Fabulous Stairway

This fabulous and possibly unbuildable stairway is one of the designs I created for a visionary engineer who paid me to illustrate his fantasy world. You can read about the project here. He wanted a lavish art-nouveau look to the buildings as well as an erotic element which would pervade the entire decorative scheme. You can see the male and female bodies as tree trunks at the sides of the upper door. His imaginary people had a lot of leisure time so they had plenty of dalliance but were also menaced by ogre-like invaders who occasionally had to be vanquished. I did a lot of art for this project but none of it was ever published.

Ink on Bristol board, 7" x 10", June 1996.

Elric and Moonglum 1977

The doomed albino sorceror-king Elric is one of my all-time favorite fantasy characters. Michael Moorcock, the author creator, creates a panorama of decadent and beautiful scenarios and places for Elric to explore. At his side for many of these tales is a small warrior squire named "Moonglum," who selflessly stays by Elric when all others desert him. Naturally, Moonglum has red hair (every fantasy has at least one red-headed character) and he is a good fighter. I gave him a Mongol face and attire, I don't remember whether Moorcock specified an ethnic background for him. Here is Elric with "Stormbringer," the demonic magical soul stealing sword, and Moonglum by his side.

Ink on sketchbook page, about 6" x 3 1/2", March 1977.

Bunny Basketball

And here's the March Hare colored in and made into a sign blank for Trader Joe's basketball tournament themed promotion. Get yer basketball madness munchies here. Yes, the March Hare's green shorts might have been inspired by the Boston Celtics but remember I can't put any team logos anywhere on this ad. Meanwhile, more snow is predicted for my area. 

Original ad is 7" x 5", ink colored in Photoshop, February 26, 2014.

March Hare Madness

The next marketing theme for the upcoming month is the "March Madness" college basketball tournament. This is alongside the pervasive green faux-Irishness of Saint Patrick's Day. I decided that the mascot for "March Madness" is the March Hare of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland." I designed this basketball version of the March Hare for a Trader Joe's graphic. It's done in the style of the famous Sir John Tenniel, illustrator for the classic first editions of Alice. I've added a basketball shirt and shorts to the outfit. He wears the traditional bunch of straw on his head. The straw on the head signified being crazy, according to Victorian symbolism.

It turns out that "March Madness" long pre-dates basketball, at least when it comes to rabbits. The reason that the March Hare is crazy is that breeding season for bunnies starts in March, when they leap about and mill and fight with each other and make love like, uh, rabbits. 

This graphic will advertise March munchies and will soon be colored in. Marker ink on Bristol board, about  3 1/2" x 5", February 24, 2014.

Bram of Iridar

Back in the familiar world of Iridar, Bram the northern barbarian brandishes his sword. This character appears in a lot of epic fantasies; he's "Barak" in David Eddings' "Belgariad" series. Bram saves the hero's life and acts as a devoted mentor and protector, even to the point of losing his life (but he is resurrected from the dead by the good sorcerers). He's huge, fierce, and has a big red beard. He likes to drink and fight, and is more intelligent than he looks. He is the one who dispatches the evil sorceress and eventually is sent off to restore the Kingdom of Orm with his princely hero and the hero's bride, who of course is the Queen of Iophar. 

This is another in my series of character concepts from "The Flame of Iridar." There are plenty of other sketching possibilities and I would like to do some action scenes as well. Ultimately I will create a sample finished cover which I will add to my digital portfolio.

Bram of Iridar is ink and markers on sketchbook page, 3 1/2" x 6", February 24, 2014.

Digital Pin-up Girl

I finished another digital pin-up girl and here she is. I've worked on her for days trying to solve problems and learn more ways to depict flesh and faces. There are still plenty of things wrong with this digital painting but I think it's better than the previous ones I've tried. The face especially needs work and I'll be trying again on faces soon. Meanwhile her face kinda ended up looking like a co-worker of mine which is not unusual because I often use my co-workers as models.

I'm trying to do that trendy development thing where you work at something and give yourself a new challenge each time, which is called "deliberate practice," until you've worked 10,000 hours and get to be an expert, but I don't know whether that 10,000 hours counts for "time served during your lifetime" as an artist rather than starting over right now. Am I "passionate?" Am I driven? Am I dedicated? Do I work hard all the time? Hard work. Hard work. Hard work. For the sake of digital pin-up girls.

Photoshop, 7" x 10", February 2014. Click for larger view, if you must.

Naked Bottles

There, just under the wire for February 22. I wouldn't want to miss a day, even if feasting and wine drinking is involved. These are details from the tasting room at Naked Mountain Winery and Vineyards, including a cleverly put together chandelier made with wine bottles. This drawing was done while I was consuming their famous lasagna and sharing a bottle of their "Red Light" red blend with my wine buddies. There are a few good things about February, and this is one of them.

Pitt technical pen ink on sketchbook page, 5 1/2" x 9", February 22, 2014.