Another Crop of Creations

The Unshearables - Fun Traditional
Textures demo I did over two semesters.
Watercolour and Sand Inclusions

I'll always love the way that a certain similar combinations of words will trigger wildly different interactions and responses depending on the individual artist or creative.

Couple title page sketches for students, May it serve you well!

It happens all the time in my Character Design class, and shows that our "style" doesn't fully derive from our technique, but that it also comes from our tastes and the way we think.

Bombus Bee by Hylian Rinku DeviantArt

 In this net full of Creations from the last couple months, I can see this notion in full force.  Enjoy all the wildly different diversions from the DeviantArt Fantasy Genesis page, and some sent from the myriad social nets that keep me away from the easle.

      Christopher West's Cthumeleon & Cthumonkey DeviantArt

Turtle Humanoid by Megan Seltzer

Douglas Egolf's  MantiCrane

Hope you dig them as much as I dig receiving all the Creations made with Fantasy Genesis.  Keep em coming, and Stay Tuned !

First Class Grads

Deniz & Mr. Shiny Head

Teaching is at times next to an impossible task for a freelance illustrator that wants to remain at all relevant in their genre' (and on their partner's good side), but I must admit to it being a very rewarding process with all of the leaps and pitfalls combined.  Student success can spring from exploring a variety of techniques, researching opportunities and navigating through a vast multitude of influential events, sometimes they take years of grinding through obstacles (self driven or otherwise), and sometimes they line up like a brilliant celestial equinox as soon as they leave school.  It's a period of time I try to make shorter for all my students, regardless of skill set, as that time for me was quite a hulking draw back as I left school.  I've had the great fortune to mentor six new illustrators on their paths into the professional world so far.  Every one of them has had such a brilliant take on their Content, and it's been a pleasure to have guided them all in as much as I have.  This semester brought with it more of the same brilliantly fulfilling work with my mentorship, Deniz Johnson.

Deniz created a wonderfully dark and shadowy group of portraits, depicting six female characters from some of the vast Histories, Mythologies, and Cultural Symbols that revolve around Halloween.  Her presentation ranged from the real story behind the Witches Broom, to the Greek's guardian of the underworld Persephone, to some of the more demonizing portrayals women have received over the centuries, wrapping things up with some thoughtful feminist content as well.  The series can be viewed here on Deniz's site Alien-Rat Illustration, but I would also take a look at what's going on in her Tumblr in the months to come.  Deniz has a great sense of embedding symbols and tension in her work, which I can see being utilized in the Editorial Market, nice figurative and characterization skills, and works quickly and consistently enough for these images to show up in any number of venues in the future!

Taylor Davis @ Pivlywhip

Taylor Davis was my Independent Study Student this semester, and really knocked her project out of the park as well.  Taylor has essentially re-imagined the original Grimm's Fairy Tale, The Lily & the Lion (Beauty & the Beast) with a Strong new cast of Characters, illustrated in a much more Multicultural Light.

Taylor's was quite a fulfilling Independent Study, primarily as she's very self driven in her goals toward Character Design in the entertainment industry, but partially as I saw first hand, some of the things I placed in my Character Design class from the very first syllabus, revealed so nicely in the final Lily & the Lion pitch book.  Always nice to see the kind of attention paid to Period, Region, Behavioral Gestures, and Facial Expressions that I try to encourage with every assignment.  These aren't sketches from Taylor's project but they are indicative of the quick and delicate sketch work she produces.
Make sure you check out Taylor's Blogs on Instagram & Tumblr called Pivlywhip, and look out for her incremental posts that will reveal the whole Lily & the Lion project from the beginnings.  Also look out for Taylor at the annual Sakuracon for CosPlay portraits and a fun mix of Anime' genre merch!

I was fairly sick throughout Focus Week at the PNCA this time around, but I did manage to see two other Thesis Presentations.  First being a former student of mine, Andrew Moir and his wonderful Children's Book, "Welcome to the World of the Forest"!  Printed in board-book format, this is a beautiful romp through the Forest, in Andrew's abstracted illustrative style suited nicely for the Editorial and Children's Book world.  It was also created for the Moir's new baby boy, who was there for the presentation.  Check out Andrew's Website for contact info and updates on titles and projects in the future, he's an utter joy to work with, and I can't wait to see the kind of work he get's up to outside the PNCA!

