Last shows of the year

Off to Grand Rapids Comic Con (Nov 9 - 11) this weekend, and soon to Louisville Super Con (Nov 30 - Dec 2), under the guise of Mythos Monsters with my fellow collaborator Phil Velikan. Come say hi and see what new things we have to show.

That said, thanks for a great year at conventions. I am already looking forward to next year!

Happy Halloween

Here is a bit of new art, just in time for Halloween. Now go get some candy!

”All Hallows Dread” - Acrylic 11x14 on bristol, mounted on board.

A New Website & New Art

A long overdue site update is now live, with new images, sections, and more to come. Neglecting your website is easy when you spend all your time working on client work, personal projects, and private commissions. Commissions like Link VS Gohma!

Zelda was and is one of my favorites, so I was supper excited when a collector commissioned this piece. I had a lot of fun working with him and on the painting. I may have shed a small tear when I put this in the mail and said good bye. 

I'll be at Indiana Comic Con March 30th - April 1st, in the Mythos Monsters booth. Come say hi!

The Color Out of Space 2nd Edition now on Amazon.

The second edition of The Colouring Book Out of Space, now on Amazon for $8.99

I have released a second edition for the Colouring Book Out of Space as part of Amazon's POD service, CreateSpace. This allows the book to reach a broader audience and Amazon takes care of printing and fulfillment.

So whats different from the self published version that I made in 2016 as part of my Mythos Monsters Kickstarter? It has 40 images instead of 56. The kickstarter version was also on higher quality paper (great for watercolor, markers and pencils) and had perforated pages. The reasons for the difference are two fold. One, I wanted the Kickstarter backers to have something special. They help launch me in a new direction as an artist/entrepreneur and I wanted them to have something exclusive. The second reason was simply that 56 images seemed like a lot of pages and most other books in a similar space on Amazon were half that. The price for the 2nd edition is set at $8.99, to reflect these differences. Either way, I am very happy with both versions.

The self published edition is down to the last 100-ish copies and are going quickly. You can get them here, or grab the Amazon version through my affiliate link here in this post. 

I would love to see pics of your finished images. Please feel free to share pics on the Facebook group for Mythos Monsters or on Amazon's review section. Reviews are always greatly appreciated :)

The Fantastic Workshop, Year Two.

Last year I was a guest at the first Fantastic Workshop in Nashville Tennessee. As an artist and as a sole proprietor, I was a little unsure of my direction and felt I needed a change. The workshop helped me out of my rut and got me moving with purpose again. Since last year, I have stepped into the role of an Independent Artist. My year, as a direct result from the workshop, has seen a successful kickstarter, the start of a passive income stream, a raise in income, and the ground work for several future projects. Most important, my sense of purpose continues to grow as I walk the path of an Independent Artist.

What is the Fantastic Workshop? It is a four day even full of artist discussing business, sharing numbers, talking shop, giving art demos, and lots of one on one time with the instructors. There is a lot of actionable advise given by good people who want you to succeed. It also takes place on a campus that feels like Hogwarts. That makes it all feel magical.

I was a little worried that year two would be a bit of a repeat but I really think it was better.  There were a few of the same talks (talks that need to happen each year) but I was able to pull out more actionable info this time around. Sam's talk on Salesmanship is one that I could listen too many many more times. Stephanie Law's presentations on Kickstarter and Expanding your IP into the mass market were two of my favorites. Sean Andrew Murray challenged us to look at things a different way again. All this great business info was being given by artist. That of course meant that there were some great art demos too. They ranged from materials to personal exploration. Aside from the staff, the attendees were so knowledgeable and skilled.

That was my short review of the Fantastic Workshop. It was a very rewarding experience, again. Worth every penny. If you are considering SmArt School or IMC, consider this one too. It will leave you feeling very empowered.

The Red Dragon

Last year I had the pleasure of painting this Dungeons & Dragons / Pathfinder inspired dragon for the Fantasy Adventure Deck. It was the first time I have painted a dragon since college, so much fun.  I finished this up just before Gen-Con last year and did not have time to get prints made of it before the show. The painting itself sold to another artist and off it when, my new baby out into the world. A few months later when I tried to get prints made, I noticed that my file was not the greatest, in fact it was actually pretty bad for larger reproductions. Somehow I had lost my original scan. Thankfully the artist that bought it was a talented photographer as well and was able to send me this hi-quality photo. I got lucky, really lucky. There are several lessons in there about not rushing, backing up files, etc. Im just glad it worked out.

I'll be debuting prints and mounted panel prints of this guy at Gen-Con in about two weeks and will then be placing them on the site.

"Red Dragon" 2015. acrylic on illustration board

Hometown love and bad photos.

"Dude, you got Cthulhu and some Star Wars goons on the walls of the Evansville Museum". Yes I did. I was one of 16 former students of Joan Kempf Dejong selected to show at the Master Teacher exhibit in celebration of the University of Southern Indiana's 50th anniversary. Many of the 16 selected were former classmates of mine. Joan was a great teacher, and we had such a great group those few years. It was great to catch up with many of them that I had not seen in many years and great to spend some time with the ones that I have been working with since I graduated. 

"Ephant Mon" and Cthuhlu's Tide hanging in the EvansvilleMuseum of Arts, History and Science. The lighting looks so harsh in the photo.

Matt and I worked on these 3 Tin Man pieces. They also won Gold and Judge's choice at the local AAF Addy awards last night. The two woodcut band posters were also collaborations between Matt and I. They were done in the early 2000s when we had Semisans, a design studio on 3rd Street in downtown Evansville.

Some of the other work in the show were Tin Man pieces, submitted by Matt Wagner. These were pieces that Matt, Aaron Tanner and I collaborated on. Matt also entered these into this years local Addy awards. The Damascene can and the vector series both took gold and received a jurors choice.

