusty at first, but this stuff is like riding a bike.

Thanks for looking, I'll have more goodies soon!

Adventurous Youngsters: Part 1

2010-03-01T04:16:00.001-07:00

I'd really like to get involved with some YA fantasy book-cover work. I always felt that my color palettes were appropriate, and that my interest in the fantasy genre was evident. So what gives!? Oh, right, I need to draw 'Young Adults'. A little while back I reached out and got people's suggestions on good YA fantasy books (still open, BTW, just list 'em off in the comments of this post). My aim was to find some solid YA books that I could create illustrations for, and thus broaden my portfolio's horizons a bit.

I plan to alternate between illustrations that depict already-published stories, and illustrations that expand my own personal sandbox/world and aesthetic.

This first value-rough is for one of the personal pieces. I'm making an effort to have elements in this image overlap and not be too secular. My friend and former coworker Jeremy once made a good observation on an earlier piece of mine that each of the elements were very separate from everything else. I'm making an effort to push this overlap and interplay in my work until it becomes second-nature. That's really how I make any kind of progress: I work at it until it becomes a reflex.

And below are some thumbnails and outfit sketches for a Sabriel illustration. Sabriel is the title character in the book by Garth Nix.

If you're a fan of Sabriel, you should check out the work my other friend and former coworker Kali has been doing for the Picture Book Report. I was a little hesitant to get rolling on this piece for fear of simply being outclassed in the Sabriel category. But hey, its a fun book, and the more art the merrier.

I'm going to try and post my progress on this project every month, but I'm not making any promises as to how often this will produce a finished illustration. Work gets hectic, man. You know what I'm sayin'.

Portrait Practice 2

2010-02-22T21:16:00.001-07:00

I've been continuing with these portrait studies for the last week, its been a good daily warm-up. I feel like the quality between this week's portraits and last week's is noticeably higher. That's the good thing about continued practice! I'm finding that for me personally, the greatest challenges are in overcast lighting (2nd portrait) and the extremely blown-out light sources (6th portrait). This is enjoyable.

These were all about an hour's worth of work, from reference, done completely in photoshop.

Portrait Practice 1

2010-02-16T04:52:00.000-07:00

Well, its been about a month since my last post. I figured I was about due for another one. Here are some head studies I've been occasionally doing to try and keep on my toes. These are from photo reference and took an hour each.

I'm very happy now that I've changed the look of my blog. With a background that is essentially a mini-portfolio, I don't feel so pressured for every blog post to feel like it has to include portfolio-worthy artwork. I feel much more free to post sketches, practice paints, and works in progress. If I can manage to stay on track, I should have much more to post in the coming months along those lines.

QUESTION!!! What sites do you guys use for anatomy reference? Are there any sites that frequently have new images uploaded of the nude figure? Yeah, yeah, I can hear some of you chuckling with a snide remark to that last one. Really though, if you've got a favorite anatomy site then I'd love for you to share the link in the comments to this post! Thanks a lot guys!!!

Dungeons & Dragons: Hammerfast

2010-01-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

In my last post I was lamenting my wait to reveal artwork. Well, this morning I noticed on the Wizards site that this image is now public!

This is the most recent cover I've completed for Dungeons and Dragons, for the Hammerfast book hitting shelves in April 2010. This will be the first book in a new series about different locations in the D&D universe. I had Kate Irwin as my AD for this, and I feel like the entire process was extremely positive and fun. So thank you, Kate, for working with me on this project!

These are the best days of being an illustrator, when you get to share. I thought it would be neat to include some of the process for this image. The description I received for this assignment was very specific in what the illustration was supposed to show, so it made my job much simpler right from the get-go:

As always, thanks a ton for looking and reading!

Raccoon Skull

2010-01-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

Hello! Boy, its been a while since I posted. Its going to be a little longer yet before I post some of the good stuff. I've begun some contract work for a gaming company in addition to continuing my freelance illustration, so I've been really slammed. The illustration assignments usually take several months to get published, and then the concept art can take years before its released, so sometimes I'm without much to share. Despite being productive as all-get-out.

So I sat down tonight and decided to draw something for the sake of practice. Just for me.

Hey, nothing elaborate, just a lil' ol' raccoon skull. It felt really good to sit and draw something from life... I don't think I've done that in over a year. Its moments like this when I really miss college. Ringling had open figure drawing every weeknight, through the figure-drawing club (with which I served as president for a year :D ). Jeez, I'd love to have that option nowadays.

