D&D Spot Illustrations and a Figure Drawing

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!

Dungeons & Dragons: Hammerfast

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!

Dragon 381

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!

Betrayal at Monadhan

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!

Dragon Magazine (and more King Kong)

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.