Andrew Moir

 Last but not least was a thesis presentation I served as panel member for, given by Devin Amato.  Although I've not had Devin in class, his thesis was of content close to my heart, Buddhism and Comics.  He wrote and illustrated the first volume in a comic series called "A Visual Guide to Buddhism", and I mean to tell you if you've someone looking for a lighthearted and quick intro to Buddhism, pick this book up!  In the tradition of Tsai Chih Chung's "Speaks" series, this 30 page Comic is well thought out and executed, and Devin's presentation was filled with his brilliantly quick wit and knowledge of his content.

Devin Amato - Visual Guide to Buddhism Vol.1

Well, there were certainly more brilliant young artists that I missed this year, but I wish you all, past and present, the very best into your future professional careers, and bow to your inner LightPushers !!  ILLUSTRARE'!  ..and stay tuned !!  =)

Fantasy Geneticists popping up everywhere!

Wow, did I have a wonderful 2013!!  Fantasy Genesis has been seen in Michael's stores all over the Sphere,  but I've been so busy with a special series of Magic the Gathering paintings, 21 oil paintings for Heroes Cards made for their new THEROS world, that I've been rather negligent with my list of blogs.  However, I've drawn in the nets from the Fantasy Genesis FB page, have turned out a loovly little clutch of Creations flopping about for me to Like and Share, AND would also like to give big propers to my only mentorship of last semester, PNCA Illustration graduate, and amazingly skilled artist, Tori Meader!

Let me say from the start, that although these wonderful illustrations could be seen as creations from my book, Fantasy Genesis had little to do with Tori's thesis process, as the line of illustrations she developed for her thesis were focused on very specific aspects of the Zodiac.  It's called ZODION.  Tori inventivley assembled a cast of 12 bio-mechanical animal totems re-imagined from the signs of the Western Zodiac.  In addition, Zodion is a brilliant collection of SF&F animal creature concepts, and the sketches on her site underline her passion for conceptual work.  Check out the whole series at the Zodion website, look up your sign, and check out Tori's fun Commission deals, and extras coming out of her FB blog, Etsy, and StoreEnvy shops!

Well, it's always a brilliant surprise when I find all the different paths we Creatives will take with a couple simple word association exercises, and make it their own, and this group of examples were no exception.  They all really gave me a double take on how my game is influencing artists and creatives, and in a real way.  Thank you all so much for taking the game, and just swimming with it!

First there's Emily Wendland Krueger.  It turns out Emily and her husband Steven play Fantasy Genesis on a regular basis, and they were kind enough to post these great creations up on Facebook.  She's just a wickedly talented young illustrator, with a bend towards animals and typography it seems, and anyone looking for new editorial work with those qualities, would do well to give her a holler.

Next up is Ethan Myerson, who I met through the Fantasy Genesis FB page.  Ethan is a great photographer out of Tucson, that's used Fantasy Genesis to play with some SF&F concepting as well. Great plant life, and Turtle/Newt warrior seen here, but check out Ethan's site for more.

Last but not least, is Ian Strandberg.  I met Ian way back in I want to say, 2004 or earlier when I would do GenCon Indy every year.  I was working on concepting the Band of Orcs characterizations and mask designs at the time, Ian came by the booth, and I remember him having a lot to say about the benefits of puppeteering with anything theatrical.. He's definitely one of the hardest working men in show business types, and I could tell he was very driven when we first met.. =)  Ian not only does visual effects work, 3D and 2D, but does Creature and makeup sculpts, and gives live Zbrush tutorials on Twitch tv in his spare time!?!

Wherein one of these tutorials, he did this Frog+Bull sketch up on Zbrush.. Love those bifurcated toes!  Check him out at his Website, but also check out Ian (VerbalProcessing) for his tutorials and otherwise Mad Genius on his YouTube Channel!

Bowing to your collective inner LightPushers!!  Be good to each other, and stay tuned!!

Wicked Fantasy Genesis Creations

Haven't had a lot of time for showcasing the awesome creations that have been rolling in from across this brilliant Sphere of ours, but lemme tell yah Lords and Ladies, they have been rollin' in at a steady clip!

Tea Time at the end of the World
by rsek off of DA

Cactus Cow-Ram
by Myth-Dragon off of DA

So, here's another great showing from the Fantasy Genesis gallery on Deviant Art, including work from Steve Huczek, Heather Kreiter, and also a couple of brilliant pieces I received with a nice email from Karen G!  Thanks Karen, and be sure to send me more  in the future!!  You're really running with the original spirit of the game, and not just replacing parts.. =)

Bee Pirate Newt by Racingspoons
(Steve Huczek) off of DA

Steve has also started the first couple pages of his comic called Cornman!!  Check Steve out on the FB page and keep a look out for the Kickstarter to begin fairly soon for Cornman.. Can't get enough of this Cat's wildly inventive and brilliantly cynical writing style, and I'm sure Cornman will be every bit as funny and satirical as what I've come to expect from Mr. Huczek over the years..