Some of what got me motivated to do this was watching fellow illustrator Dave Rapoza's Crimson Daggers group. Highly inspirational! I encourage you to go check out how hard they're working. Its contagious!!!

Thanks for reading, I hope to update again soon. If nothing else, I'll work up a whole batch of skull drawings to justify a post. Heh.

New Mexico

2009-12-11T14:46:00.001-07:00

Today instead of artwork, I was thinking I would share some photos from my adventures around New Mexico in the last two months. As I think the pictures will show, the weather has changed pretty drastically in a short amount of time. Also: I'm no photographer, but I think I did alright for an amatuer.

I'm already out of shape, but when Santa Fe is at a 7000 foot elevation it doesn't make walking up these beautiful mountains any easier. Not as much oxygen in the air.

Kyler and Sean survey the rock we conquered. In the distance: Kyler's Honda Element.

O hai thar. Its me in the desert. In flip-flops. If I stepped on a rattlesnake I'd be in trouble.

Below are pictures of Kyler and Larissa, whom you might recognize from my last illustration posted to the blog.

Notice the size of the trees on the cliffs. These formations were enormous.

Next time: new art. I promise. Thanks for looking!

Dragon 381

2009-11-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

Finally! Here is the cover of Dragon Magazine 381. I had the privilege of working with Jon Schindehette again, and I'm flattered that he trusted me with such a cool assignment. It was great to be given the same kind of responsibility that guys like Kekai Kotaki, Cyril Van Der Haegen, and Kieran Yanner have taken on as well!

There was a lot of good back-and-forth in the early stages of thumbnailing, so that we could get as close as possible to the idea that Jon envisioned for the piece. The result was a composition that was less typical for me, which is good. That's one of the neat things about working with an art director: you tackle problems you wouldn't have come up with alone.

I believe in making images that A. have a strong impact at a glance, and B. hold up under scrutiny. I've been following Jon's Artorder blog long enough to know that whenever he posts cover images, he makes the files extra-big (and why shouldn't they be? they're covers!). Knowing this was added incentive to make sure that this image wouldn't just fall apart once the viewer got a close look. Its one of the most "hi-res" images I've done in a while, if that makes any sense.

Having moved to New Mexico has manifested in its own little way; the color palette and the rock formations in the background weren't any product of growing up in South Carolina, lemme tell ya. Now that I can go see some epic mountains at sunset, its wild to witness how much atmospheric perspective obliterates detail and just reduces mountains into simple shapes of brilliant color slashing away at the horizon. The clouds are pretty, too. My New Mexico friends have taken to calling them "McLean Clouds", which makes me happy.

Thanks for reading! I've got more goodies in the works, another cover included. It might be a little while longer before I can post that one but it'll get here, rest assured!

Cthulhutech: Mortal Remains

2009-10-05T11:29:00.001-06:00

I did this image way back in April, but the book wasn't released until recently. Now that it's out, I can share this image!

I don't normally do much sci-fi subject matter, so this was a fun challenge. I think that this piece has a much more "digital" color palette than most of my portfolio, which is really kind of appropriate for something so futuristic. I think this is also one of the first illos I've done where a human character isn't present.

As more of the Cthulhutech books come out I'll be able to share more illustrations I've done for them, so keep your eyes peeled!

Betrayal at Monadhan

2009-09-09T20:33:00.000-06:00

Well, the new issue of Dungeon Magazine went live, so I think its safe to go ahead and show you guys this illustration I did for it.

This is the same dragon that's pictured on the cover of Dungeon 170, except dying. Once you defeat the larger dragon, a smaller dragon in his chest cavity comes out to continue the fight.

I don't have much else to say, I'm minutes away from packing up my computer and heading out for Shreveport, Louisiana with my good friend Kyler, to visit my other good friend Adam. From there, we are heading to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and will see what the west holds for us.

Incidentally this may involve an extensive search for a new apartment, so if there's anybody listening out there who would like to send some work my way, it would probably make my move to a new place a little easier on the financial end!

Thanks for reading!

