On The Shelves: "Wild Harvest: The Animal Art of Bob Kuhn"

First off I have to appologize for the lack of posting lately. I've been extremley busy. I have new work to show, but I have to wait for those pesky NDA's to lift. I'll be posting some new work soon.



On my birthday about 4 years ago, my wife told me she got me something but it hadn't come in the mail yet. After a couple of weeks she finally got the package. I asked her what took so long as I opened the gift to reveal the Bob Kuhn book I've been wanting. She told me that this was one of the last few books that the seller had available and he was a friend of Bob Kuhn's. Bob Kuhn was in the hospital at the time. The guys selling the book took the book over to Bob in the hospital to have him sign it for me. This made the gift that much more special! It was unfortunate but Bob died shortly after.


Bob was one of the best wild animal painters of his time. I was always impressed with how well he captured the gestures of animals in his paintings. His style of painting was very loose and often the ground of his intial lay-in would remain in the final, a kind of a Bernie Fuchs or John Harris feel. It's so inpiring to see how much he could get with so little.







The book is now out of print and going for around $150. It has 168 pages with 133 color plates and 36 b&w illustrations. The first edition was limited to 4,800 copies and comes with an "Artist's Book Plate" certifying the copy. You can still buy used copies on Amazon.com

Wizard World Anaheim Appearance

I was invited to attend Wizard World Anaheim in April this year as a guest artist. This has sparked me to make an "Appearances" section to the blog. Right now I only have two scheduled appearances, but will post others as I figure out my schedule for the rest of the year.

Watts Atelier - Student Years: Still Life Painting

Still life painting has always been one of my favorite classes. I know, most of you are thinking..."Really?! But isn't that a class for old ladies who like to paint flowers?" Absolutely not!





The number and variety of textures you learn to paint in one of those classes is great. If you're planning on working in illustration, concept, or fine art, it is one of the best classes you can take. I learned to paint various types of metals, colored glass, fruit, and other sorts of textured surfaces. Learning to paint differnet types of cloth: satin, velvet, linen, sheer, and more. All of this I took into painting my fantasy illustrations. Being able to paint the illusion of a certain kind of material adds so much depth to a painting.





I took the class most often with Meadow Gist and once with Jeff Watts. Each week would be a new 3hr study. Sometimes we would even do gesture paintings of 40-60min studies. During these studies I was also learning another level of dexterity with the brush. The nice thing about still life as well as landscape painting is that you have more freedom to experiment with brushmanship, color, and design. A portrait has to look like your subject, but a still life painting can be pushed and pulled in lots of directions with more room for error. This way of thinking allowed me to take more chances. Sure I failed a lot, but I also gained a confidence that I think, allowed me to take chances in my illustration work.





I've taught the class myself a couple times since I started teaching at the school. This has helped me reinforce a few things in my own work.

On The Shelves: "Not Far From Home- The Paintings of Daniel F. Gerhartz"

I was introduced to Dan Gerhartz's work not long after I started training at The Watts Atelier. I've been a big fan ever since. He's a fine artist from Wisconsin. I've been lucky enough to see a few of his originals. I've always liked his sense of lighting, his bold brush strokes and the richness he gets in his colors. I've been waiting for him to come out with a book and this one does not disappoint. The book is 175pgs with plenty of full page color images. The reproductions are crisp with plenty of close up shots of various images. Every dozen or so pages he gives a couple of paragraphs of insight into what he's thinking when he executes a particular painting.









If you're a fan of fine art and like his work, you'll want to pick this one up. If you're into fine art and you've never heard of him before, check out his work. You can see more of his work and purchase the book from his site, www.danielgerhartz.com

Watts Atelier 2011 Winter Schedule

The NEW Winter 2011 class schedule for the Watts Atelier is available. The Fall term has just ended and we recommend early registration for the next term. Classes fill up quick. The new session starts January 11th. Here is a list of classes I will be teaching:

REILLY ABSTRACTION: HEAD AND FIGURE
Tuesdays 2:30-5:30pm



HEAD,FIGURE, AND QUICKSKETCH
Tuesdays 7:00pm-10:00pm



FIGURE INVENTION
Thursdays 10:00am-1:00pm



HANDS,FEET, AND DRAPERY
Thursdays 2:30pm-5:30pm



Click on a class above to be directed to the class page. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Goblin Corps Book Cover

Here is the cover I did for Ari Marmell's Goblin Corps book due out third quarter of next year. Most of you have seen this since it was part of my IlluXCon post, but here it is with tile and all. I got to read the manuscript for this book and it's a good one! Think, LOTR meets Inglorious Bastards. It follows a band of elite, evil warriors who are sent on several secret, suicide missions for The Dark Lord's campaign. You will find yourself rooting for the "bad guys". Head on over to Ari's site for more info:

Ari Marmell

New WoW Illustrations: Worldbreaker Set

Here are a few new WoW illustrations from the new Worldbreaker set. All of these are oil on masonite.