Kitsune by Heather V. Kreiter 

Recently found this piece by Heather Kreiter, fellow freelance Lightpusher, and among the folks I'd see when I did GenCon.  Heather runs Shaman Soul Studios, and on top of illustrating for L5R and other RPGs, also makes loveably evil, My Little Demon toys, plushes, temp tattoos, and a host of more product with your favorite Pony-like bringer of mayhem.. =) Thank you so much for including the FG born Flora in your L5R painting, so many cool textures and that Kitsune (hope I'm getting the right Japanese Mythos) is so lush.. Glowing fur!!

3 Awesome Creatures by Karen Gosselin
(I especially love the Pine-Stag here)

Turtlekeet Mech by Karen Gosselin

I'll have more in the months to come, but in the mean time if you'd like to see some of my charity portraits, and an upcoming story with Cmdr. Sisko actor Avery Brooks involved, visit Portland Stink-Eye and as always, Stay Tuned !!

Workshop in Estacada

Lecture on brow structure
from Fantasy Genesis

I miss teaching..  There, I said it..  Straight away, no qualms, no regard hitherto stated evidence against, case closed without recourse from judge or jury!  Granted, not every day teaching is a successful, or even mildly pleasant day (especially mornings on deadline) and I doubt any particular mode or method one chooses will bring results to everyone, even if you're the most brilliant educator the Sphere's ever seen, but you can, and Do have an effect on some folks in a quite rare and magical time in their lives, and that's something few of us can predict or quantify.  It's simply the best! (bettah than awl the rest!)  Even though my freelance work has never given me time to completely focus on teaching, my inner LightPusher would love to start up again in the future, and the opportunities to teach seem to appear from time to time. =)

Couple of in class sketches showing Staggered & Aggressive brows

Although between recently being invited back to Focus Week by a couple of my students to finish out the school year at the PNCA, and giving a workshop/demo to three great groups of high school students at the Tri-Valley Art Conference, one thing has been revealed to me.  The fact that there are times we all can be teaching without a gig, without even being aware of it?  Like a chaotic ink wash, perhaps it's those serendipitous moments that are the most informative or inspirational, when we are at our most genuine state?

After all, a Compassionate action is never a one way road, both folks or groups need to bring something to the table to empathize or to understand.  This was the case in every class I taught at the PNCA, and it was the case at the Tri-Valley Art Conference in Estacada put on by Janice Packard a couple weeks ago.  I gave some sketched demos, had some great one-on-one time with art students from three different high schools, and generally had a blast!  What an awesome bunch of kids, and I hope to do more one-day events like this, but I got a sense of what kind of skill sets students are capable of nowadays, at such an early age?  A real baptism of fire, that!  I've always thought that if students were young enough to have been raised with the internet and it's exponentially growing supply of photographic reference, then you definitely had an advantage over my generation of beta-max video recording and library reference, and moreover this was the main reason for the quickening in skill sets; The more access to cleaner and more infinitely diverse photographic reference picturing this Sphere we're livin' on, and all it's wildly diverse Cultures and History, the more accurately one is able to document it all?  Of course it's more than any one reason, but you can tell the skill sets are just getting better and better from when I was in high school, and I can't wait to see what those students have to offer when they graduate?  Goot Lawrd!?!  =)

It was also fun to observe what modern tech doesn't necessarily teach at all, and the kind of things that will spring from an individual's personality traits or archetype, regardless of the tech around at the time of development?

I think there's a theatrical bug in most illustrators (especially the one's who might also want to be musicians, or spend a portion of their youth in front of a mirror) and I've noticed this leads to them/us mimicking and documenting emotions through facial expressions earlier than most.  Since Facial Expression & Anthropomorphism was the subject of my workshop, it was interesting to see who gravitated to the emotional aspects of the face, or who might have a better grasp on documenting realism, or who might veer towards expression in gesture and pose, or for those most skilled, who had a really good start on all of the above.. =)

More to come on Focus Week at the PNCA next post around,
and gracious thanks to all the talented young folks that attended
my short workshops at the Tri-Valley Art Conference!