Make the Most of the Blogosphere

2009-09-03T13:00:00.000-06:00

This post is to discuss how I've been looking at blogs, and why I recommend it to others. (from an illustrator's perspective)

Firstly, the tool I use to view all the blogs I like in one place is Google Reader. You can add feeds from Blogger, Livejournal, Deviantart, practically anywhere. So that means that the instant Jon Schindehette or Irene Gallo update their blogs, it immediately pops up in my Google Reader. It might seem pretty stalker-ish when I've got the first comment 3 times in a row on someone's blog, but I can live with that. The other nice thing about Google Reader is that if you have several friends using it, you can share items from blogs you're subscribed to with them, even if your friend isn't subscribed to that blog themself.

Ok, so now you've set that up and you're subscribed to all the cool art blogs. All set, right?

Well, there are a lot of useful blogs out there that aren't artist blogs. A great benefit in having friends share their subscribed blogs is that I've been exposed to blogs I would have never sought out on my own. Blogs that are proving to be extremely valuable. Here are a few that I've found helpful in some way or another:

Poorer Than You - Helpful tips for college students and graduates on saving money. You gotta save today, otherwise it won't be there tomorrow. This one is really worth researching all the old posts.

Jacket Whys - Discusses book covers for children's and YA books. While many of the posts don't deal directly with illustration, I still find that this blog drops a real nugget of wisdom on me from time to time.

Editorial Anonymous - This one is about the publishing industry. The author stays anonymous (duh) so that they can be brutally honest without endangering their job security.

Nathan Bransford - Nathan is a literary agent. As an illustrator, it might one day seem like a good idea for me to pursue an agent for myself. So while Nathan doesn't represent illustrators, there is still advice here that you could apply to your own pursuits of an agent.

The Consumerist - Shoppers bite back! Consumers write in with their bad experiences with companies they purchase things from, and the Consumerist staff may do a write-up about it on the front page. Often they will include advice on what to do in a certain situations. This covers fast food, department stores, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies... it covers a lot.

Stoopid Bloog - Another anonymous blog. This one is just special though. I can't say it would be helpful to anyone else, but I've found it to be very spiritually uplifting.

And of course, if you're not subscribed to Art Order, The Art Department, or Gurney Journey, you may as well tack those on as well. I don't think anyone reading my blog won't already know about those, though.

These are just a few of the ones that aren't artist's blogs that I subscribe to. There are loads of agents' blogs, or publishing blogs, or blogs about personal finance, cooking, the gaming industry, etc. Its just up to you to go seek them out.

And I didn't have any new art to show again, but issue 170 of Dungeon Magazine should hit the internet any day now, so once that happens I will update with a very fun piece I did for that issue.

So, what blogs do YOU read? I would love to hear about any blogs you guys read on a regular basis that you think are really great. I'm always on the lookout for new stuff to add to my Google Reader, so drop a link in the comments! Thanks for reading everyone!

ImagineFX 47

2009-08-24T15:16:00.001-06:00

So I scored the "Artist of the Month" slot in the current issue of ImagineFX, which I think is just swell. This issue has been out a while in the U.K., but I've only just seen it stateside today. The funny thing is, I'd been meaning to submit my work to this magazine for, like, forever. I guess fate got impatient, because they came to me and asked that I be in their magazine, ha! It was pretty flattering, and I'm proud to be printed in the same publication that I've seen so many of my heroes and peers in.

A big "Thank You" to the ImagineFX guys, I got a copy of the Massive Black art book as well as a copy of Exotique 4 as a prize.

Man, now if only that info section was more accurate. If you pick up this issue you might be able to tell I wrote up that information a while ago. Heh. Anyway, movin' on!

The next time I post I'll have some new art goodies, I swear!

15 Minute Speed-Paints 5

2009-07-20T05:58:00.001-06:00

I'm back! Only a small batch today, I've got a lot of work to do. I'm going to start using these as a warm-up before working on other illustrations. Just something to loosen up and remind myself that painting is just putting down a lot of abstract shapes and colors, that only mean something relative to the other abstract shapes and colors.

15 Minute Speed-Paints 4

2009-07-16T02:26:00.000-06:00

Surprise! King Kong! Yeah yeah, you know the drill. The two in the middle i spent a little more than 15 minutes on, but besides that, 15 minutes all the way.

By the way, thanks everyone for dropping in, commenting, and showing support in other ways too. It means a lot to me, I think when you're out on your own its easy to lose touch with your community of artists. Some days it might be tough to keep your motivation up, and I think when we all take a moment to cheer each other on, it does a lot.

