On The Shelves - "The Landscapes" by Richard Schmid

Let me start by saying just this.......This is an AMAZING book! Other publishers should look at this book when they layout all other art books. Not only does this book weigh in at a whopping 11x14 in size, it's also 268 pages with full size images on almost every page, front and back.
I'm so sick of having to buy 5-6 books on one artist to get even a decent amount of his/her paintings in my book collection. I keep having to buy larger bookshelves, and I'm running out of room! With most of these books, not only will you get half of the images in black & white and thumbnail size, a large portion of these are writing. Now, I'm all for reading a good book, but when I buy an art book, I expect there to be nice full page color images. "The Landscapes" does not disappoint!
The soft cover will run you $75, and expect to pay $150 for the HC. Trust me when I say the book is worth every penny!

Here are some images from the book:

Phil Hale Master Study

Last term I taught a Painting From The Masters class. The students would pick one illustrator and one fine artist, and recreate their favorite painting from that master. As a demonstration I picked Phil Hale's "Poorly Casanova" painting. It was a great painting to copy, I learned a lot recreating it. I painted it at 13x20, the Phil Hale original is 38x70.

D&D Dungeon Magazine Cover

More dragons! As a kid I've always loved drawing dragons. Now that I'm all grown up, there are people out there who will pay me to draw dragons! I don't know if it gets any better than this! Here is the cover for the Feb issue of Dungeon Magazine.


24x36 Oil on Masonite

SWG Illustration

Sorry for not updating more. Been real busy with more work that I will show here later on! Until then here is a piece I did for the SWG set last year.

On The Shelves - "The Russian Vision: The Art of Ilya Repin"

This is a great book! Repin is one of my favorite artists. He was a Russian painter from the mid 1800's-early 1900's. At 288pgs it's the most comprehensive book out on this artist. I have a couple other Repin books, but they don't compare to this one. (Except maybe for the old one on him, which is out of print and hard to find). This book retails for around $50 and is still available, but probably not for much longer.



Here are some images in the book:


I was fortunate enough to see the painting below in person. While I was in NY they had a Russian show at the Guggenheim Museum. Definitely a highlight of the trip!

Illustration Process Step 3: Final Sketch

After the initial thumbs and rough sketch I am confident the main graphic design will work. Now I will look for detail. I will shoot reference and clean up my rough sketch. I use the same method of transfer as my thumbs to my rough sketch as I do with my rough sketch to my final drawing. By printing out a very light copy as a template, I save time and energy, and I maintain the same quality feel I have in the rough sketch. In the final drawing it's about details, proportion, perspective, and trying to avoid tangents. After I am happy with the sketch, I will project the drawing onto my painting surface....and thus begins the painting.



....to be continued. =)

IlluXCon 2009 Video

The Wilshires put up a cool video from the latest IlluXCon. Pretty cool! I can't wait for next years con! Click on the link below to check it out.

IlluXCon 2009

Illustration Process Step 2: Rough Sketch

Next step for me is a rough sketch from one of the thumbnails. I will scan my thumbnails, scale it up to 8.5 x 11, and print the one I like at a very low opacity. This acts as a guide for my rough sketch. I usually don't use reference at this point. I will add value and details. Pretty much just cleaning up the thumbnail. After I feel that it has enough clarity for the art director to tell what's going on I send it over. Once approved, I then move onto the tighter drawing. I will post this in a couple of days.

Illustration Process Step 1: Thumbnails

So here is a new series of posts. I'm going to show the progress of an illustration I am currently working on starting here with the thumbnails. In my thumbnails I am merely looking for interesting shape break-up. I try and think in 3 simple values. This will ensure a strong read for the final illustration. I force myself to do more than just a couple of thumbs, I want to get as many iterations as I can think of. This will give me more to choose from in the end.
I have the drawing almost completed, so I will post that next.

Classes Start In A Week!

Classes start in one week! There is still time to sign up. There is still room in my DESIGNING DRAPERY IN OIL and PERSPECTIVE ESSENTIALS classes. Click on the links below to get a more detailed description.

DESIGNING DRAPERY IN OIL
Tuesdays
2:30-5:30pm

PERSPECTIVE ESSENTIALS
Wednsdays
2:30pm-5:30pm


I'm looking forward to starting the new term! I hope to see some of you there!

Charcoal Demos and Warm-ups

Here are some 25min demos and 5 min warm-ups from last term.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


A painting I did for my sister for Christmas. It's her cat, "Miao Yin".