HEX: Raucous Revelry

This illustration was painted for Doombringer, the latest release for the game HEX: Shards of Fate. As you can see from the picture, the game isn't all doom and gloom! The little berry characters are called "Boonberries" and they were fun to paint.

Hearthstone: Crystal Lion

Painting this crystal lion for the new Hearthstone set, Kobolds and Catacombs proved very challenging. Thankfully, art director Jeremy Cranford offered some valuable suggestions (particularly about the glow around the lion) that helped me bring the piece home. I'm always grateful for his input.

I've included my preliminary sketch below and because I think this particular image works best when cropped into the oval shape it appears in on the Hearthstone card, I've also included a cropped version.

Gnawer of Rocks: The Mangittatuarjuk

Here's a "splash page" from the comics/picture book I illustrated, The Gnawer of Rocks. On this page, the ogress (called "Mangittatuarjuk" in the Inuit language) reveals herself for the first time.

The scene takes place in a dimly lit cave so this picture may look a bit dark against the white background of this blog page. Please click on it to see it larger and against a darker background.

Hearthstone: Vryghoul

This is my painting for Vryghoul, a card in the new Hearthstone expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne. I've included my preliminary sketch with the painting. I had a blast painting this zombie-like character and I'm grateful for art director Jeremy Cranford's very helpful suggestions.

Meaningless aside that might interest someone: I often listen to audiobooks as I work and I was listening to Stephen King's Different Seasons while painting this picture. The book and subject matter went together well.

Hearthstone: Corpse Raiser

Here's another new Hearthstone illustration, painted for the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion.

I've included step-by-step process images below, beginning with my preliminary drawing.

Steps 1 and 2:
Sometimes the process for creating an image is pretty straightforward but there are times when a painting goes through a considerable transformation from start to finish. That was the case with this one. As usual, I began with a drawing, pictured below. I knew I would be dealing with complex lighting on this piece so my next step was to focus on value and I began building the picture in gray tones. Since I was painting a necromancer casting a corpse-raising spell, I wanted the piece to be dark and moody.

Step 3: After establishing some of the value structure, I began applying color on layers (I should mention that all of this work was painted digitally, in Photoshop).

Step 4: The drawing was superimposed over the painting and I started working out some more details, separating forms, etc.

Step 5: More details were added. Forms were refined and I continued pushing value and contrast.

Step 6: The figure was more or less completed and the values established. However, my initial plan of creating a dark, moody piece with a focus on the necromantic spell had gone a bit awry. The picture was too dark for it's intended purpose (card images are small and usually need more contrast) and I was gently reminded by art director Jeremy Cranford that this image wasn't for a spell card so there should be more focus on the character than the spell. That sound advice led to...

Step 7: In which, working on layers (including some Screen and Lighten layers), I seriously re-worked the values and adjusted the lighting to make it a brighter scene. The hands bursting up in the background had become a compositional distraction so landscape elements were painted over them. I was asked to add some spell energy coming from the necromancer's hands so that changed the lighting too. I tried to subtly work more color into the piece and push the focus upward, to the character's face and hands. This stage led to the final art, which you can see at the top of this post.

It was quite a journey, more involved than usual, but I was happy with the final results and, as always, when painting, I learned a few things along the way.

Dwarf Golem

I painted this Dwarf Golem for a project years ago but I don't think it was ever published. I came across the image today while organizing some files and decided it was time to share it. 

Hearthstone: Tar Creature

I painted this creature made of tar and bone for the latest Hearthstone expansion, Journey to Un'Goro. I'm not sure what the final card will be titled but now that the image has been revealed on Hearthstone's site, I can share the painting with you.

I've included my sketch for the painting as well. Both the sketch and the final art were created in Adobe Photoshop.

Hearthstone: Orc Warrior and The Horde

Here are two more images I painted for the latest Hearthstone expansion, One Night in Karazhan. The close-up has a red swirl design around it in print.

Hearthstone: Broom

This is my favorite of the pictures I painted for the new Hearthstone expansion One Night in Karazhan. It was a chance to get a bit silly and I love it when I can really embrace a humorous approach to a painting or a character design. In this case, I was able to paint a mean-spirited, magically-animated broom! It was a good time from start to finish.

I've included my initial concept sketches for the broom at left.

Skylanders Battlecast: Grave Clobber

Here's another piece I painted for Activision's Skylanders Battlecast. It's one of my favorites. The character, Grave Clobber, has just been dumped out of a water pipe and he's feeling a little stunned.

Like all of the Battlecast paintings I've been posting, this one was painted digitally, in Adobe Photoshop.

Skylanders Battlecast—Cali

I've been given permission to post some more Skylanders Battlecast art so here we go...

This painting features Cali, an explorer/adventurer in the Skylanders world. She's being airlifted away from a group of green Chompies!