Keep in Touch & Stay Tuned !!

Grimm Pilot - take two

Life goes by so quickly sometimes, I shiver with the thought of it.?  This small bit of work I did for the pilot of Grimm unfortunately didn't see too much screen time, but here's the rest of the story..  The show's been through a whole season, and picked up for another, but I've been so busy with teaching and freelance, moving my studio again, and acclimating to a new work flow, I've been completely delinquent in watching it..  Perhaps I can have a marathon when the new season starts and catch up on all the episodes missed?

©NBC/Universal

In any case, my students love the show, and every episode I've seen has been proper acting, and fast but extraordinarily creative effects and props.  Before I went into the Grimm lot studio to work, Elisabeth had me do a couple treatments of the directors chair logo (shown previously), and a couple sketches for pages what would appear in the book.  I was super geeked about this potential, as being the "guy who sketched the Grimm book" would've been the newest height of this thing I call a career?  Not having seen the graphics for any monsters, and going off the ideas of the show that were given to me,  I sketched these two characterizations; one of Rumpelstiltskin, and one of the Old Crone of Hansel & Gretel fame.  

©NBC/Universal

 The Crone character was actually in the pilot script and described to me a bit, but the Rumpelstiltskin was basically me spit-balling some ideas of how the mythos could be delivered in a new horrible way.  Then after my first day, I got a look at the script, a better idea of what they wanted, and they had me sketch up a couple mock ups of what the pages of the book might look like.. The script at the time said the book should be a sketched archive of the 2-3 monsters that would appear in the pilot; Wolf, Snake Guy, and Crone, wherein one page would be a likeness of the person in human form with something like a police form attached; stats, criminal encounters, notes, etc., and the other would be a likeness of the beast within, and what they look like to the Grimm. At first I thought this was something that, over the ages the Grimm Family would've developed, or perhaps a universal system of documenting in some way, where pages from 100 years ago, might look something like they did for the grandmother Grimm, but this changed, and a couple times. The nature of television perhaps.. =)

©NBC/Universal

©NBC/Universal

The book was a massive tome, so I did my samples actual size but in graphite at first. These two samples, with all the different "hands" of nonsense filler script I could think of, were shown to the director, and although the smoking guy was closer to what they wanted, the direction quickly started to change into a scrawled "untrained" hand and more primitive skills, rather than my "too illustrated" "too good" work.. So that day I tried my best to dumb down my skills, and perform on command, with the already "aged" paper they'd ordered for the book.  Bringing in thicker tools; pens, brush markers, graphite sticks, charcoal, conte' and fixative, I sketched about 6-10 sheets of characters, scrawled script and in every different way possible.

©NBC/Universal

I remember a beaked character with hooks, that turned out looking quite 40's nazi-ish, an orge, also this Blutbad in conte' that looked older, matching the paper quite nicely, but also the two portraits of a Blutbad, and Crone straight from the 3D models the design team had done at that point.  Neither made their way on to the screen, even after limiting myself to 10min. sketches, and really working at aping a less skilled approach.  Alas, I've not seen any of them appear in the pilot or show so far, and didn't get phone pics of them either.

Funny thing, being inadequate for anything you're truly geeked about, jobs, relationships, or otherwise.. but when what's needed is, loosing your skills and not developing new ones, it's especially odd?  I was basically trying to reverse my skill set, desperately scrawling to give them what I was used to doing when I was 12?  Hell, I probably didn't do an "untrained" look when I was 12?  I even tried sketching with my opposite hand, in a balled fist, and I couldn't imagine having my name attached to it, even if it was what they wanted? So, could be a blessing, could be a curse.?  I've a pretty impressive new client on my client list, and with some luck this won't be the last television has seen on this Lightpusher.. =)  Stay tuned !!

Norman Rockwell

This is a tin that my birth Mum gave to me long ago. It's been the place that I keep many of my miniature things, like a small coin & stamp collection, little plastic toys and random bits of my life, past and present.. It was the first Rockwell I'd ever seen.. It was also the first painted illustration, where in that magical pre-digital moment, begged my young mind to determine whether it'was a photograph or not as well.. It remains on my desk as encouragement to strive for my next level of skill.. Last month, on encouragement from Vinod & Emily, Pam and I had the pleasure of viewing a Norman Rockwell exhibit in Tacoma,WA. Over forty original Rockwell paintings, Prints of the famous Freedom Posters, and every cover Rockwell did for the Saturday Evening Post. I'm so very glad we went the distance, as after seeing these masterworks, I can't rightly say that I'll experience anything quite like it again? I've talked to other ADs and Artists who've seen Rockwell originals, and we're all a bit overwhelmed by it, we all share in that common sense of observing something of Greatness..

