Wind Yai

Here's another of the oni/yai paintings I did for Paizo Publishing's Jade Regent: The Brinewall Legacy, along with the preliminary drawing (done in Photoshop). Like the first one, this oni is female but she's less on the creepy side and a bit more burly and barbaric.

Water Yai

This piece was one of four different yai (a type of Oni) I painted for Paizo Publishing's book Jade Regent: The Brinewall Legacy. Oni are creatures from Japanese mythology, often similar to ogres, trolls or demons in western mythology. Each of the four yai I painted is associated with something elemental (water, fire, wind, etc.). I tried to give each a unique visual flavor while also making them appear loosely related to one another. It's a challenge to adapt the often flat, graphic style of ancient Japanese art to a more contemporary, western style of illustration but it was a lot of fun. The features of Japanese mythological beings have a bold character that's blast to draw.

I'll be posting another Yai tomorrow so please come back for more!

Galactic Force signing

I will be signing at Galactic Force's 4th Anniversary event on Saturday, September 10th. Please come out and say hello! I'll be there all afternoon and perhaps into the evening.

Galactic Force Toys and games is located at 1121 Belmont Ave. in Chicago.

Fantastic Worlds Art Show

The artist's reception for the Fantastic Worlds Art Show at the Kenosha Public Museum was held Friday night and I had a great time attending. I encourage anyone who can get to the show to see it. It includes 3 of my paintings and I'm honored to have my work hanging on the same walls as fantastic art luminaries like Jeff Easley, Scott Gustafson, Donato Giancola, John Jude Palencar, Steve Rude, Dave Seeley, Jeff Miracola and many others. Walking the show was inspiring and talking to some of the artists in attendance was too. If you like fantastic art, don't miss this opportunity to see some in person! I can't wait to go back and see it again.

The show runs through November 13th and you can find more information, including directions, at the Kenosha Public Museum's site:

http://www.kenosha.org/museum

While you're in town, grab a meal at nearby Frank's Diner, the oldest continuously operating lunch cart diner in the United States. I had breakfast there (it's their specialty) and it was delicious. The diner has even been featured on the Food Network's popular Diners, Drive-ins and Dives TV show.

Goblin Rogue

Here's another painting from the Twilight of the Dragons set for the World of Warcraft trading card game. This piece depicts a goblin rogue named Azizi Daggerflick (I love the crazy names they give characters in this game). I'm posting my preliminary drawing and a color rough as well as the final painting.

Con sketch: Sweetums

Wizard World Chicago was a resounding success! Thank you to everyone who took the time to stop by my table, say hello and look at my art. It was great to see old friends and meet new people.

I did quite a few sketch commissions at the con and a few people intend to scan them and send them to me so when that happens, I'll share more of them here. Meanwhile, here's a quick brush and ink sketch I did for Sarah Kramer (I hope I have your name right, Sarah), who has an entire sketchbook she's filling with muppet sketches by different artists. It's a great idea and I was more than happy to draw a muppet.

Bat-Mite and Batgirl

Since I will be at Wizard World Chicago this weekend, here's something a little different: ink drawings of comic book characters!

The first two drawings are of Bat-Mite, an impish character that's been appearing in Batman comics on and off since the early '60s. I've always liked the character and did the first drawing while at the Summit City Comic Con earlier this summer. The second drawing is much closer to the original character design which, if I'm not mistaken, was drawn by Batman artist Dick Sprang.

Rounding off this trio of bat-drawings is Batgirl, a character I've liked since Yvonne Craig charmed me on the old Batman TV show when I was a kid.

All 3 drawings are for sale and I'll be doing more of them at the con this weekend so if you're interested in purchasing a drawing, checking out some original art or just saying "hi", please stop by my table (#3501) at Wizard World Chicago, in Artist's Alley.

If you're interested in purchasing or commissioning a drawing, you can contact me at: jim@jimnelsonart.com.

Wizard World Chicago

Just a friendly reminder: If you're in the Rosemont, IL area this weekend, why not go to Wizard World? I'll be in the Artist's Alley section at table 3501, doing drawings, signing, selling prints and artwork and happily chatting with anyone who cares to stop by. Please pay me a visit! The convention runs all weekend, from Friday the 12th through Sunday the 14th.

http://www.wizardworld.com/hom e-ch.html

Holy Blaze

I've been a busy lad lately, thus the lag time between posts. However, I'll be posting quite a bit of art in the next few weeks so please "stay tuned". First up: a digital painting and some process images from a Warcraft card that appears in the recently released Twilight of the Dragons set. This piece depicts a gnome priest drawing upon holy magic. The entire picture was created in Photoshop and Painter, including the preliminary drawing, which I'll call Step 1. Due to the holy nature of the spell, I thought it would be appropriate to have the gnome's eyes closed, as if she's peacefully looking within to get in touch with the holy power she's summoning.

Step 2: I blocked in basic colors, using a hard round brush in Photoshop at varying opacities. At this stage, i wanted to establish the basic color scheme and values. I intentionally made the rocks very dull, muted colors to emphasize the colors in the gnome and to provide a semi-neutral backdrop for the radiant light that would emanate from the priest's staff.

Step 3: This is basically step 2 with a yellow glow added on a layer to further establish the light source. If I remember correctly, that layer was set to Linear Dodge mode.

Step 4: I begin pushing lights and darks in both the figure and the background, slowly adding detail, beginning to define the shapes of the rocks, etc. At this stage i want to get a firm handle on my value range for the picture. Again, I worked primarily with a hard round brush in Photoshop, set to various levels of opacity and flow.

Step 5: On two separate layers, I added concentric circles of varying golden yellow value and roughed in rays of lights.

Step 6: I worked up texture and detail throughout the piece, particularly in the gnome, refining her until she seemed complete. I added small strokes to the circles of light surrounding the staff. further defined the rocks and the background and even muted the color of the sky and the purple mountain in the distance a bit. Most of this was done in Photoshop but I took the piece into Painter occasionally to use that program's blenders and add bits of texture.

The Final: The rays of light have been refined and small touches of light have been added. The values were adjusted a little more and the piece was finished!