Dragon Magazine (and more King Kong)

2009-07-14T23:13:00.000-06:00

Hello all! I am so very pleased to finally share my first illustration done with Wizards of the Coast. They have the preview of the image online now, so I guess that means I'm in the clear. If you come back later and this post has vanished, well, that probably means I wasn't in the clear.

This illustration was done for the online incarnation of Dragon Magazine, issue 377. I had the privilege of working with the notorious Jon Schindehette. If you don't know about Jon, you should.

So I'm a pretty happy camper right now. I can stick this feather in my hat, and I've also got a couple different projects in the pipeline. Happy days! It feels like all the years of hard work is starting to pay off. Well, pay off with more years of hard work, but that's alright! I feel so very lucky to work in something I'd be doing anyway in my spare time. We artists are a lucky bunch, minus the recession.

Here are some more King Kong studies. 15 minutes each, as usual. I've posted a batch of these every day for the last 3 days. Go me! Doing these exercises has already gotten me thinking about ways to improve, its alarming how fast I'm making "color discoveries" off of the past 3 days doing this. I definitely recommend it to any artists working digitally. Its so easy to get started too, just grab your favorite dvd and you're good to go!

Thanks for reading, my faithful friends.

15 Minute Speed-Paints 2

2009-07-13T23:17:00.001-06:00

More practice from this evening. I wonder how long I can keep using stills from this movie (King Kong) before I burn out and hafta switch. Well, I have the extended edition, so it might take a while to find out. Man, I love me some Peter Jackson extended edition dvd's. Naomi Watts is also very nice to look at, but you wouldn't be able to tell from these...yet!

I'd been using this blog like a 2nd portfolio site with a lot of words, but I think this is the start of me actually using a blog how its meant to be used. Here's hoping I don't fall off into obscurity after 2 weeks.

15-minute Speed Paints

2009-07-13T03:37:00.000-06:00

I took a couple hours out tonight to do some speed-painting, because I want to get more comfortable with the Wacom tablet. Yeah, I know, I've been using it for 5 years now. But most of my process usually involves me drawing out whatever it is I'm going to paint, and then scanning that in. I also want to practice composition more, and I gotta say, doing these speed paints is like killing two birds with one stone! I'm definitely having fun with these. I've been talking with some helpful individuals about getting off my butt and really using my spare time to do studies and practice for myself, instead of only working when I'm being paid for it. I can't remember the last time I did any artwork that was just for me, just for the sake of practice. Its always this job or doing it for that annual, or so that I can have a specific something for my portfolio.

Well, enough talk. This is my venture for the evening, I spent 15 minutes on each of these.

I know. It'll get better. If you're an AD and this is your first time visiting, for the love of god scroll down! I swear I'm at least halfway decent!

I'll mail a postcard to the first person who guesses what movie this was from! I'll need your mailing addy to get the postcard to you, though! ;)

Also, I am available for more freelance work. You know. FYI. Just saying.

McLean's Mentoring!!!

2009-07-07T02:06:00.000-06:00

So over at the conceptart.org website, they have an entire forum devoted to students connecting to volunteer "mentors." The learning process has always been something I've found kind of interesting, I feel like all throughout my career as a student I've paid as much attention to how the instructors demonstrate ideas as the ideas themselves.

Well, I've always wanted to get one of those threads underway, and now I have. I've got 3 guys who are taking the plunge and putting their trust in me this summer. The goal of the class is to arrive at a single finished illustration with a strong composition and color palette. The road there includes lots of thumbnails, value studies, and color studies before we ever start on a final. If you'd like to follow along, you can do so by clicking here. If the class goes well, I think I will make it an ongoing program, with a summer class, an autumn class, and a spring class.

Also, I am going to jump in and do a piece with the class myself, but shhhh! Don't tell them, its a secret for right now. Why should those guys have all the fun, right? Below is a thumbnail I am considering.

Its an image of a Nacatl from Magic: The Gathering. Because hey, who doesn't want to paint a Magic card? It couldn't hurt to tackle some of the Magic subject matter head-on. I also didn't want to get too complicated with narrative in this image, because it seems like most Magic cards are very direct in whats going on. He's making a "quick retreat." Simple enough, right? I also like that he takes up a lot of space in the picture, most of the things I do are figures with a very "safe" amount of negative space around them. The Magic cards hafta pack a lot of punch at a small scale, and that means you gotta get a little more bold with your cropping decisions! At least it seems so.

Also: My freelance schedule is opening up here pretty soon, so to any of you art directors out there, feel free to show me some love. ;)

Until next time, dear readers!