In terms of Technique :: I simply can't cover it all? There were points at which Rockwell pushed my digital mind so far back into my unconscious, that I was actually able to recollect the reason why I got into this odd business of illustration. Scale was of course at the forefront of every experience, as they are enormous canvases. Even the tiny B&W newspaper ad I saw for a brake pad company was around 28in. wide, approximately the width of my full color cover work?? I remember

Donato Giancola saying at a convention how much painting larger changed his perception, and now I can see why.. The use of type painted right on the illustration has all but gone the way of the dinosaur, so to see experimentation, and serendipity within the same piece was amazing.. I'm convinced Rockwell's eyes saw nothing but light and color, and he painted so deliberately with that light, it made me jaw sink more than a couple times. (they didn't make me wear a drool cup, which was nice on the curators part.) I saw underpaintings that ranged from dark blues to what looked like diluted india ink red. Some paintings came up from a series of washes, where others were so caked on, wet-on-wet that it looked as though Rockwell was painting with a roller.. Through most of his metallic surfaces, you'd see his sketch, letting the slight graphite glare add to it's shine.

Although, more than anything else that stood out that day was Rockwell's use of textural relief.. There's really no describing this, and they wouldn't let me take pictures (even after I offered to wash their car) so let me say that this element gave each illustration a "museum" feel..?? In "Christmas Eve in Bethlehem" detailed above, there was canvas left just bare so that the head dress and army uniforms would feel more like cloth.. The rippling aura of the electric light is created with 1/4in. thick titanium white that's been carved with a pallet knife.. Makes it look like the light is actually shimmering.. It's not perceptible on any print or pic because of the scale, but in just about every painting, Rockwell backs up his surface with textural elements coinciding with the material at hand.. The bubbles that form around the finger tips of the boy and girl being dunked under water are about an 1/8 inch on top of the canvas.. In the famous painting of the wall in "The Problem We All Live With", that grout line has actual sand inclusions scraped into it, making the original canvas as stone like as actual stone..

In terms of Content :: Rockwell's humor is both as subtle and deliberate as is the case with his technique. With so many amazing portraits; simple, complex, expressionistic, anthropomorphic and stretched as far as they'd go before looking inhuman, it's hard to imagine the man ever being fooled by someone's intentions. I'm positive Rockwell was the kind of observer who'd of read your face within the first three seconds of meeting you.

Unlike the way I tend to direct attention quite blatantly with levels of detail when I'm composing a painting, Rockwell instead kept a similar level of detail (insane amounts) on everything around the focal point, not forcing your eye, but letting it come around to it eventually, and leaving the individual to find favored areas of the painting on their own.

Although I'd always thought Rockwell and his photographers, were known for a certain squeaky clean portrayal of a sort of dreamed up, unachievable America. It turns out that he was more a realist and protesting old curmudgeon than I expected! The story of philosopher Will Durant, and Rockwell's Four Freedoms paintings shows us that Rockwell even fought the Military establishments ideology, and in many ways taught us more about the philosophy of Peace, Tolerance and Unity, than simple reminiscence of youth, humor and patriotism... far more..

If you get a chance to visit the Rockwell Museum, or if the traveling show is in a nearby town, do yourself a favor and go experience these masterworks.. Stay Tuned !! =)

Roll No.1 and 1st on the Fridge

Here we go fellow Friends and Fantasy Geneticists, the first online blog Role of the Humanoid game!! My concept was that of a Ring Droid looking Humanoid, twisting around to maneuver some multi-task, but there are an infinite variety of concepts to be had from these word associations.. The dynamic of individual voice and creativity is boundless, and I hope to see what you can add to the concept I created.. Feel free to pick your own Forms and Surfaces, even fill in the Emotion role that I left blank.. No matter what the skill level, let your wonderful imagination play!! Scan it, Send it, and I'll post the results I receive along with any others using this role next month..













Gracing the SuperCool Fridge this month is my SuperCool Niece, Paige Walker !! A beautiful Faerie with Squirrel, and a Husky Dog portrait.!! I love the gesture of the eyes and ears on the smaller dog!! Great job, Paige !! You're so cool, you need mittens when you draw.. =)

Stay Tuned. . . .