Evansville AAF awards. Two Gold and Judge's choice awards for Tin Man Brewing.

Not a long post. Just wanted to share the good things that come from working with friends. I've been fortunate to have had a wonderful teacher and friend in Joan and great classmates that I continue to work with today, 14 years later.

1FW Workshop Delivers!

After a long weekend in Nashville Tennessee, I am back in the studio and feel flooded with information and ideas from my time at One Fantastic Week’s inaugural workshop. What a great experience! The four day event focused on best business practices and business models for artist as well as Demos and art making with the talented staff. I was honored to be one of three special guest and very thankful to Pete and Sam for the invitation. 

The full staff consisted of Annie Stegg Gerard, Kelly McKernan, Sean Andrew Murray, Justin Gerard, Sam Flegal and Peter Mohrbacher. 

So lets talk business…

I came to the show with some general ideas about how to move forward as an independent artist. By that I mean creating the art that I want to create and marketing it in a way that generates enough money for me to pay the bills and grow. The majority of the staff have moved away from the freelance jobs as their chief source of income. The panel discussions, one on one time with the instructors and talk of hard numbers erased all doubts about this being a plausible and justified career move. Among the highlights for me were the discussions on Salesmanship, Crowdfunding, Social Media and forming an LLC.

Now lets talk art…

1FW’s goal was clearly about improving the artist’s business practices but the art portion can not be overlooked. Demos and discussions by the instructors were nothing short of amazing. I connected to Justin Gerard’s talk on storytelling in art so much that I completely started over on my project mid show. Annie, Justin and Sam all demystified oil painting materials. Pete and Sean shared their digital painting expertise as well. Sean’s art walk was another highlight. It helped everyone see the stories left behind in architecture and our environment. 

Working through ideas and refining narrative.

Those of us that work within the sic-fi/fantasy spectrum of illustration all know that our community is the best. Everyone is there to help one another with technique and encouragement. I have never met a more sharing and supportive bunch. It was neat to see how some of the instructors are walking away with new ideas and plans for the future as a result of the workshop too. In art we are all students, at all times.

There were a lot of take ways from the show. Chief among them was that my ideas will work and that I need to trust them moving forward. Over the coming weeks I will be reconfiguring my web presence and start laying the ground work for upcoming projects. Wish me luck and follow along on social media or sign up on the mailing list to see that I am up too. Thanks!

Brewing Up Retro Robots

Over the past year or two I have had the pleasure of working with a craft brewer start up in Evansville, IN called Tin Man Brewing Co. All their branding, interior and merch were designed by two friends and former co-workers of mine, Matt Wagner and Aaron Tanner. When they asked me to help with some can and glass designs I was super excited. The fact that I loved their beer and all the people there are great folks made the job even better. Check out Matt, Aaron and Tin Man!

Damascene

For this can, I was charged with making art that had to be reproduced as in 3 colors only but we wanted a pulp art look to it. I made the pallet very limited for this piece, maybe 6 colors. So much for warm highlights and cool shadows, its a color plus black for shading in the end. Once I had the image painted and scanned in, I then masked out each color (orange, green, black and the can substrate that would show through). Next I created new channels for what would become each of three pantone colors and started pulling values from my CMYK channels until I had a three color image that was reasonably close to the painting. There was of course some loss of subtle hues but that was to be expected. Aaron then drop the art in layout and created 1 bit tiffs of each color channel and sent them off to the printers. Fingers crossed and lots of waiting...

The art for Damascene is being featured on BeerLabelsArt.com right now.

The ADDYs!

As I sat at home, sick on a Friday night, I started getting tagged in various social media. The Evansville Addy Awards were going on and two of the cans that Matt Wagner and I had created took home some awards. Matt handled all the layout work for both. The main image on each can is where we collaborated. On both we would start with a few sketches and a crude vector rendering of the image and then we would pass it back and forth making changes and talking about it. After a half dozen hand offs, we came to these two designs below. Matt has a very graphic look in most of his work and is able to break things down to their essence where as I get consumed in the details and rendering. Working with Matt always pushes me out of my comfort zones but it always works out well and is a lot of fun. 

Two collaborative pieces made with Matt Wagner that brought home Addy Gold. 

I may as well go ahead and show this Tin Man Overlord can which was the first collaboration with Matt Wagner. It also started with a few sketches and was passed back and forth many times till we reached a final image that we were both happy with. 

Thats all for now. Cheers!

Starting year 2 as an illustrator.

So I made it through my first year as a full time professional! Looking back there was a lot of sleepless nights and not a lot of money to be had but I did make major progress with my art and understanding about the business.

With the start of 2015, I am retooling my goals, web presence and outlook on how to craft a business and navigate my new career path. As I search out new clients and strengthen relationships with existing ones, I have become aware that I can be my own client too. That was probably my biggest realization of 2014. This year I am starting to do more work for my self. I have exciting projects announcments that will be dropping soon. Sign up for my mailing list on the about page if you want to stay informed. Also on the schedule are a series of personal works that will be appearing at shows this spring, summer and fall. These works are aimed at getting back to the imagery I loved when I was creating just for myself and will hopefully push my client work towards what I naturally wish to paint.

As part of my web re-vamp, I am starting fresh with the blog. These will be infrequent post about process and business practices and is aimed at fellow artist and fans. Instagram and Facebook will have a more continuos feed of visual material if that is what you are after. As aways, Im happy to discuss further if you feel like hitting me up on email or the social media of your choice. Thanks for visiting my new home on the web. And with that, lets continue on with the Art Adventures!

The image above was a sketch for an unfinished ArtOrder challenge. I'll have to finish out someday soon, just for fun.