Illustration Master Class 2009

2009-06-21T12:32:00.000-06:00

This last week I attended the Illustration Master Class, hosted by Rebecca Guay. It was a fun week, I was very productive and met a lot of really darn cool people. I think my brain almost exploded when Irene Gallo, Greg Manchess, Jon Foster, Dan Dos Santos and Justin Gerard were all in the same room. It was way too much for a nerd like me to handle!

We had several options for our assignment this past week. I went with the "Steampunk Wizard of Oz" option. As you will see, even for a "steampunk" version, my piece was a very loose interpretation. I decided right off the bat that I wanted to show the Wicked Witch of the West in my illustration, along with Dorothy. My thumbnails here are much more rough than what I'd usually send to a client, but for personal work they work just fine. The one I chose had a very similar camera angle and setup to my last illustration, with the cartoony fox.

After choosing a thumbnail I was happy with, I did some drawing and some color studies, and finally ended up with two color directions that seemed like equally good solutions (A and B above). I settled on B because it seemed a little less typical for me, I know I've relied on "blue-green + red-orange" more than once. Plus, I've got a job I'm working on that might look really good in those colors, so I figured I could save that palette for later.

Once I got past the preliminary work, it was pretty smooth sailing into the final piece. After fine-tuning the colors and values in the studies, I knew that as long as I kept referencing my studies and adhering to them, it'd be nearly impossible to mess up the final illustration. (you can click the image for a larger version)

I really think this piece raised the bar, and is a step up from the rest of my work. More than one instructor told me I was working on my best piece, and that's a good thing to hear. It gets me excited to make EVERY illustration my "best" illustration (which is how it should be anyway).

Speaking of "best illustrations", I have a deadline staring me down, so I need to go kick its ass now. In the meantime, you may want to see some of the other illustrations that other notable IMC students did. Here are some links to the blogs of Justin Gerard, Nonie Nelson and Zelda Devon. No promises that they will have their piece online when you click the link, but I'm sure that they're on the way. These guys have great blogs anyway, so hopefully you won't mind looking at all the awesome work they have.

Thanks for checking in! I'll leave you with a picture of yours truly hard at work, from Irene Gallo's Flickr. Keep fighting the good fight!

Dream Kingdom

2009-05-18T21:21:00.001-06:00

So I just finished this guy up a few days past. Its probably the most kid-friendly thing I've done since these guys years past. So yeah, I really enjoyed working on this one, and its given me some ideas on some long-term personal projects I'd like to start on, focusing on elaborate environments. I've really been admiring Mary Grandpre's palettes lately, sort of "rediscovered" her work. You might know Mary's work on the Harry Potter books in the United States, but she's got way better stuff than that! Really worth a look if you've never been to her site, and if you already have - well, one good turn deserves another!

I think its neat to be able to claim influences on artists that people wouldn't normally associate you with. I would prattle on about all my various influences, but I think that might be a little self-indulgent. It'd be as though this blog were all about me or something.

Next time I post, I'm hoping to have some darker fantasy material to share. I wouldn't want you guys to think I'm all just cuddly animals over here.

Odinn Iceborn

2009-04-18T21:38:00.000-06:00

Quick edit: I am very aware of the resemblance between this character and Lars Umulaut of Guitar Hero. In fact, you could almost say that was the point...

Hey peeps, just finished this up a few days ago, so off to the blog it goes! This is quite silly, and I feel somewhat unusual for me. Strangely enough though, it came quite easily and without much struggle. This guy is supposed to represent the genre of "Black Metal", and I was checking out the costumes of bands like Immortal a lot. Immortal are pretty funny, unintentionally so. Kyler was my go-to guy for getting background info on this genre.

And just in case you're curious, here is a video of Immortal. Please note that nowhere in this post did I ever say I liked Immortal or black metal. Thanks for reading!

Darkness Calls

2009-04-10T01:31:00.000-06:00

Hey all, me again.

I just finished this up, so I decided to go ahead and toss it onto the ol' blog. I did this one to show that I can portray licensed characters, and to try to show that I have the chops to do comic-cover type work. I imagine it would be easier for a client to trust me with their character if they saw that I could, in fact, draw other peoples' creations. This image is taken from the recent Hellboy story "Darkness Calls", the first trade to be illustrated completely by a single artist other than Mignola, that artist being Duncan Fegredo. I'll admit it took a little while for me to warm up to Fegredo's take on Hellboy, but now I'm pretty sold on the guy. Also, Koshchei was just a cool badguy.