Watts Atelier - Student Years: Gouache Class

I thought I'd try a new post section. I'm calling it "Watts Atelier - Student Years". This will be some of my studies and memories from when I was a full time student. I still consider myself a student and probably always will be, however this will be a record of my first few years at The Atelier. I will share some of my drawings, paintings, and how The Watts Atelier has helped me become the artist I am today.



The first post of this series is about the Gouache classes that the school has. I found this to be a great transitional class between drawing and paintings. The way the media is taught is very much like drawing with a little extra. In this class is where I was first introduced to the term "Tiling". The term refers to a shape placed next to another shape with an assigned value and color that will give the illusion of form rolling into or away from light. Tiling helped me build a discipline in how I approached each piece of art. I had to understand the nuts and bolts to give each tile it's accurate shape and value.




Gouache is a media that I love to use. Of course it does have it's idiosyncrasies, like lighter values drying darker and darker values drying lighter. In the beginning, trying to figure out how much water to use with how much paint can be a challenge. The reward in the end though is great! I still use gouache for color comps, small master studies, and even just for sketching. It's a media that is easy to travel with, easy to clean up, and relatively inexpensive.

The Gouache classes I took at The Atelier were pivotal in my education. Gouache was a great bridge for when I went from drawing to oil painting and I still carry a lot over from gouache into my oils. If you ever get the chance to study gouache with someone who does it well, I highly recommend it!

On The Shelves: IlluXCon Splurge!

One of my favorite parts of going to conventions is the chance to pick up books and sketchbooks by my favorite artists. I got to pick up a bunch of books I've been wanting to get for a while and found a few that were new to me and was happy to snag. So here is a list of my spendthrift's from IlluXCon.


Donato's Lord of the Rings book...need I say more.

Visions of Middle Earth



Steve Prescott had copies of his sketchbook Aggregate. He did an awesome sketch in it for me. Thanks Steve!

Aggregate



Robh Ruppel's, Aspect Ratio book is so cool. It's a collection of some of his concept and sketch work.

Aspect Ratio



Justin Gerard also had a sketchbook book. I tried to give him my money, but he insisted that we traded up. I gave him a couple of prints and he gave me a copy of his Silverage sketchbook. I still think I got the better end of this deal!

The Silverage



Dave Palumbo had copies of his Quickie book at the show. It's a collection of his gallery work.

Quickie 2010



Now I already had this, before the show, but I thought I'd give Daren a plug. He was selling his book with sketches at the show. Another great book!

Art of Daren Bader



Scott Altmann had a sketchbook with a lot of his paintings, I meant to pick this up but forgot before I left. Sorry Scott, save one for me!

Scott Altmann Sketchbook



I also picked up a book by Petar Meseldzija, The Legend of Steel Bashaw. I've seen his work in Spectrum on numerous occasions and got to see a few of his pieces in person. That guy can paint! He's got a large copy of that book that I didn't get the opportunity buy.

The Legend of Steel Bashaw


Also picked up the new IlluXCon show book!

IlluXConcepts 2



I didn't actually pick this one up, I had it waiting for me when I got home. I was tempted to buy one anyway though!

Spectrum 17

Back From IlluXCon!

Wow! What an amazing time. I got to meet a lot of new people and see some old friends I haven't seen in a while. A group of us traveled out together and what a great time it was. We left a day early to visit a couple of museums. We saw the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Brandywine. This was my second trip to Brandywine and it's definitley better the second time around.

I displayed some new work which I've posted below.


Stoutheart Soldier, Oil on masonite 11x14 - Legends of Norrath Card. Copyright Sony



Goblin Corp, Oil on masonite 24x18 - Fantasy Novel Cover. Copyright Pyr



Lacedon Infestation, Oil on masonite 24x18 - Dungeon Cover. Copyright Wizards of the Coast

I also picked up a number of books from various artists. I'll make a post on those in the next couple of days. For now, I need to catch up on some sleep.

Off To IlluXCon!

I'm just about to walk out the door to drive into San Diego to catch my flight. Before I left I wanted to leave those of you who won't be able to make it out there with a preview of one of the pieces I will be displaying. I'll catch you all in a week!

New Dungeon E-Magazine Cover

The new Dungeon E-Mag cover came out for this month. I'll have the full(20x16)painting for sale at IlluXCon this year....eh, next week! If you're going to make it out to IlluXCon, make sure to stop by and say hi.

Dungeon Magazine #184