out of my head...

Cemetery Dance drawing

2012-01-27T10:51:00.000-08:00

Yet another preview, this is a detail of a drawing for the upcoming issue of Cemetery Dance (#66). The story is by Jeremy Shipp and its called "Inside". The drawing is strictly graphite pencil (Wasserlack) on Strathmore Smooth series 300 Bristol board. I clean up and add detail with a sharpened electric eraser. This is a tool I've had laying around for a couple of years but never used until my recent switch from scratchboard to pencil.

slightly larger than original size

Gaslight Preview

2012-01-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

I have it on good authority( thanks Badger) that Cthulhu by Gaslight 3rd Edition is nearing completion. The project has to be sent to the publisher for review, maybe a few changes requested and that should be that. I've posted another of my drawings, it's called "A Masonic Rite". The title of the piece isn't mine, it was the heading of the paragraph describing the illustration. The art director sent me several sheets of notes providing the specs for the illustrations as well as pretty detailed descriptions of what he was looking for. This is one of two drawings where a slight change was requested. The description called for a severed noose to be around the kneeling figures neck, hanging down his back. In the initial drawing I left the noose out as the pose suggested to me that the rope would be hidden behind the character:

With the revision I sort of hinted at a noose around the characters neck:

Cthulhu by Gaslight sneak peak

2012-01-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

Badger McInnis has posted a preview of some of the illustrations for the upcoming Cthulhu by Gaslight 3rd edition over at his Squamous Studios site. There are drawings by artists Adam Denton and John T. Snyder as well as one of the drawings I contributed.

It was interesting to see that we three illustrators took a similar approach in terms of tone. I wanted my drawings to appear similar to old photographs, at least in regard to their color and diffused contrast. I wasn't literally trying to make them look like photographs, I just wanted to capture that aged, de- saturated look old photos have, hoping it would help to cement the sense of place in the gamers mind.

I was unfamiliar with John and Adam prior to the assignment but I'm impressed with the work posted at Badger's site and at they're respective online galleries.

Can't wait to see the completed project.

Inspired by Lovecraft's at the Mountains of Madness

2011-09-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Lovecraft recently and decided to choose a story or two to illustrate as a way of improving my pen and ink technique and my draughtsmanship. Actually there are a few reasons for getting this thing up and running but I'll get into those some other time.

I decided to start with Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. I have many different editions of HP Lovecraft's work but the edition I'm reading now is published by Gollanz of England. I bought this particular edition because of the Les Edwards illustrations. Les Edwards is one of the few genre illustrators (outside of comics) regularly producing work in pen and ink. I consider him a modern master on par with Gary Gianni. His work in the Gollanz edition has inspired me almost as much as the story itself.

The drawing on the left was created first, showing one of the Dorniers flying through a mountain pass and discovering an ancient, alien city on the other side. I felt the plane was a little clumsy and the horizon line was more than a little off. I corrected those issues with the second drawing. Each drawing took maybe four hours to finish. I used Faber-Castell Pitt artists pens on Strathmore series 300 Bristol board.

Portrait of retired Worcester firefighter

2011-07-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

This is a portrait done in oils of a recently retired Worcester firefighter. Every now and then when a guy retires someone from the retirement party committee will ask me to do a portrait for them. I typically do the portrait on a 20" by 30" piece of illustration board. The portrait is 8" x 8" and I position it 6" from the top and sides of the board. Everyone attending the party is invited to sign the poster board as a memento. It's a nice tradition and a few other guys have done caricatures or cartoons of other retirees. I've probably done twenty of these over the years. It would be nice to collect them all some day for a show.