Friday, December 30, 2011

Practice

Another artist gave me the idea for practicing this way.  I've been wanting to explore more brushes, colors, and techniques, and this gave me the opportunity to do that.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

A Grim Christmas

Even the Grim Reaper enjoys Christmas....
In fact, he is very festive and takes part in many holiday traditions and seasonal activities.  He is also, obviously a very big fan of Santa and looks forward to Christmas every year.  So don't be worried or frightened if he shows up at your door during the month of December, he is simply out caroling.

I've been doing Christmas differently this year with a "black" theme, and these are two sketches based on that theme.  These were immensely fun to draw.  I think I was giggling the entire time. 
Merry Christmas to all!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Creature design sketching





Above are two new creature sketches combined on a single page with an older creature sketch.  I thought my old creature was lonely and needed some friends since it's just a sketch.  The two additions were created simultaneously and I tried to design each one for different environments, but keeping to possibly the same world.  Creature design is one of my favorite things to do as it combines my love of animals with imagination and art.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Another Illustration

Just another illustration for Lamp light media.

I've been reading and learning a lot lately which gets me excited about the future.  I've scrapped some projects, set out some goals for new work, as well as learning some new techniques.  I'm happiest when I'm learning something new and improving my skills.  It seems to spark my creative energy more.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Progress

I thought I would share a couple sketches that I didn't go with from my last illustration project.
Also, I just recently got a new book (Color and Light A Guide for the Realist Painter) I've begun reading.  I'm hoping it will help improve my work.  So far, I have found it quite informative.  If you want to check it out, there's a good book review of it here.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

New Illustration

Another Illustration for the RPG book.  Lamplight Media is currently looking for more artists to help with this project.  Contact them here for more information.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Computer Problems

I've had a lot of them lately and wanted to take some time to share a bit of what I learned recently along with some resources.  Feel free to leave a comment about your own frustrations, solutions, and resources.

Monitor Replacement:  Upon my monitor dying without warning I did some research and I came across this wonderfully well organized list of IPS LCD monitors that I found incredibly useful for comparing and finding out what's out there.  If you don't know what an IPS monitor is, This article explains it pretty well.  One of the things I was worried about was transitioning from a square format monitor to a widescreen.  In my experience most widescreens I had used felt like I was loosing screen space off the top.  My new monitor (a mid range HP IPS LCD) has changed my mind about this.  This monitor is making much better use of my graphics card and has given me much more screen space to spread out and be more efficient as I work.  I am loving it. 

Internet/Lightning Issues:  First of all, I am currently using DSL and lighting seems to hit the house's phone line almost every time there is a storm.  There seems to be a wiring issue with the house that no one seems capable of solving.  The latest lightning strike was one of the worst I've seen.  It destroyed an APC battery backup, the dsl modem, some cords, the router, an ethernet card (not my computer), and the ethernet port on my motherboard.  Luckily, my computer IT guy, Shawn Crisp (who I highly recommend if you live in upstate SC or nearby), was able to convince APC to honor their warranty even though they were reluctant to do so and help get things back up and running.  I feel very lucky that the rest of my motherboard seems to be unharmed, but I am not taking the risk again.  To play it safe, I decided to go with a wireless card and I get the added bonus of not having cords stretched across rooms!  Also, I just want to say that I do think APC's backups are really great.  The one I have on my computer isn't the one that failed and it saved my computer a few times back in graduate school when my room mates' computers were fried during a storm.
--------Shawn Crisp contact info: computerjedi@charter.net -----------


Maya Licensing Issues: Apparently Maya uses your ethernet card's physical address in order to validate the license for use.  Thus, when lightning destroys your card, Maya will no longer be operable.  After installing a new card, Maya will still not function until the "aw.dat" file is updated.  The Host ID alpha numerical number is the ethernet card's physical address which can be found by using the license utilities task. 

More artwork and updates to come.


Wednesday, June 29, 2011

What I've been up to lately


This is my latest illustration.  It is for an RPG book.  You can check out more information about this project Here. This book is going to be really nice when it's re-released.  There are some other wonderful artists working on new illustrations for it as well.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The start of a blog


Today Ballistic Publishing's Expose 9 hit the shelves.  This is the first book I've been published in and to commemorate the occasion, I decided to create this blog. 
It's a wonderful book and I feel honored to be included in it.  Go check it out here: Expose 9.  I'm on page 92, just in case you were wondering.