I really dig the comics where the artist has taken it upon themselves to mold and create their own story and world. Guy Davis is one of my favorites for this, his Marquis title is wildly good. In my eyes though, the guy who tops 'em all is Jeff Smith, creator of Bone. Whew. If you like comics of any kind, or consider youself a fan of fantasy-type stories, its a crime not to read this one. I would want to do some art depicting those characters, but I think Smith's stuff works best as line drawings, I don't think I could add anything significant to what he already has going on.

Thanks for reading, guys!

Ups and Downs

2009-04-06T00:24:00.001-06:00

Well darn. I was part of the Big Huge Layoffs that happened last week. Thats a total bummer. But hey, freelance is picking up a bit, and that's no small thing in today's economy. As lame as lay-offs are, there are a few upsides to it. For starters I had to go ahead and bite the bullet and get myself a new laptop to work on, and it is a beauty. A maximum of 8GB of RAM, a decent graphics card, and widescreen to boot!

Another upside is that I can share all this art I did for the RPG that will, in all probability, never see the light of day. I shed a single tear for this awesome game that could have been. (actually on this second image those motion studies are old, pre-bighuge).

Thanks to everyone reading, and another thanks to everyone who has called to check up on how I'm doing. Don't worry guys, I'm sure that the next batch of good things is only just around the corner!

Oh, Whoops!

2009-02-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

Remember how I was complaining about all that "illustration-discrimination" stuff just a while ago? I guess I have to eat my own words on this one. Man, I feel like a tool.

http://soicompetitions.org/?section=institution_view_winners&institution_id=100&competition_id=30&entry_id=13998

Ringling enters all the pieces that make it into their End of the Year show, and so I didn't even realize this piece was in the running. It wasn't until I was checking Tina Sweep's blog (a good friend and good painter) when I saw that I had gotten in! Kooky! Tina's blog is here: http://tsweep.blogspot.com/ What is funny, to me, is that I did in fact enter this very piece in the student competition the year before, and it did not make the cut. Funny how life is sometimes.

While I'm at it, I guess I should upload some new art. Here are some drawings from the Dr. Sketchy's here in Baltimore. I'm usually a bigger fan of straight nude figure drawing, but its been such a while since ive had the chance to draw from a model, I wasn't complaining. I had good fun, actually. I hope it shows.

Also, a little while ago my friend from Ringling, Robb Gibbs http://robbgibbs.blogspot.com/ (now working at Firaxis up the road) and I took an excursion to DC to find cool things to draw. While the police would not let us park lawn chairs in front of the White House to draw, we DID get to draw some neat skeletons and stuff in the National Museum of Natural History.

More recently I got to participate in New York Comic-Con, and I had a great experience! I saw the James Jean show the day before it was to be taken down at the Jonathan Levine Gallery(and boy was it awesome), and that has gotten me all kinds of motivated to get back into traditional media. I stayed with a friend, Dennis Brown http://www.bagger43.com/ , and had the chance to pick his brain a bit about general art topics. I also had the chance to catch up with friends like Erik Jones http://irison.blogspot.com/ , Miguel Lantigua http://gluesblog.blogspot.com/ and Chris Johnson http://mrvisions.blogspot.com/ . I met people like Nathan Fox http://www.foxnathan.com/ , Irene Gallo http://igallo.blogspot.com/ , Jon Schindehette http://artorder.blogspot.com/ , and Jesper Ejsing http://www.jesperejsing.com/ , and walked away from every meeting very fired up and excited about what the future holds. Good trip, all around.

Lastly: A doodle.

Hopefully the next time I post, I'll be able to share some of the freelance I've been doing, not sure when I can let the cat out of the bag on that stuff! Soon I hope! Hope everyone is doing well!

Blue Giant Ver. 2.0

2008-12-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

Oh man, these re-works just keep comin'!

Bog Witch Final

2008-12-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post the final of this one to the ol' blog, so here it is. I dunno, I think its come a good ways, but its certainly time to let it go (for now, anyway). I should be able to have another pretty solid update before Xmas, but I gotta get the work done first before I can post it!

Gorgon Blood 2.0

2008-12-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a rework of an older image, I'm glad I took the time to fix it up. Its one of my favorite things that I've done now, so hopefully the trend will continue. I'm going to go back and tidy up a couple more images for the sake of portfolio, Spectrum entry, etc.