I've included my preliminary drawing above. All of the images I painted for this game are intended to fit into a card format that, in places, intrudes slightly into the picture. Consequently, there's usually a bit of extra space around the perimeter of each composition to allow room for those elements.

Green Thumb and Machinecraft

Here are two more card paintings for Activision's new game Skylanders Battlecast, Green Thumb and Machinecraft. These are simpler compositions than the multi-figure scenes I've posted the last two days, although they both presented challenges of their own. For example, I wasn't sure at first how I wanted to paint Broccoli Guy's head in Green Thumb. It took a bit of experimentation to arrive at an approach I liked.

The holographic belts and gears in Machinecraft were a challenge too. They needed to read very clearly but they were also supposed to be slightly transparent. Creating the "factory" background was a challenge too. There's quite a bit going on back there.

Regurgitech

This one has a delightful title, eh? It's another of my favorites among the paintings I did for Activision's Skylanders Battlecast. The little blue creatures with the glowing eyes are called Chompy Rustbuds!

Hoist of the Century

This is my favorite of the Skylanders Battlecast cards I've done so far. They've all been fun but this one provided an opportunity to do a scene with some real depth and multiple characters. It was difficult but rewarding!

Skylanders Battlecast

Last summer, I was fortunate to get involved with a new game, Skylanders Battlecast, which has just been released. It's based on the popular Skylanders video game universe and published by Activision. I encourage you to check it out! It's a free mobile game. The game itself involves cards and battles. You can buy actual, physical cards, digital cards or both!

Now that the game has been released, I can finally share some of the art I've been doing for it. I'll "roll out" some new art every day for the next few days so if you like what you see, please keep checking in.

The first two pieces I painted were Finishing Blow (which features the eagle character Jet-Vac) and Skylithium Scale, which features a gem dragoness named Flashwing.

Both illustrations were painted in Photoshop.

I have loved working on this game so I hope you enjoy the artwork. I'll post more tomorrow!

Hearthstone: Blood to Ichor

Here's another painting for the new Hearthstone set, Whispers of the Old Gods. Conceptually, this one started off from a slightly different place than it ended up. Originally, the slime creatures emerging from the ichor weren't a part of the picture. The wounded figure in the foreground was simply supposed to be "bleeding" green ichor. Then, the art description for the picture shifted and the green slime creatures were actually supposed to become the focus. That was tricky since it wasn't quite how I had originally conceived the artwork. Ultimately, with the help of art director Jeremy Cranford, I think I arrived at a pretty good solution. The green slime things were a blast to paint!

I'm including the original sketch below.

Heikegani Crab

Here's a fantasy take on a real creature: the Heikegani crab, which is also referred to as the Japanese Ghost Crab. According to Japanese folklore, Heikegani crabs contain the souls of fallen samurai warriors. The version I painted isn't dramatically different from the real thing but the suggestion of a face on the back of the actual crab has been reinforced into a monstrous, distorted face. Plus, this crab wields a knife!

I'm not sure why a crab needs a knife but hey, knives are useful...

Painted for Pathfinder Bestiary 5.

Encantado

This mer-creature based on a pink dolphin (a real creature, by the way) was a huge challenge for me. I think it has a more feminine than most of my work. It obviously depicts a female creature but the pink color scheme and long red hair call to mind toys that are marketed to girls. There's nothing wrong with any of the above, this just isn't a place I typically go as an artist so it was fun and interesting to go there. It was something new for me and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to pull it off. Giving such a dolphin-like face to a relatively humanoid figure was especially difficult but in the end, I'm quite happy with the results.

Like the illustration I posted yesterday, this was painted for Paizo Publishing's Bestiary 5.

Bagiennik

I painted this creature for the recently-released Bestiary 5 for Pathfinder, published by Paizo Publishing. It's a sort of humanoid salamander. I tried to give it a somewhat light touch since it's more of a whimsical creature than a "bad guy".

I love designing creatures like this.

On the Shoulder of a Giant part 4

Another day, another spread ...  I'll be here all week, folks!

The initial plan for the interior spreads of On the Shoulder of a Giant was to have the illustrations cover one page and "bleed" over onto the next, where the art would fade out and the text would be placed. However, we realized we could develop some interesting, panoramic imagery by having the artwork cover both pages and then placing the text on top of it. I think it ended up being a good approach. I suspect you can guess where the text was placed over this illustration.

The spread above shows the scene where the giant, Inukpak, first encounters the Inuit hunter he will adopt in the story.

As in previous posts, I've attached the preliminary sketch for this spread.

On the Shoulder of a Giant is available on Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble. Please pick up a copy and write a review. You can post about it on Goodreads too.

You can find the publisher, Inhabit Media on the web at http://inhabitmedia.com