Thanks for looking.

Process on my Bog Witch

2008-10-18T11:55:00.000-06:00

Hi all, I'm posting some process for a piece I'm still tinkering on. This is a piece that I thought I "finished" a while ago, as a quicker illustration, yet I now find myself coming back to it. Like I said, I'm not done yet, but I thought it would be neat to show my process (so far), and to show what my work starts out looking like most of the time (ugly).

Here goes. As usual, you can click the pics for larger versions.

2008-09-19T18:00:00.000-06:00

Hi all, this one isn't quite done yet, I still need to add a back view and finish rendering the left figure. Im about to really get cranking on a batch of freelance work, so its going to be a little bit before I can hop back onto this one, but I do intend to.

more stuff

2008-09-03T10:41:00.000-06:00

Big Old Lizard

2008-08-24T19:05:00.000-06:00

Im done for the night,I'll probably clean this guy up a tiny bit before I put it in the portfolio, but overall I'm happy with him. I'd like to have one of these as a pet.

more stuff

2008-08-22T12:12:00.000-06:00

more on the way, as usual. Still need to get on a turnaround.

Day 6

2008-08-10T04:37:00.000-06:00

This post is a little lighter, just these sword designs for now. I think after these.... I think I'll start on a turnaround for that one robot in the "Into the Fire" piece. Man, there are a lot of little things I want to prune and replace on my site, but I hafta go at one one step at a time. My next post will either be that robot turnaround or another character to go with the "Dead Empire" characters currently online. The two of them feel a little bit lonesome, and I want to flesh out that slot in my portfolio before starting the next slot. Yes, that settles it.

Day 5

2008-08-09T20:39:00.000-06:00

ok, so here are some of those weapon designs I'd been playing with. Next on the menu will be some different blade-oriented designs, like more spear-heads, swords, daggers maybe,i dunno. Just whatever seems like a good idea when I sit down to draw.

Day 3

2008-08-07T04:31:00.000-06:00

Alrighty, so I think i've got my first straight-up environment for my site. These are a little more tough for me, but I can see how rewarding it is for those who do it well, and that helps motivate me. Personally, I feel like environments are an area in which I have a lot of investigating left to do.

Motion Studies

2008-08-06T00:44:00.000-06:00

So I am going to try and take the next couple weeks to beef up and flesh out the concept end of my portfolio. The first instance of that I finished today, in the form of some Motion studies for my old Dream-Catcher character.

I also finished that Blue Giant piece below.

There are environments, weapon designs, and animals on the way!

Its been too long

2008-07-27T21:38:00.000-06:00

Long time no update! Anyway, I've been moving things around and I think I've finally got an online portfolio setup that I'm going to stick with for a while. My portfolio is at www.mcleanart.com, and all the news and updates will be here. I've got a finished piece and a color rough here, to show that I have been up to something. The first one is a painting of the Sabriel character from the Garth Nix book series. The second one is an unused direction from a Jack and the Beanstalk illustration that I decided to turn into something else. Most of my pieces look like that early on. The final should be finished soon, and uploaded onto my portfolio site.

I'm hoping to get the ball rolling on some personal projects soon, so that I can start to post that stuff too. Right now I'm thinking something in comic-form, to introduce some different characters that are part of a bigger scheme.

Spectrum 15

2008-04-28T20:47:00.000-06:00

So I finally found out which piece of mine was actually accepted into Spectrum, and it was not the one I thought it would be - however I am thrilled regardless, and am dead-set on entering next year! The piece that got in was A Wrinkle in Time! I should say congrats to all my buds who got in this year too, there were quite a few! I hope to see them again next year on the artist list.

In other news, I created a "traditional illustration" section for all things painterly and graphic.

Oh, and if you haven't checked it out, James Gurney's blog is an incredible day-to-day educational resource. Schools have you pay so much, but this guy is just giving it out for free (to paraphrase a friend), so show this guy some love and better yourself! http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

Lastly, I am selling Prints of my pieces through Deviantart.

Click for Prints!

They're not signed or anything, but you can get them really big, which i intend to do sometime soon just to feed my narcisism. But seriously, haven't you ever wanted a giant print of something you did? I will indulge just this once and get it out of my system.

Thanks for reading folks!

Downloadable Portfolio jpg's

2008-03-19T18:24:00.000-06:00